Chapter 53 - Raiding Orochimaru Hideout

Inside the Land of Fire, four figures leap through the forest at high speeds. For their speed was but a blur for the untrained eye. The only way to identify if they passed through was a few leaves that would shake off the branch as the figures kicked off with large but silent kicks.

The four figures wore masks, but only one wore an animal mask while the rest had masks that covered their nose and mouth. However, it was easy to see two were male, one female and one unknown due to the large trench coat. Where the one leading was one male with gravity defying silver gray hair, while the animal mask man followed up the rear.

The two in the middle were off to the side forming a diamond formation between the four. For while they weren't protecting anyone, they were spaced out to watch out for traps. Even in the unfortunate situation one triggers a trap, it wouldn't take them all out.

"Kakashi, the entrance should be up ahead and to the left." the animal mask member said in a neutral tone.

Not to say that the person was a doll, but the neutral tone was more between the lines of a female and male pitch. Hence, it was even difficult to determine the member gender, but it didn't bother the three.

In a small and smooth gesture that said he understood. Kakashi clenched his fist as he glared ahead with a small bead of sweat forming on his forehead. For his mind reeled backward as it dug up the previous encounter he had with their target.

"Kagami, Mira be on alert. If you find Orochimaru, don't try to fight him on your own." Kakashi stated.

Mira just rolled her eyes at Kakashi. To her, she felt he was the second weakest member of this squad as the ANBU member ranked below him. Though this was because she didn't have much knowledge of the ANBU member strength, she knew that most ANBU were around Chunin to Jonin rank.

A rank that she and Kagami could beat with one hand behind their back before they unlocked the Mangekyō Sharingan and even gained Asura and Kōsetsu. Hence, while it was a bit arrogant, she firmly believed that she and Kagami could beat or at least suppress Orochimaru by themself until the other could arrive to support.

"Am I clear." Kakashi ordered.

The three nodded as Kakashi is the leader of the squad as he was appointed by the Hokage himself. So even if they are technically the same rank as him, they still had to follow his orders. Besides, the chances of finding Orochimaru here is very small so they weren't bothered by it either.

"We arrived." Stopping on a tree branch as two large trees laid before the four.

The two trees were far larger than the surrounding trees hence calling them two large trees in a forest wasn't a stretch. The trunks of these two trees would take fifteen fully grown men to wrap around them. The heights were taller than the surroundings, however it wasn't noticeable for a large plateau laid beside them. Which also had trees growing on them, hence they weren't noticeable from a distance.

"Has it been determined if there are more entrances?" Kagami asked.

"Pakkun checked all around and said they didn't find one." Kakashi replied, sounding uninterested as if saying 'I already checked before, if there was I would have stated it.'

"So how should we do this?" The ANBU member asked. "In a group or split up after entering?"

"After we enter, you three will travel together while I will travel with my ninken." Kakashi stated.

Silent filled the space between them all as none looked particularly thrilled at his idea. That was basically saying, stay out of the way and I will handle everything. Which just sounded like a recipe of disaster for if Kakashi runs into trouble, then they have a slim chance of reaching him in time.

"Don't argue, let's move." Kakashi said and jumped toward the entrance.

"It's been four years and he still acts the same." A collective sigh happened.

Unknown to Kakashi, before setting off, Hiruzen met with them to warn about Kakashi behavior. He told them about Kakashi's tendency to want to keep his comrades safe, which usually led him to doing such actions.

"I will follow him, you two will be fine on your own." The ANBU said after a moment and followed Kakashi. "I assume you two will be fine on your own?"

Kagami and Mira nodded as they entered the supposed hideout of Orochimaru.

--

After entering the cave, the rough entrance walls quickly faded away leaving a smooth wall with a small simple pattern engraved on it. Walking the corridor, torches were lit up illuminating the place. While they passed by a couple doors which led to an empty room or a small pantry.

"This place is like a maze." Mira said as she closed the door.

"Probably designed to confuse intruders." Kagami said as he opened the door.

Inside he found a purple-haired girl on a metal table nearly naked as a jaybird with her arms and legs pulled apart. Only what can be considered rags covered her dignity, so after peeking to see if there were any traps. Kagami walked in and approached the girl.

"She's dead." Kagami said after placing his fingers on her neck. "Body still warm and shows signs of a fever and my guess is nerve damage. Similar to elocution and burning is my best guess."

"It says on here that it was a trial run of implanting a Curse Mark." Mira stated as she looked over a clipboard. "It says it is a village girl from a small village around Konoha that Danzo sent him a few days ago. Apparently, it was a failure as she was too weak to withstand the implantation."

Mira pretended not to see Kagami touching and examining the girl's body. Mainly because she was used to his process and waited for him to finish all nooks and crannies of the girl. Once he finished and covered up her body once, they moved on. They would return later to retrieve the body to bury later.

"It is not that she is weak, but her chakra network is completely ruptured due to the sudden immense flux of chakra. So the runaway chakra had basically cooked from the inside out." Kagami started with a bit of disgust.

After passing a few more doors, they stumbled upon the core area where they found an Orochimaru prized student. For tied to the metal bed, Anko Mitarashi who was much better dressed compared to the girl previously.

"She is still alive, but barely." Kagami checked her out as he began to examine her thoroughly. "Mira, see if you can find anything, while I get her prep to be sent back to the village."

Mira glanced at the girl and saw the curse mark and nodded. While she did know some Fuinjutsu, she wasn't near Kagami's level and decided to leave it to him to deal with.

"Well, from what I can see, Orochimaru left plenty of evidence with Danzo's name on it. Hurray for note keeping." Mira answered.