“By the way, I have a new mission for you!”
“This time, you’ll be heading to the border of the Land of Water.
Something unexpected has happened there.”
ShihōinNaraku had thought he could finally go home and rest after finishing his report.
Instead, before he could even leave, Hiruzen Sarutobi handed him another mission.
Damn it!
I just got back!
I had to fight a whole bunch of people, and I barely managed to win.
I haven’t even caught my breath yet, and now you’re sending me out of the village again?
“Oh, don’t rush,” Hiruzen said with a smile as he puffed on his pipe.
“You only need to leave before tonight.”
Am I supposed to thank you for that?
Muttering curses under his breath, Naraku turned and walked away.
The ANBU was even busier than the Medical Department!
Third Hokage Hiruzen Sarutobi didn’t pay much attention to Naraku’s dissatisfaction.
After all, Naraku was one of his people.
A little complaining was nothing.
“So I guess I’ll just wait for that bastard Orochimaru to come knocking and pay his respects to the old man!”
Naraku walked out of the Hokage’s office.
His muttering stopped, and he glanced back at the Hokage Tower.
“After all, a student killing his master is practically a Hokage tradition.
Might as well help preserve it.”
Because of the new mission, Naraku didn’t stay in the village for long.
He quickly assembled an ANBU squad and set off.
This time, however, he selected a different group of shinobi.
It was also part of the process of getting familiar with his subordinates.
After two missions, he would have a good understanding of nearly everyone under his command.
…
When they reached the border of the Land of Water, Naraku split up with his subordinates and began gathering intelligence in different areas.
“He was wearing a black cloak, and there were red clouds printed on it…”
“Yeah.
There was also a long slash across his forehead protector…”
“…”
Isn’t that the Akatsuki uniform?
Judging by the description of the slashed forehead protector…
Kakuzu?
Naraku froze when he heard the civilians’ reports.
Then he immediately understood.
He hadn’t expected an ordinary mission to bring him face-to-face with someone from the Akatsuki!
After casually giving the civilians some money and sending them away, Naraku began searching through his memories.
The Akatsuki at this point…
They should still be recruiting members, taking on dangerous missions from various countries, and saving money to buy Konan more explosive tags.
“Wait.
Who was the first one to appear?”
Right.
It was Itachi Uchiha and Kisame Hoshigaki!
That happened after Orochimaru launched the Konoha Crush.
Itachi’s appearance was meant to warn Danzō not to lay a hand on Sasuke.
“It really feels like the curtain of the Naruto world is slowly rising…”
The thought left Naraku strangely excited.
It was the feeling of witnessing history unfold with his own eyes.
Soon, the other Konoha ANBU located the site of the battle, and Naraku hurried over.
“Lord Dragon, based on our investigation, a fierce battle took place here…”
“Both sides used Lightning Release, Fire Release, Water Release, and Earth Release.
There were also signs of close-quarters combat!”
Naraku took one look at the battlefield and understood.
Kakuzu had indeed fought someone here.
The other techniques weren’t particularly noteworthy.
But the damage caused by the Fire Release was unmistakable.
It was Fire Release: Hiding in Ash and Dust Technique!
Naraku had just used the same technique against the Iwagakure shinobi.
He was far too familiar with it.
Naraku examined the traces scattered throughout the area with great interest.
“The power is impressive.”
“The range is pretty ridiculous too, but…”
Kakuzu’s Fire Release: Hiding in Ash and Dust Technique was indeed powerful.
Yet after carefully examining the surrounding terrain, Naraku vaguely felt that it wasn’t quite as overwhelming as he had expected.
“Is that because the Flame-Flame Fruit has amplified my Fire Release?”
“Or did Kakuzu simply hold back?”
After thinking about it for a while, Naraku suddenly became interested in the shinobi who had fought Kakuzu.
Who was he?
To fight Kakuzu to this extent, the opponent had to be at least a jōnin.
Otherwise, Kakuzu would have killed him long ago.
There was no way he could have caused this much damage to the surrounding area.
Still, at this point in time, the Akatsuki was taking on extremely dangerous missions to raise funds.
Some of those missions were practically on the scale of full-scale warfare.
It wasn’t surprising that they had encountered a powerful opponent.
Naturally, Kakuzu had clearly been the victor in the end.
“This mission turned out to be surprisingly simple…”
Then again, if they had arrived earlier, they might have run straight into Kakuzu.
In that case, this mission would have been anything but simple.
If he had clashed with Kakuzu this early in the story, Naraku wasn’t sure whether he could kill him.
Still, Naraku knew Kakuzu’s weaknesses very well.
If he caught him off guard and planned carefully, he had a very good chance of winning.
After continuing to gather intelligence around the area with his subordinates, Naraku led the ANBU back to Konoha.
From then on, Naraku began receiving missions one after another.
It was exhausting.
But in the shortest possible time, he managed to learn everything there was to know about his subordinates.
…
One day, after being busy for a long time, Naraku finally had some free time.
He took two days to rest properly and spent some quality time with Uzuki Yugao, strengthening their relationship.
Then he finally got down to business.
He made a trip to a ninja tool shop and bought the materials he needed.
After returning to the ANBU base, Naraku began experimenting.
After some careful adjustments, he produced a small bottle of red liquid from the materials he had purchased.
This red liquid was one of the necessary components for removing the Cursed Tongue Eradication Seal.
That’s right.
Naraku intended to remove the Cursed Tongue Eradication Seal from several former Root shinobi.
Of course, not all of them.
During this period, Naraku had realized that not every Root member was blindly loyal to Danzō .
Some had submitted because of Danzō ‘s former power and influence.
Others had been forced into obedience because Danzō had threatened their families.
There were even shinobi who had once been completely loyal to Danzō but had gradually grown disgusted with Root’s dark and brutal methods.
After returning to the ANBU, those people were actually relieved.
For these shinobi, Naraku had decided to selectively remove the Cursed Tongue Eradication Seal.
After all, the secrets they were forbidden from revealing concerned Danzō , not him.
There was no reason to fear removing the seals.
More importantly, doing so might bring him some unexpected benefits.
“Have Yue come see me.”
“Yes!”
The ANBU had been extremely busy during the previous period because of the high frequency of missions.
Now that things had finally calmed down, there were quite a few people at the ANBU base.
Soon, there was a knock at the door.
The rhythmic pattern of the knocking was Yue’s trademark.
“Come in!”
“Excuse me.”
Yue quietly entered.
Her long hair was tied back neatly as she stood silently before Naraku.
Yamanaka Yue.
She was a member of the Yamanaka clan.
Yamanaka shinobi specialized in controlling the minds of their enemies.
They could even enter the consciousness of the dead and read their memories.
They could also use their abilities to transmit intelligence and possessed exceptional sensory abilities.
That made members of the Yamanaka clan indispensable to both the ANBU and Root.
Their sensory abilities alone were incredibly useful in countless situations.
And their ability to read memories was truly terrifying.
It was practically the perfect interrogation technique.
After all, even if someone was dead, as long as their corpse remained intact, Yamanaka shinobi could still extract critical information from it.
As the former head of the Medical Department’s Corpse Disposal Unit, Naraku had been responsible for an organization specifically tasked with handling corpses and preventing precisely this kind of information extraction.
Because of that, the Corpse Disposal Unit also frequently provided talented personnel to the ANBU.
All of this demonstrated just how important Yamanaka Yue was.
And it was precisely why Naraku had chosen her as one of the people whose Cursed Tongue Eradication Seal he intended to remove.