The dust had settled completely, and the scene was quiet.
The group approached cautiously with their eyes fixed on the wreckage. Nothing remained of Orochimaru. No charred pieces, no bloodstains, nor any signs that he'd ever been there.
Just an empty, scorched patch of earth inside one of the three massive craters formed.
Alex, with his Byakugan activated, scanned the area to check every corner and every crack in the ground. After a moment, he deactivated them and said, "He's gone. There's nothing left."
Alice, standing nearby, had her eyes closed to also try and sense any lingering chakra. When she opened them, she agreed.
There was nothing. No faint pulse or shadow of Orochimaru's presence for miles.
"Dude," Alex began, "you didn't have to kill him. Ha-ha."
"No way I'm being scolded for this," Jasper replied with a knowing smile. "I thought we agreed to kill Orochimaru and be done with this."
"Yeah," Alex replied, smacking Jasper on the back, "that's if he was actually responsible for what we're going through."
William watched their exchange and felt a strange unease settle in. He had no idea what to make of Jasper and Alex's interactions. They seemed to share an unspoken bond, like they understood each other in ways William never could.
It made him feel out of touch.
Usually, he'd find comfort talking to Naruto or Jiraiya. But with Naruto suspended and Jiraiya missing, William felt more isolated, especially as he watched the others.
He looked between Jasper and Alex, feeling a little fear.
If the Ōtsutsuki from outer space ever dropped to earth again, the consequences could be catastrophic. Creatures like Kinshiki and Momoshiki wouldn't hesitate to destroy everything.
And what if Jasper decided to join them?
The thought made William's stomach turn. Then something registered in his mind.
"Guys…" he began, "you know Orochimaru can't—"
"Good going!" Margaret cut him off while looking at Jasper.
"What?" Jasper responded, confused.
"Jasper," Alice answered, "you killed a Sannin."
"Guys, Orochimaru can't—" William started again, but Jasper raised a hand, dismissing him.
"Yeah, that was the point of us coming here," Jasper plainly said.
Alex chuckled, "Not really, dude. You actually made this whole mess worse."
William's frustration boiled over. So he yelled, "Guys!" They all turned to look at him. "Oro isn't dead!"
"What makes you say that?" Jada asked.
William pointed toward the ground to answer, "Look. That's the entrance to the underground lab. Jasper destroyed the surface and all, but the real hideout is still beneath us. Oro's probably still got something down there."
Jada smacked her forehead and said, "How could I forget? Even if you blow up the main body, he can still revive himself through the curse marks he's placed on everyone."
"Exactly," William said. "So, we need to be careful. We can't assume he's really dead just because Jasper killed one version of him."
Jasper himself just scoffed before saying, "Then we just go and kill them all, too."
Margaret immediately protested, "No way! That'd include Sasuke, and I'd never agree to that."
Unbeknownst to the group, Sasuke had already had his curse mark removed by Arthur.
"Then what?" Jasper feigned ignorance. "We wait?"
"Exactly," Alex answered, drawing everyone's attention. "There's no point rushing around. Orochimaru can't revive himself without a host. Either someone releases him, or he stays dead."
Alice agreed and added, "We should stay alert then if we're going to do that."
Jada then thought for a moment before saying, "It's best we scout what's left of this hideout."
"Looking for clues isn't a bad idea," Margaret agreed. "Anything that might tell us where Sasuke is or what Orochimaru's plans were."
The others couldn't go against this logic.
While the Sound Village was separated into hideouts, these hideouts were quite large in size. Some were deep in caves; others were all the way out at sea.
As such, they decided to split into three groups of two: Jasper and Alice would check the east underground, Alex with Jada would check the west underground, while Margaret and William would check the surrounding area on the surface.
William secretly wanted to go with Jada, so he hesitated before asking, "Can I join Jada?" Seeing his desperation, he quickly added, "Ya know! To see if Oro was lying about Jiraiya!"
Jasper, hearing this, shook his head, saying, "Just date already."
William looked surprised. "What?"
Jada glared at Jasper and said, "You know, Jasper, I'm starting to get sick of that attitude of yours…"
William immediately defused the situation by saying, "I shouldn't have asked; I just thought it would be a good idea, is all."
Jada was clearly annoyed but softened slightly and said, "It's okay. I don't mind partnering with you."
Jasper chuckled as he suddenly received a smack from Alice.
"You promise you'd behave," she reminded.
Not long after, the three groups separated to perform their respective tasks.
Inside the labyrinth, the silence was thick. Jada moved quietly as she examined the dark corridors with the Sharingan. The faint glow of her eyes was enough to reflect off the damp wall.
William followed close behind while watching her and trying to pay attention to any clues. They walked in what felt like awkwardness.
Thinking about how to lighten the mood, he joked, "Ya know, Oro would have been a great biotech CEO back on earth."
Thinking the joke was lame, he expected her to brush it off. Surprisingly, that did the opposite: it earned a small chuckle from her.
She deactivated her Sharingan and amusingly added, "He'd probably just speak in riddles all the time. And he'd wear black turtlenecks and drink things like matcha early in the morning."
William grinned at that. He wanted to keep the dice rolling, so he said, "I could totally imagine him running a startup called 'SageDNA.' And his mission statement? To transcend the body's limits."
Jada chuckled again. "Then what? Suigetsu's in marketing, while Yamato-sensei is suing the company for damages?"
They both burst into quiet laughter in that moment of levity that eased the tension.
William felt the weight of the situation lighten by a lot. Maybe, for a moment, he could forget how much was riding on them.
Outside, Margaret and Alex were walking on the south side of the hideout until they discovered another entrance that led to an underground complex.
"Maybe I should have gone with Hyūga," Margaret praised Alex for the find.
"Long as you don't go taking my eyes," Alex joked, raising his arms up.
Their steps echoed softly as they moved through the tunnels. After a moment, he broke the silence by asking, "We are going to handle Kabuto, right?"
Margaret couldn't quite answer right, so she stopped and said, "I don't really know. I thought Kabuto would have returned after Oro didn't follow him back."
"What do you think that means?"
"I guess if he finds out Oro's dead, he'll start searching for DNA samples to start using the Reanimation just like last time."
"That would make the most sense," Alex said.
"Yeah, and if he manages that, it could trigger the Fourth War again."
After half an hour of searching, they decided to stop. There was hardly anything to find because Jasper had inadvertently killed all of the prisoners and destroyed a lot of the experiments.
It wasn't long until everyone finally regathered on the surface.
Neither Jada nor William had found anything conclusive. But Jasper and Alice had better fortune. They had returned with materials that were from the other hideouts.
William looked hopeful and said, "That's great. Now we can find Karin, Jugo, and Suigetsu."
Jasper, however, cut him off with a smirk, "Love bursting your bubble; we only found stuff from the Northern and Southern hideouts."
"That means looking for Suigetsu's out of the question," Alice finished.
"We should still go after them," Jada immediately spoke.
Alex and Margaret believed this to be a good idea. From what they remembered, Jugo and Karin were pivotal characters linked to Sasuke. Finding them early would prove advantageous.
"There's one more thing," Alice added. "We found out Kimimaro was sent on a mission in the Northern Hideout. The Sound ninjas reported him missing, and he's been gone for some time."
Jada looked surprised, commenting, "Kimimaro? I'd forgotten about him."
This shocked most of the group, considering Jada had vowed to protect everyone—friend or foe.
But who could blame her for having forgotten when that character was meant to be in the Sasuke Retrieval Arc? No one had laid eyes on Kimimaro due to having been caught up in the chaos in the Leaf Village, the Land of Waves, and the new threats that arose, like Kaito.
Still, with this revelation, it was a concern. Mainly because Kimimaro should have been dead by now on account of being sick.
So how was he able to go on missions?
While they discussed this mystery, Jasper looked at his artwork and spotted a very subtle movement. So he suggested, "Why haven't we interrogated the leftover Sound ninjas yet?"
"Because you practically killed most of them," Margaret replied. "Duh."
"No," Jasper corrected, "some of them are still breathing."
When they looked, they saw that he was right. Some of them were just playing dead!
Jasper stepped closer to one of the fallen shinobi and lifted him up by the collar. Then he violently shook him, saying, "Hey, wake up, pal. We need some answers, so don't make this difficult."
The shinobi's eyes fluttered open. He looked terrified and pleaded, "Please, don't hurt me!"
Jasper grinned, saying, "Sure, but first… Tell us where Sasuke Uchiha is."
"I don't… I don't know," the shinobi stammered.
"If you don't tell us," Jasper threatened, "I'll rip your heart out."
"I promise! I don't know!"
Alice stepped forward and made Jasper put the shinobi down.
"Move," she demanded.
"What are you doing?" he asked her.
"Dude," Alex said, smirking, "did you forget your girlfriend can read people's minds?"
"Actually, I did."
It's then that Alice reached out with her mind and performed her Mind Transmission technique to invade the shinobi's thoughts. The man's body twitched, and his eyes rolled back around as if something was controlling him.
When she withdrew her chakra, the shinobi collapsed to the ground, unconscious.
"I know what happened," she firmly said. "Sasuke was sent on a mission but never returned. The Sound Village investigated and determined he was captured."
"Captured?" Margaret repeated. "What about Kimimaro?"
"Apparently Kimimaro received a miraculous healing, so Orochimaru sent him on a mission to the Northern Hideout after a spy was found trespassing there."
"As for Sasuke," she continued, "Orochimaru didn't know about it at first. But once he realized Sasuke was missing, he sent spies to other countries. That's why he's not here."
"And Jiraiya?" William begged to know.
"Nothing," Alice said. "Orochimaru was technically telling the truth when he said he hadn't heard anything."
William felt a sinking feeling. "And everyone who's been revived?"
"Surprisingly, Orochimaru didn't know anything about that either."
That left the team in silence. Sasuke and Jiraiya were missing. No one knew where they were. Kimimaro was somehow healed. And the revival of the dead was all still a mystery.
"What if everything was being done by one person?" Jada wondered.
Alice hesitated for a moment, then looked away. If she said the name aloud, everyone might think she was crazy. But she knew; she knew it had to be Arthur.
What was she to say? The others had apparently killed him, and talking about him now seemed taboo. Better to keep quiet until the moment was right. Assuming that moment ever came.
They all stood there, absorbing the grim reality. The pieces weren't fitting together. Their enemies were more dangerous than they'd thought. And someone—or something—was out there reviving the dead.
The ninja world had changed so much, and they were caught smack-dab in the middle.