Caravan

Sasuke nodded.

"Don't worry about Naruto. That kid's sharp, and he's not weak either. How could something go wrong so easily?" Yamei patted Sasuke on the shoulder.

Naruto was still quite formidable in battle! As long as that old man Heide and the remaining two female knights did not personally make a move.

Even if he got surrounded by those soldiers who felt no pain, there should not have been much of a problem.

Besides, he had set up genjutsu. Wanted to die? Dream on. It would be hard for him to even get hurt!

"W-Who's worried about him?! I'm just getting used to my brand-new power!" Sasuke immediately retorted.

Yamei chuckled at that and did not expose him.

"Yamei, I want to learn Sharingan genjutsu."

"No problem. I'll teach you some after we finish this mission. Otherwise, it'd be embarrassing if your Sharingan genjutsu was so pathetic."

Sasuke blushed. He truly did not know many genjutsu, especially Sharingan genjutsu. Although Yamei had taught him some before, they had all been the most basic kind, meant to add variety to combat.

Just as the two were chatting, Kakashi and the others emerged with grim expressions.

"How is it?"

"Yamei..." Ino and Hinata walked over to Yamei in small steps, glancing at the fortress with some reluctance. "There are... dozens of corpses inside..."

"Based on what Hinata saw... they should have been the people controlling those soldiers just now... But for some reason, they all died..."

Yamei frowned upon hearing that. They were all dead?

Logically speaking, after the soldiers were disabled, those souls should have returned to their original bodies.

It seemed the knights had tampered with something before leaving.

He rubbed the girls' hair. After all, they had just graduated from the Ninja Academy and had not seen many brutal scenes. It was normal for them to feel afraid.

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

"Remember to prepare some food. Everyone's hungry." Yamei rolled his eyes at her. You just can't stand seeing me idle, can you?

Watching everyone leave, Yamei entered the fortress as well and looked around. There was nothing particularly special inside, so he quickly lost interest.

He reached out and touched the fortress's iron armor. His Sharingan slowly turned as an orange-red sphere of light appeared.

Then, right before his eyes, the orange-red sphere instantly turned into a Black Mass!

Scorching Shield! Combined with Amaterasu!

In an instant, the metal barrier touching the Black Mass collapsed at high speed. It was as though it were a black hole, constantly pulling in and melting everything around it!

This was something Yamei had created over the past two years out of boredom. Scorching Shield possessed terrifyingly high heat! Combined with the power of Amaterasu, it could actually melt objects into gas and disperse them!

If this thing were attached to a blade, he did not even dare imagine what would happen to anyone struck by it! It was basically another version of Dust Release!

The difference was that Dust Release decomposed things, while his Scorching Shield instantly vaporized them.

With a thought from Yamei, the black sphere rapidly expanded. In just a few blinks, it had engulfed the enormous fortress.

Then the black sphere vanished, and the fortress, which had stood over a hundred meters tall, disappeared completely. If not for the marks left on the ground, one might have suspected it had never existed at all.

When they returned to the temporary camp, Kakashi and Yūhi Kurenai had not obtained any useful intelligence from Timsi and the other captive.

With the situation being so urgent, they decided not to remain behind the scenes this time. Instead, they would act together with everyone else.

After quickly preparing something to eat, they split into teams of three and began searching.

Each team was responsible for a different direction, using Ino and Yamei as relay points to communicate.

Yet after two consecutive days, they still found no clues, and everyone grew increasingly anxious.

"Stop wasting your effort. You'll never find Lord Hyde!" Ranke sneered at them disdainfully.

Everyone ignored the chattering woman...

As for Timsi, he had remained quiet the entire way. At the same time, he kept observing them, seemingly trying to figure out how they used Chakra.

"Your power is very similar to the power of the Gelel Stone."

At that moment, Timsi spoke.

"What is the Gelel Stone? Who are you people, and what is your goal?!" Seeing that Timsi was finally willing to talk, everyone hurriedly questioned him.

A lofty yearning flashed through Timsi's eyes. "Our goal is to build a perfect nation without conflict, a nation that believes in peace!"

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

"Hah... a perfect nation?" Sasuke sneered. His blood-red Sharingan stared at Timsi, exerting heavy mental pressure on him.

"Your so-called perfect nation is one that destroys villages and deceives people into becoming machines that control soldiers for you?"

Timsi's expression remained calm. "All of that is merely necessary sacrifice for the establishment of a perfect nation."

"Those lofty words are nothing more than a cover for your filthy purpose! It's revolting." This time, it was not just Sasuke. Kiba, Choji, and the others could not help but criticize him as well.

"Hmph! You wouldn't understand!"

Timsi's expression turned ugly. He hated it when others denied or even slandered the ideal he had pursued his entire life!

"Kurenai-sensei! My insects sense people coming from that direction! A lot of them!"

At that moment, Shino gave a grave warning.

"Stay alert!" Kakashi called out, and everyone quickly concealed themselves.

Before long, a caravan of several dozen people slowly entered their sight.

After activating her Byakugan and taking a look, Hinata shook her head. "They're all ordinary people."

"Looks like a normal caravan..." Everyone relaxed slightly upon hearing that.

Yamei's eyes grew deep. I didn't expect to actually run into them...

Squeak, squeak, squeak...

Just as everyone relaxed, a squeaking sound came from beside them. They hurriedly turned their heads and saw a ferret had climbed onto Timsi's shoulder.

"Nilu!"

Several figures from within the caravan also ran over in their direction.

"Looks like we've been exposed! Come out..."

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

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

"Don't be nervous. We're Konoha ninja, taking a temporary rest while carrying out a mission here!" Kakashi stepped forward with a smile and explained.

"Konoha?" The caravan members looked at everyone's forehead protectors and relaxed somewhat.

"We're terribly sorry to disturb you. May I ask if you've seen a ferret?"

"This one?" Ino pointed at the ferret on Timsi.

"H-How is that possible?!" The caravan members were shocked upon seeing that.

"Hm?" Kakashi and the others were confused.

The caravan members exchanged looks. Then the leader spoke. "Honored ninja, we were just about to make camp and start a fire. Why don't you join us for a talk?"