His first ANBU mission

Orochimaru set down the documents in his hands. The emblem of Konoha's medical emergency team was clearly printed on the paper.

"None of these people understand. The medical emergency team's laboratory is what matters most."

"Kabuto did very well."

Recalling the intelligence Kabuto had sent from Konoha, Orochimaru was very pleased, but then he sighed. "If Naraku were still by my side, the experiments wouldn't be so troublesome."

But Orochimaru also knew that was a dream. Even if he could count himself as Naraku's teacher, once he defected from Konoha, there was no going back.

Yes, Orochimaru was also Naraku's teacher.

Or rather, all three of Konoha's renowned Sannin were Naraku's teachers.

Orochimaru and Jiraiya had merely been helping Tsunade teach Shihōin Naraku.

The main reason was that, at the time, Tsunade had just suffered the tragedy of losing her younger brother and her lover on the battlefield. It had nearly destroyed her, and she had even developed a fear of blood.

In that state, never mind teaching Naraku-Tsunade herself spent her days in a daze.

And Jiraiya, utterly besotted with Tsunade, had taken the initiative to train and teach Naraku.

Later, Orochimaru happened to discover Naraku's talent. Coupled with Naraku's own knowledge of modern medicine, it delighted Orochimaru so much that he held nothing back in passing on his knowledge.

At first, Orochimaru had only wanted to train a competent helper for himself. But as Naraku gradually revealed his knowledge and built up his foundation, he soon caught up with Orochimaru's pace and became his laboratory assistant.

Sometimes, Orochimaru could not even keep up with Naraku's progress. He was ecstatic about this, and instead began absorbing those novel ideas and that knowledge from Naraku.

Later, Orochimaru tempted Naraku more than once, hoping to have him formally become his disciple, and promised him plenty of benefits.

Orochimaru also approached Tsunade, hoping to steal Naraku away from her, but received several beatings and was nearly beaten to death by her.

What displeased Orochimaru even more was that, because Tsunade had developed a fear of blood, she could no longer go onto the battlefield. She could only manage logistics behind the lines, guide medical ninja in saving lives, or research new Medical Ninjutsu. This also gave her time to teach Naraku, so she took him away.

This infuriated Orochimaru. By the time the Third Shinobi World War died down and Tsunade left Konoha, Naraku was already avoiding him like the plague when he approached him again.

Familiar with the plot, Naraku understood that Orochimaru was not far from defecting, so he refused to go anywhere near him.

Because of this, Orochimaru hated Tsunade even more.

He always felt that Tsunade was meddling behind the scenes and had cost him his most outstanding successor.

"Lord Orochimaru..."

The sudden voice interrupted Orochimaru's thoughts, bringing him back to his senses. He looked at Kimimaro Kaguya, who stood respectfully before him.

"How did it go?"

"My lord, we've made contact with Sunagakure. However, the Kazekage is still somewhat hesitant. Regarding your identity, he has some..."

"Is that so?" A sinister smile appeared on Orochimaru's face. "It doesn't matter. He'll agree."

"Sunagakure's environment and circumstances will force him to cooperate with us, but I really don't like him..."

"When the time is right, kill him!"

"That way, I'll have another excellent experimental specimen, too."

"The plan is about to begin..."

"Konoha, Third Hokage, Shihōin Naraku. It really has been a long time."

"Heh heh heh..."

His chilling laughter echoed through the laboratory. Kimimaro Kaguya continued to face Orochimaru with profound respect and admiration.

"According to our intelligence, Iwagakure and Sunagakure recently reached a cooperation agreement. The details are unknown."

"Based on the information our spy sent back, the time and location have been confirmed. Iwagakure and Sunagakure will exchange supplies in the Land of Birds, the night after tomorrow."

"This is an S-rank mission. You may select your own team members."

Shihōin Naraku accepted the mission scroll from the Third Hokage Hiruzen Sarutobi and immediately opened it to read.

This was a typical ANBU mission. Obtaining intelligence from the Sunagakure and Iwagakure personnel would be ideal, but it was not mandatory. The most important thing was to kill everyone going there to exchange supplies.

Konohagakure and Sunagakure were indeed allies, but sabotaging this operation and undermining Sunagakure's development would make it more dependent on Konohagakure.

There had never been any shortage of covert clashes in the shinobi world.

"Oh, right." Hiruzen Sarutobi smiled as he lit his pipe and took a contented puff.

"When ANBU members go out on missions, their movements are highly secret. To maintain secrecy, they address one another by code names."

"What about you? Is there a code name you like? Shall I give you one?"

A code name?

Kakashi Hatake wore a mask and killed people with Chidori all day, while Tenzo was just as happy using Wood Release. Naraku had no idea how they thought they could keep their identities secret.

Still, Naraku went along with it and chose a code name for himself.

Dragon!!!

From now on, Shihōin Naraku's ANBU code name would be [Dragon]!

ANBU.

"Cat! Your squad is to leave for the Land of Birds immediately."

"Find the exact location where Sunagakure and Iwagakure will exchange supplies. Stay hidden!"

"Yes!"

After returning to ANBU, Naraku carefully read through the mission scroll, then began issuing his orders.

He immediately dispatched those skilled at gathering intelligence and investigating, then followed with those who had greater combat strength.

The Land of Birds.

[Cat]'s squad had already arrived in the Land of Birds.

After their preliminary intelligence gathering, all four squad members assembled and began exchanging information.

Soon, they determined the location where Sunagakure and Iwagakure would exchange supplies.

This was perfectly normal. After all, all four were ninja skilled at gathering information.

Hyuga, Yamanaka, Aburame, and the Inuzuka Clan-ninja from these four clans could not have been better suited to gathering intelligence.

After a discussion, the four confirmed that the mission site was in a forest southeast of the Land of Birds' capital.

"Should we go set up an ambush ahead of time?"

"No. There are Sunagakure ninja hidden in that forest. Going now would alert them!"

"There's also an Iwagakure ninja hiding in another direction. He's some distance away, but the insects have already found him."

"Send the information to Lord Dragon! Wait for reinforcements to arrive."

"Yes!"

After sending out the information, the four immediately split up and concealed themselves, leaving nothing that might give them away.

"My lord! The intelligence has arrived!"

Wearing a white mask, Shihōin Naraku took the intelligence report and examined it carefully.

Some distinctive markings were painted on his mask, vaguely resembling a dragon.

"Map!"

"Yes!"

An ANBU member stepped forward and unfolded a map of the Land of Birds.

"It's here..."

Things would be much easier now that they had found the precise location. Naraku thought for a moment.

"Moon, what do you think about eliminating the sentries Sunagakure and Iwagakure stationed in advance and replacing them with our people...?"

Naraku looked at the ANBU member standing quietly beside him. Moon had once been a member of Root.

"My lord, we can replace them. But it would be difficult to obtain their communication codes and other security procedures in such a short time. Killing them rashly like this would leave serious gaps."

Indeed, there was too little time.

Even if they captured those two ninja, the Yamanaka Clan members would have difficulty extracting the crucial communication codes from their minds in such a short time.

Doing so would instead put the Sunagakure and Iwagakure ninja arriving later on their guard.

Glancing at Moon, who had fallen silent again, Naraku found that these ninja from Root really were outstanding. Their performance along the way had also demonstrated their excellent qualities.

But Naraku had not forgotten that they still followed Danzo's orders.

Now, he was actually somewhat eager to see whether these people would cause trouble under his command.