Sealing Technique: Phantom Dragons Nine Consuming Seals
A week later, Kakashi Hatake, who had been in a coma in his hospital bed, finally woke up...
The news of his awakening immediately reached Hiruzen Sarutobi's ears. Ever since receiving the news of Kakashi Hatake's attack and serious injury, the peaceful joy in Hiruzen Sarutobi's heart seemed to be slightly shrouded in gloom. Putting down the documents in his hand, Hiruzen Sarutobi quietly left the Hokage Building and went to Konoha Hospital...
"Kato Osamu..." His eyes gradually regained their light, and with just a quick glance, he knew this was the ward of Konoha Hospital. For some reason, even though he was seriously injured, he had survived, and Kakashi Hatake felt a sense of relief...
Probably no one truly wants to die...
"Kakashi Hatake... what happened?" Hiruzen Sarutobi gently knocked on the door, quietly looking at Kakashi Hatake, who was still weak on the hospital bed. He understood that the person who could so severely injure Kakashi Hatake and enter Konoha so silently was definitely not someone to be trifled with.
Thinking about the recent mysterious disappearances of Ino-Shika-Cho Three Clans, Hiruzen Sarutobi vaguely sensed some connection between them...
"Lord Third!" Kakashi Hatake was slightly taken aback when he saw Hiruzen Sarutobi enter the room. He then struggled to get up, but Hiruzen Sarutobi gently pressed his shoulder and shook his head slightly, indicating that there was no need for such formalities...
"Is... he back...?" Hiruzen Sarutobi frowned, waiting for Kakashi Hatake's answer.
"Yes! He's back..."
"Konoha's missing-nin, Kato Osamu!" Kakashi Hatake let out a long sigh, a hint of bewilderment flashing in his eyes as he recalled how he had almost no chance of fighting back...
"Kato Osamu? Oh... I see..." Hearing Hiruzen Sarutobi's questioning tone and then thoughtful expression, Kakashi Hatake turned to look at the Third. Perhaps there was something he didn't know?
"Orochimaru... it must be him..." Members of the Ino-Shika-Cho Three Clans have mysteriously disappeared, and in the places where they were once, there are obvious traces and scents of snakes, as if they were deliberately left behind to provoke Konoha.
Hiruzen Sarutobi had already suspected this; he knew in his heart that this was a tactic employed by his former good disciple, and now, having obtained Kakashi Hatake's information...
Considering that Kato Osamu and Orochimaru defected one after the other, and given that they were master and disciple, it's almost certain that Orochimaru was behind this...
"Tell me the details of this encounter... To be able to severely injure you, it seems Orochimaru's disciple has become quite formidable..." Hiruzen Sarutobi a puff of his pipe, a hint of ruthlessness in his eyes. He had once let Orochimaru go on a whim, but now, Orochimaru had gone so far as to infiltrate Konoha and attack the village's ninjas...
Thinking of this disciple on whom he had once placed so much hope, Hiruzen Sarutobi felt a pang of heartache and regret...
"Orochimaru... he's come to the village too...?" Slightly lost in thought, Kakashi Hatake's gaze sharpened, completely bewildered by the two's purpose...
"Kato Osamu's Ninjutsu is very strange... He..."
"Thump... thump..." Suddenly, just as Kakashi Hatake was about to say something, his heart began to pound violently, his face turned bright red, and streaks of black runes emerged from his body.
Like a fish out of water, Kakashi Hatake opened his mouth wide, but seemed unable to breathe, his eyes rolling back.
"Kakashi Hatake! Stop! Don't think about his information anymore! You have Sealing Formula he set on you!" Seeing Kakashi Hatake in such pain, the Third channeled his Chakra and slammed it onto Kakashi Hatake's forehead. Kakashi Hatake's eyes widened, and he fainted again...
The runic chains vanished once more, leaving no trace...
"So cautious..." Hiruzen Sarutobi looked at Kakashi Hatake, who had fainted again, and clenched his fists slightly. Peace was hard-won, and he didn't want to break it like this, but this matter couldn't just be left like this. At the very least, he had to figure out their purpose in coming to Konoha...
The feeling of being secretly coveted is truly unpleasant...
"Jiraiya..."
"It seems we must recall him..." Konoha is truly out of options. Someone who could so easily injure Kakashi Hatake is a sham. Sending other ninjas to investigate their whereabouts would be tantamount to suicide. After careful consideration, only Jiraiya can handle this matter now...
With a long sigh, Hiruzen Sarutobi, more than a decade ago, could never have imagined that the disciple he had placed his hopes on would become Konoha's enemy, while Jiraiya, Jiraiya he hadn't been so optimistic about and whose personality was unpredictable, would become the only reliable person Konoha could have in its time of crisis...
Meanwhile, after leaving Konoha, Kato Osamu headed to the Land of Rain. The journey was uneventful. Kushina Uzumaki was preoccupied with her own thoughts and was not as boisterous as usual. Apart from traveling, Kato Osamu spent his days in seclusion, focusing on mastering the Yin-Yang Release Technique. The two hardly communicated.
Until they arrived in the Land of Rain, at the Akatsuki's headquarters...
"Is this the Kushina Uzumaki you've resurrected...?" Contrary to expectations, Nagato Uzumaki and Konan stared silently at the tiny Kushina Uzumaki before them, their expressions somewhat strange...
At this moment, only Nagato, Konan, and some peripheral members were present in the Akatsuki; none of the other official members, including Kato Osamu, were seen.
"Cloning is not the same as copying... Of course, if needed, the cloned body can be brought back to the age it was at when it died, but this would greatly deplete the clone's lifespan, and the success rate is not guaranteed..."
"Is this the Akatsuki...?" She didn't know much about the Land of Rain. The only person she had ever heard of was Hanzo of the Salamander, who had been awarded the title of Three Legendary Sannin. Moreover, the Land of Rain had been closed off for many years, and very little news had leaked out.
Upon entering the Land of Rain, Kushina Uzumaki was filled with surprise. The Land of Rain was completely different from Konoha. Although it drizzled all day, it was filled with tall buildings, its style entirely unlike any other place in the Shinobi World, seemingly imbued with some kind of exotic charm...
"Uzumaki ... Kushina Uzumaki ..." As a fellow member of the Uzumaki Clan, Nagato Uzumaki couldn't help but glance at Kushina Uzumaki a few more times. Unlike him, an orphan without parents, Kushina Uzumaki was born into nobility in the Land of Whirlpools, possessed the Uzumaki Clan's Sealing Jutsu, and went to Konoha after the fall of the Land of Whirlpools. Her life experiences were completely different from his...
"Since you are from the Uzumaki Clan, you must be quite familiar with Sealing Jutsu ... These are some ideas for Sealing Jutsu; I'd like to hear your thoughts..." Nagato gestured slightly, Konan took out a scroll from her side, looked at Kushina Uzumaki sitting in the chair, who seemed somewhat unfamiliar and reserved, and handed it to her...
"The Sealing Technique: Phantom Dragons Nine Consuming Seals..." Kushina Uzumaki quietly unfurled the scroll, her mind immersing itself in its contents. Kato Osamu, Nagato, and Konan remained silent, simply waiting for Kushina Uzumaki to finish reading.
This Sealing Jutsu was not conceived from scratch. Rather, it was based on the Sealing Jutsu used by the Akatsuki to seal the Tailed Beasts, which they had secretly collected from various ninja villages over the years. It was then combined with the characteristics of the God Tree Husk and the Rinnegan to create a Sealing Formula.
Despite the many years of development in the Shinobi World, the Sealing Formula for sealing Tailed Beasts remain incredibly precious. Even Konoha struggles immensely to seal the Nine-Tails, let alone other smaller ninja villages. Nagato, through his Rinnegan and connection to the God Tree, knew that the Nine Tailed Beasts combined to form the Ten-Tails, requiring the extraction of the Tailed Beast Chakra from the Jinchuriki and sealing it into the Ten-Tails' body...
However, this level of Sealing Formula far surpasses the average level of Sealing Jutsu in the current Shinobi World, demonstrating its immense difficulty. Yet, it is an indispensable step, and over the years, the Akatsuki has not only accumulated wealth but also built up its foundation for this purpose...
"Using several Kage Level powerhouses as the core of the formation, a stable Chakra channel is established... The sealing technique is reversed to extract the Tailed Beast Chakra from the Jinchuriki's body... At the same time, the sealing technique is reversed to seal the extracted Tailed Beast Chakra..."
"This sealing formation requires at least five Kage Level powerhouses to activate..."
Even Kushina Uzumaki was stunned by such a grand gesture. Ordinary Sealing Jutsu, or even more complex Barrier Ninjutsu, wouldn't require such a luxurious setup...
Looking up again at Nagato Uzumaki sitting in his wheelchair, a sense of unreality welled up inside me—these people really were about to do something earth-shattering...
"Very good... To be able to see through the principle of the Sealing Technique: Phantom Dragons Nine Consuming Seals so quickly and easily, you truly deserve to be the last remaining inheritor of Sealing Jutsu of the Uzumaki Clan..." The Sealing Technique: Phantom Dragons Nine Consuming Seals is currently only a rudimentary concept, far from being truly usable, but even so, a smile couldn't help but appear on Nagato Uzumaki's face. Years of tracing its origins had finally yielded a glimmer of hope...
"The principle is sound, but this kind of sealing array technique can't be developed overnight..." As she spoke, Kushina Uzumaki's gaze involuntarily fell on Kato Osamu. She had never imagined that while she was staying in the Land of Rain, Naruto was still waiting for her to return...
"The difficulty lies in the fact that the forward and reverse operation of the Sealing Jutsu must be performed simultaneously, and the Chakra channels established by the sealing array must be stable enough to firmly bind the Tailed Beasts's Chakra within the channels..."
"This shouldn't take Kushina Uzumaki much time..."
"The most time-consuming parts are merely repetitive and basic tasks, such as constantly adjusting the incantations of the experimental sealing array in order to achieve the most perfect state..."
"I don't think you'll be needed for these experiments and adjusting the incantations..." Kushina Uzumaki is only in the body of a six-year-old. Even if she wanted to, she couldn't perform this Sealing Jutsu. Her greatest strength lies in the theory of Sealing Jutsu; she can establish the top-level logic of Sealing Jutsu from top to bottom according to needs. As for the bottom-level work and subsequent experimental adjustments, she doesn't need to do it, nor can she...
"It seems Kato- kun is also quite proficient in Sealing Jutsu..." Nagato's eyes brightened slightly. If Kato Osamu were to join the fray, Kushina Uzumaki couldn't do, Kato Osamu could certainly do...
However, Kato Osamu has more important things to do right now; one Sealing Jutsu master Kushina Uzumaki, is enough...
"I have other matters to attend to, Kushina Uzumaki is enough..." Seeing Kato Osamu shake his head, Nagato didn't say anything more. Although Akatsuki was a tightly organized group, its official members were all Kage Level shinobi, and missions were always voluntary unless absolutely necessary...
"Alright..."
In their brief exchange, the group seemed to have already decided how to handle the matter. Kushina Uzumaki pursed her lips slightly, looking at Kato Osamu, "Don't forget what you promised me..."
Kushina Uzumaki was already prepared. After all, before coming to the Land of Rain, Kato Osamu had roughly told her that the Sealing Formula was about to develop was for this purpose— the Sealing Formula she was developing might be used on Naruto...
"Don't worry, Nagato knows about this... Besides, if you can finish your work quickly, you might be able to spend more time with him..."
Kushina Uzumaki looked at Nagato Uzumaki, and only after seeing him nod slightly did she breathe a sigh of relief.
"If we can successfully obtain the half of the Nine-Tails Chakra sealed within Minato Namikaze, and he doesn't become our enemy, letting him go isn't impossible..."
After a slight hesitation, Kushina Uzumaki nodded. From what she knew, the Akatsuki had about ten Kage -Kage Level ninjas, an unstoppable force in the current Shinobi World. If they were to deal with Naruto...
Shaking her head abruptly, Kushina Uzumaki made up her mind. Since Konoha was so heartless and ruthless, she would stop Naruto from becoming their enemy once she returned to Naruto side...
'Naruto, you will definitely live on...'