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Chapter 198: How to Find Orochimaru? Startle the Snake by Beating the Grass!
🕑 Added 2025-08-08 14:07:17 +0000 UTCChapter 198: How to Find Orochimaru? Startle the Snake by Beating the Grass!
If you want to gather any intelligence, go ransack the enemy's old nest.
By the time Kitahara woke up, the squad was already on its way to the Hidden Rain Village… What had happened… Had the reconnaissance squad been contaminated by Might Guy?
Was your objective to annihilate the Akatsuki or to gather intelligence…
The Hidden Rain Village… has a ceiling-level powerhouse there too!
Itachi Uchiha's footsteps came to a halt on a hillside. He looked back at his teammates and said, "The Land of Rain is sparsely populated, and because it's close to the Land of Wind and the Land of Stone, the land is also quite barren. We need to find a way to infiltrate the Hidden Rain Village and get the latest intelligence on Orochimaru from the Hidden Rain ninjas…"
This was a piece of knowledge the white-haired old man had told him when they were traveling together years ago. That guy had lived in the Land of Rain for a considerable period.
Jiraiya had mentioned that he had taken in three disciples in the Land of Rain. He later received news during the Great Ninja War that these disciples had all died in the conflict… It wasn't until Itachi and Tsunade returned to Konoha and mentioned the names Konan and Nagato that things changed.
They believed that Jiraiya's disciples from back then might not have died, and even if they had, they might have been reanimated by Orochimaru…
Now, it was believed that these disciples had definitively joined Orochimaru's organization. Nagato, who possessed the Sage's Eyes, was a combat asset that Orochimaru would never easily discard.
And that mouth of Orochimaru's… was truly persuasive.
No wonder Jiraiya privately thought that the Land of Rain was the most likely place for a base belonging to Orochimaru and the Akatsuki. He really knew his good friend well…
"Infiltrating the Hidden Rain Village directly is the fastest way," Kisame Hoshigaki said, hoisting the Samehada greatsword onto his shoulder as he came to a stop beside Itachi. "I hear it rains there every day…"
A hurricane blew past, and a green jumpsuit stopped beside them. Might Guy flashed a mouthful of bright teeth. "OK! Then let's charge to the Hidden Rain Village in one go!"
"Wait…"
Yamato caught up, panting for breath, and raised an objection. "Lord Itachi, Lord Kisame Hoshigaki, Guy-senpai, could we rest for a bit…"
"Hm?"
The three of them turned their heads simultaneously, scaring Yamato so much that he couldn't help but take half a step back.
Faced with three teammates who were brimming with chakra and stamina, Yamato really couldn't keep up… Despite possessing the Wood Style Kekkei Genkai, he was in danger of falling behind…
Yamato might be the most useless Wood Style Kekkei Genkai ninja ever. You probably don't even need to add the word 'might'…
"Then let's camp here for today! We'll reach the border of the Land of Rain tomorrow…" Itachi Uchiha tilted his head and was the first to sit down cross-legged. "This will ensure we have ample stamina for battle when we encounter the enemy…"
"Alright." Kisame Hoshigaki watched the Konoha youth take down his backpack and asked, "At this time, Lord Kitahara should be hungry, right?"
"Caw!"
As if it had heard the shark-faced man's words, the crow suddenly poked its head out of Itachi's backpack, glanced at Kisame, and nodded its small head.
Yamato: "…"
What's going on?
Why is the envoy from the Hidden Mist Village being so attentive? But Yamato would soon guess why Kisame Hoshigaki was so attentive to a crow.
This was a border area, and it was not particularly peaceful.
High-level commissioned missions in the ninja world came with a high price, but they all required ninjas to cross borders to carry them out. Reconnaissance ninjas tended to appear more frequently at the borders.
A long convoy of carriages appeared in their sight. Beside one of the palanquins were many accompanying guards, as well as a few ninjas.
"Ninja from the Land of Rivers?"
Yamato took a look and turned his head to report, "It looks like a normal escort mission being carried out by Land of Rivers ninjas. Should we hide for now?"
"No need." The young Jonin shook his head and said softly, "It's too late now… Besides, this place is too open, there's no area to hide."
Theoretically, they were on a secret mission that as few people as possible should know about. Kisame Hoshigaki picked up Samehada. "I'll go kill them!"
Taking a human life was clearly no psychological burden for Kisame Hoshigaki. People from the ANBU rarely had any psychological burden… For example, Yamato didn't even plan to stop him.
The problem was, there was one person present who had been forbidden from joining the ANBU no matter what…
Might Guy couldn't quite accept this. He reached out an arm and placed it on Kisame Hoshigaki's shoulder. "We don't have to do that, right?"
"Not only can we not do that, we might have to save them!" A pair of black wings suddenly grew from Itachi Uchiha's back. He swooped down towards the convoy on the ground, ordering, "Guy, Kisame, triangle formation, surround this area! Yamato is on support!"
"Yes!"
The others were still a little confused as they responded, but then they saw a man in a black coat with red clouds suddenly leap out from the ground, charging into the convoy with a ninja sword in hand…
Kisame Hoshigaki's eyes narrowed, and he quickly charged down according to Itachi's instructions. "That guy! He's from the Akatsuki!"
"Sage Art: Flame Shuriken!"
Pitch-black flames quickly erupted, condensing into a shuriken that burned slowly in Itachi Uchiha's palm… Seeing the movements of the black-clad figure, the Konoha youth flicked his wrist and shot out the black flame shuriken!
The black-clad figure was instantly burned through by the black flames!
Yamato, who was following closely behind Itachi Uchiha, slowly came to a halt and asked with confusion, "Isn't this enemy too weak?"
"That's for the best!"
Kisame Hoshigaki rushed into the crowd, swinging the greatsword Samehada with one hand, and shouted at the ordinary people, "Get out of here, quickly!"
Who would have thought they would encounter a member of the Akatsuki right at the border! It was obvious that this organization's member was once again carrying out a commissioned mission to make money…
Unfortunately, the ninjas from the Land of Rivers clearly couldn't figure out the situation. The person who attacked them just now seemed to be wearing an Iwagakure headband, so why was there now someone wearing a Kirigakure headband, and another wearing a Konohagakure headband…
This squad of ninjas from a small country could only spin around in confusion, gripping their kunai and shouting, "We are ninjas from the Land of Rivers…"
The Samehada greatsword swung!
Kisame Hoshigaki used the flat of the blade to slap these ninjas who had lost their senses, and said sternly, "Get lost! Get far away!"
"Wood Style: Silent Strangle Jutsu!"
Yamato formed a hand seal, tossed the ordinary people and the Land of Rivers ninjas out of the battlefield one by one, then wiped the sweat from his forehead. "Captain, the battlefield is cleared!"
"Mm."
Itachi Uchiha nodded. He, Kisame Hoshigaki, and Might Guy stood at three points, surrounding an area. On the ground, ashes and paper scraps were slowly gathering, forming a human shape.
"It's a reanimated person!" Itachi Uchiha helplessly took out a sealing scroll from his ninja tool pouch. "It seems we won't be able to get any intel out of them…"
"We were a bit reckless, saving these losers!" Kisame Hoshigaki's expression was displeased. He was the one who understood the reanimated army the best.
Generally speaking, reanimated individuals were directly controlled by the caster.
If they were lucky, this reanimated person was only being occasionally controlled by Orochimaru, and they could just seal him immediately. If they were unlucky, and Orochimaru was directly controlling the reanimated person, it meant their own intelligence would be discovered by Orochimaru first.
Itachi Uchiha shook his head matter-of-factly. "No. One of the strategies for finding Orochimaru is to startle the snake by beating the grass."
Kisame Hoshigaki: "…"
He didn't want to hear those theories. He just took two steps forward and shouted at the reanimated person who had just revealed his true face, "Hey, are you still sane? If you are, at least tell us your name before we seal you!"
"Iwa-nin, Mahiru."
The reanimated Iwagakure ninja replied, then continued, "Be careful, I have a teammate here."
