"Chief, if we go any farther, we'll enter a place even the Chinoike Clan never reached in the past."
Mitarashi En spoke in a muffled voice.
He was using Chakra to wrap his body, especially his mouth and nose, to avoid inhaling too much of the surrounding miasma.
The miasma around them had become so dense that even the air felt thick and sticky.
Mitarashi En glanced at Chino beside him and noticed that fine sweat had begun to form on her forehead. Using Chakra to resist the miasma was becoming difficult for her as well.
Even though she was a genius who had awakened the Ketsuryūgan, her Chakra reserves still fell far short of the others'.
Naruto stopped as well and closed his eyes.
He carefully sensed the depths of the valley with the Mind's Eye of the Kagura he had just mastered.
Within the pitch-black space, he could sense an extremely faint pulse of Chakra.
If not for the Uzumaki Clan's Mind's Eye of the Kagura, it might have been impossible to detect that Chakra, so faint it seemed on the verge of disappearing.
Naruto slowly opened his eyes.
"I can sense it. What we're looking for is inside."
In a place like a forbidden zone of life, the presence of Chakra fluctuations meant the seal was most likely inside.
A trace of hesitation flashed through Mitarashi En's eyes as he spoke haltingly.
"Chief, Chino, she..."
He had not expected them to venture this deep into Hell Valley. If he had known, they should have stopped closer to the edge. From where they were now, moving forward meant facing the unknown, while turning back carried risks as well.
Naruto glanced at Chino, whose face was somewhat pale, then said nothing as he walked over to her.
Amid the