Chapter 70

Chapter 70

Another day passed with no progress in sight. Sasuke was getting annoyed at it. Every hideout they discovered was a dead end so far. It felt like Orochimaru was playing with them, and Sasuke hated that feeling. From the very start, Orochimaru probably knew of them as he was always a step ahead of them. It was discerning.

"It's time to switch the watch," Sasuke turned to Neji as he walked up to him. "You can take your rest."

Sasuke only nodded as he left the post to Neji. As long as they were in this unfamiliar land, they needed to be careful and not let their guard down. Especially now, since they were concerned about what Orochimaru was planning, still, their team was solid, and even though he didn't know much about Sai or Tenzo, he could tell they weren't some pushovers.

As Sasuke was about to sleep, he caught Kakashi-sensei reading from the corner of his eye. It was hard to tell if Kakashi-sensei was resting or standing on guard. As a team leader, Kakashi-sensei was responsible for them, so he probably acted laid down to ease them up. But it was never clear when it came to him.

Ultimately, Sasuke could only find a place to lie and not worry about it. He could only wish to make some progress with the next hit target because not knowing where Orochimaru was only worried him more. Sasuke still couldn't let out of his mind that Orochimaru was after him. From what Kaen has explained, Orochimaru wanted his body as he was the weakest of the last surviving Uchiha.

Just as Sasuke was closing his eyes and was going to try to fall asleep, he quickly stood up. He wasn't alone, as Kakashi was already looking eastwards. It was good that he wasn't alone, as he didn't know if what he felt was real or his nerves. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary, but the air suddenly felt heavy. The sound seemed to disappear.

"There are over a hundred of them!" Neji yelled out as he ran up to the camp. "Their chakra is irregular, nothing I have ever seen before. It looked darker and more sinister than it should be."

"Do you think it could be the cursed seal?" Tenzo asked as he got up from his resting place.

"Probably," Kakashi replied, his voice cold but calm. "We take care of them now, defensive formation."

Everyone quickly got into formation and prepared their weapons. Tenzo, Shikamaru, and Gaara stayed behind the rest. Kakashi and Baki took the front, while Sasuke and Neji took positions at the sides. Then they waited. The enemy didn't take long to trigger the traps as explosions rang and came closer to them.

"They running through it?" Neji could barely believe his own words. "The explosions aren't doing any damage to them."

"Save your chakra as much as possible," Kakashi-sensei said as he revealed his Sharingan. "We don't know much about the enemy, so don't act recklessly."

Whatever they were expecting, it wasn't deformed human beings charging through the tree line. Some had wings made out of arms sticking out of their backs. Others had spikes running through their shoulders. Thick and armored limbs were most common on them. Their movements were erratic as they moved over each other, trying to reach them.

Volleys of shuriken and kunai bounced off their bodies as if their skin was armored or they were simply that sturdy. It was hard to tell how many were, as they were grouped in one cluster. Seeing that their weapons didn't do anything to them, Kakashi gave the signal. Sand, wood, and shadows came, catching the enemy and holding them in place.

Kakashi and Baki ran first at them and took out the few who escaped the entrapment with taijutsu. Even though their attack knocked them down, the enemy would quickly reach their feet. So far, all they could confirm was that the enemy was sturdy but didn't seem to act like a human being but rather like a starving beast.

"Neji, Sasuke," With Kakashi's order, Sasuke moved in.

"Chidori," Lightning gathered on his hand as he moved into the enemy's ranks.

As Sasuke used his Chidori to cut the ones trapped in the Shadow binding jutsu, he felt weird. Even though he tried to cut through the body parts that seemed unaffected by their transformation, it still felt like he was cutting through rock or something similar. Sasuke's hand felt numb by the seventh enemy, and he was forced to back off.

"Their Chakra points are acting weirdly. Rather than sealing them, my attacks seemed to destroy them," Neji said as he backed off together with Sasuke. "Yet, even then, their bodies are functional. Their chakra isn't coming within their bodies, but rather absorbing the chakra from the surroundings."

"Senjutsu?" Kakashi asked as he broke another enemy. "I heard there was a clan that naturally could absorb natural energy without difficulty, but they were prone to get mad with the energy an attack everything in their surroundings."

"I can't hold them down for much longer," Shikamaru said as sweat poured down his forehead.

"Sai," One word from Kakashi, and the boy from ANBU unraveled a massive scroll from his back and then took out a pen.

In mere seconds, Sai managed to draw several large beasts that came to life. Just in time, Shikamaru was forced to release Shadow binding jutsu. The beast didn't seem to inflict much damage on the enemy but managed to hold them off for Kankuro and Temari to move in and finish them. At the same time, Shino's insects covered them.

"Temari, support me," Sasuke said as he weaved hand signs. "Fire Style: Fireball."

A simple fire jutsu that didn't even make a dent in his chakra reserves was enlarged with Temari's wind and covered a decent amount of the enemy numbers. Their charred bodies were then quickly taken down by Kankuro's puppet and Neji's Gentle Palm taijutsu. Sai continued to draw more creatures to aid in the fight, and Shikamaru captured the ones who managed to break their defenses.

Gaara and Tenzo didn't join in the fight as they held off half of them with their jutsu. And doing more would start exhausting their chakra, which Kakashi was careful not to let happen. It was clear that this attack wasn't meant to take them down. It was hard to tell its purpose, but it was a part of Orochimaru's plan. So, they had to save their strength for another part of his plan.

"Tenzo, we are finishing it up," Kakashi called out as the last ones that weren't trapped under wood or sand were killed off.

Tenzo and Gaara crushed the remaining ones with their jutsu. But even when their bodies were crushed and limbs broken, they still moved. Still, to Kakashi and the rest of them, it wasn't difficult to finish them off. Neji without a prompt, activated his Byukugan after seeing that they were relatively safe and scanned the area.

"I don't see anyone or anything," Neji told the team.

"Then what was the point of this?" Kankuro asked as he wrapped his puppet back. "Did Orochimaru sacrifice his men for nothing?"

"It is more likely than you would expect," Kakashi said as he checked the dead bodies of what once were humans. "It was a message from Orochimaru, telling us we are getting close."

"They looked more like failed test subjects," Tenzo added with what sounded like bitterness in his voice.

If what Tenzo said was right, it reminded Sasuke of what would happen to them if Orochimaru captured them. And just as Sasuke realized it was probably a taunt thrown at him, so did Kakashi as his eyes narrowed. Rather than destroy the bodies, Kakashi sealed them and gave the seals to his summoned dogs to deliver them back to the village.

"We are moving on," Kakashi finally said. "We have been discovered and shall act like Orochimaru always knows of our position. So, be prepared."

…

Looking at his face carved on the stone of the Hokage mountain was surreal. But at least it looked nice. Too bad he didn't have much time to enjoy the view. He was rather more interested in studying forbidden jutsu that he had access to since he is a Hokage. There were so many interesting things to learn from the forbidden scroll that he would that he couldn't get enough of it.

But he was mostly interested in Edo Tensei right now. He didn't want to use it himself, but if he wanted to create a counter, he would need to learn more about the jutsu. He knew it would take more effort and time than he had, but he couldn't let such jutsu exist without a proper counter. He only had Shisui's eye, but he feared using it recklessly.

Firstly, he didn't know the specific effects of Shisui's eye and how much it would take out of him to use it. Secondly the cooldown restrictions were too much for using it for anything but in emergencies. He would need to study Hashirama cells to circumvent the cooldown, but only with Tsunade's permission. After all, he would need her help with it anyway.

The war against the Sound village was taking longer than expected. There were still no concrete results that Kaen wanted to hear, but at least Kakashi was slowly taking down Orochimaru's hideouts. What concerned Kaen was the counterattack Orochimaru was planning. There is no way that Orochimaru would save up his forces if he wouldn't use them against Konoha. But he had to trust Kakashi's capabilities.

"Hokage-sama," An ANBU member hurriedly entered Kaen's office. "We got a delivery from Kakashi Hatake."

"Delivery?" Kaen asked as he took the scroll from the ANBU and unsealed what was inside. "Call Tsunade Senju over."

Inside the scroll was a man with deformities that seemed to be related to natural energy. While studying natural energy, Kaen learned about a clan that could harness it instinctively. There wasn't much information about them, but Kaen was still interested in them as he wanted to know what made them so special to harness natural energy. Who knew that another opportunity would arrive?

Inside the scroll, there seemed to be many similar bodies and a report explaining how Kakashi encountered them. It concerned Kaen a bit that Orochimaru was on them, especially that he was willing to throw away such fine specimens. It meant that Orochimaru had more to throw at them than Kaen expected.

"What is it now?" Tsunade entered the office, clearly irritated.

"Sorry, I have some more work for you," Kaen smiled sheepishly as he showed the body to Tsunade. "It is the work of Orochimaru. These bodies have natural energy in them, but it seems to make them mad and bloodthirsty. Still, I would like you to see if you can find something from them."

"Find something?" Tsunade asked, a bit angry at what Kaen was suggesting, but she was still intrigued.

"Natural energy is beneficial for many things," Kaen said. "I have tried to use it myself. But from what I am told, I don't have enough chakra to balance it out with natural energy. Yet, these people shouldn't have nearly as much chakra as I do, but they still can use natural energy, even if it has its limits. I would like to know what makes them special. And at least it would help us if you knew a way to dispel the natural energy. Orochimaru will certainly use something similar once again."

"I will see what I can do," Tsunade knew that natural energy would push medical technology even further, so even if she was irritated at more work, she still accepted it. "But don't expect any results any soon."

"Then I will leave it to you."

Kaen was quite excited about it as Tsunade took the scroll with sealed bodies. If he could crack the secret to store natural energy without side effects, his strength would reach another level. His one regret so far was that he wasn't able to use natural energy, so there was no way he could pass up the opportunity presented to him.

A.N. As always, If you want more, up to seven advanced chapters, you can support me on pa treon. com \ ironwolf852. And if you have any requests for stories, I will only take them on my pa treon.