Fumori Masaki assigned tasks to everyone.
Yamanaka Takuma and Inuzuka Shigeru were to investigate potential moles within the Land of Demons.
Since it concerned the politics of another country, Fumori Masaki couldn't directly initiate a search within their borders.
However, with the help of the miko, it would be much easier to narrow down and investigate suspicious individuals.
Meanwhile, Hyuga Hajime and Sarutobi Yukinosuke were to investigate the evil god(Evil God) cultists located at the old site of the Shinobi Sect.
Hyuga Hajime's Byakugan would ensure long-distance observation, allowing for timely retreat even if discovered.
The remaining Senju Risa stayed at the shrine.
As a medical ninja, she was not well-suited to confront dangerous evil god(Evil God) cultists.
As for investigating moles, she didn't have any good methods, unlike Yamanaka Takuma and Inuzuka Shigeru.
Therefore, Fumori Masaki asked her to help assess Kana's psychological state.
Although Kana claimed to be fine, Fumori Masaki was still worried that Kana might just be putting on a brave face, as it was very much in her character to do so.
Watching Senju Risa provide psychological counseling to Kana, Fumori Masaki shook his head slightly.
It seemed that psychological therapy still required a lot of practice.
To him, Senju Risa's psychological methods were still too simplistic.
But there was no other way; after all, there had never been such a thing as psychological therapy in the ninja world before, and no one cared whether the minds of ninja, who were mere tools, were healthy.
Fumori Masaki thought that if psychological therapy were mature enough, it might even be very effective for the Uchiha clan.
Due to the awakening conditions of the Sharingan, members of the Uchiha clan often suffered significant psychological blows, leading to drastic changes in personality and increasingly extreme behavior.
However, if their psychological problems could be identified and treated, perhaps the Uchiha clan's temperament could become gentler.
From Sasuke Uchiha's example, although the Sharingan did indeed have a great impact, it wasn't impossible to guide them back to the right path.
"Kazama, when are we going to make our move against those people?" Tsunade asked Fumori Masaki impatiently while waiting at the door.
"We still need to wait.
If we don't have accurate intelligence on the enemy, acting directly could cause unnecessary casualties," Fumori Masaki said.
Tsunade understood this; it was something Fumori Masaki always emphasized.
She just really wanted those evil god(Evil God) cultists who intended to harm her loved ones to pay the price immediately.
"Don't worry, it won't be long.
Within three days, we'll round them all up," Fumori Masaki said with a smile, stroking Tsunade's head.
Tsunade nodded.
Although not immediately, three days was also very soon.
She raised her hands, clenched her fists, and said, "If I were stronger, I could have done it myself."
"Then, when you go back, train hard.
Of course, it's also because you're still young now, there's nothing to worry about," Fumori Masaki said.
Just then, Senju Risa walked out of the room.
She said to Fumori Masaki, "There's nothing wrong with Kana now.
Kana, who followed her out, looked at Fumori Masaki with a chuckle and said, "Mr.
Kazama, really, I told you I was fine, but you still made Risa check on me."
"My apologies, I was a bit anxious," Fumori Masaki shrugged.
"Well, since it's Mr.
Kazama's concern, I'll accept it," Kana smiled and said to Senju Risa, "Have the others gone to investigate?"
"Yes, I expect results in about a day," Senju Risa nodded slightly.
"That's fast," Kana said, a little surprised.
"After all, they are responsible for similar tasks in the village, so they already have experience with this kind of thing," Senju Risa said.
"Moreover, it seems those evil god(Evil God) cultists are not very cautious.
It's not that they're unintelligent, but in some aspects, they seem overly confident."
"A group of fanatical madmen.
Sometimes they're easy to deal with, and sometimes they're not," Fumori Masaki interjected.
"I hope they're not in the 'not easy to deal with' state right now."
"I think Captain Kazama is being overly worried.
Summoning an evil god is such an unrealistic thing, I really don't know what they're thinking," Senju Risa said.
Tsunade and the others also knew the true purpose of the evil god(Evil God) cultists.
Upon hearing this, Tsunade nodded repeatedly: "Yes, if it were summoning the Shinigami, that would be one thing, at least there are legends about that.
But an evil god doesn't exist in any legends; it's completely a figment of imagination.
How could it possibly be summoned?"
"However, there's another possibility," Hattori Heizo said.
"The evil god is just another name they use for the Shinigami.
If that's the case, then wouldn't there be a possibility of summoning it?"
"Indeed, that's a possibility," Senju Risa said.
"However, according to Takuma, they seem to view the evil god and the Shinigami separately, so it shouldn't be that."
"I was just offering a conjecture," Hattori Heizo said.
"Actually, I think summoning the Shinigami is impossible.
Even if it could truly be summoned, it would definitely require a huge price.
It's the guardian of the underworld, isn't it?
How could it be summoned so casually like a pet, not only not getting angry but also bestowing rewards upon them?
To me, there's no logic to such a thing."
"Shinigami—" Kana murmured, lowering her voice, "I seem to have heard something about it from my sister, but..."
"Huh? What did you say, Sister Kana?
I think I heard something about the Shinigami," Senju Risa, who was closer to Kana, asked with some surprise.
"Nothing," Kana replied, regaining her composure and denying it.
Fumori Masaki's hearing was sharper than an ordinary person's, so he naturally heard Kana's whisper.
He already knew that the sealing jutsu to summon the Shinigami and then seal the enemy originated from the Uzumaki clan.
It seemed that the Uzumaki clan had already begun research on the Reaper Death Seal.
The masks displayed in the Uzumaki ancestral shrine seemed to prove the price they paid.
Returning to the topic, Hattori Heizo's conjecture was very interesting, Fumori Masaki thought to himself.
If the evil god truly existed, it might indeed be an alternate identity of some existing entity.
Perhaps because he was in the Land of Demons, and the other party was also active in the Land of Demons, it reminded him of that name—Moryo.
However, Moryo's abilities and the immortality bestowed upon Hidan by the evil god seemed to have a significant difference and couldn't be generalized.
Furthermore, some people online also believed that Hidan's immortality actually came from some secret jutsu experiment, and whether the evil god truly existed was still an unknown.
However, regardless of whether the evil god truly existed, its existence, like the Shinigami, should not be able to easily interfere with this world, at most granting immortality like Hidan's.
Unless Kakuzu obtained immortality, otherwise, with the level of those Yugakure ninja, it would be impossible to obtain Fumori Masaki's blood, but others might be different.
Suddenly, a rush of hurried footsteps sounded.
Everyone looked in the direction of the sound and saw Miroku hurrying around a corner of the corridor, looking very rushed, her miko attire not as neat as usual.
She saw Fumori Masaki and his group and quickly ran over, her expression anxious.
Running to the front of the crowd, before anyone else could speak, Miroku spoke first: "Mr.
Kazama, I just had a bad dream.
Those evil god(Evil God) cultists seem to have shifted their target to an official within the country."
"What?" Fumori Masaki was slightly stunned.
"Who is it?"
"I don't know.
I've only seen him once, and my mother didn't tell me much about him, but he seems to be an important official in the country, and nothing can happen to him, Mr.
Kazama, can you go protect him immediately?" Miroku said frantically.
Although Miroku was not the direct client of Fumori Masaki and the others, she was the daughter of the client, so to some extent, her opinion had to be considered.
However, Fumori Masaki felt that it was too late.
This was not the nearby shrine, but the inner city of the capital.
Considering the tranquility of the shrine, its location was some distance from the inner city; it wouldn't be too far, but if someone suddenly attacked the shrine, Fumori Masaki might not be able to arrive in time as he did that day.
Fumori Masaki had to consider the possibility of someone attacking the shrine.
As the only high-level combatant currently stationed at the shrine, he couldn't leave easily.
Instead of him going out, it would be better to have Yamanaka Takuma and Inuzuka Shigeru, who were already investigating the official, protect him on the spot.
Fumori Masaki explained his thoughts to Miroku.
Miroku was young, and even though she seemed mature due to her training, she would naturally be at a loss when facing a real crisis.
Fumori Masaki's words sounded very reasonable to her, and she believed that this was the only way, but she still wanted to ask her mother.
Fumori Masaki agreed with this suggestion and asked Miroku to tell the miko about it.
He didn't know the official's name, so he could only go along.
After hearing about this, the miko showed a shocked expression, not expecting that the evil god(Evil God) cultists had already started targeting national officials.
However, considering that they had previously openly attempted kidnapping at the shrine, this wasn't impossible.
The miko revealed the official's name.
Fumori Masaki immediately wrote a letter and had a ninja hawk deliver it to Yamanaka Takuma and Inuzuka Shigeru, ordering them to protect the official but also to pay attention to their own safety.
The official was not their employer, so they didn't need to risk their lives for him.
Immediately after, everyone gathered in the room to discuss why the evil god(Evil God) cultists would target this national official.
The evil god(Evil God) cultists' goal was still to summon the evil god, not to overthrow the country or seize political power.
If that were the case, their actions would be too blatant and unlikely to succeed.
In other words, was targeting this official for the purpose of summoning the evil god?
"Could it be that this person is a sacrifice for the evil god's summoning, Teacher Kazama?" Hatake Sakumo asked.
"According to Mr.
Takuma, summoning the evil god requires sacrifices."
"This is the most likely possibility," Fumori Masaki nodded.
No matter how he thought about it, the evil god(Evil God) cultists' goal was likely this, so they had to protect this person.
Unlike the others, Fumori Masaki believed that the evil god's power was real.
Immortality couldn't deal with him, but it could deal with others, so this person still needed to be protected.
Fumori Masaki had once thought of sending out a shadow clone for unforeseen circumstances.
However, the power of a shadow clone was determined by the allocated chakra, requiring very precise control.
While not a problem for Fumori Masaki, at least half of his chakra would need to be allocated to ensure the shadow clone's strength and prevent it from being dispelled by ordinary attacks.
Creating such a clone would result in a decrease in the main body's power.
Due to Kakuzu's existence, Fumori Masaki dared not risk releasing a shadow clone of such strength.
He was not Naruto Uzumaki, who could create a large number of shadow clones with certain combat abilities while his main body fought Obito Uchiha.
Even with secret medicine, his chakra was only abundant, not massive.
Although he was worried that Yamanaka Takuma and Inuzuka Shigeru might encounter Kakuzu, since he had warned them in the letter and even revealed information about Kakuzu, he should trust their abilities.
As long as the two of them didn't stay and fight him to the death, even Kakuzu wouldn't be able to take their lives.
Everyone waited for news at the shrine.
In the early morning of the next day, Hyuga Hajime and Sarutobi Yukinosuke returned first.
They had already investigated the enemy's arrangements at the old site of the Shinobi Sect.
In front of the Byakugan, which could see through chakra, the traps set by those people were meaningless and completely exposed.
They learned that someone was targeting an important official in the Land of Demons, and Fumori Masaki was unable to leave, so they immediately decided to go help.
Fumori Masaki nodded in agreement, ordering them to hurry and assist.
With the addition of the two of them, the success rate of Yamanaka Takuma and Inuzuka Shigeru protecting the target would be even higher.
After a day, Fumori Masaki and the others finally saw the four return, covered in dust.
Yamanaka Takuma and Inuzuka Shigeru both had injuries, but they were not serious.
While receiving treatment from Senju Risa, Inuzuka Shigeru reported the outcome of the incident to Fumori Masaki—the official's life was saved, but they had made a mistake: the enemy's target was not the official himself, but the official's son.
Everyone was startled, and Miroku was no exception.
She had dreamed of the official, and it was possible that because she had never seen the official's son, the prophecy manifested in this way.
Now, as Miroku recalled, she realized that there were actually some hints of the official's offspring in the dream, but due to her urgency, she had overlooked this point.
"I'm sorry," Miroku whispered.
"It's alright, it was just an accident," Fumori Masaki comforted Miroku, then said to the others, "The enemy still got the sacrifice.
This time, they were one step ahead.
There's less than a day left until the ritual.
We don't have time to waste.
Let's deduce a battle plan and then depart."
Hyuga Hajime and the others responded with "Yes," then followed Fumori Masaki to study the investigated intelligence.
Tsunade and the others also joined in; this was to cultivate their abilities, and this operation would not completely exclude them.
Once the battle plan and personnel assignments were finalized, Fumori Masaki immediately stood up, without any hesitation, and departed with the others for the old site of the Shinobi Sect.