Capítulo 64: 64 - Over Three Hundred Secrets Under Stone
Masashi gave Pakura a suspicious look.
He felt there was more to her words than she was letting on.
Still, he didn't think she had any ill intentions toward him. His years of experience had taught him to read people, and Pakura's chakra signature remained steady.
By now, he had mastered entering Sage Mode swiftly, and Sage Art: Majestic Attire was as natural to him as breathing.
There were indeed shinobi who could break the Majestic Attire, but Pakura wasn't one of them.
Moreover...
His gaze drifted downward. Her thighs, wrapped in tight-fitting pants, revealed perfect curves.
Damn...
Pakura had a tall and slender figure, easily the best he had seen among all the women he had encountered. Everything about her figure was just right.
To fully unleash her chakra and effectively use her Scorch Release, her attire was always rather revealing.
"What's the matter? Afraid I'll harm you?" Pakura looked at Masashi, the corners of her eyes curving slightly as if smiling. "With your strength, there's no need to worry about that."
Saying this, she straightened her back and patted her thigh again.
This movement caused her clothing to stretch into a dangerously tight curve, as if it might burst at any moment.
She knows exactly what she's doing. Two can play at this game.
"We've got a bond here, don't we? Talking like this feels so heartless."
Masashi responded, carefully avoiding her overly prominent breasts as he rested his head on her thigh.
"So, what exactly are you checking?" he asked, a bit muffled.
It wasn't his tone—it was...
Too much, okay! It was muffling the sound!
"Face inward!" Pakura frowned slightly. She herself found these two mounds inconvenient at times.
Then, she began her inspection seriously.
She didn't find any signs of external injury. If it wasn't a physical wound, it might be more complicated.
"After your training, did you notice any marks on your head?" she asked, concerned. Her fingers traced gentle patterns across his scalp.
"Of course not. It's training, not self-harm." Masashi finally realized what she meant by "check." She thinks I've lost my mind. How touching.
Just as he was about to retort, Pakura's hand landed on his head again, gently kneading and massaging it. Her touch was surprisingly gentle for hands that could reduce enemies to ash.
Why was she giving him a massage?
Masashi couldn't help but fidget slightly.
"Don't move," Pakura's hand paused. "Let me massage it for you."
Masashi stopped moving.
Her technique was unexpectedly comfortable.
"My head is fine," he couldn't resist clarifying, though he made no move to stop her.
"That's good. Your condition is important now," Pakura replied calmly.
As her hands pressed and kneaded, he started to feel drowsy.
"Masashi," Pakura suddenly spoke again. "What do you think our relationship is now?"
"More than friends, less than lovers?" Masashi joked, feeling the phrase fit the moment. "After all, ordinary friends don't offer lap pillows."
"My man wouldn't have the chance to fool around," Pakura's tone carried a faint trace of laughter, but beneath it lay something more vulnerable. "Still, I can't imagine what kind of man would willingly marry me."
"Your way of speaking is a bit peculiar. The other Uchiha don't talk like this."
"Uchiha are pretty straightforward," he replied, his nose brushing against her abdomen. A faint rose fragrance wafted into his nostrils. "Did you use perfume?"
"Who wears perfume to a battlefield?" Pakura chuckled. "I like bathing with flower petals. Maybe the scent lingered."
Masashi had the urge to make a suggestive remark but held back.
This wasn't the time for tea-related jokes.
"You're right, though. Your clanmates are quite 'straightforward,'" Pakura said, pausing her massage. "You can turn over now."
Obediently, Masashi flipped to his other side.
"Are you used to living in Konoha?" he asked, genuinely curious about her adjustment.
"Do you think Suna is some impoverished backwater? If it weren't for the wars, life there isn't that bad. It's just not as lively as Konoha."
The two fell silent again—one quietly massaging, the other enjoying the relaxation.
In the quiet moment, Masashi started thinking about the past.
When was the last time he felt like this?
Oh, right—before the First Great Ninja War.
Back then, his days were filled with school, teasing classmates, messing with rich kids, and evenings spent dating or playfully annoying his friend. There had even been moments like this, enjoying a lap pillow.
Until he got slapped.
Ah, love was complicated.
He had been the one getting hit, yet the person who slapped him cried the hardest.
That Uzumaki girl even went back to her family afterward. The Uzumaki clan had been so prosperous back then.
Oh, and there was that Uchiha girl named Hikari, the one he dated the longest. She was the last.
Because of her, his old friend from a wealthy family was always sulking and speaking in riddles.
Sometimes he wondered, what happened to Hikari after he died. Did she mourn him? It was strange that he couldn't find any trace of her, as if she'd been erased completely.
Maybe he was overthinking it—Hikari wasn't likely an important person in the grand scheme of things. At least he couldn't remember seeing her in the original series.
There was always a reason for being single.
What was wrong with dating someone from the Uchiha clan? Besides, he even introduced a girl to that guy. If he didn't seize the opportunity, that was on him.
Fine, let's not criticize him anymore—he had a good heart behind his cold exterior.
Anyway, they both ended up dying later.
Thanks to the comfort of the massage, Masashi fell asleep.
He was lying on a pile of hay when he woke up. It was a great nap, washing away all his fatigue.
Pakura stood at the entrance of the cave, keeping watch. Noticing he was awake, she nodded at him, signaling that all was well.
Of course, it was fine. There were no disturbances in her sensory ninjutsu or the barrier.
Masashi got up, checked his gear, and set off with Pakura once more. The brief rest had changed something between them, though neither mentioned it.
The mountainous terrain was challenging, though not for shinobi. The real difficulty lay in the environment.
The Land of Hot Water was full of towering mountains and dense forests, a terrain even thieves trying to avoid nobles would hesitate to enter.
That was why he had chosen this area to set up his hidden storage back then.
It was safe.
After crossing a few mountain ridges and spotting a familiar mark, he began to slow down.
"What is it?" Pakura noticed the change in his pace.
They were still deep in the mountains and far from their destination. Had he detected an enemy?
She respected Masashi's chakra sensory skills. She had seen them save lives before.
"No, I found something good," Masashi said. "Did you know, during the Warring States Period, many nobles would build their tombs in remote mountains to prevent grave robbing?"
That was true. Back then, ninjas often took on odd jobs, and grave robbing was common.
Only during the One Village, One Country era did ninjas truly become prosperous.
"That has nothing to do with our mission, does it?" Pakura frowned. Grave robbing wasn't something shinobi from the great villages did.
She had taken on missions to protect noble graves and hunt grave robbers but never robbed one herself.
"There could be valuable finds," Masashi said, justifying his actions with a mix of truth and fiction. "Some ninja clans became feudal lords, so noble tombs sometimes contain ninjutsu. With luck, we might uncover something... Ah, here it is."
He sped up suddenly, darting through a forest and stopping by a cliff.
Pakura hadn't caught up yet, but he had found what he was looking for.
Hidden behind a rock was a sealing formula. The intricate patterns were exactly as he remembered them.
It appeared to be completely intact.
Masashi moved the rock aside and placed his hand on the seal.
Over the years, lush green moss had covered the rocky surface. However, the area where the sealing formula was located remained untouched by these plants.
This technique wasn't merely a simple seal; it heavily incorporated principles of space-time connection, inspired by the Flying Thunder God.
While it wasn't something he could master entirely, it served as a useful reference.
Placing his palm on the sealing formula, he began infusing chakra, carefully modulating the flow to match the seal's patterns.
No response.
The chakra really isn't the same, is it... Different life, different signature. Should have expected this.
Retracting his hand, Masashi stood up. It seemed the experiment from back then was a failure.
His eyes narrowed as he analyzed the seal's structure more carefully.
In that age, teeming with exceptional talent and brilliance, the first iteration of himself wasn't particularly remarkable in strength.
Based on the generally accepted fan-made second settings among Naruto enthusiasts on Earth, he was at most an elite jonin. During that era, kage-level individuals weren't exactly rare, if not overly abundant.
Yet, thanks to his unique understanding of the principles behind chakra connectivity and with the help of that "generous patron" human-shaped forbidden jutsu archive, he developed his own unique techniques.
Of course, assistance from confidants and companions was indispensable.
But above all, what truly drove him was his fervent interest in the mechanisms behind chakra as a source of energy.
The cases of that patron and Izuna taught everyone that achieving a breakthrough required innovation and creativity.
At that time, the Senju clan indeed initiated a wave of experiments, but the only one who persisted until the end was him.
However, that patron's research aimed to create practical techniques for protecting his clan, and later the village. In contrast, his research aimed to unravel the principle behind Asura, the ancestor of the Senju, reincarnating chakra.
Neither the first nor second iteration of himself nor the Senju or Uchiha clans had any clue about the chakra reincarnation of these two brothers. It was a mystery entirely unknown to them.
But he knew.
And because of this, he never gave up, believing it to be the pinnacle of chakra manipulation since the era of the Sage of Six Paths.
He wasn't without achievements, either.
One ninjutsu he developed was highly praised by the "generous patron" and eventually entered Konoha's jutsu archive.
Unfortunately, in this life, Masashi couldn't use it no matter what he tried, which brought the research to a halt.
Still, he wasn't disappointed. Gains and losses were inevitable.
Perhaps his first life's chakra had truly disappeared from the world. But his current chakra was nothing to scoff at either.
However, this also meant that accessing the "warehouse" left by his previous self wouldn't be straightforward.
This sealing formula recognized only his first life's chakra.
---
Behind Masashi, Pakura had already caught up.
She saw him standing before a stone wall, deep in thought, and noticed the revealed sealing formula.
"This formula..." She examined it closely. "It's incredibly advanced."
"Yes, it's a bit tricky," Masashi replied.
Of course, it was advanced. This was the bread and butter of his previous self—if someone else got their hands on it, it'd be devastating.
Unfortunately, his habit of setting up spatial links everywhere was eventually discovered, leading many nodes to be destroyed. This was the only one left.
And that damn Second Raikage! Never gave him the chance to open his storage.
One day, he'd dig up that guy's grave. Then he'd say just one thing: "Stupid brute! I've got save files!"
Thinking about how the brute was taken down by the Gold and Silver Brothers, Masashi felt utterly speechless.
The "generous patron" had sacrificed himself to protect the young generation. With the Flying Thunder God at his disposal, it was understandable how he got tricked.
But the brute? That was inexcusable.
The Six Path Tools—weren't you the one who gave those to them?!
"Pakura, step back a bit," Masashi said, preparing to try again. Let's see if the old theory holds true.
No matter how advanced the sealing formula was, it had to have flaws. Otherwise, how could the Five Great Nations decipher their enemy's intelligence scrolls, which were all protected by sealing techniques?
Pakura complied without question and swiftly stepped back, her eyes fixed on his movements.
Masashi's familiarity with the place couldn't be explained simply as exploration, but she didn't need to ask.
He also retreated to the same distance before activating his jutsu.
A whirlwind of blazing flames surged toward the moss-covered stone wall, accompanied by an ear-piercing roar. The heat was so intense it distorted the air.
The vegetation, which had grown for decades, was incinerated within minutes. Even the roots hidden in the cracks were drained of moisture by the fire.
Chakra was life energy, and naturally, it could be influenced by life energy.
Switching hand seals, he summoned cold air from the ground. The scorching hot atmosphere quickly returned to normal temperature.
He approached the original spot again.
Despite his caution, the alternation between heat and cold caused cracks to appear on the stone wall. But the structural integrity remained intact.
Placing his hand on the seal formula again, he simulated the chakra properties of his previous self and infused chakra into it.
This time, the chakra was successfully absorbed.
His theory was correct. The seal formula responded.
His current chakra shared many similarities with his first iteration, making the simulation fairly convincing.
The runes of the seal began to shift. Initially sluggish, they soon flowed smoothly like tadpoles in water.
Chakra, unless forcibly depleted, never truly disappeared. This was why the Flying Thunder God marks remain indefinitely as long as the medium wasn't destroyed or fundamentally altered. The principle involved sealing a portion of the caster's chakra there.
Every teleportation also replenished this chakra.
So, any seal formula that recognized chakra retained a portion of the caster's chakra to unlock the seal upon activation.
The chakra sealed within this formula belonged to his first life's self.
After nearly twenty years, Masashi felt the familiar vibrant energy chakra once again.
If he hadn't been diligent in developing his physical energy in this life, his Uchiha-style chakra would've never activated it.
Releasing his hand, he stepped back. There was no more need for him to intervene.
The tadpole-like runes expanded across the stone wall, forming the pattern of a door. With the seal formula complete, the stone wall disappeared, revealing a short passage leading to a large space at the end.
Calming himself, he waited for the air to circulate.
When the lamps inside the passage ignited due to the airflow, he entered.
Walking through the short corridor, he reached the vast space.
The ceiling was high and shrouded in darkness. The light wells built long ago were likely clogged after decades of disuse.
But that didn't matter. Feeling the air currents, Masashi stood silently at the entrance.
As the lamps on the surrounding walls lit up one by one, the warehouse's true appearance was revealed.
It was a large, square chamber. The walls and floor were paved with stone slabs. Aside from the supporting columns, there was no unnecessary decoration. Everything was purely functional.
The "inventory" consisted of stone coffins arranged neatly on the ground.
The spacing between the coffins allowed three people to walk side by side. They stretched from one end of the room to the other.
The seals on the coffins indicated they were in a locked state.
These were the remnants of his past self's final battle plans—over 300 Edo Tensei bodies painstakingly collected and sealed over a decade.
Although they'd become single-use due to chakra differences, they'd be well worth deploying against the Kumo ninjas.
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