Three-Tails Isobu

The appointed time had not yet arrived, but over twenty people had already gathered at the scene.

Aside from the three leading Jonin, everyone else present was a Chunin, with Uchiha Yatsuhashi being the only Genin among them.

Furthermore, everyone here had, to a greater or lesser extent, a close connection to Orochimaru.

Even Anko Mitarashi, Orochimaru's direct disciple, was among them.

Seeing these people, the heart Uchiha Yatsuhashi had been holding in suspense finally sank.

As expected, his hypothesis was correct.

This was no ordinary mission; it was a meticulously disguised "cleanup."

Yet, that night, he had believed that in facing the recruitment of Uchiha Fugaku, he had already given Uchiha Shisui the perfect answer.

Unless there was a problem with the report he handed to the Hokage, this shouldn't be happening!

Could it be...

Uchiha Yatsuhashi's heart suddenly skipped a beat.

He had calculated everything, only to realize he had overlooked one extremely fatal detail.

These years of comfortable living had caused Uchiha Yatsuhashi to underestimate this dark world.

Perhaps the true color of this world was one of extreme darkness...

The team leader, Murata Masasuke, only did a rough headcount before notifying everyone: "Time is up, prepare to depart. Anyone who failed to assemble on time will be treated as a rogue ninja."

Hearing this, Uchiha Yatsuhashi's gaze turned cold.

This trip is likely to be fraught with peril...

Led by the three Jonin, the group left the village and headed east.

They traveled by day and rested by night.

Initially, because Uchiha Yatsuhashi's strength was too low, he could barely keep up with the team's pace.

But as time went on, Uchiha Yatsuhashi consistently found himself at the tail end of the group.

Fortunately, because Uchiha Yatsuhashi had often conducted research alongside Orochimaru, he was relatively familiar with Anko Mitarashi among the group.

Throughout the journey, Anko Mitarashi took special care of him, which prevented him from falling behind.

Through Anko Mitarashi, he also learned that these three Jonin all hailed from the Root.

As a disciple of the legendary Sannin, Anko Mitarashi's future was naturally bright, and her treatment within the village far exceeded that of an ordinary Chunin.

Especially during this special time of vying for the position of Fourth Hokage, with the recommendation of Danzo, the probability of Orochimaru being selected could not be underestimated.

And once Orochimaru ascended to the throne of the Fourth Hokage, she would be a confidante of the Fourth, making it easy for her to become a high-ranking official in the future.

However, in just a single night, everything had changed.

The former Hokage candidate had defected and become an S-rank rogue ninja.

This was something Anko Mitarashi found impossible to accept for the time being.

Even if Orochimaru had failed the election, he was still one of the legendary Sannin respected by the village, and his status was extraordinary.

Yet, it had all happened just like that...

With Orochimaru's defection, she had been reduced to the disciple of a rogue ninja and was now being assigned dangerous missions.

Anko Mitarashi's heart was filled with incomparable pain; she found it hard to accept that the teacher she respected would betray the village.

For her, this was undoubtedly a collapse of her faith.

Deep down, however, even Anko Mitarashi harbored a sliver of bitterness she was unwilling to admit.

As a disciple of Orochimaru, one of the Sannin, she had inherited his ninjutsu. This inheritance was implicitly understood to include the power and connections of Orochimaru's background.

But Orochimaru's solo defection left her with a feeling of being abandoned.

Not only that, but before Orochimaru defected, he even sealed her memories...

All of this left Anko Mitarashi in a terrible state.

It also caused her to fall to the back of the group, keeping company with Uchiha Yatsuhashi.

Among the three team-leading jonin, Murata Masasuke remained at the very rear of the formation.

Watching Uchiha Yatsuhashi fall behind several times, he secretly began to harbor significant intentions.

As long as Uchiha Yatsuhashi lagged a certain distance behind the group, he could legitimately execute him on the grounds that Uchiha Yatsuhashi had abandoned the mission.

After all, a special genin like Uchiha Yatsuhashi was an expendable existence for this mission anyway.

The sooner he dealt with these people, the sooner he could return to the Root to report.

Unfortunately, this Anko Mitarashi kept ruining his plans.

"What an annoying woman..."

Murata Masasuke stared at their backs as they supported each other, cold light flickering in his eyes.

It was not until a month and a half later that the team finally arrived at Thousand Port City on the east coast of the Land of Fire.

This was a bustling port city, crowded with merchant ships and surging crowds.

The Konoha ninja gathered at a stronghold outside the city.

At this moment, the three jonin, including Murata Masasuke, brought out the mission scrolls.

The content of this mission was finally revealed.

"Intelligence indicates that Three-Tails Isobu is suspected to be reviving within the Land of Water..."

Murata Masasuke unfolded a map of the Land of Water for everyone, with a massive lake circled in red ink.

"Our mission is to search for and mark the revival site of Three-Tails Isobu.

Everyone will be divided into three teams, each led by a jonin captain, infiltrating the Land of Water in batches via different routes, and finally converging here."

Murata Masasuke's finger poked at a remote lakeside on the map.

"This is a secret Konoha stronghold. Once we arrive, we will search the area based on the situation."

Listening to Murata Masasuke's words, Uchiha Yatsuhashi secretly analyzed the danger level of this mission.

Although tailed beasts were manifestations of chakra, if the ninja serving as their jinchuriki died, they would also disappear for a period of time.

And because of the Rin Nohara incident, Three-Tails Isobu was indeed currently re-condensing and reviving.

As a water-attribute tailed beast, it would only slowly regenerate its chakra within some body of water in the Land of Water.

During this period, the danger was indeed not very high.

It was not uncommon for the Five Great Nations to infiltrate each other to gather intelligence.

That was why Konoha had dispatched their group to secretly infiltrate the Land of Water to investigate the situation.

However, Uchiha Yatsuhashi felt that something was clearly wrong.

Although there were three jonin among the twenty-plus people before him, as a small team infiltrating another country to gather intelligence, their strength was still too weak.

Normally, for this kind of mission, the fewer people, the better.

But the arrow was already on the string, and he had no time to overthink it.

He could only meet the challenge head-on when it came.

Whether it was a coincidence or not, Uchiha Yatsuhashi and Anko Mitarashi were both assigned to Murata Masasuke's team.

Along the way, it wasn't as if Uchiha Yatsuhashi hadn't considered running away.

But the naked, undisguised killing intent from Murata Masasuke made him abandon that thought immediately.

He believed that, let alone running away, the moment he fell behind by any distance, Murata Masasuke would likely strike at him directly.

According to his memories from his previous life, regardless of whether Uchiha Yatsuhashi had changed the timing of Orochimaru's defection, the outcome of Orochimaru's defection had not changed.

And as for Anko Mitarashi, Orochimaru's disciple, Uchiha Yatsuhashi remembered clearly:

she was supposed to survive until the very end.

Since that was the case, although Uchiha Yatsuhashi could not guarantee 100% survival on this mission, sticking closely to Anko Mitarashi's side was definitely the right thing to do.

During the team's rest period.

Uchiha Yatsuhashi leaned against the cold stone wall and pulled out the scroll he kept tucked close to his chest: Eight Inner Gates.

Throughout the month-long journey, whenever the night was deep and quiet during their brief respites.

He would repeatedly study the principles of this forbidden technique.

Fortunately, the obscure and difficult parts had been carefully annotated by someone.

Many of the cumbersome steps had even been trimmed and optimized.

This had significantly lightened the burden on Uchiha Yatsuhashi.

He guessed that these notes came from that eternal genin, Might Duy.

Back then, Uchiha Yatsuhashi had also wanted to change the fate of Might Duy.

It was just a pity that the Anbu ninjas sent to provide support had arrived a step too late.

The Eight Inner Gates required relying on a massive amount of chakra to break through eight critical "life gates" within the body.

With each gate opened, one's strength and speed would skyrocket beyond their original limits.

However, Uchiha Yatsuhashi's chakra was far too weak, and his talent was abysmal.

Although chakra could be cultivated, talent determined a ninja's chakra ceiling and training speed.

Therefore, up to this point, Uchiha Yatsuhashi was only confident in his ability to force open the first gate, the Space Gate.

And even if his body could withstand it, he lacked the excess chakra to push toward the second gate, the Gate of Life.

Thinking of this, his thoughts drifted involuntarily toward the First Hokage Cell Serum inside the sealing scroll.

If he could harness the terrifying life force and chakra contained within the Hashirama Cells for his own use...

At that moment, the final instructions Orochimaru had given him that night suddenly echoed in Uchiha Yatsuhashi's mind.

He immediately extinguished this dangerous thought.

To rashly come into contact with that substance without professional equipment for dilution and a safety plan would be nothing short of suicide.

If he could return safely, he had to find an opportunity to dilute these Hashirama Cells...