Tobi

Sato and Anko left Temari's tent quietly; they had enough information for their next task.

"Raikage sama. According to Hidden Sand Village, the Kazekage was kidnapped a day ago."

"His kidnappers are the Akatsuki; they are looking for tailed beasts and Kazekage is the one-tail jinchuriki."

"I think it might be too late to save him."

Anko didn't have much hope for this mission.

After seeing the destroyed hidden sand village, Anko had a much better idea of Akatsuki's strength.

Akatsuki was strong enough to rival a great village. Kazekage had probably lost the one tail by now, and was dead as a result of losing it.

"Yeah, Gaara is most likely dead. I want him to survive though; he was a useful tool."

Sato commented nonchalantly while running with Anko; Sato seemed relaxed, but his nerves were tight.

Sato was on high alert.

"Yeah, the Kazekage was your friend wasn't he? His presence was useful for our village as well."

Anko agreed with Sato. When Gaara was the Kazekage, hidden cloud and hidden sand maintained a close relationship.

It would be a shame to lose this close connection due to Kazekage's death.

"Although I hope Gaara isn't dead, in case he did die, we have another option."

"I know a way we can bring him back from the dead once: we can tell Chiyo to revive him."

"It's a risky idea, but it's possible."

Sato said with a hand on his chin. Yet this sentence made Anko snap her head toward him.

"Revive the Kazekage? That old woman Chiyo, has a jutsu that can revive people?"

"How does it compare with our village's revival technique?"

"It can't be better than our technique, right?"

Anko was very curious. She knew the hidden cloud had a way to revive people too, but it was a very long process with biological cloning involved.

Did the hidden sand have a better revival technique? If so, they should find a way to steal it or destroy it.

"Do you want to steal the technique, Anko? It's impossible; only Chiyo knows this jutsu. Unless she teaches it to you, you can't have it."

Sato rolled his eyes at Anko's idea. There was a reason only Chiyo used this justu in the series.

"Her revival jutsu is super strong; it can revive anyone, heal anything, and even give life to dead puppets."

"It's an S-class forbidden technique. But it has one major downside."

Sato slowly explained the jutsu created by Chiyo, and its most important side effects.

"It's only downside is that the user has to die if they want to revive someone."

"It is a life for a life jutsu."

Sato spoke seriously; this was a super-strong justu with an equally strong drawback.

But even so, the price of death didn't make this jutsu any less attractive.

"Death as a price is steep, but we should steal this jutsu anyway."

"We can always train a death squad, whose job it is to use this jutsu in particular."

Anko immediately thought of a way to avoid the jutsu's side effects.

Even if her idea was pretty cruel, Sato had to agree that it was a useful idea.

"Okay, I will try to see if I can get it from her."

"But Chiyo is a veteran ninja; it's difficult to make her talk."

Sato rubbed his hair in thought; he was thinking of a way to convince Chiyo.

Slash

"Look out, Raikage Sama!"

But every thought went out the window when a hand suddenly appeared out of thin air and grabbed Sato's head.

"Hidden snake hands."

Anko swiftly moved; she twisted her palm and sent snakes flying towards the floating hand.

Swish

"What! My attack passed through the hand. Is this hand real or is it an illusion?!"

Anko's deadly snakes passed through the enemy hand, like they were made of air instead of flesh and blood.

But the truth is, even if she didn't touch them, Anko's attack did something.

The moment her snakes passed through the ghost hand, their grip on Sato's head also disappeared.

Swish

"Good job, Anko."

Sato ran back instantly; he was softly touching the part of his head where he was just grabbed.

Anko ignored that and focused on the pair of ghost hands.

"What is this weird thing? Snake barrage jutsu."

Swish

Anko frowned when something similar happened once again. She had tried to attack just now, but her snakes passed through the ghost's hand harmlessly.

'How does this work? Can the hand touch us but we can't touch it? No, that's not right.'

Anko couldn't touch this floating hand, but when she had attacked it earlier, the hand suddenly couldn't touch Sato either.

'I see, when he touches us, we can touch him, but if he isn't touching us, we can't touch him either.'

Anko narrowed her eyes and summarized the basic information about this enemy.

This was a pair of weird floating hands.

"Get behind me, Raikage Sama."

Anko positioned herself in front of Sato and sneered at the enemy.

"Hello, Mr. Ghost Hands, it's rude to attack the Raikage, you know."

"Why don't you show yourself? Is your body hidden somewhere, or are you just two hands?"

Anko stood in front of Sato and mocked this wild enemy.

Maybe her mocking had an effect, as the hands waved at her and slowly started to reveal a body attached to them.

"I am not just hands! I am Tobi, an intern at Akatsuki, nice to meet you!"

It turns out this pair of hands had an owner. It was a masked man who appeared out of thin air and was currently waving cheerfully at Anko.

"Snake arrow."

But Anko wasted no time in attacking the man named Tobi.

"Ohh! So scary!!"

The man named Tobi screamed.

Swish

Yet, Anko's attack passed through the man once again, like he was a ghost.

"Tch, are you a ghost or what?"

Anko was starting to feel a bit concerned; this guy was impossible to touch.

How would she defend the Raikage against him?

"Raikage sama, this mission might have been a trap after all. Please leave; I will fight this man alone."

Anko asked Sato to leave; this was the only solution she could think of.

"Excuse me. I have a question."

But suddenly, in this tense situation, Tobi raised his hand and asked.

"Are you trying to protect the Raikage or his shadow clone? Because the one standing behind you is his shadow clone."

When Tobi finished speaking, Anko's eyes widened. She looked back and asked.

"Raikage sama, are you a shadow clone?"

Poof

In response to her question, Sato turned into smoke and disappeared.

It turns out the guy behind her wasn't the real Raikage at all; it was his shadow clone.

"You seriously didn't know? Hahahaha! You were trying to protect a shadow clone, so funny."

"Man, you are useless as a shadow guard."

Tobi mocked Anko, who was turning red from embarrassment.

Tobi laughed at her harder, then waved his hand and said.

"Okay, okay, I will tell you what happened. I feel second-hand embarrassment from watching you fail."

"The moment I tried to catch him, Fifth Raikage had switched with his shadow clone."

"He had sensed my presence instantly; I never touched him in the first place."

Tobi pointed towards a small mountain and said.

"He is hiding right there, on top of that mountain. He is watching us."

When Tobi exposed his location, Sato appeared from his hiding spot.

Zap

With a quick lightning dash, he was beside Anko once again. He patted her shoulder, asking her to remain calm.

Tobi, on the other hand, was chill. He didn't seem to mind that the dangerous Raikage was standing in front of him.

He put his hand on his chin and asked a question.

"Fifth Raikage, I have a question for you."

"I attacked you by surprise, but you dodged like you were expecting my attack. How did you do that?"

Tobi asked with genuine curiosity in his voice.

Sato smiled at Tobi and cracked his knuckles.

"I was expecting a trap from the very beginning. This mission was too coincidental."

"I knew some kind of attack was coming. My nerves were always tense; that's why you couldn't catch me off guard."

Bzzzt

Dense lighting started to crackle around Sato after he finished speaking.

"Now that I am here Tobi, I think it's time your partner stops hiding too."

"I know you didn't come alone. I can smell something evil in the air; that smell has to be your partner's."

Sato's words made Tobi pause. Tobi didn't move for a solid few seconds, then chuckled.

"You have good senses Raikage. But just good senses won't save you from your fate."

"We are prepared; today you will die."