The weekend passed uneventfully. Since she was the only one at home, she dedicated herself to studying, training ninjutsu, and creating new genjutsus. Tsunade-sama hadn't requested any other inventions, so she was glad to have some "free" time for her personal interests. She also didn't have to go to the hospital, so when the last Tuesday of January arrived, she had almost convinced herself that she could relax while reviewing the lists of amputee patients at her discretion.
For better or worse, she was called to another mission on Wednesday. She was the last to arrive at the office, so when she saw Yamato, Tokuma, and Muta already gathered, she had a slight idea of what it was about.
"Welcome back, Team Yamato. Since you performed perfectly last time, Shikaku believes you are the most suitable for this mission," said Tsunade-sama. "I agree with him, so you will be sent to deal with another of Orochimaru's bases."
"Are we going to keep destroying his bases indefinitely?" she asked amid her team's thoughtful silence. "One of these days, we should cut the problem at its root."
"I know," Tsunade-sama sighed. "The problem is that Orochimaru is not just any rival. We wouldn't be able to bring him alive for questioning because I'm sure he would find a way to escape. Eliminating him would be the most efficient option, but until we know how he's using the living corpse reincarnation jutsu, it would be pointless. You yourselves discovered that he has already changed bodies again; who knows what else he can do to escape."
"He could make us believe he's dead while secretly recovering his strength," Yamato nodded.
"Exactly. Still, you are right. In this mission, we will include eliminating as many ninjas as possible under Orochimaru's command. He already knows we're coming for him. It won't surprise him that we eliminate his people."
Seina accepted it. She supposed that eliminating his bases and cutting some bad weeds was just as effective in the long run. Orochimaru could keep building bases, but it was easier to destroy something than to create it. Sooner or later, the frustration and constant pursuit would encourage him to counterattack. Perhaps that's what Tsunade-sama and Shikaku were hoping for: a frontal attack on Konoha. Although it could also go very wrong... They could start targeting their teams while on field missions.
"Here is the mission, Yamato. You are once again the team leader. One of the prisoners you captured was transferred to the Ice Country base from a base in the Land of Waterfalls, so we are sure that base is still operational. We believe Orochimaru doesn't know we have this information because you destroyed his laboratories."
Seina listened in silence as the Hokage informed them of all the relevant details before dismissing them from her office. Once again, Yamato gave them half an hour to prepare before departing. Since she had nothing to do except grab a few bentos, go to the bathroom, and write a note for her missing team, she sat on the couch while waiting for the time to pass. When the time came, she left her house.
"This mission is going to be a repeat of the last one," Yamato sighed. "You can imagine what awaits us."
"At least there won't be snow," Tokuma smiled.
Seina looked at him intently, realizing he was a Hyuga. Part of her wanted to remove the seal, if he had one, while another part advised her to wait until she spoke with Tsunade-sama. She decided the best thing to do was make the sensible decision. Right now, there were no Hyuga elders who could activate Tokuma's supposed seal, so there was no need to risk removing it. The last thing she wanted was for someone to steal his eyes during the mission and be able to use them.
They started running towards the Land of Waterfalls. She spent the whole morning jumping from tree to tree. She mentally noted to use the shiki jutsu on one of her enchanted stones to have coordinates for future use of the hiraishin in the Land of Waterfalls. The only interesting thing in the whole morning was their lunch break.
"This mission is going to be a bit more problematic," said Yamato, sitting next to her on a log. "We not only have to steal the documentation but also eliminate our enemies."
"Why should that be a problem?" she blinked. "I can think of several ways to do it without putting us in danger."
"Oh, really?" Yamato raised an eyebrow in her direction. "How would you do it?"
"By reinforcing the base from the inside, using barriers so they can't escape, and setting fire to Orochimaru's headquarters from within. I tried it last time, though it only half worked."
"...Cruel but efficient," Tokuma nodded thoughtfully.
"Another way would be to destroy the base in such a way that we force them towards the entrance. Once they come out in a rush, we just have to take them down one by one. It would take less time to execute but would be more dangerous because they would attack us."
"What do you need to prepare the first plan?"
"Time. I could easily reinforce the walls," a couple of spells would do the job "but the barriers are another matter. I would need to prepare them in advance and place them around the base without being noticed."
"And the fire? They could easily put it out with water jutsus."
"I'm not talking about a fire jutsu," she laughed. "I'm talking about a fire I can summon with my powers that doesn't go out."
Yamato's calculating expression indicated he was seriously considering it.
"Actually, it's a good plan. If we're lucky, Orochimaru might be inside the base."
"Do you think it would be enough to kill him?" Muta asked with clear doubts.
"I don't know, but it's a good method to deal with all his ninjas at the same time. We wouldn't leave any enemy alive this way."
When they entered the Land of Waterfalls, she was impressed. The vegetation was lush, green, and full of life. The sound of running water and waterfalls was a constant presence in the distance. She had to admit the place was beautiful. Since it was night, Yamato asked her to set up the tent so they could sleep without worries. They didn't even have to keep watch because the protections she had placed around the tent would alert them all instantly.
The next morning, while they were having breakfast, Yamato sat next to her.
"How much time do you need to prepare everything?"
"To calculate it, I would first need to know the approximate area I need to cover."
"Then you will need Tokuma to take a look first," Yamato murmured. "After breakfast, we will go in search of the base. Today our top priority is to find it and have everything ready for tomorrow, in case it's not possible to act today. Once we find it, Tokuma will provide you with the necessary information. While you prepare what is needed for the plan, Muta will infiltrate with his kikaichu, and Tokuma and I will prepare the terrain in case the plan fails and we need to eliminate them outside the base. Once Muta informs us of what he has found and you have finished your part, you will introduce your summons to teleport us safely into the base with the hiraishin. From there, we will follow the same procedure we used last time: Muta and Tokuma on one side, Seina and I on the other, to communicate and cover our backs."
She spent the rest of breakfast thinking about what she would have to do. Unfortunately, she didn't have much time for herself when Yamato stood up. A few minutes later, they were back in the middle of the forest. Soon she heard the sound of water again, as was customary in this country.
"Seina, give us a direction," Yamato requested. She conjured the arrow, used the spell, and indicated the direction. "Let's go. Tokuma, you take the lead. Muta and Seina, the sides, I'll take the rear."
They spent hours running, delving deeper into the Land of Waterfalls until Tokuma saw something.
"There seems to be ninja movement up ahead."
"Let's hide."
They followed Tokuma under her invisibility spell and stopped in front of a waterfall. The entrance was behind it, so it was a bit anticlimactic. Nevertheless, if they hadn't been explicitly looking for Orochimaru, most wouldn't have noticed the waterfall hiding an enemy ninja base. When the Hyuga nodded a few minutes later, Yamato made some silent signals for them to follow him. She quickly realized he was leading them to another hideout they had glimpsed along the way, barely five minutes running from the base.
"We'll stay here until further notice," ordered Yamato, clearing some logs to set up the tent. "What did you see?"
"The base appears to have only two levels, though one is completely underground. I estimate each floor is about 8 meters high."
Seina noted the measurements Tokuma was providing, mentally calculating how many rune stones she would need to plant. Unlike what she was doing in Danzo's base, she wasn't going to raise any magical barriers here. She simply wanted to reinforce the walls with runes. It was a different matter altogether. She knew the reach of each stone, so she would need to place rune stones so that the boundaries of each barrier fused without leaving dead spots. Considering each stone had a reach of 5 meters, she would need at least 50 per floor.
"I'll need to work on this for a few hours with the help of my clones," she finally informed them.
"Perfect. We'll take a break to eat and then proceed with the plan."
They ate some bentos while discussing what needed to be done once they finished eating. Then, they left her alone with her stones and carving tools. She summoned 30 clones to help with the task. It took her 15 minutes to design the runes and 30 minutes to carve them perfectly into one stone. She knew it would take at least three hours to finish the task.
When they returned almost two hours later, they found her sitting amidst a conjured wooden box where she was placing the already carved stones, with another box of stones still to be carved. In the end, she had decided to make a few extra, just in case.
"How much longer will it take you to finish?" Yamato asked.
"About 20 minutes, but you can start discussing the plan. I'll leave my clones to handle this."
"Perfect. Muta, why don't you start?"
"I managed to infiltrate without being detected. My kikaichu counted about 100 enemies. I couldn't sense Orochimaru or Kabuto, so I'm fairly certain they aren't here. Most of them are on the underground level. It looks more like a military training base than a laboratory."
"I'm not surprised. The Land of Waterfalls has a good strategic location," Yamato frowned. "A small base like this shouldn't draw much attention. It's likely a headquarters where their elite ninjas rest between missions."
"All the more reason to eliminate them."
"I agree," he nodded. "We'll try to gather information, but if Muta is right, we probably won't find anything valuable."
"I'm done," she interrupted, placing the last of the 150 rune stones she had prepared.
"How do they work?"
"Each one has a range of 5 meters, so they need to be placed approximately every 9.5 meters to avoid dead spots. Since they only work by reinforcing the materials within the barrier, there's no need to activate them as they're already active."
"Great. We'll split them evenly between the teams," said Yamato, signalling for Muta and Tokuma to take half. "Now, when we reach the base, Muta will guide one of your summons to get us inside safely."
Seina nodded. They left the tent behind, protected by multiple magical and fuinjutsu barriers, and headed back to the base. It was beginning to get dark, making it the perfect time to attack unnoticed. She summoned an insect to follow Muta's kikaichu and observed the base from within. It was grim, claustrophobic, and even more oppressive than the previous one due to the sound of water echoing against the stone in the distance. She saw a few people moving around but nothing significant.
The base seemed to have only the bare essentials for living. It didn't even have a library like the others. Muta led her to a pantry filled with food. Once they were alone, she opened her eyes and nodded to Yamato. They grabbed her arms as she molded the chakra needed for the hiraishin. A millisecond later, they were inside.
"You head west," Yamato silently signalled. Seina handed an invocation to each of them while accepting Muta's kikaichu. "We'll meet here in an hour."
She had only seen three of Orochimaru's bases, but all seemed to have been constructed following the same pattern. They were so gloomy it was disheartening. How could the ninjas of Otogakure live here? At least those operating in the Land of Waterfalls and its surroundings. They placed the stones on the ceiling, attached to the stone with a permanent spell, until they found a room that appeared to be a mess hall. Inside were three ninjas talking, sitting on stone benches.
"There's no way to get close to the village," one complained, referring to the large tree in the middle of a lake where the hidden village was located. "It's well protected."
"That was to be expected. We'll have to keep trying."
"Maybe Orochimaru-sama will attempt it."
"That would mean we've failed," another interjected sharply. "I don't want to tell him we couldn't do it. Do you?"
A silence fell. Seina and Yamato stayed to spy on them a bit longer, but it was clear the conversation had ended. They left after placing the stone and continued eastward through the base. Luckily, or unluckily, they didn't encounter anything else. There were only rooms, more rooms, some medieval-looking baths, and not much else. Yamato signalled for them to return and descend to the lower level. There they found Muta and Tokuma, placing more of her stones. Besides the stones, she reinforced the walls with her magic so they couldn't be destroyed. She didn't want to find out they had discovered a gap through which to escape.
"I think I heard something," they heard a voice approaching.
"Must be the people upstairs moving the packages."
"It can't be. They shouldn't be here for another half hour."
Seina stayed still as both ninjas approached their position. They saw them pass a few meters by, but, unfortunately, they stopped abruptly. Yamato silently drew a kunai as she silenced the hallway just in case.
"It came from here," said one at the crossroads.
"There's nothing here."
"…"
The ninja, still silent, didn't reply. Suddenly, his uniform tore apart as he activated what seemed to be Orochimaru's cursed seal. She realized what had just happened at the same time the ninja jumped, catching one of Muta's kikaichu mid-air.
"It's just a bug," his companion sneered.
"It's not just a bug, idiot. It's an Aburame kikaichu from Konoha. They've infiltrated the base!"
Yamato lunged at them, followed by Tokuma. The stopper of Muta's backpack opened, releasing his cloud of insects, while she performed the necessary hand signs for a genjutsu. She let the leader and the taijutsu specialist engage in combat while Muta attacked from afar as support. She was the iryo-nin of the team, so unless the situation required it, she didn't need to enter the fight. She watched them fight, puzzled that no one came to their aid, until one fell at the hands of Tokuma and his juken.
Yamato, strangely, seemed to be having more trouble with the sensory ninja who had discovered Muta's kikaichu. Perhaps because he couldn't use his wood element without destroying the structure and burying them all. Seina frowned as she saw a kind of flesh dagger graze Tokuma's arm, who was at close range. Yamato took advantage of the distraction to impale him through the back of the neck. The cursed seal deactivated instantly, and Tokuma finished him off from the front.
"Are you alright?" Yamato asked quietly, obviously realizing that no one had heard them. They nodded. "Good job with the genjutsu, Seina. Muta."
"I'm finishing up," informed the Aburame, who was disposing of the bodies.
Seina approached with her hand prepared with iryo ninjutsu. Tokuma allowed her to heal the cuts and the wound bleeding on his left arm.
"Such sharp senses," Tokuma whispered, frowning. "It's the first time we've been detected."
"Luckily nothing happened," Yamato sighed. "Though we should keep in mind that there might be more ninjas of his calibre. We are no longer dealing with low and mid-level ninjas."
"I could put Muta's kikaichu under the same camouflage jutsu," she offered, sensing the stoic Muta's self-reproach. "That way, he could use them without being detected."
"Wouldn't that take too much time?" her companion asked.
"No. Simply gather them all in the same place," it would be easy to cast a spell on multiple subjects while they were in a specific location.
Yamato nodded as Muta silently turned to ask permission. Muta's kikaichu swirled around her. It took her barely two seconds to cast the spell on all of them. She saw out of the corner of her eye how Muta's shoulders imperceptibly relaxed before his insects re-entered his body.
"Let's move on. I want to get out of here as soon as possible," Yamato whispered. "Seina, lift the genjutsus."
She lifted the genjutsu and the silencing spell, and they continued their mission. Half an hour later, they finished planting their stones. They returned to the surface without further issues, so at the entrance, she used the fiendfyre spell for the first time in this new world. Yamato and the others shuddered as they saw and heard the angry screams of her fire basilisk, which surged into the base like an exhalation. Within seconds, some began to scream. Yamato raised a rock wall as she reinforced it from the outside.
"Take cover," Yamato ordered. "Those who escaped outside the base will return soon."
They hid among the upper branches of the trees, listening to the dying howls of the ninjas trapped in their base. Yamato placed a hand on her shoulder, surely to comfort her. She watched as Tokuma and Muta, around them, leaned in her direction like their leader. It was sweet, though unnecessary. She had seen countless people die in terrible ways throughout her former life. The ninjas thought dying by burning alive was terrible. None of them knew what it was like to watch someone slowly rot into ashes due to an Egyptian curse or bleed out over hours after vomiting their own organs due to a magical barrier. The latter had been placed in her home after receiving death threats in the weeks following Voldemort's fall.
Much later, ninjas who hadn't been in the cave began to appear. Some fell into the traps. Others, after seeing what was happening, were intercepted by Muta's invisible kikaichu. Seina didn't have to do anything while her team eliminated their enemies. As they arrived in dribs and drabs, they had time to dispose of the bodies and set more traps. It was slow, methodical, and laborious work that lasted most of the night into the early morning.
"Let's get some rest," Yamato granted at 3 a.m. "We'll set more traps around the base. With any luck, they won't realize something's wrong, and we'll finish them off."
"How could they not realize?" Tokuma asked, entering the tent minutes later after they had mined the perimeter of the waterfall with various types of traps. "The water in the waterfall was almost boiling… They should see the steam from afar."
"They might think it's due to some internal malfunction," Yamato shrugged. "Either way, we're not going to make it easy for them. Let's have dinner and then rest for the remainder of the night."
No one protested. They were tired, hungry, and a bit tense after the incident in the cave. Seina took the opportunity to shower before going to sleep. She fell asleep in less than a minute.
When she awoke abruptly, hours later, she realized it was dawn. She washed her face before going down to breakfast.
"Well, team, if there are no objections, today we'll finish the mission. The remaining ninjas must have encountered our traps. If necessary, we'll finish them off. Then we'll return to Konoha."
A few minutes later, after breakfast, Seina packed up the tent. With the help of Tokuma and Muta, they headed to the various traps, seeing that everyone had bled to death from their injuries or due to consuming suicide pills. Some, from what they could see, had escaped. They hadn't even stopped to help their companions. Perhaps out of fear of falling into another trap. She could see from the tracks that one of them had gotten close enough to the base entrance to realize it was sealed. They hadn't tried to break the stone blocking the only exit.
"Our job is done," Yamato nodded. "We'll dispose of the bodies and the traps. Seina, can you remove the rock from the entrance? It's best not to pique Orochimaru's curiosity with your powers."
While Muta and Yamato disposed of the bodies, Tokuma watched the perimeter with his byakugan, and she removed the stone. She had to step aside to let out the black, foul-smelling smoke, the result of burning everything inside the base. She made the smoke disappear before it could draw attention and retrieved all her stones with an accio. Before leaving, she also removed the spells she had used to reinforce the walls. Orochimaru would wonder why they couldn't escape, but he wouldn't have any evidence to give him the answer or a clue.
She magically erased the tracks and jumped next to Tokuma. She saw many fish in the pool where the waterfall fell floating dead. They probably couldn't withstand the waterfall's temperatures that night. They left to find Muta and Yamato. They found them sealing the last bodies for Konoha.
"Let's go before someone from Takigakure shows up."
They ran towards Konoha. They didn't stop for hours despite more than one of them having a rumbling stomach. When they crossed the border, with the sun high, Yamato made them stop to rest. Seina, while eating, thought about the mission. It seemed strange to her to have finished in less than two days. Not that she had much to compare it to, this being only her second A/S rank mission, but she had expected some setbacks. The fight inside the base didn't even count as it was 4 vs. 2, and she didn't participate actively. They hadn't found any documents, nor captured anyone alive…
When they arrived in Konoha that night, almost midnight, Seina headed home. As she expected, everyone was asleep, so she ate alone at the kitchen table as quietly as possible. To her surprise, Naruto appeared at the door.
"Nee-chan, I knew it was you," her brother smiled. "I feel like we hardly see each other."
"That's because we hardly do," she replied with a laugh. "How was your mission?"
"Good. Easy. Do you remember Ayame, Teuchi's daughter? She was kidnapped a few weeks ago, so we had to rescue her from some bandits. It turned out they were a cooking group that wanted her advice as the daughter of an expert chef," Naruto stifled a laugh at her incredulous look. "The funniest thing was that Ayame gained like 10 kilos with them because they kept having her try all the dishes. So old Teuchi had to make diet ramen for her to slim down."
Seina snorted a laugh, tired, and continued eating her bento. What didn't happen to her brother didn't happen to anyone. He reminded her of her former self.
"And your mission?"
"Good," she sighed. "We destroyed another of Orochimaru's bases… and eliminated his ninjas."
"…You killed them all?" Naruto asked, somewhat shocked. She nodded. "Granny Tsunade must be very determined to take him down."
"No wonder. Orochimaru is a plague. We destroyed his base in Otogakure, the one in the Land of the Sea, the one in the Land of Ice, and now the one in the Land of the Waterfalls. Not to mention the one Kakashi-sensei destroyed, and yet it's certain he has more bases out there."
Naruto frowned.
"Do you think we'll ever be able to finish him?"
"I don't know… That's exactly what I asked the other day, but even the higher-ups aren't sure. Apparently, the most efficient thing to do is to destroy his bases to indirectly suffocate him."
"…Do you think he's given up on Sasuke?" Naruto whispered, looking at the ceiling with a worried expression.
He must have been pretty worried because he hadn't even called him "teme." Seina got up from the table, quickly clearing the dishes, then sat on the couch with her brother. It had been a long time since they had a moment alone, and she missed it. Until they moved here, they had spent almost every day together, so she wasn't surprised to sometimes feel Naruto's sadness and melancholy when they talked about their previous apartment, despite it being small and their landlord a total jerk.
"I don't think so," she said finally, accepting her brother's arm over her shoulders. "I think he has other things to worry about now. He still has a little over two years before his time in his new body runs out. You know…"
"What?" Naruto asked curiously when she didn't finish the sentence. She hesitated about whether to continue.
"I've been thinking we should send a letter to Itachi."
"…What? Why?" Naruto asked with unusual seriousness.
"We're pretty sure he's innocent, but even if he weren't, I'm also quite sure he cares about Sasuke. If we send him a letter now, we'll have time for him to get used to us."
"And what are we going to say? 'Hello, we're your brother's team and we think you're innocent'?"
"And why not? What would happen if he really isn't? Nothing, as long as we don't give him confidential information. However, if he's innocent, and it certainly looks like it, I think he'd be interested in being up-to-date regarding Orochimaru. Who knows, he might even end up helping us. Even if Itachi isn't innocent, he wouldn't want Orochimaru to kill his brother before he gets the chance."
"I see. Whether he's innocent or not, we win. Sasuke wins."
"Exactly. Honestly, I don't even think he'll respond. Itachi has been in exile for years, playing the role of a criminal exiled ninja. Even if it's just a cover, when someone pretends to be something for so long, they end up believing it. That's why I feel the need to send him that letter now because—"
"Because that way, you'll be giving him time to stop acting and return to normal," Naruto interrupted, seeing where her thoughts were going.
"Yes."
"Should we tell Sasuke?"
"I would. It's about his brother."
"And Kakashi-sensei?"
"…I don't think he'll like the idea much, but if we explain what I just told you, he'll just look the other way. What we can't do is lie to him, or we'll lose all trust," she said firmly.
"Then there's no point in talking about it any further," her brother shrugged nonchalantly. "Did you know I saw Kiba's team the other day? They say they're training hard for the chunin exams. Apparently, it's going to be held in something called the Infernal Desert."
"Huh. I don't like the sound of that."
"No kidding," Naruto snorted a laugh, "but I'm not giving up. We'll win no matter what!"
Seina yawned, very tired, and nodded. She knew why he said that. Both Sasuke and Naruto were eager to rise in rank so they could be put back on the team with her. Given the string of C-rank missions they had done despite being genins, it was very likely they could do A-rank missions under her command.
"Come on, you should go to bed. You have to go to the hospital tomorrow, right?"
"Don't remind me," Seina groaned, "and I still have to shower and change."
"Then we better go to bed."
She said goodnight to her brother at her bedroom door. She took a quick shower, just enough to feel clean, but fast enough not to lose any more minutes of sleep. She fell asleep as soon as her head hit the pillow.