"Talking"
'Thinking'
Flashback - "Talking"/ 'Thinking'
Chapter 17:
Team Seven of Konoha has just returned from their mission to seal Mōryō for Konoha's own gain, and have just reported to Danzo, that the mission was a failure.
"Explain!" Danzo growled, not liking the fact that one of his better teams has failed the mission, and wants to know, why.
"Well," Kakashi started. "It was all going relatively well at first. We got the priestess, and were on the way to the Land of Swamps where Mōryō's body was sealed.
"On the way we had to deal with some persistent enemies who were trying to revive Mōryō, but we repelled them, couple of times, until we got close to where Mōryō was sealed off.
"There, we ended up having to battle them again, along with the so called, 'ghost army'. During the battle, Shion slipped away, and went to seal Mōryō.
"It took us a while, as our enemies were strong, and there was many of those statues, but we were able to deal with them all. Unfortunately, by then, Shion has had a lot of time to seal Mōryō."
Danzo's growl, interrupted Kakashi. "So the demon has been seals again, and now we can't get our hands on it," Danzo questioned. "Is that what you are trying to tell me?"
"Not exactly," Kakashi said, while sweat was rolling down his face. "You see, when we dealt with the enemy, we went to find Shion, and stop her from using her sealing jutsu to seal Mōryō, and instead, use ours. We were just at the entrance, when we saw three people walking out from the chamber where Mōryō was.
"One of them was a guy with light blue hair white pants and white jacket, which he wears unzipped. The other was a blue haired woman wearing a full blue outfit and a blue hat. And the third was also a girl, though she was strange. We were unable to see her face, or her hair style and color, because she was wearing a full head mask, which was covering everything from the neck up, except her eyes, which were orange. The mask had two horns growing from it. As for her clothing, well, they were full white, and closely resemble to the ones the guy was wearing. She was carrying a sword, just like the guy, while the blue haired girl didn't seem to have any weapon.
"We saw Shion on the back of that man, and we hurried over to see what happened and to find out who those three were." Kakashi stopped here, looking around the room, with a nervous look on his face.
"Well?" Danzo pushed.
Kakashi coughed once, before he decided to just get it over with, and hope that his powers and fame will stop Danzo from taking his head. "We asked who they were and what happened, and the guy told us that Shion was unable to stop Mōryō, but that he was able to get rid of that demon for good," Kakashi heard gasps from the two elders in the room, and stopped for a moment. Danzo didn't show any emotions on his face, but deep down he was furious.
"Did you find out how he did it," Danzo asked? "And did you make sure that he was telling the truth, and wasn't lying?"
"I asked how he sealed away Mōryō, but he just smirked at me and asked, 'what makes me think that Mōryō was sealed away'," Kakashi said, getting raised eyebrows from Danzo and the elders. "He didn't say anything else about Mōryō after that. He did tell us his name, which he said is, Grimmjow Jaegerjaquez, and that his companion's names were Juvia and Fū, with Juvia being the blue haired girl, and Fu, the one with the mask. He refused to say anything else about them except their names, and even when we threatened them, all Grimmjow did, was laugh at us, and said that just because I'm such a famous ninja, and just because we have an Uchiha in our team, doesn't mean that we can defeat even one of them, let alone all of them.
"I did want to test that, of course, but in the end I dropped it, as they were an unknown, and we were all tired from dealing with those ninja and the ghost army. It also took me a while to calm Sasuke down, as he wanted to fight that guy, regardless of the fact he was already tired."
Sasuke scowled. "I'm an Uchiha elite, and that nobody insulted me by underestimating me," he said. "You should have let me kill him. That would show him to never insult and underestimate an Uchiha!"
Danzo said nothing at Sasuke's words, and only glanced at him, before he looked at Sakura and Sai. He then said. "You three leave. Kakashi, you are to stay here. We need to talk about those three and see if we can somehow use them to our gain."
Sakura and Sai simply bowed, and left, while Sasuke wanted to argue, but in the end, he left as well when he saw Danzo and Kakashi give him the look.
Once the three Chūnin of team 7, left, Danzo looked at Kakashi. "I hope you have something else on those three, Kakashi." Of course, he was referring to Grimmjow, Juvia and Fū.
"Unfortunately, not much," Kakashi sighed. "After they refused to reveal anything about themselves except their names, and since I decided not to start any fighting against them, there was nothing else I could do to find out anything.
"The only thing that happened after that, is that the Priestess Shion decided to go back to the Land of Demon with them, while she told us that our job is done, and that the payment will be sent shortly."
"Does Shion know those three?" Koharu decided to ask.
"I don't think so," Kakashi said. "Before they left, I did ask them why they were there in the first place, and Grimmjow told me that he was there to deal with Mōryō. He said that saving the Priestess was just a bonus.
"The Priestess seemed to trust him though, so I didn't see any reason to push for accompanying them back to the Land of Demons, especially since I doubt that Sasuke would be able to keep himself in check and not start a battle, which I doubt he could win."
"Why do you think he couldn't win," Homura asked? "He is an Uchiha, has a Sharingan, and is Jōnin Level ninja, even though he is only Chūnin in rank."
"I trained Sasuke, so I know how powerful he is," Kakashi said. "The problem is, that I have no idea how powerful Grimmjow is, and I didn't want to risk Sasuke getting injured or worse, killed.
"Grimmjow didn't say nor do anything challenging, but there was this feeling I got just by being in his presence. He was giving of bad vibes even when he has a smile on his face, which, by the way, was fake, though he is faking much better then Sai, I'll tell you that much."
Danzo narrowed his eyes at Kakashi's words about Sai, as he knew that they were meant for him, since he is the one who trained Sai to be emotionless tool, who now isn't even capable of faking emotions, let alone fell them.
"After that, Grimmjow and his friends left with Shion, while we returned here." Kakashi finished his explanation of how the mission went and how it ended.
Once Kakashi finished briefing, Danzo and the elders were thinking about what to do, and should they even do anything.
'It seems that in the recent years, there are many new and unknown people popping up all over the EN, and they all seem dangerous,' Danzo thought in his head. 'I wander where they are all coming from, and do they have some connection with each other, especially Alessandro Stark and Grimmjow, since the uniforms they are wearing appear to be at least similar, if not exactly the same.'
XXX
Over the last few hours, Naruto, his blood clone and Tayuya have been going over every inch of the Fuinjutsu formula written on the wall, ceiling and the stairs of the underground stairway which leads to… well, somewhere, Naruto guesses to the vault, though he can't be sure.
Tayuya has spent as much time learning Fuinjutsu, as the blood clone Naruto, which is why she is now at the Master Level, just like the Blood clone and just like the original Naruto became after he received the memories of his blood clone.
Because of her new knowledge, Tayuya was able to help, and surprisingly, or maybe not, she was the one who found the clue which might allow them to break the seal.
"Look at this," Tayuya said, drawing the attention of two Naruto's. The two of them approached to Tayuya, who at that moment was kneeling on the stairs and looking at something at the corner of one of the stairs, at the exact place where stairs are connecting to the wall.
"What is it?" The original Naruto asked.
"This formula here," Tayuya said, pointing at the formula which goes across the stair and the wall. "It looks wrong. Don't you think so?"
The two Naruto's looked at the formula for a few minutes, before they saw the same thing Tayuya was seeing. "How in the hell did you see that," the original asked? "The only thing wrong with that thing is that one squiggle is out of place."
Tayuya smirked. "Yea well, that one squiggle is what's keeping this barrier in check," she smirked. "I think that if we correct this, then the barrier will come down."
"Are you sure it's that easy," blood clone asked? "This whole formula was made by Fuinjutsu Grand Masters, and I doubt that the only thing necessary to break the barrier is to fix the seal. And how is the barrier even working with an error in the formula?"
"I think that this error in the formula was left like this because it's so hard to find it," Tayuya said. "You don't just need to be at least master in Fuinjutsu, but you also need to check every line and squiggle of the formula to find out how it works. All three of us are Masters and it took us hours to find this, and even then, I found it by accident. I don't think anyone else would have found this, unless they decide to camp here for a long time.
"As for how it's working if it's damaged, well that…. I don't know." Tayuya admitted. "If I have to guess, there is probably another formula UNDER this one, and when a Royal Uzumaki gives his blood and chakra to the wall in order to activate the barrier, the only barrier it activates is this one. We fix this one, and the other one will probably come down."
"This is some seriously high level Fuinjutsu," blood clone commented while shaking his head.
"Let's check it out, then." The original Naruto said, and then moved in front of Tayuya and the blood clone. It took him less them a minute to erase the wrong squiggle with his chakra and then draw a new, correct one.
The moment the formula was corrected, the formula started to glow with blinding light, which made both Naruto and Tayuya shield their eyes, because of how blinding the light it.
The flash of light went for a full minute, during which, all three present, were able to hear some breaking and then rumbling.
After a minute, the noise stopped and then the light vanished, allowing Tayuya and the two Naruto to remove their hands from their eyes and see what happened.
Once they opened their eyes, they saw that everything around them is still covered in the Fuinjutsu formula, but this one, is different than the one they spent hours researching. On top of that, the wall which was at the bottom of the stairs, is now gone, revealing a dark passageway.
"Would you look at that," Naruto said with a smirk on his face. "It worked. Great job, Tayuya. Without you, I wouldn't be able to open this passageway."
Tayuya blushed at the praise Naruto gave her, then blushed even more because of the smile he gave her. 'Damn, that smile is sexy.' Tayuya thought in her head.
Tayuya followed after the two Naruto's as they walked through the entrance to the passageway, which was actually, still going downward, as the stairs continued to go further underground after the wall was removed.
For five more minutes, the three of them have been going down the stairs, until they arrived in a circled chamber, with eight possible paths to choose in order to continue.
"This is ridiculous," Tayuya said. "What could they have been keeping here to need this much protection?" She wondered out loud.
"I don't know," the real Naruto said. "But I doubt that it's just money, files or something simple but valuable stuff. There must be something immeasurably valuable down here that would make Uzumaki Clan go to such lengths to protect it."
"What now," Tayuya asked? "Do we split up, or what?"
The real Naruto shock his head. "There is no need," he said. "I can sense with my Pesquisa what's in all those passageways and where they lead. Only the second from the right has some feel coming from it. All the others feel dead. I would guess that all of them are covered in Fuinjutsu barriers which would trap anyone caught in them forever… unless they are lucky to be able to break the barriers and come out."
"I don't understand why, though," Tayuya said. "If you were right, and the blood of the Royal Uzumaki was needed to activate that first barrier, then why more protection and barriers?"
Naruto shrugged. "Maybe they thought that someone might come here with a Royal Uzumaki as a hostage to use their blood and chakra," Naruto suggested. "This way, they made sure that there are more protections, just in case."
Tayuya groaned. "Second on the right, you said?" She questioned, and after Naruto nodded, she walked through the passageway Naruto said, while Naruto and his blood clone, followed.
As the three were walking down the corridor, Tayuya asked. "If you could sense the right path, then what's to stop any other sensory ninja from doing the same?"
"Hm," Naruto hmed. "That a good question, and I don't know the answer to it."
"Well, there is probably something which would prevent just about anyone from sensing the right path," the blood clone said. "In fact, many probably wouldn't even think about trying to sense for the right path."
"You might be right," Tayuya agreed. "I didn't think of that, so others might not think about it either."
A minute later, while walking through the path, with the blood clone going first, the real Naruto second, and Tayuya just behind him, Tayuya suddenly slammed into something in front of her, and fell backwards on her bum.
"Ouch," she yelled, while rubbing her face, and drawing the attention of the two Naruto's, who turned back to see, what happened. "What the hell was that!?"
Real Naruto walked to Tayuya, and held his hand to here, which she took and got up. "What happened?" Naruto asked.
"I don't know," Tayuya said. "It felt like I slammed into a wall."
Naruto looked behind himself, and saw nothing. He went ahead, and still nothing happened. "There is nothing here, Tayuya."
"I'm telling you," Tayuya said, while walking forward, but this time, she held her hands in front of her to see if she can touch, whatever has blocked her. "There is someth…" before she could finish saying, her hands touched something in front of her, and she couldn't go further. "Here it is," she shouted. "There is a barrier here, and it prevents me from going forward."
"Well, this is interesting," Naruto said, as he was trying to touch the same thing that Tayuya is, but couldn't do it. The same goes for the blood clone. "I guess this is the answer to that question of yours from earlier."
"What question?" Tayuya asked.
"You asked what's stopping others from sensing the right path," Naruto said. "Well, the answer is… nothing." Seeing a confused look on Tayuya face, Naruto explained.
"Nothing prevents them from using their sensory skills to sense the right path, but it seems that there is a barrier which prevents certain people from passing through. If I had to guess, only a member of the Royal Uzumaki line, could pass through the barrier, and everyone else would be stopped."
"Is that so," Tayuya questioned. "But what would happen if someone was to try and break the barrier?"
"I doubt it would work," Naruto said. "The barrier is probably strong enough to stop anything. On top of that, I doubt that anyone is stupid enough to try anything too destructive here, considering that we are hundreds of meters below the ground. I don't know if the walls surrounding this place are reinforced and protected, so I doubt that anyone else would know, and no one would risk getting buried alive."
Tayuya sighed. "So what now?" She asked.
"Now, you will stay here, since you can't pass," Naruto said. "My blood clone and I will continue, and see what's down there. I doubt that there are more barriers down there, or anything to stop us from reaching the goal, but I don't know how long it will take us to see what's in the vault. It might take a while, so you better get comfortable if you are going to wait here."
"Damn it," Tayuya shouted! "I really wanted to see what's inside of that vault? Since it requires this much protection, it must be something really valuable."
"Well see if there is some way to allow others to enter inside of the vault while we're there," Naruto said. "If we find something, then I'll take you there, if not, well, then I'll just tell you what's inside. You ok with that?"
"Tayuya scoffed. "It's not like I have other choice."
The two Naruto's nodded at Tayuya, before they continued down the corridor, while Tayuya sighed, and set down on the floor, leaning on the wall. Ten seconds later, Tayuya cursed. "Fuck! I'm already bored."