Chapter 35: Sharing Secrets

Chapter 35: Chapter 35: Sharing Secrets

In Kagami’s memory, the timing of the demon Mōryō’s emergence and the chaos it caused in the world roughly matched the present.

But this coincidence left the ever-cautious Hyuga Kagami with a faint sense of unease.

Seeing that Kagami still seemed distracted, Shisui asked, "Senpai, what do you think about this mission?"

Lost in thought, Hyuga Kagami casually replied, "The Land of Demons is sandwiched between the Land of Wind and the Land of Earth. And since this incident involves a demon from another realm, the Priestess will definitely ask Sunagakure and Iwagakure for aid as well. So this mission is bound to involve multiple shinobi villages. Either way, it’s definitely going to be troublesome."

Shisui was somewhat curious. "I wonder what kind of monster this otherworldly demon actually is!"

Hyuga Kagami thought for a moment, then decided to reveal some of what he knew to his teammate.

"Based on my speculation, that demon is at least on the level of a Tailed Beast. Otherwise, the Hokage wouldn’t have classified the mission as S-rank."

"Tailed Beast level..."

Shisui pondered for a moment before suddenly lowering his voice.

"Senpai, I have a technique that can temporarily contend with a Tailed Beast. But once I use it, I’ll basically lose my ability to fight afterward."

Hyuga Kagami hadn’t expected Shisui to reveal such a secret to him. He froze for a moment before replying, "During our match yesterday, I already sensed it. Your Sharingan is different from an ordinary Sharingan."

Shisui hesitated several times, looking as though he wanted to say something, but still had some reservations.

Hyuga Kagami smiled. "You don’t need to explain anything to me. Everyone has their secrets. As long as you don’t do anything that endangers the village, I won’t reveal your secret to anyone."

Shisui breathed a sigh of relief and said sincerely, "Thank you!"

Waving his hand dismissively, Hyuga Kagami said as though it were nothing, "Actually, I have a secret too. I have a technique that can also temporarily contend with a Tailed Beast."

Hyuga Kagami wasn’t bluffing.

The Third Kazekage, hailed as the strongest Kazekage, had possessed the ability to suppress the One-Tail, Shukaku. Now that the Third Kazekage Human Puppet was in Hyuga Kagami’s hands, he naturally possessed the strength to temporarily contend with a Tailed Beast as well.

Shisui smiled. "I knew it! I could tell yesterday that you weren’t using your full strength either, Senpai!"

Sharing secrets was undoubtedly one of the best ways to bring people closer together. After exchanging only a few words, the relationship between Hyuga Kagami and Shisui had clearly grown much closer.

Of course, this was also because they were both scions of prestigious clans and dōjutsu kekkei genkai shinobi.

At the front of the group.

Kakashi, who had been glancing back at them, turned his head forward again and said to Guy beside him, "Kagami seems to have gotten a lot stronger lately."

Guy grinned. "You mean Kagami? Haha, he’s a genius who’s every bit as talented as you!"

"Yeah, yeah."

After giving a perfunctory response, Kakashi let his head droop again and said nothing more.

Having suffered blow after blow—his father’s suicide, followed by the deaths of his closest friend and then his teacher—Kakashi had become withdrawn and cold.

Only when he was occasionally around his former classmates would he become a little more talkative.

The four members of ANBU Team Eleven were all among the finest of Konoha’s new generation, so naturally, their traveling speed was exceptionally fast. In just one week, they crossed the border and entered the perpetually rain-soaked Land of Rain.

Inside a cave.

The four of them gathered around a fire while discussing the route they would take from here.

Several small countries lay between the Land of Demons and the Land of Fire, including the Land of Rain, the Land of Birds, and the Land of Bears. At present, large numbers of wandering shinobi were entrenched throughout these smaller nations. A moment of carelessness could easily lead to a fierce battle, so they had to choose their route with extreme caution.

After some discussion, Kakashi finalized their route and put away the map.

At that moment, Guy grumbled quietly, "The weather in the Land of Rain is terrible. It rains all day, every day. Everything gets soaked and sticky."

As the team captain, Kakashi dutifully reminded them, "The Land of Rain may be small, but it’s still a country with its own shinobi village. The man known as the ’Demigod’ is the leader of Amegakure, so we need to be especially careful while we’re here."

Guy and Shisui both nodded.

Hanzō was an immensely famous figure throughout the shinobi world. After all, it was from him that Konoha’s legendary Three Sannin had received their title.

Leaning against a dry section of the cave wall, Hyuga Kagami silently pondered, "Judging by the timeline, Nagato should’ve already killed Hanzō by now, right?"

Sasori and Orochimaru joining the Akatsuki one after another meant that the organization had already transitioned from the era when Yahiko was in charge to the era under Nagato’s leadership.

As Hyuga Kagami remembered it, after Nagato became the leader, the first thing he seemed to have done was avenge Yahiko by killing Hanzō, then seize control of the entire Land of Rain from the shadows.

And with Yahiko’s death, the boundary between good and evil had already vanished from Nagato’s heart.

Compared to Mōryō, who was currently wreaking havoc throughout the Land of Demons, the Akatsuki of this era was the true monster—one that genuinely possessed the power to destroy the entire shinobi world.

Thinking again of Hanzō, the mighty shinobi hailed as the "Demigod," dying so quietly without anyone even realizing it, Hyuga Kagami couldn’t help but sigh inwardly, "The shinobi world really is a dangerous place!"

After passing through the Land of Rain without incident, Team Eleven also successfully crossed the Land of Birds and the Land of Bears.

They had thought everything would continue smoothly and that they would soon meet the Priestess of the Land of Demons.

Unexpectedly, however, the moment they set foot within the Land of Demons, they ran into trouble.

Boom...

A cloud of dust slowly billowed into the air along with a deafening crash.

Guy suddenly retreated, panting heavily as he shouted, "Damn it! These monsters just won’t die!"

Standing before the four members of Team Eleven was a group of massive stone warrior statues.

These stone soldiers, which should have been lifeless, moved as though they were living creatures. Arranged in orderly formations, they charged fiercely at the group the moment they encountered them, as though the two sides shared some deep, irreconcilable grudge.

Kakashi destroyed several with Chidori, while Guy shattered a few more with taijutsu.

But in the blink of an eye, the stone soldiers they had destroyed simply reassembled themselves and stood back up.

Watching yet another shattered stone soldier restore itself to its original state, Kakashi’s brows knitted tightly together.

"They really do seem to be immortal!"

Hyuga Kagami didn’t know much about these stone soldiers either. But anyone with eyes could tell that they were nothing more than a collection of soulless puppets.

So he suggested, "There’s no point wasting time on these puppets. Let’s meet the Priestess first!"

Team Eleven knew virtually nothing about the current situation in the Land of Demons, so everyone agreed with Hyuga Kagami’s suggestion. They bypassed the slow-moving stone soldiers and hurried toward the heart of the country at full speed.

Along the way, everywhere they looked, stone soldier puppets were wreaking havoc.

It wasn’t just small villages that had suffered. Even marketplaces and towns had been devastated. The civilian casualties were so severe that even the four members of Team Eleven, who had only recently lived through a war themselves, couldn’t help but feel shaken.

Although they couldn’t bear to simply ignore the suffering around them, all four understood one thing clearly.

Rather than waste time fighting the stone soldier puppets they encountered along the way, it was better to rendezvous with the Priestess as quickly as possible and defeat the demon behind all of this.

Otherwise, the number of victims would only continue to rise.

Fortunately, the Land of Demons wasn’t particularly large. After several days of travel, Team Eleven finally drew close to the Priestess’s palace...