Tense Cooperation

'Despicable!' Natsume thought. Taking bodies of fallen shinobi was frowned upon even in this time period. For the Uchiha, since they have a valuable dojutsu, they are trained to destroy their eyes if ever captured by the enemy or suspect their body won't be recoverable. Over the years the ancestral tomb has received many fallen Uchiha without eyes.

The other Uchiha also frowned at the mention of keeping bodies. The captain spoke up, "I cannot make that decision. It would be safer to just take you all out and continue with the original plan." He deflected the proposal and threatened the puppet master.

"You are free to try, but there are only puppets here. Even if I take down one of you, it'll be at no expense to me. These are recycled puppets either way." The puppet that was being used as a medium to speak to the Uchiha clacked its teeth up and down as if mimicking a laugh. Although the threat was real, the captain had successfully probed out the enemy.

If there were only puppets here, then they would be safer to proceed either way. However, if this was a multi-layered scheme, then at least he was able to draw out the bluff. "Very well. I will contact my superior. You don't mind waiting, right?" Another subtle threat caused the puppet to do a faux laugh again.

"I am very patient."

Another bird was summoned and it flew the wrong way back to camp. Natsume understood this to be a tactic in case the Shirogane was actually pretending. If they determined the location of their headquarters for this raid it would be disastrous. Since the bird took a detour, it took longer to return. What surprised Natsume was that the bird returned with another Uchiha.

"Sahiro-san!" The captain saw the new arrival and nodded toward him. Sahiro returned the nod and glanced over at Natsume to check her status. Seeing that she was okay, he was relieved.

"The Uchiha will cooperate under the condition that one living representative be sent over from your side. Additionally, we will not aid in securing any bodies. It is up to your own skills." Sahiro spoke in a confident, commanding tone. The puppet was quiet for a while before its mouth opened once more.

"The Shirogane will proceed with these arrangements." The puppet put its hands together and its torso swelled. A puff of smoke released from its various orifices and the chest cavity opened. A large, simple looking man stepped out wearing the iconic desert outfit and face paint of the Shirogane clan. His steps were not graceful in any way as he crunched gravel with every step.

"Hrr." He grunted toward Sahiro. A large portion of the man's head was caved in under his head covering, indicating severe brain damage. Those with Sharingan active could see a thick chakra string attached to the base of his skull. Sahiro realized that they had been fooled, due to a loophole. However, a living puppet was not something anyone had expected.

"What do you think of my Shadow Marionette Jutsu? Kekeke." The puppet that had reversed summoned the living puppet spoke once more. Sahiro only scoffed in response and signaled the others to continue. Natsume and the other 29 transformation users transformed. Then, they integrated themselves with the puppets and continued the caravan forward. Due to unforeseen circumstances, the five top-ranked warriors and Sahiro silently followed the caravan, making sure to conceal themselves.

While transformed, Natsume deactivated her sharingan. Although she had advanced so far, she was still unable to keep her sharingan up indefinitely like the older Uchiha. She attributed this to her age being too young. While she walked with the caravan, the puppet came over and stared at her with its lifeless eyes.

"My, so young with such strong chakra. It's a shame that you aren't matured fully and cannot display your ultimate prowess." Natsume ignored the puppet as he talked. Sahiro noticed the movements and stayed a bit closer than before, ready to retaliate. "What if I could solve that problem for you?" The puppet continued speaking. At this Natsume's expression faltered for a split second. However, it was enough for the puppet master to notice.

"I can give you an immortal and invincible body. No cost at all." The puppet began to clack as if laughing again when he saw Natsume frown.

"I will not be one of your puppets." Natsume tried to leave but was stopped by his last words.

"It seems that you cannot keep your dojutsu active like the others. I bet you think it is because of your body. You don't wish to be my puppet, but are unknowingly another's, tsk tsk." The puppet started cackling its teeth again as it moved to a different Uchiha to pester.

Natsume wanted to refute, but a knot formed in her through. She realized that something was strange. After rapidly awakening her sharingan and inheriting her past life's memories, she kept making excuses for the problem. However, key moments in her life were brought to the forefront of her mind. She clearly recalled a 'leak' during those points.

She subconsciously acknowledged it but seemed to be willfully ignorant of it. Perhaps this was why the puppet master called her a puppet. Natsume reached down to her thigh, and she remembered something. It hadn't been that long since it occurred, but with all the changes she had filed it far back into her mind.

'Giant, intelligent white snake and a strange genjutsu of several cave entrances…' A scene popped into her head from the inherited memories. A powerful shinobi with snake-like qualities summoned a giant snake, much larger and more powerful than the one she met. However, the similarities didn't end there. Next was the image of a place called the Ryuchi Cave. The caves in her inherited memories were identical to the ones she saw in the genjutsu.

'Senjutsu… A skill that not even Madara could learn. However, there seems to be no requirement as long as you can sense and balance nature chakra.' The memories came flooding in once she made the connections. All the interaction between Senjutsu users and mention of nature chakra became known to her. The most crucial bit of knowledge is Senjutsu's necessity in detecting Kaguya's remnant will, Zetsu!