Sealing the Gedo Statue

Araki had let his consciousness enter Kushina's mindscape a lot of times. He had also seen the mindscape of Orochimaru. Although it wasn't a pleasant place, he felt that it was far better than his current location.

This was pure darkness. Araki couldn't see anything in this pitch-black darkness. He could feel his chakra but couldn't exit this place through it. Right now, he felt his consciousness was falling in a bottomless cliff.

There seemed no end to this.

Although he didn't want to, Araki felt like he had no choice now. He had to feed this thing even more chakra for it to show a response. The moment it does, he was going to recall his consciousness to his body.

And just like that, Araki kept on sending his chakra into the Gedo Statue. Only when he felt like 90% of his chakra has been eaten by the Gedo Statue did he feel something.

A faint reddish light hits his face as he raises his head a little. In the sky, far beyond his position, he saw a crimson eye-opening with 9 Tomoe. The colour and tomoe reminded Araki of Sharingan. However, Sharingan clearly couldn't match it in terms of power or anything.

At that moment, he also sensed the way to return. With no hesitation, Araki controlled his consciousness to go that way and get out of this Gedo Statue.

After his consciousness returned to his body, he realised he was drenched in sweat. That was quite frightening…

Araki also realised something. He understood why Uchiha Madara stole and injected himself with Hashirama's cells. It was because Madara wanted to evolve himself. He wanted to gain the power equivalent to the Sage of Six Paths.

At that moment, Araki wondered 'He grabbed hold of grandpa's cells to unify the Senju and Uchiha clan in his body to transcend and reach the equivalent power to Sage of Six Paths. If Madara was able to control the Gedo Statue, I should be able to do the same with my Wood Release.'

At that moment, he remembered something. It was in his grandfather's scroll of Jutsus. His grandfather had many Wood Release Jutsus, but there was one Jutsu he had mentioned that must never be used without acquiring the Sage Mode.

Sage Art Wood Release: True Several Thousand Hands.

Sage Mode… Perhaps this could assist him in transcending above the world.

After acquiring Sage Mode, there was a chance he could have enough chakra to connect to this Gedo Statue and control it.

Just as he was thinking of this, Uzumaki Clan Members arrived.

They were shocked to see the Gedo Statue, but upon Araki's order, they immediately got to work.

They tried out many seals before one of them worked. The Gedo Statue was sealed inside a Golden Vase. After that, 13 Seals were placed on the entrance of this Golden Vase just to prevent it from opening. This Vase wasn't something special or any instrument left behind by Sage of Six Paths.

The reason Uzumaki Clan Members could seal the Juubi's husk into this Golden Vase was that this Husk contained no chakra. The only chakra it contained was the chakra it recently received from Araki, and it was dispersing quickly because there was no one to control that chakra.

After having sealed the Gedo Statue, Araki asked them to return to Konoha.

Although Araki wasn't sure if this would keep the Gedo Statue inside the seal, there was nothing more he could do.

13 was the most number of seals could stack on top of each other. Moreover, these 13 were the best seals which were available in the Uzumaki Clan.

Yet, Araki had a faint feeling that this wouldn't be enough to contain that boundless power. The strength which had suppressed him entirely at that moment.

He had heard from his grandmother Mito that his grandfather was able to suppress 8 Bijuu at the same time with his Wood Release. The only remaining Bijuu, the one-tailed beast was left behind because it had already been sealed by Suna Village. There was no way the one-tailed beast could have resisted him, though. This wasn't what he merely believe, but a fact.

This meant that his grandfather may have had the power to suppress the 9 Tailed Beasts at the same time. Although the 10 Tailed Beast, which was the combination of them all would be considerably stronger with all their power condensed into one, he wondered if his grandpa would be able to defeat it or not.

Closing his eyes, he took a deep breath before calming down and thinking 'That thing has left a long-lasting impression on me with its power. I need to stop thinking of power for some time. I guess it would be better to let nature go along its course.'

After returning to the Senju Clan, he wondered what he should do next. Should he go and meet his sensei Sakumo? Or go to Orochimaru before getting hold of his grandpa's cells? Maybe he could find Black Zetsu there…

He closed his eyes and tried to sense Orochimaru in Konoha. He was surprised when he felt Orochimaru's chakra nearing the Senju Clan Manor.

Araki opened his mouth and wondered 'I see… He really sent his Shadow Clone with grandpa's cells.'

He was somewhat surprised to see that Orochimaru was so obedient. It seems Orochimaru feared him more than he imagined.

Yet, just as that thought entered his mind, he shook his head 'No… I can't underestimate them. In fact, I need to overestimate them. Let's see… If I was at their position… Grandpa's cells that Orochimaru sends me can be all that he has or maybe not. Let's say if he does send all the cells he has, but what if he maintains contact with that annoying Black Zetsu? Wouldn't he receive another supply of grandpa's cells from somewhere? Even in that cave, I saw no signs of grandpa's body or his cells.'

Although this was all his speculation, he didn't believe he was entirely wrong. Dealing with this snake, he needed to be trickier.

If only he knew that this snake had his grandpa's cells, he could have used a better tactic earlier to force him into a dead end. Now, he was a little late to be changing tactics. He needed to adapt to the situation.

Soon enough, Orochimaru's Shadow Clone handed over Hashirama's cells to the Wood Clone of Senju Araki who had gone out to grab them. The two didn't even exchange a word before Orochimaru's Shadow clone dispersed.

Araki's Wood Clone returned with a blank look on his face. Araki stared at the white mass of flesh. These were his grandfather's cells?

He held that mass of flesh and got outside the mansion before burning it without a second thought.

He was well aware that he could also try the method of Uchiha Madara of injecting this flesh into his body. There was also less of a chance of his grandfather's cells rejecting his body.

Yet, the very thought of injecting his grandfather's cells into him nauseated him. To him, this method of acquiring power just didn't feel right. It was like making fun of himself. Perhaps the reason for using these cells for power might seem right in the eyes of men or shinobi, but he could only feel disgusted over this method.