Another Seal
"There should be no danger inside. There's only a sealing technique at the center."
Shiji peered inside carefully using the puppet's shared vision.
"Let's go in and take a look."
Seeing no immediate danger, Dafu strode forward impatiently and vanished from sight.
The remaining three glanced at one another before following quickly.
---
"What should we do now? We can't see what's going on inside. Should we just follow them in?"
After the Sand Ninja disappeared, Bai Ye and the others emerged from the shadows.
"I can actually sense what's happening inside. This sealing technique doesn't block chakra perception."
Kazuhiko raised his right hand, revealing a small insect perched on the joint of his index finger.
"If you can sense it, why didn't we just go in earlier?"
Bai Ye rolled his eyes at Kazuhiko, clearly unimpressed. He had thought the insects couldn't be sent in the night before.
"The outer layer only serves as a barrier to vision and chakra interference. There's no real danger up top—I'm more concerned about what's below.
There's another seal—one that blocks a passage leading underground. The chakra leaking from it is enough to frighten my insects."
Kazuhiko pushed his sunglasses up with his middle finger, sharing his findings.
Bai Ye, momentarily distracted, wondered how the Aburame clan even found wives. Surely, women who didn't fear insects were rare.
"So based on what you're saying, whatever's sealed below is still alive."
Bai Ye's curiosity was piqued. Something sealed that deep, yet still emitting chakra after all this time? It reminded him of the Great Toad Sage of Mount Myōboku—constantly dozing but still alive after centuries.
"Let's move. They've already broken the surface seal and are heading down the passage."
Growing impatient, Bai Ye didn't hesitate after Kazuhiko gave the go-ahead.
---
Once inside, Bai Ye realized that the fake mountain visible from the outside was real after all.
The only difference: the interior was covered in intricate black sealing symbols, some of which were damaged.
Those damaged sections likely explained the spatial distortion outside.
Following a narrow path between jagged rock formations, Bai Ye soon saw a large pit in the center, surrounded by broken stones.
"That stone used to seal the cave's entrance. They couldn't figure out how to disable the seal, so they brute-forced it."
Cheng Yue explained just as they arrived.
"Tch. Must've taken a lot of effort to break through. I guess we owe them one."
Bai Ye nudged a chunk of rubble with his foot, a smirk tugging at his lips. If they'd wasted that much energy here, their overall strength must've dropped.
If something required sealing this tightly, even without reinforcement over the years, it wasn't to be taken lightly.
"They're already at the bottom. Let's follow."
Thanks to the bugs Kazuhiko had planted on them earlier, tracking their position was easy and discreet.
---
"It's like he has surveillance cameras installed everywhere... I bet this guy's used them to spy on women's bathhouses."
Bai Ye muttered behind Kazuhiko as they descended further. The more time he spent around the Aburame, the more useful their techniques seemed. In some areas, it even surpassed the Byakugan, especially given its lower chakra cost.
They moved cautiously, keeping their footsteps light. As a result, it took nearly twice as long to reach the bottom.
---
"The Uzumaki Clan must've been insane... the number of sealing techniques down here is absurd!"
The underground space was dim and vast. Bai Ye could barely see anything by the flickering flame ignited by the other team.
Dafu looked visibly irritated. In front of them stood a wall of intertwined iron chains, completely blocking their path.
They looked strikingly similar to the Adamantine Sealing Chains once used by Kushina Uzumaki—but in overwhelming numbers.
The chains were thick and numerous, obscuring whatever lay beyond them.
Bang!
Shiji sent his puppet speeding into the chains. The impact echoed loudly throughout the cavern.
"No good. It didn't even make a dent."
The chains rattled but quickly returned to stillness.
"Digging around it won't work either. I tried tunneling under—those things go deep."
Kushi emerged from a hole he had dug, confirming that the chains extended even underground.
"Damn it. You've forced my hand."
Frustrated, Dafu pulled a bundle of explosive tags from his coat.
"Uncle Dafu, you're loaded!"
The others stared in disbelief. The tags looked like they numbered in the thousands.
In their experience, Dafu was notoriously stingy. None of them expected this level of generosity.
"These were mission-allocated materials from the higher-ups... I didn't expect to use them here."
Dafu looked genuinely pained. Even though he wouldn't get to keep unused tags, using them like this still stung.
"How many should we use? Do you think a hundred will be enough?"
He began counting them carefully, eyes full of heartache.
"Uncle Dafu, I think it'd be safer to use more."
Kushi couldn't help commenting. With so many on hand, being so miserly felt absurd.
"What do you know?! A single explosive tag's power is comparable to a high-level Fire Release jutsu from a Jōnin.
Can you imagine a hundred Jōnin casting jutsu at the same time?!"
Dafu glared, puffing his cheeks and beard in indignation. Without another word, he tucked the rest of the tags back into his pouch.
The others wisely held their tongues—no one wanted to provoke another lecture.
Satisfied, Dafu stepped forward, pressed exactly one hundred explosive tags onto the iron chains, and gave them one last reluctant look.
---
BOOM!
The explosion roared to life, flames and smoke billowing into the cavern.
The echo of that detonation seemed to stretch for ages.
Of course, that prolonged sound was mostly in Dafu's imagination. Just thinking about it made his heart ache.
After all, Konan once used 600 billion explosive tags that detonated over ten minutes.
That's one billion per second.
And here? He'd used only one hundred.
Not even enough to make a splash.
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