Saving the Uchiha clan starts with becoming the clan leader.

Kakashi was not disappointed by the result. He looked at Class Leader Takano and said, "Give me that signed document."

"signature?"

Takano, the class president who was curiously watching Puck speak, paused for three or four seconds before suddenly realizing, "You mean the document signed by that young man named Sasori? Wait a moment, I'll go find it right now." The somewhat slow-witted man rushed into the temple, and Kakashi followed him in.

The temple wasn't very big. Kakashi jumped onto the wall and looked around, but there was nothing noteworthy. Just then, Class President Takano rushed back with a document.

"This is the document."

The item was handed to Kakashi, who had jumped down from the wall.

He took it, glanced at it, and saw it was a power of attorney. The contents were simple: it entrusted the body to the body disposal team for handling. At the bottom was the signature of the person who entrusted it, and it was indeed 'Scorpion'.

"Parker, can you smell anything from here?"

Kakashi held the letter of authorization close to Puck's nose.

[Chapter 225. No such person found]

"It has a very strange taste."

"strangeness?"

"...Hard to say, um, how should I describe it..." Pakkun perched on Kakashi's shoulder, rubbing his head with his paw, looking troubled and conflicted. "I've never smelled such a strange scent before. How should I put it? It's a very faint human scent!"

This bizarre description left Kakashi completely stunned.

What does it mean for a person to have a very faint scent?

This strange way of putting it... is quite interesting!

"Could it be that the young man wasn't human?"

The head of the body disposal team standing nearby looked shocked.

"No, it's hard to say. The human scent is very faint, but it's not that there's no human scent at all, just very faint, like that..." Parker was feeling very uncomfortable. Why was today's work so difficult? He could endure the strong stench of corpses in order to have the autonomy to choose shampoo, but the scent he was asked to identify was so strange that he didn't know how to describe it. He had never encountered such a strange scent before.

"Besides the faint human scent, there's also a metallic and woody smell, all mixed together... it feels kind of familiar?"

Kakashi narrowed his eyes. Metal? Wood?

A vague feeling stirred in my mind, but there was too little information to determine who this Sasori was. We still had to wait for Itachi Uchiha and Kimimaro's investigation results. Moreover, so far, Sasori was only a suspect, and there was no evidence to prove that he was the one who did it.

"Squad Leader Takano, where do you store the bodies? Please take me there."

Kakashi asked.

"This way!"

Led by Class Leader Takano, they arrived at the temple's library. Such a small temple couldn't afford to build a pavilion specifically for storing scriptures, nor did it have that many books that needed storage space. This small library actually had a considerable amount of empty space.

"This is the temple's library, where all the scrolls containing the corpses are kept."

On the left side of the bookshelf are rows of scriptures, while on the right side is a huge stack of scrolls, numbering in the hundreds. Don't assume that the scrolls have unlimited storage capacity; most scrolls can actually seal and store a very limited number of things. For example, a single sealing scroll can generally only hold about ten corpses.

The number of Konoha ninja who sacrificed their lives in this great battle was in the thousands, so the number of scrolls needed was naturally in the hundreds.

As for scrolls with extremely large reserves, firstly, they are rare. Secondly, the production of scrolls has similar conditions to that of explosive tags. The production of explosive tags requires the maker to master fire-style techniques, while the production of scrolls requires the maker to master sealing techniques.

Compared to Fire Release Technique,

It is obvious that the sealing technique is more difficult to master.

This leads to the high labor costs of scrolls, which is the second reason why scrolls are not cheap. In particular, those scrolls with huge reserves are extremely expensive. They are only available to people who are very wealthy. For example, the daughter of the largest ninja tool shop in Konoha in the future, who was a legendary female ninja who once summoned the sea and giant ships and was known as the "legendary portable warehouse".

Without a substantial family fortune, ordinary people simply cannot afford those kinds of scrolls. Moreover, to be honest, there are no scrolls with such exaggerated storage capacity sold on the market. All these large-capacity scrolls must be either made by oneself or commissioned by paying money.

"So many scrolls... how many scrolls are lost?"

Kakashi looked at the scrolls piled on the bookshelf and asked.

"There are twelve missing scrolls, which contain a total of 117 corpses, including 43 Jonin corpses and 74 Special Jonin corpses."

"Twelve scrolls."

Kakashi looked at the scrolls, which were clearly of the same size and shape, and pondered for a few seconds. He had a vague guess in his mind that the person who stole the scrolls must have acted alone, because scrolls cannot be sealed inside each other. They can only be carried on one's person, and a person can only carry a dozen or so scrolls at most. If there are more, there is no place to put them on one's person.

Because it was impossible to take everything with me, I chose the most valuable part.

"Kakashi."

At that moment, Puck, who was perched on Kakashi's shoulder, raised his paw and patted the ground. "I smell the same scent here!"

"...The same smell as the document signature?"

"Yes."

Kakashi immediately turned around and looked at Takano. "Class President Takano, has that guy named Sasori been here?"

"No, this is where the scrolls are stored. It's not open to the public unless ordered by the Hokage's assistant. No outsiders are allowed to enter except for members of our corpse disposal team," Takano, the squad leader, shook his head repeatedly.

Immediately,

The honest squad leader finally realized what was going on.

The presence of an outsider's scent in the library, which is accessible only to members of the mortuary, is self-evident: an outsider had previously intruded upon this place.

“And the smell here is much clearer than the smell on that piece of paper… The source of the smell should have been no more than twelve hours ago,” Parker continued.

Twelve hours?

The time is not important. According to Squad Leader Takano, he checked all the scrolls at 11 p.m. yesterday and made sure that none of them were missing before he went to rest. However, he found that the scrolls were missing when he came over this morning. In other words, the crime was committed yesterday, and it is now a little after noon.

In other words, the item was lost in the middle of the night, so the information about the time is not very valuable.

Kakashi valued another statement Puck made: the scent in the library was clearer than that on the documents. "Puck, can you try to track it?" Since the scent was clearer here, Puck might be able to use it to track down the intruder who had already left.

"I'm not sure, but... it didn't rain yesterday, I'll give it a try."

Pakku jumped off Kakashi's shoulder, took another careful sniff of the lingering scent in the air, and then darted away like a rabbit shot by an arrow. Kakashi followed quickly after him. The honest class monitor, who was a step behind, hesitated for two seconds before chasing after him, only to see Kakashi's back as he passed over the west wall.

Takano hesitated for a moment, unsure whether he should follow, but he soon stopped worrying about it, because when he jumped onto the wall, he found that he could no longer see Kakashi's back at all.

"Class President Takano?"

The shouts came from below.

Coming to his senses, Takano turned around and saw the two little brats from before, Uchiha Itachi and Kaguya Kimimaro.

"It's Itachi-kun, you're back so fast!"

"Class President Takano, where did Kakashi-senpai go?" Itachi Uchiha didn't see Kakashi.

"Well, it's a bit complicated..." Takano explained the situation with a rather verbose, even rambling, prophecy. Fortunately, Itachi Uchiha was extremely patient, and Kimimaro was not impulsive. The two listened patiently to Takano's explanation and quickly sorted it out.

"So, Kakashi-senpai has discovered the whereabouts of that guy named Sasori and has already tried to track him down, right?"

That's right.

Takano nodded.

He looked down at the two somewhat expressionless little kids in front of him and asked hesitantly, "Um, Itachi-kun, have you found any trace of Sasori?"

There is no such person in the military.

As Itachi spoke, he leaped up and stood on the wall, gazing into the distance. He couldn't see Kakashi anywhere, but this difficulty wasn't enough to stop him from chasing after him. He bit his thumb, formed hand seals, and used the Summoning Jutsu to summon the crow that Shisui had raised.

These crows cannot speak, but they are incredibly intelligent. They can even be used to channel their eye power and serve as a bridge for casting illusions. Upon receiving the command, the crows spread their wings and flew high into the sky, looking down at the white-haired man wearing a mask, who was probably accompanied by a small dog.

"There is no such person?"

Upon hearing Itachi's answer, Takano was stunned for several seconds before he understood what he meant. There was no such person in the army, which meant that the young man who claimed to be Sasori was most likely not a Konoha ninja.

So, I've been scammed?

Takano murmured to himself, a look of extreme guilt on his face. Recalling the day he met that young man, he seemed to have foolishly let himself be tricked into revealing a lot of things.

"Wow-wow-"

The crows cawed hoarsely in the air.

Standing atop the wall, Itachi Uchiha's expression turned solemn as he shouted, "We've found Kakashi-senpai! Kimimaro, let's go!"

Before leaving, Itachi Uchiha glanced back at Takano, who was overwhelmed with guilt, and said, "Class President Takano, don't feel too guilty. Judging from the current situation, the other party did this in a premeditated manner. It would be difficult for anyone to be on guard beforehand if they were unaware of the situation."

He left behind this sentence.

Itachi Uchiha began to run westward, with Kimimaro closely following beside him. Crows soared through the sky, guiding the two below. Guided by the crows, Itachi and Kimimaro found Kakashi in no time.

Unlike Itachi Uchiha and Kimimaro, who were focused on getting there,

Kakashi and Puck's pursuit was a process of stopping and starting. Although it didn't rain last night and the lingering smell in the air hadn't been washed away, Puck still needed to stop every now and then to confirm the direction they were heading.

"Kakashi-senpai, we're back."

What were the findings of the investigation?

Kakashi turned around and glanced at the two of them.

"No such person found."

"No such person found?"

"Yes, the name Sasori is not on the roster. We also checked the list of the dead, and there is no such person. I initially suspected it was a pseudonym, but when the clan leader heard the name Sasori, he said that if it wasn't a pseudonym, the perpetrator was likely a rogue ninja from Sunagakure."

"Ah! That genius stylist of the Sunagakure puppet army, Sasori of the Red Sand."

Kakashi remembered.

This was a very famous guy. He was originally a rising star in Sunagakure, but for some reason, not long after the death of the Third Kazekage, the Third Shinobi World War broke out. Sasori of the Red Sand, who should have been a sharp blade for Sunagakure, was declared a rogue ninja by the Sunagakure.

At the time, many people in Konoha were excited about this news. Losing a troublesome enemy was naturally a good thing.

"Sasori of the Red Sand... a puppeteer? No wonder I smelled metal and wood, it's a puppet!" Pakkuk suddenly realized. Despite its small size, it was quite old. Before Hatake Sakumo committed suicide, it had gone on several missions with Konoha's White Fang in place of its injured parents, and had dealt with Sand Ninja puppeteers. Those two Sand Ninja puppeteers were quite powerful! Unfortunately, they were no match for Konoha's White Fang.

"But why would a puppeteer steal a corpse?"

After figuring out the truth behind the smell that was a mixture of metal, wood, and human scent, Parker was filled with even more confusion. From what he knew, puppeteers played with puppets, puppets made of wood and steel. What was the purpose of stealing the corpse? Was he short of money and planning to exchange the corpse for cash? Something just didn't feel right!

Parker wasn't the only one with the same question; Kakashi was also completely baffled.

Finding out the thief's true identity didn't enlighten him; instead, it made him even more confused. He simply couldn't understand why Sasori of the Red Sand would do something so sneaky. It was utterly baffling!

"The clan chief gave a reason."

Itachi's sudden remark made Kakashi stop in his tracks, and Pakkun also stopped and turned to look at Itachi.