At this time of year, the Fire Nation has already been covered in heavy snow. Although the countries further south are also relatively cold, it may be rare to see snow for several years.

The cold wind blew, and Sasuke couldn't help but tighten his collar.

It has been a while since we came to this country, but the rumored mission target has not been found yet.

This place is not very big. Sasuke has checked it back and forth several times. Apart from some uninhabited ruins and unfounded rumors, he has not seen any creatures related to monsters or murderous ghosts.

If this continues, the assessment mission that I had fought so hard to obtain will most likely fail. As for promotion to the rank of Jonin, it will naturally be impossible.

The original application for promotion to Jonin was controversial. If the mission failed, it would be estimated that there would not be such a good opportunity again for a long time.

Sasuke would not miss any challenge that could prove his strength and magnanimity, especially when he thought that Uchiha Itachi of the same period had surpassed him, the sense of urgency in his heart became even more suffocating.

If I can't surpass that man on the road he once walked, how can I kill him and avenge myself?

"A murderer? Now let's not even talk about whether we can defeat him or not. We can't even see his shadow. What should we do?"

How can we complete the task properly? At least we need to get a good evaluation, which is the most basic bottom line. Otherwise, those who want to push him up will not even say good things.

After returning empty-handed again, Sasuke had no choice but to return to the small town where he was temporarily resting. It was too easy for him to deceive these inexperienced civilians by using transformation techniques to conceal his true identity.

Although there was no progress in the mission, Sasuke did gain something after a few days of investigation. The fact that he did not discover anything was a very conspicuous anomaly.

You know, a killing incident that alarmed a country would definitely not be a rumor spread by word of mouth, and the possibility of it being groundless is very small. Since they can come up with real money to issue a high-level mission to Konoha, it must not be a joke.

But the strange thing is that he was able to evade his inspection, and even the Sharingan could not find any clues. It was obvious that someone was helping to cover up the traces, which meant...

"It's not a simple senseless murder. There must be at least one or a group of elite ninjas helping to cover up the truth."

The enemy's purpose is completely impossible to judge, but the originally planned tasks with clear processes such as eliminating monsters or exterminating bandits are definitely impossible.

"A powerful ninja? This is a great opportunity to test your strength!"

It would be great if you could have a heavy enough enemy head as a sacrifice for your promotion to jonin.

After thinking for a long time, Sasuke took out a pen and paper, recorded the latest progress of the mission, and brought it back to the village using the Anbu's unique messenger bird.

Although he was confident in his own strength, Sasuke was not arrogant enough to be stupid. When doing such a dangerous and strange mission alone, he had to maintain the necessary contact with the village. Even if something unexpected happened, he could still expect the village to rescue him. How to use all the combat power he could count on was his biggest feeling and gain during this period.

As night gradually fell, Sasuke opened the window of the room and looked out at the still crowded street with some boredom.

“Huh!”

Sasuke, who was originally a little distracted, unexpectedly saw some inharmonious phenomena.

"It's getting dark. Logically, the birds should be returning to their nests. Why are some still flying back and forth?"

As far as the eye can see, there are several crows and birds that are obviously not nocturnal animals such as night owls wandering around this small town.

"Could it be that..."

Sasuke closed the window alertly, and after calming himself down, he secretly opened a crack, opened his Sharingan, and carefully observed these suspicious little birds.

"There is indeed a problem. Could it be that they are tracking me here?"

Birds have limited intelligence, and unless they are specially bred ninja beasts, they are not sensitive to the differences in human appearance. It just so happens that I have used transformation techniques to disguise myself.

Although it was somewhat unsettling that I might enter the enemy's sight and be targeted, at least it was confirmed that the enemy did exist and was not a simple person.

For a ninja, the most terrifying thing is not a strong enemy, but the unknown. As long as there is some guesswork, even the strongest ninja can arrange tactics to deal with it after obtaining sufficient intelligence, and everything can be manipulated.

"Mr. Mizuki is right. Being knowledgeable is not a bad thing. Learning more seemingly useless knowledge may come in handy someday!"

Sasuke, who finally felt relieved from the frustration of the past few days, simply turned off the lights in the room, put aside all his worries and started to replenish his strength. After several days of non-stop action, his body was a little exhausted.

…

Shigeo couldn't remember how much time had passed since he left the cage of self-imposed bondage.

Except for the time when the curse erupted and he turned into a killer, he had been living in a dark underground cave. The sword-wielding boy who had been following him had already left.

No matter how good your temper is, you won't have the patience to keep someone around who ignores you, not to mention that there is always the possibility that you might lose control and kill the other person.

Seeing the fearful look in the eyes of the boy who called himself Hozuki Suigetsu, Shigego knew that he was not the same kind of person as himself, and he would never be a shackle to hold back his out-of-control self like Kaguya Kimimaro who had died long ago. Therefore, he had no interest in this guy with a malicious smile on his face, and he did not want to pay attention to him.

Shigeo always remembered that day when a sudden huge explosion turned the original base upside down. Shigeo was so shocked that he couldn't control his desire to kill.

The last thing he saw was a strange black robe with red clouds. After that, Shigeo rushed forward without hesitation, and he had no idea what happened next. When he woke up again, the malicious Hozuki was already by his side.

It seemed as if the young man was chattering a lot in his ear, but he didn't pay much attention to it, and he couldn't remember what he said. He just followed his instinct for survival and came all the way from the sea to this place.

Shuiyue was with him until recently, but finally he couldn't bear it anymore and left alone.

He just used his talent of communicating with small animals in nature to explore the movements outside and stay away from human habitation as much as possible. As for where to go in the future, he wanted to look for Orochimaru who had once promised him, but he had no idea where to go.