An Unusual Night

"It's nothing. I just wanted to look at you." Ye Wuyue smiled kindly.

Sai's heart leaped with joy. So the method I read about in books really works. Being sincere with friends really can earn their trust and affection. Even someone as aloof as Sasuke-kun is starting to want to look at me.

The couple behind them couldn't understand what they were saying. They walked silently behind the group, the woman clutching the man's arm with a somewhat nervous expression.

After a while, Itachi found an inn.

The inn looked rather old. An elderly woman sat behind the front counter, dozing off.

"Hello, we'd like two rooms," Itachi said softly to the old woman.

Hearing Itachi's voice, the old woman woke up.

"One thousand two hundred ryō in total," she said slowly.

Itachi paid the old woman, and she took two keys from a drawer beneath the counter and tossed them to him.

"The rooms are only available until noon tomorrow. Return the keys here then. Also, don't go out at night," the old woman warned Ye Wuyue's group.

Itachi was somewhat puzzled. Inns didn't usually forbid guests from going out at night.

"May I ask why we can't go out at night?" Itachi asked.

The old woman glanced at them.

"You're outsiders, aren't you?"

Itachi nodded.

"Over the past few months, outsiders who went out at night have often disappeared. Sometimes, strange cries, neither human nor beast, can be heard at night from who knows where. That's why I'm warning you," the old woman explained.

Then she added another sentence.

"Oh, and outsiders like you who wear forehead protectors are especially likely to disappear. A few days ago, four people wearing forehead protectors vanished at night from an inn on the eastern side. Their forehead protectors weren't like yours, though. They had a downward-pointing arrow with the lower part cut off."

After hearing the old woman's description, Ye Wuyue couldn't recall which ninja village that forehead protector belonged to. However, he could more or less guess what had happened to the missing people and what those inhuman cries were.

They were most likely the result of Orochimaru's Cursed Seal experiments. The captured people had been used as test subjects, and the nighttime cries probably came from monsters transformed by the Cursed Seal.

But Orochimaru was far too bold. It was as if he had turned the entire Land of Rice Fields into his laboratory.

"Understood. We won't go out tonight." Itachi lowered his head in thought for a moment before speaking to the old woman.

The old woman ignored them and continued dozing, propping up her head with one hand.

Too many bizarre things happened in this world. Some of the older people had long since grown accustomed to them.

The five of them followed the numbers on their keys upstairs and found their respective rooms. The two rooms happened to be next to each other.

The couple entered one room first to rest, while Ye Wuyue, Sai, and Itachi shared the other.

"It seems the Land of Rice Fields isn't as simple as we imagined. The forehead protector that old woman described should belong to Takigakure. It may not be a major ninja village, but among the smaller villages, Takigakure ranks among the strongest. It even possesses a Tailed Beast.

"To make a Takigakure ninja squad disappear without a sound, the enemy must be at least comparable in strength to our team."

After closing the door, Itachi spoke gravely to Ye Wuyue and Sai, his gaze settling on Sai as well.

"Then should we abandon the mission? Under these circumstances, we can abandon it directly, right?" Sai put away his fake smile and asked Itachi.

Sai's words surprised Ye Wuyue slightly. He had originally assumed this mission was another one of Danzo's schemes, and that Sai should have known about it. He hadn't expected Sai to urge them to abandon the mission.

"What does Sasuke think?" Itachi looked at Ye Wuyue.

"I think we should look into it a little longer. I believe the couple was telling the truth, but they may have concealed some details. They targeted a group of children. We may be ninja, not saints, but can we really remain indifferent after learning something like that?

"Besides, as soon as we encounter ninja, it'll prove that the client concealed the true circumstances of the mission. We can abandon it at any time then. Why not investigate first? If we really can save the missing children, wouldn't that count as doing a good deed?"

Ye Wuyue voiced his opinion. What he said was only one part of the reason; there were other reasons he didn't mention.

One was that five rogue ninja led by Uchiha Setsuna, who had yet to be captured and returned, had disappeared within the Land of Rice Fields. They could take the opportunity to see whether they could uncover any clues.

On the other hand, Ye Wuyue wanted to meet Orochimaru. He couldn't understand the Gigai Creation Method the system had given him at all, yet Gigai would be quite useful to him. If he could obtain a suitable Gigai, then even if this physical body died, he could house his soul within the Gigai.

As long as he had a Gigai, he could achieve a form of immortality.

Of course, that was assuming his soul wasn't destroyed.

As for the possibility that they might encounter danger they couldn't resist, that was practically impossible. The Konoha ninja currently in the Land of Rice Fields weren't just the few of them—there was also someone with Kage-level strength.

"Sasuke is right. Then we'll investigate a little longer. To guard against any possible danger, the three of us will take turns keeping watch tonight. I'll take the first half of the night, and you two will replace me for the second half. Understood?" Itachi quickly made his decision and spoke to Ye Wuyue and Sai.

"Understood." ×2

Ye Wuyue naturally had no objections, while Sai had no idea what was really going on and didn't know how dangerous this mission was.

After assigning everyone their duties, Itachi jumped out the window and stood on the roof of the inn to keep watch for Ye Wuyue and the others.

Itachi summoned a messenger crow, which then flew beneath the night sky in a certain direction...

Inside an underground laboratory in Otogakure of the Land of Rice Fields, Orochimaru took out a scroll from a snake's mouth and examined its contents.

"Heh heh heh heh, Uchiha Itachi? He has great research value. I never expected that even among identical Kekkei Genkai, there could be differences in quality. The Sharingan in this body hasn't improved dynamic vision by much at all, and its boost to genjutsu hasn't improved much either. I hope your eyes can give me a little surprise."

Orochimaru muttered to himself in a hoarse voice. His pupils slowly changed from vertical slits into the form of the Three-Tomoe Sharingan.

At that moment, a sinister-looking man barged into the laboratory.

"Orochimaru, when exactly will the plan you mentioned begin? I've handed over the last few clan members I brought out to you. If you keep delaying, don't blame me for dropping all pretenses."

The man immediately coldly questioned Orochimaru.

Upon hearing the newcomer's voice, Orochimaru deactivated his Sharingan. A trace of disdain appeared in his eyes, but he still replied in that hoarse voice, "Don't be so impatient, Setsuna-kun. I told you, the plan must wait until the Chūnin Exams. Besides, those clan members of yours were part of the terms of our deal. You have the power I gave you in your body now as well, don't you?"

Orochimaru turned to look at Uchiha Setsuna.