In a sealed hidden space, the high priestess of the Land of Demons and I stood near a seal I had never seen before. It looked entirely different from the many seals I had encountered during my life, but I didn't start studying it.
Miroku had already promised to teach me everything she knew.
"This is… quite a bit of chakra," I muttered under my breath. "But it doesn't feel like anything else I ever felt before? This energy feels like chakra, but utterly foreign at the same time."
"Moryo claims to come from another world," Miroku offered in explanation as she stood a step behind me. With a small glance back, I noticed her palms were sweaty.
"And this is just his soul?"
The high priestess nodded and added, "His body is in the Land of Swamps. I… if you deal with this like I suspect you will, I can take you tomorrow."
Stepping closer to the seal, I finally saw something past the obscuring fog in the sealed space. Seeing as the soul entity inside was weakened and didn't feel like a threat, I calmly stepped into the seal.
Immediately, several serpentine, purple heads rose and moved to encircle me unhurriedly but completely.
Countless red eyes glared at me, not just from the heads I could plainly see but also from the fog all around me.
"Foolish mortal," several voices hissed from every direction as they all layered over another in a menacing, goosebumps-inducing way.
"Spare me," I muttered with disdain and formed hand seals. Since I felt this entity's power level, the horror show didn't land at all. Once I was done, I pressed both hands on the ground just as the heads moved to attack me.
Black sealing patterns spread out all around me as I stood up straight once more. Tad-pole like lines and patterns spiraled from where I had touched the ground, converging at a single focus point a small distance away from me. From that central point, more lines shot out in every direction to bind pieces of the voluminous and gaseous 'demon', multiplying endlessly with each successful binding.
The seal lines began to drag everything it bound toward the central focus.
"Just get in before I burn you to cinders," I scoffed as I watched the entity struggle. My Ghost Restriction seal, something I inherited from the Uzumaki scrolls Kiri had stolen during the destruction, worked against chakra entities specifically. Whenever my sealing technique touched a part of Moryo, the lines retracted back into the focus to gather the target in one place.
It was originally created for tailed beasts, but failed its purpose. The notes said it didn't work because eventually, tailed beasts gained a body during their lives when they weren't sealed which severely lowered the effectiveness of the binding. But Moryo didn't have his fleshly vessel, the body and soul were separated.
To help the seal along I drowned the sealed space in my chakra and pressed Moryo into my Ghost Restriction seal. I turned up the heat in the sealed space and slowly, that heat made its way towards the sealing focus.
The heads all roared obscenities at me, but I ignored it entirely. A few of the heads tried attacking me, but all attacks were deflected by my superior chakra quality. Moryo's struggle merely accelerated the sealing process.
Transfering the Ghost Restriction seal with Moryo inside into my plant dimension, I finally walked out of the sealed space and back to Miroku, who allowed me to get out of the seal she controlled.
"Your chakra is overwhelming," she commented with a vacant look toward the empty seal space. "I had worried about Moryo for so long…"
—————
"You woke up early," Miroku softly sighed as she sat up in bed.
I stood at a huge window not far from the big bed in her quarters watching the Land of Demons before sunrise.
"Cover yourself," I instructed in a low voice. With furrowed brows, Miroku followed my order and just as she did, a small girl, barely three or four years old rushed into the room with a loud bang of the door.
"Mommy, mommy!" The blonde missile shouted as she jumped to her mother about to comb her hair at the edge of the bed.
"Shion," the high priestess gently greeted as she hugged her daughter back.
I lowered my presence with a superior genjutsu-enhanced version of the camouflage jutsu like always, but after some regular mother-daughter small-talk, the toddler turned to me and asked, "Who is this mommy?"
Both Miroku and I were stunned for a short moment, though for different reasons, before Miroku explained, "He is the benefactor of our Land of Demons. Perhaps, we will soon be known by a different name because of him."
The little blonde girl nodded with a serious expression before innocently asking, "And why is he in mommy's bedroom?"
Miroku's expression turned solemn before it turned a little lost and she offered, "He and I were exhausted after dealing with a great danger and he needed a place to rest. Have you had breakfast yet, Shion-chan?"
—————
Sex with Miroku in full priestess gear was fun because of the tinkling of her elaborate headdress. Plus, she hadn't been with anyone after getting pregnant and quite enjoyed herself. On our way to the Land of Swamps after breakfast where I carried her to make our trip faster, the high priestess took the initiative in a vast, quiet forest just past the border of the Land of Demons.
I was done dealing with Moryo's body before lunch with Miroku's guidance.
Taking her back to her daughter, I left these lands and made my way to the Land of Iron. Once I arrived there and took residence at the Fujikama clan like planned, I entered my plant dimension.
Saiken looked visibly annoyed, possibly still because of my actions regarding Nohara Rin, but she still changed her appearance to look like a pink-haired and pink-eyed Miroku. She gave me the cold shoulder as I traveled from my entry point into the dimension all the way to where I transferred the sealed pieces of Moryo.
As I was adjusting the seal, Saiken behind me asked, "What are you doing?"
"Like with the box, I will drain its chakra for all its worth. You feel it already, don't you? The chakra in this place is changing. First, it lowered because tailed beast seeds drained the atmospheric chakra in the garden," I explained as I used Saiken's nickname 'the garden' for the plant dimension. "Now that the seals are draining the Box of Bliss or whatever through the puppet, the chakra in the air and ground has increased once more."
"The seeds are growing a little quicker, that's true," Saiken affirmed in a quiet voice. "And you want to drain this thing, too?"
I kept quiet for several minutes as I adjusted the seal before standing up and looking at my tailed-beast, "I plan to do exactly that. This thing is an abomination that wants to annihilate this world. As such, I will drain this chakra battery and use it up until nothing's left."
The seal behind me started to ever so slowly siphon off the chakra from Moryo's soul and body as it filtered it into what I considered 'neutral chakra'.
"I don't feel any conscience," Saiken commented as she tried to feel the two parts of the demon.
"With our first battery, I can't control whatever is inside the big box of bliss, so I cannot bind its will entirely. Hence, the puppet keeps getting its chakra restored and the box keeps trying to influence this dimension, dumbly attacking the seal. That will not happen with Moryo here. I obliterated its will with my ghostly flame kekkei genkai," I explained with a small frown.
The body was alive because the soul was alive. The soul was alive because its mind used to be intact. Annihilating the mind, however, was necessary. My strength was out of its league currently, by several leagues in fact. But I had no need for a miscalculation.
If this self-proclaimed extraterrestrial being was somehow able to gain power in this dimension because of god's influence or extreme time dilation, it would be too late for regrets.
Maybe the broken mind will make Moryo get drained much faster than I'd want, but that was a price I would pay compared to the alternative.
"And you cannot do that with the Box of Ultimate Bliss?" The tailed beast asked.
"It doesn't have a mind. None that I could find. As such, the box will feed the puppet with chakra until the box runs out of chakra. At least the box isn't smart enough to figure out the sacrificial decoy sealing pattern I designed inside the actual seal. I suspect we won't have to fear it breaking out… and if it ever does change its behavior, I'll melt the box into scrap immediately."
Saiken hummed in acknowledgment.
"What will you do with the ants?"
I was stumped for a moment before I remembered the giant glass bottle tied to my back. Inside it was part of a colony of thumb-sized ants. I had tasked the Fujikama clan with gathering these ants native to the Land of Iron. The Fujikama clan was a clan that used to train insects for their ninjutsu like Konoha's Aburame clan, but they stopped being a ninja clan.
I didn't care to find out why they changed to being a blacksmith clan, but their clan records and interests made them the perfect people for the job.
"I plan to introduce them to this dimension. If they strive, they might evolve. If they do, I'll use them as pill ingredients."
Saiken pondered the implications before asking, "Just like those lizards living near the lava biome?"
I nodded. Those lizards were in their thousandth generation by now, but they have yet to gain the ability to control lava.
"Yes, but these ants are special. They already have the ability to control metal through chakra."
"Ah, you already used them as pill ingredients several years ago!" Saiken realized before she grew flustered and kept her expression indifferent once more.
"I did. The Fujikama clan sold me all their ants because I grew greedy and they needed the money urgently. Now, four years later, I can confidently say I learned from my mistakes. The clan caught more wild ants for their needs, grew several colonies, and sold me one," I explained with a small nod as I reached for the big glass bottle on my back.
"I will tend to them," the six-tailed beast offered with a small voice. "Thank you."
Obviously, I didn't introduce the lizards or the ants for her sake. But I was glad she enjoyed these changes.
"The common crickets and cicadas you put in the wheat fields and the beetles between the wheat fields and the lava biome for the lizards are all gone, by the way. The lizards ate them all and are now eating each other," Saiken described as if realizing something.
I was quite sure she knew about this for a while, but she didn't tell me before to show her dissatisfaction with me. But the lizards cannibalizing each other was part of the plan. Only the strongest and most adapted would survive.
I had always hoped for their food supply to run low.
"Thank you for informing me," I accepted with a nod. "How are the seeds for the other tailed beasts doing?"
Some light shone in Saiken's eyes for a short moment before she gave me a deep look.
Soon, she sighed as she looked at me with a fond look for the shortest of moments and offered, "My seed is already fully formed. I suppose it won't take long before it… wakes up, so to speak. Isobu and Gyuki are coming along nicely. But Kurama's seed is stubborn. It feeds on chakra much more than the seed for the other two, but it doesn't grow at all. Only Chomei's seed is closing in on the level of growth of my seed."
Meaning I was close to getting a copy of the three- and eight-tailed beasts Isobu and Gyuki. The six-tailed beast, my Saiken, was closest to getting a second incarnation, and the seven-tailed beast, Chomei, was close behind. Only the nine-tailed beast, Kurama, was worrying her, and therefore me.
During my trip to Hozuki Castle to steal the Box of Ultimate bliss months ago, I had negotiated with Fū's tailed beast in Takigakure. The little girl didn't even know it happened, but with the seven-tailed beast's help, I created a seed containing almost half of Chomei's chakra. Her village's ninjas were equally oblivious.
As payment, Fū ate pills of a quality that not even Haku and the other Kiri genin enjoyed. Only Naruto and Tsunade's children, my children, have eaten these pills other than me – unless Tsunade tested them together with Shizune or was stupid enough to share these pills with her village despite my warnings on the bottle. Fū's talent for chakra control and nature transformation at this point should almost be without equal on this planet if we discounted me and the children living with Tsunade.
"Any plans for my other siblings?" Saiken asked as we walked back to my hut inside the garden.
I was looking around for a suitable place to put the ants.
"Nine, Eight, Seven, and Six are the ones that will take the longest and I already have their seeds. Five and Four are in Iwagakure, I can't attack their jinchūriki without causing an incident. Three is done, two is in Kumogakure and I could just waltz there anytime I wanted… One is in Suna, but it will grow the fastest so I'm not concerned. Shukaku can come last," I explained while lost in thought and with my head on a swivel. Eventually, I spotted a hill where almost nothing else grew as of yet.
The ants would likely have enough food here, but I still decided to put up seals. I didn't need the population for these ants to explode. For them to get absolutely everywhere. And then consume everything inside this dimension, chief of which was my chakra metal furnaces.
I couldn't allow them to get to the furnace I inherited from god and then use their ability to feed on the pure chakra metal.
"Your plan sounds feasible. Both Son Goku and Kokuo are very stubborn, you will not be able to negotiate for their chakra like you did with Chomei," Saiken absent-mindedly pointed out.
"Like I said, if I wanted to, I could just beat the beasts out of them – but the Tsuchikage won't like it. Well, he wouldn't have to find out. After all, both Roshi and Han no longer stay in Iwagakure after the Third Ninja War ended," the more I talked, the more I realized that maybe now was the perfect time to target the two jinchūriki of the four- and five-tailed beasts. I couldn't remember at all when Akatsuki would go for these two in particular. Iwa's lore and background was largely ignored in the source material.
Done with the seal to make sure the ants couldn't leave the hill and the area surrounding it, I released the ants from the large bottle after amassing some food for them.
Stepping back, I returned to Saiken's side.
"It is quite curious, no? Son Goku's jinchūriki is known for his lava release. Kokuo's jinchūriki is known for his boil release," Saiken commented as we watched the ants leave the glass bottle to explore.
"How is that 'curious'?"
"Your wife-to-be, Mei-san. Aren't these the two bloodline limits she is known for?"
With narrowed eyes, I studied Saiken for a while. Eventually, I shrugged and agreed, "That is actually a curious coincidence."
Four days later, I ate inside the Fujikama clan's main hall and studied a furnace placed in front of me.
"I am confident that we managed to fulfill your specifications exactly," Fujikama Mabuki, their clan head, boasted as he looked at me with a shrewd grin.
After another bite, I placed down my chopsticks and lifted the furnace in my hands.
Turning it around, I was quite impressed with their handiwork. This furnace allowed for five different flames to heat the inside of the furnace through cleverly integrated vents. I wanted one to test a new pill creation technique using more than two different fires.
"This is exactly what I wanted. Expect a bonus for your craftsmanship," I praised and continued eating as the clan head continued his small talk with me.
I had single-handedly saved his clan not just from their impending bankruptcy and obscurity, my payments made them one of the richest blacksmithing clans in the Land of Iron. Mabuki desperately wanted to keep me as a customer. He even went as far as offering me all four of his nieces as concubines, but they weren't my type. They were pretty and with my pills I could change their fate, but at 20 years old, the oldest of the four sisters, barely reached the strength of a chunin.
It was good that he didn't insist past a certain point.
"Mabuki-sama," an attendant silently whispered to gain his clan head's attention. "There is a guest outside claiming to be here for Terumi-sama."
"Do you know about this, benefactor?" The Fujikama clan head asked as he turned to me.
I merely nodded in response and stood up.
"Lead them to my quarters."
When Mabuki looked down at the table, the furnace was gone. In its place was a sealing scroll that made the clan head swallow heavily.
A veritable mountain of currency waited inside.
—————
"Yo-kun?"
I looked at the woman that was led to my courtyard on the Fujikama clan premises with a polite smile.
"Konan-san. Thank you for making the trip," I offered as I gestured for the kunoichi dressed in the stuffy black cloak with the red clouds to sit.
"Can you tell me why you came all the way here and why I was made to travel to this land now?"
Looking at her seated form, I explained, "There is a group of Uzumaki shinobi here between the Land of Iron and the Land of Volcanoes. I am unsure of their numbers, but there should be a few civilians among them. I want you to see how I treat them to reassure you and Nagato that I mean well. Additionally, for every Uzumaki following me I will still reward you as agreed beforehand."
"Why this clan?"
I narrowed my eyes a little as I deliberated why she cared.
Eventually, I shrugged and answered, "When I first came to the Land of Iron to commission an item, they were the most desperate. I used their eagerness to my advantage and both sides have profited immensely."