It had lived for a thousand years and had witnessed countless humans.
The greedy.
The fearful.
The arrogant.
The humble.
Yet it had never encountered anyone like this.
Power.
Authority.
Immortality.
Any one of those was enough to drive mankind mad.
And yet this man was unwilling to even listen until the end.
"You... you will regret this!"
Moryo roared in fury.
With a violent struggle, it broke free from the restraint of the gigantic golden skeletal hand and transformed into a streak of purple black light, shooting toward a distant cave.
Its true body was sealed inside that cave.
As long as it reunited with its real body, it would finally be able to unleash its true power.
Kiyohara watched the streak of light disappear into the distance, but he made no move to pursue it.
Only after Moryo's soul and body became one could he wipe it out completely in a single stroke.
He was also quite interested in the so called "Dark Medicine Ninjutsu."
Moryo possessed the ability to break through the limitations of the flesh, though the price was becoming grotesquely deformed.
If that power could somehow be controlled instead of running wild, it might be possible to create an entire army of exceptionally powerful warriors.
Kiyohara lowered his gaze toward the ground below.
Miroku sensed his gaze and raised her head, looking at Kiyohara standing within Susanoo.
Her beautiful face was filled with a dazed expression.
Before coming here, she had already prepared herself to die.
Every time Moryo was sealed, the priestess had to pay with her own life.
That was fate.
It had never changed since ancient times.
Generation after generation, priestesss had sacrificed themselves to suppress Moryo.
Only because of those endless sacrifices had Moryo remained sealed.
That was why the priestesss held such an exalted status in the Land of Demons.
Even if the people of the country were asked to die for the priestess, they would regard it as the greatest honor.
But now...
Watching Moryo flee in utter humiliation after being overwhelmed by Kiyohara, rushing away in search of its physical body...
Miroku suddenly realized that perhaps fate was not as absolute as she had always believed.
Kiyohara extended his hand.
Susanoo mirrored the motion.
The enormous golden skeletal hand slowly descended before Miroku.
Its palm faced upward.
Its five fingers spread slightly apart, silently inviting her to step aboard.
Miroku froze for a moment.
"Come."
Kiyohara's calm voice reached her ears.
She hesitated no longer.
Stepping onto the enormous golden palm, she felt streams of golden chakra flowing beneath her feet.
The giant hand slowly lifted her into the air, carrying her toward Kiyohara.
The chakra surrounding Susanoo opened like a curtain, creating an entrance.
As soon as Miroku stepped inside, the opening closed once more.
The interior of Susanoo felt strangely familiar.
It was almost as though she were submerged inside a sphere of water.
Yet neither her breathing, her speech, nor even her eyesight was affected in the slightest.
Instead, she felt an unexpected warmth enveloping her entire body.
"Kiyohara-sama, Moryo has gone to reclaim its true body. We must stop it before it's too late."
Miroku spoke urgently.
From this close distance, she realized that Kiyohara looked even more handsome than he had from afar.
His eyebrows were sharp.
His features were perfectly defined.
Without realizing it, she stared for several extra moments.
Soon afterward, however, she forcibly suppressed those thoughts.
She was already a mother.
She was no longer a young maiden whose heart could flutter so easily.
"I know."
Kiyohara nodded calmly.
He truly did not care.
If he had wanted to stop Moryo earlier, the monster would never have escaped in the first place.
"Moryo is merging with its body. Once it succeeds, its strength will increase several times over. At that point..."
Afraid Kiyohara did not fully understand the seriousness of the situation, Miroku continued explaining.
"I know."
Kiyohara interrupted her once again.
"I need your chakra."
Miroku blinked.
"My... chakra?"
"Yes."
Kiyohara nodded.
"The priestess's power is the only force capable of restraining Moryo. Give me your chakra."
"I'll seal it."
"But..."
"There are no buts."
Kiyohara extended his hand toward her.
"Trust me."
Miroku looked quietly at that outstretched hand.
After hesitating briefly, she slowly reached forward and clasped it.
The instant their hands touched, she began transferring her chakra into Kiyohara's body.
The priestess's chakra was incredibly unique.
It was gentle.
It was pure.
Just like the Dragon Veins, it possessed the mysterious ability to touch the flow of time itself.
Kiyohara remembered that in the movie, Miroku had once left behind her chakra, allowing Shion of the future to receive help across time.
The priestess's gift of prophecy was merely another manifestation of that extraordinary power.
He could clearly feel her chakra merging with the power already flowing inside his own body.
Gradually, subtle changes appeared upon the surface of the golden Susanoo.
A faint pinkish purple glow seeped out from within, tracing intricate patterns across the golden chakra skeleton.
Those markings resembled countless tiny bells hanging from every part of the enormous frame.
With every breath Kiyohara took, the bells swayed gently.
Ring...
A crisp, melodious chime echoed through the air.
Kakashi narrowed his Sharingan slightly.
His eyes could clearly perceive the movement of chakra.
He watched as Kiyohara's golden chakra gradually became tinged with a layer of soft pinkish purple.
"So this is the priestess's chakra..."
Kakashi immediately guessed that Miroku had lent her chakra to Kiyohara.
After all, the priestess's very purpose was to seal Moryo.
Naturally, her chakra possessed unique qualities.
It made perfect sense that Kiyohara would borrow that power to complete the sealing.
Suddenly...
A deafening roar erupted from deep within the cave.
An enormous figure burst out of the darkness.
Purple black mist spread wildly, nearly engulfing the entire mountain.
The mist transformed into gigantic dragons.
Just like Kiyohara's Eight Branches Technique, countless dragon heads stretched outward from the swirling fog.
"Human!"
"Your arrogance ends here!"
Moryo opened its gigantic mouth.
A brilliant purple light condensed inside its throat.
Compressed.
Concentrated.
The chakra fluctuations it emitted were several times stronger than before.
"Kiyohara-sama!"
Miroku's voice trembled with anxiety.
Yet Kiyohara merely watched the gigantic dragon calmly.
"Your chakra..."
"...is quite interesting."
He slowly raised his right hand.
Inside Susanoo, Kiyohara formed hand seals through its enormous chakra body.
Fire Release: Great Dragon Fire Technique!
The blazing flames gathered together in midair, transforming into a massive dragon composed of pinkish purple fire.
With a thunderous roar, it charged toward Moryo.
At the same time, Moryo unleashed its own attack.
A gigantic purple black beam collided head on with the blazing dragon.
BOOOM!
A tremendous explosion erupted.
Violent shockwaves swept across the battlefield.
But in the very next moment...
Moryo's pupils suddenly contracted.
It watched in disbelief as its purple black beam rapidly collapsed before the advancing fire dragon.
Those pinkish purple flames were like its natural nemesis.
They devoured every trace of its power with astonishing ease.
The fire dragon tore straight through the beam before biting viciously into Moryo's enormous dragon body.
"AAAAAAAH!"
Moryo let out an agonized scream.
The pinkish purple flames clung to the mist forming its scales.
Once attached, they immediately began burning.
No matter how violently Moryo struggled...
No matter how desperately it tried to extinguish them...
The flames refused to go out.
"What is this?!"
"What is this?!"
Moryo twisted its massive body frantically, trying to throw off the flames.
But they clung to it like parasites attached to the bone.
The more it struggled, the fiercer the flames became.
"So it's still a little short of activating Complete Body Susanoo..."
Kiyohara quietly observed his current condition.
If he could evolve into Complete Body Susanoo, its size would become even more enormous.
It would also gain a pair of wings, granting it the ability to fly.
After thinking for a moment, Kiyohara began releasing Sage Chakra from within Susanoo.
Emerald green chakra immediately wrapped itself around the gigantic golden warrior like a flowing cloak.
It rippled through the air.
At the same time, two enormous chakra horns grew from Susanoo's head.
Sensing Kiyohara becoming even stronger, Moryo struggled with increasing desperation.
Beside him, Miroku turned to stare at Kiyohara.
The astonishment on her noble face deepened even further.
"What... is this?"
Never in her life had she seen Moryo display genuine panic.
And what exactly was this green chakra?
The Land of Demons had remained isolated from the mainstream shinobi world for countless years, almost like an ancient kingdom sealed away from the outside world.
Because of that, she knew nothing about Kiyohara's Sage Mode.
"Senjutsu."
Kiyohara answered simply.
Now his Susanoo possessed both the power of Sage Arts and the power of the priestess.
Its suppression of Moryo had become even more overwhelming.
Sizzle...
Wherever Susanoo's gigantic golden hand gripped Moryo's dragon body, thick white smoke continuously rose into the air.
"What an incredibly convenient technique."
Watching Kiyohara completely suppress Moryo, Minato could not help sighing with admiration.
For him, materializing chakra into such a colossal form was practically impossible.
This was undoubtedly a power granted by a Kekkei Genkai.
Without the Sharingan, Minato simply could not accomplish something like this.
"Kakashi..."
"Can you use a technique like this?"
Minato smiled bitterly as he withdrew his gaze from the battle.
He turned and rushed toward the stone soldiers attempting to reinforce Moryo, intercepting them before they could reach the battlefield.
"I can't do it, Minato-sensei."
Kakashi shook his head.
Kiyohara's eyes should belong to the same level of Sharingan as Shisui's.
The Mangekyo Sharingan was a power that far surpassed the ordinary three tomoe Sharingan, and he himself had never awakened the abilities of the Mangekyo.
As he thought of this, Kakashi suddenly froze.
He remembered the incident when Rin had been kidnapped.
At that time, it had seemed as though an extraordinary power had briefly erupted from his Sharingan.
But afterward...
His eyes had still remained ordinary three tomoe Sharingan.
Could it be...
That he simply had never discovered how to draw out that power?
Minato had no idea what Kakashi was thinking.
He merely nodded with a hint of regret.
Such a powerful technique was undoubtedly something only a very small number of people in the world could master.
"What a gigantic figure..."
Gaki looked at the enormous chakra giant Kiyohara had become, and his mind immediately drifted to Uchiha Madara.
The Third Tsuchikage had repeatedly warned the shinobi of Iwagakure about the terrifying power of the Uchiha.
He clearly remembered Onoki mentioning a technique capable of enlarging chakra into a colossal form.
Once an Uchiha mastered such an ability, they would be almost impossible to defeat.
Thinking of that, Gaki's mood became heavy.
The war had only just ended.
Yet Konoha's shinobi had already revealed a power of this level.
If they were given several more years to recover...
Konoha would become terrifyingly powerful once again.
And if another great war broke out...
How were they supposed to fight against something like this?
Gaki did not believe such a fragile peace could last forever.
"Heaven Kick of Pain!"
Tsunade stomped heavily onto the ground before leaping high into the air.
When she landed, the earth shattered beneath her feet.
Cracks spread in every direction, and countless terracotta warriors were crushed into pieces.
"Don't just stand there spacing out!"
Tsunade shouted impatiently.
These stone terracotta warriors seemed almost endless.
If they were ignored for even a brief moment, they would regenerate completely.
Right now, Kiyohara and the priestess were dealing with Moryo.
They absolutely could not allow these puppets to interfere.
"Right."
Kakashi snapped back to reality.
He immediately created a Shadow Clone.
Then both he and his clone charged forward simultaneously, each holding a Chidori.
The lightning chakra in their hands connected into a long, razor sharp line of electricity.
As the two Kakashis sprinted across the battlefield, every enemy that touched the lightning wire was instantly sliced cleanly in half.
Lightning Release: Lightning Transmission!
"Water Release: Violent Flow Water Dragon Tornado!"
Rin rapidly formed hand seals.
She discovered that after the previous turmoil, the Tailed Beast chakra inside her had become much more cooperative.
The technique she unleashed was actually stronger than usual.
A gigantic dragon shaped water tornado erupted from behind her.
Rumble!
It surged across the battlefield, sweeping away vast numbers of terracotta warriors and hurling them into the distance.
"Hah..."
Kurenai also continued fighting.
The Red Moon in her hand continuously absorbed chakra from the terracotta warriors.
She immediately redirected that stolen chakra into one Wind Release technique after another.
Massive crescent shaped wind blades tore through the battlefield.
The destructive force they created was only slightly weaker than Rin's overwhelming Water Release.
"Lady Mei, it feels like this crisis is going to end very soon."
One of the Mist shinobi smiled brightly.
With Leaf shinobi's standing on the front lines and taking all the pressure, he could comfortably stay behind and slack off a little.
"Hmph. If you spend your time hiding behind others and taking the easy path, you'll never become one of the truly strong."
Before Mei could answer, another shinobi from the Kaguya Clan spoke first.
To him...
Battling countless powerful opponents was the very meaning of being alive.
And Moryo...
There was no doubt that it was one of the strongest beings in existence.
Unfortunately, he himself was still far too weak to participate in that level of battle.
Unable to challenge Moryo directly, the Kaguya clan shinobi vented his frustration by slaughtering the corrupted shinobi of the Land of Demons.
Fortunately, after their mutations, even the weakest of those shinobi possessed the strength of an elite jonin.
That greatly satisfied the Kaguya warrior's thirst for battle.
Again and again, he activated Shikotsumyaku, clashing fiercely against the mutated shinobi.
Meanwhile...
Kiyohara had no intention of dragging the battle against Moryo out any longer.
Every technique performed while inside Susanoo was amplified enormously.
Although the chakra consumption also increased dramatically...
That level of expenditure remained completely acceptable to him.
The colossal chakra giant slowly began forming hand seals.
Rumble!
An overwhelming amount of lightning chakra burst out.
The lightning spread over Moryo's enormous body like an incredibly dense electrical net.
Bolts continuously danced across its body.
Moryo, whose regenerative abilities had seemed virtually immortal only moments before, found its recovery being suppressed to an astonishing degree.
"You bi***!"
Moryo glared hatefully at Miroku.
It was precisely because of this hateful woman's chakra that resisting Kiyohara had become so unbearably difficult.
For the first time in the thousand year cycle of history...
Someone from outside had shattered the endless reincarnation between Moryo and the priestess.
What had happened to the shinobi world?
Why had someone like Kiyohara appeared?
And where had that unbelievably vast amount of chakra come from?
"Priestess."
Kiyohara spoke calmly.
"Seal Moryo together with me."
"Understood."
Miroku nodded immediately.
She began performing the unique fuinjutsu technique passed down through the priestesses.
Dark black sealing patterns spread rapidly across the battlefield.
Influenced by the priestess's chakra, a second layer gradually formed over Kiyohara's fuinjutsu technique.
A circular barrier of soft pinkish purple light slowly appeared.
Miroku chanted sacred incantations.
She circulated the chakra within her body while forming the priestess's unique hand seals.
Pinkish purple radiance poured endlessly from her hands.
"NOOO!"
Moryo screamed in terror.
It desperately tried to flee.
But the pinkish purple flames Kiyohara had created continued suppressing it completely.
It could not break free.
The enormous sealing barrier descended from above.
It wrapped around Moryo's gigantic body completely.
Then...
The sealing array slowly began shrinking.
Moryo's massive form became smaller...
And smaller...
And smaller still...
Until finally...
Its gigantic body had been compressed into nothing more than a purple sphere the size of a human fist.
The glowing orb floated quietly above the sealing array.
Within the translucent light, a miniature dragon silhouette could still be seen struggling violently.
Kiyohara reached out his hand.
The purple sphere slowly descended into his palm.
Golden chakra surged out continuously.
Layer after layer of additional fuinjutsu formulas covered the orb.
When the final seal settled into place...
The purple sphere became completely still.
Without another word, Kiyohara stored the sealed orb inside a sealing scroll.
At that very moment...
Everyone present stared blankly at him.
No one spoke.
No one moved.
Even Mei had never imagined the battle would end so quickly.
The terracotta stone warriors and the mutated shinobi of the Land of Swamps standing before them rapidly lost control after Moryo's power disappeared.
The terracotta soldiers crumbled into ordinary clay.
The mutated shinobi collapsed to the ground one after another, their lives ending almost instantly.
Baki swallowed hard.
"Moryo..."
"...was sealed?"
"Just like that..."
"...it was sealed?"
Even Minato looked genuinely shocked.
The entire battle left him with the strange feeling that he had only just finished warming up and was preparing to unleash his full strength...
Only for the match to already be over.
During the operation to seal Moryo...
His own contribution had been minimal.
Although Minato was also highly proficient in fuinjutsu techniques...
He simply had no means of suppressing Moryo in direct combat.
Kiyohara, on the other hand, was far more versatile than he was.
He knew fuinjutsu techniques.
He also possessed countless ninjutsu capable of directly overwhelming Moryo and creating perfect opportunities for sealing.
"The Hokage selection..."
Minato suddenly felt as though the position of Hokage was slowly slipping farther and farther away from him.
"It's over."
Standing within the head of Susanoo, Kiyohara spoke calmly.
The gigantic golden warrior gradually dissolved into streams of chakra before disappearing completely.
As Susanoo faded away...
Kiyohara gently wrapped one arm around Priestess Miroku's waist and slowly descended back to the ground.
"To be safe, I need to bring Moryo back to Konoha for further sealing."
Kiyohara turned toward Miroku as he spoke.
She hesitated.
She wanted to object.
Yet the words refused to leave her mouth.
She still doubted whether Konoha could truly keep Moryo sealed forever.
Over the past thousand years...
Moryo had been sealed countless times.
Yet no matter how many times it was imprisoned...
It always returned eventually.
"If the High Priestess is worried..."
"You could come to Konoha as well."
Kiyohara offered.
After all...
Constructing a shrine dedicated to the priestess inside Konoha would not require much effort.
"Go... to Konoha..."
Miroku fell silent.
"For now, we should separate them first."
She deliberately changed the subject.
"Moryo's soul and physical body need to be separated."
"Only then can the seal remain stable for a long time."
"That won't be necessary."
Kiyohara shook his head.
"You only need to reinforce the seal once more afterward."
Moryo still had tremendous value to him.
If only its soul remained...
It would have to possess another living being to act.
If only its body remained...
It would become nothing more than a lifeless corpse.
What Kiyohara wanted...
Was a complete Moryo capable of continuously producing its unique power.
Only then could it fully support his future research.
"But..."
Miroku still hesitated.
"If Moryo remains in the Land of Demons, history will simply repeat itself."
"Konoha is filled with powerful shinobi."
"If anything happens, it can immediately be suppressed."
Kiyohara explained calmly.
Those words caused Miroku to think of the Daimyo of the Land of Swamps.
He was right.
Keeping Moryo here would only attract another madman seeking power.
People like that never stopped to consider whether they were capable of controlling Moryo.
All they cared about was releasing it and obtaining whatever promises it made.
"Miroku..."
Just then, Kiyohara heard someone calling her name.
Miroku heard it as well.
They both turned toward the source of the voice.
Standing there...
Was the Daimyo of the Land of Swamps.
Now that Moryo had reclaimed its true body, it had naturally discarded the Daimyo without a second thought.
(End of Chapter)