"Hidan?"
Sasuke frowned slightly. "Weren't you dead?"
"Ha!"
Hidan let out a light laugh and said with satisfaction, "Sure enough, you've grown up. You even know how to say auspicious words now. Too bad Toneri couldn't kill me, he could only lock me up… Mind helping me untie the ropes so we can chat?"
"I had a falling-out with Toneri. Now we have a common enemy, so there's absolutely room to try working together."
They were well aware of how dangerous Hidan was. Even the tiniest wound or scratch, any blood that flowed out, if it fell into Hidan's hands, would become the deadliest weapon in the world.
They didn't have Ryosuke or Tsunade's level of recovery ability.
This mission carried the future of the world on their backs. There was no room for even the slightest mistake.
From a cautious standpoint, they shouldn't rashly release Hidan.
But what Hidan said next made Kakashi, the team leader, hesitate, "I can guide you."
Hidan said, "After spending the past few days with that pedophile freak, I've gotten very familiar with the lunar base and Toneri's behavior patterns."
"Are you here to destroy the Great Tenseigan?"
"Or are you trying to open the teleportation gate?"
"No matter which one it is, I can help you."
Hidan's tone was sincere.
He truly wanted to take Toneri down and pull the ninja world back from the brink of death. That heartfelt sincerity… really didn't seem fake, leaving Sasuke and Kakashi staring at each other in silence.
Rip!
Just as Kakashi was still hesitating, a flash of cold light passed by. The whip-blade drew an arc through the air, then was sheathed again. All the ropes on Hidan's body were cleanly severed.
Kakashi turned back in shock. "Rei, you..."
"He's not lying."
Rei said, "I've studied the doctrines of the Jashin religion. To him, compared to us, Toneri is his true mortal enemy. And..."
She lightly tapped her wristwatch.
They didn't have much time left.
Kakashi nodded, then turned back to look at Hidan, who had stretched out his hand, hoping someone would pull him up. With a sharp slap, Kakashi firmly grabbed his hand and hauled Hidan up from the ground.
Gate-opening squad member +1.
The group of five once again moved through the lunar base. Hidan quietly explained the situation as they went, "This place is the residence of the Otsutsuki clan."
"But as time passed, their numbers kept shrinking, and it became harder and harder for them to have offspring. Even when they did manage to give birth, most of them had problems, either here, or here..."
Hidan pointed at his body, then his head.
"Something was off. Toneri even showed off to Hinata that among the clan, he counted as a healthy child."
Sasuke said in a low voice, "Genetic defects from inbreeding… Brother Ryosuke mentioned it before. The more closed-off a family is, the more likely they are to have diseases like this."
Hidan shrugged. He didn't understand those terms and continued, "Anyway, after everyone died out, maybe he was afraid of thinking about his dead third aunts and fourth uncles or something, so Toneri rarely comes here anymore. If we keep going along this path, we'll reach the core area."
The group picked up their pace. Maybe it was luck, or maybe the route Hidan led them on really was safe. The whole way was calm, without the slightest disturbance.
About ten minutes later, they arrived at a palace. The main hall inside was hollow, with a massive glowing sphere floating in midair.
An endless stream of power poured out from the sphere, transmitting outward.
"This big glowing ball is the power source that that bastard Toneri uses to control the moon and create the lunar light-blocking panel…"
Feeling the vast power inside the gigantic Tenseigan, Naruto's mouth fell open. Suddenly, he snapped back to his senses, thinking of Hinata being taken away. He pointed at the giant Rinnegan-like eye and said, "Then what are we waiting for? Let's destroy it, and then beat the powerless Toneri and send him flying!"
Shouting something about "kicking Toneri's balls out of the stratosphere," Naruto rushed forward, about to smash the giant Tenseigan.
"No."
Kakashi grabbed Naruto by the collar and yanked him back. "There's an extremely thick chakra barrier surrounding this giant Tenseigan. Ordinary attack methods can't break it at all."
Of course, Kakashi's Kamui, Sasuke's lingering soul slash, the single-blade dust-cutting strike, or Naruto's Tailed Beast Bomb in Tailed Beast Mode, all of them had a chance of shattering the outer barrier.
The problem was, they only had one chance.
Even if everything really went smoothly and they successfully destroyed the giant Tenseigan, what if Toneri was still fine?
Or rather, even if Toneri was weakened, thinking back to that puppet he used when fighting Ryosuke… could they even defeat that puppet?
Hidan stepped forward and spread his arms wide, "Everyone, listen to me. I think we should focus on the primary mission, open the gate and bring Ryosuke over. That's the safest option. We only get one chance, we can't waste it."
Kakashi nodded.
'That was true, but…'
The four of them looked at Hidan, who was standing at the front, gesturing and offering suggestions.
'What does this have to do with you?'
The group decided to move on. Before leaving, Sasuke thought for a moment, then took out a palm-sized metal sphere from the backpack he was carrying and stuck it onto the giant Tenseigan.
Naruto leaned over and asked, "What's that?"
Sasuke focused on sticking it in place, slapping it firmly with his palm again and again to make sure it wouldn't fall off. Hearing Naruto's question, he replied casually,
"A replica C0."
"Which C0?"
"Deidara's."
After Onoki joined the research institute, it was a joint R&D product with the weapons department. Its power was definitely inferior to the original, but the advantage was that it could be mass-produced, you didn't have to consume one Deidara every time there was an explosion.
Kakashi was dumbfounded. "You even brought this kind of rocket with you?"
He had been blown up by Deidara's bombs before.
If he hadn't awakened the Mangekyo at a critical moment, Kakashi would have long since become a corpse, forever left behind in the ruins of Roran.
Sasuke smiled faintly, "Since we set out prepared to die, compared to the enemies we're about to face, this bit of danger is nothing."
Seeing Rei and Naruto nod repeatedly, Kakashi licked his lips.
"You two wouldn't..."
Rei opened her backpack. Inside were palm-sized explosive puppet spiders, filling it to the brim.
Naruto's backpack was stuffed full of detonator tags, along with three or four rice balls that had been squashed flat.
If any one of these accidentally went off during flight, right now they would already be space debris, drifting through outer space.
A hand reached over and gave Kakashi's shoulder a solid pat.
"Bro, not that I'm saying anything, but you really need to update your way of thinking. I think these three kids are great..."
"Get lost."
Kakashi smacked Hidan's hand away, rolled his eyes, and kept moving forward.
Hidan didn't mind at all, grinning as he followed behind the team.
Another ten minutes later, Kamui tore open a tightly sealed door.
They had found the core of the teleportation array.
Kakashi compared it with the photos Ryosuke had taken with mind transmission and nodded slightly.
"This is the place."
Rei, Naruto, and Hidan stayed outside on guard.
Kakashi and Sasuke entered the interior.
The details of activating the array had long since been handed over to experts at the research institute after the mind transmission. Kakashi held a complete activation plan in his hands.
"Next, we just carry it out step by step."
Kakashi activated the array. Sasuke drew a short blade and entered Mangekyo mode. If any deviation appeared, he would immediately erase the corresponding chakra fluctuations. This gave Kakashi as many chances to trial-and-error as possible, avoiding activation mistakes that might alert Toneri.
That said, with Kakashi's chakra control ability, if he couldn't even manage a copy-by-numbers approach, how could he possibly be known as the Copy Ninja?
Threads of chakra flowed along their predetermined paths. Finally, they filled the entire array.
"It worked!"
Kakashi slammed both hands onto the ground, officially activating the formation.
The next second...
Beep! Beep! Beep!
Red lights flashed overhead.
The alarm sounded.
"Why?!"
Kakashi couldn't understand it. Where had the mistake been?
Bang!
A black shadow flew backward, slamming heavily into the wall. Splattered brain matter sprayed everywhere.
It was Hidan.
He had one arm around each of them, shielding Naruto and Rei.
Seeing Kakashi look over, Hidan bared his teeth in a grin.
"Don't worry, I won't die."
He looked toward the self-torn wall, at Toneri stepping inside. His smile slowly faded.
"But you guys might not be so lucky."
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