Chapter 324: Sealing Technique Array

Chapter 324: Chapter 324: Sealing Technique Array

Under the effects of two layers of genjutsu, Shisui was certain that Shinno couldn’t possibly be lying. With a grave expression, he asked Hyuga Kagami, "Does Kagami-senpai know about all of this intelligence?"

Leaning against the wall with his arms folded across his chest, Hyuga Kagami gave a slight nod.

Kagami understood Akatsuki’s situation better than anyone.

With Akatsuki’s current combat strength, as long as its members stuck together, flattening Konoha would be an easy task.

In the original timeline, Pain’s excessive arrogance had allowed the Akatsuki members to be defeated one by one, greatly diminishing the organization’s overall combat strength.

Even so, Akatsuki had still successfully captured every Tailed Beast except the Eight-Tails and Nine-Tails. They had been only a single step away from filling the Gedo Statue and resurrecting the Ten-Tails.

And Pain himself had single-handedly swept through Konoha, practically destroying the greatest shinobi village in the entire shinobi world all by himself.

If he hadn’t later been moved by Naruto and chosen to use the Samsara of Heavenly Life Technique to resurrect the large number of Konoha shinobi who had died—including Kakashi—Konoha would likely have survived in name only.

Shisui pressed further, "Even the matter of the Rinnegan... Kagami-senpai knows about that too?"

Kagami nodded. "That’s precisely why Lord Kagami wants to take control of this aerial fortress. The enemies we’re facing are far stronger than we imagined!"

After thinking for a moment, Itachi interrogated Shinno, "What abilities does the Rinnegan possess?"

Shinno shook his head blankly.

Pain rarely took action himself. Among the Akatsuki members, it seemed that only a handful of veterans such as Kakuzu, Orochimaru, and Jūzō Biwa had ever witnessed Pain’s true strength. So although Shinno was also very interested in the Rinnegan, he hadn’t managed to gather much information about its abilities.

Seeing that Shisui and Itachi were nearly finished with their interrogation, Hyuga Kagami instructed Itachi, "Itachi, go outside and confirm the situation. Lord Kagami wants us to seize this aerial fortress without anyone knowing, so we can’t leave any survivors behind."

The remnants of the Land of Sky had to be completely eliminated.

There were simply too many parts of this aerial fortress that needed repairs, making it impossible to relocate anytime soon. Therefore, Kagami couldn’t allow the remnants of the Land of Sky to spread word that Kamigami had attacked this place and seized the aerial fortress.

"Understood!"

Itachi acknowledged the order and immediately left the power room.

Kagami then turned to Shisui. "Before sealing Shinno, I need to rearrange the sealing formulas here. While I’m doing that, control Shinno and have him find all the supplies the Land of Sky has hidden away!"

There was no reason to let anything go to waste.

Since they’d already made their move, Kagami naturally wasn’t about to pass up the supplies the Land of Sky remnants had accumulated.

After all, right now, he was completely broke.

Without hesitation, Shisui controlled the genjutsu-bound Shinno and led him out of the power room.

After sending Shisui and Itachi away, Kagami walked several laps around the power room.

The chamber was enormous, spacious enough to accommodate Shinno even in his fully transformed Tailed Beast state. So after weighing his options, Kagami decided to first have Shinno undergo a complete Tailed Beast Transformation—and then seal him.

The reason Kagami chose this approach was that once Shinno underwent a complete Tailed Beast Transformation, extracting chakra from him would be much easier than while he remained in a sealed state.

And the amount of chakra required by the aerial fortress was undoubtedly astronomical. Therefore, only while fully transformed into a Tailed Beast could Shinno supply the enormous amount of chakra the fortress required.

Of course, a complete Tailed Beast Transformation also meant instability. So Kagami would need to design an extremely powerful sealing array to ensure that absolutely nothing went wrong.

"I’ll use the Four Symbols Seal as the foundation!"

If stability were the only consideration, the Priestess lineage’s sealing techniques would undoubtedly be the best choice. However, while the Priestess lineage’s sealing techniques were exceptionally powerful at isolating chakra, they lacked a method for extracting it.

By comparison, the Uzumaki Clan’s sealing techniques, which had been specifically developed to deal with Tailed Beasts, were far more practical in this regard.

The defining feature of the Uzumaki Clan’s sealing techniques was that they could both isolate chakra and extract it, allowing the chakra of the sealed entity to be drawn out and used by the host. This made them the ideal choice for jinchūriki.

The Four Symbols Seal was a quintessential example of the Uzumaki Clan’s sealing techniques—and it was also the sealing technique Kagami was most proficient with.

Rubbing his chin, Kagami gradually formed a rough plan.

Precisely because he was so proficient with the Four Symbols Seal, Kagami knew very well that its isolating power couldn’t compare to the sealing techniques of the Priestess lineage.

So his plan was simple.

Since this power room had so much space, why not take advantage of it and arrange hundreds—even thousands—of Four Symbols Seals throughout the chamber, forming a massive Four Symbols Sealing Array?

By sheer quantity, he could reinforce their overall strength and compensate for the insufficient isolating power of any single Four Symbols Seal.

Kagami was a man of action through and through. Once he had an idea, he wouldn’t waste time hesitating over it.

He immediately formed a series of hand seals and shouted, "Shadow Clone Technique!"

Poof...

After a burst of white smoke, four shadow clones appeared beside Kagami.

Including his original body, five Kagamis immediately got to work throughout the power room.

The sealing formulas Kagami was inscribing weren’t simply being mindlessly stacked on top of one another. Instead, they were arranged as an interconnected array, with each seal linked to the next.

Because of this, he needed to activate several Four Symbols Seals along the same section of the array simultaneously in order to maintain equilibrium.

That was precisely why he’d used the Shadow Clone Technique to create so many shadow clones.

And this wasn’t something just anyone could pull off.

To construct a sealing technique array, one not only needed an extremely thorough understanding of the sealing techniques being used, but also had to expend an enormous amount of chakra to maintain the balance of the entire array before it could be fully activated.

Without the support of the Dragon Vein’s chakra, even Kagami wouldn’t have been able to put such a bold plan into practice.

Working on five sets of Four Symbols Seals at once, Kagami soon completed a staggering five hundred sets.

The enormous power room was now covered from floor to wall with densely packed sealing formulas, all glowing faintly with chakra.

"Phew..."

Kagami let out a soft breath and wiped the sweat from his forehead.

Maintaining five hundred Four Symbols Seals in an activated state simultaneously was just about Kagami’s limit, even with the support of the Dragon Vein’s chakra. He had no choice but to stop there.

By Kagami’s estimation, a full five hundred sets of Four Symbols Seals should be more than enough to securely seal Shinno even after his complete Tailed Beast Transformation.

And once the final seal was completed, the chakra required to maintain those five hundred Four Symbols Seals would no longer be supplied by Kagami. Instead, that burden would be transferred directly onto the sealed Shinno himself.

He would have to supply the chakra needed to maintain five hundred Four Symbols Seals while simultaneously providing the enormous amount of chakra required to power the aerial fortress.

No matter how vast Shinno’s chakra reserves were as Mōryō’s jinchūriki, under such an overwhelming burden, there probably wouldn’t be much chakra left for him to use to break free of the seal...