Mukade pressed both hands against the stone surface of the sealing array.
Cold seeped through his fingertips. Then the runes on the sealing array, dormant for twenty years, began to light up, first with a faint blue glow that swiftly turned purple.
That purple light climbed Mukade's arms as though alive, spreading along his withered veins until it enveloped him in an eerie radiance.
The chakra stored within him was drawing out the seal's power, resonating with it, reverse-engineering the Formula Minato Namikaze had laid down.
A savage grin twisted Mukade's gaunt face, purple light dancing in his sunken eye sockets.
Aboveground.
Naruto thrust out a palm. Wind Release chakra gathered in his hand into a violent cyclone, sweeping up the incoming Explosive Tags. The paper tags detonated in midair with a deafening roar, flames and smoke surging skyward without so much as touching the hem of his clothes. When the smoke cleared, he walked to the edge of the great pit Mukade had dug and looked down. The dark shaft seemed bottomless, with only a few faint blue lights glimmering far below.
"Not bad." Naruto's lips curved upward. Without the slightest hesitation, he leaped, his golden figure vanishing into the pit. Wind howled past his ears as he adjusted his posture, planting his feet against the vertical rock wall to slow his descent and racing toward the brightest glow.
When he finally passed through the breach in the vaulted ceiling and landed on a stone beam at the edge of the Underground Palace, even the worldly Naruto could not help holding his breath.
The Underground Palace was magnificent.
Massive stone pillars supported a towering vault, the reliefs carved into each one so lifelike that they seemed ready to burst from the stone at any moment.
Though faded, the murals