With quick steps, their shadows could be seen moving among the tree branches.
It had already been a few minutes since the mission began. Right now, everyone had only one goal to accomplish, so there would be no rest until they could bring Sasuke back. Everyone was risking their lives by participating in this mission, however, everyone here was willing to complete this assignment no matter what.
Well, it could be said that the only one who was against this was Toru. He from the beginning refused to participate in this, but he could not refuse when he realized that he was trying to go against the word of Tsunade, that is, The Fifth Hokage.
'I've kept quiet all this time. Everyone has done the same, but I'm not sure if they want to say anything about it. There's no sign of anyone in this tired, I guess we can go on for a few hours without stopping' He narrowed his eyes as he looked at the surroundings.
There was no sign of traps around the place, so Toru guessed the enemy was confident.
'If we have to face those four at the same time, it'll be hard not to get hurt. What's worse, possibly Sasuke will also end up attacking us. If we waste time, this is only going to get more complicated, this mission has a low chance of success. Ha~ I shouldn't have left my house... this just makes my head hurt. To think that I was only recently able to access that information, I remembered a lot of things I thought I had forgotten. My mother, Itachi... the Uchiha clan and Asahi, but... there was also that...'
Her hair covered part of her face as the wind blew. The team still kept their eyes on the road, all analyzing the area that was assigned to them by Shikamaru. Toru and Neji were tasked with watching the rear, so they could avoid any surprise attacks coming from behind.
Taking Neji's Byakugan into account, this would be a bit easy, that is without taking into account the chakra drain it entails. Therefore, when Neji deactivates the dojutsu to recover chakra, Toru will be in charge of protecting him at all costs.
Gradually the sky became cloudy, the wind blew even stronger and a smell reached Akamaru and Kiba's nostrils.
"Shikamaru..."
"What's wrong?"
"It smells like blood. The problem is I don't know where it's coming from, there are different scents coming from different places. Sasuke's scent mixed with five others."
"I see, this means that Sasuke has guides that lead him straight into Orochimaru's clutches."
I sigh heavily.
"If you could smell blood, that means the enemy had a confrontation with someone. This increases the likelihood that they'll start setting traps. I have to assume that the enemy right now are resting somewhere in this forest, so it's our job to find them. We have to finish this mission as soon as possible."
Hearing Shikamaru's words, Naruto clenched his fists tightly. The day before he had confronted Sasuke and now Sasuke himself had left Konoha.
'Sasuke...'
At the same time, Toru's reaction to seeing Naruto with such a worried expression on his face was somewhat strange, as he raised an eyebrow as he realized how much the latter appreciates Sasuke.
Well, after all, those two were on the same team. You could say that Sasuke and Naruto are friends, even though they hated each other so much at first that they couldn't see each other's faces.
"Neji, you still haven't seen anything out of place?" Toru asked.
"No, there doesn't seem to be anything nearby. I still have plenty of chakra left, so I'll keep watching until I can find something."
"Good. Don't forget to tell me when your chakra runs out, so I'll know when to concentrate."
"Uh... yeah, I won't forget."
To Neji, that Toru could so easily talk to him was strange. Not long ago he tried to kill his own cousin, someone from his family, someone who is in the same team as Toru. When that happened, the words he said stayed in his mind.
Not only that, the expression on his face gave her chills.
'Shikamaru said that Toru tried to refuse to participate in this mission, but he doesn't seem to be upset about being here. Well, when I fought Hinata-sama and left her on the verge of death, he... he looked angry. Could it be because of that? Could it be that he really cares about the people around him? In the past, the Asahi and Uchiha clan had an alliance, but...' He looked at Toru for a moment.
With the expression this boy had on his face, it was hard to tell what he was thinking about, it was like a closed book, with a cover without any title or reference. So it wasn't weird to have the same thought as Neji, but that thought was completely wrong.
"Wait! There are traps ahead..."
Kiba paused, making everyone feel confused, but when this one said the word "trap" everyone raised their guard.
"So they didn't waste any time, huh. Then we'll have to pay attention where we move" Shikamaru was surprised at how surprisingly fast the enemy set traps all over the area.
Surrounding the area was not an option, as this was a total waste of time. So, carefully, Sasuke's recovery team began to stealthily move through the trap-filled area.
***
Minutes after having passed through the trap-filled place, the team now found themselves in the bushes.
They finally spotted Sasuke's guides. Four in all, each with a totally different appearance, but with strangely similar clothing. The four enemies were resting with a strange wooden container in the center of it all.
Shikamaru watched them silently as he thought, now that he had Sasuke and the enemy right in front of him, he had to think about the move they would make next, as a single mistake could cost them their lives.
But he was distracted for a moment, as he saw Toru pull out the daggers as his eyes lit up blue as the sky.
He was curious as to what those eyes did, would they be like Sharingan or Byakugan, that question came to his mind, but after a moment, he sighed wearily as he returned his gaze to the front.
'Shit!'
His eyes widened as he saw a kunai with an explosive seal attached.
He tried to dodge the blast, but it was too late.
Boom!
The loud boom was heard, followed by a large cloud of smoke. When everyone recovered from the explosion, they saw the four enemies in front of them.
"Damn!"
"Give Sasuke back!"
"Naruto, no!"
Without a second thought, Naruto lunged forward with a kunai in hand.
He looked at the larger enemy and directed all his strength towards it. But then, the six-armed man appeared in front of him, giving him a kick in the face that pushed him backwards until he reached his companions.
"You guys sure are insistent. It's easy to spot you when you move around so much in the bushes, besides..."
He held up his hand, showing threads in it. Everyone frowned when they saw this, for this was the reason they had been found so easily. The explosion also left some wounds on them, some small scrapes, but luckily it was nothing serious.
"Well, I didn't expect that explosive seal at all, but I'm sure you didn't expect this either."
Looking down at the ground, they all saw a shadow stretching from Shikamaru's feet to the feet of The Sound Four.
"What a cheap trick" Said the pink haired girl.
"No, that's not it. Toru!"
At the utterance of his teammate's name, Toru appeared behind the enemies holding the daggers, daggers whose destructive glow was blinding, but this, for some reason, did not affect the enemies.
"Jirobo!"
"Yes..."
The largest of them all, Jirobo, with a little difficulty clasped his hands together and, while Toru was suspended in mid-air, a large rock rose up.
The rock hit Toru, sending him down along with his teammates.
'The fat man controls the earth...' Toru thought.
Taking such a surprise hit made this boy sigh. He was lucky he was caught by Neji and Chouji, otherwise his face would have ended up buried in the ground.
"Asahi Toru is here too, huh... Did you follow us because you reconsidered our proposal?"
Hearing this from Kidomaru made everyone in the place look at Toru, who just shook his head while his eyes shone brightly.
"I already refused once, I won't go with you."
"Wow, you're a determined one, however, this is where it all ends for you. You won't make it past here."
Finishing this, Jirobo put his hands together again and from the ground the earth began to rise, little by little forming a dome of the same material.
Toru tried to escape by jumping, but Sakon appeared, giving him a hammer blow that returned him to the earth dome. When the dome closed, the entire recovery team was locked inside, with no chance of getting out. This brought a smile to Sakon's mouth, who approached the dome to say a few words.
"What a bunch of idiots. You thought you could do something, but just look at you, you're useless."
"We don't have time to waste on these morons, we have to keep moving forward."
Tayuya looked at the dome for a second before sighing and walking in some direction.
"You take care of them, Jirobo. You can catch up with us later."
"Kill them all, Jirobo."
Kidomaru and Sakon looked at Jirobo, they... were leaving all the work to him as they left the place. Well, this annoyed Jirobo a little, but there was nothing he could do about it. Taking the container was the top priority, so he would have to stay, after all, he wanted to live up to the expectations of the man who saved him, Orochimaru.
***
A few minutes passed and inside the dome everyone was tired. In a short time they realized that the dome was taking away their chakra. This was too bad, because without chakra they could not fight or complete the mission. Besides, they could not leave that place, since every time they tried to break the dome, it regenerated instantly, that is, there was no escape. The only thing they could do was to wait until they died for lack of chakra.
Even though everyone looked bad, Toru remained thoughtful.
He folded his arms while observing the surroundings.
'So far, Naruto and Kiba tried to break the dome, but nothing worked, not even Kiba's double fang did anything to the dome. Neji on the other hand, I looked around with the Byakugan, thanks to that we found out that a big chakra current is flowing through the earth dome. In addition to that, my chakra is slowly depleting, if this keeps up, we'll all die.'
Toru had thought enough, he needed to get out of here if he didn't want to die. But if he tried to use the Shigan, everyone will realize its power.
'If only we could use the earth element we would have a chance to get out of here, but I'm not sure if it will work, but here's the big problem, no one on this team is able to use the earth element, so it's impossible to get out of here unless I use my eyes'
He touched his head in pain, after all, the chakra draining was becoming more aggressive, something that was hampering his ability to breathe and think.
'There is no other option'
"Listen everyone, I'm only going to say this once."
Because he was sitting on the ground, Toru had to stand up.
"I have a method to get out of here. I know I should have said it earlier, but that doesn't matter much right now."
"What kind of brilliant idea would that be?"
With a very obvious face of sarcasm, Kiba folded his arms and looked at Toru. On the other hand, Chouji took it upon himself to shut the dog boy up, for if anyone had a way out of this place, it could possibly be Toru and Shikamaru, after all, they are both chunin, appointed by the Hokage herself in person.
Toru was thankful that Chouji had stepped in, he seemed to be one of the most competent here despite his obsession with food. Well, most men love heavy and delicious food like meat and this sort of thing, well, unlike women, they don't hold back when it comes to eating.
"So tell us, Toru, what's your plan?".
Shikamaru was curious about what Toru had planned to get out of this place and, although he himself already had a plan in mind, he decided to listen to his teammate.
"My eyes."
"¿...?"
"Before we started the mission, you asked me what kind of power the dojutsu of my eyes has. I refused, but it was for a logical reason. If someone knew what my eyes do, not only I would suffer, but also the people who are close to me."
'It all makes sense now, but this only increases my curiosity'
This time, he put all his attention on Toru, just like everyone else. That this boy had decided to reveal this strange power in his eyes was a surprise, but if it was such a great power to hide, this could obviously help them get out of here very easily.
"Shigan, that's what I call it."
"Eyes of death... (Shigan)"
Neji frowned after hearing that name. If Toru's dojutsu had anything to do with that name, then he did have a good reason to hide it.
"When Shigan is activated, golden lines appear on all living and non-living objects, water, air, people, things like wood and food. These lines move at a certain speed depending on the chakra the objects or living things possess."
"Lines? What's so powerful about that?" Naruto asked.
"I was about to explain, but it doesn't matter now. The thing is, these lines are the weak points of anything. Just by cutting them I'm able to kill and destroy with ease. No matter what line I cut, the result is the same... death. This was the reason why I wanted to hide this ability."
Squinting, Neji realized that the power Toru has is... extremely dangerous to anyone.
'If what he says is true, with just a small cut from his daggers he'll be able to destroy the dome, huh. It's too useful and too dangerous a power. No wonder he's been hiding it until now, for if anyone gets to know about it, they'll try to gouge his eyes out'
Already having understood the reason behind all this, Shikamaru sighed and stood up.
"Then that's the power of your eyes. It's nothing like Sharingan or Byakugan that I know of. But if those eyes are able to get us out of here, then you can try."
I trust Toru this time, since he is also a chunin chosen by the Hokage.
"Fine, I'll do it. For now, move away from the walls a bit."
Everyone heeded or miso to Toru's words. Almost a second later, he pulled the daggers out of his clothes and stared at one of the dome walls. He closed his eyes slowly and took a breath of air, he felt his eyes getting slightly warmer until....
"Shigan!"
Naruto watched as Toru's eyes transformed.
He was shocked, as, in less than a second, an X spread across the pupil and the color of the pupil changed, showing the bright color of the sky in his eyes.
Instantly, Toru disappeared, materializing again in front of the wall that was on the opposite side of where Jirobo was standing.
Right there, he brought his arm down slashing with the dagger, leaving a mark on the wall itself. For a second nothing happened, but then the dome began to crack in different places until it finally fell like a small mountain of sand on the beach.
Jirobo opened his eyes seeing everyone getting out of their prison so easily.
"Chouji?"
"All of you, we don't have time. Go get Sasuke, I'll take care of him."
For a moment, everyone looked at Chouji.
Toru narrowed his eyes at this, for all the time they had been locked in the earth dome, Chouji had shown himself to be very loyal to Shikamaru, as a trustworthy companion who would never let his friends down. Still, for some reason he understood why he had jumped into action without a second thought, for if he could buy time, he would be of use to the team.
The others, however, didn't know what had motivated him to do something like this, but Shikamaru trusted him, he is his teammate after all. There were still a few things he wanted to ask this guy, though.
"Shikamaru, hurry up... I'll catch up with them later."
A defiant look was enough for Shikamaru to sigh tiredly.
Toru, however, just looked without saying anything before looking in the direction the other three took Sasuke.
"I understand, then we'll see you later, everyone, let's go quickly!" Shikamaru said.
This made everyone run in some specific direction.
"You're not going anywhere!"
Seeing that the brats were going to escape, Jirobo rushed forward, in an attempt to stop them, but....
"That won't happen. Don't forget I'm here!"
Extending both arms, Chouji looked Jirobo straight in the eye. Now that he had witnessed the power of Toru's eyes, he was sure they could bring Sasuke back. Besides, with Neji and Kiba on site, the mission shouldn't fail.
"You're a nuisance, you get in my way."
As everyone walked away, Chouji clenched his fists tightly and sighed. This battle was about to begin...