Chương 362: Opening the Mountain
"Alright...alright so what is the plan sensei?" Naruto asked as he turned to Kakashi.
Kakashi thought for a few seconds and said "We will divide into three groups with 2 finding an opening to go inside the mountain while the 3rd one guards the two groups from any surprise attack."
"That seems fair. What will the groups be and is there anything we are looking for specifically?" Temari asked.
Kakashi divided the group into 3 groups with Yami and Gaara being the 3rd group tasked with guarding the 2 groups. As everyone split they started searching for an entry point and soon they found a few stuck on the mountain.
"Kakashi sensei we found 2 tags on our side." Sakura said to which Naruto said "Me and Kakashi sensei found 2 on our side."
"Should we remove them then? I don't think there is any threat in that?" Lee asked.
"There actually is Lee...I have read about those seals and if they are not pulled out at the same time then a trap formation will get activated." Kakashi said.
"But how are we going to do that at the same time? They are all so apart that it wouldn't be possible to do it at once." Temari asked.
"Leave that to my summons. They can easily handle such a simple task." Yami said and bit his thumb. He then stuck it to the ground making a circle spread from under his thumb and spread on the ground. 5 vicious-looking bats emerged from the circle and flew in the air.
"Hehe...Yami we need 4 not 5. Did you count wrong?" Naruto laughed to which Yami gave him a side eye and said "One needs to give them the signal to destroy the talisman at the same time."
BONK
"OWWWW" Naruto shouted as he held his head in pain.
"You can't keep that big mouth of yours shut, can you?" Sakura asked fumingly.
"Okay sorry...I'll shut up. But it was a genuine ask Sakura." Naruto tried defending himself.
Yami looked at them and telepathically told them what needed to be done. There were two reasons for doing this. Firstly it was a risky thing to pull it together and he didn't want to get trapped as in the canon it isn't shown what would actually happen if they fail .The 2nd reason is when the talisman is pulled, a clone of the one pulling appears and won't go until the clone has been defeated.
All 4 bats lined up in front of the talismans and the last bat flew up in the sky at an equal distance from each of the other 4 bats. Yami nodded at the 5th bat and it squealed. The squeal was loud enough for everyone except Yami to put their hands on their ears.
The 4 bats also destroyed the talisman with their sharp claws. As soon as the talisman was destroyed, a blue semi-transparent bat appeared in front of each of them. Yami had already informed them that this would happen so they weren't blindsided or shocked by this.
Just as the blue clones appeared, the eyes of the bats glowed bright red making their claws become larger in size. Before the blue bats could even launch an attack, Yami's bats squealed and swiped their claws diagonally from top to bottom. This instantly killed the blue bats destroying the talisman completely.
"Did you know that this would happen?" Sasuke asked seeing that his brother was already prepared.
Yami shook his head and said "No..but I guessed that it wouldn't be so simple so I had my bats use their maximum power once they destroy the talisman. I was hoping for some kind of explosion." Yami bluffed and like an idiot elder brother Sasuke accepted the answer proudly.
As the 4 seals got destroyed, all 5 came back to Yami. Kakashi tapped Yami's shoulder and said "Don't send them back just yet. Send them in there for recon."
Just then a big rock from the front of the mountain started to move creating an opening. Yami glanced at his bats and they all rushed inside the opening and spread in different directions.
"Are we planning to wait for the bats to come back?" Naruto asked with a bored expression. He wasn't the action that he wanted. Since in this reality, Gaara wasn't kidnapped, Naruto wasn't in much of a serious mood and was just looking for a fight to prove to his group how strong he had become.
"If we rush in before the recon bats come then what is the use of sending them in the first place idiot?" Sasuke mocked Naruto with an ugly look on his face.
Naruto was about to argue it but then everyone noticed Yami put his hand on the hilt of his sword.
"What's the matter Yami?" Naruto asked making everyone look at Yami and become alert as well.
"We have guests and the kind that we weren't expecting." Yami said as someone unexpectedly walked out from inside the mountain.
_______________________________________
An hour Ago (border between the land of Fire and Wind)
Asuma and Kurenai along with their respective squads were traveling at a steady pace towards the hidden sand village. They had just taken a few hours' rest in a nearby village and continued their travels at the first light of dawn. Everyone had different things going on in their mind so they were mostly quiet except for some small talk from time to time and mostly initiated either by Choji regarding food or by Kiba regarding claims of defeating Naruto.
As they were traveling, Shikamaru asked "Asuma Sensei, are we really going to be of any help? I think everything will be over by the time we reach our destination. Wouldn't it be better if we tried to figure out who the next target of the Akatsuki is going to be and try to safeguard that person?"
Asuma glanced back and said "You are probably right. Most likely we are just going to babysit the hidden sand village and in that way leaving another potential target of the Akatsuki open for attack but wouldn't that look like a political mess on the higher stage?"
"What do you mean?" Ino asked to which Kurenai replied "Hidden sand village is our ally and if the daimyo's find out that even after knowing that hidden village is under attack, we only let 2 squads of 12-14 year olds be the support of the hidden leaf village, what will they think?"
"Um...even though it's a squad of kids, those two squads are strong...especially Lee, Neji, Sasuke, Naruto, and don't forget Yami. Even experienced squads from our village may not be a match for them." Ino said.
"That's not how the higher-ups will see unless they have done something truly remarkable. and since it is them who provide us with supplies and a good budget every year, it is important to safeguard them." Kurenai said.
Shikamaru quickly retorted "That maybe true but I am sensing that Lady Tsunade isn't too much of a political person so why send us instead of some name-sake experienced Chunin or Jonin squad?"
Asuma chuckled as he heard that and said "Yes...that's because the hidden sand is the weakest of all the great villages and just the news that the Akatsuki had made a move on them could lead to either the hidden rock or hidden cloud village to attack them. The hidden rock only attacks when it knows the opponent is weak. Their Tsuchikage is strong and shrewd."
While they were all talking, a soft voice interrupted "Umm...K-Kurenai Sensei, there is s-some lying on the ground there." Hinata voiced as she pointed in the direction they were going.
The two squads immediately stopped as they heard this. "Is it an enemy? Is he hiding? Is he alone?" her squadmates immediately started bombarding her with questions.
"Stop it you all. Let her answer one at a time." Kurenai immediately stopped the squadmates from overwhelming Hinata. "What do you see Hinata? Process at your own pace and put forth your opinions."
Hinata nodded and with her active Byakugan looked ahead. After 5 seconds she said "There is only one person and he seems to be laying down on the grass in the open. I don't see anyone other than him in our surroundings and that person isn't making any effort to hide either. But he has a pretty strong chakra network so I guess he is a shinobi."
"This is far away from any village so whoever must be is a shinobi of some small village. No one from our village or any other great village will sleep openly and that too when they are alone." Kurenai said and Asuma also agreed with her reasoning.
The two squads became a little relaxed as they heard this but something popped into Shikamaru's head 'What if that person feels like he is strong enough that even sleeping in the open won't be a threat? Wouldn't that make us fools to put our guard down and continue going on the same path?'
Just as Shikamaru was engrossed in his thoughts, he sensed his entire group stop suddenly and tense up.
"Huh? What's the matter?" Shikamaru asked and looked in front of him. What he saw was a man lying on the ground wearing Akatsuki robes and an orange mask with black swirling lines on it.
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