Suigetsu was in a bad mood, walking through the forest, randomly kicking pebbles from time to time, his eyebrows furrowed, his irritation evident to anyone.
Ranmaru, standing beside him, seemed completely different, unperturbed as his red eyes constantly scanned his surroundings, but the target in question offered no clues.
Suigetsu and Ranmaru had been on this mission for two weeks already.
The objective? To find something for Orochimaru, or to be more direct, to find a particular rogue ninja, which is why he was continuously scouring the southern part of the Land of Earth.
Kozaru Kazui, a rogue ninja from the Kirigakure no Sato, possessed a very interesting Kekkei Genkai, basically, he could make his body secrete all kinds of substances, from anesthetics and hallucinogens to poisons ...
It was an extremely versatile Kekkei Genkai, capable of even being spread through the air.
Orochimaru was very tempted as soon as he heard about this guy, unfortunately he was extremely elusive, they had been at this for two weeks and the trail had long since gone cold.
Even so, they had to stay here.
-Hey! Ranmaru! That's enough, that guy clearly hid, there's no point in looking for him!- Suigetsu couldn't take it anymore, shouting furiously.
In fact, it wasn't the first time during that period that he had suggested giving up.
Ranmaru refused every time, after all, they were still within the stipulated mission period, but now even he felt there was no point in continuing.
Sighing slightly, Ranmaru spoke. -Let's take a look at the next village, if there are no clues, we'll come back.
Suigetsu's furrowed brow finally relaxed, he hated this kind of tracking mission. If it were a fight? Fine, but following clues was far more uninteresting.
The pair didn't speed up, still going slowly, sometimes Ranmaru would partially transform into a werewolf, only retaining a dog-like snout to sniff a little.
Whether it was his eyes or his nose, he didn't find what he was looking for.
When they finally arrived at the village, as usual, the pair transformed themselves to look like ordinary civilians and began searching the public areas of the city.
Ranmaru even found some unsuspecting civilians to use genjutsu on, showing them drawn portraits of the man, but no one saw him, they weren't surprised by this, Kazui probably transformed when he entered cities as well.
Along with his Kekkei Genkai, he could probably change his scent easily.
It was no coincidence that, despite not being particularly strong, he managed to evade the hunt by the Mist Anbu for all these years.
In the end, Ranmaru finally gave up, much to Suigetsu's relief. In a good mood, Suigetsu dragged Ranmaru to eat something at a tavern, but after they sat down at a table and placed their orders, Suigetsu's eyes were fixed on two figures entering the tavern.
Primarily the large package wrapped in bandages behind one of the figures.
Suigetsu became very excited at that moment, even Ranmaru noticed his growing smile and followed his gaze.
Ranmaru narrowed his eyes, he recognized them too.
Kisame and Kakuzu.
-That's really lucky, right after I honed my skills to deal with this guy, he showed up right in front of me.- Suigetsu chuckled excitedly.
Knowing about his previous lack of firepower, Suigetsu went directly to Jugo to ask for a high-damage Jutsu to deal with Kisame, he was truly desperate to get his hands on Samehada.
Whether it was Kisame or Kazuku, both felt Suigetsu and Ranmaru's gazes, even though both were transformed, even with Kubikiribocho sealed in a scroll by Suigetsu, both realized that the pair's appearance was the result of transformation.
The two sides stood still for a moment, staring at each other.
Suigetsu almost jumped in to fight right there, but Ranmaru grabbed his arm. -Not here, we're still in the city, we're not going to disrupt the lives of these civilians.
Suigetsu seemed a little unhappy, but in the end, he calmed down, looking at Kisame with even more intensity. He clearly wanted to force Kisame to make a move so he could start a fight directly, and Ranmaru wouldn't be able to stop him.
Unfortunately for Suigetsu, Kisame ignored him, and like Kazuku, the pair went to a table and placed an order.
The two sides were at an impasse for a moment, neither side speaking, but neither side acting either, almost as if they had reached a silent agreement.
Kisame didn't know who the pair were, but Suigetsu's gaze was evident, he clearly wanted to fight. A toothy grin appeared above Kisame's cloak, he was curious to know who this little rat was.
Kakuzu, on the other hand, was frowning. Lately, he'd been having really bad luck. He honestly just wanted to hide for a while and wait for all this crap to pass.
Why did he have to get involved in this?!
He just wanted to save money in peace!
Damn, is that too much to ask?!
Thus, feeling Suigetsu's clear gaze upon them, especially upon Kisame, Kakuzu's first thought was not to fight, but instead, he was thinking about how to escape without being blamed by Pain afterward.
Ranmaru was the calmest among them, he wanted to continue the mission, but he knew it made no sense to try and stop Suigetsu now, so he was just mentally preparing to fight.
The atmosphere grew increasingly oppressive between the four of them, the civilians nearby couldn't feel it directly, but they still felt a chill down their spines, something far more instinctive, like being caught between a pride of lions and their dinner.
They couldn't tell where it was coming from, but most still ate hurriedly and left, only a few drunks who hadn't noticed anything continued to linger in that place.
When the busty waitress brought their food, she was constantly trembling, almost tripping over it, after placing the food in front of them, she quickly ran away.
Both sides began to eat without rushing.
The environment, however, became increasingly cold and deadly.