CH 473

Somewhere outside Konohagakure.

Yuhi Kurenai with her hands tied behind her back and a poisonous snake coiling around her neck hobbled behind Orochimaru. The expression on her face looked a little wilted, but there was a stubbornness in her eyes.

After a long silence, she finally couldn’t help but ask, “Where are you taking me?”

Orochimaru who was walking in the front replied casually, “When you get to the place, you will know.”

Kurenai frowned, “If you think that you can use me to cause harm to the village, then you are wrong. I would rather die than hurt the village.”

Orochimaru stopped and said with a smile, “Kurenai dear, you don’t seem to understand the situation you are in.”

“Humph, think whatever you want.” Kurenai snorted and turned her head to the side, she is no longer afraid of Orochimaru’s threat.

Staring at the resolute Kurenai, Orochimaru chuckled lightly and retracted his gaze. He then took out a half-black, half-white round Stone Medallion from his pocket and looked at it thoughtfully. After a long silence, he said, “You just need to do something for me, if it goes well, I can consider sparing you alive, and fear not, this matter has nothing to do with Konoha.”

If Itachi was here, he will find that the round Stone Medallion in Orochimaru’s hand is exactly the same as the Stone Medallion that Itachi found in the fake tomb.

Obviously, Orochimaru has also been following clues about the Sword of Totsuka, and he has been searching for the whereabouts of the Sword of Totsuka for a decade now. After years of search, he finally got his hands on this Round Stone Medallion in one of the old ruins and soon figured out the location of that shrine that this Stone Medallion pointed towards.

He also found the Stone Stele at that ghostly Shrine and placed the Stone Medallion in the depression.

But unlike the case with Shisui and Itachi, when Orochimaru installed the Stone Medallion inside the depression in the Stone Stele, the Genjutsu trap blocked him, he couldn’t find the solution in that Genjutsu, therefore, his search came to a halt.

To say that if Orochimaru, one of the Sannin has any shortcomings, then Genjutsu should be the most obvious one. Even with his stats in Databook where Orochimaru has 5/5 in Genjutsu, Genjutsu is still Orochimaru’s greatest weakness.

Shisui and Itachi deciphered the Genjutsu instantly, and also found the key in the Genjutsu in just a few short seconds, but Orochimaru has been stuck on that part for the past month.

He even brought Hebihime, one of his subordinates from Otogakure to see if she can find anything in that Genjutsu, but even Hebihime who is extremely proficient in Genjutsu also failed to find the key.

So, Orochimaru was left with no other choice but to look for other people who are proficient in Genjutsu.

And Orochimaru did look for many people who are good at Genjutsu, but without exception, all of them failed, therefore, Orochimaru had no option but to look in Konoha.

In Konoha, the Uchiha Clan possesses the strongest Genjutsu skills so they are naturally Orochimaru’s first choice but considering that there are also two Mangekyou Sharingan users in the Uchiha Clan too, so Orochimaru dared not kidnap any Uchiha who is known for his proficiency in Genjutsu.

Aside from the Uchiha Clan, there is also the Kurama Clan who are equally known for their mastery of Genjutsu, but the members of the Kurama Clan are very few, and recently there hasn’t been any member in the Kurama Clan who is exceptionally skilled in Genjutsu.

So, Orochimaru’s finally directed his attention to the Yuhi family. Currently, Yuhi Kurenai is the only member of the Yuhi Family, therefore, she has no solid backing and is easier to kidnap.

And even though Yuhi Kurenai’s overall strength may not be very high, based on the reports Orochimaru has received about her, her mastery of Genjutsu is second only to the Kurama Clan and the Uchiha Clan, so naturally, she became Orochimaru’s next choice.

Of course, Kurenai is not his only choice of Orochimaru. If even she can’t find the solution, then Orochimaru would think of using the members of the Kurama Clan, and maybe even those of the Uchiha Clan if required.

But Orochimaru certainly hopes that Kurenai can solve the key.

After putting the Round Medallion back in his pocket, Orochimaru glanced at Kurenai, and thought, ‘Maybe she will be able to find the key in the Genjutsu, but if I want to use her, I will have to be quick. If Kuroto-kun we to find that I was responsible for her disappearance, then it might lead to another trouble.’

From the information he has obtained from Shimura Danzo, Orochimaru knows that Yuhi Kurenai is Hyuga Kuroto’s subordinate in the Anbu. So, he knows that if Kuroto were to connect the disappearance of Kurenai to him, then the situation might become troublesome as Orochimaru is not sure if Kuroto wouldn’t give the intelligence of Otogakure being connected to him to Sandaime Hokage.

Frankly, Orochimaru doesn’t care about Otogakure that much, but it could hinder Orochimaru’s attempt of searching Sword of Totsuka, therefore, Orochimaru wants to avoid unnecessary trouble.

So, in order to avoid any trouble, Orochimaru held the languid Kurenai by her collar and hurriedly rushed towards the Ghostly Shrine.

…

Konohagakure, Yuhi Kurenai’s home.

Kuroto activated his Byakugan and searched Kurenai’s entire house with a sullen face in the hope of finding any clue that would explain the inexplicable disappearance of Yuhi Kurenai.

The disappearance of Yuhi Kurenai was naturally noticed by Kuroto and the rest of the Team-Ro because Kurenai did not appear at the appointed meeting place and time for the mission they had to perform today.

Sandaime assigned the mission to another Anbu team and temporarily appointed Team-Ro to search the whereabouts of Yuhi Kurenai.

Whoosh Whoosh

With the sound of breaking wind, two figures appeared at Kurenai’s house.

The two figures walked inside the room, one of them said, “Captain, there was no sign of Kurenai-san at the training ground.”

The other one also said, “There was also no sign of Kurenai-san at any facility in the village.”

Kuroto nodded. Although it is only a preliminary investigation, Kuroto can already confirm that the disappearance of Kurenai is kind of strange.

If not for the fact that Kuroto has been brainwashing her to cultivate her into a loyal subordinate for the past few months, Kuroto would even think that she might have defected.

But Kuroto is sure that she hasn’t defected, instead, she was attacked and Kuroto can already confirm that the place she was attacked is her home.

‘It seems that the one who attacked her is a true master.’

Kuroto who has been training Kurenai for the past few months understands her strength better than anyone, her recent progress has been quite rapid, especially with the special training she has been carrying out in secret. Kurenai is definitely reaching the level of a Jonin. She is proficient in both stealth and assassination. She may not be the strongest of Team-Ro because of the presence of Kuroto and Itachi, but she is definitely not weak.

There may still be many ninjas who can defeat her head-on, but not many who can make her quietly disappear without leaving behind any sign. Yet someone managed to easily kidnap her without leaving behind any trace of the fight shows that the opponent must be very tricky with exceptionally high strength.

In fact, Kuroto can think of a few people who are capable of doing this, but he couldn’t understand their motive behind this action, ‘Why kidnap Yuhi Kurenai? She has no Kekkei Genkai, no specific or secret information about the high-level secrets of the Village or any secret Jutsu, so what’s the point of kidnapping her?’

At this time Yugao returned to Kurenai’s home with someone and said to Kuroto, “Captain, he is the last person in the village who met up with Yuhi Kurenai, maybe we can get some clues about her disappearance from him.”

Kuroto turned around to look at the person and found that it was none other than Asuma. Asuma who had recently learned of Kurenai’s disappearance was very anxious, so even before Kuroto could question him, Asuma hurriedly asked, “Did you find any clue? How could Kurenai-san disappear for seemingly no reason?”

Kuroto looked around the room, then said, “She should have been attacked here.”

Asuma was angered, and asked, “Who, who did it!?”

Kuroto silently shook his head, “We are not sure yet.”

Yugao said, “In any case, we will have to figure out a way to rescue her.”

Kuroto did not reply, he was silent. Judging from the current situation, unless the attacker has some use of her, the probability of Kurenai being alive is very-very low. And Kuroto can’t think of anything special that Kurenai could give to her attacker other than some pieces of information that she knows as an Anbu.

And once the information has been tortured out of her, obviously she would either be executed or imprisoned who knows where.

“I will find her; I will definitely find her!” But Asuma was too anxious to realize this, he was also a little lost and rushed out of the room with a dazed expression.

With Asuma gone, Kuroto’s eyes grew colder and he muttered to himself, “How dare you move your hands and feet on my subordinate, don’t let me find you otherwise the consequence would only be death.”

Brainwashing is not an easy task, and Kuroto has been slowly brainwashing Kurenai, Yugao, and Hayate to make them loyal subordinates. But now someone dared to kidnap one of his subordinates, so naturally, Kuroto would be angry.

While Kuroto was thinking about the disappearance of Kurenai, Itachi (Clone) who was outside the house suddenly walked in and gave Kuroto a scroll “Captain, this has just arrived.”

Kuroto nodded and took the scroll from Itachi’s hands and after glancing at it briefly, he can’t help but mutter in a surprised tone, ‘Huh, they both found out Sword of Totsuka so soon?’

The Sword of Totsuka is related to the ability to restrict DMS Obito and must be grasped as soon as possible, so Kuroto temporarily put the thought of Kurenai’s disappearance aside and focused on the Sword of Totsuka.

After leaving behind a Shadow Clone in the Village, and passing it the gourd of Toyotama to avoid the possibility of sudden disappearance because of running out of Chakra, Kuroto then transferred his soul into the Fujin Clone using Tenseigan Soul Descend and quietly sneaked out of the village after instructing the Shadow Clone to search for the missing Kurenai.

After leaving the Village, Fujin immediately used Magnet Release to form a pair of Iron Sand Wings behind his back and quickly flew in the direction of the isolated ghostly shrine.

His flying speed with Iron Sand Wings was extremely fast, and it only took him half a day to arrive at the location from where Itachi and Shisui sent the message.

Hiss Hiss Hiss Hiss

While Fujin was looking around and observing the Shrine, suddenly a slithering sound came from a distance.

Fujin looked over and saw that rising a cover of smoke and dust, a huge snake was also coming towards the Shrine.