Chapter 104: Naruto Chapter 104
Shimon Hijiri looked at the team that had come to back them up on this mission. He really didn't like the things that Dark Phoenix told them about the workings of the seal and what it could cause.
"That's truly a mess. How are we going to prevent that?" He asked.
"The main problem is that you need to dismantle the whole seal. Once it is set up completely, it's tricky to undo. From the design that you sent to Konoha, this one is finished. They only need to get their sacrifices to the seal to begin. The best way to act is by wrongly triggering the seal.
Meaning by either giving the wrong kind of sacrifice, fruit juice or something else that is sweet would work perfectly if we can get enough of it here, or by unloading a shit load of water on the seal, which will dissolve the seal's structure with enough time," Naruto explained.
"Though the second one takes time and you can bet that the Jashinist that aspires to become a high priest will notice and attack to protect his seal."
"Truly a problem," Shimon agreed, "What if he has already started? We don't know when they will start after all."
"Then we only have one chance. As soon as the first bit of sacrificial blood has been added to the seal, the process will start and the rift will be opened to call forth the reaper spirit.
The whole amount of blood will need to be sacrificed for the process to work properly and seal the reaper spirit in the Jashinist, but if a rift is open, it is actually dangerous to mess things up if you don't know what to do.
You need to have another sealing array prepared and either a team of fuinjutsu specialists working together to have enough chakra or one fuinjutsu master that has enough chakra to seal up the reaper spirit before it can enter the Jashinist.
For us this means this, our first plan has to be getting rid of the seal as soon as possible. We only have me and while I'm a fuinjutsu master, I would really prefer to not have to fight against a reaper spirit for dominance through fuinjutsu.
There is no guarantee that it will work the way I planned, and I have never done this before. I have the old Uzumaki seals, thanks to Hokage Sama and Naruto agreeing to let me study them, but I would rather not force the issue," Naruto told them.
"I understand. Yes, dealing with an inactive seal would be much easier than having to deal with a reaper spirit," Shimon agreed looking sickly.
While ninjas had to deal with all kinds of bloodshed in their careers, a spirit was something completely different. You had a damn hard time with some ninjas already, but spirits couldn't be fought with normal ninjutsu. And as Dark Phoenix said, fuinjutsu was not widely understood on a higher level.
"We can go to the seal immediately. I doubt that we can organise the same amount of fruit juice that sacrificing fifty people would get, therefore we have to go with the water blasting. My elemental affinity is water and Kotetsu has it as well I think," Shimon looked at the younger man.
"That's correct," Kotetsu nodded, "But I don't have any wide area water jutsus in my arsenal."
"Is there a river close to the seal?" Naruto asked.
"No, it's about three kilometres away from any source of water, which makes sense if you know how to mess it up," Izumo said.
"Then we need to use water storage scrolls to bring enough water there to be used for jutsus. I have six prepared on my person and I can make a few more if you give me an hour," Naruto said, "You can fill the six that I have up at the river while I work on the others."
"Good, we will do that. Hinata, keep watch and warn us if anybody comes closer," Shimon ordered.
"I will," Hinata confirmed the order.
Naruto set to work making five shadow clones to not give away too much of his abilities while Izumo, Kotetsu and Shikamaru went out to fill the scrolls at the river. There was no time to waste. They didn't know when the Jashinist would attempt his ritual after all.
...
Naruto looked over all of the filled sealing scrolls. They now had twenty four filled scrolls full of water. That should be enough to erase the seal on the ground. It would still be hard getting the water on all parts and then waiting for it to be ruined before the Jashinist interfered. And he would bet that he was close to act. In his place he wouldn't set up the seal until he was ready to act. It was an unnecessary risk.
"Alright, we need to go," Shimon told the group and they nodded, setting out immediately to the location of the seal.
It was about fifteen minutes at running speed away from their camp, which meant that it should be outside of normal senor range. They didn't speak during the run, as they didn't know when an opponent would appear, no matter if Hinata kept watch with her byakugan. They reached the outer part of the seal and the new group was shocked how large it actually was. The diameter had to be at least ten metres.
"He was busy. Those structures all around weren't there last time, when we found the seal," Kotetsu commented gravely in a low voice.
"What could they be for?" Hinata whispered.
"There are twenty five of them and from how they look like, they are large enough to hold two people each. They are probably for the ritual to tie up the sacrifices," Shikamaru commented.
"We really need to hurry," Shimon grumbled, "Set to work."
He had just given the order, when the ground outside of the seal broke open and some kind of black vines lifted unconscious people from the ground. The vines then proceeded to stick the people to the structures, hanging with their heads down and the arms spread to the sides.
Then a black-clad woman with long violet hair appeared inside the seal's centre, also from the ground, riding on a black vine. She was clad in tight black leggings, high healed black boots, a black bra with a blood red shawl around her otherwise bare upper body.
"Shit, that has to be the Jashinist," Shimon cursed, "Can we still dissolve the seal before she starts?"
"Improbable. Shit, if we only had enough sugar to turn the water sweet, we could try to substitute the blood with something sugary," Naruto cursed.
"Would treacle do?" Izumo asked suddenly.
"Yes, but where would we get that?" Naruto asked.
"I have a jutsu that turns the ground into treacle. I use it as a trap normally," Izumo answered, "I can hide in the treacle and normally attack from it, surprising my opponent."
"It's probably our best shot. We will use the water to attack the Jashinist. That way we may be able to delay her enough that the seal is ruined. Target the places under the structures first. There are the absorbing parts," Naruto hurriedly replied.
"Shikamaru, try trapping her in your shadow, Hinata, disable her with your gentle fist. We will only have one proper shot at this," Shimon ordered, "Kotetsu, you will cover for Izumo while he uses his jutsu. Dark Phoenix and I will attack the Jashinist directly."
"Understood," they all replied and moved.
"Ah, the rats that thought they could stop my ascension," the woman greeted them, looking more or less bored, "You truly think that you can stop me from becoming a high priestess of God Jashin."
She laughed crazily.
"As if I didn't notice you sneaking around here. Hm, let's see. Konoha pests. How would you like to see how to truly use plants to your advantage?" She asked cackling and a large number of black vines attacked the group from all kinds of places underground.
The Konoha group jumped away to avoid being impaled by the vines. Kotetsu and Izumo tried getting close to the places where the planned sacrifices were held, but the vines were really nasty and sharp as razors. Naruto decided to cut them down, literally. He flew through a sequence of handseals.
"Wind release: Cutting whirlwind," Naruto whispered and threw his arms outwards while spinning on the spot.
Thanks to his mastery over the wind element, he was able to cut down a good number of vines. A problem was that the vines grew back after the initial cutting.
"Hm, rare to find a wind element of that level," The woman commented, "But useless in the long run."
She made a few handseals of her own.
"Secret Art: Vine spear barrage," she exclaimed and had loads of spears made from the black vines shoot at the attacking Konoha team.
"Water release: Water walls," Shimon cried out and a large wall of water stopped the spears, but they still got through a good part of the walls that now protected the Konoha shinobi.
"You are only delaying the inevitable," The woman cackled, "Secret art: Black vine hell."
From all over the ground the vines shot up and raced after the Konoha team.
"We can't get close," Shikamaru cursed, running next to Hinata to prevent being speared by a vine, "This way she will start the ritual before we can take her out."
"I know, but do you have an idea how to neutralise these vines? They are really annoying," Hinata asked.
"Not yet. They are too unpredictable in their movements," Shikamaru replied, "Do they have their own chakra supply or is it the chakra of the woman?"
"Let me check, byakugan," Hinata answered and looked at the vines and how they operated, "There seems to be some kind of source of the vines in the ground. It isn't her chakra that moves them, it seems that she controls whatever the source is with her jutsus."
"Can we reach the source in any way?" Shikamaru asked.
"No, it's right beside the seal and the concentration of vines is strongest there. We would be killed before we get close enough to actually strike at the source," Hinata denied.
"Damn it all to hell," Shikamaru cursed and they continued running and jumping out of the way of the vines.
Meanwhile the woman started her ritual, not bothered by the Konoha shinobi, sure in the protection that her jutsu would give her.
"God Jashin, please accept my sacrifice of blood and allow me into the esteemed ranks of your high priests and priestesses," she started and then went through a long sequence of handseals.
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