Chapter 36

A ghost appeared in front of them. "Hello young ones"

"Who are you?" asked Mito.

"I am the ghost of Uzumaki Kani."

"Why should we care?" asked Naruto. This ghost might be his only shot at entering the village. He could escape at any point and come back years later with a proper understanding of seals by teleportation, but if he got the chance to enter now, he was taking it.

"Because I'm the only one who can help you out."

"You know how to break the seal?" asked Naruto with hope in his eyes.

"I do. I also know how to let you in without breaking the seal." said Kani.

"With what strings attached?"

To that, Kani gave Naruto an amused look. He said, "For letting you in, you're gonna have to resurrect me."

"Why would I do that? Moreover, how would I do that?" Naruto asked.

"With your Naraka path obviously." answered Kani like it wasn common sense.

"It's a soul for a soul. I can't just bring you back to life." said Naruto

"I know. Even fish will do the work. 2 dolphins, 500 sharks, a thousand goldfish, all the plankton in this lake..... 2 dogs, 2 foxes, any two mammals, even rats..... any two birds..... five reptiles, 50 amphibians or a 100-1000 fish. You could take two rats. Simplest. They're pests too."

"How are 2 rats equal to a human? Moreover, how are they worth more than snakes, toads, slugs, etc?"

"Rats are quite smart kiddo. While not powerful, they behave write similar to humans. They're also mammals like us. For value of souls you don't look at physical power of organisms. I'll explain it to you with the example of a crocodile. The same applies for snakes, toads, slugs, etc. I'm taking regular animals not summons here.

You look at mental capacity to value souls. What's the use of you're gigantic and powerful and nigh invincible if the only things you are capable of thinking is eating, sleeping and mating. A crocodile is only capable of these. But a rat is also capable of parenting unlike crocodiles. Rats care about their offspring. Crocodiles won't. That shows you that rats are more valuable than crocs. Rats also have better memories than crocodiles. They can also solve problems, unlike crocodiles. A rat can solve a large maze, a crocodile can't do more than one turn. Too many turns will overwhelm a crocodile and he'll never solve it. Any reptile or lesser animal can't solve mazes or puzzles. So yeah, a rat is worth more than snakes, toads, slugs, etc."

"Okay. Fine. Rats are with more than noon mammals. I get it. Bow where am I to get 2 rats in here?" asked Naruto.

Meanwhile Mito, who was listening to the both of them talk was perplexed at the fact that Naruto was willing to trust this guy. She was also angry that he didn't think it necessary to even look at her for agreement let alone advise. What was he thinking, just running into this without even consulting her.

Kani was about to say something but was interrupted by Mito.

She said, "Hey, Kani, why should we trust you? How do we know that you won't just leave us here and go away?"

"You can't. But if you wanna get out, you need my help. It's not like you can get out without me."

"How about this, you let us into the village, and we can ressurect you there." said Naruto. Mito was about to protest but Naruto looked at her with a look that said, 'I can take care of this'. So she kept quiet.

Kani asked, "And why should I trust you?"

Mito said, "We're caught up over here. If we can't get past this, there's probably no way we can get through the defenses within the village without your help. So yeah, we have reason to keep you with us."

Kani thought about it and said, "You do need me afterwards, but the question is, why do I need you outside this lake? You can't get out without me, can you? So you need me more urgently. And I have no need of you afterwards. So tell me why I should let you out before you resurrect me?"

"There is no sacrifice here." answered Naruto.

"The girl!" answered Kani.

"How long would it take for you to break the seal, once I ressurect you?"

"You still think you can rescue don't you? You think that I'll just tell you how long it'll take to break the seal? You think that this information will somehow help you escape, don't you? You think that you can talk me up for the small amout of time that it takes to break it, let me tell you something boy, it can't be broken in a short span of time and you will run out of oxygen before you can do it. Besides, you don't even know how to break this seal anyway. And as long as you are on earth, this seal will bring you back here assuming that you would be able to break the anti-teleportation seal complex" said Kani.

Naruto had not known that there was an anti-teleportation seal complex but he would work around it.