"Found them. Right here."
Nagi was delighted to find two tombstones identical to that of the former Eight-Tails jinchuriki.
Similarly, because the bodies of the Gold and Silver Brothers were tainted with the Nine-Tails' chakra, the surrounding insects seemed reluctant to approach. Even a minuscule, residual trace of the Nine-Tails' aura was enough to drive away creatures that operated on pure instinct. The area was eerily silent. Apart from the Third Raikage's grave, which had been moved, everything else was as it had been.
This time, unsure if the Raikage had set a trap, Nagi decided against summoning his pangolin. He used a simple Earth Style jutsu, controlling the soil with his chakra to lift the coffins of Kinkaku and Ginkaku from the ground. While Earth Style hand seals were typically for offensive ninjutsu, with enough control, they could be adapted for practical skills like building houses, digging pits, burying things, or excavating mines.
After opening the coffins, he found two extraordinary corpses. They had hardly decomposed despite being dead for so many years, likely due to having consumed the Nine-Tails' flesh. Kinkaku and Ginkaku looked like two mummies, desiccated but not rotted away.
"I didn't expect the Nine-Tails' flesh to have a preservative effect. The Third Raikage's body was so powerful, yet it wasn't as well-preserved as theirs," Nagi chuckled, taking out his kunai and two test tubes. He began to take a sample from each of the brothers. But the moment he touched the corpses, something went wrong.
Swish—
Dense arrays of sealing formulas suddenly erupted across the bodies of Kinkaku and Ginkaku—a trap. The formulas spread with incredible speed, latching onto his hand. Although Nagi immediately let go, a small part of the seal still managed to crawl over his entire body.
The trap, similar to a Four Symbols Seal, instantly paralyzed him. The formulas surging from the bodies of the Gold and Silver Brothers coalesced into a sealing jutsu, binding him tightly like ropes.
"He's caught!"
A signal flare shot into the sky. A furious roar followed as a figure cloaked in a crackling aura of lightning chakra charged to the forefront.
"You villain! I'll kill you and avenge my father!"
The newcomer was none other than Raikage A, his eyes blazing with fury. His father had been dead for a long time, but what had happened last night was more painful than his father's actual death, because he had been the one to smash his corpse.
"You say that like I'm the one who killed your father. You're the one who did it," the trapped Nagi said, rolling his eyes, not a hint of panic in his voice.
Seeing his opponent's nonchalant attitude, Darui, in the distance, felt a sense of foreboding and quickly shouted, "Lord Raikage, wait—!"
BOOM!
But it was too late. When the Fourth Raikage's temper flared, he was willing to lose an arm; he certainly wasn't going to calm down on command.
He brought a heavy fist down, and the trapped Uchiha Nagi—poof!—vanished in a cloud of smoke.
"A... a shadow clone?!" The Fourth Raikage was dumbfounded. His opponent had sent in a shadow clone? Did that mean the elaborate trap they had painstakingly set had only caught a clone? Was all their effort for nothing?
"DAMMIT! AAAAAAAH!"
Feeling utterly played, Raikage A flew into a rage and unleashed his frustration on the bodies of Kinkaku and Ginkaku. Two heavy punches later, their coffins were shattered, and their corpses, like the Third Raikage's, were broken into several pieces. It was a good thing they were mummified; otherwise, they would have been reduced to paste.
"Sigh. I was too late, as expected," Darui said, covering his face as he arrived on the scene. He'd sensed something was wrong the moment he saw his opponent's calm demeanor. It was not the reaction of someone who had been caught in a trap. It seemed their opponent was no rookie, but a seasoned veteran. Capturing such a foe would be difficult.
"Lord Raikage, it appears Plan A has failed. Let's proceed with Plan B," Darui said with a sigh of resignation.
"Hmph. I'm leaving it to you, Darui," A grumbled, still fuming, and stormed off.
What a headache. Darui clutched his head, then instructed the other Anbu to clean up the mess. Although Kinkaku and Ginkaku had been traitors, they couldn't just leave their bodies scattered about. They had to be properly collected, even if they had no idea why their opponent was so interested in the two brothers who possessed the Nine-Tails' power.
Outside the Hidden Cloud Village, Uchiha Nagi summoned his pangolin. This time, he wouldn't go himself; he would let an animal do the work.
The Sharingan in the pangolin's eyes faded, and it nodded at Nagi. With its two front claws, it began to dig into the earth.
Just moments before, Nagi had used his Sharingan to transfer intelligence about the location of Kinkaku and Ginkaku to the small pangolin. It was an animal from the Summoning Islands, but it possessed a degree of intelligence. Nagi had instructed it to dig directly underground. The warning barrier around the Hidden Cloud, like Konoha's, only extended a hundred or two hundred meters deep. For the pangolin, avoiding the barrier was as easy as eating a meal.
The Hidden Cloud had likely already registered his chakra signature and scent. To go in himself now would be to beat the grass and startle the snake. All he wanted were the samples from Kinkaku and Ginkaku, and then he would leave. Charging in like a headless fly and killing a few ninja would be pointless.
As it turned out, Nagi's judgment was correct. The entire Hidden Cloud Village had been thoroughly inspected to prevent any new Flying Thunder God formulas from appearing. They had even dealt with the level-two mark Minato Namikaze had placed on Killer B years ago. The Hidden Cloud, like every other village, had its own sealing masters who had sealed it away long ago.
Before long, the pangolin had burrowed several hundred meters underground, bypassing the barrier. It reached the location of Kinkaku and Ginkaku and retrieved a small tissue sample from each. Nagi's guess had been right; Raikage A never expected his opponent would dare to come back a second time in one night.
With a few scurrying sounds, the pangolin emerged from its tunnel. It spat out two different tissue samples, then shook its head in disgust, as if to say the stuff stank and he'd have to pay extra.
"Alright, I'll treat you to fried chicken when we get back. You can go now," Nagi said, patting the pangolin's head and releasing the summoning jutsu. He placed the two tissue samples into test tubes.
Mission complete. Time to retreat.
"Lord Raikage, we've found him. He has obtained the cell tissue of Kinkaku and Ginkaku and is preparing to retreat."
In a secret room, several ninja with sensory devices on their heads, much like those seen in the final war, were tracking Nagi's position. Plan B, devised by the strategy team, had involved placing some kind of trackable substance on the bodies of the Gold and Silver Brothers. The ninja world was full of bizarre tracking methods. If they had chakra telegraphs, chakra-powered human radars, and even chakra planet cannons (as seen in The Last), then a tracking method with no chakra signature was hardly surprising.
"Good. Initiate Plan B immediately. Teleport me there now," the Fourth Raikage ordered grimly.
Several ninja nodded. A female ninja in the lead spoke. "Lord Raikage, we will now activate the Heavenly Transfer Technique. If Plan B does not go smoothly, please wait for backup."
The Fourth Raikage nodded. "I understand. Don't worry about me. I might not lose to him in a one-on-one fight. This time, I won't fall for the same trick twice."
On the other side of the room, Killer B struck a bizarre hip-hop pose. "Yo yo, check it! Gonna fight alongside my Big Bro! He takes the lead, oh! And I support, yo!"
Behind Killer B, two octopus tentacles extended, gripping a massive urn. This urn-like object had a rather impressive name: the Amber Purifying Pot.
Swish—
After Minato Namikaze popularized the Flying Thunder God, the Hidden Cloud had begun developing their own space-time ninjutsu. The Heavenly Transfer Technique was now making its debut. The difference was that this jutsu could only teleport sturdy objects. If a person were to be teleported, they would need an incredibly powerful body to withstand the damage from the transfer process.
Uchiha Nagi had used the Flying Thunder God to appear in a forested mountain range about twenty kilometers outside the Hidden Cloud Village. He was summoning his giant eagle, intending to ride it back to the Land of Iron. A single Flying Thunder God jump from the Hidden Cloud all the way to the Land of Iron? The distance was too great; he'd need chakra by the ton. So, Nagi opted to fly back.
Just as he was about to mount the giant eagle and take off, a voice suddenly cut through the air. "Hell Stab!"
Nagi's pupils contracted. His sixth sense screamed—danger, extreme danger...
Susanoo!
His body reacted on pure instinct, without a single conscious thought. If he'd had time to think, he certainly would have used a space-time ninjutsu.
"SCREECH!"
The giant eagle shrieked in pain as blood and feathers filled the sky. A burly figure, wrapped in an armor of crackling lightning, had moved with the speed of a thunderclap, piercing straight through the giant eagle and slamming into Nagi's Susanoo.
The man's entire hand plunged deep into the Susanoo, up to his shoulder. Finally, his fingers were stopped by a divine weapon: the Raikiri.
"The Fourth Raikage, A?!" Nagi's eyes widened. How did this guy get here? Did Obito use his space-time ninjutsu to teleport him?