Chapter 445: The Familiar-Looking Ruins

Chapter 445: Chapter 445: The Familiar-Looking Ruins

Outside Konohagakure.

Kurenai’s hands were bound behind her back as she stumbled along behind Orochimaru. Her expression looked somewhat listless, but there was still a stubborn gleam in her eyes.

After a long while, Kurenai finally couldn’t help asking, "Just where exactly are you taking me?"

Orochimaru casually replied, "You’ll know when we get there."

Kurenai frowned. "If you’re planning to use me to strike at the village, then you’ve got the wrong idea!"

Orochimaru stopped and smiled. "You don’t seem to understand the situation you’re in."

"Hmph!"

Kurenai snorted heavily, showing no fear whatsoever in the face of Orochimaru’s threat.

Staring at Kurenai’s resolute expression, Orochimaru chuckled softly before looking away. He took a round token from inside his clothes, then studied it thoughtfully as he said, "You only need to help me with one thing. If everything goes smoothly, I can consider letting you go. Don’t worry, this has nothing to do with Konoha."

If Itachi were here, he would have immediately noticed that the round token in Orochimaru’s hand was almost identical to the one he had found.

Clearly, Orochimaru had also been tracking down clues to the Totsuka Blade all along!

No—in fact, Orochimaru should be considered the first person in the current shinobi world to investigate clues concerning the Totsuka Blade. Several years before Kagami had even begun making arrangements to search for the Totsuka Blade, Orochimaru had already been gathering information and searching for the legendary weapon.

Just like Itachi, Orochimaru had discovered a round token within a set of ruins. Following the clues provided by the token, he successfully located the Uchiha ruins whose mechanism could be opened using it.

However, unlike Shisui and Itachi, when Orochimaru fitted the round token into the recess on the stone tablet and activated the mechanism, the genjutsu triggered by the tablet completely stumped him, leaving him unable to break through it.

If Orochimaru, one of the Legendary Sannin, truly had a weakness, then genjutsu was undoubtedly one of the most obvious.

The genjutsu that Shisui and Itachi had broken through almost instantly, without even paying it much attention, had held Orochimaru back for several entire months, leaving him stuck before the stone tablet.

Considering that forcibly destroying it might trigger some unforeseen consequence, Orochimaru had no choice but to think of another solution.

Within Konoha, the Uchiha Clan naturally possessed the strongest genjutsu. However, with two Mangekyo Sharingan wielders like Shisui and Itachi within the clan, Orochimaru decided against targeting the Uchiha, lest he alert them to what he was doing.

Aside from the Uchiha Clan and their Sharingan, there were two other shinobi clans in Konoha renowned for their expertise in genjutsu: the Yuhi Clan and the Kurama Clan.

The Kurama Clan had very few members. After their previous clan head died during the Third Shinobi World War, only the elderly, women, and children remained within the clan, with no particularly outstanding shinobi among them. Naturally, Orochimaru turned his attention toward Yuhi Kurenai of the Yuhi Clan instead.

Although Kurenai’s overall strength at present could not be considered top-tier, if the discussion was limited solely to genjutsu, she was undoubtedly one of the strongest genjutsu specialists in the village outside of the Uchiha Clan.

Putting the round token back inside his clothes, Orochimaru glanced at Kurenai and thought, "Perhaps she can break the genjutsu on the stone tablet. But I’ll have to move quickly. If Kagami tracks me down, that’ll be another troublesome mess."

Orochimaru knew that Kurenai was Kagami’s subordinate. Once she disappeared, Kagami would inevitably begin searching everywhere for her. To avoid unnecessary trouble disrupting his plans to find the Totsuka Blade, Orochimaru immediately bit his finger and summoned a giant snake.

Then, carrying the listless Kurenai with him, he leaped onto the snake’s back.

This giant snake seemed to possess some sort of innate ability. Wind gathered beneath its belly, and with nothing more than a slight sway of its body, it shot forward an enormous distance. In the blink of an eye, it carried Orochimaru and Kurenai away and disappeared from sight...

......

Konohagakure, Kurenai’s home.

With his Byakugan activated, Kagami swept a grim gaze across the surroundings, searching for every possible clue that might have been left behind.

Naturally, as the captain of ANBU Team Seven, he had been among the first to be alerted to Kurenai’s disappearance.

Whoosh...

Amid the sound of rushing wind, Hayate landed on the balcony and reported to Kagami inside the room, "Captain, we didn’t find anything at the training grounds Kurenai usually visits either."

Kagami nodded.

Although this was only a preliminary investigation, he could already confirm that the place where Kurenai had been attacked was right here—

Her own home!

"Looks like whoever did this was an expert!"

Kurenai had been improving rapidly recently. On top of that, she had undergone ANBU’s specialized training and was proficient in infiltration and assassination. There might be quite a few shinobi capable of defeating her head-on, but there were very few who could make her disappear without a sound.

Yet the culprit had subdued Kurenai with ease, without even leaving behind any traces of a fight.

That alone proved that whoever had done this was definitely no weakling.

At that moment, Yugao arrived at Kurenai’s home with Asuma and reported to Kagami, "He was the last person in the village to see Kurenai."

Upon learning that Kurenai had disappeared, Asuma was visibly anxious. Before Kagami could even question him, he hurriedly asked, "Did you find any clues? How could Kurenai just disappear for no reason?"

Kagami turned his face aside. "She was probably attacked."

Asuma immediately erupted in anger. "Who?! Who did it?!"

Kagami silently shook his head.

Judging from the current situation, unless the culprit had some other purpose for taking her, the chances of Kurenai still being alive were already quite low.

"I’ll find her. I swear I’ll find her..."

Asuma looked completely distraught as he muttered those words and rushed out of the house.

Kagami’s gaze also gradually turned cold as he thought, "You actually dared to lay a hand on one of my subordinates... You’d better hope I don’t find you!"

After returning home, Kagami was still thinking about Kurenai’s disappearance when he noticed a ninja crow perched on his windowsill.

Opening the window, Kagami removed the communication scroll tied to the ninja crow’s leg and quickly glanced over it. A trace of surprise immediately appeared on his face.

"Huh? Those two found something this quickly?"

The Totsuka Blade was crucial to whether they could restrain Obito with both of his Kamui, so it had to be secured as soon as possible. Kagami therefore had no choice but to temporarily set aside the matter of Kurenai’s disappearance.

After leaving a shadow clone behind in the village, Kagami switched into his Type-A Wind Release clone and quietly slipped out of Konoha.

Once outside the village, he immediately activated Magnet Release. A pair of black Iron Sand wings unfolded from his back, and he rapidly flew toward the Uchiha ruins mentioned in Shisui and Itachi’s message.

After a long while, he finally arrived at the Uchiha ruins.

Landing atop the domed roof of the ruins, Kagami looked around.

The place felt incredibly familiar.

After thinking about it for a moment, he suddenly realized—

"Mm? Isn’t this the place where Itachi and Sasuke fought their final battle?"

Hyuga Kagami quickly recognized this place as the very Uchiha ruins where Itachi and Sasuke had fought their final battle in the original timeline.

Rumble... Rumble... Rumble...

Suddenly, a series of deep, rumbling sounds came from the distance.

Kagami turned toward the noise and saw clouds of dust billowing into the air. It seemed that something enormous was rapidly making its way toward the ruins...