Road to Hokage: Save the Hyuga Clan

One Week Later: Shikamaru, Sai, and Ino

Yamanaka Ino carefully shifted the two plastic bags of takeout and folder to one arm. With her free arm, she knocked on the office door before entering.

Inside, Sai and Shikamaru were standing at opposite sides of a long table. The table was covered from edge to edge with photos, witness statements, reports, and multiple notepads of Shikamaru and Sai's notes. On the wall behind them, a large map of the hospital was tapped it  haphazardly. There were multiple Xs drawn on it and arrows pointing in different directions. Both ninja looked relieved at her arrival.

"Can you guys afford to take break," Ino asked with a small smile.

"Thanks, beautiful," Sai answered, taking the bags from her hands. He cleared a spot on the table and started to organize the food containers. Ino walked over to Shikamaru and held out the folder to him.

"This is the report from the barrier team," she explained, as he read through it. " We verified all activity moving in and out of the village a week before the accident up until this morning." Shikamaru frowned.

"Nothing?" Shikamaru asked his former team mate. Ino nodded.

"There were no red flags or discrepancies that indicated this was attack from outside of the village," she confirmed. "Most likely, this was an attack from someone inside the village...." Shikamaru lit another cigarette at this news. This is not what he wanted to hear. It's one thing to be attacked by outside forces, but from your own...

"Thank you, Ino," Shikamaru said with a sigh. " For this and the lunch."  She nodded and took a seat next to Sai.

"There's one more thing," Ino said, carefully . " Have you seen the paper today?" Shikamaru blew out a puff of smoke in the air and shook his head no. " Somehow, the Kohona Whispers leaked the names of the victims." Ino slid a copy of the paper across the table to Shikamaru.

"What?!" Shikamaru exclaimed. "How? That was classified information until all the families were notified. I specifically requested all papers reframe from publishing about what happened until we finished the investigation."

"I know, I know ," Ino sighed. Sai gave her hand a gentle squeeze then placed a plate of food in front of her.

"You need to a break, too," Sai whispered to her. Ino was worked for the last 24 hours reviewing the barrier reports. She looked every possible chakra signature that entered and left the village for any possible leads. In the end, she came up with nothing. Ino nodded and took a bite of food. Shikamaru almost ripped the paper in two.

"Tsk," he sighed reading the story. The paper got it right. The eight victims names were permanently engraved in his head and printed in black white on the pages in his hands. "We need to move quickly and figure this out. Sai, let's go over what we have so far."  Sai finished siping his pomegranate juice then grabbed his notebook.

"As soon as we were able to stabilize the room again, the anbu went back to collect evidence," Sai began. He walked over to the hospital map on the wall and pointed to a bright red star near the center of the page with a bright red circle. Red dots were place inside the circle indicating where bodies were found. "This is the area where we determined the explosion went off." Shikamaru closed his eyes trying to imagine the room and replay the events in his mind. "This entire area was several damaged beyond repair. Three out of four people  in the vicinity  died immediately after the blast." Ino gasped.

"Naruto was the only one in the area who survived." Shikamaru said grimly. " The  nine tail chakra protected him even as he laid unconscious. The other victims in different areas died from debris related injuries."

Sai continued, " We sent Naruto's clothes to the lab to be analyzed. Hopefully, the sample can tell us more about the nature of the explosion."

"Sai, Shikamaru, I thought there were 12 victims," Ino said, confused.