Grass Ninja Village, Mission Center.
A cheerful middle-aged woman asked, "Welcome, sir! What kind of request do you have today?"
Hyuga Kagami politely replied, "I'm looking for someone, but I don't know her whereabouts. I'd like to hire a ninja from your village to help locate her."
"A missing person, is it? No problem. Please fill out this form."
Taking the form, Hyuga Kagami gave it a quick glance.
The form only required information about the person he was searching for and the amount he was willing to pay. No personal information about the requester was required.
Seeing this, Hyuga Kagami gave a subtle nod.
Grass Ninja Village wasn't large, and to compete with other ninja villages for missions, they had to be flexible with their commission requirements. That was one of the main reasons he came here.
He filled in everything he knew about the descendants of the Queen of Roran. Then, after a moment's thought, he wrote one million ryo under the reward section.
The middle-aged woman at the desk looked surprised as she read it: "One million ryo?! That's the commission for an A-rank mission! Will this task involve conflict with other ninja?"
Hyuga Kagami smiled, "The person I'm looking for is likely in the Land of Wind. Just in case, I'd like your village to assign some elite ninja to take on this request."
Seeing it was a big deal, the woman's eyes crinkled into slits with her smile. "Sir, you can rest easy. Our Grass Ninja Village is the strongest among the minor villages outside of the Five Great Nations. We've got plenty of skilled shinobi who can handle this."
Hyuga Kagami gave a slight smile.
In terms of small ninja villages, Grass Ninja Village wasn't weak, but to claim it was the strongest of the non-Great Nations was definitely an overstatement.
In Hyuga Kagami's view, only the Hidden Rain Village was worthy of that title. If it weren't for its terrible location—caught between the Leaf, Sand, and Stone Villages—Rain would've become the sixth great village during Hanzo's era.
A few hours later, four Grass ninja appeared before Hyuga Kagami.
One of them looked him up and down before saying, "I'm Ryuuran, a Jonin of the Grass Village. My team and I will be handling your mission."
Hyuga Kagami replied with a smile, "You may call me Mr. Ki. I'll be counting on you all for this mission."
Hyuga Kagami was fairly satisfied with the four ninja before him.
Ryuuran, the Jonin in charge, didn't look that old, but his chakra signature was powerful—an elite even among Jonin.
The other three were all Chunin-level, and from the look of them, none were amateurs.
After leaving the village, one of the Chunin said to Hyuga Kagami, "Don't worry. Lord Ryuuran is one of the top fighters in our village. This kind of search mission is a walk in the park for him."
Hyuga Kagami smiled, "Looks like I'm lucky to have hired such a capable team."
Another Chunin chimed in with a grin, "Not to scare you or anything, but Lord Ryuuran has a bounty of ten million ryo on his head! Even if we run into Sand ninja, you won't be in any danger."
Hearing this, Hyuga Kagami looked more closely at Ryuuran at the front. He hadn't expected the Jonin to be carrying such a hefty bounty.
In truth, coming to Grass Village to hire help had been a decision made out of necessity.
After the ancient city of Roran was abandoned, its people had turned to a nomadic lifestyle, always chasing oases and water. They were hard to pin down. Searching for them in a month and a half, alone, would be almost impossible.
That's when the idea struck Hyuga Kagami to hire help through a ninja village.
The Sand and Leaf Villages were immediately ruled out. Then, among the remaining Great Nations—Stone, Cloud, and Mist—each had their own complications, ranging from hostility to distance.
That left only two villages near the Land of Wind: Rain and Grass.
But the Rain Village was currently the base of the Akatsuki, essentially a den of vipers. Hyuga Kagami wasn't about to invite trouble, so he disguised himself and took a detour to Grass Ninja Village instead.
By hiring Grass ninjas, he could gain access to their intelligence network. With the backing of an entire ninja village's information-gathering ability, finding the descendants of the Roran royal line would be much more feasible.
Land of Water.
Sasori sat on a rock, panting lightly as he pulled out a canteen.
After a sip of water, he stood up and looked out across the battlefield. A smirk crept onto his face.
Countless pale bone spears jutted out from the ground like a bamboo grove, creating a field of white.
At the center of this bone forest lay a corpse.
The body was covered in sharp bone spikes, making it look like some kind of monstrous creature.
Sasori strolled up to the body, unrolled a scroll, and carefully sealed the corpse inside.
Just then, another figure appeared.
Sasori turned and said coldly, "You're late, Orochimaru."
Orochimaru gave a sinister smile. "So this was the head of the Kaguya clan? Doesn't seem all that impressive."
The scene surprised even Orochimaru a little—he hadn't expected Sasori to take down the formidable Kaguya clan leader so effortlessly.
Sasori casually stored the scroll. "The Kaguya clan are all maniacs. If he hadn't fallen to my poison, it wouldn't have been this easy."
Orochimaru examined the forest of bone spears with interest. "Looks like this Mist Village uprising has earned you some premium puppet material."
Sasori glanced at him. "You're one to talk. That kid in the dungeon—you took him, didn't you?"
"Thought I could keep it from you," Orochimaru said with a chuckle. "It's time to leave, don't you think? Looks like the chaos in the Mist is calming down."
Sasori shook his head. "Let's stay a few more days. Opportunities to hunt bloodline limit users like this don't come often."
Orochimaru paused, then nodded. "Alright, we'll stay a bit longer."
He had already secured a surviving Kaguya child and wasn't too interested in lingering, but since he and Sasori were partners, he decided to stay a few more days for Sasori's sake.
Sasori's insistence on remaining in the Land of Water was mainly to make up for the loss of the Third Kazekage puppet. If he hadn't lost that, he wouldn't have stuck around at all...