Saving the Uchiha clan starts with becoming the clan leader.

However, this clearly made things easier for the thieves, who easily stole nearly a hundred corpses with almost no effort. Most of these corpses were Jonin-level, including those from the Cloud Ninja and the Leaf Village. The thieves only took a few scrolls, yet they managed to take away so many corpses.

The only saving grace is that there were no corpses of Uchiha or Hyuga clans among them.

Not only the Uchiha and Hyuga clans, but also the Ino-Shika-Cho and Aburame-zuka clans would dispose of the bodies of their own clan members. The bodies left in the hands of the corpse disposal team were all from small clans or were simply commoner ninjas.

The reason for doing this is simple: to prevent the family's bloodline or secret techniques from being leaked!

"This matter needs to be thoroughly investigated. So many Jonin corpses cannot be simply dismissed." Even if the missing bodies are all civilian ninja, the sheer number, especially considering they are Jonin... if we don't take this seriously, it could cause considerable trouble.

Furthermore,

Zongxian, true to his nature, did not intend to deal with this matter casually.

"Futaba, go call Shisui... Tsk! I almost forgot again, Shisui went to Turtle Island..." Sogen slapped his forehead. Since such a useful tool as Shisui was not around, he could only order others to do the work.

"Let me think... Oh right, Kakashi, go and call Hatake Kakashi over here."

After a brief moment of thought, Zongxian thought of another useful tool, "Also, bring Itachi and Kimimaro over. This matter might not be so simple." To be honest, Zongxian didn't quite believe that it was his own people who stole so many corpses. Of course, it was hard to say if Orochimaru hadn't defected!

However, it seems that no one in the village is conducting forbidden jutsu research in secret like Orochimaru. Since the theft of corpses is not for research purposes, then selling them is also unlikely. Such a thing is too taboo, desecrating the corpse of a comrade, and if discovered, one would be sentenced to death!

After calculating,

It's more likely that an outsider committed the crime!

But speaking of which—

"Didn't you do any defense work? How could so many corpses be stolen so easily?" After Uchiha Futaba left, Sogen looked at the head of the corpse disposal team.

"Uh! Well... the main thing is that nothing like this has ever happened before... We never imagined someone would steal a corpse, and besides, it's in the military, and generally no one would dare to sneak into a military compound to steal things..."

[Chapter 224. The Scorpion's Scorpion]

It's unbelievable that something like this would happen. If we really want to find fault with that statement, it's definitely problematic. It's wrong to be so careless and take no precautions when nothing has happened before. However, on the other hand, the corpse disposal team's work area is within the military. These thousands of Konoha ninja and allied ninja like Kirigakure are a very difficult line of defense to break through. Taking no precautions isn't really a big deal, provided that an unexpected situation like this doesn't occur.

Because of this,

Therefore, in terms of the likelihood of such an act being committed, it is more probable that it was done by an insider. It is indeed not easy for an outsider to infiltrate the military without alerting anyone. However, Zongxian still believes that it was done by an outsider rather than an insider.

"...That's roughly what happened. Kakashi, your task is to investigate the identity of this thief. If it's someone from within the military, I'll give you the authority to arrest the suspect. If it's an outsider who intruded, try your best to find out the intruder's identity and methods. Of course, it would be best if you could arrest them directly."

Zongxian carefully explained the cause and effect, and entrusted Kakashi with an important task.

only--

Kakashi's face beneath the mask revealed a deep sorrow. "This matter... I'm afraid it won't be so easy to handle!" With his intelligence, how could he not see the difficulty of this important task? If it were an inside job, that would be better. Don't be fooled by the large army of several thousand people; the search would be quick.

What I fear most is an intruder from outside.

To be able to deceive so many people in the military and accurately steal the most valuable scrolls from the corpse disposal unit, this person is definitely not a coward.

"I believe in your abilities."

Zongxian said with a smile.

"The problem is, I absolutely hate this horribly tedious chore!"

Kakashi mentally scoffed, sighed helplessly, and nodded. "I did my best. And... those two are my subordinates?" He turned his head, lowered his gaze, and only then did the two little radish heads come into view.

“That’s right, Itachi Uchiha and Kimimaro Kaguya will be your assistants.”

"...Um, aren't there any older ones?"

Kakashi looked miserable.

He had heard of Itachi and Kimimaro, after all, they were the two youngest in the army and had performed extremely well in the great battle. Their strength should be no problem. However, the problem was that this mission seemed to be mainly about investigation, and at least at the beginning, there would definitely be no opportunity to fight.

Rather than two powerful henchmen, he preferred a sensory ninja skilled in tracking and investigation to assist in the operation.

The two little rascals who were being looked down upon had different expressions. Uchiha Itachi had a straight face, and it was impossible to tell what was going on. In contrast, Kimimaro was much more straightforward. A hint of displeasure at being looked down upon appeared on his little face, but after glancing at Sogen sitting behind the desk, he didn't dare to do anything.

"Nothing."

Zongxian shook his head decisively, then said, "Kakashi, don't worry, Itachi is a genius, his intelligence won't disappoint you. Alright, stop talking nonsense and get to work! I don't want this to drag on for too long, give me a result as soon as possible."

"Yes, Assistant Hokage."

Kakashi couldn't help but sigh again in his heart.

I hate vague phrases like "as soon as possible," "in the short term," and "don't make me wait too long." How fast is "as soon as possible"? How short is "in the short term"? And the answer is probably "as fast as possible" and "as short as possible"... The result is a heavy burden on your shoulders, making it hard to even breathe.

Sure enough, no boss is good.

It has absolutely nothing to do with age!

······

After leaving Zongxian's office,

Kakashi stopped in front of the steps. He didn't look at Itachi and Kimimaro, but instead turned his gaze to the middle-aged man who looked to be in his forties. "Um, if I remember correctly, you're Takano, right?"

"Yes, yes, I am Takano."

Class monitor Takano replied politely.

This man is truly an honest person. When Sogen told him to fully cooperate with Kakashi in the investigation, he genuinely treated Kakashi as his superior. He didn't look down on Kakashi, Itachi, or Kimimaro because of their youth. In fact, the combined ages of Kakashi, Itachi, and Kimimaro are not even older than Takano alone.

"Class President Takano, don't be nervous. I just have a few questions for you. Let's talk as we walk. The Hokage's assistant is waiting for our reply."

"What questions do you have? Ask away. I'll answer whatever I know the answer to."

Honest guy Takano followed Kakashi around like a shadow, his attitude as honest as could be.

"First question, I heard you've already conducted an internal investigation of the corpse disposal team, right? How did you rule out suspicion from your own people?" Kakashi asked Takano, the squad leader, as he strode towards the location of the corpse disposal team. He could tell that Takano was indeed a genuinely honest person and not the kind of person who would cry foul like a thief.

of course,

We cannot completely rule out the possibility that the thief is crying wolf, but we can only say that the possibility is very small.

"Search people, search their belongings, and everyone needs to clearly state their whereabouts last night. After interactive verification, it can be confirmed that no one acted alone last night, and all private scrolls have been checked without any findings. Oh, and also, none of the corpse disposal team members have mastered psychic magic."

"interesting!"

Kakashi blinked. This squad leader, Takano, seemed honest, but his work ability was not bad. He even thought of the possibility that the stolen goods might be taken away and hidden by the summoning beast. However, in this way, unless the entire corpse disposal team had conspired together, the option of the corpse disposal team members committing the crime could indeed be ruled out.

"My second question is, do you have any suspects?"

"The suspect is...?"

"Have you made any enemies? Or have you noticed any suspicious individuals loitering around your work area recently? Have they entered your workplace under the pretense of work or other reasons? Or is someone researching some forbidden technique? Also, is there anyone among your acquaintances who urgently needs money?"

This problem might be a bit complicated. Squad Leader Takano thought about it for a long time. As they were about to arrive at the workplace of the Corpse Disposal Team, the honest middle-aged man said somewhat uncertainly, "My friends and relatives are not short of money, and no one has the ability to research forbidden techniques. The Corpse Disposal Team deals with dead people every day. It's impossible that we would be resented by the corpses... That would be too ridiculous!"

"However, two days ago, a young man brought over a body, saying it was his friend's body that he had collected. He planned to take it back to the village for burial himself, but recently he thought it would be more appropriate to hand it over to our body disposal team. And you know what? That young man's body disposal skills are quite good. We didn't need to do any secondary processing on the body he brought over; we could send it directly back to the village for burial. Let me tell you, body disposal is actually quite complicated..."

"What was that young man's name? Do you remember what he looked like?"

Kakashi rudely interrupted Takano's incessant rambling. He had no intention of working in the corpse disposal unit, so he had no interest in knowledge about how to dispose of corpses. What interested him was the young man.

"I remember it was...wait, what was it again?"

Class representative Takano frowned, trying to recall the name that was always on his lips. "I think it was Sasori, right, Sasori of Sasori. As for his appearance... he was just an ordinary-looking guy. I remember he had short black hair, black eyes, and no special features. He looked to be in his early twenties. Even his clothes were standard Konoha Chunin attire."

"scorpion?"

Kakashi frowned; he seemed to have heard that name somewhere before.

Immediately,

He suppressed his doubts, for they had arrived at their destination.

The Corpse Disposal Team's work site is located in the southwest corner of the town. It was originally a small temple. The monks in the temple absconded with all the temple's wealth at the beginning of the war and are probably still hiding in the Land of Fire. So the vacant temple was requisitioned by the Konoha ninjas. First, it was used to store corpses, and later it was completely turned into the Corpse Disposal Team's work site.

Kakashi stood at the temple entrance but did not go inside.

He turned around and looked at Itachi and Kimimaro who were following him. He thought that the two little guys would oppose him because of his previous dislike, but they were actually behaving obediently. "Itachi, Kimimaro, I have a task for you!"

"Are we going to investigate this scorpion?"

"Uchiha Itachi asked."

"He does have some cleverness, but so far it's not particularly outstanding."

Kakashi thought to himself, and said aloud, "That's right, this guy named Sasori is very suspicious. Whether he's a criminal or not, we definitely need to investigate him."

"Sergeant Takano, do you know which unit this Scorpion belongs to?"

Itachi Uchiha turned to Class Representative Takano and asked him a question.

"This..." Squad Leader Takano looked troubled. He hesitated for several seconds before saying, "I'm not quite sure either. I didn't think much of it at the time. I just asked for his name and had him sign a document. Could that young man named Scorpion be the criminal?"

"It's not certain yet."

Kakashi said casually.

His gaze was fixed on Uchiha Itachi, wanting to see what this young genius, praised by the Hokage's assistant, planned to do. He wondered which unit Sasori belonged to; in this army of several thousand, he was hard to spot. "Itachi, you can go..."

"Kakashi-senpai, Kimimaro and I are going to the logistics department for a bit, we'll be right back."

"Okay, hurry up, I'll wait for you here."

Kakashi's reminder was left unsaid, but Itachi Uchiha had already figured out where to look for this person. He certainly wasn't just running around aimlessly like a headless fly; the logistics department must have a list. By just flipping through the list, he could find out which unit Sasori belonged to.

If you think about it carefully, any normal person would know how to handle it. The key is the speed of reaction. It is indeed impressive that a ten-year-old child can think so quickly!

Itachi Uchiha left with Kimimaro, their figures quickly disappearing from Kakashi's sight.

then,

Kakashi bit his thumb until it bled, then formed hand seals, "Summoning Jutsu!"

Amidst a plume of white smoke, the miniature ninja dog Pakkun arrived to report. Wearing a headband and a blue vest, Pakkun lightly leaped onto Kakashi's shoulder and said, "Kakashi, what's going on now? Wasn't the war over? By the way, this place stinks! The stench of corpses! How can it smell so bad?"

Parker looked extremely pained, and even gagged.

"Something's happened, Parker. Can you take a sniff around here? Is there any other smell besides the stench of a corpse?"

"Huh? You want me to work in such a stinky environment? Kakashi, this is torture, you're abusing summoning beasts!" Puck muttered in complaint, his face full of resistance, clearly unwilling to work in this environment.

Kakashi scratched his head.

This is a bit tricky!

"Pakkun, you can choose the shampoo yourself next time you buy it." Kakashi made his move, using a despicable tactic called 'bribery'.

"Hmm... Well, there's no other way. Since it's up to me, I'll help you out. Kakashi, you can't go back on your word!" Unable to resist the sweet talk, Puck looked up, his black nose twitching, and a rather exaggerated expression of pain appeared on his dog face as he exclaimed, "Besides the stench of corpses, it's just the smell of people. Nothing special. Kakashi, what are you looking for?"