Chapitre 147: Chapter 142: Masked
The explosion spread to almost 10 kilometers in radius, just as Deidara had said. The roar frightened the inhabitants of the nearby village where the Youth Hostel was located. At that moment, the entire team in charge of searching for Sasuke witnessed the event from different perspectives.
Among them, those who saw Deidara's final masterpiece...
"W...what's that?" Hinata's eyes looked at the explosion, analyzing it with the Byakugan, which let her know that this was an explosion made with pure chakra.
On the other hand, Ino folded her arms and frowned. 'There was a fight nearby... I wonder if he's responsible for that...' Still, she shook her head and looked at Yamato, who was already ready to give the next order.
Naruto was surprised by the explosion, but even though it was by pure intuition, in his mind Sasuke appeared. So, he thinks that Sasuke might have caused this.
In fact, earlier they had met Kabuto, who started saying weird things like having decided his place in the world and stuff. It seemed that he himself had implanted the remains of the now deceased Orochimaru. Strangely, Kabuto left them information about Akatsuki and then ran away, well, after Ino punched him in the face, Kabuto had no choice but to run away.
"Get ready" Yamato said as he ran to the site of the explosion.
Everyone followed him with nothing else to say. This seemed like a strange race though, as Ino and Hinata led this chase. They were running at a ridiculous speed, which didn't seem normal.
Naruto was falling behind, but even though his legs hurt, he decided he shouldn't give up. It doesn't matter if Ino and Hinata get stronger and manage to find Toru. Naruto wants to save his friends, he wants to get them out of the darkness they are in, but it is so hard that at some point he thought about giving up. But when he saw Hinata and Ino getting so strong, he smiled like an idiot and asked himself, "What am I doing?" And then he moved forward without stopping.
***
"Kyaaa! What a scare!" Miroku had cold sweat on her forehead when she saw and heard the huge explosion that spread up to the sky. It was so gigantic and covered in chakra that it made her think... What kind of monster has so much chakra to generate such a huge explosion?
It was certainly surprising, but this only meant one thing.
"Emergency meeting at the scene of the crime, fufu..." At that moment, a white, viscous liquid came out of Miroku's fingers. Immediately after, it disappeared like a shadow among the trees.
***
"Naruto!" Sakura saw the Yamato team arrive along with Naruto.
"What happened here?" said Naruto stopping abruptly next to Sakura.
She on the other hand, frowned and sighed. "Sasuke-kun was here until a moment ago. We followed his trail."
Kiba had also been able to smell Sasuke's scent in his nostrils. He had been in that place until a few moments ago. "There's still a little bit left, but there's also a trace of a handful of people. There are six in total..."
"And what does that mean for us?" asked Naruto, to which Shino, in a low voice, replied.
"The surrounding wreckage indicates that there was a fight. This is..."
"Uh-huh!" one of Sakura's canine companions sniffed the ground. "I recognize one of the scents mingling with Sasuke's, I sensed it when we were in town. Looks like the boy isn't traveling alone."
"So that means..."
Kakashi continued. "That Sasuke has already formed a team and that two of the six registered scents belong to Akatsuki."
Crossing his arms and frowning, Yamato asked, "Toru's scent isn't with Akatsuki's?"
The dog shinobi shook his head, which made Yamato sigh wearily. For a moment he was relieved that his student hadn't been present as a member of Akatsuki, but on the other, he doesn't know what to think about it.
And it seems that Hinata and Ino share the same feeling.
"Yamato-chan!" A woman's voice suddenly rang out. Almost instantly, Yamato fell to the ground having been pushed by a beautiful woman with snow-white hair. "I missed you so much, don't ever leave me alone again!"
Everyone present was left processing what at this moment is happening. Suddenly a beautiful woman in a shinobi uniform appeared and threw herself on top of Yamato. She started hugging him and rubbing her face with Yamato's chest.
Kakashi had already seen this, but somehow he was amused by everyone's reaction.
So he shook his head and interrupted between these two shinobi.
"Listen everyone" Kakashi grabbed the woman by the back of the jacket and separated her from Yamato, setting her aside as if she was a little girl. Then, he cleared his throat and prepared for the introduction. "This is Miroku, a Jounin-ranked kunoichi and former A-ranked criminal. She was Yamato's partner a few months ago in a secret investigation organized by the Hokage-sama in question. Right now she is serving her sentence by providing support service on missions of rank A or higher."
"¡¿?!" Hinata and Ino's eyes almost popped out of their faces at the sight of that woman smiling like it was nothing. Traumatic memories flashed through their minds before their bodies could react.
For that night, was the first time Toru killed someone.
"Hello, Ino-chan and Hinata-chan. They've grown up a lot. They became very beautiful, fufufu..."
Hearing Miroku's words, Ino frowned and looked at her teacher. "Yamato-taichō, you owe us a lot of explanations."
Yamato just looked away as he tried to hide his embarrassed face.
It turns out that Miroku was released at Yamato's request, so she could have her parole. For the past three years, hiding from his students, he visited this beautiful woman in prison.
Although at first it was only to ask her questions about what happened that night during the fact-finding mission, eventually he simply went to see her because he felt comfortable being by her side.
And over time... well, things happened.
"Well, we'll talk about that later" Kakashi touched his head painfully. "It looks like we won't be able to follow Sasuke from here."
"What, why?" asked Naruto.
At that, it was Pakkun who answered by shaking his head. "The trail ends here" This caused Naruto to become confused.
"What do you mean it ends here, what does that mean?"
Yamato put his hand on Naruto's shoulder. "It's possible that the explosion scattered his remains, but he could also have used a spacetime technique and transported himself somewhere. An example would be a Kuchiyose no Jutsu."
However, this made Kiba smile. "It looks like it's the latter. My sense of smell is better than a ninja dog's. So, I've found Sasuke while you guys were talking."
Miroku interrupted. "I found him too. Well, I just saw them with my spiders..."
"What?" Kiba's moment of glory was ruined.
This didn't matter to Miroku though. "My spiders saw a handsome black-haired boy along with three other people. A strapping young man, another pale and scrawny one, and a temperamental red-haired girl. However, that's all my spiders could see, as the explosion killed almost all the other spiders I sent to set the traps and keep watch. So you may continue, Kiba-kun."
"I see, so that's team Sasuke..." Sai looked at the ground and then at Naruto and Sakura, who looked a little depressed about this.
"Hm... Enough talk! Let's go find Sasuke already!" shouted Naruto.
To which the others nodded and ran in the direction Kiba dictated. Though Miroku grabbed Yamato's hand and smiled at him as they ran.
"...For those two to act all gooey like that in front of everyone is disgusting..." Ino shook her head.
To which Miroku countered by smiling and letting out his beautiful voice. "Ara~ Are you sure about that, so you wouldn't do this kind of thing with Toru-kun?"
Ino's face turned hot pink and she immediately looked at that woman with a frown. "We're in the middle of an important mission. You mustn't distract us. Besides, Yamato-taichō doesn't seem to put her own words into practice."
This was a low blow for Yamato. He knew it, but there was nothing he could do to stop Miroku. She was very affectionate no matter the situation and that could sometimes be detrimental.
"Miroku-san, please. We can talk all you want when this mission is over. Concentrate" He tried to be a professional shinobi in front of his students as he always tried.
In response to this, Miroku sighed and agreed. If she causes trouble for this man, that wouldn't make her happy. Yamato already lives stressed enough with the Asahi Toru affair, so adding more pressure on his shoulders could hurt him.
"Okay, time to focus" Miroku's friendly smile disappeared and his sultry expression changed to a more serious one.
-Amegakure-
Toru stood on Okaminaru's back while they both still floated because of Pain's eyes. He looked at him with cold eyes, as did Pain.
The rain at that moment intensified and Toru's Shigan gave a small twist inside his pupils. He clenched his fists and pulled out the broken dagger.
However, Pain had no desire to fight one of his comrades. But there was still the doubt as to why Toru suddenly acted like that.
"Why?" asked Pain.
Konan watched this in silence. Toru had a slightly annoyed and worried expression on his face, but then he shook his head and again his expression softened, returning to that typical emotionless face.
"This is none of your business, Nagato-san."
"Believe it or not, this involves me. Now answer me, why are you trying to leave Amegakure without having obtained permission?"
"I already said this is none of your business" Actually, Toru didn't know what to answer. He did not understand the reason for his own actions at that moment. Everything inside his mind was a mess, jumbled like a box full of old images.
Konan knew about this and she was sure Nagato knows about it too, but still he wanted to ask.
"Okaminaru, come back...I'll call you when I need you again."
Okaminaru lowered his ears and tail. Then he shook his head wanting to stay by this boy's side, but Toru just sighed and cancelled the summoning noticing that Okaminaru didn't want to leave on his own.
When the wolf disappeared in a cloud of smoke, Toru used the air platforms to support himself so he wouldn't fall into the void. He walked in the air until he reached the observer and passed by Pain without saying anything. Konan saw him and thought about what happened the night before.
Finally, Toru left the place and locked himself in his room.
"Nagato..."
"Hm... reminds me of a certain someone," Pain said, then went back inside the building.
Nagato's mention of that person made Konan feel confused, as that person was the one who informed them of Deidara's death.
'That person...'
-Youth Hostel-
Lying on a futon, Sasuke breathed relaxed, trying to let the regeneration of Orochimaru's cells take effect. His eyes hurt a little from using them for so long and he was about to die in the explosion generated by Deidara's suicide. Fortunately, Sasuke used Manda, Orochimaru's favorite summon, to teleport to another location.
And right now, he is resting to recover from his battle injuries.
"She's taking forever... How long does it take that woman to run a few simple errands?" Suigetsu took a drink of the water that was in his glass and then looked at Sasuke, who, although he was lying on the bed, his eyes were open staring at the ceiling. "Ha~ screw it all. I'm going to look for her. Though maybe they already killed her, which would be good for everyone" he headed for the door to leave.
Juugo on the other hand watched out the window silently. Though at that moment the door fell, pushing Suigetsu against the ground.
Responsible for this was Karin, who had a somewhat worried expression on her face. "Sasuke, wake up!"
"What the hell?" underneath the toppled door, Suigetsu groaned as he saw Karin enter.
This, however, didn't matter to Karin, who had something important to say. "We're being followed, what do we do?"
Sasuke let out a tired sigh and got up from the futon. "We're leaving. Juugo, get everything ready, mark the Akatsuki locations you've discovered on the map."
***
So, after a few seconds, Sasuke put on a large cloak that covered much of his body and together with his team left the youth hostel.
"It may be that the pursuers are Akatsuki or Konoha. If that's the case, either of them may have information on Itachi. How about we ambush them?" Karin held up the map and skimmed it a bit before handing it to Sasuke.
"If there are as many people as you say, then it's for sure Konoha. Since Akatsuki only acts in groups of two men, or three as the rumors say. So attempting an ambush against Konoha is a waste of time. That village is of no interest to us."
Karin looked confused by Sasuke's words. "So what do we do?"
Answering in a flat, emotionless voice, Sasuke looked up at the sky. "Search for Itachi. Worst case scenario, you guys will have to deal with the Konoha shinobi while I take care of killing Itachi. For now, we move under the name 'Hebi' and follow Juugo's directions, is that clear?"
"Yes..." Karin ducked her head and then looked at Juugo. At the same time, Sasuke and Juugo started walking to the exit of the city.
-Explosion zone, Deidara's tomb-
Their eyes looked intently at the gigantic crater that spread all over the place. The trees had been completely consumed by the destruction and in that place, a small piece of cloth was found.
He took it between his fingers and sighed.
"Fool~"
A gentle breeze passed in front of his blue and blood red eyes and when he looked up, there he saw him. Deidara's translucent figure appeared before him.
Deidara only smiled relaxedly before walking away, where his body disappeared completely and silently.
"Deidara-senpai is... he is..."
Someone's awkward voice was heard approaching him. He simply turned around and looked at "Tobi."
"Why did it have to end like this? His last work of art, his masterpiece... Waaaaaaaaaaaa~ Senpai!!! Why, he was so young and so weird!" Tobi got down on his knees and hit the ground while throwing a weird tantrum, like that of a little kid. "And well, how did you get here, Toru-senpai?" suddenly his attitude changed to a happier one.
On the other hand, Toru, Toru's shadow clone, shook his head. "Running..."
"Running? Are you serious? How long did it take you to get here?"
"Four hours, 34 minutes and 26 seconds..."
"It scares me that you counted the time it took you like that in such detail, but I'm still your number 1 fan!"
Toru's clone looked at the piece of cloth in his hand. It seemed to be a bit of Deidara's robe. "What was it that happened? Tell me everything..."
"Okey dokey."
To be continued...
État de l’alimentation hebdomadaire
-- Classement
Power Stone 
-- Power
stone