Chapter 10: Missing

Ayato POV

The trip was boring at first, but it was fun after the meetings. Ether way, I was starting to miss Seibyo. It was not the same without Seibyo. I was glad to see him again.

I was one of the last to emerge from the waterfall. As I entered the temple with B, I smelt something out of the ordinary. It was stale and clung to my nose heavily. It reminded me of sitting in the house during the winter. Then, I heard Mushi scream.

"B! Come here! Now!"

B ran to see what was upsetting her. I caught up. What I saw shocked me.

The partial beginning of my house was in shambles. Bits and pieces were all over the chamber and the other houses. The remaining skeleton was charred and collapsing in a pile of ashes.

"W-what happened?" Shai whispered.

I regained my senses. "I'll ask Seibyo." I rushed to Seibyo's house.

Mushi called out to me. "Ayato, wait!" I kept running.

I tore through the door. Rushing to the tree, I called for Seibyo. No response. I tried again. Same result. Confused, I started searching the house. I did not find him in any of the room. Growing worried, I noticed something that froze my heart. I couldn't sense Seibyo's chakra. With a growing fear, I ran out of the house.

Joki hurried to my side. "Ayato, are you okay? Where is Seibyo?"

It took me awhile to find my voice. "Seibyo is… gone."

Three hours later…

B managed to get everyone settled down. We were gathered in front of the shambles of my house.

"Alright, everyone seems to have settled down. Now, I have no idea what happened here, but this is an emergency. Someone seems to have found the temple, and destroyed Ayato house. Without Seibyo, we can not find out more details."

"I can tell you."

All heads turned towards Mushi. She walked up to Killer B.

"What do you mean, Mushi?" B asked.

"During my training, I was taught to take in and evaluate any factors in a incident such as this. I learned a lot in the past few hours."

"All right. Take it away, Mushi."

She turned back towards us and cleared her throat. She began. "Now, we can see the obvious."

Ogoi chimed in, "Do you mean the destroyed house and missing jinchuriki?"

Mushi tried not to be annoyed. "Yes, Ogoi. That is what I mean by the obvious."

"Just making sure."

"Anyway," Mushi started again, "underneath the larger scene is evidence that is essential." She moved towards one spot a little farther away from the house. "Such as this."

We looked, but it just seemed to be the same scorched stone as the explosion created.

"What's the importance?" Joki asked.

"Don't you see?" No one did. She pointed towards the ground. "There is a space of unscratched stone in between the explosion site and this scorch mark. Also, it is not as dark as the rest." She was right. "Do you know what this means?" No one did. "This shows that Seibyo fought the intruder. Shai can support that fact."

"I-I-I c-can?"

"Yes. Remember? This is the same scorched mark as when we fought Jaku and Seibyo during the game of capture the flag."

I had no idea what they were talking about, but Jaku seemed to understand. "Right! When we ended up combining our two attacks."

"Correct. That can only mean that the scorch mark was created by Seibyo's fireball attack."

I was growing impatient. "How does this help us?"

"This gives us the motive. If the intruder stayed around long enough to fight, his or her goal was to find Seibyo. The intruder was after Seibyo!"

I was alarmed. "Do you know why?"

"No, but I can find them."

"How!?"

"Since they were fighting, they must have caused damage that I can trace. I noticed cracks and slight burns heading towards the waterfall. Seibyo retreated and the attack pursued."

"We have to follow them!" Jaku and I yelled.

B took control again. "Hold on!" He held the two of us back. "An incident like this requires that the other countries be notified. I have already sent word to the nearby countries Kage. We have to get word back from them. For now, wait."

Reluctantly, I settled down. I just could not stop worrying. Somewhere, Seibyo is in danger, and I can not help.

The next day…

I hardly got any sleep. I was pacing in front of Seibyo's house when B started calling us towards the middle of the chamber. We gathered in seconds.

"We received word from the Land of Earth and Land of Water. The Kage agreed to send assistance. Also, the Raikage is sending us help. Each nation is sending a party of five jonin and one medical ninja. The Raikage group will meet us here, and we will meet up with the other parties along the way. All of us will join the search party."

"Why all of us?" Ogoi asked.

"For your protection. If someone found the temple, leaving any of you unprotected can lead to another situation such as this one. This way, we can protect you. Anyway, we will be heading off in an hour. Everyone, get prepared!"

I hurried off. I had been preparing since last night. Along with my equipment, I packed extra scrolls for Seibyo. I noticed that he had a few scrolls on him when he left, but he might need more. Jaku had done the same thing. In an hour, we were off.