"So this is the enemy?"
Shino jumped down, looking at Nurari's condition. "He's not dead yet?"
Nurari's whole body covered in burns was indeed too frightening.
"I know my own strength."
Takumi said confidently. "I just wonder how much information this guy knows."
"Leave it to me."
Shino stepped forward and extended his right hand. "Gathering intelligence is my job."
On his right hand, densely packed insects appeared.
"Uh, I'll leave it to you then."
Kiba's eye twitched.
Although they had been teammates for a long time, seeing Shino's insects in this situation still made Kiba's heart race.
It wasn't the first time he had seen Shino using insects for intelligence gathering.
But every time he saw it, it left a fresh impression on him.
It was just too cruel.
Or rather, it was too horrible to look at.
That feeling of having insects crawling all over your body.
Any normal person probably couldn't bear it.
…
Rinji and the others retreated quickly.
The thought of rescuing Nurari never once crossed Rinji's mind.
The same went for Kiho and Kigiri.
Just by looking at Gozu's miserable state, they knew the enemy's strength was not something they could confront.
Rather than dying in vain, it was better to live and bring back the intelligence.
"You're back?"
Guren stood by the cliff edge, leisurely watching Rinji and the others return.
She had already seen their battle using her Telescope Technique.
So she naturally knew when they would return.
She had to admit that among the pursuers, there was a powerful opponent.
Although he looked young, his strength was truly not to be underestimated.
"My apologies, Guren-sama."
Rinji immediately knelt on one knee, his head bowed low, as if full of self-reproach. "We failed."
"It doesn't matter."
Guren waved her hand. She didn't care at all about the life or death of Rinji and the others.
After all, in her eyes, their strength amounted to nothing.
"The opponent you faced this time was too strong."
Guren smiled. "But you weren't completely useless. At least you helped me understand some of the enemy's strength."
"The only troublesome one is that handsome young man. The other few little ones are not worth mentioning."
She hadn't seen Shino; she was referring to Kiba and Hinata.
After all, Shino was setting up an encirclement at the time and wasn't on the front lines.
Rinji and the others also hadn't noticed Shino's presence.
But even if she had seen him, she wouldn't have cared.
"Orochimaru-sama's entrusted mission is very important. Absolutely no one is allowed to come and disturb it."
A hint of killing intent flashed in Guren's eyes. "You all, go inside and protect Yukimaru. I'll go deal with this."
With that, her figure flickered and disappeared from the spot.
"Phew, glad we weren't held responsible."
Kigiri breathed a sigh of relief and stood up from the ground.
The others also stood up.
Gozu looked worriedly in the direction Guren had gone.
He had fought Takumi directly.
But he also knew that Takumi had gone easy on him.
Gozu didn't know why, but Takumi's strength was not something he could match.
Facing such a powerful enemy, he was very worried about whether Guren could win.
"Doesn't she even have the thought to ask about Nurari not returning?"
Rinji had a thoughtful look on his face. "Let's go inside first and wait for Guren-sama to return."
In secret, he had already deployed his bats to monitor the battlefield.
If Guren was defeated, he would immediately report this situation to Kabuto.
That's right, Yakushi Kabuto.
Rinji's special identity was a spy Kabuto had placed beside Guren.
The purpose was to keep track of Guren's every move.
After all, those two couldn't stand each other.
Kabuto also made some covert preparations.
Now that Orochimaru had suddenly assigned Guren a mission, hadn't the people he had covertly placed just been activated?
For people like them, accustomed to working behind the scenes, the most important thing was to have various kinds of contingencies.
That way, they could calmly deal with any situation.
Although, up until now, Orochimaru hadn't had any luck dealing with Takumi.
But at least when dealing with others, Orochimaru was still a very fearsome existence.
'I'd better contact Kabuto first.'
Rinji thought secretly, sending a bat to notify Kabuto Yakushi.
The enemy this time was no small matter; he absolutely couldn't be careless.
"Let's go, Gozu."
Nurari looked at Gozu, who was still standing there staring into the distance, and called out to him.
Gozu glanced back at him, then followed them back into the ruined building they had been in before.
At this moment, Guren had already arrived near Takumi and the others.
Hinata wasn't using her Byakugan to observe the surroundings at this time and didn't notice Guren's presence.
After all, they had just driven off the enemy and hadn't yet begun pursuit.
That's why Hinata wasn't using her Byakugan.
"Speaking of which, that Hyuga girl's eyes are a bit troublesome."
Guren also felt that Hinata's Byakugan would be difficult to deal with. "I'll just render her useless."
"Crystal Release: Crystal Wall Eighth Formation!"
She planted numerous crystal seeds into the ground, which then grew rapidly.
First sprouting, then forming buds, then suddenly blooming, producing a large amount of crystals.
The crystals grew quickly, becoming taller and taller.
Guren used another technique.
"Crystal Release: Crystal Labyrinth Technique!"
The crystals immediately condensed, surrounding a large area of the forest, even sealing off the sky above.
After doing all this, Guren smiled slightly, then used another technique.
"Crystal Release: Crystal Mirror."
"Crystal Release: Crystal Clone."
She used Crystal Release to create a special mirror in front of her, reflecting her image.
Then her image flickered and turned into four.
Four Gurens from within the mirror crawled out.
This was a clone technique unique to Guren.
The clones could not only use all of Guren's Crystal Release but also, unlike other clones, wouldn't disappear upon taking a hit.
Guren's Crystal Release clones could withstand a certain amount of damage.
This was a huge difference from ordinary clone techniques.
"Go, my clones."
Guren waved her arm, and the four clones in front of her immediately charged into the labyrinth.