"Anko is missing?"
"Yes." Shizune nodded worriedly.
This gave Tsunade a bad feeling, especially since along with Anko, two servants from the Abe family and Heiji had also disappeared.
Most importantly, so did that Mi-Go.
Could it be...
She quickly ran to the entrance and saw that Anko's shoes were also gone. She knelt down, examining the spot where the shoes should have been.
She left on her own... but why? And where to?
No matter the reason, Anko needed to be found immediately, because she had no idea what kind of being she was dealing with.
"Shizune, bring Anko's backpack!"
"Right away," Shizune replied, turning to dash upstairs.
While Shizune was gone, Tsunade performed a summoning jutsu. As the smoke cleared, the figure of a small pig wearing a specially made ninja vest emerged. Its beady eyes looked up at Tsunade expectantly.
Just then, Shizune came downstairs with Anko's backpack in hand and saw the summoned pig. So cute! But she quickly refocused on the urgency of the situation.
She handed the backpack to Tsunade, who then placed it in front of the pig's nose. "Tonton, I need you to help me track the owner of this backpack."
"Oink~" The pig nodded, its snout twitching as it caught Anko's scent.
Tonton sniffed the backpack a few times before bolting towards the door.
"Follow, Shizune."
"Yes!"
The two women and one pig sprinted through the quiet forest at night.Along the way, Tsunade reassured herself that Anko was a skilled chunin of Konoha and should be fine.
But against the Mi-Go... her skills might not be enough. We have to find her quickly.
After witnessing the technology of that brain in the jar, she couldn't be certain what potential the Mi-Go species might have. But one thing was clear: the Mi-Go had a bizarre fascination with humans, making them extremely dangerous.
During their journey, she gave Shizune a brief explanation of the situation.
"Mi-Go? Tsunade-sama, this sounds..."
"I know it sounds impossible, Shizune," Tsunade replied, her eyes fixed on the path ahead. "But we need to be prepared for anything."
Although Shizune was shocked, without having seen the talking brain herself, it was difficult for her to fully grasp the situation.
That was enough for now. Tsunade just wanted to prepare her mentally for what they might encounter to avoid being too overwhelmed.
Following Tonton's lead, they arrived at a cave hidden within the trees. Tonton let out a few "oinks~" towards Tsunade, who nodded and said, "Got it, thank you for your hard work. You can go back now."
With a poof, Tonton disappeared, and Tsunade turned to Shizune. "Anko is inside this cave. Stay close to me."
"Understood, Tsunade-sama."
Tsunade moved cautiously, leading Shizune into the cave. Something's not right here. The air... it feels alien. She suppressed a shudder as they ventured deeper into the darkness.
The dark passageway lacked any light source, but fortunately, Shizune had brought a fire lighter, which provided enough light to see ahead.
After traversing a long tunnel, they entered a spacious chamber.
In this vast space were numerous strange machines beyond their understanding, including a massive cube in the center and various instruments on a wooden table nearby.
"Tsunade-sama, what is all this?" Shizune whispered.
"Nothing good, Shizune. Be on your guard," Tsunade replied grimly, her eyes scanning the room for any signs of movement.
The chamber resembled a laboratory, though there were no light fixtures, as if the person who built it had no need for lighting.
With the faint light of the fire lighter, they moved forward slowly, listening carefully for any unusual sounds in the surrounding darkness.
Behind the giant cube, they found a large surgical table. Tsunade approached it cautiously.
Bloodstains were still fresh on the table. Recent... and definitely not a normal surgery.
No known surgical tools were present, indicating that the Mi-Go didn't need external instruments, as they were naturally gifted surgeons.
"Tsunade-sama, look over there."
Shizune pointed towards a dark liquid tank, where a human body could be seen.
Tsunade rushed over and saw that the bodies submerged in two of the tanks were the male and female servants of the Abe family. Their bodies were intact, with their eyes closed, seemingly in a state of suspended animation.
Beside them was Heiji's body, though his fate was far worse. The back of his head had a massive gash, and his brain was missing.
Next to Heiji's tank was another one containing a female body. But just like him, the back of this woman's head had a huge gash.
The body slowly turned, revealing the front.
It was the face they both knew, with eyes closed as if in deep sleep. And this woman had been sleeping in the same room as Shizune just recently.
"Anko!"
Tsunade and Shizune called out Anko's name simultaneously.
"No... not Anko too. We were just talking earlier today..." Shizune's voice broke, her hand covering her mouth in shock.
As they were shocked, staring at the body in the tank, Tsunade suddenly sensed movement behind her.
Instinctively, she shoved Shizune aside, and the two immediately split up. A blue spherical lightning bolt zipped through the space where they had been standing, crackling with strange energy.
Buzz. Buzz.
In the darkness, a high-pitched humming noise filled the cave.
Tsunade dashed to Shizune's side, grabbed the fire lighter from her hand, and tossed it into the darkness. "Shizune, focus on defense!"
"Yes, Tsunade-sama," Shizune replied. "But what about Anko and the others?"
"We can't help them if we're dead."
In that moment, the flames revealed two forms.
They were two pinkish creatures, standing about 1.5 meters tall, although not fully upright.
Their crab-like bodies were adorned with large, fin-like or membrane-like structures, and beneath them were numerous insect-like jointed legs.
They could move quickly on all their limbs or stand on the hindmost pair for a broader view and more agile movements.
Atop their bodies sat an oval-shaped, complex head covered in small tendrils.
These were the Mi-Go.
The two alien creatures huddled together in the dark, their oval heads touching as they emitted a series of complex color patterns, seemingly communicating.
They're planning something. We need to act fast.
After a few moments, one Mi-Go separated its head and made a strange buzzing sound towards Tsunade.
Among these strange hums, Tsunade caught words in a voice that was human, yet oddly distorted:
"Chakra."
"Chakra."
"Give it to me."
"Bzzz."
"Give me chakra."
"Give it to me."
One of the Mi-Go slowly approached Tsunade, extending its front legs toward her, with movements resembling a crab's claws, as if asking for something.
Accompanied by a buzzing, mixed-language sound, she realized the Mi-Go was requesting chakra from her. They know about chakra?
For a moment, she was astonished by the intelligence of this creature, but given everything she had learned about the Mi-Go, she wasn't overly surprised. A brief memory flashed through her mind - her hands glowing green as she examined Ishitaro, the Mi-Go watching from the shadows.
When conducting a medical diagnosis on him, the Mi-Go must have seen her use chakra, sparking their interest at that time. Of course, at that moment, the Mi-Go likely didn't understand what that green light represented.
However, since they can create dreamscapes for the brains they've captured and extract memories from them, they must have accessed Anko's memories and learned that the green light was chakra.
Unfortunately, relying solely on memories to infer the nature of chakra led the Mi-Go to mistakenly believe it was some form of technological energy that could be transferred.
Thus, this Mi-Go was now reaching out to Tsunade to demand chakra.
From this, it was clear that the Mi-Go possessed a high level of intelligence, at least comparable to humans.
But even so, these intelligent creatures, after brutally extracting a human brain, still seemed indifferent, which she found utterly unacceptable.
She balled up her fists and looked down. She bit her lip for a second before she said anything.
"You."
"Are."
"Unforgivable."
"Chakra, huh?"
"I'll give it to you!"
As Tsunade spoke, the veins in her arms bulged upward, all the way to her shoulders.
The moment she finished speaking, she charged toward the Mi-Go with such speed, empowered by chakra, that the stone ground beneath her feet cracked with ease.
Boom!
The sound of shattering rock echoed through the chamber as she closed the distance in the blink of an eye.
The sudden burst of speed left the Mi-Go with no time to react; it barely even attempted to dodge before her punch landed on the shell of its back.
Her fist struck hard, but instead of the sound of cracking armor, it only caused a dent in the Mi-Go's shell. The impact reverberated through Tsunade's arm, a sensation unlike anything she'd felt before. What is this? It should have been obliterated!
A thick, green fluid oozed from the dent.
This liquid looked almost identical to the nutrient fluid inside the metal cylinders that housed the human brains.
Additionally, a layer of green, faintly glowing, web-like mucus covered the surface of the dent.
Although her punch had left a bump on its back, it didn't damage the green webbing at all.
This surprised Tsunade. She stared at the dent, her mind racing to understand what she was seeing. With the strength behind that punch, she could easily have shattered granite, let alone the Mi-Go's shell.
This attack was her signature technique, a powerful taijutsu move that focused chakra into a specific part of her body to deliver an immensely strong strike.
She had only allocated a small amount of chakra to her legs for an initial burst of speed to catch the Mi-Go off guard, concentrating the rest of her chakra in her fist.
If a human had taken that punch, their body would have been left with a hole far larger than the area of impact.
But against the Mi-Go, it only caused a small dent.
Based on the information obtained from Ishitaro's brain, Mi-Go bodies are made of a fungus-like substance, which shouldn't have been this durable.
Realizing that a single punch hadn't killed the Mi-Go, Tsunade immediately leapt backward, flipping away from its back and landing on the ground. She dashed across the stone floor as she put distance between herself and the alien creature.
The next second, a layer of blue electricity surged over the Mi-Go's body.
The blue current covered the entire surface of the Mi-Go, even scorching its shell in some places.
Had Tsunade remained on the Mi-Go's body for too long, she would have been hit by that electric current.
It appeared the Mi-Go had electrified its entire body to repel her, similar to the blue lightning ball it had used earlier in its ambush against her and Shizune.
Tsunade now remembered that the Mi-Go were scientists driven by an insatiable thirst for knowledge. Naturally, they had their own weapons. Like that snake, tch...
That blue lightning ball must have been fired from one of their weapons.
She quickly scanned the Mi-Go's multiple legs and spotted one holding a 'door handle' made of black crystal. Her eyes narrowed as she focused on the strange object.
Was that it?
This electric weapon seemed to have two modes: one that fired a blue lightning ball at targets and another that electrified its own body to repel any close contact.
While the lightning could scorch its shell, it seemed incapable of damaging the creature internally. Beyond that, the Mi-Go likely had some form of protective technology.
That green web-like mucus must be biological armor designed to protect its soft, fungal body.
This biological armor, formed from green mucus, was fundamentally different from human-made physical armor, which relied on sheer hardness for protection. Its armor provided superior protection while maintaining full flexibility, even able to withstand Tsunade's full-strength punch!
Their technology?
Faced with the advanced technology of the Mi-Go, Tsunade couldn't help but feel dread. If such technology were stolen by some malicious human shinobi and used in war, it could plunge the entire world into chaos.
I have to end this here and now. For the sake of everyone.
Calmly observing the Mi-Go before her, still reaching out as if demanding chakra, Tsunade's forehead diamond split apart, forming purple-black lines on either side.
"Reserve Seal!"
"Release!"
As she released the seal, the purple-black lines spread across her body, and within seconds, she stood transformed.
Shizune, standing behind her, watched in awe at the completely changed Tsunade, a woman who, though a medical ninja, now radiated an immense and overwhelming presence.
"This is Tsunade-sama?"
Without hesitation, the transformed Tsunade exploded forward at top speed, closing the distance to the Mi-Go in an instant. The ground beneath her feet cracked and shattered, unable to withstand the force of her movement.
The Mi-Go, obsessed with science, couldn't comprehend the power of a ninja—of a human who had trained their body to its utmost limits.
Such incredible speed was beyond the Mi-Go's capacity to process, leaving it no time to dodge as Tsunade grabbed hold of the leg wielding the black-crystal weapon.