Journey of Desires

- I must say I'm impressed, the Uzumaki girl turned out to have an unexpectedly high talent for the art of fuinjutsu.

Ban's squad had been at Orochimaru's base for a week now, at first they wanted to stay here for one or two days at most, but Naruko, who at one point turned to the Sanin for help, ruined all their plans.

Because of the reward she received from leveling up, she awakened an incredible talent for fuin, the signs she writes can work even if the girl made a small mistake in writing them, and the speed of learning and memorization is very high, Orochimaru was not initially interested, but when on the second day the regular teacher of the Hidden Sound Village's fuin reported the results, the Sanin decided to check everything himself.

They spent five days in constant training, the talent that appeared in Naruko interested him very much, for Orochimaru such abnormal learning ability and luck in fuinjutsu is an incredible event, after all, he knows what fuin is capable of at the peak of its power, but he considered it inappropriate to spend several decades to become at the level of a purebred Uzumaki.

At one point, he even thought that he would like to get a body with Uzumaki genes, but when he remembered what powers he now possessed, he lost interest.

Now Kilia came to them, she was curious to know about the progress of Naruko's training.

- I understand, but it does not mean anything to me ... When will she be able to reach the level of the same Jiraiya?

- Jiraiya?! Ke-ke-ke, don't make me laugh, Jiraiya is only a layman who knows a couple of tricks, she will surpass him by the end of this month, or perhaps within three weeks! It all depends on how much time she'll spend.

- A month? Great, then by the time the operation starts she'll also have fuin... That's good.

Then there was a short silence for a couple of seconds, after which a thought came to Kiliya's mind.

- I remembered something, yesterday when I was going to get food I saw a Sound shinobi get hurt and his wound healed in a few seconds, did you want to create an immortal army?

- I thought you noticed during my last visit... no, I won't create an army, but I've put a seal on all my important subordinates.

- Oh! Does that mean little Kimimaro no longer suffers from the disease?

- Right, how did you find out?

- Found out what? If you mean Kimimaro himself, then I saw him personally, and if you mean how I know that immortality and regeneration blocks diseases, then I learned it from my own experience. When my brother drank the fairy drink, he was healthy anyway, but my eyesight improved, so I thought that immortality also heals, and you confirmed it with your question.

- So, in addition to healing diseases, the general condition of the body improves? Interesting, I did not notice that.

- Yeah, and also the imposition of immortality can cure fatal wounds.

- Explain.

- Well, for example, if a person is mortally wounded, then after drinking the fairy drink, he will completely heal to his peak state.

- A useful discovery, okay, then come with me, please tell me more.

***

Later that day, Naruko ran into Kilia's room, she knew that earlier they spent several hours checking something, and now when Naruko had a problem with her training that the teacher assigned to her could not help with, she could not find Orochimaru anywhere.

- Kilia! Where are you? Ooo!

- Come here.

The voice came from the Kitchen, and entering it, Naruko saw how Kilia was sitting in a chair by the window and calmly reading some scroll, a rather unusual sight since she is usually not interested in Ninja techniques and chakra in general, and there is no point in reading scrolls for her.

- Where did Orochimaru disappear to? I haven't been able to find him for about forty minutes!

- He went to pay off old debts.

- Huh?

***

Orochimaru was currently on the border of the Rain and Fire countries, hours earlier he had received a report that his scout had seen two Akatsuki members in this territory.

Orochimaru would have ignored this information and would not have come here if not for one thing.

The two Akatsuki that were spotted were none other than Itachi and Kisame.

Given his new power, Orochimaru decided that fighting these two could give him a good chance of getting another Uchiha. However, fighting not only Itachi but also Kisame would be very dangerous, Samehada can devour chakra and is currently a problem for the Sannin.

But even this problem and the risks associated with Kisame can be solved.

- I'll take care of Itachi, don't bother me, your task is to detain, or better yet, eliminate Kisame.

- Yes, Orochimaru-sama!

There were three people next to Orochimaru, the first was Kabuto, who left Konoha and stopped being a spy, because his presence was needed for other purposes.

The second was Guren, a girl who possessed the kkeigenkai of the Crystal element, Orochimaru took her with only one purpose, to test how effective the Crystal element would be against someone of Kisame's level.

And finally, the third member was Kimimaro, he had recently begun to look much better, no longer looked like a walking corpse, and the seal placed on him had a very positive effect on his body.

After his words, Orochimaru moved towards the place that was described in the report.

They headed to the border village of the Land of Fire, where Itachi and Kisame were seen, they were heading to the village headman, as will become clear later, they went to this place to buy food, Kisame forgot the scroll with supplies at the base, and he cannot waste time and energy on hunting in the forest and cooking the caught game now, these two are going to the Land of Fire on Pain's orders, a nukenin has appeared there for whom a large monetary reward has been appointed, and a detachment of two immortals is now in the Land of Demon, and sending them will not work.

Literally ten minutes later, four ninja belonging to the village of Sound found themselves in the village where Itachi and Kisame were passing.

The members of Akatsuki had already left this place, and having learned the direction from the village headman, Orochimaru headed in pursuit.

***

Two people in cloaks with red clouds painted on them were walking in the direction of the task given to them, less than half an hour after they left the border village, Kisame turned to his partner.

- Itachi-san.

- I know.

They felt that they were caught up and surrounded by unknown ninja. Waiting for about ten seconds, nothing happened, and when Kisame reached out his hand to Samehada, words were heard from behind a tree to the left of Itachi.

- Crystal Release: Crystal Dragon Tearing Fall!

A pink shiny dragon appeared from behind the tree, flew a little parallel, turned towards the two Akatsuki members and struck right between them.

Itachi and Kisame jumped in different directions, they already knew that there were only four attackers, and they also recognized one of them.

Three people jumped out to Kisame, and without letting him understand the situation, they carried out their plan.

First, bone stakes began to appear from under the ground in his direction, Kisame, being a missing-nin of the Bloody Mist Village, immediately recognized the Shikotsumyaku technique, and deciding not to take risks, he moved even further away, heading into the forest.

- Crystal Release: Growing Crystal Thorns!

A multitude of crystals that grew one on top of another and looked like plants headed towards Kisame, at first Kisame was not particularly afraid of this technique, jumping back even further, but when the crystals did not stop growing and began to catch up with the missing-nin faster and faster, he took out Samehada and decided to block this attack, no matter what kind of keigenkai this is, everything consists of chakra, and his sword absorbs it.

- What the?

Kisame was very surprised and even a little scared, instead of Samehada absorbing the chakra from the technique, the thorns continued to grow and slightly covered the sword.

Crystal Element can absorb and transform absolutely any objects turning them into crystals, the exception is chakra and other types of energy. When Samehada touched the crystals, it could not absorb the chakra, since this element itself does the same, but the crystals also stopped growing because Samehada interfered with the normal operation of the technique.

- Senei Jashu!

An exclamation was heard from behind Kisame, it was Kabuto from whose sleeve a multitude of snakes appeared and headed towards Kisame.

Kisame was not surprised by such an attack and only waved his sword to repel the snakes, but...

- Argh... The devil!

Kimimaro didn't wait, and while Kisame's attention was distracted by Kabuto, Kimimaro approached and stabbed Kisame in the lower back with the bones he held in his hands instead of swords.

Having struck Kimimaro at great speed, Kisame smiled widely and said.

- This will be fun.

***

Meanwhile, Itachi, who saw his partner being taken away, did not go in the same direction.

Turning a little to the right, he stared at the tree, a few seconds later Orochimaru came out from behind it.

- Ke-ke-ke, long time no see... Itachi.

- Orochimaru, what do you need?

- Itachi... Your eyes are strong, I will be grateful if you hold out longer than ten minutes.

Itachi's Mangekyo Sharingan had been activated in his eyes for a minute, and for several seconds now he could not understand why Orochimaru still could not get into genjutsu.

- You have become stronger, Orochimaru-san, but... Tsukuyomi!

Having said these words, Itachi had already relaxed a little, but a moment later he realized that something was wrong.

Orochimaru raised his hand to his mouth and pulled out one of the Kusanagi blades, Itachi was very surprised to see this, but was shocked to see what happened next.

Orochimaru raised his right hand while the blade was in his left, and putting a finger to his eyes that were glowing with chakra, he took off two unusual lenses.

- I came up with these lenses specifically to deceive the enemy, but you know, imagining your face at that moment, I couldn't resist taking them off.

Itachi's eyes saw the activated Mangekyo Sharingan, its pattern resembled three diamonds similar to snake pupils in the shape of a shuriken. Now angry, but even more surprised, he only asked.

- Where did you get it from?