Chapter 608

Chapter 608: Transfer

Somewhere in the Land of Grass.

A teenage boy with blonde hair tied in the form of a pony tail and wearing the forehead protector of Iwagakure was standing on top of a giant rock as he curiously looked at the piers of the bridge not too far away with a thoughtful expression on his face.

After a while, his lips arched in a smirk as he muttered to himself, “Finally… I found’em all!”

The teenager’s gaze was fixed on several bricks on the piers of the bridge, supposedly, those particular bricks are the weak links of the entire structure, and should those bricks be destroyed with enough impact, the entire bridge will follow suit and collapse without putting any extra effort.

After the teenager figured out the weak links, he stretched his hands into his Shinobi bag that was tied around his waist, then a few seconds later he brought it out and opened it wide… Strangely enough, as the teenager opened his palm, something akin to a mouth became visible and it immediately spitted out several small white spiders.

Holding the small white spiders in his hand, the blonde-haired teenager excitedly looked at the people that were starting to cross the bridge, and then he tossed those spiders into the air.

The spiders seemed to have some sort of intelligence, as without needing any guidance, they accurately landed on each of those particular bricks.

With all the preparations completed, the teenager waited for a while, and as soon the people on the bridge reached the halfway point, he weaved the hand sign and shouted, “Katsu!”

With the teenagers’ action, the white spiders started to expand, and immediately after that they exploded like exploding tags and destroyed those bricks… The moment all the bricks were destroyed, the piers could no longer hold the weight of the bridge and soon the entire bridge collapsed into nothing but rubble, thus burying everyone that was present on top of it at the time of the collapse.

After finishing his job, the blonde-haired teenager nodded with a proud expression, and then walked away while muttering to himself, “That, my friend, is true art…”

…

About a hundred meters away from the collapsed bridge.

Three masked figures that were hiding observed all the moves of the blonde-haired teenager, and when they noticed that he was easily able to blow up the entire bridge using his artistic creations, they nodded to themselves and said, “Report this information to Mizukage-sama immediately… We have managed to locate the target in the Land of Grass.”

From the symbol on their masks, it is not difficult to figure out that these three masked Shinobi are Kirigakure Anbu who was assigned the task of finding that teenager by their Mizukage-sama.

As the other two Kirigakure Anbu were about to nod, suddenly, the blonde-haired teenager stopped on his track and glanced in their direction with an excited gaze.

Being subjected to the hot gaze of the blonde-haired teenager, the three Kirigakure Anbu suddenly had an ominous feeling, as their instincts were telling them that something is not right.

At this moment, one of them noticed a small spider white crawling over the back of his companion… The appearance of the spider was exactly the same as the spiders that were used by the teenager to blow up the bridge, understanding this, he immediately realized the danger and tried to warn that guy, but before he could speak anything suddenly an explosion occurred…

Boom…!

The explosion was soon followed suit by two more explosions…

Boom…! Boom…!

Looking at the burning flames and rising smoke, the teenager smiled, and without giving them any more attention, he walked away, seemingly not interested in finding out the identity of the people who were spying on him for the past few hours.

…

Konohagakure, inside the Hokage Building.

After putting aside his tobacco pipe, Sarutobi Hiruzen glanced at all the Anbu squad captains that have been ousted by Shimura Danzo, and said in a gentle tone, “I hope all of us can understand the reason for the transfer from the Anbu department…”

Although Sarutobi Hiruzen is no longer Konoha’s Hokage, as the head of the Advisory Board, his office is still inside the Hokage Building.

And strangely enough, although Shimura Danzo has been appointed as the temporary Hokage agent, he did not take over the Hokage Office in the Hokage Building, instead, he moved his base of operation back into the underground fortress of the original Root base.

Many people found this behavior of Danzo quite strange, but Kuroto found it excusable, after all, Danzo has transplanted not only several Sharingan but also the Hashirama Cells… so, he tries his best not to make that many public appearances so that his secret remains a secret…

After all, for a Shinobi with good sensory skills or with Dojutsu, noticing the chaotic Chakra flow in Danzo’s body is not that difficult, and if someone notices such a thing in Danzo’s body, it could turn really bad for Danzo.

The only reason why he hasn’t been caught up until now is that whenever he makes any public appearance, Danzo makes sure to impose several strong seals on his body in order to cover up the traces of his chaotic Chakra flow to make sure that no one notices it, but imposing such a seal is extremely painful, and also limits his strength a lot… And imposing it every time is not something one would want to do, as such, he chose not to appear in public all that much, therefore, even after becoming the temporary Hokage, his exposure rate in front of everyone did not increase all that much compared to before.

Obviously, people are wondering why is this the case, but no one is able to figure it out…

Anyway, all that aside, in the face of the helpless comfort of Sarutobi Hiruzen, all the squad captains expressed their understanding.

Meanwhile, one of the squad captains eagerly asked, “Sandaime-sama, now that we are no longer part of the Anbu, what will we do? I mean, I feel sort of uncomfortable having nothing to do all of a sudden…”

“Don’t worry, although you people are no longer part of the Anbu, we will not such excellent Shinobi idle around… the village needs you all, and as such, all of you will now be transferred to different departments according to your field of expertise…” answered Sarutobi Hiruzen…

Someone nodded, “That would be helpful…”

Sarutobi Hiruzen then turned towards Uchiha Shisui, and questioned, “I heard that the rescue team of the Uchiha Clan ran into the members of the Akatsuki Organization, and they managed to rescue Uchiha Sasuke and Hyuga Neji… is that correct?”

Shisui nodded, and explained, “Yes, while searching for Sasuke, the rescue team accidentally ran into a two-man cell of the Akatsuki Organization, and coincidentally enough, that two-man cell of Akatsuki was carrying Sasuke and Neji with them… Apparently, they were responsible for the exchange of hostages with Orochimaru, but because Orochimaru never appeared there, they had no choice but to return back to their base… At that time, the rescue team appeared there and using the number advantage luckily rescued the two kids…”

The so-called ‘coincidence’ was obviously planned… there was no hostage exchange with Orochimaru… the whereabouts of that two-man cell carrying Uchiha Sasuke and Hyuga Neji was told to Kuroto and Neji by Zetsu and using that information, the Uchiha rescue team was able to ‘coincidentally’ rescue both Sasuke and Neji…

This was obviously done by Obito to appease Kuroto and Itachi, as well as get the information that Itachi promised them, after Sasuke and Neji were rescued, Itachi gave Akatsuki what they wanted… although, whether it is what they need or not is yet to be known…

Regardless of the ins and outs of the matter, the fact that Sasuke and Neji were rescued and brought back to the village was indeed good news, and their arrival back in the village also eased a lot of tense nerves.

Sarutobi Hiruzen also sighed in relief, “With this, all the four children have been rescued, I feel at ease…”

Shisui said in an apologetic tone, “It is our incompetence that made you worried Sandaime-sama…”

Sarutobi Hiruzen shook his head, “That’s not the case, but anyway…” then said, “Now that that matter has been resolved, let’s get back on the subject at hand…” as he stated, he passed scrolls to almost all the former squad captain (except for Shisui and Kuroto) …

The former squad captains respectfully took the scroll, and waited for Sandaime to continue…

Hiruzen nodded and said, “These scrolls contain your transfer letters, and they will also give each of you all the details related to the departments each of you all are transferred to… Do well, I expect great things from all of you…”

“As you command Sandaime-sama…” each of them nodded and then left the Hokage building…

Now, only Hiruzen, Kuroto, and Shisui were left…

Both Kuroto and Shisui were confused about the situation… and stood silent. At this time, the gate of Elder Hiruzen’s office was knocked, and a familiar voice came from the other end… “Sandaime-sama…”

Hiruzen nodded “Come in…”

With Hiruzen’s nod, the gate was opened, and a familiar guy, in green tights and Jonin vest walked in, “I was summoned Sandaime-sama…”

Hiruzen nodded, “Yes, I called you Might Guy… This is related to your transfer as well…”

Kuroto, Shisui, and Guy looked at each other… given the situation, although, they are able to understand that they will continue to work together, how and where is not very clear… In fact, even Kuroto is not sure…

Sandaime noted everyone’s confusion and wait, then he picked up his tobacco pipe, and said word by word, “The ninja academy has been rebuilt, and I am going to arrange the three of you to work in the academy from here on…”