No one knew how much time had passed.
When the scar-faced shinobi finally awoke from unconsciousness, the searing pain in his wrist twisted his face into a grimace—but then his eyes fell on the four figures standing before him.
"Damn it! You're not shinobi of the Hidden Rain Village at all!"
Now fully awake, lying on the ground, he raised his head and shouted, "I don't care who you are, let me go right now! The patrol will be here any moment!"
He had already been bound tightly from head to toe, trussed up like an insect, writhing in vain.
But all of it was pointless—his cries couldn't reach the outside.
Damn it!
How much time has passed? Why hasn't anyone come to save me?
The commotion back then was so huge, there were so many witnesses—surely someone must have gone to report it?
"Stop shouting."
Hatake Kakashi dug a finger into his ear, his single dead-fish eye boring into the scar-faced shinobi as he explained with mock "kindness":
"We walked out openly. The tavern owner himself even escorted us out. So no one's coming to save you."
Even as the words left his mouth, Kakashi couldn't help but smirk, as though the absurdity of it all amused even him.
Beside him, the perpetually stiff-faced Tenzo wore a strange expression, while his gaze shifted toward the silent Hyūga Kumokawa.
"…What?" The scar-faced shinobi froze, dumbstruck. "Are those people insane? Not reporting to the patrol—and watching with their own eyes as you dragged me away?"
Kakashi didn't bother to explain further. He only asked, "Speak. Tell us everything you know. All of it."
"Never!" the scar-faced shinobi snarled. "I won't betray—"
"Allow me."
Before he could finish, Hyūga Kumokawa stepped forward, smiling gently, his tone soft:
"Don't worry. I'll do as I did before… crushing your bones little by little, until you tell us what we want to hear."
At those words, Kakashi, Tenzo, and their companion exchanged a glance. Their eyes filled with pity as they looked upon the scar-faced shinobi.
Without a word, they all stepped out of the room, leaving Kumokawa alone with him.
The scar-faced shinobi shivered at Kumokawa's smile. His face went pale, his body recoiling instinctively.
"Y-you, don't come any closer—you… AHHHH!!"
Moments later, from outside the door, Kakashi and the others heard the wails of agony, the shrieks of torment… and then silence.
A dreadful, deathly stillness.
Crack.
Hyūga Kumokawa emerged from the ruined house. Meeting their probing stares, he nodded calmly. "He's been squeezed dry."
The interrogation had gone smoothly.
Under Kumokawa's merciless methods, the scar-faced shinobi spilled everything: the state of the Hidden Rain, Hanzō's condition, the stationed personnel, the stockpiles of weaponry—everything poured out like beans from a split bamboo tube.
By the end, he even confessed to peeking at the neighbor girl bathing when he was a child.
If Kumokawa hadn't finally stopped, the man might have gone on to reveal his own wife's secret fetishes.
Kakashi pushed the door open and looked inside.
What he saw was a body mangled beyond recognition—bones shattered to mush, flesh crumpled into a heap of meat.
His expression didn't change. Shinobi were never meant to be gentle souls.
And ANBU were certainly no humanitarian corps. Without hesitation, Kakashi ignited the corpse, burning it into ash.
"Now we can confirm—just as we suspected. Something has gone wrong in the Hidden Rain. Hanzō's character has changed drastically. And the root cause is that organization called Akatsuki."
Kakashi summarized the intelligence succinctly, immediately locking on to the key point.
Akatsuki.
Unfortunately, information was scarce.
Survivors spoke of it only in whispers. Even Hanzō himself refused to talk, shrouding it in secrecy.
So the scar-faced shinobi knew little, and the other three Rain shinobi even less.
"Wasn't our mission to gauge the current strength of Hanzō and the Hidden Rain?" Tenzo asked.
"Correct," Kakashi replied evenly. "But only on the condition that Hanzō and the Hidden Rain were the sole threats in the Land of Rain."
The mission's true essence was not to measure their power alone, but to determine how much of a threat the Land of Rain posed to the Leaf.
As the war broadened, the Hidden Sand and Hidden Stone were both likely to intervene.
When that time came, the Land of Rain would be the shortest route for two great villages to strike at the Land of Fire.
The Leaf had to be the first to understand Rain's current state.
For shinobi, information was paramount.
Like in the original tale: when Jiraiya fought Nagato's Six Paths of Pain, if he had known the truth behind them, Nagato would never have defeated him without going all out.
Or Hidan—deadly ritual jutsu, but riddled with fatal weaknesses.
With intel, even Shikamaru could kill him. Without it, Asuma Sarutobi died at his hands.
In the shinobi world, there was never an absolute rule that "genin cannot defeat chūnin" or "chūnin cannot defeat jōnin."
If one knew both oneself and the enemy, with enough intelligence, strategies could be crafted to exploit flaws. Even a genin could slay a jōnin.
"So, Senior Kakashi believes the Akatsuki could become a future threat to the Leaf's war efforts?" Hyūga Kumokawa suddenly asked.
Kakashi nodded.
Another shinobi frowned. "But they're just a ragged group, hunted by the Hidden Rain itself—nothing but a few scraps. Do they really deserve such attention?"
"I think Senior Kakashi is correct," Kumokawa said with a smile, cutting in before Kakashi could respond.
"Hanzō's renown is genuine, earned through slaughter on the battlefield. Even if age has weakened him, he should not be this cowardly."
"For something to drive Hanzō into such terror—the so-called Akatsuki must be far from simple."
At his words, both Tenzo and the other Leaf shinobi grew thoughtful. They, too, began to agree with Kakashi and Kumokawa's judgment.
"So what should we do next?" Tenzo asked.
Kakashi thought for a moment, then spoke slowly.
"With Hanzō's current temperament and situation, his attitude toward the Leaf may no longer be so hostile. We could try to speak with him."
"If we can learn Akatsuki's secrets, offer to help him resolve this problem, and at the same time propose an alliance—then in the future, the Land of Rain might become a shield against the Hidden Sand and Hidden Stone."
Here he paused, adding, "Of course, that depends on Lord Third's approval. We cannot act without his consent."
Kumokawa nodded in agreement—but then, suddenly, his gaze faltered.
A strange sensation stirred within him.
The scroll he had once left with Orochimaru had been triggered.
That meant Orochimaru had met the conditions to unseal it. He was now seeing the contents within.
"So, you've finally developed Living Corpse Reincarnation, haven't you?"
Kumokawa's eyes flickered with amusement, and he smiled faintly.
"I've been waiting a long time, Lord Orochimaru. Don't you dare disappoint me."
For at the end of that scroll, Kumokawa had left something "interesting."
Or rather—lies.
Or perhaps—rules.
Hyūga Kumokawa no longer intended to merely manifest techniques and objects.
He wanted to attempt planting fundamental rules into the shinobi world itself.
A grand deception—vast enough to set the entire ninja world dancing to its tune.
---
Meanwhile, at the border between the Land of Grass and the Land of Rain, inside a hidden cavern base—
Orochimaru's pallid face looked all the more sinister under the dim light. But within those features burned madness, fervor.
"Finally… finally complete! Living Corpse Reincarnation! I—"
Hissss.
Before he could finish, his tongue flicked out like a serpent's, his voice shifting into that of a woman, mocking:
"Useless Orochimaru. So what if you've crafted a technique to change bodies? Would you really abandon this vessel—one that can wield Sage Arts?"
"In Ryūchi Cave, everything you gained came with a price, hissss. Don't think you'll ever escape…"
"Shut up!" Orochimaru's voice shifted again, face twisting with fury. "Tanishino Kamihime—I'll devour both your body and your soul, sooner or later!"
Turning away, he moved toward the scroll on the table.
No—he did not walk.
He slithered.
For Orochimaru no longer had legs. In their place, a long white serpent's tail coiled and dragged across the floor.
On that day, in order to survive, he had made a pact with the White Snake Sage.
This was the price he paid.
His body had fused with one of Ryūchi Cave's three great snake princesses—Tanishi no Kami-hime.
He had gained the ability to wield Senjutsu, but could never escape Ryūchi Cave's control.
Still, it was worth it.
Hisss.
Orochimaru's tongue flicked instinctively. His gaze burned as he reached for the scroll.
Once sealed, once unreachable… now it unraveled with ease beneath his fingers.
"As expected… only by mastering both soul and natural energy could the seals be undone."
His eyes blazed hotter still. He hungrily scanned the scroll's hidden contents—yet after only the first two lines, he froze.
[Of the passing of all living beings, their paths of return are not one. Upon death, the soul may scatter to the wind, return to the pure land of the Six Paths, or fall into my Hueco Mundo.]
[The Hueco Mundo—final destination of souls. A domain suspended between the living world and the Pure Land, forever shrouded in eternal night…]