Natsuki raised his hand to greet them, seeing that only Sasuke was a bit disheveled, and everyone else was unharmed.
He immediately felt relieved.
He said to Kakashi, "Kakashi-senpai, I searched all over and couldn't find Orochimaru. I only rushed over when I heard the commotion here. Just now, I saw this big snake suddenly charge over in the corridor, so I sent him on his way with one slash. If I'm not mistaken, he should be Orochimaru, right?"
Kakashi nodded: "He is indeed Orochimaru. I didn't expect him to transform himself like this."
Speaking of this, he couldn't help but sigh.
He was one of the Sannin, yet for the dream of eternal life, he committed countless evil deeds, even going so far as to transform himself into something neither human nor snake, finally meeting such a tragic end.
Pitiful, lamentable, and hateful!
Natsuki looked at Sasuke again: "You weren't fighting Orochimaru again, were you? How did it go? Did you win?"
Sasuke shook his head: "I had the upper hand using Body Flicker Phantom, but Orochimaru used a trick, then turned into a big snake to coil around me, and even activated the curse mark on me. Thankfully, Yakumo saved me, otherwise I would have been in danger."
Hmm? He's already calling her by her name?
Oh, it seems there's nothing wrong with that. Sasuke also calls Sakura and Megumi by name; it's normal.
Natsuki smiled and praised, "As expected of someone I recommended, truly reliable at a crucial moment!"
Kurama Yakumo's face turned red again, while Megumi looked proud and said, "Boss, you didn't see it, but when the snake was coiling Sasuke-kun, Yakumo directly used Genjutsu to make the snake let go, and then gave the snake a nail, almost nailing the snake to death. If the snake hadn't shed its skin to escape, it wouldn't have been the Boss's turn to kill it!"
"Oh, oh, that's really impressive!"
Natsuki followed up with praises, making Kurama Yakumo's face completely red.
The little girl is still thin-skinned and can't stand praise at all, she's really adorable.
Natsuki didn't tease her any further, instead turning to check the White Scaled Serpent's corpse with Kakashi and Yamashiro Aoba, confirming it wasn't the Orochimaru-style Body Replacement Technique but a real serpent, and that it was truly dead.
"Can we confirm that Orochimaru is dead?" Yamashiro Aoba asked.
"Probably. We saw Orochimaru transform into the White Scaled Serpent with our own eyes, and now the White Scaled Serpent is dead, and there are still nail marks left by Yakumo on its body. It should be Orochimaru without a doubt. So, he should be truly dead!"
Actually, Kakashi wasn't entirely sure either.
Orochimaru was just too cunning, maybe he had already escaped.
Then, both of them looked at Natsuki.
Natsuki pondered for a moment and said, "He should be dead. When I attacked, I confirmed it was Orochimaru, and I didn't find him using the Body Replacement Technique or any other method to escape, so it should be correct."
As for the fact that Orochimaru's soul is still alive in Anko Mitarashi and Sasuke's cursed seals, it's better not to mention that.
He'll just remind Sasuke later.
It would be simple for Orochimaru to revive, he could just emerge from the cursed seal, but the current Orochimaru probably wouldn't want to appear, because it would be useless even if he did.
His hands were disabled, and until he found a good solution, he would definitely not reappear easily.
So, there's no need to worry for now.
Kakashi and Yamashiro Aoba both breathed a sigh of relief. As long as Orochimaru was dead, this mission should be considered a success, and they didn't come for nothing; there would be rewards when they returned.
With one less venomous snake eyeing the Village, Konoha could also relax considerably.
Kakashi said, "Natsuki, send messages to the others. We will continue to clean up this main base."
Natsuki nodded and silently wrote a few notes to send to each team.
Aoba Team, on the other hand, went to the data room. They planned to check the information on the people in the prison. If there were innocent people inside, it would be best to release them quickly.
Kakashi planned to find Sai and see what that kid was doing.
Sakura didn't know what she should do for a moment, so she looked at Sasuke: "Sasuke-kun, what about us?"
Sasuke ignored Sakura, instead walking up to the White Scaled Serpent and examining it. Then, he actually drew his sword and cut open the serpent's belly, only to see a kusanagi sword and a scroll fall out of the serpent's stomach.
"Natsuki, come here."
Sasuke called out, "This is the kusanagi sword, and the Ryuchi Cave summoning contract scroll. See if you want them."
Natsuki decisively reached out and picked up the kusanagi sword: "I'll take this one. After all, Tenten is good at using Ninja Tools, and this kusanagi sword suits her well. As for the summoning contract scroll, if I dared to contract snakes, Tenten would kick me off the bed."
Sakura's face immediately flushed red upon hearing this, not expecting Natsuki's statement to be so bold.
Sasuke, however, didn't quite understand: "Why? Ryuchi Cave is one of the Three Great Holy Lands. Contracting with Ryuchi Cave should make you very powerful!"
Natsuki patted Sasuke's shoulder: "You might not understand yet, but girls generally don't like snakes!"
Is that so?
Sasuke looked up at Sakura...
Sakura's face stiffened, but she forced herself to say, "I, I, I don't dislike snakes!"
She didn't dare say she liked snakes. Saying she didn't dislike them was already using all her strength, because she saw that Sasuke wanted power, so he would definitely sign the contract scroll. Therefore, she wanted to show that she didn't dislike snakes, and thus wouldn't mind Sasuke contracting with Ryuchi Cave.
However, the reason Sasuke looked at Sakura was simply because she was the only girl here.
As for what Sakura was thinking, he didn't actually care.
Opening the contract scroll and seeing the names Orochimaru and Kabuto Yakushi at the bottom, Sasuke didn't hesitate to bite his finger and sign his name at the end.
Natsuki looked over curiously and rolled his eyes when he saw the name of someone called Kishimoto also on it.
With Orochimaru dead, the cleanup work was naturally a piece of cake.
Natsuki didn't even bother with most things, just casually found a laboratory to look through some data. He didn't expect Orochimaru to have some strange ideas, but the human experiments were something Natsuki couldn't bear to look at.
And Natsuki didn't expect that Sasuke's luck was truly good.
He actually found another kusanagi sword, this one in the style of a samurai sword, which felt like the one from the original story.
It seems Sasuke and Orochimaru are truly fated. Even though Sasuke didn't defect to Orochimaru now, he still gained quite a few good things from Orochimaru's legacy.
Just the kusanagi sword and the Ryuchi Cave contract scroll were already a huge gain.
However, Natsuki didn't know that Sasuke also obtained information about the Three-Tails, truly making a fortune.
The other teams also quickly cleared out nearby smaller strongholds and eliminated many Sound Ninja. It can be said that this mission was completed beautifully, and everyone was beaming with joy.
Then, everyone gathered at the entrance of the main base.
As soon as Tenten arrived, she ran to Natsuki's side, excitedly holding his hand, her fingers constantly scratching and tickling his palm.
It seemed she was extremely excited but couldn't express it, so she could only scratch her boyfriend's palm.