With Beni watching the door, Shiki quickly entered and secured the Sacred Vessel inside a storage scroll before quickly setting out to leave but in the moment before the girl could even warn him, a single old monk appeared in the antechamber to find the two unconscious guards and the inner sanctum's doors ajar.
"Hmm . . ."
The old monk's eyes narrowed.
He noticed the missing Sacred Vessel, but sensed no intruders.
"What a powerful hiding ability . . . I cannot sense you at all . . ." The monk calmly commented in an old, gravelly voice.
Shiki and Beni made no moves, holding still while maintaining their stealth jutsu, they intuitively realized that the old monk might be able to detect them from motion alone.
He looked frail in his old age, definitely not threatening in the slightest but Shiki instincts never lied to him.
The old monk assumed the signature stance, one half ram hand seal with the left hand in front of the body and the right arm extended downwards with the right hand palm facing down, parallel to the ground.
A golden aura began to emerge from the boy of the old man slowly filling the space and Shiki's expression immediately turned grave.
Beni's face mirrored his, while undetectable through normal means, both of them were still present, if that dense chakra touched them, they would be discovered.
But the monks would immediately sense them if they moved as well.
'Just how sharp is this old codger if mere motion can tip him off?' The boy wondered.
He had to think of something fast.
If he went all out in a surprise attack, Shiki had the confidence to handle the old man but in a frontal clash where he could not use most of his signature abilities as he could not afford to be recognized . . .
The boy signalled Beni with a look and received a slight nod.
'Let's do this.'
'Water Release: Hiding in Mist'
In an instant, dense, chakra laden mist filled the room.
'Welcoming Approach: Thousand Armed Murder'
The old monk's expression suddenly turned violent as the peaceful golden aura coalesced in a raging red construct emulating the wrathful form of the Bodhisattva, Kannon.
Its size was enormous, enough to fill the majority of the large temple chamber and originating from it, a barrage of giant red fists pulverized Shiki's position.
The monk's ears twitched as he heard the sound of splashing water.
'A Water Release Substitution.' He concluded.
And he was right.
'Water Release: Bubbles - Explosive Bubbles'
A barrage of explosive bubbles rained down from above and the old monk's expression turned peaceful again as the red wrathful form transformed into a golden construct of the regular thousand armed Kannon.
Countless golden hands blocked the the explosions without any ripple or sign of instability
However, just as the old monk was about to shift back to attack and strike at the source of the previous jutsu.
The presence he sensed vanished like popping bubbles as the heavy mist thinned out.
Multiple monks, drawn by the commotion, arrived at the room.
"Head Monk!"
"Head Monk!"
"Head Monk!"
"..."
They called out his title.
"An intruder has stolen our Sacred Vessel, fan out and search." The old monk commanded in a calm but grave tone.
A cacophony of outraged and shocked "Yes!" responses followed as the monks spread out but the old man did not have much hope.
In truth, when Shiki drew attention to himself with Hiding in Mist, Benihime took the chance to retreat through the wall with Hiding in Surface which Shiki had taught her along with many other things over the last three years.
When he used the Water Substitution to escape the Head Monk's first strike, he created a Bubble Clone to draw attention and used his Kukyoshin to phase through the walls himself.
*
"Well . . . That could have gone better but it could have gone much worse as well." Shiki commented out loud as he and Beni, already outside, widened the distance between themselves and the Fire Temple.
"With just Water Release bubble techniques being used, it is highly unlikely the monks will place great suspicion on Konoha, much less you." Benihime posited.
"True." Shiki agreed.
"They might even make an official request of Konoha to help investigate the theft." The boy theorized with an ambiguous smile.
"But you can't use your bubble ninjutsu in public anymore." The girl cautioned.
"An unfortunate necessity. Maybe I'll even take this chance to design a new identity for more risky endeavors, bubble ninjutsu is certainly versatile enough to create a new self based around it and get some dirtier work done." Shiki thought out loud.
And like this, the minor task at the Temple of Fire was complete along with an exciting escape.
"Onto our next goal then." The boy declared.
Benihime said nothing, not asking him to continue in a show of respect for his secretist habits but also clearly waiting for him to go into more detail.
"Predictably, the other of the two minor tasks for this outing also involves thievery but it ought to be much simpler." Shiki began to explain.
"There is an independent shinobi clan in the Land of Fire said to possess a certain secret jutsu I'm very interested in." He continued.
"Naturally, they would not be able to maintain control over such a treasure, especially considering any sufficiently skilled Earth Release user should be able to learn it."
"However, they had successfully hidden this inheritance and no one seems to have been able to discover it, lending enough credence to their claims of having lost it when they moved to the Land of Fire from their home in the Land of Earth." Shiki concluded.
"But Shiki-sama believes them to still hold this jutsu in secret." Benihime pointed out.
"Indeed I do Beni-chan and, if they do, we'll find out." The boy responded.
As for what jutsu he was seeking . . It was the Earth Release Resurrection Technique: Corpse Soil.
Only shown in the original series during a filler arc and never really properly explained beyond its function, this was an extremely rare jutsu that could, in a certain way, bring the dead back to life.
Now, compared to something like Edo Tensei, the Impure World Reincarnation, Corpse Soil was not that impressive a jutsu but it still had its selling points.
It was a jutsu far older than Edo Tensei which was created by Tobirama, the Second Hokage, its origins were in the Land of Earth, predicable considering the greatest concentration of high level Earth Release users were there.
Its history was simple, its creator and his clan faced persecution from their fellows in the Land of Earth for the moral implications of the jutsu and thus fled to the Land of Fire, never using it again and insisting the jutsu was lost during their flight from the home country.
As for why and how the jutsu was created, Shiki's research offered no clues, he only knew of its existence in this world as Tobirama cited it as proof that his idea for Edo Tensei was possible in his records of developing it which the boy read using his sensory abilities to sneak a peek into the more forbidden sections of Konoha's "literature".
+++++
Hey, Author here!
To promote the novel I will be releasing BONUS CHAPTERS on SUNDAYS based on the previous week's power stone count.
100 Power Stones = 1 Bonus Chapter
500 Power Stones = 2 Bonus Chapters
1000 Power Stones = 3 Bonus Chapters
Every earned BONUS CHAPTER on Webnovel will also be posted on Scribble.
Just a reminder that you can read up to a FULL MONTH ahead of this site on pa-treon.
I'm trying to become a full time Author now and I'm not going to be starting any new novels just so I can make sure this one is properly completed.
Find those sweet advanced chapters on pa-treon.com/lusoba without the -