After Yuzuru sent out this urgent, important, and highly publicized intelligence, he immediately left the cave entrance and charged alone into the pitch-black rainy night.
He no longer bothered to conceal himself. Instead, he sprinted with all his might... This was a now-or-never opportunity, and the time to run for his life was now.
As he darted through the forest, far to the north in the Land of Rain, a ninja wearing a special Forehead Protector that looked like a helmet, a breathing filter over his face, a black cloak, and carrying a massive sickle was fighting Iwagakure's Jinchuriki.
Even two against one, the Jinchuriki in their normal state were no match for Hanzō. After all, Iwagakure's Jinchuriki weren't Perfect Jinchuriki, and these two were quite young, making them even less capable in battle.
Under Hanzō's pressure, the Jinchuriki had no choice but to "transform." A mere partial transformation wasn't enough.
Hanzō of Amegakure could be regarded as a "miniature Hashirama Senju" of this era. He was at the height of his power, and the depths of his strength were unfathomable.
His great strength had also shaped Hanzō into a formidable figure with lofty ambitions and even a perspective from which he could look down upon the entire Shinobi World.
Sadly, one who came close to godhood was not truly the "God of Shinobi." Hanzō's goal was ultimately impossible to achieve... No matter how brutal the war became, the Five Great Shinobi Countries still stood above the other ninja villages.
At the Konoha camp, although it was already past midnight, Orochimaru still hadn't gone to rest. He was alone in a tent, holding a scroll and quietly reading by the flickering candlelight.
He seemed calm, but his thoughts were as lively as the shifting shadows cast by the firelight.
Suddenly, Orochimaru seemed to realize something. He narrowed his eyes and looked into the distance... Had something happened over there?
Of course, he couldn't see anything from here, but he had a way to obtain information.
During the fighting that day, he had left several summoning snakes in different parts of the battlefield in the Land of Rain to keep watch. This method of surveillance was better than nothing. After all, summoning beasts could only remain in the physical world for a limited time, but they might prove crucial at some point.
So he immediately formed hand seals and performed the Summoning Technique. A message snake appeared abruptly in front of him.
"..."
Huh? Had he summoned the wrong snake?
Orochimaru was a little dumbfounded. He was a grown man—could he really mess up a Summoning Technique?
Then the summoning snake spat out two scrolls in succession.
"A message?"
Orochimaru seemed to understand what was going on, but the question was, who could send him a message through a summoning beast from Ryūchi Cave? Wasn't he the only ninja connected to Ryūchi Cave?
Orochimaru suddenly realized that he might not be as special as he'd imagined.
He unrolled the first scroll and found that the message came from a ninja who called himself Yuzuru. The man belonged to Captain Akimichi's squad and had become separated from Konoha's main force during the earlier battle in the Land of Grass, leaving him stranded in the Land of Rain.
Yuzuru was currently trying to make his way across the Land of Rain and return to the Konoha frontline camp... He hoped that whoever received the message scroll would inform Captain Akimichi.
Orochimaru wasn't concerned about whether Yuzuru could return safely. He keenly grasped the key point:
"This ninja knew the message would reach me, which means he has a connection to Ryūchi Cave and knows that I do too."
The latter part, however, was fairly normal. Although most ninjas couldn't even name "Ryūchi Cave," who didn't know that Orochimaru could command summoning snakes?
Orochimaru set the scroll aside and unrolled the second one. The intelligence it contained was something he couldn't afford to ignore.
"I see. The Jinchuriki are on the move... So that was the source of that unsettling feeling just now?"
Orochimaru was, after all, a Konoha Ninja. He could no longer sit still. Carrying both scrolls, he went to the command center to meet Mitokado Homura, who was on night duty.
Shinobi technology was constantly advancing. Konoha didn't yet have the battlefield-wide chakra monitoring capability it had deployed during the Fourth Shinobi World War. The device they used back then, something like a giant water orb, wasn't available to Konoha yet.
But with such a commotion, perceptive ninjas were bound to notice something. By the time Orochimaru arrived at the command center, a ninja was already reporting abnormal chakra activity on the battlefield to Mitokado Homura.
"Orochimaru? What is it?" Mitokado Homura asked as soon as he saw him.
"I've received intelligence regarding the Jinchuriki's movements."
Orochimaru didn't waste words. He handed over the two scrolls.
Mitokado Homura took them and read them quickly. He glanced at the sensor ninja, then immediately said to one of the guards, "Go and get Torifu Akimichi."
The ninja hurried off, and before long, Torifu Akimichi was brought back.
A major battle had just ended, and Konoha had lost quite a few ninjas. For the time being, they had tactically pulled back from offensive operations, so a considerable number of ninjas were staying in camp.
"Torifu, was the missing ninja in your squad named Yuzuru?"
"That's right. Did something happen?" Torifu hadn't expected to hear Yuzuru's name from Mitokado Homura.
Could Yuzuru still be alive? Captain Akimichi grew slightly excited.
Yuzuru had been missing for several days without a trace. He could basically be considered dead, with no body to be found.
"He's still in the Land of Rain. This is the intelligence he sent back."
Torifu took the scroll and read it, then froze. He hadn't expected Yuzuru to send back such important information, but... how had he managed to get it back? Did it have something to do with Orochimaru?
The person who could fight the Jinchuriki, push them to lose control or come close to it, and force them to use a Tailed Beast Ball as a last resort could only be Hanzō of Amegakure. Danzo's earlier plan seemed to have succeeded... Torifu thought in silence.
After all, Konoha had been the one to pass the information about the Jinchuriki's movements to Amegakure.
If Hanzō had stopped the Jinchuriki, that was certainly good news for Konoha.
Besides the intelligence, Yuzuru had also described his escape route in the second scroll and asked Konoha to send a ninja squad into the Land of Grass to meet him...
Under normal circumstances, a ninja like him wouldn't qualify for a rescue. But things were different now: he was carrying valuable intelligence.
After all, he had "witnessed" the battle involving the Jinchuriki with his own eyes.
"Yuzuru should know more details. My squad can go and meet him..." Torifu Akimichi said at once.
But Orochimaru suddenly spoke up. "No. We'll go and meet him instead."
"?"
Torifu was a little confused. He knew something about Orochimaru, and he hadn't thought of him as the "helpful type."
"The message was sent to me, so I have a reason to make sure he gets back alive."
Orochimaru wanted to understand Yuzuru's relationship with Ryūchi Cave. His curiosity was becoming difficult to suppress.
To him, that was even more important than any intelligence about the Jinchuriki.
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