Ryouma pulled back from his intense study of the X-clusters, and looked at Kakashi. “We do know one missing-nin who’s been collecting people,” he said quietly. “Or trying to.”

It was hard to tell, but Raidou thought Kakashi turned a little paler behind his mask.

“What about the first group taken?” Katsuko demanded. “Were they the type of people who slipped through the cracks? The ones who had no one to miss them. That would suggest premeditation.”

“No, they were missed right from the start,” Genma said, studying Intel’s detailed synopsis in the file. “The first one to disappear was a sixty-three-year-old grandmother who vanished from a vegetable garden where she was planting potatoes. The next three were also farmers, and the fifth was a silk-trader who failed to come home from a walk to a shrine in the woods.”

“When Orochimaru started taking people, he went for the ones on society's fringes," Katsuko said, analytical and distant. “He wanted as much time as possible to perfect his research, so he chose victims no one would search for. Now that Konoha's looking for him, he'd want to lay low, probably as far away from Fire Country as possible. Whoever these kidnappers are, they're much more reckless than he ever was.”

Raidou stared at her. He wasn’t the only one.

“That’s exactly what Intel thought,” Genma said, after a beat.

Katsuko rolled her eyes. “What, I can't read up on that snake freak after the latest scare we had?”

She never had before.

“Those villages are right on our borders with Rain and Grass,” Kakashi said, redirecting Raidou’s attention. “We have treaties with both. Even if they wanted to break them, stealing civilians would be a strange way to start.” He glanced at Genma. “They are civilians, right? We’re not looking at a latent bloodline worth taking?”

“All civilians,” Genma said, with certainty. “And only a handful were related to one another. It doesn't look like a bloodline.”

“Were all of them alone when they disappeared?” Ryouma asked.

“At least two groups were taken together,” Raidou said, after a moment to search his memory. “One couple in the woods, and a group of three—”

“Four,” Genma said, tapping a page in the file.

“Four field labourers from a rice-paddy,” Raidou corrected.

Kakashi frowned. “Pattern break. When was that one?”

“Six days ago,” Genma said. “And a teenage girl went missing just two days ago in the middle of the day.”

“So they’re getting bolder,” Kakashi said.

“Or desperate,” Katsuko said. “They're escalating.”

Ryouma leaned back against the wall, one foot kicked back to brace himself, and ran a thoughtful thumb over his mouth. “Any signs of struggle? Objects left behind?”

"That's the weird thing,” Genma said. “They dropped their tools and things they were carrying. In one case they found a picnic lunch laid out like the guy had disappeared mid-meal. But beyond a few scuff marks, it doesn't look like anybody put up any kind of a fight.”

“Basically,” Raidou summed up, “it’s weird as hell and Intel has no idea. You guys up for it?”

Kakashi and Ryouma traded a glance. Ryouma smiled, slow and wicked. After a moment’s hesitation, Kakashi’s visible eye curved.

“Let’s kick some ass,” Katsuko said, with a bloodthirsty grin.

That was his girl.