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Sacrificial Rituals.
They attain their abilities by sacrificing living humans in the name of Jashin. The more people they sacrifice and the bloodier the ritual, the stronger the abilities they get.
The ritual grounds that Team Shi found serve as the hub for these bloody acts, where the blood of the sacrifices is drained from their bodies and used to bestow the abilities on the one in the middle of the ritual symbol.
After they get their abilities, high priests and above get to do miniaturized rituals where they use their bodies and blood as a medium to inflict damage on their opponent after ingesting their opponent's blood to defeat them and offer them as a sacrifice and thanks to Jashin.
While that was extremely horrific and disturbing, that wasn't the main reason Ryuu lost his composure. What was found out by Team Shi made even the veterans like Phoenix, Inu, and Tenzo extremely uneasy and speechless due to the level of wickedness and brutality of what was found.
While any person the cult can get their hands on can be a sacrifice, one of the scrolls that Team Shi found showed that there is a disturbing list of recommendations to make the number of needed sacrifices lower.
Four recommendations to be exact.
'The more innocent they are, the more pleased Lord Jashin would be by their flowing blood seeping out of their bodies.'
A quote that was word-for-word above the list of recommendations, a quote that sent shivers down Team Shi's spines when they first read it.
At the end of the list, the use of young maidens ranked lowest.
This was the bottom of the list; the maniacs were recommended to use pure young ladies and girls as more favorable sacrifices to their lord Jashin.
And the list gets more horrid from here on. The second-to-last on the list is Children. Male or female, from eight years old and younger, with it specifying that younger is better.
And it doesn't stop there; the second recommendation from the top of the list is babies. Sacrificing infants younger than a year old seems to please Jashin greatly, from what Team Shi had the displeasure and horror of reading.
And the madness didn't stop there; the recommendation that topped the list deeply disturbed everyone who got the unfortunate experience of knowing it, even Hiruzen, who had basically seen everything humanity's wickedness could produce in the ninja world.
Pregnant women
More specifically, pregnant women who are nearing their due date, the nearer the better.
Not for the women themselves, but for what they carry in their wombs.
In the wicked and vile minds of the unholy cult, there is nothing more innocent than an almost-born child. An infant that has yet to take its first breath outside of its mother. Beings that haven't been tainted by merely starting to exist in the dark shinobi world.
Ryuu's clones, along with Phoenix, couldn't believe what they were reading. The anger and horror couldn't be described. Especially after going through the still and cold bodies of the victims inside and around the sacrificial altar.
They hadn't focused previously on the bodies, as they were focusing on taking down the cultists, but they later took in the scene of the bodies of the victims, adults, young adults, children, and infants.
One was particularly heavy on Team Shi and was the main reason Ryuu lost his composure when he got the memories of his clones.
The sight of the skeletal remains of a young adult, with much smaller skeletal remains in the bigger one's abdominal area.
The remains of a deceased young mother and her unborn child.
Even though Anbu are trained to control their emotions to the point where they seem emotionless, the heartache they felt from that scene struck Team Shi deeply.
Ryuu had made a promise to himself: to try everything to find out how to kill the cult leader and his priests that he had captured in the most painful ways possible, no matter how cruel the methods were.
Ryuu's face hardened behind his mask with cold and horrific ideas forming in his head. The idea was dreadful enough that Kurumi, who was hearing his thought, felt a shiver of dread crawl up her spine.
If he failed, he knew of another 'deity' that would be absolutely delighted by their filthy and tainted souls.
'Maybe I can use...…' Ryuu's mind was forming ideas but was cut off by Hiruzen speaking.
"Did you find anything about Hidan?" Hiruzen asked, looking at the two teams.
"From the cult leader's journal, we found out that there was a falling out between him and Hidan. Hidan was supposed to be one of the high priests. He was adamant about publicly preaching the way of Jashin, which the cult leader opposed at the time because he didn't want any attention from outside. Hidan didn't like that and left suddenly one night without anyone finding out until the next day." Phoenix said with an even tone.
"How were they not found until now? The number of victims is disturbing." Hiruzen asked with a heavy tone. The number of victims was about a hundred, if not more
"Most of the cult consisted of shinobi, with a lot coming from Yugakure. It is unknown how long ago the cult was established or where their beliefs come from. But they knew what they were doing; they targeted travelers and small caravans, along with targeting poor villages, as they knew that without money, other shinobi wouldn't come to investigate. The deterioration of Yugakure was also a factor in why they have gone seemingly unnoticed." Ryuu replied with a blank tone.
"It's good that they and their lair are done for. Are all the cultists accounted for?" Hiruzen said while looking at Ryuu.
"Yeah, after going through scrolls and notes, all of them are either killed or captured, with only Hidan not accounted for, but presumed dead," Ryuu said evenly. Making Hiruzen nod as he took out his smoking pipe and lit it.
"Good. And what of the confiscated library and the... prisoners? What are you planning with them?" Hiruzen asked, looking at Team Shi.
"I highly recommend destroying all the retrieved scrolls, notes, and books. The knowledge they hold is too gruesome and horrid to be kept, and there is also the possibility of someone getting their hands on it." "Ryuu said, with Phoenix nodding in agreement. Hiruzen nodded slightly as he smoked his pipe.
"Agreed, you have my permission to destroy the retrieved intel," Hiruzen said after a moment of silence, while smoke came out of his mouth.
"As for the prisoners, I don't recommend sending them to the IT or the Anbu prison, as they aren't regular prisoners, and most torture methods won't work as they all have their pain receptors nullified due to their abilities. I will look into the easiest ways to effectively kill them. And in case I don't find one, I already know one that would kill them, but that is a last resort." Ryuu said with his voice getting colder in the end.
Hiruzen stayed silent for a couple of moments. But soon found this to be the best course of action, as the only known thing that can stop the cultist is Fuinjutsu.
"Alright. But send one of the high priests to Ibiki; see if he can do something to them. They are the ones that can't heal themselves, right?" Hiruzen asked.
"Correct, Hokage-sama. As long as the head and body stay separate, they would stay alive but would be unable to move." Ryuu replied
"Good. Deliver one to Ibiki while telling him to try his best to kill that priest. Just don't go into details about the mission with him." Hiruzen said, to which Ryuu nodded.
"Have your reports written in detail and given to me as soon as possible. This mission and its findings are classified as an S-rank secret. No one is to discuss anything about its details but me. Is that understood?" Hiruzen said with a serious tone, to which the two teams nodded.
"Good. Now about Neko's situation." Hiruzen said as his face turned to one of skepticism while looking at the two teams in front of him.
To be continued.
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