Probing and Speculation

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"If you can do it, come try."

Facing an elite jonin like the captain of the Hidden Stone beheading unit, the current Naoki felt no fear. He stepped forward, and killing intent poured from him without concealment.

Naoki understood exactly why the Hidden Stone shinobi had provoked them.

Without question, the impact of the Fourth Hokage and the Nine-Tails jinchuriki dying unexpectedly was still spreading. The weaker Hidden Sand and Hidden Mist were currently behaving, but the powerful Hidden Cloud and Hidden Stone had already begun growing restless.

But the more that was true, the more Naoki felt he could not back down.

Probing did not stop because the target retreated. On the contrary, the more one retreated, the more aggressive the probing became.

Feeling Naoki's killing intent wash over him, the Hidden Stone captain narrowed his eyes. His hand slowly moved to the hilt of the short blade at his waist. He sensed that Naoki was not bluffing.

On Naoki's side, Kakashi, Guy, and Shisui immediately took combat stances. Across from them, the members of the Hidden Stone beheading unit also grew alert.

In an instant, the shrine hall was filled with tension.

The priestess on the cushion stepped forward at the right time and advised them, "Honored shinobi, please set aside your prejudices for now. The otherworldly demon is almost here."

Both sides understood that infighting with the demon about to arrive was not wise. Each took a step back, maintaining temporary peace.

Pakura, who had been watching in silence, asked the priestess, "Your Highness, please explain the current situation to us."

The priestess nodded. "What we face is an otherworldly demon named Moryo. To my shame, it was summoned from another realm by a group of cultists in this country called the Yomi Sect."

"The barrier I arranged can stop Moryo and the terracotta warrior puppets it controls, but it cannot stop the cultists of the Yomi Sect. So before Moryo arrives, it will certainly order those cultists to attack this place."

"Once Moryo breaks through here, it will have no more restraints. The entire world will become hell under its madness."

After hearing the priestess's explanation, everyone's expression darkened.

Although they had not yet seen the otherworldly demon itself, they had already fought the indestructible terracotta warrior puppets. They knew that if those puppets spread across the entire shinobi world, the situation would become impossible to clean up.

Kakashi asked directly, "Your Highness, do you have a way to deal with this demon?"

The priestess gently stroked the little girl dozing on her lap and said, "I can seal Moryo, but the sealing site must be Demon-Sealing Mountain in the Land of Swamps."

The news that the otherworldly demon could be sealed was clearly good. But the sealing site had to be Demon-Sealing Mountain far away in the Land of Swamps, which made everyone hesitate.

Pakura folded one arm and supported her chin with the other hand. "Then how do we lure the demon to Demon-Sealing Mountain?"

The priestess smiled warmly. "You need not worry. I am the greatest threat to that demon. As long as I go to Demon-Sealing Mountain, it will certainly follow."

Kakashi immediately took out the map he carried and spread it on the ground.

Although the Land of Swamps bordered the Land of Demons, Demon-Sealing Mountain was still more than a hundred kilometers from the priestess's palace. Considering that the priestess herself was not a shinobi, and that the route included dangerous mountains and swift rivers, the path had to be planned carefully.

After thinking for a moment, Pakura said, "The terracotta warrior puppets outside are not the real problem. As long as we break through their encirclement, those slow things cannot catch us."

The captain of the Hidden Stone beheading unit nodded. "Yes. The real problem is the demon and those cultists."

The cultists of the Yomi Sect had originally been only a group of low-level shinobi. Their leader, Yomi, had merely been at jonin level. But now that they had received Moryo's power, they possessed nearly inexhaustible evil chakra and could use ninjutsu without restraint, even large-scale combination ninjutsu. Their threat level had risen sharply.

Considering how difficult the situation would become if those cultists pursued them all the way to Demon-Sealing Mountain, Pakura said with killing intent, "Instead of being attacked on the road by Moryo and the Yomi Sect, we should use the fact that this barrier can block the demon and the terracotta warrior puppets. We eliminate the Yomi Sect first, then escort the priestess to the Land of Swamps."

The captain of the Hidden Stone beheading unit said, "That is our thought as well."

Kakashi nodded. "We have no objection."

With Konoha, the Hidden Sand, and the Hidden Stone in agreement, the priestess's palace immediately mobilized, preparing for the fierce battle that was about to come.

Because of the Byakugan and Eight Trigrams Palms Revolving Heaven, Naoki possessed both insight and defense. He was assigned to the shrine hall to personally protect the priestess and her daughter.

Unlike the others, who were full of worry, Naoki was not especially concerned about the current situation. His thoughts were still on the artificial Tailed Beast.

As his exploration of the Tenseigan gradually deepened, he had a vague feeling that the thing currently limiting his strength was nothing other than the amount of chakra inside his body.

He faintly sensed that only by possessing more chakra would he be able to open the Tenseigan's other abilities.

Thinking of Nagato, who possessed the Rinnegan, made this easy to understand.

After Madara Uchiha transplanted the Rinnegan into Nagato, Nagato did not immediately gain the Rinnegan's abilities as a child. Only after his parents were killed and he suffered intense shock did he awaken part of the Rinnegan's power.

Later, when Nagato became an adult, his body fully developed, and he once again suffered the intense shock of Yahiko's death, he finally awakened all the Rinnegan's abilities.

The price was that his body could not bear the burden and became withered and emaciated.

Nagato had been an Uzumaki clan member carefully selected by Madara Uchiha for the purpose of resurrecting himself, and the Uzumaki clan was known for powerful vitality and enormous chakra volume.

Even so, the adult Nagato still could not bear the fully awakened Rinnegan.

Part of that was because the Rinnegan was not truly his, but more importantly, a kekkei genkai at the Rinnegan's level placed extremely harsh demands on its user.

Because of that, Naoki even suspected that the reason his Tenseigan had not awakened more abilities was that it was instinctively protecting him. His current body was clearly not yet qualified to support the Tenseigan in a fully awakened state.

That was why he pursued an artificial Tailed Beast so persistently. He needed a battery that could continuously provide him with chakra. Only with a massive amount of chakra would he dare explore the mysteries of the Tenseigan freely.

Otherwise, if one careless experiment left him like Nagato, overdrawn of vitality, skin and bones, and as weak as a sick man, the loss would outweigh any gain.

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