The cause of the incident was the friction between Rasa and the two civilian Family heirs, Murashi and Fukushima Oka, which led to a series of subsequent events.
It appeared to be a struggle between the Civilian Faction and the Noble Faction.
But so far, the only heads of civilian forces in the Village who have died were the initial few.
The civilian forces suffered even greater losses... only in the form of a few individuals who defected from the ninja Village.
On the other hand, looking at the Noble Faction, those who died were all high-ranking officials or individuals holding real power in the Village.
Those subsequently promoted by Lord Kazekage... were all new faces with decent abilities.
Among the old guard, only Lord Kazekage, Grandmother Chiyo, Ebizo, and Rasa remained, along with Nakamaru from the Analysis Department and Pakura's father, Inoue.
And some management levels within the Village's internal institutions also saw many new faces due to this conflict.
It seemed everything was the result of class contradictions between the two factions.
The civilian forces were being suffocated by the will of the Village's upper echelons.
But the ones who truly suffered heavy losses were actually the Noble Faction.
Not the civilian forces.
The civilians were only on the losing side on the surface.
Looking at the results, they only lost a few leaders.
Whereas the deceased on the noble side were all genuine high-ranking officials.
Unknowingly, the power structure of the Village had already undergone a change.
Though this change was somewhat painful.
Lord Kazekage, Grandmother Chiyo, and the others were also aware of this, but they never suspected anyone else, believing it was simply caused by internal chaos.
After all, internal power struggles are a topic that no ninja Village can avoid, and they occur frequently.
Some internal disputes in other ninja Villages are even darker and more intense; compared to those, the situation in the Hidden Sand Village was relatively mild.
But what allowed Arai to see a clue... was Lord Kazekage's trust in Sasori, which meant the entire matter was reported one-sidedly by Sasori to the Kazekage. Outsiders couldn't know the specific details and could only grasp a general idea.
Furthermore, the deaths of these high-ranking officials were perfectly interspersed within the timeline of the entire conflict. Some were handled by Sasori personally, while others had nothing to do with him, yet their bodies went missing... The clues for those high-ranking officials who died due to external factors were also quite vague.
In the end, Sasori would still be assigned to investigate.
Even if the investigation yielded results, they pointed to things the Village couldn't immediately deal with or take action against.
None of this was a problem.
The problem was... it was too perfect.
No matter who the killer of each high-ranking official was, no relevant information or clues could be found at the moment... This meant that even if there were different killers, every single one of them possessed outstanding tactical execution abilities.
This was a bit suspicious.
You see, the high-ranking officials who were killed weren't weak themselves. Even if the killers were from the Village's civilian forces who knew them inside out, it shouldn't have been so clean every single time, right?
Those in high positions like the Kazekage looked at the big picture of the entire situation. The information their brains had to process was incredibly complex and diverse... For high-ranking officials, the priority was resolving internal contradictions, so they overlooked such small details, or perhaps they simply didn't care.
And they had absolute trust in Sasori's abilities.
But for the experienced Arai, his intuition told him... there was a problem.
Sasori was the Anbu elite who had full authority and was the only one responsible for handling the entire matter.
Therefore, even if Arai had no direct evidence and only a gut feeling of suspicion, the only way to find the truth was to start with Sasori.
Arai followed Sasori all the way out of the Village.
He hid himself very carefully, fearing that Sasori might notice him.
The Sasori of today was no longer the junior from the time he led the team.
Despite still being a youth nearing fourteen... Sasori's record on the battlefield before joining the Anbu was already astonishing. He and Yubi were known as the Twin Stars of the Hidden Sand Village, and he later became a Jonin.
Moreover, after being stationed in the Village, he had been frantically completing missions. Setting aside that exaggerated mission file, just considering the high-ranking officials he had eliminated over the past six months by the Kazekage's order... his strength was already that of a genuine Elite Jōnin.
To be honest, if they actually came to blows, Arai even felt... his chances of winning weren't high.
If his suspicion was correct and he could silently dispose of the Village's original 'high-ranking officials'... then perhaps no one truly understood the real level of Sasori's Puppet Jutsu.
"Hmm?"
After cautiously following Sasori for a while, Arai suddenly noticed that Sasori had stopped in a suburban desert area not far from the Village.
"Was I discovered?!"
From a great distance, Arai, hiding in the sand, immediately felt his heart tighten.
However, Sasori's figure in the distance made no strange movements, just standing there quietly.
After a while, a familiar 'black dot' entered Arai's field of vision.
"That is..."
"Yubi?"
Arai squinted his eyes.
He knew that over the past year, Yubi had been traveling abroad, seemingly collecting and investigating information related to medicinal herbs across the Ninja World, working hard to improve the Village's medical environment. Although he returned to the Village every once in a while, he would only stay for a few days before leaving again.
Seeing the two little ones from back then meeting outside the Village, a reunion after a long separation.
Arai's heart suddenly skipped a beat.
He connected the threads of the entire matter.
"Could it be... that it's also related to Yubi?"
A thought flashed through Arai's mind.
He dared say that, including himself, no one had ever linked this to Yubi.
Because Yubi wasn't in the Village at all.
His long-term absence had even caused this once incredibly brilliant 'Genius' to lose much of his presence during this period of turmoil in the Village.
Arai's mood instantly sank.
He was someone who deeply knew how intelligent Yubi was... While Sasori was also very smart, with his personality, he wouldn't have done everything so perfectly without leaving a single trace.
Sasori was more like the type who wouldn't care about the Village's reaction—someone who would just leave after killing.
"If my guess is true... it's more likely to be his plan."
Arai didn't want to believe it.
But the thought wouldn't stop surfacing.
"Impossible... Yubi has no reason to harm the Village's interests, and neither does Sasori... What's wrong with me? Being so paranoid..." Arai's brain felt a bit fried.
He suddenly began to doubt himself.
You see, Yubi has been traveling abroad for the future of the Village...
Was his intuition really correct?
...
On the other side, Sasori and Yubi slowly walked toward the direction of the Village.
"I'm being followed..."
Sasori spoke.
"Who?"
Yubi asked with a smile.
Even if they were being followed, it didn't matter.
After all, Sasori was just here to meet him and hadn't done anything else.
He was returning to the Village this time because his research on drug testing had yielded results.
After a year and a half, his finished medicine could finally be mass-produced.
It made all his hard work and exhaustion abroad worthwhile.
Next would be distribution... opening up the market.
"It can only be him... Arai."
Sasori said indifferently.
"Oh?"
Yubi raised an eyebrow.
"It seems... he likely discovered something," Yubi said softly, with a hint of seriousness.
In the next second, the expressions of both men shifted slightly.
"He's gone..."
"Let's find an opportunity to kill him..."
Sasori.
"Let's see first... he likely only suspects and has no evidence. Otherwise, given The Third's personality, you would have been in trouble long ago."
Yubi turned the thought over in his mind.
It seemed... when he had the chance, he would have to invite Arai out and meet him alone.
As expected, no matter how well a plan is arranged and executed, it's impossible to make it seamless.
"I hope... it doesn't come to the point where we have to face each other in battle, otherwise..."
Yubi sighed inwardly.
His eyes flickered.