Chapter 253: Mission & Deviation
—
At the same time,
Sasuke Uchiha was pleased with the recent development of his plans.
He killed Orochimaru just two days after his encounter with Naruto. With his Mangekyo Sharingan, Sasuke saw no need to stay with Orochimaru any longer. So they fought which resulted in the death of Orochimaru.
Now, a few days later, he was travelling, in search of the hideouts of Orochimaru spread all around the ninja world. He had already recruited Suigetsu Hozuki – one of Orochimaru's former test subjects and just finished recruiting Karin Uzumaki as well.
"Suigetsu, why are you hanging around with Sasuke?" Karin asked, looking at Suigetsu with a frown.
The team was taking a rest on the shadow of a small hill because the white-haired water boy was tired and (ironically) dehydrated. It was silent for the first minute before Karin had opened her mouth. Sasuke listened to their exchange silently.
"I've got my own reasons," Suigetsu shrugged. "You could say it's a mutually beneficial relationship. I can ask you the same question—what about you?"
"I don't know what you guys want," Karin dismissed his question. "But Jugo isn't the type to be recruited. You guys are really heading to the northern hideout just for him?"
Sasuke listened to the exchange as Karin explained Jugo's condition; how the man wanted to control his urge to slaughter. Suigetsu called that a headache – a problem – but Sasuke smirked in his mind at that information. He had heard the rumours, but receiving solid word on that was relieving. The reason he wanted Jugo in his team was because of that tendency, to begin with.
A few minutes later, they continued their walk. The hideout was still a few hours away from here, but Sasuke realised going there anymore would be meaningless when they came across one of Orochimaru's people from the northern hideout, beaten and injured as he laid on the ground.
Apparently, the news of Orochimaru's death had travelled to all the bases. It would still take a while more for the whole world to hear the news, but in any case – the northern hideout fell into an uproar when the news reached there and Jugo massacred everyone. This one guy seemed to have survived out of pure luck.
Sasuke dug his sword through the man's heart after he got all possible valuable information from the man. Karin and Suigetsu exchanged glances but said nothing.
"Be on guard, he is here," Sasuke said as he wielded his sword and looked in the far distance with his sharingan. "There."
Just as he spoke, a blur jumped from one hill to another and stopped just a few metres in front of them – glaring at Sasuke.
Suigetsu frowned. "What is that thing?"
That thing was Jugo, the originator of cursed marks.
"Hn," Sasuke hmphed at the living monster. Finally, it was here.
—-
A few hours later, by the time it was night – Jugo had already healed from being beaten by Sasuke and had woken up. After some discussion – with Jugo learning about Sasuke' identity and remembering Kimimaro's words about Sasuke was the white-haired boy's "reincarnation" – the ginger-head finally agreed to join Sasuke's team.
Excellent. Sasuke was pleased. Now he had an entire Ninja team's worth of people. He liked doing things alone, but he had to admit having a squad made things tons of times easier.
They were resting in a cave, with a bonfire in the middle of it, having eaten their dinner. The group wasn't exactly getting along, nor were they chatting, but it was a good start. Then-
"…!"
-Something weird happened—someone appeared inside the cave.
Materialising out of thin air.
Sasuke was the first to jump at the sudden intruder, a man wearing the infamous Akatsuki uniform, but his sword simply phased through the man.
"Calm down," the man said in a deep, gruff voice.
The other three of Sasuke's team were on their feet, about to attack, but Sasuke raised a hand to gesture to them to stay back. Weird. His attack phased through. What type of Jutsu was that? After a moment's judgement, Sasuke deemed it unwise to attack this enemy of unknown danger who refused to attack back.
"Identify yourself," Sasuke ordered, looking at the single eye of the man wearing a swirling, orange mask.
In reply, the man's black eye simply lit up in red light – three tomoes appearing on it.
Sasuke paused but didn't attack.
"Who…?"
"Madara. Uchiha Madara," the man said. "and I have a job for you."
A job that required him to hunt the eight-tailed beast – Gyuki – of all things. In return, the self-proclaimed Leader of Akatsuki will allow a fight between him and Itachi – saying the Akatsuki should only have the best Uchiha around.
Sasuke didn't see any problem with that. He could use this man to get a chance to fight Itachi, and then leave Akatsuki after killing Itachi. If this man tried to stop him, Uchiha or not, Sasuke would simply kill him as well.
"Good." the man said. "When you're done, we would only need the fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh-tailed beast for our plans to be completed." the masked man finished, making Sasuke frown. "What's wrong?"
"You don't need the nine tails?" Sasuke asked back.
"We do, but-" the masked man paused. "We are sending two other teams to Konoha tomorrow just for that. You don't have to worry."
Sasuke Uchiha froze in his spot.
—-—
Next day,
Konoha was in chaos, at least amongst the higher-ups of the village. Danzo Shimura, once again, was mad at Tsunade Senju for her childish behaviour.
Not only did she not attend the funeral of the people, but she was found recklessly drinking in a bar—accompanied by a young man—consequently destroying her image. Danzo wished that was the end of it—but no, it wasn't. In her drunkenness, she was taken to her house and therefore the office was left mostly unprotected since most of the Anbu moved to her house to make sure she was safe which allowed a thief—the same youngman who accompanied her in drinking, Neji Hyuga—to come and steal many jutsu scrolls before fleeing the village.
Danzo knew he couldn't trust that bastard since the day at the meeting!
Every Jutsu he stole had multiple copies in other places, so nothing was really lost but still– for a missing-nin to possess the most secret, forbidden Jutsus of the village, it wasn't a good thing.
The Impure World Reincarnation Technique.
The Flying Thunder God Technique.
The Multi-Shadowclone Technique.
The Chidori Stream Technique.
Lastly, but most importantly- Hashirama Senju's Wood-Style Jutsu Collection.
Konoha was a goner as a village if Neji decided to sell any of those Jutsu to the other great villages.
What's worse, that vexatious brat might actually do it!
Tsunade Senju, as she sat on the seat of Hokage opposite him, looked troubled as she looked for any excuse to overlook the mistake of this boy.
"I am sure he had some reason behind it-"
"Oh, of course he did, why else would he raid his own village's jutsu vault?" Danzo face-palmed. "Why are Senju women always this dumb."
"Hey! Don't insult my clan!" Tsunade slammed the table, but he glared at her.
"How can I not after the stupidity you showed to the world? Yet you have the audacity to raise your voice against me?" Danzo growled, making the woman fall back meekly.
That's a better reaction. That's why he never trusted women with too much political power, their mentality was too weak.
"And why haven't we sent a team after him again?" Danzo asked again, glaring at Tsunade as she failed to answer him. He was out of the village just after the tailed-beast incident ended – to attend to some important matter – so he only learned of the incident now. If he wasn't missing, things wouldn't have turned out this way. "I went outside the village to learn that Orochimaru was killed by Sasuke Uchiha—I don't suppose you have received the news yet?—and was planning to send a team to finish off the Uchiha boy. But with the emergence of this absurdly stupid situation, it seems the team I wanted to send need to be supported by other teams and need to be sent after Neji instead."
Tsunade looked surprised at the news of Orochimaru's death, blinking rapidly, but as Danzo got to his last words Tsunade was about to open her mouth—and from her expression, she seemed highly opposed to the idea—but as he glared, she closed her mouth obediently and sighed.
"Who do you plan to send after him?" Tsunade asked after a minute of silence. "You saw with your own eye just how strong he is—and this time he even has multiple competent Ninjas with him."
Danzo nodded at that. "I am aware. That's why I will send the best eight members of my Root, along with Team Asuma, Team Kurenai, and Team Guy. Neji is strong, but if we manage to keep him away from his cat then everything will be fine. I got information from Asuma that he enters his 'Fusion' mode by touching fingers with his cat. We just have to stop that from happening and therefore this five-squad team will be enough to take them down. Kakashi will accompany them as well."
It hit Kakashi hard how Sakura just left the village for another man just a day after Yamato and Naruto died, so no wonder he wished to go and retrieve her back.
"…Alright, but team Kurenai?" Tsunade asked. "Is Hinata Hyuga in a state to take missions? I had a talk with her now healed father and he told me otherwise."
"Well," Danzo smirked. "The desire of vengeance can even make a cripple stand on his feet, this much is nothing. Hinata wants to kill the two fox-women who killed Naruto, and also have a heart-to-heart talk with her cousin about something she refused to tell me."
"You have met her already?" Tsunade asked and watched Danzo nod. "Huh, okay. In any case, you seem confident that they will be able to capture Neji, that's fine. But why do you think sending so many good Ninjas at the same time is a good idea for the village's safety?" Tsunade asked dryly, baffled at his idea. "Since Team Guy is going, they will succeed in capturing and bringing Neji back in any case! Why must we send so many others?"
Danzo scoffed in his mind. First of all, capture him? No. The moment Neji is defeated the root members will go for a kill. That brat is too dangerous to stay alive. His eyes, after he dies, will be a fine addition to Danzo's collection.
Secondly, this overgrown bitch forgot the part where her Dan-lookalike could level two nine-tailed beasts easily. That wasn't even his top strength! Of course he would need to send so many capable Ninjas after that kid!
Danzo groaned. "Unfortunately, your rejection doesn't matter. They have left already." he said and watched as Tsunade paused before frowning and slamming her fist on the table. "Don't be mad, I wasn't confident in your judgemental skills so I allowed them to leave before coming to talk to you. My apologies."
"What the fuck do you mean by apologies?!" Tsunade jumped from her seat, her hand reaching out to grab his collar but he didn't resist. "You don't do whatever you wish in my ruling! I am the Hokage here, not you!"
As he was pulled by his collar, Danzo opened his mouth to say something, something that'd insult her whole life—but before he could say a word the world trembled.
It took both of them three seconds to sense the danger that had walked through the front gate of Konoha.
A danger that had started destroying the village.
Konoha was under attack, while its most capable forces were out.
Shit.
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Master4thWall Note: Will the village survive 🤔? Or…😩
Anyway, I am feeling pretty solid burned out on Cursed Gamer at the moment. So I have decided to slow down CG updates for a bit and rather focus on my Marvel story, and also a new story (but that's only patron exclusive for now). These side projects are essentially there for me to focus on when I am feeling burned out, which I am right now. Hope you guys enjoy those stories as well.