Captive

# Chapter 209 Capturing Sand Ninja Village, Kazekage Tower, Newly Established Iron Sand Workshop

"Ka~"

Scorpion walked out while putting the scroll into his sleeve. He stopped when he saw the old woman who was facing the door, sitting on a chair, head lowered like a corpse, without any aura.

"..."

"Gotcha," Chiyo raised her head, a smile appearing on her aged face.

"Boring," Scorpion commented expressionlessly.

Chiyo slowly stood up and said, "My grandson, what exactly do you want to do? Is it related to Lin Ke of Konoha Village?"

After this period of surveillance, she was certain that her foolish grandson was still the same as he was back then.

Even after turning himself into a Human Puppet, he couldn't get rid of many disturbing emotions, instead leaving his heart in the past.

"My affairs don't seem to concern you," Scorpion's tone was no different from before.

Chiyo stared into her grandson's eyes, took out two scrolls from her sleeve, paused slightly, and threw the scrolls over.

She didn't care whether Scorpion was a member of the Akatsuki or not, how many bad things he had done, how many people he had killed, or how many Human Puppets he had made.

She just couldn't accept her grandson attacking the village's Kage and betraying the village.

It had taken her so long to gradually adapt to what had happened in the past.

"Pa"

Scorpion caught the scrolls, opened them and glanced at them, then looked at the old woman opposite him, and said, "These are my old works. You actually kept my outdated works."

As he said this, he still held the scrolls in both hands and lowered them.

"..." The two grandchildren silently stared at each other.

Scorpion turned sideways and left, saying, "Don't meddle in my business, old woman." He was gradually becoming tired of the old woman constantly staring at him.

If it weren't for being able to use the Summoning Jutsu to leave the village, he wouldn't even be able to witness Lin Ke's abnormal growth with his own eyes.

Watching her grandson leave, Chiyo didn't say what she wanted to talk about with her grandson until the end.

They hadn't communicated for too long.

At her age, she had long stopped caring so much about her own life. The purpose of developing the Forbidden Technique Self Reincarnation was to revive one of Father and Mother so that her grandson could return to the village.

But it was indeed too late.

Could her grandson still come back? His identity as a Human Puppet and his past of killing the Third Kazekage, even if he had become a pillar of the village now because of the transaction, the villagers' gazes towards Scorpion were still of disgust and fear...

But what could Chiyo say? Beg everyone to accept and tolerate the village's sinner? Or persuade Scorpion to give up his ideals and goals and work hard for everyone's approval? When people get old, they really do hope for more impossible things.

Chiyo stood alone in the corridor, like a statue, not moving for a very long time.

"Should we go over..." Kankuro, who had been promoted to Chunin, asked in a low voice from a distant corner.

Temari shook her head and sighed, "Let Granny Chiyo be alone for a while." She was the one who could understand her grandmother's feelings the most.

Because she also had a relative who she cared about very much but was rejected by everyone in the village, and that was—

"Where's Gaara?" She suddenly realized that her younger brother, who had just returned with her to report, was gone.

Kankuro hesitated for a moment and said, "He seems to have gone out with that 'Scorpion'."

Temari's expression changed drastically, worried that they might fight. She grabbed her younger brother and chased after them. Soon, they found the two in an alley near the Kazekage Tower.

"Da!" She landed in front of Gaara, holding her fan. Kankuro landed next to her, originally wanting to take out a scroll or use puppet threads to connect to a puppet and be in a state of alert like his sister, but then he thought that when facing Scorpion before, he had either had his precious puppet destroyed or stolen, so he remained silent.

The atmosphere seemed tense.

Temari was about to ask when she felt someone put their hand on her shoulder. She turned her face to look.

Gaara gently pulled his sister and brother away, looked at the expressionless young man, and said, "You are also lonely, aren't you?"

"That's just a boring emotion that humans have."

Scorpion's eyes were full of indifference, and the corners of his mouth raised slightly, "Puppets don't decay. My heart, like my body, doesn't have such boring things."

"If you really want someone to accompany you, just create a puppet."

"Even if it's broken, I can always make a new one."

"However, the quality of the puppets is also very important..."

"Let me be your friend." Gaara interrupted Sasori's narration, "I can understand how you feel."

"Has he become senile at such a young age?"

The smile on Sasori's face deepened, "If you want to understand my feelings, you should transform yourself into a puppet first."

Having said that, he disappeared from the spot using the Body Flicker Technique.

"What a terrifying guy, he's completely lost his humanity." Kankuro muttered.

Temari glared at him fiercely.

Kankuro spread his hands, justifying his earlier inaction, "There's nothing I could do, my puppets are meaningless against someone like him." Having been continuously hit hard, he hadn't rebuilt his confidence yet.

"Gaara..."

Temari looked at her younger brother with some worry. After completely resolving his inner conflicts, this was the first time he wanted to befriend someone, only to be met with failure. It must be hard on him.

Gaara was silent for a moment, then slowly revealed a normal smile, looking at his sister, he said, "I'm fine."

He looked in the direction Sasori had left, his hand pressed against his chest, feeling the beating of his heart, and the sand surrounding his body, bringing strange emotions, and said:

"As expected, even if he transforms himself into that form, he is still just as lonely."

"I can understand Lin Ke Teacher's feelings a little better now."

...

Several days later, above a small island.

"Finally found it."

Lin Ke stood on the back of the Earth Dragon, overlooking the island below, which was identical to the one in the photo.

The silence here was a bit frightening. There was nothing but the sound of the wind. Looking down from above, there were no signs of any animal activity.

The beasts of the Naruto World were species with extremely strong reproductive abilities and vitality, yet they had become extinct on this small island.

He had the Earth Dragon fly around the island, finding a cluster of connected buildings. After all, on a sparsely populated island surrounded by the sea, there was no need to build an underground base. The target was quite obvious.

After finding the target, the Earth Dragon quietly landed on a cliff overlooking the base.

"Partner, this place has a strong smell of decay..."

Hina's nose twitched, and she darted out of the shadow, taking the lead and diving into the island's forest.

Lin Ke and Utakata followed behind. Before long, in the forest near the base, they saw a giant beast that had rotted to the point where only its bones remained. The exposed bone spurs on the soil were nearly ten meters long, enough to imagine how big this thing could have been when it was alive.

It was probably a monster on the same level as a giant Summoned Beast.

Strangely, the color of the bones was black, and upon closer inspection, there were many fine holes on them, like a honeycomb. The sight was enough to make someone with trypophobia faint on the spot, and it emitted a stench that even ordinary people could smell.

An old model shadow stood up, broke off a branch, and touched it. There was no reaction. It struck again, without using much force, and the bone spur snapped with a crack, turning into dust with a bang when it hit the ground.

"Whoosh!" Black dust scattered.

Even the bones have rotted away? Lin Ke didn't rashly go over to observe it himself. He planned to catch a few fish in the sea later to test the waters before considering sealing the bones and taking them back to the village to investigate the cause of death.

The two people and one cat bypassed the rotten bones and quickly arrived at the entrance of Orochimaru's Base.

"It's the same rotten smell, but much stronger. It seems like everything inside is like those corpses. There are no... wait, I think I smell the scent of living people."

Hina revealed a surprised expression and started running ahead.

"It's enough for me to go in with it." Utakata said, and took the initiative to go inside.

Lin Ke had the shadow stay in the shadows of the two people and the cat to provide support at any time, quietly standing on the branch waiting for news.

About a dozen minutes later, Utakata brought out two people, an adult male and a red-haired girl of about thirteen or fourteen years old. Both of them had fallen into a coma, their faces were sallow and emaciated, looking like they were about to become mummies.

The adult male was missing both legs, and his breathing was very weak, he was about to die. The red-haired girl's left arm was missing, and her right arm was covered in bite marks, both new and old.

"They are covered in injuries, and they are in a coma due to severe Chakra exhaustion without a place to replenish nutrients." He was releasing Chakra to simply treat the two, and explained without looking up, "Inside, there are bones of various shapes everywhere. Besides them, there are no other living people."

Lin Ke threw the treatment medicine and Soldier Pills over, and said, "Rest for a while, and prepare to leave this place."

The shadow was fully invading the base, collecting various experimental equipment and electronic devices that could be taken away.

He almost recognized the red-haired girl among the two captives. It seemed that this base had been abandoned.

[Even the Uzumaki Clan bloodline has been abandoned, what exactly are you doing, Orochimaru?] In the Land of Earth, within a dim base, in an empty dueling arena.

"Shred!"

"Hahahahaha!"

The laughing youth tore his opponent to pieces, blood splattering on his skin covered in orangepatterns, sizzling as it evaporated, making the air somewhat turbid. He roared with a ferocious expression, "Orochimaru, come out and see me!"

"Get out here!" His body instantly transformed into a series of afterimages.

"Thump!"

The sealed, massive iron door was dented deeply by a punch, the muffled sound proving that it was indeed a solid, heavy iron door. He raised his hand again, but before it could fall, his wrist was grabbed.

"?!"

The youth turned his head in surprise.

Yakushi Kabuto held his wrist with one hand, pushing up his glasses with the other, and said, "Don't get excited, your body..."

"Aaaaaaaah!"

"Pa!"

The youth, who had just been lively and brutally killing his opponent, screamed and exploded into a pool of filthy blood on the ground.

Yakushi Kabuto had retreated at some point, watching the pool of blood on the ground, shaking his head slightly.

Even after using many methods to pre-modify the body and using precious materials, it still failed in the end because emotional instability exceeded the threshold that the Cursed Seal could control.

Another failure.

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