Yōkō raced through the mountains and forests, sparing no effort.
He couldn't be away from the main camp for too long this time, or Yellow Dog and the Command would grow suspicious of him.
He arrived at the location 20 kilometers southeast of the Whirlpool Country capital.
Yōkō quickly found a cave. He formed hand signs: "Summoning Jutsu!"
After a puff of white smoke, the Stone Panda Hakuji appeared.
Yōkō said: "Hakuji, Reverse Summon Uzumaki Yuka. I need to discuss something important with her."
Hearing this, Hakuji raised his short, thick, furry, and plump paw.
His stubby fingers were unexpectedly nimble, quickly completing the hand signs.
After another puff of white smoke, Uzumaki Yuka, responding to the Reverse Summoning, appeared here.
It was the middle of the night, but Yuka was alert and wearing her combat attire. It seemed she slept ready to fight at any moment, prepared to lead the Uzumaki clan in continued flight.
"Fox?"
Uzumaki Yuka excitedly rushed forward and threw her arms around Yōkō's neck.
Yōkō removed his mask, lowered his head, and kissed Yuka's neck, saying:
"Yuka, unfortunately, I'm not here for a tender moment.
I've obtained intelligence. Shimura Danzo captured the Uzumaki Guardian Ninja of the Whirlpool Country Daimyō. They might be imprisoned in the cave below, undergoing secret sealing technique experiments.
Let's go rescue them together."
Uzumaki Yuka looked down at the cave in shock.
"Guardian Ninja? The Daimyō's Guardian Ninja are imprisoned here? My... my father was a Guardian Ninja for the Whirlpool Country Daimyō. Is he... is he still alive?"
Yōkō was taken aback, then said: "Let's go in and search right away."
He took two black face masks from his tool pouch, indicating for Yuka and himself to put them on.
The fox mask was a bit too conspicuous and somewhat well-known. For truly shady work, an ordinary face mask was better.
The two jumped to the cave entrance.
Yuka glanced at it and said, "It's fake. The cave entrance has a barrier sealing technique set up; it's a false cave."
She formed hand signs and slapped the ground.
The entrance in front of them distorted with light, suddenly transforming into a wall covered in explosive tags.
The entrance was fake. If someone barged in recklessly, they would be blown to bits.
The real entrance was behind the explosive tag wall.
"It's our Uzumaki clan's secret sealing technique. This technique is called 'This Place is Not a Barrier'. While I was breaking the barrier, I set up a fake one. The people inside shouldn't have noticed I replaced the barrier."
Yōkō nodded repeatedly; Yuka's sealing skills were getting stronger and stronger.
Yuka formed hand signs again, using the Summoning Jutsu.
After a puff of white smoke, nothing seemed to appear.
Only when a tongue flicked out did Yōkō realize it was the Camouflage Lizard.
The two jumped into the Camouflage Lizard's mouth and entered the tall cave together.
The cave was pitch black at first. After turning a corner, two ninja stood guard on either side of the passage.
The two ninja saw nothing, until a large lizard mouth opened before them.
The Self-Cursing Body Binding Seal crept along the ground and onto their bodies; they couldn't even cry out.
Swallowed into the Camouflage Lizard's mouth, the two guards were as good as dead.
After passing through multiple defense lines, they finally saw a large hall.
In the hall were 12 glass cultivation tanks, six on each side, corresponding to the 12 Daimyō Guardian Ninja.
In the first 6 cultivation tanks, there were only 'disassembled' people.
These six Guardian Ninja had been dismembered, limbs suspended, torsos missing, with internal organs floating in the cultivation fluid where their torsos should be.
Some still had their heads, others' heads had already vanished.
In the next 2 cultivation tanks, each contained a misshapen brain.
In the following two cultivation tanks, two people were immersed.
These two were still alive; their breathing created bubbles that lined up in the cultivation fluid, rising upwards.
On the operating table opposite, two bodies were being dissected.
Yōkō grabbed Yuka's hand; her body was trembling violently.
Between the cultivation tanks and operating tables, over ten busy researchers moved about.
Behind the cultivation tanks were tall bookshelves filled with scrolls – the research data obtained by Root.
Yōkō created shadow clones, and each clone left the Camouflage Lizard's large mouth.
The shadow clones landed at various points in the hall and instantly released the Self-Cursing Body Binding Seal.
Over twenty people in the research lab were subdued by Yōkō.
They had to rescue any possibly surviving Uzumaki clansmen with minimal destruction.
Sealing techniques were the best method.
Yōkō held kunai, throwing them one after another at the researchers.
The metallic clatter of Adamantine Sealing Chains rang out as Yuka also moved to kill, impaling the researchers.
In a short time, Yōkō and Yuka killed everyone present.
Yōkō came to Yuka's side and said:
"Yuka, guard the entrance in case there are other guards in the base. Let me handle the hall. Once I'm done, you can turn around, okay?"
"O-okay... okay..."
The more Uzumaki Yuka hoped her father was alive, the less she could bear such a cruel scene. She turned her back to the hall, watching the entrance.
Before long, Uzumaki Yuka began to sob quietly.
Yōkō checked all the cultivation tanks. The two intact individuals were still alive.
They were merely unconscious, the last reserve test subjects of this base, temporarily not in immediate life danger.
Of the two on the operating table, one was already dead, the other had a faint breath remaining.
The living one was missing his liver, gallbladder, and stomach, kept barely alive solely by nutrient fluids.
The reason secret techniques remained secret was because the chakra pathways were extremely unique, requiring dissection of muscles and organs to trace the chakra flow.
"Daughter... daughter..."
Yōkō's heart sank. The worst possible outcome had occurred.
The middle-aged man with only half a life left, turned his head, looking at Yuka in the distance with eyes full of fear and hope.
Fear, because he was afraid this was a hallucination before death.
Hope, because he desperately wanted to see his daughter one last time before dying.
Yōkō quickly covered the middle-aged man's mutilated body with a white cloth, leaving only his head exposed, then body-flickered behind Yuka and carried the trembling girl to the operating table.
When Yuka saw the face of the middle-aged man on the operating table, she burst into loud sobs.
"Daughter... you're alive, that's wonderful..."
"Father! Father!"
Uzumaki Yuka glanced at her father's body, saw the terrible hollow in his chest, and instantly understood.
"Don't be afraid, Yuka. Being able to see you before I die, I have no regrets now." Uzumaki Yuka's father experienced a momentary recovery before death, his words coming much faster:
"The Four Symbols Seal, the Adamantine Sealing Chains, the Cursed Tongue Eradication Seal – they didn't obtain these most important sealing techniques.
Come here, come here, I'll tell you everything."
When Uzumaki Yuka fled the Land of Whirlpools, she had obtained a sealing technique scroll from the Uzumaki clan elders, which recorded part of the Uzumaki secret techniques.
Now, after listening to her father's quick and simple explanation, Uzumaki Yuka stayed by her father's side until he slowly closed his eyes.
Yōkō crouched down and embraced Yuka.
This unfortunate girl. This unfortunate shinobi clan.
Yuka's shoulders were thin and small, her hand holding her father's corpse trembling incessantly.
Yōkō's eyes ached. Would he actually shed tears over this?
He wasn't some delicate, tender-hearted good guy. How could he cry?
But when he opened his eyes again, they were Two Tomoe Sharingan.
Yōkō had always planned to use the system to upgrade his Sharingan using some Uchiha ninja as a medium.
He never expected that he himself would one day experience such mental stimulation.
***
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(Chapter End)