"Kakashi's Sharingan…"
Orochimaru frowned slightly.
He was currently quite close to Kakashi's team. If not for Yu's reminder, he wouldn't have remembered that Konoha still had a ninja who had made a name for himself across the Shinobi world with just a single Sharingan—the famed "Copy Ninja," Kakashi.
"Yu-kun is truly meticulous."
With a devilish smile, Orochimaru glanced northwest with his golden eyes, then slowly walked down the narrow path leading out of the cave.
A white snake coiled around Orochimaru's right arm, inch by inch swallowing the intel scroll into its belly.
The night was like a heavy curtain.
Dark clouds covered the sky.
As Orochimaru moved swiftly through the forest, he calmly processed the situation. After the Uchiha Clan Massacre, he had also considered sending people to the clan grounds to fish in troubled waters and maybe snatch a pair of Sharingan.
In the end, his spies reported back.
After the massacre of the Uchiha, Danzo had died, and Konoha didn't even manage to secure a single Sharingan.
Only one survivor—Uchiha Sasuke, who had awakened a single tomoe Sharingan.
Orochimaru had been both shocked and thrilled upon hearing this.
He knew Yu was behind it. He just hadn't expected that the person he had been sponsoring—Yu—would have such daring and such a voracious appetite. It seemed Yu had aimed for the Uchiha's Sharingan from the very start.
Yu wasn't even letting Kakashi's Sharingan go… Orochimaru's brows knit tighter, though the corner of his mouth curled slightly.
He guessed this was Yu's vindictive nature surfacing—this guy didn't want a single Konoha ninja to possess even one Sharingan from the Uchiha clan.
After all, it was the higher-ups of Konoha who had orchestrated the massacre, and the old man (Hiruzen) had done nothing, which was essentially tacit approval of such an inhumane act.
Yu naturally hated Konoha to the core.
"Heh, speaking of the Uchiha massacre…
My sensei really was clever—he let Danzo handle all the dirty work, while he kept his own hands clean.
But he surely never expected…
That Danzo would actually die.
With that old bastard gone, the success rate of the Konoha Collapse Plan will increase exponentially."
A rare, exhilarated smile appeared on Orochimaru's devilishly handsome face.
His thoughts returned to Kakashi's Sharingan.
Without Yu's reminder,
Orochimaru truly wouldn't have considered going after that three-tomoe Sharingan. After all, it was only one eye, unlikely to bring out the full potential of the Sharingan.
Had fully piqued his interest.
This was something Yu had asked him to do, under the guise of hatred for Konoha. That eye might hold some kind of secret.
If Yu ended up dying during Konoha's siege, Orochimaru could still claim Kakashi's Sharingan. It wouldn't be a wasted trip.
Of course, Orochimaru still hoped Yu would survive.
He wanted to know Yu's true motive for wanting Kakashi's Sharingan.
Or… maybe he was just overthinking it.
One day later, under a gloomy sky with drizzling rain and falling temperatures—
In the mountain valley, rainwater had pooled in low muddy pits, forming reflective "mirrors" that caught the falling raindrops and flickers of swift-moving figures.
A foot stomped into a puddle, shattering the reflection like breaking through an illusion of moonlight and flowers on water.
Draped in white rain cloaks and wearing masks, the Konoha pursuit squad arrived at the valley, coming to a halt one after another. While on alert, they scanned the corpses along the roadside.
The air was filled with a foul stench.
Even the rain couldn't wash it away.
After death, the human sphincter relaxes over time, causing the body to release waste—merging bodily odor with the stink of decay.
There were three members in this squad.
The team leader wore a fox mask, carried a katana on his back, and wore gray-white armor. Under his white hood peeked messy silver-white hair.
They seemed used to scenes —hellish carnage in the valley. The other two members immediately moved to inspect the corpses.
However, these bodies had already been gnawed on by crows and carnivorous animals. Even for trained shinobi, it was difficult to determine the fatal wounds.
But they were professionals.
"Captain, look at this!"
A pursuit ninja pointed at a corpse that was barely recognizable, calling out to the team leader in a deep voice.
Next to the body were remnants of an orange uniform and a Konoha forehead protector. The twelfth thoracic vertebra and lumbar spine had been cleanly severed.
The cut was smooth, as if polished.
The lower half of the body lay not far away.
"This was a clean wind-style decapitation... He died without any defense—likely didn't have time to dodge."
Kakashi's gaze was cold and calm. Through his mask, he analyzed the cause of death.
Upon hearing this, the two other pursuit team members felt their bodies turn as cold as the rain itself.
Kakashi looked up toward the northwest, his expression grave beneath the mask. The rogue ninja they were about to face likely surpassed their expectations in strength.
After all, this was someone who had killed Danzo.
But as pursuit ninjas,
Their duty was to track rogue shinobi over the long term, to find opportunities to encircle and kill them—then dispose of the bodies, like hyenas stalking their prey.
But what if the prey… was an adult lion?
After a brief sigh, Kakashi prepared to lead the team forward again—when he suddenly noticed faint footsteps ahead in the valley.
Kakashi's face grew stern. He drew the katana from his back and regrouped with the other two teammates, each of them facing different directions beyond the valley.
Footsteps approached. Kakashi looked toward the center of the valley and, upon seeing who it was, breathed a sigh of relief.
It was a vanguard unit of the pursuit squad.
Kakashi remembered that this unit was carrying out an open mission—to coordinate with Konoha's allies, the Tsuchigumo clan, in hunting the rogue ninja.
"Friendly—no need to get so tense!"
The squad captain raised a hand in greeting toward Kakashi.
"Something wrong?" Kakashi asked calmly.
The pursuit captain sighed.
"Yeah. The Tsuchigumo settlement was completely empty. No one in sight. Situation unknown. I decided to double back and regroup with your unit."
Kakashi frowned tightly, staring at the ground in deep thought. It didn't make sense for the entire Tsuchigumo clan to suddenly relocate.
A small brown venomous snake slithered out from a crack between the rocks in the ground, creeping toward Kakashi from the side.
But before it could reach him, Kakashi instinctively drew his katana and stabbed the snake through the head. Blood mixed with the rain as the snake's body thrashed and twisted in the mud, coiling like rope.
Kakashi's pupils trembled. He suddenly sensed a chill-inducing, bone-deep danger. Shouting a warning, he abruptly raised his head.
His expression froze in shock as he realized—
His teammates, along with the pursuit unit that had just arrived, had all collapsed.
They were being strangled to death by thick brown pythons—throats crushed, unable to even scream.
Kakashi scanned the area.
There were no other visible snakes. He instantly flickered to a teammate's side, slashing through the python wrapped around them—only to find their lifeless, glassy eyes.
Someone had, in just a brief moment of distraction, silently eliminated everyone on the scene except him!
Kakashi's eyes widened, and his heart raced.
It had been a long time since he'd faced such a formidable enemy.
And someone who could manipulate snakes with such precision and lethality…
In the entire shinobi world, there was likely only one person capable of this.
At the far end of the valley—
A tall figure draped in a red flame-patterned robe appeared. With a hoarse voice, he spoke with a tinge of sentimentality:
"It's been a while, Kakashi. You actually saw through my setup. Looks like you've grown quite a bit."
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