Chapter – 426 A Quest for Vengeance?

Crack Crack

On the third battlefield, a fight between Ice and Ice, and Ice and Crystal can be seen, most of the battlefront, if not all, seems to have been covered in Water, Mist, Ice, or Crystals of various colors.

But the flow of the battle seems to have been decided from the very beginning.

Despite a strong start, the difference in strength between Yuki Kahyo and the two children, Haku and Guren became clearly apparent, as both Haku and Guren can be seen gasping for breath and tired while Kahyo on the other hand seems to be perfectly fine.

Even the crystalizing abilities of Guren's Crystal Release were proven fruitless in the face of Kahyo's Earthen Chains of Ice.

"Anything else you are able to use?" Kahyo asked Haku and Guren indifferently.

"Huff… Huff…" While taking a deep breath to calm herself, Guren said to Haku, "She is strong, very strong… we can not allow her to go any further."

"Then what should we do?" Haku asked with a bit of hesitation.

Guren looked at the Kunoichi standing opposite to then, then clenched her fist in determination and said, "We must use Curse Seal given to us… only then will we have some hope of stopping her."

Haku nodded and instantly used the Curse Seal implanted into him by Orochimaru.

…

"Damn it…. How do I get out of this trap?!" Mageta sighed while killing another snake that came to bite him.

A while ago, Mageta realized that the enemy is probably playing with him, 'Unfortunately for them, they don't realize that slow poison is ineffective on me as I can just remove it from my body using Blood control. But even if that's the case, just how do I get out of here? There is no end to this smoke!

Even my Strongest Wind Release Jutsu is not blowing away the smoke… Running fast, body flicker, et cetera is not working here, just what sort of Jutsu is this? And because of this cover of smoke, I am unable to find anyone, except for the snakes and trees, I have not seen even a single creature ever since I got here… Damn it, if I had known that this mission would be so troublesome, I would have never come here!'

…

On top of a cliff in the distance.

Because of their fierce battle, the five Akatsuki Shinobi, Momochi Zabuza, and the seven other Otogakure-nin did not notice the two figures standing on a high cliff in the distance.

These two people are none other than Orochimaru and Kabuto, and they are observing the performance of the seven children against the four members of Akatsuki.

Zabuza is not counted because technically he is not yet an Otogakure-nin, and Orochimaru himself is also not very interested in Zabuza's performance because Zabuza does not have any Kekkei Genkai.

After observing for a while, Orochimaru asked Kabuto, "Kabuto, have you gained any new information about the identity of the other three?"

Kabuto pushed his spectacles on the bridge of his nose, then said, "Yes Orochimaru-sama, the one whom Kimimaro and Jugo are fighting against is called, Kaguya Takashi, apparently, he is another survivor of the Kaguya Clan. This file records all that I could find about him.

The one trapped in the Smoke World by Hebihime, and Yukimi is called Chinoike Mageta, he seems to have been rescued from the Hell Valley by someone, and is probably the last survivor of the Chinoike Clan."

Orochimaru shook his head, he knew better than anyone that this fellow named Chinoike Mageta is definitely not the last survivor of the Chinoike Clan, after all, 'I think I should pay a visit to En Yahiro and inform him that a clansman of his managed to survive the massacre and has now joined the Akatsuki in trade for something that I might find interesting, perhaps I can even visit the colosseum and see if any Kekkei Genkai there interests me.'

Kabuto did not notice Orochimaru's thoughts, and continued, "As for the Kunoichi, her name seems to be Yuki Kahyo, a nuke-nin from Kirigakure. She seems to have left Kirigakure two years ago in search of her husband who went missing a few months before that."

"Who was her husband? Did he also possess Ice Release Kekkei Genkai as she does?" Orochimaru asked curiously, because if he does, then it's possible that he is Suijin of Amatsukami.

However, Orochimaru had to be disappointed, as Kabuto shook his head, "No, he did not have Ice Release. Although he was a pretty strong shinobi, a shinobi with the strength level of an Elite Jonin, from what I managed to gather, he had mastery over Lightning Release and Water Release, but no Kekkei Genkai."

Orochimaru lost interest immediately, and asked with a bored expression, "So, did she find him?"

Kabuto smiled at Orochimaru's lack of interest, and said, "Obviously… not. If she had, she wouldn't have joined the Akatsuki. I did some research and tried to track him down, to see if I can find something about him."

"And?" Orochimaru asked, he could feel that Kabuto has managed to find the traces of her missing husband, and it was something important else Kabuto would have never mentioned this detail to him.

Kabuto looked in the direction of Kahyo vs Haku and Guren battle, then said, "His corpse was never found so there is no conclusive proof that he is dead or not, but it's not hard to assume he is dead because the mission he was performing was the protection of the concubine of the Daimyo of the Land of Water.

And the thing is, there was once a mission in the Black Market that asked for her assassination. And here's when things become interesting, that mission was taken by Suijin of Amatsukami and was successfully completed by him."

Orochimaru narrowed his eyes, "So she joined Akatsuki in her quest for vengeance on Suijin?"

Kabuto shrugged, "I am not entirely sure, I did hear a rumor that she had quit her life as a shinobi two years ago and was living in the Land of Waves ever since, she did not pursue Suijin or Amatsukami at that time, but what suddenly changed and what prompted her to join Akatsuki, I don't know."

"Interesting, she had quit her life as a Shinobi, and then suddenly joined Akatsuki?" Orochimaru muttered, then said, "The fact that she did not want to kill children, and did not allow the other Akatsuki members to kill children either, signifies something. Try to find out more about her, there is more to her story, and I want to know what it is. She might just become a useful pawn in dealing with the Akatsuki."

Kabuto nodded, then focused back on the battle, and said, "By the way, Orochimaru-sama, all seven of them, including, Kimimaro, Jugo, Tenzo, Haku, Guren, Hebihime, and Yukimi seem to be performing quite exceptionally."

Orochimaru looked back and said in a hoarse voice, "They are still far too immature."

Although it may seem that they have been able to hold their own against the four members of Akatsuki, in reality, that's not the case at all.

This is because neither of the Akatsuki members is truly trying to kill them, and secondly only with their Curse Seal active are they able to barely hold off Akatsuki.

Rather than saying that they are performing quite well, it would be more accurate to say, that the Akatsuki Shinobi are playing with them, even the one of the Chinoike Clan hasn't used any of the ability of his Ketsuryugan.

The only one performing well enough is Tenzo who in his Tree Human form has been able to put some fight against Hoshigaki Kisame.

Kabuto did not deny Orochimaru's words, and said, "In a few years, they would become powerhouses who would be able to match up to the likes of Elite Jonin or perhaps even Kage level shinobi."

Orochimaru did not deny Kabuto's words, but said with a bit of a distracted tone, "Maybe… but they are still no match to Kuroto-kun."

Kabuto's face was stiff at the mention of Hyuga Kuroto.

Although Orochimaru may have never stated it specifically, however, during his years working as Orochimaru's assistant, Kabuto has come to understand that if there is someone in this Shinobi world whom Orochimaru truly values and really considers his disciple, then it is none other than Hyuga Kuroto.

Others all, including those seven children, whom Orochimaru took some time to train are nothing more than disposable pawns.

In fact, even Kabuto, himself is not that valuable to Orochimaru, only Hyuga Kuroto is someone Orochimaru actually cares about and tries to keep tabs on him, sometimes he even goes as far as to clean up the mess Hyuga Kuroto may have left behind, and Kabuto really feels jealous because of this.

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