Chapter 39: The Dead Demon Consuming Seal
Masahiko's home.
Masahiko held the Shinigami mask in his hands, scrutinizing it carefully for nearly an hour.
"Sensei! What's there to look at? Even if it really was handed down by some big shot, it's just a mask."
His two students had long since grown impatient. Yiko-chan was fine, but Nanako-chan was on the verge of unleashing her inner personality.
"I'm afraid it was a very impressive big shot..." Masahiko muttered.
After careful examination, Masahiko's sensory abilities finally detected something amiss within the mask.
"Is it... someone's soul?" Masahiko murmured to himself. It was the only guess he could make.
In this era, the soul was still a mysterious concept to people. At least, up until now, Masahiko had never heard of any ninjutsu related to the soul. It was nothing like the plot era, where Edo Tensei could manipulate the souls of the dead at will, or even allow people to see them.
Masahiko weighed the mask in his hand, his expression turning serious.
"What terrifying mastery of Fuinjutsu. I didn't expect the Uzumaki clan to have had such a powerful ancestor."
After studying the mask for so long, Masahiko had basically deduced its origin.
This mask was likely a tool for activating a specific jutsu. Hundreds of years ago, an Uzumaki ancestor faced an invading enemy and activated a sealing jutsu that meant mutual destruction. He successfully sealed both the great enemy and his own soul within the mask. The two souls fought inside for a century. Eventually, the Uzumaki ancestor lost and his soul was devoured by the enemy. However, the enemy's soul also reached its limit, losing its intellect and most of its power, transforming into a Shinigami that only knew how to absorb souls...
Masahiko's Fuinjutsu was already at LV6, but he was still far from being able to cast a seal of this magnitude. He estimated the ancestor's Fuinjutsu must have been around LV8—which was already at the power level of the Warring States' "Two Gods." And an enemy that required an ancestor to sacrifice their life to seal must have been at that level as well.
Masahiko also had a guess about the enemy's identity. Although the Warring States were chaotic, people rarely launched wars of extermination for fear that the fish would die and the net would break (mutually assured destruction). Generally, when one side was at a clear disadvantage, they would sue for peace and pay reparations. For an Uzumaki ancestor to choose mutual destruction rather than sue for peace meant the enemy was likely a foreign invader!
Based on the appearance of the Shinigami he had seen in the series in his past life, he deduced the enemy was likely an ancestor of the Gold and Silver Brothers, a powerful foe from the Land of Lightning.
"The clan of the Gold and Silver Brothers is also very intriguing. Eating the flesh of the Nine-Tails, wielding the Treasured Tools of the Sage of Six Paths... Damn you, Kishimoto. You left so many cliffhangers and killed so many of my brain cells trying to figure this out as a transmigrator."
"Sensei, what are 'Gold and Silver Brothers'? And who is Kishimoto?" Nanako asked from the side, confused.
Masahiko froze. He turned to Yiko. "Did I say that out loud?"
Yiko nodded. Masahiko facepalmed.
"It's nothing. Your sensei often says things no one understands. Just ignore it." Masahiko decided not to explain.
"Anyway, Nanako-chan, go catch a chicken and bring it here."
Nanako looked confused, but she went to catch a chicken anyway.
"Sensei, why do you need a chicken?" Yiko asked the question that was on Nanako's mind.
"In a moment, Sensei is going to show you how to kill a chicken from a distance..."
Yiko looked completely bewildered.
A moment later, Nanako returned, holding a struggling chicken.
"Hold the chicken steady. Snake-Boar-Ram-Hare-Dog! Sealing Jutsu: Release!" Masahiko formed the hand seals, opening a sliver of the seal on the mask. He aimed the mask at the chicken and grinned mischievously. "Sealing Jutsu: Chicken Demon Consuming Seal!"
The chicken, which had been struggling in Nanako's hands, instantly stopped moving. Its soul was sucked into the mask. It wasn't just the chicken; Nanako, who was facing the mask, felt slightly dizzy and sat down on the floor.
Seeing this, Masahiko quickly put the mask away and formed seals. "Four Symbols Seal!" He resealed the crack he had just opened.
"The Shinigami right now is probably newly born. It can only seal a chicken. Facing Nanako, it only made her dizzy. And as the caster, the Shinigami can't do anything to me at all..."
"Sensei... what are you doing..." Nanako recovered from her dizziness and threw the dead chicken aside. Her crimson hair seemed to flare up as she clenched her fist at Masahiko.
"Nothing, nothing." Masahiko shook his head repeatedly, feeling a bit guilty.
"Give me the mask!" Nanako snatched the mask and pointed it at Masahiko, but he didn't react at all.
"Eh? Chicken Demon Consuming Seal?" Nanako tentatively chanted the spell.
"Pfft..." Masahiko burst out laughing.
"Nanako-neechan, Sensei just sealed the mask again..." Yiko couldn't help but speak up.
Nanako's face flushed red, and her entire body looked like it was about to catch fire.
It took Masahiko a full half-hour to calm Nanako down.
"You need to keep this mask safe, Nanako. Once the Shinigami inside recovers enough power, our clan will have another Forbidden Sealing Jutsu," Masahiko instructed her.
He explained the origin of the mask in detail, leaving his two students stunned.
"So, the thing inside this mask is an enemy of our ancestors? Why don't we just destroy it completely?" Nanako asked, confused, after finally understanding the story.
Masahiko froze. Ever since he realized this mask was the mask for the Dead Demon Consuming Seal, he had never thought about destroying it. perhaps subconsciously, he didn't want to alter such an important jutsu from the plot...
After hesitating again and again, Masahiko steeled his heart. "A jutsu that requires mutual destruction shouldn't exist!"
A Rasengan slammed into the mask, destroying it instantly. At the same time, he felt a huge weight lift from his heart. Once he truly decided to change the plot, the pressure he had been suppressing was released.
"Ah! Sensei! My mask..." Nanako looked like she was about to burst into flames again.
"You told me to destroy it..." Masahiko explained quickly. Seeing that Nanako wasn't cooling down, he hurriedly ran out. "I'm going to check on Kento-kun's training! You two have the day off, go enjoy the Mask Festival!"
Masahiko wandered over to Training Ground 3, muttering to himself, "Sigh, I have less and less dignity as a teacher every day."
Looking at Kento training in the distance, he felt some comfort. At least he had one reliable student.
"1493, 1494, 1495... Two thousand push-ups! If I can't do it, then two thousand kicks!" Kento was in the middle of his training. Seeing Masahiko arrive, he sprang up. "Oh! Sensei! Let's have a hot-blooded battle!"
Masahiko's face went dark. For a moment, he hallucinated two figures with bowl cuts grinning with sparkling teeth.
"Forget it. There's nowhere safe for me here. I'm going home..."
Back home, a familiar line of text finally comforted Masahiko's heart, which had been shattered by his students.
"Witnessed and completely changed a Naruto world Side Story: The Dead Demon Consuming Seal. Received 2 (*10) Witness Points."
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