Now, without the Kusanagi Sword to accelerate him to seventy times the speed of sound, he couldn't even manage a sneak attack.
Against the White Snake Sage,
Motomu only had one trump card he didn't want to use yet.
That evolution opportunity for Big Eyeball.
Evolving it into a Mangekyo would provide a massive boost to his chakra alone.
While he might not be able to go toe-to-toe with his opponent, escaping would certainly be possible.
But the price of using it was the permanent loss of one of that Mangekyo's ocular powers.
Kagutsuchi and Tool Manipulation were absolute garbage.
Unless pushed to the brink, Motomu would absolutely never use it.
As Motomu pondered, the team hurried along and finally reached the borders of Loulan.
Twilight cast long shadows over the sand dunes.
In the distance, the slender, towering buildings of Loulan, reminiscent of wizard spires, appeared before Motomu's eyes.
In the original plot,
everything in the Loulan Kingdom began with the rogue Sand Ninja and puppeteer, Mukade—also known as Anrokuzan.
Motomu remembered that Anrokuzan was originally a puppeteer from the Hidden Sand Village.
He was obsessed with power, yet lacked Sasori's natural talent.
Dissatisfied with existing puppet technology, he discovered through unknown means that an 'infinite' chakra source known as the Dragon Vein lay beneath the Loulan Kingdom.
He defected from the Hidden Sand Village specifically to seize the Dragon Vein for himself.
At this time, Loulan was ruled by the mother of the red-haired Sara from the original story.
Led by her, the royal family possessed the secret techniques required to control the Dragon Vein.
Realizing he couldn't take it by force alone, Mukade orchestrated a scheme to control the ruler and influence the court.
Using his puppet techniques as leverage, he gradually and imperceptibly took control of the entire city using puppets.
He assassinated Sara's mother and installed the young Sara as a puppet queen.
Meanwhile, he hid behind the scenes in the role of Minister Anrokuzan.
It was a strategy straight out of the playbooks of Cao Cao or Sima Yi.
Motomu squinted as he looked toward the massive city.
Brown puppets and civilians walked through the streets.
On the bustling tower walkways, some civilians pointed curiously at Motomu and his three companions, seemingly discussing their arrival.
Motomu carefully observed their appearances and expressions.
The civilians of Loulan had not yet been replaced by puppets as they were later in the plot.
Only a few puppets powered by the Dragon Vein's chakra were at work.
This indicated that Mukade was still just lying low for now.
He wasn't being quite so blatant yet.
Motomu didn't care whether the old Queen was dead or not.
What he cared about was how far Anrokuzan's development of the Dragon Vein had progressed.
If progress was good, Motomu wouldn't mind giving it a try himself.
"We'll rest and reorganize tonight," Motomu said.
"Tomorrow, we'll gather intelligence."
Inside the inn's tavern.
Motomu, his three teammates, and the snake sat around a low table.
The Captain, Hyuga Hayaka, was dressed in white pajamas. Beneath her heroic oval face, her neck was slender and translucent. Following her silhouette further down, the snowy-white cotton pajamas revealed a deep glimpse of cleavage.
Motomu pulled his gaze away from her and turned his attention to the map spread out on the low table.
On the map, various important districts of Loulan's capital were marked in red.
Since some areas were inaccessible, they had to rely on their Yamanaka teammate's Mind Transfer Jutsu to scout the interiors.
After noting down the suspected location of the Dragon Vein's core, Motomu listened as the mature Captain Hyuga began to speak.
"The terrain of Loulan is roughly clear now," she said.
"Our next objective is..."
He listened as she rambled on for a while.
In the end, Motomu's summary of her speech was simple: stay together; safety first.
It seemed this Hyuga Captain was a sensible person; splitting up would only make it easier for them to be picked off one by one.
Staying together meant that even if they had to retreat, someone would be there to cover the rear.
Motomu didn't really care how this A-rank mission was arranged. He was going to check out the state of the Dragon Vein tonight anyway.
He would also take the opportunity to look for any trace of Anrokuzan.
The Dragon Vein was his true objective; Motomu had no intention of wasting time on completing Konoha's mission.
As for Orochimaru's request, that could also be delayed.
Motomu had to test the quality of the Dragon Vein first.
If it was truly as he imagined, this would be the turning point for his experience gain.
The night was silent, save for the chirping of mysterious desert beetles.
Motomu pushed aside the cobra, who was sprawled out two beds away and had somehow flung her leg over his head.
Motomu slowly rose from the bedding laid out on the floor.
"Humans... so tasty..."
With a sudden munch, the dreaming cobra bit down on her own pillow.
Two holes were bitten into the pillow, and feathers drifted down, covering the girl's face.
Motomu looked away from the black-haired girl, donned his one-eyed spiral mask, and leaped out the floor-to-ceiling window of the tower.
The golden moon, round as a jade plate, cast its light over the world.
In the darkness, Motomu stood upside down on the underside of a suspended tower walkway.
The desert night was exceptionally cold, and a freezing wind carrying flecks of mist brushed through Motomu's hair.
He formed a single-handed seal.
He instantly activated the Body Flicker Jutsu he had copied from his teammates.
With a whoosh, the mysterious masked man vanished from the spot as if he had never been there at all.
Following the route in his memory,
Motomu's fast-moving figure landed silently on the tip of a black tower.
He looked down with his Three-Tomoe Sharingan.
At least a hundred yellowish-brown puppets were standing guard below.
It seemed some secret was hidden beneath the tower where he stood.
Motomu entered from the roof, the dark interior of the tower appearing clearly before his Sharingan.
There was a vertical spiral staircase built of stone bricks.
At every landing where there was a door,
a puppet stood guard.
If this were an Assassin's Creed stealth game like he used to play in his past life, this layout would definitely be in the highest difficulty tier.
Unlike humans, puppets never experienced fatigue.
If discovered and surrounded by a relentless onslaught, even the Naruto from his past life—who was a pseudo-Kage level and had learned the Rasenshuriken—could potentially fail.
But for Motomu, infiltration was as simple as breathing.
Big Eyeball flew out of the mask's eye hole.
Using Psychokinesis to compress and distort the air in a very small area, Big Eyeball achieved optical invisibility and slowly descended.
The path was clear, and it encountered no obstacles along the way.
Big Eyeball No. 1 flew straight for over ten minutes
before finally arriving at a pair of massive double stone doors on the third level underground.
Standing over three meters tall, the doors were flanked by two heavy-armored puppets holding halberds.
Reaching this point, Motomu didn't hesitate to use a Psychokinesis hand to gently push the stone doors open just wide enough for a fist to fit through.
Hearing the strange noise from the stone doors, the two puppets looked over in confusion.
Seeing no one there, the puppet on the right scratched its head, released its halberd, and closed the doors again.
The stone doors clicked shut once more, but Big Eyeball had already flown inside and was surveying the environment.
In Motomu's vision, hundreds of grayish-white stone pillars formed a ring, supporting a circular dome that looked like a great cathedral.
Ahead, a path stretched straight toward a ritual array in the very center, covered by a red carpet.
Aside from these decorative elements, the most critical feature was a thin, light-blue film covering the array.
This place was almost identical to the scenes in Motomu's memories.
That film was likely a sensing barrier.
Like the barrier protecting Konoha, it would trigger an alarm if an unfamiliar presence passed through it.
If he tried to enter, the alarm would inevitably sound, and those puppets outside would instantly become an ambush party.
Any intruder would be lucky to only be chopped into mincemeat.