Orochimaru soon delivered the data on Wood Release. However, the Sharingan with three tomoe would require more time.
Aoba was not in a hurry and told Orochimaru that he could take some extra time.
Yumi's training in Wood Release needed to progress to the next stage. But the problem remained: Konoha was not suitable for practicing Wood Release, especially large-scale Wood Release techniques. Using such techniques could level the village.
Aoba knew he had to leave the village. Normally, he could take a mission to leave the village, but this time it was not possible.
Because he had to bring Yumi along. So, he needed another excuse.
"Let's say we're going to visit the ruins of the Uzumaki clan. I was thinking of going back there myself," Yumi suggested a perfect reason. Aoba then reported this to the village.
Upon learning that Karin would remain in the village for school, Konoha quickly approved his request and granted him a month-long leave.
So Aoba and Yumi then left Konoha.
To practice Wood Release, they avoided the main roads and specifically chose deep mountains and forests.
Even in peacetime, they encountered numerous mountain bandits, thieves, and wandering ninjas along the way.
Aoba did not intervene and left all these encounters to Yumi to practice.
At first, Yumi used the "God Tree World" technique to eliminate a group of bandits. But with ongoing practice, she began to gain some basic combat experience.
Through these real-life encounters, she came to fully understand the nature of her power. Driven by deep-seated hatred, Yumi showed no mercy in killing the bandits and thieves.
In less than ten days, she had already taken the lives of over a hundred people.
From a mental and basic attribute standpoint, she was already a successful ninja. However, her techniques and experience were still lacking and required more high-level battles to develop gradually.
One day, while passing through a small village, they intended to restock on supplies.
However, upon entering, Aoba smelled a strong stench of blood. As they got closer, they saw that the entire village had no living people left.
Furthermore, all the corpses were piled up together. The ground was covered with a network of bloodstains.
The bodies were all battered, suggesting they had undergone brutal and bloody torture before death. The scene appeared to have recently hosted some kind of bloodthirsty ritual.
"This is..." Yumi was shocked by the sight before her.
"It should be some kind of cult. A demonic cult or something similar. They like to kill the innocent to please the deities they worship."
"Are there really such deities?" Yumi found it hard to believe that someone would worship such gods.
"I wish I could say no, but it seems there really is such a malevolent deity."
As Aoba examined the scene, he drew the Kusanagi Sword from his back. He had already guessed who the perpetrator was.
In fact, this individual was a crucial part of his plan. Aoba had been secretly seeking information about him for a long time. However, the individual's whereabouts were unpredictable, and Aoba had little intelligence network outside the village, so he had made no progress.
Unexpectedly, while accompanying Yumi on this training trip, he encountered this long-sought person.
The Kusanagi Sword in his hand was enveloped in a swirling wind. With a swing of the sword, a tornado tore a nearby house into pieces.
A figure with a strange cry jumped out. He wielded a massive three-headed scythe and, ignoring the injuries inflicted by the wind blades, charged straight at Aoba.
But before he could run far, the ground erupted. Countless trees surged up and surrounded him.
The intruder was naturally Hidan. In the story, Hidan was a very unique character. As a follower of the evil deity, even a chosen one, his abilities were extraordinarily enigmatic.
Without prior knowledge about him, even the most skilled ninja could fall to him.
Moreover, although Hidan never used ninjutsu in the story, he did have chakra and could perform tree climbing and water walking like a ninja. He simply did not use, or was unwilling to use, ninjutsu.
The three-headed scythe was considered a heavy weapon in the ninja world, indicating that Hidan was strong and had a body technique level comparable to a jonin.
Swinging his scythe, Hidan tried to cut through the branches blocking his path, but in the next moment, more vines and roots wrapped around him from all directions.
Simultaneously, several branches pierced his body like spears.
Unfortunately, a physical-type ninja like Hidan was practically a sitting duck against Yumi's large-scale Wood Release techniques.
The difficulty Kakashi faced when fighting Hidan and Kakuzu was due to Kakashi's lack of chakra, preventing him from using such large-scale attacks.
Yumi, however, had no such issue. In fact, she often struggled with having too much chakra and the extensive range of her techniques.
Faced with Hidan's sudden attack, in her agitation, Yumi's Wood Release covered the entire village. Despite his desperate attempts, Hidan was impaled on the branches within just a few dozen meters.
Seeing this, he immediately approached, severing Hidan's limbs and then his head, thoroughly dismembering him.
Even in this state, Hidan continued to rage on the ground, shouting about how they had desecrated their great deity and vowed to capture and torture them for the deity's amusement.
Aoba had no intention of indulging Hidan. He threw a kunai through his jaw, pinning his mouth and tongue shut.
"This guy, why won't he die?" Yumi was seeing such an undying monster for the first time and looked distressed.
"This fellow is a devotee of a certain evil deity. He's granted immortality by his deity. Conventional methods can't kill him. Yumi, this is just the beginning. There are many strange and bizarre beings in the ninja world. You'll encounter even stranger ones in the future."
"..." Yumi grimaced, showing her lack of interest.
After burying the brutally murdered villagers, they left the village.
Not long after their departure, a swarm of paper airplanes flew across the sky and landed on the ground, transforming into the image of a cold-faced girl.
She surveyed the area and then saw the gravestone erected for the village. Standing in front of the gravestone, Konan was silent for a moment before turning to leave.
"Hidan is missing. Based on the scene, it appears he was taken by someone."
"Do you know who it was?"
"Not clear."
"Then let's leave it. Let Kakuzu find a new teammate on his own."
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Currently on Chapter 98 - Looming Crisis