175. Land of Rice

"Orochimaru?" Tenten asked in shock. 

They were talking about a legendary sannin like Tsunade-sama which she admired and is the current hokage. 

Not only that, Orochimaru had also led to the Third Hokage losing one of his arms and taking so many lives during the Konoha Crush. 

The other 2 were also shocked at that. 

Neji's poker face was broken with an open mouth in which a fly could go in. 

It was very unHyuga-like. 

Lee was just showing a Lee-like face.

"Now, now, stop scaring them Guy-sensei, we are most specifically going after his bases, from the intelligence we have received, it's very less likely for him to be in that base" Sora clarified, making the trio a bit calmer. 

He had already seen the content of the mission when he got the scroll, so he was not shocked. 

"Haha, their reactions were priceless, anyway, we are going to Land of Rice right now, prepare for the trip" Guy ordered. 

After breakfast, Sora quickly stored all the objects he had taken out previously and headed with Team Guy. 

It took them a few days to reach it due to the large distance between the Land of Mountains and the Land of Rice. 

Land of Fire could be said to be near the middle of these two lands. 

Normally, Sora wouldn't have to move this much for a mission, or any ninja for that matter, however, this time the mission was special and dangerous requiring a S-rank. 

This would also be a good experience for Team Guy in fighting different kinds of enemies and Sora too if they encounter Orochimaru, Guy could stall the latter, and along with Sora, the trio could not only retreat, but Sora himself could contribute something in the battle between the two. 

Even more so, now that he has created his new Rasengan variant.

After relaxing for the night outside of Land of Rice, the next day, they went for the first base. 

"Who actually is in charge of collecting information about Orochimaru?" Tenten curiously asked. 

"Our Village has a number of experts adept in stealth and espionage, their identity couldn't be leaked that easily" Sora replied to her. 

The base which was humongous didn't really come into sight normally. 

Sora had to sense some seals and disable them to just get it in sight. 

"Is there a chance for the Land of Rice to be completely occupied by Orochimaru?" Neji suddenly had a dangerous idea in his mind. 

"Does it really matter at the moment?" Sora asked reminding them to focus on the current mission. 

"It could affect things no?" Tenten said and they came into view of 2 guards at the gate. 

Without pause, they immediately activated their cursed seals, however, Neji was faster and hit them with some vacuum palms before their body could transform into a superhuman body. 

After transforming, their body started regenerating, however, it required time, which wasn't given by Tenten and Lee taking care of those two by hitting them at vital points. 

Lee hasn't put on his weights again since yesterday.

He was training while travelling. 

It was really a blessing in this world to have a thing called "Storage Seal" 

Without these objects, life would be very tough for their residents in the world. 

It's like imagining a world without tea or coffee. 

Back to the scene, Lee kicked open the gate and they entered it. 

Some wardens had already transformed into their cursed seal state before attacking Team Guy, however, none of them were as powerful as the guards, who were barely Jounin level with cursed seals. 

In less than an hour, the ninjas of Konoha were done with dealing with wardens and other free hostile entities. 

However, the scene of prisoners here was anything but normal to our heroes. 

"Orochimaru-sama, please take my body" 

"I will kill you guys"

"Kyaa~, Kid don't you want a candy from this nee-san?" 

"There are two monsters in green with scary faces" 

"Does that guy have a stick up his ass?" 

"Orochimaru-sama will be killed by these guys" 

"Please free me, I will grant you a painless death" 

"Do you have some food to share?" 

They were baffled at the cries of the prisoners. 

"I think they are not mentally sane" Sora said breaking the silence between them. 

"If you hadn't pointed it out, I would have thought that I am the insane one" Tenten sarcastically quipped back. 

"No need to thank me, I like helping people, especially educating them on social interaction" Sora decided to banter with her. 

"Stop it, it's unsightly or in this case unheard" Neji stopped them. 

"Should we free them or not, Guy-sensei?" Lee decided to ask the only adult present on the scene. 

Guy was also clueless about what to do. 

"Konoha won't be able to take all these people anyway, also it wasn't explicitly mentioned in the mission scroll, we only have to destroy the bases and cause trouble to Orochimaru while causing some significant damage to him, I think we should free them after knocking all of them so that we won't have to fight them" Guy took the decision. 

"I will take care of it" Sora said while summoning a scroll and opening it after guiding his teammates out of the whole closed hideout. 

The whole base was flooded. 

In the next instant, lightning flowed out of Sora's hands into the water, conducting and going into the base. 

"AHHHHH" 

"Kyaaaa~" 

"I WILL KILL YOU ALL" 

A lot of screams or shouts could be heard from inside, but Sora ignored their shouts. 

He created a few shadow clones which rushed inside the building after a few minutes and broke their cages. 

"Let's go to the next hideout on our agenda" Sora suggested and they all decided to do that. 

The Second Hideout also went out like the first one, but there was a change this time when they were inside the hideout. 

Neji's eyes widened suddenly. 

"We are getting trapped inside a barrier, and it's too late to escape" He warned the others. 

Everyone irrespective of prisoners or Konoha ninjas felt instinctive danger. 

Guy and Sora quickly acted even without saying anything to each other. 

They were facing in different directions, so it made coordinating very easy. 

Guy straight up opened Sixth Gate and rushed forward, the walls made of concrete, and steel, whether they had any seals or not, irrespective of their status were destroyed. 

Meanwhile, Sora had a large Rasengan in front of him and in the next instant a loud sound could be heard throughout the base along with a blue streak of line. 

BOOM

BAM

'Flying Dama' was the name of Jutsu Sora, who had decided after pondering in the last few days. 

Similar to what happened with walls in front of Guy, Anything in the path of this Rasengan was pulverized. 

4 People who had almost completed the barrier had to retreat due to the barrier instantly getting destroyed. 

"Tch, I didn't expect it to be that easy anyway, but it's really a shame, we would have won if they had reacted a few seconds later," One voice said. 

Sora and Team Guy came out of the hideout, with Guy already closing his gates. 

They could see 4 people encircling them.

There was a red-haired girl with a bandage wrapped around her head. 

There was a grey-haired boy or girl? With more than one head. His body did creep out everyone in Konoha. 

There was a black-haired guy with multiple arms. 

There was an orange-haired guy with the most height and was of round shape. 

Despite their distinctive features, they had a purple belt around their waist.

These guys were Sound 4 or Sound 5 minus Kimimaro.

Due to Sasuke not defecting, they hadn't met their end in the hands of newly minted genins back in the day during the Konoha Invasion. 

They were currently using a special technique given to them by Orochimaru.

"Space-Time Technique Formula: Underworld Turnover" 

It was a forbidden technique that would cut the inside from the outside and separate the souls of the targets from their bodies. 

This technique would be still active even after casters died. 

It was the same technique used by them in the cannon during the Fourth Great Ninja War to trap the members of the Sasuke Recovery Squad. 

The Sound 4 didn't waste any time and very quickly activated their cursed seals. 

Neji wasn't able to ambush them due to not only their quick response but also the fact that his byakugan could see inside their bodies. 

He really didn't like what he saw. 

So, Konoha ninjas only saw them convert their appearance from ugly to more ugly appearance. 

"These guys are dangerous, that technique they used was not simple, be careful" Sora warned others. 

Even if he didn't have any knowledge about the specific technique, being a seal master did give him an insight into the barrier they were trying to cast previously. 

He also didn't like what he saw.

***

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