Here you go, a new chapter. I hope you all enjoy it.
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The next morning, somewhere along the outskirts of Konohagakure;
Through the thick trees and foliage, Naruto landed on the ground in a huge, open stretch of land surrounded by trees.
Naruto looked at the undisturbed surroundings before walking slowly to the middle. He had just taken his little sister to the academy for their second day, and he would pick them up later after they finished.
From tomorrow and going forward, the girls will go to the academy and return by themselves, except on certain days and occasions.
Naruto smiled softly, thinking of that. It feels like yesterday that Mito was an infant, drinking from a bottle, changing her diapers, and rocking her to sleep.
And now she, along with Karin, is on her journey to become a shinobi.
'Kit.' Kurumi's voice came from his mindscape with a very deadpan feel to it.
'You are fifteen years of age. Your thoughts make me feel that you are seeing your daughter or granddaughter going to the academy. Not your younger sister, who is eight years younger than you.' Kurumi said with a heavy sigh, making Naruto chuckle.
'Can't help it, Kurumi. It feels like it was yesterday, and at the same time, it feels like it was a lifetime ago. 'Naruto replied
'Mmm. That's true. A lot has happened in the last seven years since I've been with you. 'Kurumi replied
'Yeah.' Naruto said as he stopped in the middle of the clearing.
He stood for a moment as he made sure no one was near before biting his right hand's thumb, making it bleed slightly, before smearing it on what seemed to be the air in front of him.
Shockingly enough, the blood behaved like it was dropped on an invisible wall as it formed droplet-like patterns as if it started to roll down a wall.
Naruto pressed his right palm on the seemingly invisible wall and pushed chakra into his palm.
The air in front of Naruto seemed to ripple as something absorbed the blood and chakra on the invisible wall.
For a moment, nothing seemed to happen before suddenly a tear-like opening appeared in the air in front of Naruto. It opened until it was three meters tall and two meters wide, revealing the silhouette of a structure.
Naruto walked through the tear, and as soon as he cleared it, it closed, making the scene return to its original look of a wide grass-covered area surrounded by trees.
That was one of Naruto's barrier seals with a genjutsu function. It creates an illusion on the barrier perimeter, making it blend with the surroundings and hiding what is inside the barrier from anyone.
Hiding what you ask?
The Uzumaki Clan's Mask Storage Temple
A temple belonging to the near-extinct Uzumaki clan containing one of their most dangerous artifacts.
A temple that Naruto doesn't fully understand. Why was it here to begin with?
The temple was on the outskirts of Konoha, which is weird and confusing. How and why is there an Uzumaki shrine here, so far from the Land of Whirlpools? When was it built? Who did it and for what purpose? Is the purpose really to contain its mask artifacts? If so, why so far from the homeland of the Uzumaki?
So many questions Naruto didn't have an answer to. He didn't get any answers from what Kushina left behind; he might find an answer somewhere hidden in the ruins of Uzushiogakure.
Naruto stood in front of the stairs leading up to the shrine, which was in pristine condition. Made almost entirely out of wood and surrounded by bushes, flowers, and other plants. Painted in red, deep orange, and black, with a huge symbol of the Uzumaki clan on the entrance. The shrine looked well-maintained.
Except it wasn't always like this.
Almost six years ago, when Naruto first learned about this place and came to visit it. It looked like it had been abandoned for decades. It looked like it was falling apart, with wood and supports falling apart everywhere. Overgrown foliage and plants were everywhere and taking over the place. The stairs leading up to the shrine were partially collapsed, and the gate that held the Uzumaki symbol looked like it was going to collapse soon.
From what Naruto saw, he assumed that this shrine hadn't seen any care in a long time. This had made Naruto shake his head in disappointment. Maybe the last time this place got any attention was before the Second Shinobi War broke out and before the Uzumaki got wiped out.
A sacred place that held a very dangerous artifact of a dying clan was left to rot.
Some would see this as a perfect place to hide something so dangerous. Hiding it in plain sight. No one would think something dangerous would be held there.
It's not like many even know about the Uzumaki clan anymore. Almost all chunin and jonin in Konoha don't even know what the symbol on the back of their flak jackets represents.
But you never know.
Naruto, seeing the state of the shrine at the time, restored it, using wood release along with other work that he did with the help of his clones, to the state it is in today.
In addition to that. He erected the barrier that surrounds it today. A barrier that prevents anyone from seeing the temple. And if someone came to the shrine or stumbled on its location. They won't be able to go past the barrier unless they are an Uzumaki or a descendant of the Uzumaki, using their blood and chakra to do so.
Naruto walked up the stairs and entered the shrine. He then walked up to the altar in the middle of the far wall inside the shrine. As he stood in front of the altar, he unsealed multiple sticks of incense and put them on the altar before lighting them up using a seal-less fire jutsu that produced a small flame on the tip of one of his fingers.
Naruto stood silently for a few moments as the smoke rose from the incense sticks and their smell filled the shrine. He then clapped his hands together into a praying form and made a silent prayer for his great-grandparents, his great-granduncle, his grandparents, his uncle, and Kushina to have a peaceful rest in the pure lands or wherever they are. He then made another silent prayer for his mother, his sisters, and Akari to have long, fulfilling lives.
Where is Minato, his father, from his prayers, you ask?
He has to do something before praying for a peaceful rest for his father.
...
After finishing his prayers, Naruto turned to the wall on the right of the altar. The wall was empty and held nothing. Except it isn't what it seems.
Naruto bit his right thumb again before pressing his hand against what seemed like another invisible wall, almost half a meter in front of the wall.
And as Naruto pushed chakra into the invisible wall, it absorbed his chakra and blood before opening up like a curtain, revealing a wall filled with masks behind it.
Unlike the barrier outside, this barrier only answers to Naruto's blood and chakra and no one else.
Why?
It protects and preserves many artifacts that are all masks from the Uzumaki clan.
But one of them is so dangerous and can't fall into the wrong hands.
The Shinigami's mask.
The mask that Naruto came for today and just picked up from the rows and columns of masks hung on the wall.
Naruto looked deeply at the mask, feeling the very faint aura emitting from it. An aura similar to the one he felt from behind his father when he sealed Kurumi inside him.
Why leave such a mask here?
Well, Naruto had made sure that no one would reach it. And at the same time, he felt that bringing this mask to the Senju compound would be like bringing a bad omen to where his family lives. It's the mask of the death god after all.
As Naruto walked to a nearby room inside the shrine, the barrier on the wall of masks closed again.
The room that Naruto entered was empty, with nothing in it. This was supposed to be the room where a miko, priest, or shaman from the Uzumaki lived. But it was never used, even before Naruto restored the place.
The room would fit perfectly with what he was about to do next.
You see, Minato wasn't exactly resting in peace. He had used the Reaper Death Seal (Shiki Fūjin), which led to his soul being taken by the Shingami as payment.
Being sealed in the Shinigami's stomach can't be called peaceful rest. So Naruto intends to change that.
Naruto attached the Shinigami mask to his belt before unsealing a sealing kit and drawing seals and Kanji script on the floor.
After a while, he stood up and looked at his handiwork. The most noticeable feature of the seal was the two empty circles on each side of the seal, surrounded and connected by seals and Kanji script.
This was a part of Naruto's two long-time projects that he started planning for since he finished his Chunin exams. One that he finished yesterday, freeing Kurumi, and the other is what he is currently doing.
'You sure about this, Naruto?' Kurumi asked with a bit of worry. She knows about what Naruto is planning to do.
'As sure as I can get. 'Naruto replied, which was enough for Kurumi to go quiet and watch.
Naruto then sealed back his sealing kit before unsealing a scroll; from it, he had unsealed three large prisoner transport scrolls.
The three prisoner scrolls contained the Jashin cult leader and two of his priests.
The third priest perished under Ibiki's care. Being buried alive after a long time of 'care' under Ibiki's hand.
For a time, all shinobi feel a dread crawl up their spines from seeing Ibiki wear an excited and sadistic smile, while very few know why. Naruto is one of them.
Naruto unsealed the cult leader and one of his priests and put each one in a designated circle in the seal he drew earlier. Both leader and subordinate were unconscious, seemingly dead, with a lot of seals covering their bodies.
He laid the priest on his stomach on the floor in the middle of one of the circles before taking out a small box he was carrying in his flak jacket pocket and putting it on the priest's back. Then he unsealed the priest's chakra but left him unconscious.
He then turned to the cult leader in the other circle and stood him up on his knees. He then unsealed the leader's chakra and removed the seal that kept him unconscious. Though he unsealed the leader's chakra, other seals were in effect, preventing the leader from moving, accessing it, or using any of his abilities, especially the blood-related ones.
Naruto stood for a few moments while looking down at the cult leader, waiting for him to wake up. Unlike regular shinobi, who would need days to fully overcome the effects of their consciousness being sealed or being put into deep sleep. These Jashin cultists had an absurd recovery rate, making them wake up a few seconds after the seal on their consciousness was lifted.
Naruto watched as the cult leader's eyelids trembled slightly for a moment before opening. He looked confused and disoriented for a moment before hatred, madness, and malice filled his face as he looked up at Naruto.
"You..."
The moment he tried to speak, Naruto's right hand clamped onto his neck and held him there as they looked at each other face to face.
The next moment, Naruto's usually sapphire-blue eyes disappeared, and his three-tomoe Sharingan appeared in their place. They glowed slightly as the tomoe rotated while Naruto looked into the cult leader's eyes.
For a moment, nothing seemed to happen before the cult leader started to chuckle, then turned to full-blown maniacal laughter while Naruto looked at him with a raised eyebrow, with his Sharingan active.
"You can't do anything to me. I am Jashin-sama's most beloved follower. You can try everything, but it won't work, as I am under my lord's protection. Just count your days, you filthy mortal. The moment I am able to free myself, I will make you feel so much pain you will regret even being alive. I will have you sacrificed to Jashin-sama to show how thankful I am for him always being on my side." The cult leader said with a tone that was so unhinged and fanatical it had passed the line of being disturbing.
But that didn't seem to affect Naruto in the slightest.
"Is that so?" Naruto said calmly before a wide grin appeared on his face while he pushed more chakra into his eyes.
The three tomoe in each eye merged before another form appeared and stabilized into the shape of an eight-bladed shuriken in each eye.
Almost immediately, the cult leader went rigid and trembled at the sight of these eyes and the sudden spike of Yin chakra coming from them before everything went dark.
...
The world seemed dark for a moment before the sight of a huge humanoid creature appeared in front of the cult leader while they were surrounded by what seemed to be an infinite dark void.
The creature was enormous, its body seeming made of stuttering and streaking lines of dark gold, red, white, and black. Its face was almost featureless, with only two huge, round hollow white eyes and a face-splitting white grin.
The cult leader trembled at the sight but couldn't move as the creature held him in its left hand. Then it lifted its right hand and, with the very tips of its fingers, held the head of the cult leader.
The moment the finger touched his head, the cult leader's eyes rolled back, and his mouth foamed slightly as he stopped trembling and moving altogether.
...
Naruto let go of the cult leader's throat as he took half a step back. The cult leader was just there on his knee with a vacant look on his face and eyes.
'I knew that they had some resistance to genjutsu, but he seemed to have much higher resistance, needing me to activate the Mangekyo to be able to control him through genjutsu,' Naruto thought to himself.
"You can boast about anything you want, but nothing can escape these eyes. Not even Bijuu. So how will you?" Naruto said with a mocking smile, looking down at the cult leader, knowing he wouldn't get a reply.
'Oy. I despise that statement. 'Kurumi's voice came filled with irritation
'But it's true.' Naruto replied
'It doesn't mean I like it.' Kurumi replied with a huff, making Naruto chuckle before he approached the cult leader again and unsealed his ability to move.
"Now let's begin." Naruto said with a serious tone as he reached for the Shinigami mask on his belt.
Naruto stood there and offered the mask to the cult leader, who stood up in a way that seemed as if he were a doll whose strings got pulled.
The controlled cult leader reached for the mask, took it, and put it on his face.
Almost immediately, a burst of chakra and a dreadful and cold feeling filled the room, and the cult leader's movement seemed to be hijacked for a moment.
He swayed for a moment before standing perfectly upright with his arms stretched to his sides, away from him and lining up with his shoulders.
But that wasn't what Naruto was looking at; his eyes were wide as he looked behind the cult leader.
He didn't know if it was because his Mangekyo was active or because he had a chakra connection with the cult leader due to Naruto controlling him. But he could see the Shinigami behind the cult leader.
It had manifested in the same position the cult leader was standing in, with a tanto in its mouth.
Naruto had read about the Shinigami's description from the Uzumaki scrolls that Kushina left. But reading and seeing are two different things. The Shinigami's presence is dreadful and unbelievably cold. Seeing it added to that effect.
Naruto looked at the Shinigami as it took the tanto from its mouth, licked the whole length of it before stabbing its own abdomen, and stashed it open diagonally.
The same wound appeared on the cult leader as he started to bleed profusely, but he just stood there, seemingly unaffected. He wouldn't be able to react, and even if he could react, pain doesn't affect him.
From the cut on the Shinigami, something seemed to escape and float around in the room as the Shinigami disappeared and the cult leader's hands fell to his sides like a doll whose strings were cut.
Naruto retrieved the mask from the cult leader's face and attached it back to his belt before turning to the priest lying on the ground.
His hands blurred through hand signs.
Tiger - Snake - Dog - Dragon - Clap hands
He then slapped his palms onto the ground and released chakra into his jutsu.
Kuchiyose: Edo Tensei no jutsu (Summoning jutsu: Impure WorldReincarnation)
The next moment, the circle around the priest began to glow. Next, the priest was forcefully awakened as what was floating descended into the priest, making him start to scream in pure pain and agony as what seemed like a huge amount of scraps of paper started to cover him while forcefully making him stand up.
A moment later, the scraps of paper retracted from the head of a familiar form that seemed to appear while screaming before it, stabilizing while the extra scraps of paper disappeared, leaving Naruto to look at someone whom he had seen die seven years ago.
In the jonin attire and covered by his Hokage robes, Minato Namikaze looked exactly like the day he died, except for the slightly pale, cracked look that appeared on his form and face, along with the black sclera that surrounded his bright blue eyes.
Naruto had a sad look on his face, along with a small smile of accomplishment, before he started to weave hand signs again.
Kai (release)
Minato's form began to crumble as his eyes widened before a soft smile appeared on his face as his form fully disintegrated, leaving the dead husk of the priest behind while his soul ascended upwards.
Naruto let a tear fall from his face as he looked up.
He never intended to study the Edo Tensei; he never intended to use it. To him, nothing is more disrespectful than disturbing the dead. Those who died deserve their rest, especially the good ones, without being called upon or summoned.
But Naruto was studying and preparing for something that had never been tried before. He had to make sure that the soul he freed from the Shinigami was his father's, not someone else's.
When he started to study and improve the Edo Tensei, he made a promise to himself. As soon as he was sure that his father was free from the Shinigami, he would release him to his well-earned rest no matter how much he wanted to take or spend time with his father.
All he wanted to do was allow his father his well-deserved peaceful rest. So he just did that.
Standing there, Naruto made a silent prayer for his father to finally have the peace that he deserved.
As he finished, he couldn't help but chuckle to himself, imagining his father meeting Kushina-nee-san in the afterlife. He was sure that Kushina would hug Minato deeply and welcome him before scolding him roughly about using the Reaper Death Seal in the first place and having Naruto go through all this forbidden knowledge and danger to be able to free him.
'Well, at least they will have each other now.' Naruto said with a warm, sad smile
He then looked at the priest that he used for Edo Tensei; he was dead. Being used for the jutsu leads to an excruciating death, no matter how much the priest's immortality helped.
But that one died an easy death compared to what he had done before.
Naruto looked with a cold expression at the cult leader, who was still alive but bleeding profusely. He survived somehow.
Naruto expected that; that is why he had brought the two priests.
As Naruto unsealed the second priest, he let go of his control over the cult leader.
He needed to feel and witness what happened to him next.
...
A minute later, from outside the Uzumaki shrine;
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH"
...
An hour later;
Naruto sat quietly on the steps of the Uzumaki Shrine. With a cup of tea and a filling lunch that he was enjoying. He appreciated the peace and quiet that surrounded him after such a hectic day.
He had just finished disposing of the three bodies of the cult leader and his priests in a way that would never make them be found again.
He had controlled the second priest with his Sharingan to perform the Reaper Death Seal. He then had the priest go as slowly as possible, using the Shinigami to take the soul of the cult leader in the most painful and excruciating way possible.
In the end, both were dead as the Shinigami took their souls.
It was a great irony, really; the cult leader was used as a sacrifice/vessel to free Minato before being taken by the same deity for eternity. He always preached about how great Jashin is and how he was so proud of the immortality he gained; let the death god take care of him for eternity.
It ended on a good note for Naruto; he freed his father and got rid of all the Jashinists.
Naruto feels that the Shinigami, if it could feel, would see it as more than a satisfying exchange. Freeing his father and giving the Shinigami the souls of the Jashinists.
All in all, this part was over. Now Naruto can enjoy the rest of his day off, as he will be returning to his ANBU duties tomorrow.
To be continued.
Guys and gals, show me those powerstones.
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I hope you all enjoyed the chapter.
(A/N: That's a long chapter.)
...
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