On the other side, Kakashi's team killed a few Sound Ninja along the way and arrived at a data room.
They didn't find any trace of Lord Orochimaru, and Natsuki hadn't sent a note for a long time, which made Kakashi start to worry.
If Lord Orochimaru escaped, the consequences would be unimaginable!
At this moment, Sai suddenly walked into the data room and started looking through things seriously, as if searching for something.
Sakura immediately shouted, "Sai, what are you doing? Hurry up and go! We need to find Lord Orochimaru quickly! Sai? Did you hear me?!"
Sai ignored her and continued to look through the data on his own.
Kakashi immediately understood. This guy was called here by Danzo to find something, and now he was going to leave the team!
For a moment, Kakashi also had a headache. The original four-person team was formed to stabilize their fighting strength. Now that Sai was suddenly doing this, it would have been better not to let him join in the first place.
Isn't this causing trouble?
Sure enough, the old thief Danzo is selfish. Compared to eliminating Lord Orochimaru, finding something seems more important!
Sasuke glanced at Sai but didn't get angry. Instead, he thought of something and also entered the data room. He even activated his Sharingan and quickly scanned around.
Then, his gaze fixed on a scroll.
The scroll was clearly labeled: Three-Tails!
"Three-Tails? Could it be that Lord Orochimaru is also interested in the Tailed Beasts? That makes sense. For someone like him, it's normal to even capture Tailed Beasts for experiments. So, did this Three-Tails revive and become isolated?"
Sasuke was excited. He immediately grabbed the scroll, opened it, and quickly scanned a few lines.
Inside the scroll was a map, seemingly of a lake perpetually shrouded in mist. The reason for suspecting the Three-Tails was inside the lake was precisely because the Three-Tails prefers living alone in freshwater environments, is skilled in Water Release, and often deliberately sprays mist to cover the lake, preventing people and other creatures from approaching casually and disturbing its peaceful life.
"Tailed Beasts! I found you!"
Sasuke immediately put the scroll away, a smile involuntarily appearing at the corner of his mouth.
Kakashi and Sakura also walked in, first casting a dissatisfied glance at Sai, then seeing that Sasuke seemed very happy, and for a moment didn't know what to say.
"Sasuke-kun, what did you find that made you so happy?" Sakura tried to start a conversation.
"Nothing, just some records about the Uchiha."
Sasuke didn't want anyone else to know his thoughts. He understood Kakashi, who would very likely not agree to him becoming a Jinchuriki.
So, he had to hide the information, then find time to ask Natsuki for help. With Natsuki's strength, subduing the Three-Tails was definitely not a problem. And what he had to do was learn sealing techniques well. Whether he could successfully seal the Three-Tails and extract its power would be entirely up to him.
"It's a shame the Three-Tails is skilled in Water Release, which doesn't suit me, but for now, this is the only option."
Sasuke had no choice.
At present, being able to obtain the power of the Three-Tails was already very difficult to come by; he couldn't ask for more.
Sai flipped through it for a moment, seemed to have not found what he wanted, and then said, "Sorry, I have my own mission, and I just delayed you a little. You're not angry, are you?"
"What do you think?"
Sakura's face was very unpleasant, wanting to punch this pale guy.
Kakashi said, "Alright, since there's nothing, hurry up and keep looking. We haven't heard from Natsuki yet; maybe he went the wrong way, and perhaps we'll run into him. Let's hurry and find Orochimaru, then eliminate him. If he escapes, the consequences would be unthinkable!"
This venomous snake squatting in a neighboring country already kept Konoha awake at night; if he escaped again, peace would likely be impossible in the future.
The four of them started moving again. Perhaps they were lucky this time, encountering Orochimaru right in the corridor.
Orochimaru's hands were wrapped in bandages, and a chilling smile hung on his pale, bloodless face: "Hehehe, I wondered why the base suddenly became so lively. So, friends from Konoha have arrived. Sasuke-kun, did you come here voluntarily to give me your body? Although it's still two years until my next reincarnation, I don't mind taking you with me now."
His answer was Sasuke drawing his sword.
Sasuke said coldly, "If you want my body, you can try! However, today will be your death day!"
Saying that, he directly lunged forward. His Three-Tomoe Sharingan was already activated, and his Lightning Flash was faster than before. In the blink of an eye, his long sword had already reached Orochimaru's head.
Clang! Swords clashed, sending out brilliant sparks.
Orochimaru had already completed the 'I spit snake, snake spits sword' maneuver, parrying continuously with the sword held in his mouth.
Although he couldn't use his hands, he could still keep up with Sasuke's speed, and even just biting the sword, he didn't seem to be at a disadvantage.
As expected of one of the Sannin!
Kakashi took out a Kunai and reluctantly pushed up his forehead protector to reveal his Sharingan: "I don't know if this is good luck or bad luck, to actually run into Orochimaru like this. Why wasn't it Natsuki who encountered him? And Tenten isn't here, how am I supposed to notify Natsuki to come over?"
He said that, but he had already taken a stance, ready to attack at any moment.
It was just that the corridor was relatively narrow and not suitable for two people to fight together.
Kakashi could only use Earth Release, directly phasing to the other side of the corridor, blocking Orochimaru's retreat.
As for Sakura, she quickly retreated, not daring to get too close, fearing being targeted by Orochimaru. With her strength, getting closer would just be serving herself up.
"I, once again, can't do anything. I can only wait for someone to get injured before providing medical treatment, and my Medical Ninjutsu is still very ordinary; I can't heal serious injuries. I'm really useless. I clearly want to help Sasuke-kun so much, and I also want to become stronger, but what should I do? Should I ask Tsunade-sama to be my teacher? But with my aptitude, will Tsunade-sama really approve of me?"
It's not surprising that Sakura doubted herself; she really wasn't good enough.
She only had good test scores in school; after becoming a Ninja, she was only slightly better at Chakra control. She had no other strengths at all; even when comparing figures among girls her age, she was completely defeated.
The most important point was that she was still fantasizing about falling in love within the team!
She said she wanted to become stronger, but she didn't have the firm determination to do so!
In her state, very few people would take her as a disciple, let alone someone like Tsunade, who would never take someone with unstable beliefs as a disciple!
At this time, Sasuke's White Fang Sword Technique seemed to have the upper hand, but he couldn't take down Orochimaru for a long time.
Sasuke knew clearly that if Orochimaru hadn't been unable to use his hands, he wouldn't have been able to fight Orochimaru to this extent.
But this was also an opportunity for him to train well. Before Natsuki arrived, if he could defeat Orochimaru, it wouldn't be a bad thing.
So, he immediately activated his ultimate move: "Body Flicker Phantom!"
Swish! Swish! Swish!
Three phantoms split off, blocking both sides of the corridor along with the main body.