That was all I needed to know. Passing my glowing green palm over the man's head, I put him to sleep, removed the seal, and quietly left, locking the door behind me. It's a pity that such a seal only works on ordinary people, but given my lack of talent for genjutsu, it's not a bad substitute, albeit one that involves some inconvenience.
Having learned everything I needed to know, I left the same way I had entered the house, concluding that the simplest explanation for the client's disappearance could be ruled out. At least, that's what Yoru did, which means that now I'll have to do the same with the remaining two trader partners, carefully examining the entire route for traces of battle, which greatly limits my maneuverability and speed of movement in a country that has started a war. Not a great prospect.
Leaving the city on the road leading to the Land of Demons, I slowed down by half, sending two kage bunshin to the sides, wanting to cover as much area as possible — even if the attackers tried to hide all traces of the attack, it would be almost impossible to do so due to the extremely destructive battles of the jonin, which sometimes leveled the ground around them for a couple of kilometers if the ninjutsu specialists were involved, and Yamaraka was one of them, a very good katon user, in addition to his mastery of the clan's Hijutsu.
And I didn't have to worry about attracting the attention of travelers on the road at this time of day. The faint moonlight was enough to see everything almost as well as during the day with the help of glasses.
But as I left kilometers behind me, I noticed with no surprise that there were practically no travelers stopping for the night by the road — the only person I had come across in several hours didn't count, whereas on the previous road I had noticed both lone travelers and merchants.
Closer to morning, I came across the ashes of a small village, burned down by the technicians, judging by the characteristic baked earth. But this was not a battle, but a massacre, and judging by the number of remains, some of the inhabitants had been taken away.
It was a grim sight that left me perplexed — by all estimates, it appeared that this was the territory of the Oni-no-Kuni, but where did the ashes come from if they were the ones who attacked and won? Wasn't it their own doing? Strange.
Scraping the charred remains of a wooden house with a knife, I estimated that it had happened about a month ago, which meant that the client should have passed through here without any problems. Just in case, I searched the surroundings of the destroyed village, but found nothing suspicious. Shrugging my shoulders, I decided that it wasn't my problem and that the locals should sort it out themselves, and moved on.
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