At 4 am, Kakashi went outside the village with his temporary team.
Shino as expected had no presence, Hinata was absentminded and Sasuke was gloomy and was cursing his nightmares to betray him when he needed it the most.
Though his mind relaxes when he realise Hinata did not activate her Dōjutsu this time.
Looking at his temporary team, he felt glad he did not get Kiba or Ino.
They perform terribly and especially Kiba who was uncooperative, where both had to spend time with Anko, who as a sadist, made them faint out of exhaustion.
Hinata, who performed well thanks to Sasuke training, performed incredibly badly where she is known as the worst performer in the regiment.
'She is obviously hiding her strength.' Kakashi presumed, since Sasuke's training was harsher than his, yet she performed well enough.
Kakashi even wished he could raise the difficulty, but 3rd Hokage warned him not to go overboard with it, as 75% of Genins were now daily customers of the hospital.
3rd Hokage could have had lower difficulty after getting reports of complaints from civilian families who are unaware of harsh reality of shinobi, but income from hospital was rising, so his friend Koharu Utatane persuaded him not to stop before her untimely demise.
"How long do we need to go to reach there? I am asking because I could make some preparations to use insects for surveillance ahead in case of safety."
"It will take 6 hours if everyone uses body flicker but the road may not be safe." Kakashi said and gave permission to Shino to use his bugs.
Shino nodded and spread his 50% of bugs in a given radius around the team while keeping rest in case of combat.
'Sometimes I wonder what Inuzuka clan do when Aburama and Hyūga clan exist'
Due to lack of exploration of their clan in anime, Sasuke could not find a good reason why their clan was one of the major clans other than having superior sense of smell and sense but has enough humility not to scoff at them.
Except for Kiba.
Each of his interactions with him made him sympathise with OG Sasuke more.
"So.....do you guys have any questions regarding Lady Tsunade or anything that came in your interest?" Kakashi asked his team, seeing how awkward they were.
All three were the least talkative among the Konoha 12, and each of them were not speaking for their own reason.
"Could you tell me about the Fire temple?"
Sasuke asked, wishing to know why Fire Daimyo favored them over Konoha and why Danzo did absolutely nothing against them despite his cruel nature.
He only knows from the Uchiha clan report that they were the second strongest force in the land and warned not to fight them unless they want to face the wrath from Fire Daimyo.
"The temple? Its institution, far older than the village, trains ninja monks regardless of background which unlike shinobi did not participate in battle, they only provide protection to Daimyo and important officials in exchange of payment used to maintain the temple and receive lands for expansion if needed."
"Many villages had abandoned the temple in favor of shinobi because they were far cheaper and less expensive. "
"Fire temple is the only one that stands prominently because of....bad timing." Kakashi concluded, leaving his team to speculate.
Previous Fire Daimyo during the end of the Warring States Period wished to end it as well, since shinobi from villages had far cheaper rates compared to mercenary clans and could pressured villages to behave unlike the former.
However, after hearing death of 1st Hokage, he postponed his plan and after 2nd Hokage death, he canceled it, doubting whether the so called 3rd Hokage and his allies may had killed his own master, since 2nd Hokage and 2nd Raikage and his guards got killed horribly by Kinkaku Force yet they left without any injury.
So not only did he poach the remaining monks whose temple was abandoned in other lands, they reinforced the fire temple support, believing countermeasures were needed to balance Konoha influence.
And 3rd Hokage did nothing, feared by the power the temple had.
"How far is the place?" Sasuke asked, interested go there, seeing how
'Welcoming Approach: Thousand-Armed Murder' that the temple taught, oddly resembled the Sage Art Wood Release: True Several Thousand Hands used by 1st Hokage and Ashura.
"It is actually on the way, so let's visit there, maybe we could find Lady Tsunade since her grandfather was once a disciple." Kakashi revealed, where Sasuke tried his best to hide his smile.
'Maybe I could learn Sage mode from them if 1st Hokage learns it from there.'
Shino wondered why Sasuke gave off a weird smile while Kakashi felt awkward by Sasuke, wondering whether he wished to see Lady Tsunade; she is after all a beauty despite her old age.
'I guess I shouldn't have doubted Haku that day.'
Hinata meanwhile was absent minded.
Busy understanding her thoughts.
***
After 6 hours of traveling, they reached the Fire temple, greeted by its numerous stairs.
To Sasuke, it was no different than the Shaolin Monastery he saw during his trip.
The Temple was located in an area surrounded by forests in the mountainous hills on three sides and a large field to the south.
There were many statues and images of both Karasu and Yamabushi Tengu, including two statues on either side of the front gates. This was significant as in legend Tengu and Yamabushi taught humans the arts of ninjutsu.
Sasuke considered the legend as allegories of Uchiha and Senju were both Tengu and Yamabushi were considered similar or identical just like their clans predecessor Indra and Ashura, where Ashura and Indra did teach ninjutsu just like Tengu and Yamabushi did to humanity where Sōjōbō, the god of Tengu and Yamabushi, could actually referred to Hagoromo Ōtsutsuki.
Considering how similar Hagoromo Ōtsutsuki was to monk, Sasuke speculated some of his followers might have become ninja monks to preserve his teaching as opposed to joining either of his sons faction, where ninja monks use their version of taijutsu, and only use ninjutsu non-offensive jutsu like barrier jutsu and fūinjutsu and Sasuke think they might also use medical ninjutsu as well.
After making it to the top, Kakashi knocked at the Golden gate while holding a trench knife, after having a simple request from Asuma to lend one of his weapons.