Amidst the howling wind that swept the yellow sand into the sky, turning the entire sky dim, two travelers were walking on the sand dunes, walking through the sand storm... compared to the occurring sandstorm both of them seemed to be very small… just like two inconspicuous grains.
These two travelers wearing a black hooded cloak that covered them entirely are obviously none other than Hyuga Kuroto and Uchiha Shisui.
There was no need to emphasize the danger of the Akatsuki Organization to Sandaime-sama, after hearing the fact that the leader of Akatsuki is probably multiple times stronger than Hanzo. With his experience, Sandaime naturally understood that if you want to launch an effective surprise attack on Akatsuki, then secrecy, surprise, and timing are of key importance here. The entirety of success and failure depends on these three key factors. Two ensure the latter two key factors, the first is of more priority. And to maintain secrecy, it must be ensured that intelligence does not leak from any source.
For this reason, Sandaime did not arrange other Anbu squads to pass on the message to Raikage and Kazekage. Sending Anbu team-11 for this task who had just reported the location of Akatsuki's base, limits the number of hands and ears involved in the matter. So, it further ensures that the number of mouths and brains who would be aware of the intelligence would be highly limited. Thus, narrowing the scope of people involved.
To contact two villages at the same time, Team-11 had to be split into sub-groups. And after years of work of the four in the Anbu department, Sandaime is also aware of Kakashi-Guy and Kuroto-Shisui duo, so he naturally split the team into these two teams.
The purpose of not sending Shisui and Kuroto to Kumogakure was also to ensure that Raikage does not lose his temper upon being reminded of the events of the Valley of the Land of Lightning as well as the Hyuga affair…
As such, Kakashi and Guy are on their way to Kumogakure, meanwhile, Kuroto and Shisui are on their way to Sunagakure.
The raging sandstorm made it difficult for normal shinobi to open their eyes, but these two are obviously not normal. Shisui squinted his eyes, then asked Kuroto aloud, "Kuroto-san, our direction is not wrong, right?"
To ensure the secrecy of this mission, Kuroto and Shisui did not take the commercial road or any other common routes but took a very uncommon route that no one travels on because of the frequent raging sand storms occurring here.
Byakugan…
Activating his Byakugan, Kuroto looked around.
However, all he saw was endless desert and sandstorms raging on this endless desert.
So, determining the right direction was difficult, even the Sun is not clear so determining the direction of Sunagakure using the movements is difficult.
Using Byakugan to locate Sunagakure doesn't seem to be possible.
Sighing slightly, Kuroto closed his eyes, then opened them again, this time his pupils changed into beautiful royal blue, it was obviously Tenseigan.
After activating Tenseigan, Kuroto formed some Hand Signs, and instantly purple dragon wings made of Chakra sprouted on his back.
With Ryuumyaku Wings on his back, the next Kuroto controlled Rein Wheel Interactive Force to form was silent zone around him. Within this silent zone, the raging winds of Sandstorm stagnated, forming sort of a low wind zone.
Next, he flapped the Chakra wings on his back and flew vertically high, then looked at the direction they were moving in.
Not long after, he landed back and dispersed the Chakra Wings, and said to Shisui, "The direction we are moving in is correct, but the area that these sandstorms cover is vast, so it would take a few more hours for us to make out of it, then a few more days to reach Sunagakure."
Shisui nodded, and they both started traveling.
While walking next to Kuroto, Shisui can't help but think, 'I must get stronger, with the way I am, I am only dragging down Kuroto-san.' – Although the previous display of techniques by Kuroto was nothing big, it still made Shisui feel powerless…
Shisui knows that with just a wave of his hand, Kuroto-san can easily disperse the sand storm. In fact, he doesn't even need to travel to Sunagakure on foot when he could just fly there!
It is only because he is with Kuroto that Kuroto is using this method.
With these thoughts in his mind, Shisui suddenly remembered something that Tsukihi once said, 'Those eyes are Tenseigan and they hold the potential to be on the same level as the Rinnegan.' And he can't help but be curious, "Kuroto-san, the leader of Akatsuki has Rinnegan, the eyes of Rikudo Sennin, and Tsukihi said that your Tenseigan holds the same potential as the Rinnegan, so what do you think, which dojutsu is superior of the two, Pain's Rinnegan or your Tenseigan?"
Kuroto was surprised by Shisui's sudden question, he thought about it a little then replied. "I have never fought against someone with Rinnegan before so I can't be sure which dojutsu is superior. But if you ask me potentially both of them are of equal caliber. The outcome of a battle between the two Dojutsu users would depend on the strength of the wielders of the said eyes, not on the dojutsu themselves."
This is Kuroto's belief. For analogy's sake, the same weapon would show different performance when it is in the hands of an amateur, or when it is in the hands of a master.
The strength of Rinnegan displayed by Nagato was much inferior compared to what Uchiha Obito displayed with just one Rinnegan, and that was also much inferior to what Uchiha Madara displayed.
The Rinnegan itself was the same in the eyes of the three, the difference lied in the abilities of the three.
Tenseigan too holds the potential of being on the same level as Rinnegan and compared to the level he started at the time of awakening it, Kuroto has come too far ahead.
What worries Kuroto now is that his personal growth curve has started to slow down.
Time has been passing but there is not much change. And what worries him, even more, is that he has no idea why he has fallen into such stagnation.
Kuroto has of course made many theories to understand this, but only one of them seems reasonable.
He feels that this is because of his lack of understanding of Senjutsu, to cross the realm of Super Kage and to ascend to the Rikudo Sennin realm, he has to learn to use Rikudo Sennin Mode. But is that easy? Obviously no! Even after awakening Rinnegan, even after being in contact with Gedo Statue for so long, Madara still needed to become Juubi's Jinchuriki to learn to use Rikudo Sennin Mode.
At this time Shisui said, "I believe that you will not lose Kuroto-san."
Kuroto smiled and nodded.
Tendo Pain's Shinra Tensei could flatten the entire Konoha in one shot, Rikudo Pain then fought against Uzumaki Naruto in the Sennin Mode as well as toads of Mount Myoboku. Then he also fought and held off against the berserk Kyuubi whose eight tails were liberated. And even after that, he still had enough chakra to bring thousands of Konoha Shinobi back to life.
So, Nagato is also no joke.
Kuroto believes that he is not weaker compared to Nagato, and if the two were to engage in a life and death fight, then it would definitely be him who would survive, that is to say, Nagato would ultimately die at his hands. That is if they do engage in a life and death fight.
Seeing Kuroto's nod, Shisui said, I just hope that we can completely solve Akatsuki this time… so that the village will remain safe…"
Kuroto thought a little and said, "Don't hold too high expectations, the success and failure will entirely depend on Akatsuki Organization's response. If they do not make any mistakes, it will be very difficult to eliminate them all at once."
Shisui nodded.
And the two continued their casual conversation along the way. Soon they passed through the sandstorm and successfully reached Sunagakure after a few more days of travel.
As soon as they entered the territory of the Sunagakure they were spotted by Suna shinobi, then stopped the two, and asked, "Who are you two and your purpose?"
Both Kuroto and Shisui lifted their hoods at the same time and revealed their Konoha's Shinobi forehead protector, following which Kuroto said, "We are Konoha Shinobi, and we are here upon Hokage-sama's order to pass on a message to Kazekage-dono about the matter of Joint Chunin Exams"
The shinobi looked at each other and nodded, but they still did not drop their Kunai and asked again, "Verify your names?" "Hyuga Kuroto." "Uchiha Shisui."
The captain of the team noted down the details and then said, "Two of you, please follow me."
Kuroto and Shisui nodded and followed the leader.
Konoha and Suna are in an alliance, so it is somewhat normal for the Shinobi of one village to travel to another village because of many different matters. Moreover, Joint Chunin Exams is a topic that has been in talks for a while now, so the leader of the team was not too surprised by the arrival of Konoha shinobi.
.
.
Read up to Chapter - 590 on P.a.t.r.e.o.n.. Page: p-atreon.com/Milta_translations