Ethereal Cave
The Foundation
Danzo was looking at the team he assembled in front of him. It wasn't his most elite squad, it wasn't even in the top half of all of them, but they didn't need to be super elite. They just needed to pick a couple of people off at a time in the territory he wanted them to.
"You are being sent over to the Land of Whirlpools. Your mission while you're there is to weaken the forces of Uzushiogakure as much as you can and send their bodies back here once you collect them. If you are caught, you are to end your own life. Understand?"
"Yes, Lord Danzo," all six of them replied in sync.
"Go and uphold the honor of the Leaf Village."
With that, the six shinobi vanished, leaving Danzo in his dimly lit chamber.
'For the sake of Konoha's future, I must act. Allowing them to flourish unchecked would endanger the Leaf's supremacy. This mission will also provide valuable insights into the Whirlpool's unique bloodline clans and perhaps we could try to recreate them.'
His exposed eye narrowed at a recent thought that's been floating around his head. 'While Kushina may not be our ideal Jinchuriki due to her foreign origins, her offspring will be invaluable assets to the Leaf. We must not depend on external nations for a way to secure the Kyuubi. We had Lord Hashirama in the past and Mito now, but after she dies, our best fuinjutsu expert will be gone and we'll be left vulnerable. I need to ensure that we stand independent from every other nation after this war. The only people we need to rely on are our selves.'
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"It seems to be over this way," I called out as I was walking towards a flat stone surface.
"This just seems like a wall to me," Kiyoko, looking at the wall, murmured.
"To the untrained eye and also a non-sensor in does, but to me, it seems like they weren't trying to hide this area well at all. There's residual chakra leaking out of every seal placed around here," I said while looking around at the different seals placed.
"Concealment, explosive, trap, jutsu, reinforcement seals. They have quite the variety of seals around this cave. Perhaps these were hidden really well for a while but only now did the seals' effects start to wear off," I mused as I started to disable the multitude of different seals around.
Unraveling jutsu is really easy and honestly probably one of the most rewarding things you can do as you're learning how to make and perfect seals. The fact that you are able to see how a certain person made a seal and thinking about how you might be able to improve on it has helped me a lot with my sealing arts.
About 10 minutes later, the cave entrance was revealed to us in its entirety. Not only was the entrance huge but there seemed to be an ethereal glow coming from it.
"Alright, here's the deal. I'm gonna take the lead going into the cave. I want you guys to be watching out for anything inside the cave that is a possible enemy or thing of interest. Listen to your gut feeling and if you guys start feeling any adverse effects, then we will extract you if you feel that you need it. Understood?"
"Yes, sensei." We all replied as we took a step towards the entrance and entered.
"Wow, this place really is cool looking," Kiyoko spoke up as she was watching what looked like glowing purple water flow beneath the veins of the cave.
"The question is, what is it holding that the cave needed all those seals to keep it safe?" Benimaru asked as he looked closely at a crystal hanging off one of the ceiling veins.
Getting a sudden urge, I picked up a rock and chucked it at the hanging crystal wanting to see if it shattered but before it could hit the crystal, it opened up what looked like wings and flew away.
Me, Kiyoko, and Benimaru all stared at the crystal that grew wings and flew away while our sensei snorted in front of us.
"Was that a bat?" Benimaru asked still looking at the crystalline creature that flew away.
"Could it be possible that the bat is a product of whatever is in this cave?" I mumbled under my breath but it was caught by our sensei.
"It very well could be Shiran, we won't know until we get there and check it out though so let's get a move on it," Hanzo-sensei grumbled back continuing on our path.
We all kept moving towards the center of the cave as we got closer to the center, more sealing traps started to pop up. Along with the amount of seals picking up was the crystallization of the cave. When we first started walking there wasn't too many crystals anywhere but where we are right now there seems to be more and more crystals with every step.
'It's like the cave itself is transforming.' I thought to myself.
"Shiran, get up here and disable any traps you see along the way," Sensei ordered as I nodded and got to work unraveling and disabling the seals that were planted all around the cave system.
Along the way, we saw a couple of crystallized mice and a few more bats. All of these occurrences though, becoming way more frequent the further we go into the cave.
Feeling the weird chakra signature coming from Benimaru, I turned around with a questioning gaze. "You ok back the-" I didn't get to finish my sentence as I looked at Benimaru.
Benimaru suddenly stopped and looked a little pale. "Is it just me or did anyone else get extremely light-headed and tired all of a sudden?" He slurred out as he went to put his hand out and lean on the cave for support.
BZZZZZZZZ
An enormous amount of purple lightning arced out of the wall that he put his hand on making Benimaru convulse.
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70 powerstones for an extra chapter
120 for 2 extra