In the dark alley, a heavily built man successfully pulled the sack over Hyūga Shinichi's head. The man was clearly an expert. The moment he successfully trapped the target, he felt for the child's body and slammed a precise hand-knife onto Hyūga Shinichi's back neck.
There was no struggle or scream. Feeling the child's body go limp, the man skillfully hoisted the sack onto his back. His face was filled with excitement. He glanced around the empty alley, quickly left, and vanished into the night.
Soon after the alley returned to silence, Might Guy rushed in. He ran straight through the alley and continued onto the bustling main street, still unable to see any sign of Hyūga Shinichi. Standing in the middle of the street, watching the passing crowds, Guy scratched his head, muttering with a hint of resignation, "Did he use the Flying Thunder God Technique? He's really fast!"
Saying this, Guy identified the direction of their temporary temple lodging and walked off, enjoying the bustling night market of the City of Buddha as he went.
A sliver of candlelight glowed from the end of a corridor. Heavy footsteps echoed into the cell.
The cell was a dim, cramped dungeon of only six or seven square meters. Three walls were thick stone, and a small, hand-sized air vent was cut into the top of the high wall. Cold moonlight shone through the vent, illuminating a corner of the cell.
The moment the footsteps sounded outside, the few children locked inside immediately huddled together, seemingly trying to gain a sense of security from each other. These confined children were all young. The eldest was probably no more than ten years old, and the youngest was only four or five.
In a corner, a little girl in rags hugged a child who had moved closer. Both had their heads bowed and their faces buried, daring not to look in the direction of the sounds.
After a short while.
A heavy barred gate was opened, and a thick sack was thrown into the cell. Following a muffled thud, the voices of adults talking outside could be heard:
"Already got a catch today?"
"What quality goods?"
"Five or six-year-old boy. Top-notch goods."
"Oh!!! Did you snatch him right out of the parents' hands? To get this kind of goods at this hour?"
"Heh heh, no. Lucky break. Bumped into him while taking a leak."
"..."
The men's conversation outside the cell faded away.
The children confined in the cell had all heard the conversation, but they didn't dare to leave the corner, only staring blankly at the sack thrown onto the floor.
After the voices completely disappeared, the sack on the floor suddenly moved. A kunai pierced straight through the sack. A moment later, a boy about five or six years old crawled out of the sack.
Hyūga Shinichi slowly stood up, massaged his stiff neck, and looked around, assessing his environment. The stiffness in his neck wasn't due to the human trafficker's blow; that force wouldn't affect a ninja like him at all. His neck was only stiff because he had held the same posture for too long, which was uncomfortable.
The children in the cell used the sparse moonlight shining through the air vent to see Hyūga Shinichi's face. Seeing that the newcomer was a child about their age, the tension and fear on their faces subsided slightly.
Even in this dim environment, Hyūga Shinichi's vision was completely unrestricted. The scene inside the cell was fully visible to him. He lightly knocked on the thick iron bars. Hearing the muffled sound the bars made, Shinichi knew that conventional escape methods were out of the question.
"You all... were captured and brought here, right?"
"Can someone tell me who among you has been held here the longest, and for how many days?"
Shinichi roughly understood that he had been targeted by human traffickers, and the six children in the cell likely shared the same fate. His Byakugan had already grasped the general layout of this underground chamber.
Besides his cell, there were seven other cells, each holding several children of varying ages. By rough estimation, nearly fifty children were locked up in this entire underground area—a truly shocking number. The human trafficking ring that abducted him must also be quite large.
Shinichi intended to wipe out this entire group. The most pressing matter now was to gather intelligence. Human traffickers wouldn't just bring children in without shipping them out. By knowing how long these children had been held, he could roughly deduce the transaction cycle of the group. If possible, Shinichi wanted to strike both the "upstream" and "downstream" operations.
"Sister Heko has been here the longest... when I was locked up, Sister Heko was already here..." a small boy, tightly held by a girl in the corner, suddenly answered. The boy was about Shinichi's age, and the girl holding him, judging by her height, was about eleven or twelve, likely the oldest child in the cell.
"Heko?"
Hearing the small boy's reference to the girl, Shinichi was surprised and looked toward the corner. The girl named Heko was noticeably different from the other children. The others were dirty and unkempt, but this girl, Heko, though dressed in tattered clothes, had a very clean face. Looking closely, the girl had several bruises and scars on her body, suggesting she had likely been beaten by the traffickers. In contrast, the other children in the cell had few such marks.
Sensing Shinichi's gaze, Heko lowered her head even further and instinctively used her hand to pull her torn clothes closer, seemingly out of shyness. Seeing this gesture, Shinichi's eyes narrowed. He instantly realized something profound.
"..."
A child of this age... would only make such a gesture if she had personally experienced something terrible.Being held here the longest... did that also mean she had suffered the most among these children?
The moment Shinichi clearly saw Heko's face, he recognized her.
This girl named Heko was none other than the missing daughter of the informant!
The good news was that Heko was alive. But the bad news was...
"Don't be afraid, everyone. I am a ninja from Konoha Village."
"I will take you out of here."
Hyūga Shinichi heavily exhaled, no longer pressing for more questions. He casually plunged the kunai he was holding into the ground. As the kunai landed with a soft clang, Shinichi's figure instantly vanished from the cell.
"Ah??"
"He's gone!"
"He... disappeared!!!"
Hyūga Shinichi's sudden disappearance caused the children in the cell to cry out in surprise. Their cries also attracted the attention of the human traffickers. Heavy footsteps echoed down the corridor outside the cell, and with them, a man's angry shout:
"What's all the noise about! Quiet down, all of you!"
"Haven't you had enough of a beating already?!"
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