The lead-gray sky turned into pure ink black, with only sporadic warning lights flashing like will-o'-the-wisps on the towering steel towers. The rain was still falling. It hit the metal pipes, formed streams, and ran along the gaps in the building, playing the eternal sorrow of this steel cage.
Orochimaru did not move immediately. He threw the scroll given by Hanzō casually on the rusty table. The scroll spread out, revealing several locations marked with cinnabar, which looked like pools of dried blood in the dim light.
"Teacher, why don't we set off?" Shisui Uchiha looked at the deep night outside the window, frowning slightly.
"Hehehe..." Orochimaru did not answer, but just let out his signature, scalp-numbing laugh. He stuck out his tongue and lightly scratched a position marked "Old No. 7 Water Purification Plant" on the scroll, leaving a slippery trace.
Maruboshi Kosuke leaned against the corner, closed his eyes and rested his mind. There was a hint of insight in his old voice. "Hanzō can only believe three points of the information. The remaining seven points need to be verified by ourselves."
"That's right." Orochimaru nodded approvingly, and then turned to Senju Chen, "Let's go, before we go hunting, we must first determine the "authenticity" of the information and how much it actually contains."
Before he finished speaking, his whole body was like a weightless shadow, blending silently into the rain outside the window. Shisui and Kosuke looked at each other and followed immediately. Senju Chen was the last one. He picked up the scroll on the table, carefully rolled it up and put it in his arms, and then jumped out of the window unhurriedly.
'Uncle Sakumo?' Senju Chen guessed slightly, because the hidden line of Land of Rain started with Hatake Sakumo.
Orochimaru did not go to any of the places marked on the scroll. Instead, he led the three people and shuttled between Amegakure's intricate upper pipes like a spider web. This is the "blood vessel" of the city. Countless metal pipes of different thicknesses meet and extend here. Below is a bottomless urban canyon. Occasionally, the searchlight light of a patrol team sweeps past, making it even more eerie.
Finally, they stopped at the entrance of an abandoned ventilation tower. The place was remote and secluded, and the thick rust and solidified dirt showed that it had been abandoned for a long time.
Orochimaru stretched out his pale fingers and tapped the rusty tower wall three times with a unique rhythm.
"Dong... dong dong."
The sound was dull, perfectly covered by the pounding rain.
After a few seconds of dead silence, a figure appeared in the shadow at the top of the ventilation tower without any warning.
He was like a part of the rainy night itself, silent, invisible and without substance. If he hadn't taken the initiative to show up, even Three-Tomoe Sharingan of Shisui wouldn't have been able to capture his presence in the first place.
"Ugh!"
The bodies of Shisui Uchiha and Maruboshi Kosuke tensed up to the extreme in an instant!
Shisui's Sharingan rotated crazily, locking the figure tightly. An unprecedented sense of crisis, like a cold poisonous snake, climbed rapidly along his spine. It was not the oppression of Chakra, but a purer and more primitive sense of threat. It seemed that what was standing there was not a person, but an unsheathed peerless vicious blade capable of cutting off everything in the world!
Maruboshi Kosuke's seemingly turbid old eyes also opened suddenly, and the wooden staff in his hand creaked as he held it. He smelled an extremely condensed murderous aura from the other party, which was the smell of death that could only be settled after repeatedly charging and beheading countless heads in the mountain of corpses.
The person who came was wearing a pure white mask, revealing only a pair of deep, unobtrusive eyes. He was wearing the Amegakure uniform, but his sharp aura that overrode everything was incompatible with the surrounding environment.
Only Senju Chen remained calm. He looked up at the figure, with complex emotions stirring in his heart.
After not seeing each other for two years, the aura of Hatake Sakumo has become more restrained and more... dangerous. If "Konoha's White Fang" two years ago was a sharp blade with sharp edges, then now, he is an ancient sword perfectly stored in a sheath. It seems simple and unpretentious, but once it is taken out of the sheath, it will be shocking.
"Lord Orochimaru."
Under the mask, the deep and concise voice of Hatake Sakumo came.
"This is the 'information' given by Hanzō, please take a look." Orochimaru seemed to be indifferent to this tense atmosphere. He took out a scroll from his arms and handed it over with a smile.
Hatake Sakumo took the scroll, glanced at it, and threw it aside.
"This list is true, but it is not comprehensive." He also took out a more detailed scroll from his arms and threw it to Orochimaru
Shisui and Kosuke were shocked.
Orochimaru unfolded the scroll, and a smile that turned out to be true flashed through his golden snake eyes. This information was a hundred times more detailed than what Hanzo had given him. Not only did it include the precise location, personnel composition, and strength assessment of the Kirigakure ninjas, but even each of their movement patterns, common ninjutsu, and personality weaknesses were clearly marked. More importantly, at the end of the information, a sketch was attached, clearly drawing the traps laid by the opponent and the escape routes reserved.
"The leader is Elite Jonin from the Hozuki Clan." Hatake Sakumo's voice did not waver at all, as if he was stating a fact that had nothing to do with him. "This person is proficient in 'Hydrification Technique' and Silent Killing Technique. He is extremely difficult to deal with in water environments, and his strength is far beyond the ordinary Jonin."
"He chose the hiding place in the Old Seventh Water Purification Tower area. There are dense waterways and a complex environment there, which is his home field."
Hozuki Clan! Hydrification Technique!
The faces of Shisui and Kosuke became solemn. They knew how tricky this Kekkei Genkai was. Physical attacks were almost ineffective and they were immune to most damage from Taijutsu and ninja tools. Unless restrained by Lightning Release or possessing a powerful Sealing Jutsu, it would be extremely difficult to kill.
'Hozuki Clan...' Senju Chen's mind quickly recalled Sasuke's team member "Hozuki Suigetsu" in the original book and his legendary brother "Hozuki Mangetsu" who could control seven Ninja Blades.
"So, over there Hanzō..." Orochimaru put away the scroll with satisfaction.
"He has started to clean up the inside." Hatake Sakumo replied concisely and concisely, "Last night, he personally executed three of his confidants who had been with him for many years on the grounds of 'colluding with Iwagakure'. Everyone in Amegakure is now in danger."
The smile on Orochimaru's face became thicker, "Hehehe... It seems that this "Demigod" is more "eager" than we thought, but this is a good thing for us."