Seal is Broken

Natsume slept for a whole day and felt incredibly refreshed. She closed her eyes and spread her perception to the limit. Natsume discovered that she could cover the whole mountain up to the cloud barrier. This was a significant increase from before, most likely due to the intense training she underwent with Saru in the last month. Thinking about it, she sighed and looked up at the cloudy sky.

'There's only a few weeks left before I have to go.' Natsume thought about her time here and realized that it was in the middle of winter outside. Thinking about the passage of time, she realized she completely missed her eleventh birthday. She walked over to the wooden bowl of water in her cave and stared at the blurry reflection. The person in the reflection was vaguely familiar.

After she finished cleaning her body, she decided to head up to the peak. When she sensed earlier, she couldn't find any trace of Saru on the mountain. The path up seemed a lot shorter than the first two times she took it, and before long, she was standing on the stone platform once more. Looking up at the sky, she closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She quickly found Saru's location by the wall of ancestors.

"Natsume, here." He felt her approach and patted the floor next to him. She didn't think too much about it and sat down. Saru then clapped his hands together and a puff of smoke appeared between the two of them. A scroll unraveled in front of her, the contents already written out. As a dabbler in fuinjutsu, and having the memory of many summoning contracts, she quickly recognized the seals.

Saru had already left his chakra imprint on the contract, and a blank spot remained on the other end for the second party to sign. Natsume understood his intentions immediately and was hesitant to agree. "Saru, I am already contracted with a Snake Sage from Ryuchi Caves…"

"No. Not Mount Kakazan contract, Saru contract." Natsume looked at him strangely. It seemed that he did not want to make a contract as a Monkey Sage, but as himself. Although, she didn't think there was anything wrong with making contracts with two hidden sage lands, but she did not want to offend the Ryuchi Caves. Despite all that she learned at Mount Kakazan, she knew that Monkey Senjutsu was not the best fit for her.

In order to find her own path, she would still need access to Ryuchi Caves as reference material. She may even need to visit the other sage lands if possible if those two weren't enough. Ultimately, her goal was to mimic Hashirama and create her own path to Senjutsu. As for whether Hashirama was guided by one of the animal sages, it was possible, but chose to believe that he found the way on his own.

After a moment of hesitation, she saw the serious look on Saru's face and applied her hand to the contract. The scroll disappeared after she memorized the formula to summon him. The two of them were about to head back down the mountain and continue sparring when they both sensed a change in the Nature energy around the peak. If it were before, Natsume may not have noticed it, but now, she could sense a terrible chakra seeping into the surroundings.

"Somethings wrong." Natsume voiced out her inner thoughts.

"Bad." Saru agreed and nodded. Before they could investigate, they heard Enma's roar.

"Adamantine Staff, suppress!" The giant staff that seemed immovable and indominable finally budged. The rocks shifted around the point that it was stuck to the ground as it instantaneously transported near Natsume and Saru. Neither were alarmed because they could tell the staff's target was neither of them. Instead, it came down on top of the Yonbi's statue.

The statue cracked the ground below it when the staff slammed into it. Only then did Natsume notice a long vertical crack from the base of the statue reaching all the way up to the Yonbi's head. This was not caused by the impact, but rather from inside. The terrible chakra that was leaking out from the crack was quickly blocked by the power of the staff. However, it began to tremble, and the cracks spread rapidly.

"Not good!" Enma shouted and finally noticed Saru and Natsume standing nearby. He ran over to them and looked directly at Natsume. "You must leave. I cannot guarantee your safety."

Just as Natsume was going to ask what he meant, the statue burst apart, leaving only chunks of stone on the Yonbi's limbs and tails. He turned around and saw the three standing there. His eyes told her everything she needed to know. The pieces began to come together, and conclusions were drawn. Those eyes that stared back at her were none other than a Mangekyou Sharingan.

"Monkey King Enma… that person who attacked Mount Kakazan… was an Uchiha?" She understood the predicament they were in, but she couldn't stop herself from asking. She knew that Zetsu came here and seemed to destroy all of the sages somehow. Seeing the Yonbi's current state, she understood now that it may have been an Uchiha under his control. Or perhaps even a past Indra reincarnation.

Enma did not respond to her and just gave her a glare. He turned his attention to the Yonbi and tried to come up with a countermeasure. Despite being sealed for so long, Son Goku was still under the control of those despicable eyes, he thought. The Adamantine Staff no longer held him and was repelled. Instead of flying away, it returned to its previous position in the ground.

Natsume did not notice it before, but the space around Mount Kakazan seemed to become weaker. Once the staff returned to its position, the sky was stable again. 'The staff holds up the heavens.' Those words seemed to appear in her mind when she saw that phenomenon. It made no sense for such a giant mountain to not be found by the Earth shinobi. They weren't called hidden regions for nothing.

"Aaaarrggh-rraaaa" The Yonbi screamed as it felt the reigns loosen. It broke free from the restraints on one of its tails when a golden light shot out from the wall of ancestors. Phantasmal images of the old monkeys Natsume recognized from the Monkey Geri appeared and surrounded the Yonbi. Simultaneously, they put their palms together and five golden pillars pinned Yonbi to the ground.