The Serpent's Probe and the Mist in the Border Forest

The pungent stench of formalin mingled with blood in the dark, damp underground hideout.

This was the Land of Rice Fields, one of the most unremarkable of Orochimaru's countless lairs.

Kabuto Yakushi adjusted the round glasses on his nose, their lenses reflecting the murky glow of the crystal ball before him. A faint wisp of chakra gathered at his fingertips as he tried to establish contact with a medium far away in the Land of Fire.

"Strange..."

Kabuto's brow furrowed slightly.

He had personally prepared the Special Explosive Tag he had planted on that black-market puppeteer. Its thin coating of snake mucus served not only as a tracking beacon, but also as a miniature chakra receiver. All he needed to do was activate the formula here, and the tag would bloom into a small firework in Konoha's forest—small, but enough to send an "all clear" signal.

Yet now, no matter how he channeled his chakra, the connection vanished into the void without a trace.

Unwilling to give up, he tried again, focusing his mind to its utmost limit.

This time, he finally "saw."

At the other end of the connection was not the explosion he had expected, but a vast, boundless field of pure white. Within it, his chakra signal was like a drop of water falling into boiling oil, instantly evaporated, broken down, and erased without a trace.

Then a cold, tyrannical force surged back along that tenuous connection!

"Urgh!"

Kabuto let out a muffled groan, his face turning deathly pale. He abruptly severed the chakra connection and staggered back two steps despite himself.

"The Byakugan..." He braced himself against the cold stone wall, his eyes filled with horror. "No ordinary Byakugan! This ability to disperse and purify chakra... Konoha's outskirts are already sealed in an inescapable net!"

He