Chapter 246 : Eight Gate Lock-Up

[A/N: Bonus chapter. We reached 3321 Power Stones in the last week! Highest ever so far! Keep it up guys.]

'Water Release: Water Needles jutsu'

Water split into hundreds of drops. Each drop turned into a needle and rained at Yamanaka Ken. Ken immediately flickered out of the way while making his hand seal. He flickered once again to get close to his opponent.

'Mind Destruction Jutsu'

His opponent immediately moved out of the way and jumped on a branch behind him. Suddenly, his eyes widened. A Vacuum bullet hit his chest and pierced straight through it. However, his body turned into water and collapsed. A few meters behind him, his body appeared once again. He looked at Fujin and said, "You can hide your chakra. No wonder I didn't sense you back then. But now that I know it, hiding it is useless."

Fujin didn't reply but Ken flickered close to him once again and tried using the same jutsu. The SealMaster took out a scroll and jumped back on the ground to dodge Ken's attack. He opened the scroll and smeared his blood across it and weaved a few hand signs rapidly.

Fujin frowned and wondered, 'Is he attempting to reverse summon himself somehow?'

Chakra gathered in his mouth as he shot a few Vacuum Bullets at him. At the same time, Ken once again used the Mind Destruction jutsu. However, a black tortoise projection made entirely of chakra appeared between Fujin and the SealMaster. Fujin's Vacuum bullets hit the shell of the tortoise and were stopped. At the same time, an Azure Dragon projection appeared between Ken and him. The jutsu hit the Dragon but had no impact on him.

Fujin frowned as he analyzed, 'A barrier?'

At the same time, projections of a Vermillion Bird and a White Tiger were also formed around him. After tanking the jutsus, the projections collapsed and transformed into a barrier around him. The walls of the barrier had the image of those four mythical beasts. A smile formed on his face.

Fujin gathered a large amount of chakra while changing his location.

'Wind Release: Vacuum Cannon jutsu'

Fujin shot the powerful Vacuum Cannon at the wall which had the Vermillion Bird image. The entire barrier shook, but not a single crack appeared on it. The ninja inside the barrier also looked completely fine.

He taunted, "This is my strongest barrier. You can keep attacking for days, it won't fall! Your mind control jutsus will also not work against my barrier!"

Fujin was surprised. He analyzed, 'This barrier is smaller, but it is even more sturdy than the Four Violet Flames Formation. Worse, it doesn't look like it is using his chakra. I won't be able to crack it using Shadow Clone Explosions.

Fujin immediately snorted, "You are deep within the Land of Fire. Let me see how long you will keep hiding here."

He dispelled his clones and got some chakra back. He sat at some distance from the barrier in case the barrier had any more peculiar means. His eyes began glowing as he started observing the barrier properly.

Ken also replicated Fujin's actions and stood in the opposite direction. After some time, the other Yamanaka ninja arrived. He went to Ken to ask him for an update. A few seconds later, Guy and Kakashi arrived. Both were carrying the ones they captured.

Guy looked at the barrier and said, "I haven't seen such a barrier yet. What is it?"

Kakashi observed the barrier and replied, "Barrier Defence Seal Jutsu: Eight Gate Lock-Up. It's a wide-range barrier jutsu created by the Uzumaki clan to create a barrier around an entire village. Looks like he has a modified version of it to protect just himself."

The SealMaster's expression became grim after seeing the three Konoha ninjas arrive. It implied that every other Bounty hunter was killed. He replied, "As expected of the Copy Ninja Kakashi. Since you know about the barrier, you know that you wouldn't be able to break it like the Four Violet Flames Formation."

Kakashi replied, "Every barrier could be broken. Regardless, this is the Land of Fire. I could summon hundreds of ninjas and keep a watch on you until you can't maintain the barrier anymore."

The SealMaster laughed and said, "Hundreds of ninjas just for me? Hahaha. I never expected my life to be so precious for you to waste so much manpower on me."

Kakashi said, "It isn't. You won't be able to imagine the torture you'd be put under for wasting our time. So I'll give you an offer. Surrender now and I will ensure that no harm will come to you. Lord Hokage might even allow you to turn a new page in your life."

The SealMaster was surprised. He thought, 'I never imagined that Konoha would offer to recruit me.'

The offer was alluring. However, his eyes laid on the two Yamanakas and he rejected that idea, 'No, these two will read my memories. Once they do, they won't allow me to live.'

He opened another scroll and said, "It's a tempting offer. Unfortunately, I can't do it."

He made a confrontation hand seal. Immediately, dozens of explosion tags appeared from the scroll. A few stuck to his body while the rest stuck on the four symbols on the barrier. The Konoha ninjas immediately became alert.

In the next moment, all the explosion tags exploded! Fujin immediately flickered away. Kakashi slammed his hands on the ground.

'Earth Release: Earth Dome jutsu'

A dome appeared from the ground and covered him and Guy. At the same time, the last ninja grabbed Yamanaka Ken and escaped underground.

The barrier collapsed. The chakra of the SealMaster and within the barrier fueled the explosion and caused a fire to spread in all four directions! It also caused cracks to spread within the ground around the barrier.

Kakashi noticed that the ground under his feet as well as the dome had begun cracking. His expression became grim as he poured chakra into the ground to strengthen it.

The two Yamanakas who were escaping underground had it rough. As the ground cracked, some heat entered the ground.

After flickering a few times, Fujin turned around to see. The fire had spread for almost 300 meters from the explosion spot. He was surprised, 'What a crazy bastard! That barrier was a trap. He didn't intend to protect himself. He just wanted to use its chakra to amplify the explosions from those tags. He even used all his own chakra to amplify the explosions!'

Soon, the explosion died down and only the fire remained. A few water dragons appeared in between the fire and moved through the fire and began dousing it. The water also entered into the cracks in the ground. The two Yamanakas sensed it and left the underground. Fujin sensed that they were all fine. So he flickered back towards where Kakashi was.

He first looked at the spot of the explosion. There was no sign of any dead body. The SealMaster's body was completely obliterated. Fujin looked at the two Yamanakas and asked, "Are you two alright?"

Both of them had several burns on their skin. Ken nodded and said, "It's fine. It's just minor burns."

He looked at Kakashi and asked, "Why did that bastard commit suicide? Wouldn't accepting your offer be much better for him?"

Kakashi replied, "More than suicide, it looked like he wanted to burn all the dead bodies. This way, we won't be able to gain any intel from them. Of course, if he managed to kill any of us, that would have been a bonus for him."

Ken looked around and frowned, "All the dead bodies will have been burnt by the fire. We won't be able to read their memories now. It looks like he wanted to hide something crucial."

He looked at the two ninjas that Kakashi and Guy had captured and added, "Information that these two wouldn't have."

Kakashi nodded and said, "Yes. I guess he didn't know about this."

He took out a scroll and opened it. He made a hand seal and Renzo's body popped out.

He said, "I had stored his body as he was likely their leader. Read his memories."

Yamanaka Ken nodded and immediately got to work. He placed his palm on the forehead of the dead body and inserted his chakra into his head to inspect his memories.

Fujin's eyes were glued to him. The Yamanaka clan's ability to read memories of dead bodies was something he had wanted for some time. Unfortunately, he didn't get to visit the T&I department frequently. During his time in the Anbu, he had only seen it being done thrice.

Fujin analyzed, 'Just like before, the chakra that invades the brain of the dead body is pure Yin chakra. It is almost entirely the opposite of medical ninjutsu. But, how exactly does this work?'

Despite observing it for the fourth time, he didn't have any idea about the internal workings of the jutsu. Though he had killed hundreds of people, his Anbu squad would always be close by. He never got to experiment on the dead bodies. And he had no intention of experimenting on the only dead body still in his possession.

[A/N : Bonus chapter on next Sunday if the fic gets 1000 Power Stones. Bonus chapter on next week's Saturday if the fic gets 2000 Power Stones.]

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