Bab 107: Naruto Chapter 107
The two ANBU teams and Naruto dashed towards the site of the seal. There was just one problem. Mala had been busy and had created a veritable forest of black thorny vines that attacked at the slightest approach.
"Damn, this is going to be tricky," ANBU Badger commented.
"What can you tell us about the vines, Dark Phoenix?" Dove asked.
"They are controlled by Mala's chakra. During the fight she used them both for attack and defence and the source was buried underground, which made it difficult to take out," Naruto answered.
"I see," Dove replied, "We need an estimation how high they grow. Let's take to the trees around and get a better idea."
The team did just that and found out that the vines had created a large dome over the whole seal.
"They must have suspected that we would return to sabotage the seal," Naruto stated, "Therefore they set up the best kind of defence that they could muster. Those vines are really tricky to deal with. They can be burned down, but they regrow very fast."
"I see. Well, let's see how they deal with this," Mantis stated and let a swarm of insects loose, which told Naruto that he was an Aburame.
The group observed if the insects could get through the vines or destroy them. Right now they needed to work carefully and not risk their lives. The two Jashinists couldn't have got new victims yet.
Perhaps in a few hours they might be able to get them if they were lucky, but not right now, as the first team had only been in Konoha for two hours before the ANBU were sent out by the Hokage.
Then a smaller number of insects returned to Mantis and he listened to their report.
"The vines have a potent chakra reactive venom in them. My insects can't destroy them. The recovery rate is too fast for any damage they can cause before they die to actually count," Mantis reported.
"There is chakra that streams from the ground into the vines," Bear reported, making Naruto believe that he was a Hyuga, "The pods from which the vines originate are about four metres deep inside the earth. No way that we can direct a strike there with the vines attacking."
"Dark Phoenix, do you have any strong fire seals?" Badger asked.
"Yes," Naruto answered and took a pile of twenty seals out, "These cover about twenty metres in diameter. They release fire for about three minutes before they burn up."
"It won't be enough to destroy all vines, but maybe enough to let us clear an aisle through the wall of vines. The question is how to destroy the pods in the ground before the fire goes out and the vines grow back. After all, the fire would also hinder us from reaching them," Dove pondered.
"No real idea on that front. You would probably need a powerful earth jutsu to just loosen one of those pods," Bear stated, "I doubt we would have enough time to get them destroyed while the fire rages."
"How many of the pods are inside the ground and are there vines that go downwards?" Naruto asked, having a crazy idea.
"As far as I can see, there aren't any vines going down. All parts grow upwards. And there is a close net of them all around the seal. I would say at least a hundred of the things," Bear answered.
"Hm, let me think this through," Naruto requested and started to draw on a notepad.
The ANBU watched him while thinking about ways to get through the dome as well.
"This might work, but I'm not totally sure. Hokage Sama asked me to create poison tags for the Jashinists after I reported for the first part of this mission. I also have a number of different poisons in my arsenal that can be used to target plants. Mantis, could your insects determine what kind of poison it is that runs through the vines?" Naruto addressed the Aburame ANBU.
"As far as they can tell, it is blood based and makes the erythrocytes burst," Mantis answered.
"Okay, they would have to be adapted to consuming mammals then, otherwise that kind of venom doesn't make sense. No plant produces a venom that doesn't help with gathering food or defence against its natural predators. Meaning this one is most probably a carnivore. And carnivorous plants normally react badly against acid," Naruto concluded.
"Where are you going with this?" Dove asked.
"If we manage to inject a strong and fast acting acid into the pods from below, we might have a chance to take them out.
While the fire will rage on the surface, keeping the pods too busy to notice anything underground, an Earth Style user could use the underground fish projection technique to inject a number of the pods. We only need to take out enough that the regrown vines can't reach us anymore.
We only need access to the seal, not take down the whole dome. After all, they can't afford to plant those things everywhere, as their vines would mess up the seal. They will be a good distance away from it," Naruto reasoned.
"It could work. Do you have such an acid?" Dove asked.
"No, but I know how to make it. I would need an hour of preparation time, as I don't have the right equipment here," Naruto informed him.
"Then get started. This is our best shot. We will try some other ways as well. Better to not bet on one way that might not work. We are on a tight schedule after all," Dove ordered and the ANBU spread out to see if there were any weak spots in the dome.
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One hour later Naruto was ready and handed the acid mixture to Badger, who used earth style jutsus.
The other ANBUs took the fire seals and lined up to burn down the vine hedge. Badger sank into the ground and after waiting for five minutes, the ANBU activated the fire seals, creating a raging inferno.
They waited, hoping that their plan would work. Three long minutes the fire burned before the seals stopped releasing it, burning in the process. Fire seals were simply by nature not reusable.
They watched if the vines would return in that spot, but so far it seemed as if the plan had worked.
They waited for a minute to let some of the heat disappear and then the ANBU team rushed in, while Naruto stayed outside on orders of Dove. He was to be lookout and they didn't want him to get caught up in any kind of trap that might be located inside before they had checked.
The ANBU group had been told that Dark Phoenix was a special jonin in rank, which meant that he wasn't really ready for S-rank missions like this one.
The one to prevent the seal being used the first time around was an A-rank and it was only because of Naruto's special abilities that he had been sent there. It was too dangerous to send the village's leading seal master on missions like that one, when you had other options.
And Naruto's seals had improved the success rate of missions overall by a got amount, which meant that he was even more valuable than the previous seal master in charge of keeping the armoury supplied had been.
He saw a huge wave of water appearing inside the broken dome of vines, which meant that the ANBU teams had started to erase the seal.
He could only hope that it would be fast enough. Had he been the one securing the place, he would at least have left alarms. Or set up a second location for the seal and use the known location as a distraction for the enemies he knew to come.
His blood went cold. That could actually be possible. They would need to check all around here for a second seal. Had this been his plan, with so much riding on the success, he would have had a contingency plan, including a second seal.
He created fifty shadow clones and turned them into small birds. They flew off, searching for a possible second seal. This needed to be done properly. They couldn't afford to overlook anything.
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