Chapter 373: Shinigami? Which Squad Are You From?
"How much have you mastered?"
Kenichi rested his chin on one hand as he looked at the sealing specialist kneeling respectfully before him. The man's face was full of reverence.
"My lord, I have fully mastered the sealing jutsu you entrusted to me," the sealing-nin replied humbly, a trace of fanaticism visible in his eyes.
That answer pleased Kenichi greatly.
The effects of the parasites were indeed outstanding. No wonder the Sage of Six Paths had wiped them out in the past.
Although the parasites had their flaws, if used properly, they were no less useful than the thermobaric bombs and rockets Kenichi had developed. In terms of strategic value, they were arguably even more useful than nuclear weapons.
This degree of control over a host reminded Kenichi of those parasite horror films he had seen in his previous life. He had always felt that only unevolved, brainless insectoids would think solely in terms of crushing enemies with numbers.
There was nothing wrong with winning through numbers, of course, but only if you actually had the ability to do it. For something like the Zerg in StarCraft, a swarm strategy was ideal. But if it was a species that started from a single worm and had to develop slowly on its own, then the proper path was careful expansion.
Parasitize people one by one. Delay humanity's discovery of the parasites. By the time humans realized what was happening, the spread would already be extensive.
It was like spotting a cockroach in broad daylight. That usually meant there were already plenty more hiding in the house.
It was a pity the Byakugan could see through the existence of parasites. Otherwise...
Kenichi paused.
That was true. The Byakugan could see them. But what about other jutsu? And if there were some method to release parasite eggs directly into a water source, wouldn't that allow large-scale infection?
"Now, put on this mask. Then use the Reaper Death Seal. After that, take your own life."
Kenichi tossed over a mask and a knife. The ninja caught them without hesitation and began preparing the jutsu.
Kenichi also pushed aside his thoughts about future parasite plans and focused on the experiment in front of him. A device had already been fixed to the ninja's head. It was the soul restraint device Amado had developed earlier.
"Kenichi-kun, do you really think this jutsu allows the user to see the Shinigami?" Amado asked from the side.
He had also been invited to observe this experiment. Since he had once been to the Pure Land and had a deep understanding of souls, Kenichi felt his presence might lead to some unexpected discoveries.
"Yes. When I wore that mask before, I saw something that looked very much like the Shinigami." Kenichi rubbed his eyes.
He still remembered the moment he had seen the Shinigami with his Mangekyo Sharingan. It had left his eyes aching with exhaustion.
At the time, he had stubbornly endured it for most of the day, staring at that door. Later, he had even tried to sketch it out, but he quickly ran into a problem.
That door had been three-dimensional, a structure formed from countless points of energy. It was difficult to capture that feeling on paper. Even so, he had done his best, especially when it came to the patterns carved across it.
Still, the result had fallen far short of what he wanted. Kenichi felt he would probably need to find someone skilled with computers and have them create proper 3D modeling software.
"That really is fascinating. Even though I lost part of my memories of the Pure Land, based on what I still remember, I never saw anything like a Shinigami. Nor did I ever get the sense that I was trapped inside someone else's stomach." Amado looked over at the monitoring equipment nearby.
The ninja using the jutsu had all kinds of devices attached to him, each one meant to track his vital signs. They all belonged to Amado and had been brought over from the Land of Rice Fields laboratory by Uchiha Shiori.
By then, the ninja had completed the Reaper Death Seal.
He froze for a moment.
To Kenichi and Amado, he was simply kneeling there motionless, like a puppet with its strings cut.
Kenichi instinctively looked behind him. According to the anime, the Shinigami should have appeared there by now. He activated his Mangekyo Sharingan and stared intently, but all he could analyze were dust particles drifting through the air and other ordinary things.
There was no strange energy form at all.
"The instruments show no changes," Amado said, focused on the readings.
Nothing unusual had appeared. If there was any difference at all, it was that the ninja's heartbeat had risen slightly.
But it was only by one to five beats per minute, which meant very little.
"What do you see?" Kenichi asked, still watching the test subject carefully.
If the man tried to resist or suddenly attempted to seal something, Kenichi would intervene immediately.
After all, this jutsu involved souls, and there was no guarantee the Shinigami would spare the parasite living in the man's brainstem.
"My lord... I saw a gaunt man in white robes. He... he... was smiling at me!" The ninja's voice was clearly unsteady now, and even his consciousness seemed to be slipping.
[The appearance of the Shinigami seems to affect the caster's mind. This may be related to willpower, or perhaps to something else.]
Kenichi frowned as he wrote the observation down.
Hiruzen was not weak, after all. Though he had died in the end, he had still managed to seal Orochimaru's arms and render him unable to use hand signs. If not for his age, Orochimaru's soul might well have been devoured entirely by the Shinigami.
"Now raise the knife and kill yourself," Kenichi ordered.
Amado watched with keen curiosity. He knew very well how he himself had been revived, and he also knew that Kenichi seemed to wield extraordinary influence in this country.
That made the whole thing difficult for him to believe.
At the very least, Amado was sure that if he ever told someone to commit suicide, they would most likely come at him with the knife instead.
And yet, to his shock, the ninja obeyed immediately. He raised the blade and began carrying out Kenichi's command without the slightest hesitation.
Amado's eyes widened.
At that same moment, he noticed abnormalities in the readings on the instruments. The ninja's brain waves had become erratic.
"Hm... his brain activity is extremely abnormal. Even his neural responses are becoming distorted..." Amado recorded the data as he spoke.
He did not yet know whether it was connected to the Shinigami or to something else.
Kenichi's mouth twitched.
It seemed that while the parasites could control a host to a great extent, the host's own mind still remained. It simply stayed buried beneath the parasite's influence.
But once matters of life and death became involved, strong resistance still surfaced. Even then, though, that resistance could still be suppressed.
At this point, the ninja in front of them was beyond saving anyway.
"What did you see?" Kenichi continued, holding the experiment log in one hand.
He had already seen in the anime how Orochimaru had released the souls trapped inside the Shinigami's stomach, but he still needed to document everything for himself.
"I... cough... I saw many souls flying out from the stomach of that white-robed monster behind me... It's angry..." The ninja's breathing had already become almost inaudible. Only a ninja's strong constitution allowed him to speak at all.
An ordinary person would already have died of blood loss by now.
"Mm."
Kenichi nodded. It was just as he had expected.
That confirmed two things.
First, the souls devoured by the Shinigami were still there. At least for now, they still existed in some form. Which likely meant many ninja throughout history had died to this sealing technique.
Second, the Shinigami was not some empty container or mindless vessel. It clearly possessed self-awareness. But once summoned into this world through the Reaper Death Seal, it seemed to lose the ability to act freely and could only move in accordance with the ritual.
"Amado, any changes in the instruments?" Kenichi asked.
Amado shook his head. Aside from the ninja's vital signs rapidly deteriorating, everything else remained normal.
"These devices only monitor living functions. They tell us nothing about the soul. If we want to study the Shinigami and the Pure Land properly, we'll need equipment designed specifically for soul observation," Amado said with a sigh.
Souls really were astonishing things.
He had experienced both death and resurrection. He knew souls were real. He knew the Pure Land was real. He had even once felt the urge to remain there forever.
But after being revived, that feeling was gone. Now his body felt just as it had before, with no obvious abnormalities.
Kenichi fell into thought.
There actually was one ready-made lead. The Spirit Transformation Technique.
It was a powerful jutsu, but because of its severe drawbacks, it had been classified as forbidden. Once used, the soul left the body. If that happened, observing the soul directly should become possible.
Its flaws, however, were equally obvious. Using it carelessly could easily get someone killed.
"For now, all we can do is hope the soul restraint device works," Kenichi said, glancing at the machine fitted over the ninja's head.
The device had been made to anchor the soul and prevent it from leaving.
"If, as you say, the soul will eventually be taken by the Shinigami, then this device ought to have some effect," Amado said seriously. After all, that had been its purpose from the beginning.
"That still requires experimental confirmation," Kenichi replied with a shake of the head.
He could not say for certain whether it would work. The Shinigami was still the Shinigami.
At the same time, Kenichi sensed the parasite lodged in the ninja's brainstem. With a thought from him, the parasite willingly committed suicide, dissolving into a corrosive fluid that melted the man's brain.
Kenichi's mouth twitched.
It truly was convenient. This way, even an autopsy would have difficulty revealing anything unusual.
The death of the parasite completely killed the ninja as well. After all, his brain had liquefied. Kenichi was quite confident that no one survived that. His heart had already stopped, too.
Kenichi then casually dragged in a prisoner, used him as a sacrifice, and performed Impure World Reincarnation on the spot.
Then he formed the final seals.
"Aren't you worried the Sage of Six Paths might show up if you use Impure World Reincarnation?" Amado asked with a smile.
He remembered Kenichi's earlier hesitation about the technique. He had not expected him to make up his mind so quickly.
"You don't stop using explosives just because they can kill people, do you?" Kenichi shrugged.
He was surprisingly open-minded about it. Besides, the Sage of Six Paths had not shown any obvious hostility so far.
If there was something worth worrying about, it was Obito and Black Zetsu. Based on Kenichi's own deduction, those two might have already used Impure World Reincarnation, and their target was probably Madara.
If the Sage of Six Paths happened to possess someone at random and then discovered Black Zetsu, that would be very interesting indeed.
"Yes. That's exactly how scientific experimentation works. Back when I was developing my ninjutsu deflection device, I shocked myself so badly I nearly died. If I had stopped there, I never would have created it," Amado said with approval.
By then, Kenichi had completed the jutsu.
But the reanimated body simply lay there in silence, without moving.
Kenichi did not rush. He waited a full five minutes.
Still nothing happened.
"It failed. The soul restraint device couldn't stop the Shinigami from taking the soul," Kenichi said, shaking his head.
Five minutes was already far too long. Amado had never taken that long to summon before. Even Orochimaru's longest recorded trial had only taken a little over a minute.
"Then could it be that the Shinigami comes from somewhere else? Not the Pure Land?" Amado suggested.
"But you'd still need proof," Kenichi replied.
If the Shinigami was not from the Pure Land, then where did it come from? It certainly was not from some other series about death gods.
Amado sank into thought.
Kenichi, meanwhile, pulled two test tubes from his pocket.
Inside them were the remains of the Fourth Hokage and his wife, pieces he had obtained earlier from Konoha.
Now that the Fourth Hokage's soul had been released, it was finally time to test what Minato truly wanted.
"The Fourth Great Ninja War... wasn't kicked off by the Fourth Hokage, was it?"
.....
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