Chapter 255: Kabuto and Kimimaro

"This way."

Kiba led the pursuit through the forest, his nose twitching as he separated the Sound Four's scent from wet bark, animals, and the traces left by his own team. Akamaru confirmed the direction whenever the trail crossed itself. Shikamaru, Naruto, Neji, and Chōji followed at full speed.

Naruto's expression remained grim. Whatever it took, he would bring Sasuke home.

An explosive tag detonated ahead of them. The Sound Four had realized they were being followed and planted traps along their route.

The pursuit barely slowed.

All five young shinobi had survived Tonbo's battlefield simulations, where hidden wires, false trails, and layered explosives had "killed" them countless times. They recognized disturbed earth and unnatural gaps between leaves before haste carried them into danger. Kiba smelled the oils used on a trigger; if he missed one, Akamaru usually found it.

Naruto sent a clone across the suspected line. The resulting blast exposed two tags concealed behind the first.

At the next bend, a wire released kunai from both sides while a false scent trail continued straight ahead. Neji found the weapons through the canopy; Kiba ignored the bait and pointed toward a shallow stream where the barrel's carriers had tried to hide their passage. Chōji used an expanded hand to shield the group while Shikamaru cut the trigger from beyond its reach.

"The traps are buying them time," Shikamaru said. "Do not let them make us careless."

From concealment, Tonbo watched the team dismantle the next formation with smooth, practiced movements.

"My training was not entirely wasted."

The traps also told him what had changed. In the history he remembered, the Sound Four had encountered Genma Shiranui and another special jōnin returning from a mission. That battle exhausted them before the pursuit caught up. Here, no such encounter had occurred. The Sound Four retained enough strength to move quickly and leave one trap after another.

Tonbo was not worried yet. His former students cleared the obstacles faster than an ordinary team. They should still force a battle.

He removed every trace of his presence, including his scent, and continued after them. Four Shadow Clones moved through the trees behind the pursuit.

An abundant chakra reserve made such precautions wonderfully convenient.

Back in Konoha, Tsunade visited Lee at his home.

"Hokage-sama."

Lee straightened the moment he saw her.

"How is your body? Any remaining problems?"

Some time had passed since the operation. Tsunade came personally to examine the result and determine whether Lee could reinforce Shikamaru's team. Support from Sunagakure might arrive too late.

"Thanks to your treatment and Captain Tonbo's assistance, I have returned to my former condition," Lee said. Hope shone in his eyes. "I can train normally. I can even open the Eight Gates again."

Tsunade checked the repaired pathways and found no sign that movement had reopened the damage.

"His method is expensive, but effective."

Her surgery had restored what Lee's body could not heal on its own. Recovery should still have required a long rest, but Tonbo used genjutsu to accelerate the body's ordinary repair processes. Unlike medical ninjutsu that forced repeated cell division, his illusion guided Lee's existing rhythms of rest, appetite, and healing. The treatment also consumed rare medicines worth tens of thousands of ryō.

Tonbo's illusion made sleep deeper, corrected the body's unconscious resistance to painful movements, and kept Lee from reopening the repair when dreams caused his muscles to tense. The medicines supplied what that accelerated recovery consumed. It was extravagant treatment, but the result standing before Tsunade justified the cost.

Tsunade had expected more time even with that support. Lee's condition was better than predicted.

"I have an urgent mission for you. Sasuke Uchiha left Konoha with four shinobi from Otogakure. Shikamaru's team is pursuing them. Catch up and provide support."

Lee accepted without hesitation. He collected his ninja tools, bowed once, and vanished with a Body Flicker.

Only then did Tsunade breathe more easily. A jōnin would have reassured her, but Konoha could not spare one. Sasuke mattered; the village and the thousands behind its walls mattered more.

In the Land of Rice Fields, Orochimaru's secret base lay apart from the official Sound facilities. He had hidden it close enough to the center of attention that Shibi Aburame's search force continued past without discovering it.

The entrance resembled a collapsed storage tunnel used by farmers. Beneath it, sealed passages curved away from the declared base and defeated ordinary attempts to map them from the surface. Orochimaru had always understood that the best hiding place was sometimes beside the place everyone already suspected.

Orochimaru coughed into one hand.

"Kabuto, I have a bad feeling. You will have to go."

Kabuto paused while mixing medicine. "Lord Orochimaru, if I leave, who will manage your body?"

"Do not underestimate me. The journey should not take long."

Another cough bent him forward.

"I must reincarnate within half a day. I will not be at ease unless you secure Sasuke."

Kabuto's eyes brightened with understanding. "Then I will depart immediately."

"Take Kimimaro."

"I intended to."

Failure was unacceptable when the prize was Orochimaru's next vessel.

After Kabuto left, pain crossed Orochimaru's face again. His current body was nearly finished.

"Hurry, Sasuke."

Kabuto descended through several tunnels and entered a sealed chamber. Kimimaro lay shirtless beneath instruments and sealing formulas that sustained a body consumed by illness.

His eyes shifted toward Kabuto.

"Is something wrong with Lord Orochimaru?"

"The retrieval mission may fail," Kabuto said. "I need you for another assignment. It may be your last."

Kimimaro smiled gently.

"Then this broken body can perform one final service. I will be happy if Lord Orochimaru obtains a better vessel."

"I will accompany you."

That surprised him. Kabuto was Orochimaru's most trusted assistant, indispensable during reincarnation. If both of them were being sent, the mission had become far more dangerous than the Sound Four expected.

Kabuto suspected Tonbo's involvement. Years as a spy had taught him to recognize the shape of an unseen threat.

Before leaving, he activated a bank of screens in the adjoining room. The images showed prisoners held as experimental subjects.

Kabuto spoke through the microphone.

"Fight among yourselves. I will release the relatives of the last survivor."

The subjects froze. Then desperation and bloodlust replaced hesitation, and they turned upon one another.

Some were clan members captured together; others had been selected only because their bodies might endure Orochimaru's technique. Kabuto did not care which motive drove the survivors. The promise concerning their relatives ensured that even prisoners who had abandoned hope for themselves still fought.

Kabuto did not stay to watch.

Kimimaro tore the instruments from his body and followed him.

"Qualified subjects are difficult to find," Kimimaro said. "Will wasting so many not create problems, even for you?"

Kabuto adjusted his glasses.

"It is wasteful, but we cannot know whether Sasuke will arrive before Lord Orochimaru must reincarnate. This gives him another suitable body if we fail."

Kimimaro accepted the answer. Orochimaru's survival outweighed every life displayed on the screens.

"Prepare yourself," Kabuto said as they left the chamber. "The enemies this time may be Konoha's elite."

His smile suggested that possibility pleased him.