Revolution in the Ninja World

Singled out by name, Habara followed Orochimaru to the command tent of the camp. His teammates, meanwhile, departed to carry out their mission again, having been in the camp for less than half an hour.

Once inside the tent, Habara casually observed the surroundings. How should he describe it? It felt like a place where a person would actually stay. If possible, he would have preferred to go on that reconnaissance mission with his teammates. Although reconnaissance missions were generally high-risk, he really didn't want to be around Orochimaru, because normal people simply couldn't understand what Orochimaru was thinking or what he was planning to do.

Besides the two of them, there was no one else in the tent.

Orochimaru didn't beat around the bush. He directly said to him, "Habara, I have a mission for you."

This opening line was a bit better than Habara had expected. He thought Orochimaru would say something like, "Don't say anything, just give me a tube of blood first."

"Speak, I'm listening."

Although Habara felt that a minor character like himself should do things befitting a minor character, as a "Konoha ninja," he couldn't refuse the orders of the front-line supreme commander.

"…"

Habara's attitude made Orochimaru feel a little strange, but he couldn't immediately pinpoint what was off.

"The requirements are simple. I want you to go to a certain place and search for something. According to the intelligence I've gathered over the years, there are several suspicious locations. You'll be responsible for one of them," Orochimaru said straightforwardly.

As he spoke, he handed a detailed map with marked locations to Habara.

Habara looked at the map and found that the place Orochimaru had marked required passing through an area where Konoha and Kumo were frequently engaged in battle, and it was actually located within Kumo-controlled territory. Based on this alone, this mission was very dangerous.

"Orochimaru-sama, shouldn't such an important mission be entrusted to someone more reliable?"

After thinking for a moment, Habara decided to subtly remind Orochimaru.

"Due to a small misunderstanding that occurred recently, the village is keeping a closer eye on me now. In fact, I'm a bit short on available manpower. Under these circumstances, you're someone I can trust," Orochimaru said.

Habara: "…"

What did he mean by a "small misunderstanding"? Now he understood. Orochimaru was doing something behind Konoha's back. The so-called "searching for something" was definitely for those inhumane experiments.

Orochimaru was truly tireless in pursuing such things.

"Orochimaru-sama, entrusting such a secret mission to someone like me, who has no connection to Konoha – what if I just disappear?"

Habara was curious why Orochimaru would entrust such a private matter to him. Wasn't he afraid he'd just run away?

Trust? Did Orochimaru trust anyone?

"The cruel Shinobi World War is still ongoing. The Five Great Ninja Villages are in a very bleak situation, but smaller ninja villages are even worse off. As for wandering ninjas? They can only be described as miserable. There's nowhere in this small world to escape the flames of war… Where do you think you can go?"

Orochimaru's words were a direct hit. He chuckled softly and then continued, "Habara, don't doubt it. You are now a Konoha ninja."

As he spoke, he handed another item to Habara.

Habara stared at the thing for a few seconds, then reluctantly reached out and took it… It was a Konoha forehead protector. Although they were commonplace, Habara had never owned one before.

"The specific mission requirements and the characteristics of the item you're looking for are written in this scroll. However, you can only open it when you're near the mission location.

Also, if you're lucky enough to find the item, you can store it in another scroll."

Orochimaru presented two more scrolls: one was a mission scroll, and the other was a storage scroll.

Habara took them. "A storage scroll… Are they useful? How do you use them? Can I have a few more?"

"…" This blatant attempt to get free stuff stunned Orochimaru.

"You really don't know what politeness is." While telling Habara how to use the storage scroll, Orochimaru had no choice but to give him a few more empty scrolls.

After explaining the mission and paying a small price, Orochimaru urged Habara to depart quickly, then waved him away.

Orochimaru seemed very confident entrusting the mission to Habara, but in reality, Habara himself had no confidence. As for whether he would carry out this mission, of course he would. A ninja had no right to refuse a mission. But that didn't mean Habara couldn't slack off.

Orochimaru had also said that there were several suspicious locations. The one Habara was responsible for wasn't necessarily where the item was, and even if there was something there… who could prove it?

In short, he still had to put on a show when it was necessary.

Taking Orochimaru's mission orders, Habara resupplied himself from the camp's logistics. And after wandering around for several laps, finding no reason to stay any longer, he finally left the camp and began to move in a northeasterly direction.

After roughly leaving the monitoring range of the Konoha camp, Habara immediately stopped. Without a second thought, he took out the mission scroll and unfolded it.

Only to be opened near the mission location? We're all responsible adults here; there's no trust between people.

Then, Habara understood what Orochimaru was looking for… corpses.

The corpses of Konoha's Second Hokage and Kumo's Gold and Silver Brothers.

After seeing this, Habara's first reaction was, "Wasn't the Second Hokage cremated in a timely manner?" Then he thought, "That seems to be a misconception."

Then his second reaction was…

"I've been had."

After understanding Orochimaru's objective, Habara suddenly didn't want to slack off anymore. He really wanted to search that suspicious location – leaving aside the Second Hokage, that stingy old man who left all the good stuff to Konoha and gave his final instructions before dying, if Habara remembered correctly, the Gold and Silver Brothers should have dropped a lot of loot when they died.

After the Gold and Silver Brothers died, Kumo's sacred treasures were reduced to only the "Amber Purifying Pot," which meant that the remaining items were taken away at that time.

Habara wanted to pick up the loot. After all, a living example was right there. There was once a Sand puppeteer who became a winner in life by relying on the principle of "my teammates fight, I loot."

Without much hesitation, Habara made up his mind. He decided to give it a try, because this matter was indeed worth trying – Orochimaru and his minions were able to simultaneously Edo Tensei the Second Hokage and the Gold and Silver Brothers, which meant that someone had indeed found their corpses.

As for why Orochimaru hadn't obtained the Gold and Silver Brothers' ninja tools, the reason was easy to guess… They'd been looted, just like what Habara was planning to do.

Anyway, Orochimaru only wanted the corpses. He had no information about the ninja tools.

So, the question was, how could he quickly reach that location, and then immediately retreat, regardless of whether he found any loot?

This kind of job definitely required speed.

And soon, a certain idea surfaced in Habara's mind.

He decided to be bold and borrow (steal) something to cross the front lines.

What to borrow? Naturally, a "reputation" that could intimidate Kumo ninjas in times of need.

So, what could make battle-hardened Kumo ninjas pee their pants? The answer was four words:

Yellow Flash of Konoha.

This showed that the Three Body Transformation Techniques were truly divine techniques, after all, Henge = Hiraishin. [Note: This is connecting Transformation Technique to the Flying Thunder God Technique, based on Minato's speed and ability to seemingly appear anywhere.]

No one had ever done this before. First, it would muddle battlefield information too much, easily causing confusion for both sides. Second, it was easy to backfire and get surrounded by enemies. Third, it was hard to explain to the person involved. Fourth, it was too unethical…

So, the specific operation had to be very careful. Habara's best approach was still to reach the mission location without anyone noticing.