In front of them was a steep, huge, and deadly mountain. After matg the coordinated pn once again, Itachi said, “Check if there is any easier way to climb this mountain.”

  All three of them went in different dires, but even after cheg all dires, there were no simple ways; the mountain was steep from every angle and looked very unnatural, like someone had actually made it that way.

  “Kaida, what are those markings on the mountain?” Itachi asked as they met back at the same pce they started.

  Sigh, “An array that is used to suppress chakra. We ’t climb the mountain with wall-walking teique,” Kaida said.

  “If that is the case, it will most likely suppress some jutsu as well, right?” Itachi asked.

  “Yes, we ’t use earth manipution to make the climb easier either,” Kabuto said as he tried to manipute the earth around him to form spikes.

  “This is a test of brute strength; we have to climb up ahe scroll,” Kaida said.

  “It would be illogical for all of us to go to the top together; only one of us go while the others serve their strength,” Itachi said.

  “What if there are other traps at the top of the mountain?” Kabuto asked.

  “We handle some of the traps easily; if it gets too difficult, we e bad try once again with all of us together,” Itachi expined.

  “I have a better idea,” Kaida said, and poof—one shadow e with 10 pert of his chakra appeared o him and quickly started climbing the mountain swiftly.

  Itachi and Kabuto heir heads, as this way either they would get the scroll, or the e would find out about the traps, and they could pn accly.

  Luckily, the e easily climbed the mountain; it was truly just a test of brute strength and nothing else. With the scroll in his hand, he jumped straight down from the top of the mountain and, right before nding, threw the scroll toward Kaida before dispersing itself.

  “If that e had nded, you would have gotten trauma for life,” Kabuto said.

  “But that was fun, and it saved us time too,” Kaida said.

  “But not much; we only have 20 more minutes before others start ing here,” Itachi said.

  “Let’s go back first. We always search for the sed scroll afterward, but finding those teams will bee one heck of a task if they get dispersed,” Kaida said.

  “Yes.”

  Thehree of them started going back. Once again, a shadow e was running in front of them with a metal rod in his hand.

  After they reached back to their starting position, they hid behind a mountain, waiting for teams to arrive. But even after waiting for 10 minutes, no team appeared from the same way they had entered.

  Just when they were about to lose hope and go back, a team with the headband of Takigakure ehe valley, quickly running away from the entrance.

  Before they could get far, three shadows flickered in front of them.

  “Fuck,” the leader of the team said. They had no iion of resisting at all, because the shadows' faces became clear the sed, revealing two pairs of blood-red eyes with three tomoe fixed on him. With the reputation of Konoha and the Sharingan, along with their sensei’s warning about Itachi Uchiha, the thought of fighting didn’t even cross their minds.

  “We don’t want to fight. If you give us the address of just one of the scrolls, we will let you pass without any problems,” Itachi said.

  “Just ohe leader asked.

  “Yes,” Itachi replied.

  Without a sed thought, the leader took out a piece of paper and gave it to Itachi. They would at least have three more days to figure things out if they could evade the current problem for now.

  Itachi took the scroll, then Kaida, with a curious voice, asked, “Why were you the only team that came from this route? What about the rest?”

  “Every team from major vilges took difficult routes, like climbing the mountain at the end or crossing the rugged valley, saying this path was the most dangerous one. We initially didn’t uand why they were saying that,” the leader of Team 15 said, sighing at his own stupidity for not uanding the meaning earlier.

  “Sorry, dude; we his,” Kaida said, patting his shoulder.

  “No, it’s totally fine.”

  “Okay, then take care and be careful about the lightning; it will bee deadlier as you keep going deeper in the valley. Make sure you have some type of prote,” Kaida said, leaving a final piece of advice before vanishing from his pce with the rest of his team.

  “Let’s go; at least we still have a ce. This is the shortest path. We take at least one scroll before others e bato the race,” the leader said, trying to lift the mood.

  …

  “Our pn to get food has failed now,” Kabuto said.

  “Well, easy food, but still, we hunt for our food,” Kaida replied.

  “I really don’t want to eat bloody meat now; that tastes very gamey,” Kabuto said.

  “You’ve eaten that before,” Kaida asked.

  “Yes, when our orphanage didn’t have much food, my friends and I used to go out to hunt for our own food. But it has been very long, and I have en something like that since I became a ninja,” Kabuto said.

  “Don’t worry, mate; I am better than professionals when it es to cooking. The food will not taste bad, guaranteed,” Kaida said, remembering why this boy was first added to Root—for his orphanage.

  “Let’s think about food after we are done finding all of the scrolls. I don’t want to leave one of you guys behind,” Itachi said.

  “Don’t worry, captain; we easily get 10 scrolls, let alohree,” Kaida said.

  “Overfidence is a slow poison, Kaida,” Itachi said.

  “Yes, but fiden your ability is a must-have quality for a ninja,” Kaida said.

  “We have to go left from here,” Kabuto interrupted the discussion while they ran toward the location and through the thorny jungle in the valley.

  “Why do I feel like we got all of the difficult pces?” Kaida said.

  “There are bears inside; even though they are slow, they have very high attack power, so be careful of them,” Itachi said, analyzing the marks oree bark at the start of the jungle.

  With their Sharingan activated, Kaida and Itachi took front and rear positions while Kabuto kept inf them of the location of the scroll from the ter.

  In no time, they reached the front of a cave.

  “Really? Ihe bear cave?” Kabuto said.

  “The bear is still inside; let’s lure it out first. I don’t want to fight it in a close pce,” Itachi said.

  “But how?” Kabuto asked.

  “Kaida and Kabuto, both of you go and caty animal you ; the rger, the better,” Itachi instructed.

  “Uood.” Uanding the pn, both Kaida and Kabuto disappeared from their positions.

  With a quick search of the surroundings, they found some burrows in the ground.

  “It looks like rabbits or hares are here.”

  “Let’s see; owo, three, four—total four exits are visible,” Kaida said.

  “That means two or three should be hidden somewhere too,” Kabuto said. Kaida nodded and did a quick search of the surroundings. With his Sharingan, finding traces was as easy as ting the fingers on his own hands.

  “Found them—there, there, and three,” Kaida pointed out all of the locations.

  “Go close to five of them,” Kaida said.

  Kabuto nodded and quickly used earth manipution to close all of the holes. Then Kaida appeared in front of one of the remaining open ones and started making hand signs.

  “Fire Release: Fire Breath Jutsu!”

  With its life in dahe hare tried to run out from the only other option avaible, but Kabuto resent oher side and, with a kunai in his hand, pierced the heart of the hare in one blow.

  But then he suddenly jolted his hand back.

  “What happened?”