385 Annoying the Snake
Kimimaro was confused as to what had happened when he was imprisoned in the other dimension. He saw Tayuya signaling him to come toward her and he did. Tayuya whispered in his ears the short version of everything that had happened and that Tobi was now a patient of Orochimaru's.
Just as things seemed to be settling down, two shinobis came shouting "SIR KIMIMARO...SIR KIMIMARO" Orochimaru looked behind at the two people running towards them in annoyance. Today was not going to be a quiet day.
"See what is the whole commotion about and get it sorted." Orochimaru ordered as he looked at Kimimaro and Tayuya to which they nodded and went outside the room to talk to the two men.
"What's the matter? Orochimaru-sama is here so behave yourself." Tayuya warned to which one of the two replied "Tayuya-sama the villagers have swarmed our entrance and are currently running around the tunnels with weapons and torches in hand. Someone has spread the news that the ones kidnapping the villagers is taking refuge in these tunnels.
"Why are you getting so worked up over a few weaklings? Show me the way, I will paint the tunnel walls with their blood and brains that they are so fond of using." Jirobo said with a big smile on his face. He truly loved to squeeze the life out of people especially those who are not capable of defending themselves.
"You will not do any such thing. Once we do that, the fact that the are tunnels here and we are living here will spread like wildfire. How much time do you think we have before the 5 great villages have spies walking these roads." Kimimaro warned.
"Kimimaro it is impossible to find these tunnels without the help of shinobis. Someone must be specifically looking for it." Orochimaru said and turned his head toward Tobi and asked "Is this one of your tricks?"
Tobi who himself was annoyed by the fact that villagers were entering his tunnel shook his head and said "I have no interest in playing such games. The Akatsuki is too thinly spread to do anything like this. It must be one of your other enemies. I am sure you have made so much of them in the past years."
"What do we do now Orochimaru-sama? "Kimimaro asked.
"For now just collapse the tunnels leading to us and cut the villagers' path. Tayuya, and Jirobo start wrapping up the rooms. We might have to relocate tomorrow morning itself." Orochimaru said.
Kimimaro left with the two shinobis to collapse the tunnel as Orochimaru had ordered and Tayuya and Jirobo started with instructing the available shinobis to start packing.
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Land of Hot Water (Same time)
"Why are we here?" Sasuke asked as he looked at his little brother. The two brothers had left the Hidden Leaf village just a few hours ago and reached the land of Hot water. This wasn't a shinobi village but there were still a few shinobi camps stationed here for the village's protection.
Just as the same sounds, the village was a place of plenty of inns, resorts and hot water bath houses. Even though it was late at night, the roads of the village were still brightly lit and people were roaming on the streets. It was a village where even the Daimyo's came to relax and enjoy.
Sasuke knew that his brother would not do something like this especially when the Hokage herself had given an important mission to the two of them.
"We are here to enjoy a hot water bath. Why is it so hard to believe that? Come on now...the bath that we have booked is at the edge of the village." Yami replied as they continued to walk.
Sasuke understood that Yami had no intention of telling them the truth so he just shrugged and continued to follow his brother. After walking for a few minutes, the brothers reached a bathhouse which was on an isolated road and had 3 people guarding it from the outside.
As they were entering, one of the guards stepped forward to stop Yami and Sasuke. Sasuke was about to confront the guard but then Yami activated his Sharingan which caused the 3 shinobis to open their eyes wide. The shinobi who had stepped forward immediately bowed his head and said "I apologize for not recognizing you Yami Uchiha. There are waiting inside for you." He then quickly stepped back to make for the two brothers.
"Do you know them? I don't remember seeing these people ?" Sasuke asked to which Yami just nodded and pushed the door to the bathhouse open. As they entered, Sasuke saw that the changing room was empty contrary to how full the other bathhouses and resorts were.
"We can change here." Yami said as he entered one of the rooms to change his clothes. After a few minutes, Sasuke also came out from changing his clothes where his upper body was completely visible and he wore a towel down the waist. As he came out, he saw Yami was also dressed in the same attire but what shocked him the most was the condition of Yami's body. On the contrary to what Sasuke's and any other shinobi's body would be, Yami's was completely different. There were no scars on the body.
'No matter how good of a shinobi you are, how can his body not have a single scar?' Sasuke wondered but then Yami turned back and Sasuke a two small scars on either side of his back and one big scar in the middle. The small ones looked like a 5-6 inch knife wound but the one in the middle looked like his skin had melted.
"Where did you get this big of a wound?" Sasuke asked as he moved forward to touch the wound but Yami turned back immediately and said "This is because my scorch release is focused from here when I use it at full power. Let's go in the bath now." Yami said as he opened the door where the actual hot water bath was.
Just as he opened the door, steam entered the changing room as if waiting to burst out. The air around which felt cold up until now due to the night had suddenly become warmer.
Yami removed his towel and just wearing shorts, entered the bath. It was like a small pool with a boundary of stones and a small man-made waterfall on the side.
'Maybe he really was tired and wanted a relaxing bath' Sasuke thought as he also removed his towel and entered the bath. As he stepped inside, he noticed the outline of two people just on the opposite end of the bath. He was about to warn Yami about it when he heard Yami's voice coming from the side "I hope you aren't enjoying yourselves a little too much."
"Yami who are these people? Do you know them?" Sasuke asked as he was about to activate his Sharingan to find out the two people's identity but with a small flick of his finger, Yami pushed all the resident steam on all sides of the bath making the entire bathhouse clear.
As the steam was now cleared, Sasuke could see the two people sitting in front of him. One was a rugged man with his entire body covered in scars and spiky hairs. He also had a sword kept behind him on the stones. Sasuke's eyes widened as he looked at the other person and immediately said "Why is there a girl in the bath with us?"
The rugged man laughed and said "See even after so many years, people still think you are a girl."
"I am not a girl. I am just good-looking. Don't tease me because of that." the boy sitting beside the rugged man said.
"Enough with that...Sasuke don't you remember him? You have faced him once before." Yami said to which Sasuke looked at the rugged man more carefully but nothing came to mind.
Seeing that his brother still hadn't recognized, Yami decided to tell him and move on "It's Zabuza...the one you and your squadmates faced when you were going for your 1st big mission."
Sasuke immediately stood as he heard this. His eyes were switching between Zabuza and his sword. The sword behind Zabuza was obviously not one of the 7 mist swords or else Sasuke would have recognized him already. Heck anyone in the shinobi world would have.
"How is that possible? He was killed and a mist shinobi took his corpse away in front of us. We made sure that he wasn't breathing." Sasuke said with a confused face still with his guard up to defend against an oncoming attack.
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Sending you heartfelt wishes for a Christmas full of wonder, gratitude, and time with loved ones.
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