Chapter 3 Departing

Chapter 3.

Konoha.

With his hands crossed around his chest Kazuki stood among the crowd, quietly waiting for the orders to depart towards Sand Battlefield.

Going through the forest, the platoon will pass by quarters of tanzaku, a town located quite close to the borders of land of fire and then cross the tanzaku bridge close to Land of Rain to march towards Sand Battlefield.

The journey will undoubtedly be tough, the chances of not being attacked by rain shinobi after crossing the tanzaku bridge are close to zero.

Soon nearly everyone gathered and with the arrival of the platoon commander, the time to depart neared.

Forefront stood a man with long black hair, donning the green jonin flak jacket, having pale skin and snake like yellow eyes.

Orochimaru, one of the three students of the third hokage.

Kazuki's gaze rested on Orochimaru for a second but the moment it moved next to Orochimaru, surprise finally appeared in those brown eyes.

Next to Orochimaru stood a boy at most a year older than Kazuki, having light brown hair, hazel eyes and distinct blushes on his cheeks.

Around his neck was a green crystal necklace, the boy unlike the cold Orochimaru giving a very sunny vibe.

"Looking at his age it's safe to conclude that this is his last journey"

Thought Kazuki, having recognized the boy next to Orochimaru.

Senju Nawaki the younger brother of Senju Tsunade, a boy very similar to the unborn savior but just lacking his luck.

"Should I?"

Murmured Kazuki, he had never interacted with Nawaki before and he wasn't so passionate to go through the trouble of following Nawaki just to save him, a stranger.

But him living would probably save the war from dragging even more, as far as he knows both Tsunade and Jiraiya are already at the Sand Battlefield and in the cannon at Nawaki's death, all of them were back in village.

[A.N: I know Nawaki died on the next day after his birthday and Tsunade was present in the village, it's not AU, I have put a reasonable explanation later in the story}

It only means that either Nawaki died at the end of the war or now, which propelled Orochimaru to take him back to village, Tsunade and Jiraiya rushing over and leaving the sand battlefield weakened.

The first guess can be ruled out as the war won't end for more than two years at least according to his foresight of the plot and Nawaki would be fourteen by then and he didn't live that long.

Moreover, saving Nawaki can bring him goodwill of Tsunade, the road towards one of the sage regions for sage mode undoubtedly becoming easier.

"Follow Me!!"

"Yes!!!"

The resolute voice of Orochimaru spread, every shinobi gathered responding with passion.

The platoon under the lead of Orochimaru departed and soon disappeared into the dense forest.

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Sunlight could hardly enter the dense forest that spanned hundreds of miles, but the platoon without slowing down in the dark forest continued their journey.

Orochimaru who was leading the platoon, was keeping an eye on everything around not letting his guard down.

They have been travelling for more than half a day and has already crossed quarters of tanzaku and are closing toward the bridge, this is where things could change.

"Although we are alert, I think it will still be better to divide the platoon into two squads and send one squad ahead to assess the situation at the bridge, Orochimaru-Sama!"

A jonin who had black hair tied into a pony tail and had the crest of Nara Clan on the back of his attire, came close to Orochimaru and suggested a plan.

"I was expecting to be attacked at least once by now but it didn't happen, we may only encounter one full force attack, half of the platoon might not be able to deal with it!"

"I'm thinking of taking a small squad with me and quietly going ahead to take a look without alerting the enemy!"

"But you can get surrounded if anything goes wrong, Lord Orochimaru!"

Told the Nara Jonin his concern at Orochimaru's plans, if something happened to platoon commander it will be disastrous.

"Even if a kage comes I have confidence to escape so don't worry!"

Said Orochimaru to Nara Jonin as next moment he slowed down and landed on the ground from the tree, the whole platoon behind halting.

Next giving the platoon orders to settle down here temporarily, Orochimaru went to the main camp with Nara Jonin to discuss the plan in details.

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In the main camp,

"In case of an attack in my absence, we should have enough force here to fend them off so I'm thinking of just taking two jonin with me, for the rest of the squad look through the whole platoon and gather three capable chunin and genin for me"

"At least able enough to delay the enemy for a while in case of being discovered!"

Said Orochimaru to Nara Jonin sitting next to him, his eyes trailing the map placed on the table before them.

"Yes! Orochimaru-Sama!"

The Nara Jonin got to work and leaving the camp went to his own little tent and started looking though the records of every shinobi in the platoon.

In just half an hour, the Nara Jonin compiled a squad, six forms resting on the table and one of them having the small picture of a genin with silver hair.