"Mom, will Brother Shisui and that scary-looking uncle… win?"
Little Shion stood beside her mother, watching Miroku busily arrange and confirm every formula needed for the sealing ritual, and asked curiously.
"…Perhaps they can?"
After confirming the final sealing formula, Miroku turned around and stroked her daughter's head.
She wiped the sweat from Shion's forehead and sighed.
"Shion, when Mommy was setting up the sealing formulas just now, you were watching carefully, right?"
"Mm. I watched properly."
Shion rubbed her head against her mother's long, jade-like fingers and answered obediently.
"Although I did not understand it…"
"Then once Mōryō's matter is over, Shion must properly learn sealing techniques from Mommy…"
Miroku bent down and pressed her forehead against Shion's.
Looking into her daughter's beautiful purple eyes, she said very seriously, "Otherwise, Mommy will not feel at ease letting you go outside to see the world…"
"The outside… world?"
Hearing those words, Shion's eyes could not help lighting up.
"Mom, are you talking about the outside world Brother Shisui and the others mentioned? As long as I study sealing techniques properly, can I go see the outside world too?"
"Of course."
Miroku rubbed her daughter's soft white hair.
Her gentle gaze carried a trace of worry that was difficult to detect.
"As long as Shion can learn all the sealing techniques Mommy teaches you, Mommy will hire a few powerful ninja every year to accompany Shion outside for walks and sightseeing."
"Yay!"
Little Shion could not hear the thoughts hidden behind her mother's words.
At her carefree age, she was simply happy because her mother had promised she could go outside and see the world.
"Then let's pinky promise. It's a deal?"
"Mm. It's a—"
Boom.
A massive explosion drowned out the promise between Miroku and her daughter.
Miroku instinctively stepped forward to shield Shion behind her.
She turned toward the direction of the explosion.
Then she saw a terrifying scene.
A savage black monster had blasted a huge hole in the mountain wall above the Shrine of Sealing and was struggling to crawl inside.
"Mōryō!? How could…"
Miroku sucked in a cold breath.
She had no time to think about whether Shisui Uchiha and Kisame Hoshigaki had been killed by Mōryō.
She immediately began forming the hand seals to activate the sealing ritual, while chanting the incantation that resonated with those seals.
She prepared to activate the barrier inside the Shrine of Sealing and seal Mōryō completely with her own life.
But when Mōryō saw Miroku take the posture to activate the barrier, it unexpectedly revealed joy rather than shock.
It leaped down from the hole in the mountain wall and rushed directly toward the area where the sealing barrier was located.
It showed no fear of being successfully sealed by her.
Instead, it seemed almost impatient.
Something was wrong.
Mōryō doing this was absolutely wrong.
Miroku did not know what had happened outside.
But she understood one thing very clearly.
She absolutely could not do something that would make Mōryō happy.
So she stopped the ritual to activate the barrier in time and looked at Mōryō with extreme vigilance as it crashed down and splashed up a large amount of magma.
"Why did you stop, Miroku?"
One of Mōryō's heads stretched forward, opening its mouth full of cold, evil aura toward Miroku as it questioned her urgently.
"Have you not always wanted to seal me completely? Why, when the opportunity is right before your eyes, did you instead choose to give up?"
"…Seal?"
Miroku looked at Shisui Uchiha, who had followed Mōryō into the Shrine of Sealing without even a tear in his black robe embroidered with red clouds, and slowly spoke.
"I will not be foolish enough to give you a chance to reverse the situation, Mōryō."
"Are you even awake, Miroku!?"
Mōryō froze for a moment, completely unable to imagine Miroku saying something so contrary to its understanding of priestesses.
"You should know this very well! The only people who can seal me are the priestesses of the Land of Demons. No matter how much effort others make, they cannot possibly—"
A strong sense of danger suddenly assaulted Mōryō, which was trying to bewitch Miroku.
It arrived at precisely the right time, when all of its attention was on Miroku and it had no room to care about its surroundings.
Just as it frantically turned its dozens of heads, trying to find the source of that danger, Shisui Uchiha had already closed in near its main body and erupted violently.
"Fire Release: Great Dragon Fire Technique!"
A violent fire dragon erupted from the boy's mouth and struck Mōryō's massive body at almost point-blank range.
The scorching natural energy inside the Shrine of Sealing became the best support for the Great Dragon Fire Technique.
Combined with the churning lava, the flame of extreme heat instantly ignited Mōryō's entire body and began burning away the cold, evil chakra covering it at a terrifying speed.
"Guuwooooooaaaaahhhhh—"
The black monster let out an earth-shaking howl.
Its enormous body rolled painfully through the crimson lava, as if doing so could extinguish the heart-and-bone-burning flames on its body.
At the same time, Shisui Uchiha, who had delivered the heavy blow, leaped into the air to avoid Mōryō's death throes.
His current appearance was also displayed before Miroku's eyes.
Similar to Kisame in the second stage of the Cursed Seal, Shisui's skin had also turned dark because of the addition of natural energy.
A black cross-shaped marking had appeared on his face as well.
However, unlike Kisame, who grew a shark tail and dorsal fin that further enhanced his ability to fight in water, Shisui had grown a pair of enormous wings with jet-black feathers on his back, as well as a third arm shaped like a bird's claw.
When he beat his wings and hovered inside the Shrine of Sealing, illuminated by the volcanic lava, looking down from above at the monster Mōryō in the molten rock, the scene resembled the legendary Yatagarasu suppressing a vengeful spirit lingering in the mortal world, preparing to send it back to the underworld.
"Why? Why do you also have that power!? Who are you people!? Who are you!?"
Listening to Mōryō's pained and terrified roars, and sensing its aura already beginning to decline, Shisui Uchiha gently flapped the black wings that felt as if they had been born with him.
His tone did not fluctuate at all.
"That question has no meaning for you. Return to where you belong, Mōryō."
"Fire Release: Phoenix Sage Fire Feathers."
The Yatagarasu soaring in the air suddenly spread its wings.
Shisui poured chakra into his black wings, causing them to become as hard and sharp as steel.
Then, as he turned the hardened black feathers into a rain of steel and poured them down toward Mōryō, the third hand behind Shisui formed the Tiger seal that symbolized Fire Release.
Using the scorching natural energy inside the volcano, he instantly ignited all the falling black feathers.
Mōryō's expression changed drastically.
It struggled, wanting to avoid Shisui Uchiha's attack, which could heavily injure it.
But before such a wide-area killing ninjutsu, the huge body it was so proud of instead became a burden when dodging.
Under the rain of feathers that filled the sky, Mōryō's Yamata no Orochi-like body was forcibly stabbed until it resembled a hedgehog.
And the sage art flames already attached to Mōryō's body, which had never gone out, burned even more fiercely after being replenished.
"Priestess-sama, you may begin sealing it."
"Ah? Oh, ah, yes, I understand."
Hearing Shisui Uchiha's reminder, Miroku finally recovered from the shock of watching a battle that was nearly one-sided.
After replying in slight panic, she chanted the incantation to activate the sealing barrier again.
Only this time, she no longer carried the resolve to seal Mōryō with her own death.
Instead, with a trace of pity, she pulled the greatly weakened Mōryō into the barrier.
"Miroku… Miroku… Do not reject me… Become one with me. I… I refuse to accept this…"
Listening to Mōryō's weak murmurs, like those of a dying patient, Miroku sighed.
While continuously using her abundant chakra to pull Mōryō into the sealing formula, she said to it, "Stop making meaningless struggles, Mōryō… The facts have already proven that with your power, you are far from enough to conquer the shinobi world and establish your so-called thousand-year kingdom. Whether it is you or those radicals in the Land of Demons, you are all far too arrogant and look down far too much on the rest of the shinobi world."
"No, wrong… I only lost because I failed to obtain your body… If we become one, there will definitely be a chance…"
Mōryō still refused to give up and tried to tempt Miroku.
"Are you truly willing to let the Land of Demons remain a small country forever, living in the shadow of the great nations, Miroku!?"
"You, who just trampled the Land of Demons into such a miserable state, have what face to mention the Land of Demons before me!?"
The formulas inside the sealing barrier all activated.
Mōryō's main body, already weakened badly by Shisui's near-sage art attacks, instantly lost all ability to resist.
With a howl filled with unwillingness and humiliation, it was once again sealed by the priestess.
"This should be over, right?"
Looking at the sealing altar that had fallen silent and still, Miroku formed seals with complicated feelings and withdrew the barrier covering this area.
Seeing that, Shisui Uchiha slowly descended from the air and landed before her.
He activated his Sharingan and observed Miroku's eyes and chakra, confirming there were no changes.
Then he asked with concern, "Did the seal succeed, Priestess-sama?"
"Mm. Because you weakened Mōryō's chakra very heavily, it did not take much effort to seal it successfully."
"Is that so? That is good…"
Hearing that, Shisui Uchiha breathed a sigh of relief.
He released the Cursed Seal of Heaven and returned to the appearance of a boy who still looked rather young.
Then he waved toward Shion, who was cautiously approaching and did not know whether she should greet him after he had looked a little frightening earlier.
His expression was gentle as he said, "Since Mōryō has already been sealed, the ghost army that can only move through Mōryō's power should also be unable to continue causing trouble everywhere. Once Kisame and I rest and recover a little, we will send you and Priestess-sama back to the Land of Demons."
"Sorry for troubling you…"
Miroku bowed to Shisui.
Then she pulled her daughter Shion to her side and said gently to the little girl, "Shion, come and thank Brother Shisui. It is because of him and Kisame-san's tireless efforts that our country was able to regain peace so quickly…"
"Thank you, Brother Shisui."
Shion blinked her beautiful eyes and stared eagerly at Shisui Uchiha.
"Um, Mom told me before that if I learn all the sealing techniques, she will hire ninja from other countries to accompany me and let me see the world outside the Land of Demons… Can I give that commission to you, Brother Shisui?"
"Ah? That…"
Shisui Uchiha froze because of Shion's question.
Then he awkwardly scratched his hair and said apologetically, "Sorry, Shion. As for me, I should currently count as a ninja directly under the Fourth Mizukage. For a commission like that, where the exact mission time cannot be determined, I cannot decide by myself whether to accept it…"
"How can that be…"
Shion's small mouth pouted.
Unhappy, she turned her head and buried her face in her mother's arms.
Miroku was not surprised that her daughter would have such a thought.
While gently stroking Shion's hair, she asked Shisui Uchiha, whose face carried apology, "Then if I, as the priestess of the Land of Demons, were to submit this commission to the Fourth Mizukage, would he accept it?"
"…Most likely."
Shisui Uchiha recalled several future development strategies for Kirigakure that Rei Kaguya had casually mentioned to him, and nodded with complicated feelings.
"After all, this is an opportunity to build a good relationship with the priestess of the Land of Demons and change Kirigakure's stereotypical image in the eyes of others. I cannot think of any reason for him to refuse your commission."
"To change Kirigakure's stereotypical image in the eyes of other nations… is it?"
Miroku repeated Shisui Uchiha's words several times in her heart.
Her expression was rather emotional as she said, "That truly makes me want to meet this Fourth Mizukage and see what kind of person he is."
"The Fourth Mizukage? He is probably someone who would surprise you in every aspect, Priestess-sama."
Shisui Uchiha touched the summoned white snake inside his sleeve, which kept trying to crawl out.
His expression became subtle.
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