The appearance of a dark figure in the corner of the basement room made me flinch, but after a moment of recognizing the shadow clone, I absorbed the chakra and tucked back into the seal a pair of shurikens pulled out literally on reflexes. The recognition didn't prevent me from being a little surprised, though - it wasn't yet time for a report from any sent to spy on the clones and the appearance of one of them was a sign that something significant or important had happened that I needed to be aware of.
- From where? - I asked simply.
Given the memorable loss of consciousness when absorbing too many memories, I had developed a pattern of first determining the importance of the information at hand and then determining how to obtain it - by written report or direct chakra absorption if the memories were all important.
The shadow clone took a piece of writing paper and in a few movements wrote "Suna, Pakura fought off the ambush, twice."
- What!!!
Even just reading that, I couldn't help but exclaim, as I didn't remember this owner of the kekkei genkai being hunted down by Mist shinobi multiple times. However, I can't say that with certainty - my memories of small details had already disappeared and I was oriented in this case on the records, where I didn't write any specifics. Only the fact that the competitor surrendered to the enemy shinobi Kazekage. That's all.
- Disperse, - after a brief reflection, ordered the clone, simultaneously activating Yamanaka's technique.
If something different from my existing knowledge happened, it was worth it to be aware of all available points. And it was a good thing that the clone hadn't existed for such a large amount of time - only two and a half months before showing up for the report. It allowed me to select and digest all the important segments of memories and from them to form a more or less clear picture of what had happened.
Pakura had indeed been attacked by the Blood Mist shinobi, but it was a bit of a stretch to consider it a full-fledged assassination attempt, since Suna's kunoichi had dealt with the attackers rather quickly and without much trouble. In fact, her partners on the mission were a serious help in this, drawing the attention of some of the enemies to themselves.
And why do I have a strong feeling that such a thing should not have happened? In general, after the second attack was a little over a month and only after making sure that nothing suspicious is not happening and should not happen yet, the spy left for the report of such ambiguous information.
And now the question is why Pakura hasn't been nailed yet, even though by all accounts he should have been. The kunoichi and Kazekage had been at odds, as the head of Suna had begun to actively nail all potential rivals to the royal throne, having felt his power threatened by Konoha's defeat in the Second Great Shinobi War, and a clone monitoring the political situation in the neighborhood had reported a reliable rumor that the kunoichi had already been written off, but had not been removed. Has the Kazekage made a deal with Mist yet? It's clear that nothing is clear.
I've got more interesting stuff on patreon (+ 200 chapter)
patreon.com/Chill76