章 43: Entrance Oddities
Fog Swamp (Kamui's Point of View) (1 Day Later)
The trip had been uneventful when compared to the shenanigans they'd experienced the previous few days.
The Fog Swamp was filled with various species of multi-colored vegetation trending toward the same colors they'd seen in the serpents' pit. Most of the vegetation was covered in a large body of standing water that covered almost the entirety of the ground. Primarily, the types of vegetation visible were the tallest of bushes and the various trees. Anything else was only visible if it was close enough to a tree to reside on the mound of soil retained by its large roots.
In the trees, the various sounds could be heard from snake hisses to bird calls. Near the trees, Crocodiles could be seen lying in wait for their prey, while the water beneath them was a whole ecosystem of life. Although it looked like it'd be a pain for humans to live here, it really wasn't, comparatively at least.
Truthfully, the Fog Swamp was one of the least dangerous zones on this island; it's why the Kocho clan could live so close to it without issues. The dangers primarily came from the creatures in the trees and those in the water. The crocodiles were a concern too, but those could be safely repelled by chunin and above. Genin would even be tested by having them compete against them under supervision. The best part, this place had a high diversity of poisonous plants beneath the water's surface, so Jonin would be given missions to retrieve them for the village. This was and would be the origin of many of the Kocho clan's medicines and poisons.
With a small team of shadow clones freezing the water in front of them as they progressed into this watery forest, most of the danger was bypassed entirely. The creatures inside the water were trapped there, the creatures in the trees weren't interested, and the crocodiles weren't keen to make attempts at a being they could feel was biologically superior to them. They weren't being suppressed by any form of bloodlines; they simply felt an instinctual fear of a nearby superior predator.
Soon, the group came upon an inconspicuously raised piece of land surrounded by a few trees and covered in a dense layer of brush. Normally, they would have passed right by this area, but Kamui had noticed a discrepancy through her earth pulse. Yes, she could still use her earth pulse; it just required physical contact with the trees, which her clones did on occasion.
There was a long narrow cavern buried about twenty feet below the surface. The entrance was blocked by solid rock configured to be even with the surrounding terrain, making it much harder for people to locate it. The only clue was the dense layer of brush used to hide the area.
"Are you sure this is the entrance the sound four uses?" Yugao asked, a little wary of what she was seeing; really, she was wary of what she wasn't seeing.
"No. From what I can sense, this is the tunnel that's closest to the surface, but this is a big swamp and I can't be sure that there aren't more. From here, this path just goes down deeper underground and could lead to other paths I can't see. That said, between my shadow clones and I, this is the only one we can currently see." Kamui carefully replied, not nearly as high strung as her teacher was, but still trying to be as honest of her capabilities as possible.
"Give me a second." Yugao ordered with a tone filled with suspicion, before moving to inspect the terrain.
Kamui looked on in confusion as her sensei's reactions confused her.
'What in my assessment confused her to that degree' she thought, her face doing nothing to hide her confusion.
Reading the girl's thoughts, Reina responded with a hint of mirth, "With all the amazing things you've been doing during this mission, I sometimes forget that you've only recently become a genin."
Kamui raised an eyebrow at Reina's statement.
"So, I'm assuming you picked up on what spooked sensei too?" she asked, hoping to get some clarification. Although she appeared relatively calm on the outside, she fumed on the inside. She hated being the only one in the room who didn't know something.
Reina nodded.
"Since your sensei is busy investigating, I'll try to frame it like a lesson. What do you notice about this area? Give me some details." Reina asked, taking no small amount of amusement in seeing the young prodigy show her age. Whether it was good to feel that way, it was always amusing to see geniuses fumble about.
Kamui's fist raised to grip her chin to assume a thinking pose. She visually scanned the surrounding area to pick up on as many clues as she could.
The first thing she noticed was that the brush Yugao wasn't actively combing through looked like it had been there for a while. It was also consistent in its presence. There were no openings for an entrance to be made. This either implied that someone in Orochimaru's circle knew wood style or that they had been here for a while. Now, the latter option wouldn't be an issue if they were anywhere else, but this was Shinobu island, an island Orochimaru was only supposed to have been at recently.
"Oh…" Kamui muttered, her eyes widening in realization at the implications.
"Yeah, oh." Reina replied, her mirthful expression having shifted into a serious one.
The two stood in silence for a moment, content to let Yugao finish her assessment. Five minutes later, Yugao walked back to the group.
"This site's been undisturbed for a while. Reina, do you know how long it takes for these plants to grow?" she asked.
Reina nodded.
"Normally, it wouldn't take more than a few months for a lot of these bushes to grow. The problem is that plants in this area grow slower. They simply need more time to develop the complex toxins growing in their leaves and have evolved to grow at a slower pace to prevent becoming an early meal before those toxins can develop.
"In short, at this level of maturity, these bushes have been here for at least a year and that's a very conservative estimate under the best ecological conditions." Reina concluded, a little disturbed by the implications of that fact.
"What are the chances Orochimaru has someone with wood release by this point? Hasn't he already created wood release users?" Kamui asked, trying to find alternative answers to the questions popping into their heads.
"It's not likely. Wood release is believed to be the hardest elemental bloodline to control. That's because it requires a special constitution to use it effectively. We don't know the specifics, but from some of Orochimaru's preliminary reports to Danzo, it likely requires the user to feed their vitality to their chakra, which then allows the user to convert organic matter into living trees. Due to the harsh requirements, only someone with a physique like Lord First could use it effectively, though his shortened lifespan may have been the price he paid for using it so regularly. Anyone else would have a diluted version of it at best. Even then, finding a compatible vessel without Danzo to provide quality human samples is unlikely, even with the decade and a half he's had since his last success."
Kamui kept silent, appearing to ponder on what Yugao just said while listening to Yume's internal commentary.
["Interesting… that snake was so focused on Hashirama's wood release, that he didn't realize he was shooting for too big of a prize."] Yume commented in amusement, a little surprised that this Orochimaru character was able to figure out so much of the nature of Hashirama's wood release. Though, it did seem like he may have bitten off more than he could chew.
'What do you mean?' Kamui mentally asked.
["Yugao's explanation born from the snake's understanding is a pretty solid take on what's happening from the jutsu caster's perspective, but it leaves out everything else. Do you remember the story of Kaguya Otsutsuki and the god tree?"] Yume asked.
'I do' Kamui replied, keeping her pondering posture to keep her sensei from noticing any odd behavior.
["This'll be a long explanation and you're on a mission, so I'll directly transmit it to you in the form of a memory. You'll experience it like you would a shadow clone's memory transfer."] Yume explained, causing Kamui to give her a silent acknowledgement, glad at the convenient technique.
--Transmission Start— (Yume's Explanation)
["To keep it simple, the god tree extended its roots across the continent to fulfill its mistress's desire of bringing peace through forceful rule. Wherever the tree is, so too is her power and influence at their peak. Even if deep underground, a lot of these roots still exist.
"By actively sensing these roots over a long period of time, a shinobi with a powerful life force and similar enough chakra signature can create wood release with a muted version of their power. They're basically using them as the foundation for their wood-release jutsu. This is only a small component of the release's potential, but it was Hashirama's bread and butter if the nine-tail's memory is accurate. The reason why he was able to restrain the tailed beasts so effectively was because he attuned himself to the high concentration of the god tree's roots beneath the Land of Fire. If I were to guess, he likely felt the roots very strongly due to a bloodline resonance. His body likely experienced a form of atavism, bloodline reversion, allowing it to express physical traits eerily similar to what the nine-tails remembered being possessed by Hagoromo Otsutsuki, Kaguya Otsutsuki's son.
"I believe I've told you this before, but the Hyuga clan would likely be the true successors to Kaguya's family line as the byakugan was the only real bloodline she was known to be born with; her rinne-sharingan and powerful physique came from the Shinju, the God Tree. The Senju Clan inherited that physique, allowing Hashirama Senju to make the connection necessary to learn that special form of wood release.
"To sum all this up, Hashirama probably learned wood release from the Shinju's roots, which gave him the most advanced form of it. Everyone else basically tried imitating that 'most advanced form' and failed. Since Hashirama was the only known person to ever achieve that level of it, everyone naturally based their understandings off of him. It never occurred to them that his wood was special even within the wood release.
"Your case is a little different, but we'll discuss that a little later. Just make sure you come into your mindscape when you have the chance."]
--Transmission End—
Internally, Yume was extremely glad at their predecessor's decision to integrate the nine-tail's memories. It gave them a lot of historical context to work off, which helped eliminate a lot of historical biases they may have adopted from the common belief. Although the long explanation she provided seemed like it took a while to explain, only seconds had passed; it amused her greatly that Konoha hadn't used the shadow clones as a basis to convey thoughts through chakra more efficiently. She'd have to suggest it to Kamui later.
'Interesting... Thanks Yume.' Kamui mentally said, restraining her desire to ask a million different clarifying questions. It really sucked when Yume decided to explain these concepts when she couldn't request clarification.
["You're welcome. It's why I'm here."] Yume replied with a smile and retreated into the mindscape.
"So basically, we have to assume that Orochimaru has had this base for far longer than the Kocho clan knew his people were on the island and that he likely succeeded in making another wood release user should that not be the case?" Kamui summarized, trying to make sure she understood the assumptions being made.
"Correct." Yugao affirmed. With that, Yugao turned to Reina and asked, "Reina, did your people notice anything strange around this area in the last two years?
Reina thought for a moment.
"We did have a few more disappearances in this part of the swamp than we were used to, but we just thought it had been a bad year. It's normal for there to be casualties without retrievable bodies due to the nature of the island, so we wrote it off. If Kamui's right about there being an underground layer here though, the truth might be a little different." She answered somberly, quickly realizing that they may find more than just Naga inside this base.
Yugao nodded in agreement.
"Alright, Kamui, can you make an entrance?" Yugao asked, deciding that it was time to stop speculating. Any evidence they could find was in the cave beneath them, so it was best to get moving.
"I can, it'll just take a minute to make it happen. The cave was made perfectly for one of Orochimaru's bases. It's sturdy enough to support the cave, but it's structured to collapse in a sort of chain reaction if any major tremors pass through this area. Even if someone were to know that this place was here, they couldn't use earth release to access it without knowing the proper method. The only people who likely know how to do so safely would probably be Jirobo and Orochimaru."
Yugao nodded.
"Good thing we have you here then. Alright, get started." Yugao ordered.
Nodding, Kamui took a knee and placed her hand on the ground, using her bracers as a focus to get the clearest picture she could on the surrounding area. She needed to move the earth in a way that put the least amount of stress on the cave's structure.
A couple of seconds later, she willed her chakra to pour into the earth, reinforcing the area around the cave, allowing her to perform the next step. Next, she used her chakra to grind the earth above the entrance into sand and pulled it out slowly; she did this from the uppermost layer and slowly worked her way down to the cave. Between the reinforcement and the careful excavation, she was able to safely make a small spiral staircase leading down into the cave.
Sighing at the annoyingly delicate task, Kamui got up from her kneeling position.
"Done. We should be good to go." She said.
"Great work. Let's move. We don't know whether Naga's the only one in there, so keep on your toes." Yugao ordered, not spending any time to appreciate her student's efforts. They were on a timetable and wasting even a few minutes could cost Kocho clansmen their lives. Reina was of a similar mind, only briefly thanking Kamui before moving to descend the staircase.
With that, the three entered the cave, unaware of the horrors they would find inside
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