Gaw! Gaw! The reanimated pteras flew above Sasuke’s head, squawking loudly. There were at least ten of them.
He clicked his tongue at them and stopped his feet, which had been about to run back to the observatory.
“Sakura!” he shouted. “Go to the observatory and find Zansul!”
“What about you?!” she cried.
“I’m going after those dragons!”
Catching that group of fliers took priority. If they scattered and fled, even Sasuke wouldn’t be able to go after all of them.
Sakura nodded and took off toward the observatory.
Sasuke was about to use Susano’o Flame Control to climb into the sky, but before he could, the enemy brought the fight to him.
A ptera landed before him, and Zansul slid off of its back, the same old easy smile on his face.
“So this is where you were, number four-eight-seven.”
“Zansul …” Sasuke glared coldly at the director of the observatory. “It was you who brought the dragons back. To what end?”
“Heh,” Zansul chuckled. “Why on earth would I tell you? I do have some questions I’d like to ask you, however.”
“You won’t answer mine, but you expect me to answer yours?” Sasuke said, hoping to draw out the conversation while he considered how he could make Zansul weave the signs to undo the jutsu.
The trouble was his fake eyes. Sasuke could stare as deeply as he wanted into a pair of glass eyes, but he could never cast an ocular jutsu on them. Could he use physical force, make the man weave the signs under pain of death? Whether Zansul would break under torture or not really depended on how loyal he was to the prime minister.
“It seems you don’t understand your position,” Zansul said. “You’re nothing more than a shinobi separated from your country, but I have political power.”
“Edotensei is a forbidden jutsu,” Sasuke told him. “If you’re going to act like you represent the country, then your country as a whole will be punished.”
“Edotensei?” Zansul arched an eyebrow. “Is that what they call the forbidden jutsu to bring the dead back to life in your country?”
So the jutsu he was using wasn’t exactly the same as the Edotensei that Sasuke knew.
Boom!
He heard a sudden loud rumble from behind, and then the sound of something clattering and crumbling. Most likely, part of the observatory wall had been smashed.
Had Sakura made it there safely? He glanced up at the top of the cliff, and Zansul’s gaze followed in response. The man could clearly see Sasuke’s movements. But not with his own physical eyes. He was getting his information on his surroundings through some other means.
Sasuke returned his gaze to Zansul. “Are you planning to use the reanimated dragons as weapons? To back the prime minister’s conspiracy?”
“Oh, word travels fast. The fact that you know that means you also have comrades in Nagare then?”
“And if I did?”
“I’d be delighted,” Zansul said. “It’s an excellent opportunity to round up all of the prime minister’s opponents in one fell swoop.”
“Heh.” The corners of Sasuke’s mouth turned up. “Is slaughtering everyone here also part of the prime minister’s plan?”
“What issue is there with that?” Zansul’s face suddenly grew serious. “It’s only natural that they should die. Despite having broken the laws of this country, they are granted life and live on carefree. The truth is I almost hate to send them to the bellies of my precious dragons, but I have no choice if I’m going to keep word about the dragons from getting out. I would never be out here supervising the nation’s trash if not for the prime minister’s plan. I have real political power—I’m the brains of this land. Not replaceable hands and feet like that lot!”
Growing more and more excited as he spoke, Zansul pushed up his glasses, which had slid down almost the length of his face to his lips, and cried ecstatically, “I would never have come to this place if not for the prime minister’s plan!”
Zansul appeared deeply loyal. It was unlikely Sasuke could beat the information he wanted out of him.
Some other way …
He activated his Sharingan and turned eyes full of red light toward Zansul. He checked the amount of chakra in his body, and the tomoe floating in his eyes wavered in confusion.
The amount of chakra flowing through Zansul’s body was absolutely no different than that of an average person. He was not a shinobi. There was no way he was the one using Edotensei.
What does this mean?
If it wasn’t Zansul, then who brought back the dragons?
“What’s the matter? You look a little pale.” Zansul grinned, excitement still on his face.
In the next instant, Sasuke felt a murderous bloodlust in the air around him and leaped back.
Meno’s fangs clamped down on the hem of his jacket.
A gliding ptera grabbed onto Zansul’s collar and yanked him back up into the air.
“Meno, the rest is up to you,” Zansul called as he flew away. “Finish him off!”
The reason Zansul jumped onto a ptera and sought me out was to keep me here for Meno to attack?
His Sharingan still activated, Sasuke faced Meno.
Orochimaru and Kabuto had controlled their targets with tags embedded in their heads, but he could see nothing of the sort on Meno’s head. It seemed that this jutsu operated by a different mechanism from the Edotensei that Sasuke knew. And now that he was thinking about it, wasn’t the jutsu that Orochimaru and his ilk used a refinement of the Second Hokage’s proposed technique?
But reanimated beings using this refined jutsu were likely immortal in the same way as those reanimated with Edotensei. To stop Meno, Sasuke would have to restrain him without killing him, by using the black flames that only died when the target was incinerated: Amaterasu.
But if he did that, Meno would suffer endlessly, enveloped in an eternal conflagration, unable to die. If Sasuke was backed against a wall and left with no other choice, he would have to call on Amaterasu to get the job done, but he preferred to avoid that option if he could.
Long ago, his older brother had broken Kabuto’s Edotensei with Koto’amatsukami, a genjutsu using the Mangekyo Sharingan of Uchiha Shisui. The ideal outcome would be for him to override the jutsu here in the same way. But he was up against an animal. Could it actually work against a creature without the intelligence of a human being?
“Meno,” Sasuke called.
Meno crouched down in response. The black pupils that floated in his yellow irises narrowed sharply. Attack position.
“Don’t move just yet. Stay calm and listen to my voice.”
Sasuke took a slight step forward, and Meno opened his large maw and leaped at Sasuke like a spring coil being released. Sasuke drew his sword and stopped Meno’s fangs with the scabbard. The lizard grew excited and clawed at the sword with his front leg to try and break it.
Sasuke could see a fresh scar where the oil had burned Meno’s stomach. It seemed that he was slow to recover from burns, unlike cutting and stabbing wounds.
“Go ahead and chew on it.” Sasuke slowly let go of the scabbard and reached a hand toward Meno’s stomach.
The watchful lizard crunched through the scabbard.
“Relax. It’s okay. I won’t hurt you.” Sasuke held his hand against Meno’s belly and worked his chakra in his fingertips. He produced ice by super-chilling the mist made from Water Style with Wind Style.
Surprised by the sudden cold, Meno flinched.
“Shh.” Sasuke covered Meno’s burn. The ice crackled and settled, protecting and cooling the affected area.
Meno shivered and cocked his head, as if peering at Sasuke’s face. The hostility had faded from his eyes. Or so it seemed.
“Meno, I apologize for cutting your stomach.” Sasuke slowly reached out to the beast’s damp nose. “It hurt, didn’t it? I’m sorry. I won’t do it again.”
In the next instant, Meno yanked his mouth open. Sasuke could have dodged the bite, of course, but he dared to let him clamp onto his right arm.
Snorting, Meno closed his mouth, eager to bite and crush Sasuke’s arm.
“Meno,” he said, his arm still in Meno’s mouth. “It’s only natural that you’re angry. Forced awake when you’re happily asleep—there isn’t anyone alive who wouldn’t be annoyed. I mean, I’d tear the person who did it limb from limb.”
Meno grunted quietly, mouth still around Sasuke’s arm.
“Hey? Don’t you want to go back to where you were and sleep peacefully? I can send you back there. But to do that, I need your help.”
Meno’s breathing became quiet. The eyes that were narrowed sharply like pine needles grew somewhat rounder and turned up curiously at Sasuke.
The moment their eyes met, Sasuke focused his power in his eyes.
Sharingan!
Meno was already under the control of Edotensei. But with the power of Sasuke’s eyes bearing down on him, his body twitched ever so slightly, and Sasuke felt hope that this might actually work.
Meno’s jaws loosened, and Sasuke thrust the arm further into the beast’s mouth, grabbed the long tongue, and poured chakra directly into the mucous membrane. Meno gagged and flailed, and then became suddenly quiet, like his strings had been cut.
Did I manage to overwrite the control with genjutsu?
He had only ever had a few chances to use genjutsu on nonhuman subjects, so he wasn’t entirely certain it had worked.
He released the tongue in his hand, and Meno slumped over onto the ground. The long tail twitched.
“Meno,” he said.
Meno slowly lifted his eyelids, and hazy yellow eyes focused on Sasuke’s face. Instantly, his tail snapped out.
Bam!
Meno kicked at the ground and charged at Sasuke. He started to reach for a kunai to meet the attack, but then he noticed a slight change in Meno’s eyes and let the tension drain out of his body.
Meno threw his front legs up into the air and brought the weight of his body down on Sasuke’s shoulders. Sasuke didn’t resist and allowed himself to be knocked over backward to the ground.
Meno threw himself on top of Sasuke and began to lick away the blood oozing from the bite marks on Sasuke’s arm.