Chapter 189: Ten-Pull
"That's the basic situation. What we can confirm at present is that Orochimaru was indeed active in that vicinity, but he has already left," Tsunade said seriously, sitting in her chair. "Your mission is to explore the bases Orochimaru left behind. If there are any remaining materials, scrolls, and documents, or other items of value, bring them back. If you encounter any remaining Sound ninja, capture them alive if possible. When you leave, destroy the bases."
"A reconnaissance squad will remain in the vicinity to keep watch for you. If they detect any sign of Orochimaru's return, they will sound an alarm. You are to retreat immediately, without hesitation!"
"These are your mission briefs and sealing scrolls," Tsunade said, handing several envelopes and a huge scroll to Shino and the captains of the other two teams respectively. "Be careful. Orochimaru's abandoned bases are not as precious as you are!"
She scanned the Anbu who were standing solemnly in front of her, her gaze lingering on Sakura for a few extra seconds.
As if asking her, are you ready for the next battle?
The girl quietly twisted her mask open, nodded slightly at her master, and revealed a confident smile.
After resting these past few days, the Yin Seal has stored some chakra again. And Sakura Rush - Phase Two has already been successfully developed.
I can't beat Orochimaru, but if I just want to exchange a few blows with him and then run, it shouldn't be a big problem.
To fight against the strong, to improve herself in real battles, rather than cooping herself up in a safe place to develop ninjutsu in isolation—this was her purpose for joining the Anbu in the first place. Of course, Sakura would not refuse such a mission.
Tsunade then nodded at the crowd.
"Set out!" she ordered with a sharp wave of her hand.
The Anbu all flickered at the same time, turning into afterimages and leaving the Hokage's office.
They sped all the way to their destination.
Because it was not a time-sensitive rescue mission, this time they adopted a stamina-saving cruising speed, which was much slower than last time.
When night fell, the group had just arrived near the location of the great battle with Kimimaro.
There was still a long way to go to the destination. The three captains naturally would not choose to travel at night, so they stopped where they were and camped in the wild.
It was called camping, but in fact, it was just finding a hidden location, using Earth Style to build a few small houses. The captains took out simple bedding from their scrolls, and everyone just made do.
A ninja's life was not always a storm of blood and gore, nor was it always a leisurely and relaxed life in the village. Sometimes, it was also this simple and crude, eating in the wind and sleeping in the dew.
Sakura, covered with a thin blanket, thought faintly to herself as she listened to the whispers of her teammates outside.
If this were in that other world, for a beautiful girl like her to sleep in such a simple environment for one night, people would probably be high-key calling it 'abuse of a beautiful girl' or something.
However, Haruno Sakura was now a ninja, and had once been a man, so she was neither delicate nor a fragile flower. She did not need, and certainly did not hope for, special treatment because of her appearance or gender—and the Anbu would not do such a delicate thing either.
The hard-packed earth beneath her, the rough blanket and mattress, the faint snores and breathing sounds of those around her, instead reminded her of the happy dormitory life of sleeping on a hard-plank bed during her school days in her previous life. In the darkness, her teammates quickly finished discussing tomorrow's mission, turned around and returned to the earthen houses, leaving only the ninja on guard duty.
A night passed without a word.
When the dawn arrived, Sakura, who had been on watch for the second half of the night, rubbed her slightly numb legs, ate a simple breakfast with her teammates, and then set off again.
They arrived near the destination at about noon. The reconnaissance squad's ninja had already been waiting there for a while.
The captains took out their mission sheets and cross-referenced with the ninja who met them. Everyone nodded to each other silently, and without saying much, they split into three directions and went their separate ways.
"This is one of Orochimaru's bases below," the ninja leading the way for Squad 14 said. He was probably an Inuzuka ninja, with a majestic-looking, white-furred ninja hound by his side. He had brought Squad 14 to a small, unremarkable hill and stomped on the grass under his feet.
"Kotarō smelled that snake-like scent of Orochimaru here," he said, patting the big white dog's head and explaining, "Its sense of smell is very sensitive and has never been wrong. There must be a base of Orochimaru's underground."
"An underground base with no entrance?" Shino asked, looking around. He couldn't see any obvious entrance.
However, this kind of fully enclosed underground base, which only had small ventilation openings, was no challenge for the Anbu, who possessed ninjutsu.
Shino used Earth Style to open an entrance. The three members of Squad 14 entered one after another, leaving the ninja with the ninja hound on guard above.
The gloomy and dark underground base was not full of contraptions and traps as Sakura had imagined.
On the contrary, it looked abnormally crude, even more spartan than the earthen house she had slept in last night—the latter at least had a blanket.
"There are quite a few rooms, but there aren't even any daily necessities," Sakura, who had been wandering around for a long time and had found nothing, couldn't help but complain.
The girl's fingertips picked up a small oil lamp. This was the only man-made object she had found in this room. The dilapidated oil lamp disintegrated the moment she picked it up, and it fell to the ground with a clang, making a sound that echoed for a long time in the silent room.
Shino looked back, glanced at Haruno Sakura, and said, half-helplessly, "It seems we've come to the wrong place. No one has been here for at least a few years."
"Apart from some giant snakeskins, we haven't found anything of value," Yūgao, who had also returned empty-handed after a round of searching, replied faintly. She had been looking forward to finding some of Orochimaru's weapons or secret jutsu materials here. "Do we need to take the snakeskins back, Shino?"
"Let's just forget about the snakeskins..." The corner of Shino's mouth twitched, and he said quickly.
After another round of searching and confirming that nothing had been missed, the three of them returned to the surface. Shino used an Earth Style jutsu to completely destroy the underground base.
"An empty base?" The Inuzuka ninja shrugged and crossed off a mark on the map, saying, as if it were expected, "Let's go. We'll check the next one."
A cunning rabbit has three burrows. Orochimaru had left more than just one or two bases in this vicinity.
In fact, with a convenient ninjutsu like Earth Style, building a semi-permanent base was just a matter of lifting a finger for a powerful ninja like Orochimaru.
It was just that most of these bases, or rather, underground holes, were abandoned after being used for a period of time for various reasons.
The second underground base that Squad 14 went to was just like that.
"It's absolutely impossible for anyone to live here," Shino asserted as soon as he got down to the base.
What was under his feet was not solid earth, but a waterway that had flooded half the corridor. Groundwater had seeped in and turned the entire base into a vast ocean.
Orochimaru might be able to live in this kind of place, but he still had many subordinates who were not so strong. Those people probably couldn't live in this kind of water.
"I'll go," Sakura said, walking to the front. This environment was very suitable for her to use her ninjutsu.
"Water Style: Legion Water Clone Jutsu!"
The girl channeled some chakra into the water, which turned into one after another of crudely made, faceless water clones. The last time this ninjutsu had been used was in the Chunin Exams half a year ago, a clone jutsu she had used when sparring with Naruto. (Note)
To deal with this kind of simple and tedious task, the Legion Water Clone was clearly the most cost-effective choice. Before long, the water clones that had scattered to search for useful items returned to Sakura one after another.
They brought back: 5 rotted chairs, 7 broken oil lamps, and several wet, tattered rags of unknown use...
"Is this all?" The pink-haired girl's face darkened, and she sighed in her heart: The Legion Water Clone is, after all, too crude. Its thinking ability is a bit too low. She had told them to collect items of value in the base, but in the end, they had brought back this pile of trash.
Then she quickly discovered that she had wrongly blamed her water clones—in the end, the clones hadn't brought back any other truly useful items. The only things of value in this base were clearly the pile of trash in front of her.
Sakura silently dispelled the water clones, realizing that she had been the one to make a stupid mistake. It was a wonder she'd found anything useful in an abandoned base at all.
She reached her hand into her mask and scratched her face, feeling that they weren't on a dangerous ninja mission at all.
It was more like they were doing a ten-pull in some low-quality mobile game.
And it was the kind of ten-pull that didn't even announce the drop rates. The first two "golden eggs" she had smashed had all been trash.
By the time she came out of the underground base, Sakura felt that she had already seen through the essence of this mission.
After routinely destroying this base, Squad 14 continued to set out for the next location.
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