Ultimately, Touma and Haneda spent nearly three more minutes finishing off all the remaining goblins before walking toward Seimei in a leisurely manner.
Their mission was almost finished. Now, all they had to do was search the goblins' lairs carefully to see if they could find any valuable intel.
As for the riches and treasures they were about to find inside the goblin lair…
Of course, that would go inside their pockets.
Their mission was to find clues about the missing people and caravans, and to eliminate those responsible, if possible.
So, except for intel and staff that might be crucial for Konoha, they could gobble up everything else.
And since the already-dead goblins looted quite a few merchant caravans before they came over to eliminate them, the goblins should have a lot of gold, silver, precious minerals, medical herbs, and other valuable things.
Just thinking about that, Ishimori Haneda couldn't help but rub his hands together with a greedy expression on his face that felt borderline perverted.
His expression was akin to a perverted old man looking at the passing beauties.
On the other hand, Seimei and Touma could no longer bear to watch Haneda's actions. But what could they even say?
They didn't know why Haneda was acting like that.
All they knew was that Haneda started rubbing his hands with a perverted grin on his lips after confirming that all the goblins, including the goblin lord, had been dealt with.
If they didn't know that Haneda had a rather stable mentality and a strong willpower, they would have thought that the constant slaughter in this mission had finally made him crazy.
Now, Seimei and Touma could only stare blankly at Haneda.
And Haneda, who felt the scrutinizing gazes of his friends on him, quickly wiped the grin from his face, looked at Seimei and Touma a couple of times, and raised his eyebrow in an arch in confusion.
Unable to withstand the piercing gazes anymore, he asked, "What? Why are you looking at me like that?"
Touma still looked at him strangely before replying, "Nothing! It's just… the way you were grinning like a retard...I thought you finally lost your mind."
Haneda's expression visibly darkened after hearing Touma's reply.
"Who are you calling retard, you battlecrazy bastard? You are retard, your ancestors are retard, your whole fourteen generations are retard."
This reply instantly angered Touma. "How dare you curse our glorious ancestor?"
Meanwhile, Seimei was watching them squabble from the side with an amused grin.
Actually, if what I watched in anime in my previous life really happened, that ancestor of Uchiha, Otsutsuki Indra, is indeed a retard. Uchiha ninjas are proficient in casting Genjutsu to control the battle rhythm and the enemy's actions. But their ancestor was manipulated by the filial and dutiful son of my grandma Kaguya, the Black Zetsu.
That Asura was no good, either. Naruto's talk-no-jutsu might be inherited from his chakra reincarnation's influence, but he was way too passive. If that second cousin of mine weren't as powerful as he was, preaching love and peace might have gotten him killed, similar to how Yahiko was killed in the anime.
Honestly, if Hagoromo, that lazy biological uncle of mine, had a decisive and direct descendant like my father, Senju Tobirama, the family drama of the Shinobi continent wouldn't have stretched this long.
Tsk, tsk! Truly tragic!
Then again, this is an alternative Narutoverse. I can't be sure.
Just as Seimei was cursing his biological relatives from thousands of years ago, he suddenly heard Haneda cursing at the relatives of the Uchiha ancestor as well.
And this time, it was Seimei's forehead that was suddenly covered in imaginary black lines.
Cursing the Uchiha ancestors' relatives? Isn't this fellow indirectly cursing at me?
Hmm?
Never mind. As a generous person from a forgotten age, I shall be merciful this time.
With that, Seimei decided to intervene and stop them from squabbling. Otherwise, they might really run at each other with their blades drawn.
"Alright. That's enough. You can fight after we get back to Konoha. Right now, let's search the house of the goblin lord."
Seimei's words immediately caused them to snap out of their verbal spar. They looked at Seimei, looked at each other, and then looked at Seimei once more before finally calming down.
Although Touma and Haneda eyed each other with an expression that screamed 'I will slice you up later', Seimei knew they would forget about this little argument soon.
So, without further ado, he directly led his teammates to the largest house within the goblin hideout, which was also the lair of the goblin lord.
The atmosphere of the goblin lord's hideout was nothing short of eerie.
Torches and ancient goblets flickered with fire, illuminating the abode with a haunting glow. Right at the entrance, there was a hall that led toward the center of the abode.
As they walked through the hall illuminated by the flames of the torches, a nauseating smell of rotten blood and dried waste entered Seimei and his friends' nostrils, causing them to grimace.
"Goddamn it. I have been to the lairs of other chakra beasts. But none of them smelled as bad as this. Even with all the disgusting things I have witnessed and endured, the stench here still almost made me vomit."
Seimei grumbled in a low voice as he walked forward.
Behind him, Touma's face was almost green in disgust as he pressed a hand on his nose. "If it weren't for the goods stored here, I would have burned this place down with a supercharged Great Fireball Jutsu."
Meanwhile, Haneda, who was relatively calmer than Touma, chuckled.
"Now, now, Touma. Suppress your Will of Arson. You will have plenty of opportunities later."
Hearing this, Touma said nothing. With the nauseating stench permeating the air inside the goblin lord's abode, he had completely lost the will to argue anymore.
It was better to grab everything valuable and burn this place as soon as possible.
Soon, they reached the end of the hallway and entered a large room that resembled a budget version of a throne room.
In the middle of the room, there was a throne made of polished white-grey bones. The seat of the throne was covered in soft white fur of some chakra beast that they couldn't quite recognize.
Well, the goblin lord did place a lot of expensive jewels of different varieties inside the bone cavities of the throne to make it look grander.
It was honestly pretty crude, but the jewels there could at least fetch a few million Ryo. So, Seimei and his team plucked the jewels without any hesitation.
Next, they focused their gaze on the entrance to another area behind the throne.
Seimei and Haneda looked at each other before nodding their heads.
If their speculations weren't wrong, behind that entrance, there should be the rooms where the goblin lord usually rested and hoarded everything it deemed valuable.
They walked forward without hesitation.
"There are several rooms here. But why is the stench getting even stronger?" Touma couldn't help but speak up.
Even Seimei found the stench too nauseating and couldn't help but manipulate the Wind Release chakra around him to keep the stench at bay.
However, along with the rotten stench, his nose also picked up a smell that felt almost fishy, coupled with a hint of rusted metal, before he filtered the smell by circulating Wind Release chakra to manipulate the air around him.
This made him slightly uneasy.
Because that smell felt like blood that hadn't rotted yet.
Even the expressions on Touma's and Haneda's faces turned solemn.
Any thought of treasure had evaporated from their minds.
Because they knew that they were about to witness something truly horrifying.
-----------------------------------------------------------
A/N: If you like my story and want to read ahead, you can check out my P@treon page and read 17+ Advanced chapters!
patreon.com/Seigan
You can also help me by sharing the story around. Thank you for reading!