Chương 280: Artifact
The hooded man nodded and said "That is good. I just hope Moji doesn't do anything stupid and delay our plans. Back at the shrine, the high priest and the bishop need the sacrifices to be done today itself. Last week I had assured them that it would be done before the night even starts."
Ji showed a little bit of fear when he heard the word bishop but he quickly regained his composure and said "Make sure our people and the ones we have transplanted hearts into are spread out evenly throughout the fighting force. We can't rule out the possibility of Moji and Jiro turning on us at this crucial moment. And do you have the latest update on the movements of the bloodline faction?"
The hooded figure nodded and said "As for spreading the men, I have already done that but we don't have many of the hidden mist shinobis that had their hearts transplanted. We only got 16, out of which 4 are Moji's guards and the others are part of the blood squad now. And talking about the bloodline faction, they didn't chase us as we expected. Now we do see them at the edge of the forest circling our entire base but they are too thinly spread to be the main attack force. I think they are just there to keep an eye on us."
Ji clenched his fists and said " The interference of the hidden leaf has done way more damage than good. Especially the appearance of the genjutsu demon."
The hooded figure nodded and said in an excited tone "Yea even I was shocked to see that the genjutsu demon is just a kid. I wouldn't have believed even if they told me that he has a demon heart transplanted in him."
"No kid should be this strong but we can't deny his own prowess so we must be careful. When we activate the power given to us by Lord Jashin, we might be able to restrict his genjutsu to a certain extent. That kid must definitely have some secret. Even though the hidden leaf is known as the land of prodigies, this kid is too much." Ji said.
The hooded figure shook his head and said "I wouldn't be so fast to judge. I remember the high priest saying that the shinobis during the warring eras were very strong and brutal. Don't even get me started on people at the level of Madara Uchiha or Hashirama Senju. That man subdued all tailed beasts single handily. I won't say that the kid is too strong but the shinobis of this era are too weak."
"All we have heard are stories and legends of these people. So I myself find it hard to believe." Ji said as he waved his hand. The hooded man then pointed at the patched eye and said "How is your eye…it looked pretty bad when he attacked you."
Ji swatted the man's hand away and said "Nothing to worry about. It will heal in a few hours. The kid hadn't used chakra to coat the blade so it was just a simple stab. And the blade was mine so it didn't have any poison on it.
"Fine, I will get to work then…We still have the entire afternoon and the evening to come up with a plan or else we will be rushing in blind Ji" the hooded man said in a serious tone to which Ji looked at him and said "I know…no need to remind me. I have already invested so much time and blood in this that I will see through it till the end. You just give me the blood crystal when we start the last phase of the ritual here. The bishop took nearly a decade to create it." Ji said and was about to walk away when he looked back and saw a water fountain with a big glass diamond in the middle of it. The diamond-shaped glass had a lot of scratches even some nicked corners which made it look a little ugly.
"Why is such a pathetic showpiece here?" Ji asked as he looked at it to which the hooded man replied "That's because it's not just a showpiece. This is a sign of victory that the 4th Mizukage had kept here when he annihilated the Yuki clan and built the base on it. This big piece of glass was their ancestral artifact and also the centerpiece in their Patriarch's house."
Ji raised his eyebrows and said "I thought I sensed something but looks like it is because this thing is an artifact. It doesn't look useful now." Ji said and left the vicinity. The hooded man also glanced at the glass diamond and left the area.
After they left, a mild image of a hand appeared on the glass of the surface of the diamond but from the inside. Beside the hand started appearing a face. Within a few seconds, the face became clearer and Haku's face was seen looking around from inside the diamond. Suddenly her entire figure disappeared as he heard a few footsteps coming her way.
Far away from the base in the tavern where Yami had booked a room, Haku was sitting on the bed with a piece of squared glass floating in front of him. Haku's head and half of his arm were inside the piece of glass. He removed the head and a half from inside the glass instantly broke into several pieces disappearing in the air.
Haku looked to the side and saw Yami eating some ramen while sitting on the nearby chair.
"How did it go? Were you able to make a connection?" Yami asked with a mouthful of noodles.
A bright smile instantly appeared on Haku's face as he nodded and said "Yes…I was able to create a connection. I sensed the artifact when I was locked up in the Mizukage prison. It took a lot of time to locate it mentally and build a connection but I had all the time in the world to do that while shut in a cell. Though it isn't as stable as the elders of our clan did it but it was really a different feeling.
As if my powers have been amplified. I wasn't able to see everything clearly but listening to the talks going around it was a piece of cake."
"Yea…I get it. So were you able to hear something useful? Trying to infiltrate the base and getting any information would take a lot of time and risk so I had to resort to placing my bet on you." Yami said as he sipped the last remaining soup from the bowl and laid the bowl on the table beside him.
"So tell me everything that you heard." Yami said and Haku started narrating the things that she heard happen in the office as well as what Ji and the hooded figure talked about, outside the main building of the base.
"I don't know what those demon hearts that they were talking about but I am sure I didn't hear anything wrong," Haku said.
Yami nodded and said "I know what it means…don't worry. It is good that we understood his own motivation."
"What are you going to do now? Having them avoid the fight tonight will cause them to fight against each other and maybe the cultists will leave the hidden mist when the sacrifice is over and the bloodline clans won't have to fight against them." Haku said excitedly.
'The alliance between the bloodline clans and the hidden leaf would be stronger if the war happened today as Kakashi and the others would be actually fighting with them side by side. The alliance is already good enough as I have helped them so much as the genjutsu demon and even freed the prisoners. What I am most curious about is the blood crystal that Priest Ji talked about and what the reward of completing the ritual will be.' Yami thought.
"That's not for me to decide. Write everything that you heard in a letter without telling them how I know it so that I can send it to Kakashi. He along with the clan leaders will know what to do." Yami said and handed a long sheet of paper to Haku.
After writing everything on the paper, Yami tied it to a bat's legs and sent it to deliver the letter.
_______________________
A village near the meeting point. (15 minutes later)
The bloodline clans had the nearby villages vacate the entire area as it was a potential warzone. Now instead of going back all the way to their own clan estates, they settled in the taverns of the village. Kakashi and also called Asuma's and Kurenai's squads to that village. They set up a few tents to give medical attention to the prisoners freed from the prison.
In the banquet area of a tavern, the clan leaders were sitting at the table in front of the leaf jonins and their squads while Zabuza was sitting on the side eating some Dango.
Kakashi knew that the clan leaders would ask about Yami and the Jashin cult. Just when Riko was about to ask the first question, Kakashi looked back and saw 2 birds enter the tavern.
Seeing this Kurenai said "Looks like Kakashi you got a letter from Yami as well as Lady Tsunade."
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