__________ POV Narration __________

B fell to the ground, unconscious once more, as the leader of the Cloud Village just looked at Ken and B with a bit of confusion in his eyes.

"Did he tire himself out?" The Raikage asked as he slowly approached B.

"Yep... But he took out the Immortals and their curses..." Ken nodded as he slowly gestured to the opening that B had created around them.

The Raikage rolled his eyes as he looked around for a bit.

"Yeah, I could tell from the trembling from earlier. I guess we won't be interrogating any of them though..."

Ken just shrugged at that.

"Not like there was any other way to take them out... Either erase them or try to find some other way to separate them.

Who's to say they couldn't just initiate the Cursed Technique again afterwards anyway?"

To the Blind Swordsman, it wasn't that big of a loss. At the end of the day, it was the only real option they had.

"... I guess it was the safe thing to do. Though we don't know how dangerous that liquid would've been to the two of us.

A still got slight burns on his arm, by the way, but nothing major.

I say we just look for the leader and get rid of him as well..."

The Raikage also ended up giving up on the idea of trying to find another immortal to capture.

Their lacking understanding of Cursed Techniques made taking prisoners a bit more difficult.

Especially since it seemed that not all of them used the same techniques as the one Ken had captured...

"Sure..." Ken nodded as another wall to the side was blown away, and A came out of it unscathed.

"Fucking hell! So many rocks!" A said as he walked out into the clearing, rocks still falling behind him.

Ken scratched the back of his head as he recovered some chakra, allowing his tail to retract into his body, and his skin to turn back to normal.

"Glad to 'see' everyone here is fine..." Ken then clapped his hands together before walking back to B and putting throwing him on his shoulder like a sack of potatoes.

A narrowed his eyes at that, not quite happy to see his sworn brother in such a state. But before he could throw a fit, his father slapped him over the head and explained the situation to him.

And they continued forward, Ken carried B for the entire walk, as they didn't feel it would be safe to leave him in a random cave.

After all, there could still be Cultists around.

And they did run into plenty of cultists. But not one of them was worth mentioning.

They were mostly regular people. The Raikage and A dealt with them swiftly. Only two ever got close to Ken, who didn't even need to put B down in order to kill them.

A relatively long chakra blade just extended from his arm and cut them both in two.

Ken had already recovered enough chakra to pull something like that off, but he didn't have enough to sustain the chakra blade for longer than a minute... Not that he needed it.

They advanced further and further into the hideout... And finally, they found a large room... And on a pedestal stood a throne. One that seemed to be made of bones.

'So very mad cult-like...' Even Ken marvelled at how unnecessarily evil-looking it was, and he couldn't even see it.

The most unexpected thing... The throne was empty.

'... Did we already kill the leader by mistake or something?' Even the Raikage couldn't help but get confused...

But the cultists they had run into earlier seemed to be vehemently trying to protect 'Jashin's Messenger'.

It gave everyone the impression that the leader was only further up ahead... But now there was nowhere further to go.

"Did the rat leader escape or something?" A scoffed as he looked around with a bit of confusion in his eyes.

The Raikage was also just as confused...

"We were supposed to be fighting crazed cultists... They aren't usually the type to flee like this and leave their 'sanctuary' unprotected." The Raikage as he turned off his Lighting Release Chakra Mode and looked around with a slightly annoyed gaze.

"... What if he decided to cut his losses and rebuild elsewhere?" Ken asked said as he scratched his chin with his free hand.

"Would such a cult really have prebuilt escape plans though? We took them by surprise as well..." A scowled as he spoke. No one liked the idea of the Cult Leader still being at large at the end of the day...

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

Ken just sighed and placed B on the ground as he walked forward confidently. He stood in front of the throne and tilted his head slightly.

He then raised his leg, and kicked the chair heavily, sending it flying into the wall behind it and revealing some stairs...

"Well... Ain't that something?" The Blind Swordsman said as he pointed to the passage.

_________ A While Back _________

As soon as the devout followers had left the room, the tattooed leader's confident expression morphed.

His smile turned into a scowl, and his two pairs of eyes both squinted in confusion and fear.

'Shit... If the Cloud Village found us then we're doomed, especially if the Raikage is here...

Most of the cursed techniques that my men can use still require them to be able to take something from the target... But the Raikage is untouchable...'

The Leader wasn't dumb, nor did he for one moment think that his men would be able to take on the Cloud Village.

To him, the second he felt that tremor and realized there were more intruders, he knew everything was over.

'Hm... It was fun while it lasted. Taking advantage of idiots will only take me so far in the end...'

Most of the time, cult leaders were the ones with the most charisma, true sociopaths, able to lie with a straight face till they reached the point where they actually believed their own lies.

But Asai Hideaki was different.

Not for one second did he believe himself to be the messenger of some malevolent god. To him, it was all an opportunity to test and develop his cursed techniques and mastery.

'I guess I could head over to a branch division and take over there... At least I'll be able to keep my experiments going that way...

Better pick one with a weaker leader though... It was a bit arrogant of me to pick the Land of Lightning in the first place...'

"Haah..." A sigh left his mouth as he slowly stood up from his throne adorned with human skulls.

'I should leave this sanctuary quickly. This place is doomed.'

Asai then turned to his throne, tapping one of its sides seemed to turn on a strange mechanism, which caused the throne to start shifting, moving to the side to reveal a dark passageway.

Asai turned around for a second, contemplating whether or not to bring his last experiment with him...

But to do so would mean he had to go through the intruders, so he just shook his head and walked away.

'It seemed to be the most successful by far... Too bad I didn't get to observe it for long...'

He grabbed a lantern and, lit it up with a match, and walked into the passage, the entrance closing behind him.

"Let's just hope that those idiots can cover my escape... I'll just cover my tracks, just to make sure..."

_________ Back to the Present _________

"Well, ain't that something?"

The Blind Swordsman didn't waste any time in heading down the passageway, almost as if he was picking up on a scent like a hound would.

The A immediately followed behind him into the dark passageway, and the Raikage stayed behind with B, just in case.

But the passageway was a lot shorter than expected...

After a few dozen meters it appeared to have collapsed.

"... Shit!" A punched the side of the cave while looking at the collapsed escape path.

"..." Ken had already felt that it was collapsed from the beginning. He could even feel how far away the exit of that passage was... And he knew that however had used it was long gone.

"No use crying over spilt milk..." Ken shrugged and turned around. A just placed a hand in front of him.

"No! We're talking about a guy that endangered the Land of Lightning. We can't let him go like this!

You're a master when it comes to tracking others, right? You're also a good sensor, so please at least try to find him!"

A looked at Ken with a bit of frustration. The Blind Swordsman couldn't really blame him either, his request was mostly coming out of concern for the Land of Lightning.

But while the Blind Swordsman understood his plea, there wasn't much he could do.

"This passage is collapsed for another few hundred meters, after which it goes up, likely using a ladder..."

Ken decided to just give A the rundown of his findings. He did already try to track down the leader after all, he just worked faster than A had expected.

"I could try to track him, but he seems to have hidden his tracks as well. There is a faint scent in the air... But it seems to disappear at some point as well..."

The Blind Swordsman just shrugged as he spoke out, A just looked at him with a bit of confusion.

"... He disappeared?" A looked down in contemplation as he thought of the implications of that sentence...

"He either used some sort of Time-Space Ninjutsu or has some other way of perfectly hiding his scent... Like I do." Ken shook his head as he patted A on the shoulder and passed him by.

Even Ken had learnt a bit about Space-Time Ninjutsu. Well, he learnt of their existence. Summoning in itself was a Space-Time Ninjutsu of sorts at the end of the day.

"Shit..." A just cursed one more time under his breath, before he turned around and followed Ken back.

After all, if Ken couldn't track the leader, then there was likely no one in their Cloud Village able to do it either.

As much as A didn't like to admit it, Ken did deserve his reputation.

He proved that he was an inhuman sensor just by finding a perfect entrance into the hideout within minutes of arriving at the scene...

Besides that, there was also his strength and skill... Which were both overwhelming when compared to even Elite Jonin. He was certainly already at the level of a Kage.

Though A was still confident he could find a way to defeat Ken if push came to shove... He only saw one attack that he needed to be wary of at the end of the day...

'Well... He may be hiding more annoying moves... Besides, he's an assassin, so combat isn't even his speciality...'

A ended up being the one discouraging himself in the end.

The two of them met up with the Raikage once more and explained the situation to him...

He seemed to take it a lot better than A did. He just nodded and looked at Ken with an appreciative gaze.

"Thank you for the information... I will call this mission a success anyway." The Raikage nodded as he crossed his arms. A looked a bit confused, his father noticed that and decided to explain himself.

"We did take out the bulk of their forces and ruined their base in our territory. We can interrogate some of the lesser members we knocked out on the way here as well for more information...

Besides, it's unlikely that they will spring up in the Land of Lightning again. So now this cult leader is the problem of whatever land he decides to flee into!"

The Raikage ended up laughing a bit by the end. Glad to set a parasite free into the world, especially since it was going to be harming other lands and not his own.

Ken just sighed. He wasn't exactly shocked though, he already expected the leaders of the hidden villages to be more opportunistic than righteous.

He also had no right to complain since he also didn't feel like bothering to scour the entire world for the Cult Leader.

A understood his father's reasoning, so he just nodded. He still had a lot to learn... Alas, he still had enough time, so there was no pressure.

"So that's it then?" A asked as he crouched down and grabbed B, who was still unconscious.

"That's our mission done... But I still have to find my subordinate." Ken said as he started walking towards the entrance of the throne room.

"Might as well follow you. We should find the place they hold their prisoners as well, there may be some civilians we can save..."

The Raikage nodded as he followed Ken out. A also decided to walk alongside them.

'Let's just hope it's not too late for that...'