Ōnoki's eyes grew cold as memories of his last meeting with Orochimaru days ago surfaced in his mind.
Orochimaru had advised him to stop while he still could, but now, how could he possibly turn back?
"Orochimaru, I will prove to you that I am right!"
Kakashi had held off Hidan, allowing the Leaf forces to keep moving forward.
Luckily, thanks to Pakkun's keen sense of smell, they were able to proceed without obstruction and tracked straight to a huge rocky cave entrance.
The cave was blocked by a massive boulder, sealed with a talisman.
Black Zetsu, having noticed the arriving Leaf forces outside, sneered coldly.
"Hmph, just as you wished, you've come right on time."
"Byakugan!"
Hyūga Neji's veins bulged around his eyes as his vision instantly shifted to black and white.
He saw through the cave and the situation inside.
"There are three people inside. Gaara is lying on the ground. He looks seriously wounded, but nothing seems abnormal."
"That doesn't make sense. According to Granny Chiyo, they deliberately kidnapped Gaara. Isn't it to extract the tailed beast from his jinchūriki body?"
Tenten asked, puzzled.
"If that's the case, why haven't they done it yet?"
Everyone understood what she meant.
Though it wasn't pleasant to say aloud, the fact remained.
"Perhaps something delayed it," Sasuke said, his eyes flickering as he guessed.
"That's probably right. But we can't lower our guard."
Neji nodded at Sasuke and then looked at everyone.
"Our mission is to rescue Gaara as soon as possible. Whatever happens inside is none of our concern."
"Then, leave it to me."
Sasuke confidently stretched her body.
As her five slender fingers clenched, a terrifying power roared out.
Bang!
Air rushed wildly through the gaps between her fingers, as if invisible shockwaves exploded around her.
"Are you sure you can do this?" Hyuga Neji frowned slightly, showing some doubt.
"Don't worry, Neji~" At that moment, Haruno Sakura stepped forward, patting Neji's shoulder with a smile.
"You might not know, but Sasuke trained under Lady Tsunade for a while."
Upon hearing this, Neji and Tenten froze for half a second, then both suddenly looked enlightened.
No wonder Sasuke was so confident.
"Then it's in your hands, Sasuke."
Neji and the others stepped back a few paces, making space for Sasuke.
Looking at the enormous rock nearly ten meters tall ahead, Sasuke took a step back, adjusted her breathing, and her pupils glowed with a fierce golden light.
Her whole aura shifted dramatically, stacking layer upon layer like a volcano ready to erupt!
Power rose steadily along her legs to her heart, which throbbed with a strong, powerful beat.
Blood surged into her limbs, and Sasuke took a thunderous step forward.
Bang!
Suddenly, the pool of water surrounding the girl seemed to be struck, rising in visible, roaring waves!
In an instant, Sasuke leapt several dozen meters, trailing layers of energy waves behind her.
Her clenched fingers gathered power and then exploded with terrifying force, striking the rock heavily!
Boom!!!
The seemingly delicate fist struck the rock with the force of tens of thousands of tons!
Amid the deafening roar, something unexpected happened.
The rock did not shatter from the blow.
Instead, from the point of impact, ripples spread outwards like waves on water, gradually fading away completely.
"A barrier."
Sasuke sensed something wrong the moment she hit the rock.
The feeling was as if hitting a sponge that absorbed all her power.
Looking again at the sealing character '封' on the rock, she pondered briefly, then turned to Hyuga Neji and said, "If I'm right, this is a barrier. There should be others nearby with similar sealing marks. Neji, could you help check?"
Without wasting words, Neji immediately activated his Byakugan.
As expected, after his careful search, he really found several spots nearby, each also marked with talisman papers.
"Found them, just like you said," Neji furrowed his brows and said in a low voice, "I think I heard other Jonin in the village mention that these kinds of sealing tags for barriers need to be removed at the same time."
But counting the sealing tags on the rock, there were five in total—and yet there were only four of them!
"Don't worry, I have a way."
Sasuke smiled slightly and formed hand seals to summon a shadow clone.
"A shadow clone?" Neji shook his head with a sigh after seeing it. "For this kind of barrier sealing technique, a simple shadow clone won't work. The caster already anticipated this."
But Sasuke took a wooden tag from his pocket and inserted it directly into the shadow clone's body. "This should do it."
Everyone was left baffled by her action, staring at Sasuke with puzzled expressions.
"You can think of it as a secret technique," Sasuke admitted, unsure how else to explain. "Right now, this shadow clone has about a third of my strength, enough to remove the sealing tags."
"So you mean, you're going to stay here alone?"
Neji couldn't help but worry. The situation inside the cave was unclear, and it was too risky to leave Sasuke alone.
"Don't worry, I'm pretty strong!"
Sasuke tucked the hair slipping from her temple behind her ear and smiled gently. "These past two years, following Lord Jiraiya wasn't time wasted."
Seeing her so confident, Neji hesitated for half a second, then reluctantly nodded. "Alright, I trust you. After we remove the sealing tags, we'll rush back to support you as fast as possible. You just need to hold them off and be very careful."
"Okay, I'll be careful and wait for you to come back," Sasuke nodded.
After receiving an accurate answer, Hyuga Neji said to Tenten and Sakura, "Let's hurry up and get going!"
Inside the cave, White Zetsu turned to another person and said, "It's time. Let's give them a little shock."
As soon as the words fell, the rocks blocking the cave suddenly collapsed with a thunderous crash!
Sasuke had already broken through. At first glance, she saw Gaara lying on the ground, seriously injured.
But suddenly, a figure blocked the way ahead. Silver hair, red eyes, wearing a face-protecting forehead guard, dressed in layered blue armor with white feathers on the shoulders—he looked exceptionally heroic.
Looking at that figure, Sasuke suddenly froze in place, her pupils shrinking. "The Second Hokage, Lord?!"
*******
Support me on my patreon and read upto 20 early chapters.
https://www.patreon.com/c/Unique_Writer