Caravan

Sasuke nodded.

"Don't worry about Naruto. That kid is sharp, and he's not weak. It's not like he'll get into trouble that easily," Yamei said, patting Sasuke's shoulder.

Naruto's combat power was still quite strong! As long as it wasn't that old guy Heide or the two remaining female knights making a personal move.

Or if these soldiers who felt no pain were swarmed, there shouldn't be too much of a problem.

What's more, he had set up Genjutsu. Did they want to die? Dream on, they'd be lucky to even get injured!

"Who... Who's worried about him! I'm just adapting to my brand new power!" Sasuke immediately retorted.

Yamei chuckled at this, not calling him out.

"Yamei, I want to learn Sharingan Genjutsu."

"No problem. I'll teach you some after the mission is done. It would be embarrassing if the famed Sharingan Genjutsu was weak. It would shame the name."

Sasuke's face flushed. He really didn't know much Genjutsu, especially Sharingan Genjutsu. Although Yamei had taught him some before, they were all the most basic types, used to add variety to his combat.

As they were chatting, Kakashi and the others walked out with grim expressions.

"How's the situation?"

"Yamei..." Ino and Hinata hurried over to Yamei's side, looking at the fortress with some reluctance. "Inside... there are dozens of corpses..."

"According to what Hinata saw... these people should be the ones who controlled the soldiers just now... but for some reason, they all died..."

Yamei frowned at this. All dead?

Logically, after incapacitating the soldiers, their souls should have returned to their bodies.

It seemed the knights had done something before they left.

He ruffled the hair of the two girls. After all, they had just graduated from the Ninja Academy and hadn't seen many brutal scenes. It was normal for them to be a little scared.

"Yamei, you stay behind and destroy this fortress. We'll take the two prisoners to interrogate them," Kurenai stepped forward and assigned a task to Yamei.

"Remember to prepare some food. I'm starving." Yamei gave her a look. You just can't stand seeing me idle, can you?

Watching everyone leave, Yamei entered the fortress to take a look. There was nothing particularly special, so he lost interest.

He reached out and touched the iron armor of the fortress. His Sharingan slowly spun, accompanied by the appearance of an orange-red light cluster.

Then, visibly, the orange-red light cluster instantly turned into a black light cluster!

Scorching Shield! Combined with Amaterasu!

In an instant, the iron rampart that came into contact with this black light cluster rapidly collapsed, as if it were a black hole, constantly pulling in and dissolving everything around it!

This was something Yamei had made out of boredom over the past two years. Scorching Shield possessed terrifying high temperatures! Combined with the power of Amaterasu! It could actually dissolve objects into a gaseous state and make them dissipate!

If this were attached to a blade, he couldn't even imagine what would happen to someone who was hit! It was like a different version of Dust Release, wasn't it?

The difference was that Dust Release was decomposition, while his Scorching Shield was instant sublimation.

With a thought from Yamei, the black sphere rapidly expanded. In just a few blinks of an eye, it enveloped the massive fortress.

Then, the black sphere dissipated. The original massive fortress, hundreds of meters tall, had vanished. If it weren't for the traces left on the ground, one would doubt it had ever existed.

Returning to the temporary camp, Kakashi and Kurenai had not obtained any useful intelligence from Timsi and the other prisoner.

Coupled with the urgent situation, they decided not to stand by and watch this time but to act together with everyone.

After preparing and eating some simple food, everyone split into teams of three and began their search.

Each team was responsible for a different direction, with Ino and Yamei acting as communication hubs.

However, after two full days, everyone was still without any leads, and impatience began to set in.

"You're all wasting your time. Lord Hyde is not someone you can find!" Rank said mockingly, full of disdain.

Everyone ignored this chattering woman...

As for Timsi, he had been very quiet throughout the journey. At the same time, he kept observing everyone, as if trying to figure out how they used Chakra.

"Your power is very similar to the power of the Gelel Stone," Timsi said at this moment.

"What is the Gelel Stone? Who are you people? What is your objective!?" Seeing that Timsi was willing to speak, everyone quickly asked.

A look of noble longing flashed in Timsi's eyes. "Our objective! Is to establish a perfect realm without conflict, a realm that believes in peace!"

"You all possess special powers! Join us! Let us work together with Lord Hyde to create a perfect nation!"

"Tch... A perfect realm?" Sasuke scoffed, his blood-red Sharingan staring at Timsi, exerting heavy mental pressure.

"Is your so-called perfect realm achieved by destroying villages! And by tricking people into becoming the puppet soldiers in your hands?"

Timsi's expression was calm. "All of this is merely a necessary sacrifice to establish the perfect realm."

"Your seemingly noble words are just a cover for your filthy objectives! It's truly sickening." This time, it wasn't just Sasuke; Kiba, Choji, and the others couldn't help but retort.

"Hmph! You will never understand!"

Timsi's face darkened. He hated it when others negated or even slandered the ideal he had dedicated his life to!

"Teacher Kurenai! My insects have sensed someone approaching from that direction! Many of them!"

Just then, Shino spoke up with a hint of gravity in his tone.

"Be alert!" Kakashi transmitted, and everyone quickly concealed themselves.

A moment later, a caravan of several dozen people slowly entered their view.

Hinata, using her Byakugan, took a look and shook her head. "They're all ordinary people."

"Looks like a normal caravan…" everyone couldn't help but relax a little upon hearing that.

Yamei's eyes deepened. I can't believe we actually ran into them…

Squeak squeak…

Just as everyone was letting their guard down, a squeaking sound came from their side. They quickly turned their heads and were surprised to see a ferret had run onto Timsi's shoulder.

"Nilu!"

Several figures from the caravan also ran towards them.

"Looks like we've been exposed! Everyone, come out…"

Kakashi's expression stiffened. Who would have thought a little ferret would come out?

The sudden appearance of several people startled the caravan members, who stared at them warily. "Who are you people!?"

"Don't be nervous, we're Konoha ninja! We're just taking a temporary break while on a mission!" Kakashi stepped forward with a smile to explain.

"From Konoha!?" The caravan members looked at the forehead protectors of the group and relaxed slightly.

"We're truly sorry for disturbing you. Have you by any chance seen a ferret?"

"Is it this one?" Ino pointed to the ferret on Timsi's shoulder.

"Th-This is impossible!?" The caravan members were shocked to see this.

"Huh!?" Kakashi and the others looked on, puzzled.

The caravan members exchanged glances, and then the leader spoke. "Esteemed ninja, we were just about to set up camp and make a fire. Would you honorable ninja care to join us?"