Captured!

Obito fought with all his might!

No one knew whether it was because his strength had erupted or because Rin Nohara had been captured.

But he actually managed to trade blows evenly with the peddler who had instantly defeated Kakashi!

The peddlers on the other side were having a hard time too!

"Captain Baki, this guy seems to have the Sharingan! He's a real pain!"

"Doesn't matter. There are more of us. Wear him down!"

"Alright!"

Obito fell into a fierce battle!

Ten minutes later.

Obito's Chakra was nearly exhausted!

"Damn it!"

"If there weren't so many of you, I, Obito Uchiha, wouldn't fear you at all!"

The peddlers across from him were stunned. Though they were Chunin, this was the first time they had encountered such a difficult opponent.

"Obito Uchiha! I respect you as a true man!"

Baki, the captain, gave Obito a thumbs-up.

After another hour of fighting!

Obito finally collapsed, barely alive!

Yet before losing consciousness, he still said one more thing.

"Don't touch my woman!"

"Alright!"

The peddlers of Sunagakure clapped and cheered!

After all these years in the business, this was the first time they had encountered such a powerhouse evenly matched with them!

And he was so loyal and righteous!

They were moved.

"Brothers, although we aren't in the same camp as Obito Uchiha, if he gets out safely, I, Baki, will recognize him as my big brother!"

"Alright! Heroes admire heroes. If not for our different positions, I, Er Gouzi, would recognize him as my big brother too!"

"I, Gou Dan, will too!"

"I, Hei Wa, will too!"

After discussing it, they solemnly hoisted Obito onto their shoulders and carried him away.

Meanwhile, Kakashi was dragged across the ground by a peddler.

"You trash, if it weren't for Big Brother Obito's sake, I'd have killed you already! I really don't know why someone as weak as you even needed to be captured."

Kakashi's eye twitched.

Inside the dungeon.

The group was tightly bound to stone pillars!

Kakashi looked at Obito Uchiha beside him with a strange expression.

Obito had truly been knocked unconscious, but Kakashi was only pretending.

Likewise, Rin Nohara was pretending too.

"That blockhead... Now I finally understand why Teacher Ye Liang didn't tell him the plan. With that brain of his, he definitely would have leaked it."

"Indeed." Kakashi nodded. For some reason, when he had been dragged away earlier, he had actually felt a little envious of Obito Uchiha.

"So what do we do now?"

"Teacher said that if we pretended to be captured, we could lure out the mastermind. Since he said so, there must be a reason. We just have to wait."

"Mm."

After saying that, the two closed their eyes and began pretending to be unconscious.

After several hours or so, a shadow quietly slipped into the dungeon. It did not walk upright like a human, but slithered across the ground!

"Hiss, hiss!"

The shadow flicked its tongue as it reached the cell where Kakashi was held.

"Tsk, tsk, tsk. I didn't expect to run into an Uchiha here. Heaven really is helping me!"

The shadow revealed a delighted expression.

Just as it was about to hoist Obito Uchiha onto its shoulder and leave, quite a few Sunagakure ninja suddenly rushed in from the entrance.

"Who goes there?!"

The ninja cried out in alarm!

Kakashi opened his eyes at that moment as well!

"Damn it! I can't form hand seals!"

They had been tied up with specially made ropes, so naturally they could not escape the stone pillars!

At that moment, the shadow suddenly swallowed Obito Uchiha in a single bite.

"No!"

Kakashi was horrified!

He had considered every possible outcome, but he had never imagined this.

"Who exactly are you?! Why are you attacking Obito?!" Kakashi demanded of the shadow! He barely made out its appearance—it was actually a White Scale Serpent over two meters long!

Who the hell would recognize this thing?

Just then, the guarding Sunagakure ninja rushed in as well.

"Big Brother Obito!"

Baki, who was leading them, was stunned!

Though he was older than Obito, he had been sincerely won over by Obito Uchiha's strength. Now that he saw Obito being eaten, he naturally lost all reason!

"Wind Release: Wind Blade!"

With a loud roar!

A blue Chakra blade swept from Baki's fingertips toward the White Scale Serpent!

"Clang!"

The serpent's scales rang out with a hum, yet it was completely unharmed!

"How is this possible?! It's only a serpent Summoned Beast—how could it withstand the Wind Blade's attack?!" Baki exclaimed in shock.

By then, the White Scale Serpent had already charged toward their group!

"You dare ambush me?! Damn it!" It swiftly slammed the surrounding Sunagakure ninja to the ground, then slithered toward the dungeon exit.

"Let us out!"

Kakashi shouted, but everyone was busy pursuing the serpent, and no one paid him any attention.

"Damn it! Obito, don't let anything happen to you!"

Outside the dungeon.

Two figures blocked the White Scale Serpent at the entrance!

"You're the one who killed the Fourth Kazekage, aren't you?" Granny Chiyo said coldly. Standing beside her was her younger brother, Ebizo.

"Tsk, tsk, tsk. I didn't expect you to find me. It seems I underestimated Sunagakure."

"Why? It seems that our Land of Sand has never known you, sir!"

"Hahaha! You don't know me! But shouldn't your Kazekage feel incomparably fortunate to serve as nourishment for my experiments?" The White Scale Serpent suddenly burst into laughter. Then, as though a mass of flesh were writhing, its body slowly grew a pair of hands before transforming into a human form.

"Orochimaru! It's you!"

The well-informed Granny Chiyo recognized the ninja before her at once.

"That's right! It's me, Orochimaru! If that bastard Ye Liang hadn't ruined my plan, I wouldn't have turned into this neither-human-nor-ghost thing!"

"Damn Ye Liang, I will have my revenge!"

"Magnet Release: Iron Sand Drizzle!"

Orochimaru formed hand seals with both hands, and a steady drizzle made of iron sand suddenly began falling from the sky. So much iron sand fell that the ground was soon covered by it.

"That's impossible! Magnet Release is clearly the Kekkei Genkai of our Land of Wind. How can you, a Konoha ninja, use it?!" Granny Chiyo was horrified!

"Haha! I've already developed a Forbidden Jutsu that absorbs other people's ninjutsu. As long as I have enough time, I will become the new God of Shinobi! I will return to Konoha for revenge!"

"Magnet Release: Gold Dust Imperial Funeral!"

"That's the Fourth Kazekage's ultimate technique! This is bad!" Chiyo hurriedly led her brother toward the open ground behind them, but the Gold Dust Imperial Funeral surged toward them in wave after wave, like an endless sea of sand.

"Big Sister! We can't escape! Use the secret technique!"

"Alright!"

The siblings swiftly formed hand seals, and ten humanoid puppets wielding all sorts of weapons suddenly flew out from underground.

"White Secret Technique: Chikamatsu's Ten Puppets!"

These were the strongest puppets created by Monzaemon, the ancestor of puppetry, and had always been controlled by Granny Chiyo of Sunagakure. Facing Orochimaru's Gold Dust Imperial Funeral, she had no choice but to use them.