"Alright. The time has come," Yamato said, glancing outside the tent. "I warn you, it's very cold."
"I could use my powers," she interjected before they could leave the tent.
Yamato and the others looked at her thoughtfully before nodding. She cast a couple of spells on each of them. She nodded at Yamato's expectant eyebrow. They would feel the effects as soon as they stepped outside. She dressed again in all her winter gear, tightening the cords of her neck warmer to cover her nose. The only part of her face exposed was her eyes. As soon as she stepped outside the tent and stood horizontally, sticking to the rock with chakra, she knew she had done well to enchant them.
The snow was falling heavily, the wind was cold and strong, and it was laden with snow and ice. Not to mention that it was pitch dark even though it was only 4 PM. She barely heard some animals stirring in their nests high up in the ravine. Enchanted under her camouflage spell and the other spells that had protected them before, they climbed to the top to face the mountain range that hid Orochimaru's base.
"It's huge."
"Yes, but it's our mission. Tokuma, can you see anything from here?"
Seina watched silently as the Hyuga analyzed the structure in front of him.
"I can only see a few empty passages extending to the south of the range."
"We'll have to get closer. Seina, can you get us closer with your summoning?"
"Kuchiyose no jutsu," she summoned the same dragon and used the same spells.
They made a wide loop, approaching the nearest mountain while Tokuma analyzed the situation from the air. She moved her dragon as close as possible to the mountain, knowing that the byakugan had a certain range, and let Yamato signal her where to go.
"There are some areas filled with traps and explosives," Tokuma said.
Seina was surprised to hear this. The bases she had been in hadn't had any external traps. In fact, for the secret base of a criminal, they hadn't had much internal defense either. Yoroi had demolished the base with some pre-planted explosives, but apart from that, it had been extremely easy to infiltrate. Yamato must have been thinking something similar, with a frown and narrowed eyes.
"I see the entrance!" Tokuma exclaimed in a low voice. He directed her to it. "There it is."
"Muta, Seina. It's your turn."
She summoned some of her smaller creatures to enter the base accompanied by Muta's kikaichu.
"Let's retreat to the northern area," Yamato ordered, pointing to the area where Tokuma hadn't seen any traps or people. "We'll hide there in the meantime."
It took them a few minutes to return to their initial point, landing on a white frozen rock. She desummoned her dragon while watching her insects and mice slip through all the crevices of Orochimaru's cave. She saw many people moving around. Some were carrying laboratory equipment, others were dragging unconscious people, and others were simply going from one place to another.
"There are a lot of people in there," she confessed. "So far, I've seen about 30 different people."
"What else can you see?"
She explained in detail what she had seen so far. She found dormitories, a dining room, what seemed to be kitchens, many more dormitories… It wasn't until she went quite deep into the cave that she saw something useful, like the huge laboratory filled with all kinds of equipment that was being used at that very moment.
"They have several unconscious people tied to gurneys in the lab. It looks like they're about to start an experiment."
"I've found several traps," Muta said next to her. "The cave is full of them."
"It looks like we've found an active base of Orochimaru," Yamato mused aloud. "He's taking a lot of trouble to protect both the base and the surrounding area. He might be here right now."
"What's the plan?" Tokuma asked.
"We go ahead with what we planned. We don't have to confront him. We can grab the documentation and destroy his base while avoiding him."
She now had a fairly clear map of the cave, at least for a couple of kilometers around. The base was immense. She could spend all night spying on them without reaching the end of the caves.
"Find a safe place to transport us," Yamato ordered. "Can we communicate with your summons and the kikaichu?"
"In my case, yes," she said. Muta nodded a second later.
"Perfect. We'll split into two. Seina will come with me and Muta with Tokuma. You two will plant the explosives around the base while Seina and I collect the documentation."
"There's a pretty big storage room. It doesn't seem to have any traps," Muta advised.
She nodded, knowing where he was talking about. She had one of her summons move there. When it was in a blind spot of the door, she nodded at Yamato. She let him take her arm. Muta and Tokuma did the same immediately afterward. She molded the chakra, and a millisecond later, she found herself inside the cave with her team. Muta gave one of his kikaichu to each of them, to communicate and keep track of them. Seina did the same. She gave a couple of spiders to each of them and nodded.
"Expect a communication in an hour," Yamato signaled silently to Muta and Tokuma.
They separated at the mouth of the cave that acted as a storage room. Muta and Tokuma stayed inside, planting explosives, while Seina showed Yamato the way. They reached the lab in a few minutes.
"Four enemies, two possible unconscious civilians," she signaled with a nod of her head. "Permission to put them to sleep?"
"Proceed."
She used the spell from the other side of the door. Since it was an area spell, everyone fell to the ground, asleep, at the same time. The sound of bodies hitting the ground alerted Yamato that they were K.O., so he opened the door after making sure there were no alarms or traps. He entered with his katana unsheathed, but it wasn't necessary. He quickly scanned each body and then signaled her to grab everything she could.
Seina didn't hesitate for a second. She grabbed everything she could and stored it in a scroll, much more efficient than putting it in her pouch and then having to separate it manually. Meanwhile, Yamato followed protocol, ensuring the enemies were unconscious, tied up the enemies and the hostages, and placed them in another scroll. They both planted a few high-powered explosive tags before leaving. Seina sealed the door with a spell to prevent anyone from discovering what had happened.
They continued walking to the next valuable location, a kind of library she had recently seen thanks to one of her white mice. On the way, they encountered a couple of ninjas talking about training. Yamato signaled to bypass them, using the ceiling to avoid them.
"Enemies?" Yamato asked upon reaching the library.
"None."
"Gather the documents, I'll plant the explosives."
Seeing more than five shelves of scrolls, books, and binders, she summoned a couple of clones to speed up the task. It took her a rushed ten minutes to gather everything. Just as they were about to leave, her ears and her summons picked up the presence of someone she least wanted to see. She turned to look at Yamato hurriedly.
"It's him."
"Close the door. Use the hiraishin to transport us elsewhere," Yamato quickly ordered after a couple of seconds of thought.
She used a spell to seal the door and grabbed Yamato's already extended hand. A second later, she used another of her summons to change their location. They appeared in a section being explored by her insects. Most of it consisted of empty rooms. Considering the time, it didn't surprise her.
"Find a place where we can communicate with the others," Yamato said.
Seina entered one of the bathrooms, which were also empty, and sealed the door while silencing the cave. She nodded to Yamato.
"Muta, Orochimaru is here. He'll probably know soon that he's not alone," he whispered to the kikaichu perched on his index finger. "In half an hour, meet us at the storage room for a retreat. Do not engage with anyone."
Seina took the opportunity to keep spying. It seemed the upper levels were all rooms, bathrooms, storage areas, cafeterias, kitchens, leisure spaces, and training areas. She was beginning to realize that, given the size and number of rooms, Orochimaru must be planning to house a real army in the mountains. Fortunately, only the first two floors were being used. She relayed all this information to Yamato once she finished speaking to the kikaichu.
"If he's here, it's because this is an important base. He probably has another laboratory. Have you seen any entrance going down?"
"Hmm… No. I could follow him with one of my insects," she said, frowning.
"Do it. Worst case, we'll blow this place to bits. Let's move. We have little time before we're discovered."
They left the bathrooms after planting more explosives. It wasn't a very busy or important area, but they didn't plan to leave anything standing if possible. They retraced their steps, on foot, noticing increased activity on the lower floors. When they passed above a couple of ninjas wearing Otogakure headbands, they realized some were starting to notice something was wrong.
"They should have informed us to remove the bodies by now," one spoke, walking toward the laboratory.
"Maybe the experiment worked better this time. They'll let us know."
"After more than 150 attempts?" the other scoffed incredulously. "I don't think so. Maybe we should go see what's happening."
"Fine," his colleague sighed. "If it'll shut you up."
"Would you rather be the one to tell Orochimaru-sama we overlooked something?"
"…No."
They followed them using the ceiling. She saw out of the corner of her eye that Yamato had drawn a kunai when she heard Muta's voice addressing his summoning.
"Tokuma has discovered a secret laboratory. It seems to be Orochimaru's private lab. I couldn't detect it with my kikaichu, so it must be behind a sealed wall."
Seina lightly touched Yamato's arm, signaling what she had just heard from the rest of the team. Yamato frowned, sheathing the kunai.
"Should I confuse them?" she finally asked.
Yamato nodded. Seina used the confundus spell just as they were a meter away from the laboratory door. They watched as the ninjas stopped abruptly. They blinked as if they had just remembered something and then turned around.
"I forgot it's our turn in the kitchen!" one exclaimed. "If we don't hurry, Akira will kill us."
They turned around and left. Yamato raised an eyebrow at her but nodded with a slight smile. He signaled her to lead the way to the supposed laboratory, so she followed the path to her summoning with Muta. When they arrived, they saw them hiding behind some boxes. It looked like a dead-end that had been used to store boxes and what appeared to be construction materials.
"Back there," Tokuma signaled with his hands.
Yamato turned to look at her, in case she could provide any information, but she shook her head. At first glance, she didn't perceive anything. When she opened her senses, she felt a kind of tingling sensation centered on the wall.
"He's right. There's something there."
"An earth jutsu would trigger the seal," Tokuma said. "We can only deactivate the seals or try to sneak a summoning through."
"None of us are fuinjutsu experts," Yamato shook his head. "We'd alert him."
They stopped signaling when they sensed more enemies nearby. Fortunately, it was just one man walking down the corridors in an unknown direction. Seina looked at Yamato, having an idea.
"I could try to teleport us to the other side without touching the seal," she said.
"How?" Yamato asked. Tokuma and Muta watched her.
"Look into my eyes and think about what you saw," she instructed Tokuma.
He nodded. Suddenly, Seina immersed herself in Tokuma's memory. The byakugan momentarily made her dizzy, but she recovered upon realizing it was just a black-and-white, negative image memory. Strange, but not the strangest thing in the world. Once she had the memory of the place firmly in her mind, she extended her arms for them to hold on. She closed her eyes and transported them there. She saw the somewhat shocked faces of Tokuma and Yamato as they experienced magical apparition for the first time. Nevertheless, they recovered instantly.
Seina sent a summon along with Muta's kikaichu while Tokuma analyzed the place with his byakugan activated.
"Grab the documents and everything you can."
She pulled out the scroll she had been using to store things, realizing it would soon be completely full, and began collecting documents and folders. The others did the same while Yamato planted explosive tags where Tokuma, who could see the weaknesses in the rock with his dojutsu, indicated.
"He's getting closer," Tokuma suddenly noted, moving his hands hurriedly.
"Drop what you're doing. Let's go," Yamato ordered. Then he turned to her, "Get us out of here."
Seina grabbed her team and used the hiraishin to leave while simultaneously desummoning all her creatures. The change in temperature would have shocked her if not for her spells. They landed on the rock they had used earlier to plan their entry, atop the mountain range.
"Seina-"
"I'm on it," she cut him off, knowing they had little time. "Kuchiyose no jutsu. Wait, let me do something at the entrance first."
They climbed onto the dragon again. Yamato frowned at her request but accepted it. She directed the dragon to the cave entrance. She conjured a huge rock from a distance to block the entrance and then enchanted it to prevent them from escaping. She didn't know if it would help, but she had to try. Had she known, she would have used fiendfyre inside the cave. Yamato nodded upon seeing it and ordered her to fly farther away.
"Countdown in 3, 2, 1..." Yamato ordered, watching as they distanced themselves from the mountain. "Now."
Muta, Tokuma, and Yamato made the necessary signs. They heard a dull noise inside the rock followed by many other explosions, some much closer to the surface. They watched as part of the rock began to crack until one more explosion caused a large portion of the mountain to collapse. They saw the massive chunk of snow, ice, and stone detach and tumble down the slope with a deafening sound.
They heard screams and howls of pain and agony, and then people started evacuating the cave through the entrance or at least tried to. They heard them piling against the giant rock, unable to move or destroy it.
"They're moving to the other side looking for an exit!" Tokuma exclaimed. "Everything is collapsing from the inside!"
Then, something unexpected happened. A piece of the mountain split in half, shooting out, and a gigantic purple serpent with what appeared to be small horns around its head emerged. The serpent hissed, shaking off the rock and debris.
"You owe me 100 sacrifices, Orochimaru!" the serpent hissed, spitting out the mentioned figure from its mouth.
Enemies began to emerge like rats from the massive crack that had split the rock in two.
"They must be around here. Find them and bring me their heads!" Orochimaru shouted furiously, climbing onto the serpent's head.
"Retreat, Seina," Yamato said softly.
She didn't need to be told twice. She sent her summon to the ravine and desummoned it just above it. They entered the tent, noticing the protections were still in place, and sighed.
"Now they'll be searching for us everywhere," Muta said seriously. "We should leave."
"I know," Yamato sighed. "Seina, can you take us back?"
"Yes," she nodded.
"Perfect. Pack up the tent and get us out of here."
It took exactly five minutes to pack everything up. Seina only had to use a spell to fold the tent and store it in her pouch while Tokuma, Muta, and Yamato watched their backs.
"All set," she indicated, standing up in the space just cleared.
She extended both arms and used the seals. She felt the distance despite her colossal chakra reserves that Kurama continually enhanced by filtering a bit of his chakra. They appeared on the outskirts of the village in the Land of Hot Water. Yamato raised an eyebrow, probably thinking she would transport them to the outskirts of Shimogakure.
"Let's go. Let's return before anyone notices our presence. Soon Orochimaru will start investigating the possible teams that approached the Land of Ice, and I wouldn't want to be here..."
They ran without looking back. She knew from the silence that it must be quite late. Despite everything, only two days had passed since they left Konoha. They were lucky to have found the base so quickly. They could have easily spent an entire week patrolling the Land of Ice while avoiding enemies. When they entered the Land of Fire a few hours later, it was already early morning.
"Tokuma, find a place to camp for the night," Yamato ordered his teammate, seeing that everyone was tired. "We can afford to stop for a night to regain our strength. We're far enough away."
Seina set up the tent again while Muta and Yamato placed a few traps to alert them of enemies, and Tokuma watched the perimeter with his byakugan. A couple of magical barriers later, everyone went inside. She took a long bath in her private bathroom and cleaned her clothes with a spell. She put away all her winter gear and stretched, heading downstairs. When she arrived, only Muta was sitting in the kitchen.
"Your tent is very interesting," he said. "Are you going to sell them?"
"I have a contract with Tsunade-sama. She's the one distributing my inventions."
"Makes sense. It wouldn't do us any good if something like this, or any other useful item, fell into enemy hands."
"Ah..." Tokuma sighed, appearing at the door. "I can't believe we're so close to home. The hiraishin is an incredible jutsu. What kind of jutsu did you use to enter Orochimaru's lab?"
"It's like the hiraishin but without the seal. I just need to know where to go. However, it has a drawback. Unlike the hiraishin, I can't send things without going myself."
Although, now that she thought about it, she could do that using a portkey charm on the object she wanted to send elsewhere. Yamato arrived last, his hair still damp, and sat next to her. Seina, who had more bentos than expected, handed one to each of them. She accepted their thanks with a smile, eating the food that was still perfectly preserved by magic.
"Rest for the few hours remaining until dawn," Yamato advised them. "We'll depart shortly after sunrise."
Seina bid the others goodnight and went to sleep for the remaining four hours before sunrise. She fell asleep as soon as she lay on the soft bed.
Hours later, she woke up at dawn. Within minutes, after using the bathrooms and eating some breakfast, she found herself packing up the tent again while Muta and Yamato removed the traps. The rest of the journey was relaxed compared to the tension she had felt in the Land of Ice. Hours later, they stopped momentarily to eat and then continued on. They arrived in Konoha as night began to fall.
Seina checked in and accepted Yamato's offer to take care of the remaining mission details. She handed him the scroll she had used to steal the documents and other items and went home. When she arrived, she noticed her team was already there even before entering. She couldn't even open the door because her brother flung it open with a huge smile.
"Nee-chan!" Naruto shouted, throwing himself at her.
"Let her through, dobe," Sasuke said, rolling his eyes in exasperation.
"Kakashi-sensei is upstairs," Naruto informed.
"Actually, I'm here," their teacher cut in, appearing at the door. "How was your first mission as tokubetsu jonin?"
"Good. Lots of cold, lots of ice, and Orochimaru," she said with a playful eye roll. "Luckily, we escaped easily."
"You encountered him?" the jonin asked, frowning. "I suppose it was inevitable sooner or later. I imagine you went looking for the possible base in the Land of Ice."
"Orochimaru's base?" Sasuke asked, sitting beside her on the sofa.
"How many bases does that man have?" Naruto said in exasperation.
"A few," Kakashi-sensei assured. "I imagine you destroyed it, so now he has one less."
"Yes. He didn't like us collapsing everything on their heads. He had to use a giant snake to save his life."
"Manda."
"What?"
"Manda, that's the snake's name," Naruto said. "A huge purple one, right?"
"That's the one. At least we managed to steal all the documents, some corpses, and capture a few enemies alive."
"Did you see his arms?" Kakashi-sensei asked. She nodded. "How were they?"
"…Now that you mention it…" she thought, recalling Orochimaru. "They were healed."
"So, he definitely has changed bodies. At least we know he can't take Sasuke for another three years. Maybe that's enough to leave you in peace for a while," Kakashi-sensei consoled Sasuke.
"I hope so."
She went to shower while the others prepared the meal. Well, except for Sasuke. She came down in her pajamas after almost four days in the new uniform. They talked about their respective missions—how Naruto and Sasuke had been sent to recover stolen jewels from some bandits, and about Kakashi-sensei's mission in the Land of Stone a few weeks ago. She was the first to go to bed, feeling the exhaustion of the past few days.