Aoki Yoru took out two Sharingan from his robe. These were the ones he had plucked from Danzo's arm—a total of five three-tomoe eyes, two of which he had left for his Wood Clone.
After all, the Wood Clone was crucial to his grand plan, and each eye was equivalent to an extra life. Surely his luck wouldn't be so bad that he'd die three times in a row.
As for Shisui's Mangekyo, it was still slowly recovering under the nourishment of white zetsu cells. It would just take a while, and he didn't need it for now anyway.
He had no absolute certainty about sealing the grell stone vein this time; everything was based on his deductions.
The grell stone vein wasn't like a Tailed Beast. If a Tailed Beast seal failed, he was confident he could still escape.
But the energy burst from the vein... while saying it could destroy half the continent might be an exaggeration, its instantaneous energy would definitely wipe out everything within a hundred miles. By then, it would be too late for him to run.
Therefore, he brought everything out this time. His limit would be three minutes. By then, the most intense moment of the explosion would have long passed, and any remaining aftershocks would pose no threat to him.
However, he had to be careful about whether it would trigger the space-time rift from the original story. If he fell in without even having Izanagi, ghost knows what would be inside.
Thinking of this, he pressed the three Sharingan onto his arm. With his white zetsu cells, they were definitely plug-and-play.
Aoki Yoru then reviewed all the details in his mind one last time. Once he confirmed there were no other issues, he took out Timusi's left arm.
Although the monarch of the Kingdom of Gil had sealed the vein, they had also left a key so that their descendants could utilize this energy.
What he needed to do now was use the original sealing array, first using blood to unlock the bottom seal...
...then guide the energy flow directed to the altar into the arm, using the arm as a container to seal and take away the entire vein.
This was also why he wanted Timusi's arm. As a descendant of the royal family, not only could his blood unlock the seal, but he could also use the existing seal to house the vein within his body without causing a violent backlash.
That's right, the arm was the container.
For a massive energy source like the grell stone vein, a sealing scroll simply couldn't hold it. It could only be sealed within a body or a container like the Tea Kettle of the Hidden Sand Village.
Aoki Yoru didn't want to seal it within himself. The uncertainty was too great. What if it went berserk? After all, he had never sealed a Tailed Beast before, so there were bound to be things he hadn't considered.
He wouldn't let himself fall into uncontrollable danger.
Aoki Yoru then covered the severed arm with sealing formulas and placed it in the center of the altar.
As he dripped blood onto the altar, the runes lit up. The altar vibrated violently, stones fell from the ceiling, and the crystal clusters burst with a blinding blue light.
The vein's energy surged through ancient pipes toward the altar, and a pillar of blue light shot into the sky, the shockwave even cracking the ground.
He formed hand signs to activate the Guidance Formula, and the energy began to flow into the severed arm—the blue light spreading from the fingertips to the palm. The severed arm swelled, and blue light seeped through cracks in the skin.
He bit his finger and began to continuously apply seals to the severed arm, layer upon layer—the Four Symbols Seal, the Eight Trigrams Seal, and the Five Elements Seal—dumping every Sealing Technique he knew onto it.
The crystal clusters shattered, and crystals dozens of meters long collapsed as the vein's energy was forcibly extracted.
Finally, the blue light of the vein extinguished, and the underground fell into darkness.
Aoki Yoru picked up the arm; it was as heavy as a mountain. The energy of the entire vein had been sealed within it.
Looking at the severed arm, Aoki Yoru showed a relieved smile. Next, he would seal the arm onto a clone to provide it with a steady stream of energy.
Suddenly, Aoki Yoru paused, as if he had sensed something.
"To think it's already this time!"
Aoki Yoru hadn't expected the sealing to take several hours. It was already dark outside, and Naruto and the others had arrived above the ruins.
He immediately sealed the severed arm into a scroll and left using Earth Release.
Shortly after Aoki Yoru left, Naruto arrived underground led by the caravan leader, Kahiko. When he saw the pitch-black ruins, he asked in confusion:
"Uncle, didn't you say the vein gives off a dazzling light? Why is it pitch black?"
Kahiko froze, his pupils shrinking, and the color drained from his face instantly.
He murmured, his voice trembling: "Impossible... My ancestors' notes clearly stated the vein would emit light... How can this be?"
"Boom!"
A large machine crashed through the ruins' wall and drove in. A smug Haido stepped out, but when he saw the empty basement, he completely lost his composure: "Impossible! Where is the grell stone vein? Speak! Where did you hide it?"
Subsequently, a completely frenzied Haido revealed his true motives and the fact that he had murdered Timusi's parents.
In the end, there were no surprises. Without the empowerment of the grell stone vein, he was instantly defeated by Naruto.
That night, after dealing with the enemies, everyone sat around the campfire, singing and dancing in celebration.
"Hey, Timusi, what's wrong? What are you thinking about all by yourself?"
Naruto saw Timusi sitting there blankly and curiously walked over to ask.
Snapping back to reality, Timusi covered his stump with his right hand. "I'm wondering if the person who took the vein and the person who cut off my arm are the same person."
Hearing this, Naruto's face instantly turned red with anger. "Don't let me find that bastard, or I'll blow him away!"
Naruto felt very guilty for failing to protect his friend.
"Maybe it's a good thing. At least they didn't take my life, right?"
Kahiko had told him the conditions for opening the seal. The other person must have used his arm to take the vein!
Timusi had a premonition that the person wasn't some irredeemable villain; otherwise, they wouldn't have just taken one arm.
"I hope they use the grell stone well and don't become obsessed with power like my ancestors."
Timusi looked up at the starry sky, a smile appearing on his face.
From now on, he was free and no longer had to carry any expectations.
After leaving the ruins, Aoki Yoru rushed toward the Land of Fire.
He hadn't forgotten that he still had a pile of missions to execute. If they were overdue, Tsunade would skin him alive.
At this moment, he was clutching a stack of mission slips. As he flipped through them page by page, his brow furrowed deeper and deeper.
Many of them were escort missions that took quite a while. No matter how you looked at it, Kakashi-sensei couldn't have completed them all alone.
"As expected, I can't underestimate anyone!" Aoki Yoru couldn't help but sigh.
These missions were clearly prepared for him. If he hadn't taken the initiative to find Tsunade, she would have definitely found a reason to make him execute them after a while.
Because Tsunade knew he had Wood Clones; as the granddaughter of the First Hokage, she knew Wood Clones inside out and knew he could perform multiple missions simultaneously.
"Whatever, I should just finish them quickly and then go to the Land of Birds to find my Wood Clone."
He then created five Wood Clones and distributed the mission slips to them.
The clones rolled their eyes at him: "You're really good at slacking off!"
Although they were clones, their thoughts were the same as the original, and they didn't want to work this hard either. Unfortunately, clones have no human rights, so they could only take their orders and head off separately.
Watching the clones leap away one by one, Aoki Yoru gave a knowing smile.
Aren't clones meant to share the workload? If they all acted like Naruto's and quarreled with the original, that would truly be putting the cart before the horse.
Aoki Yoru lay back, sinking into soft feathers. The wind brushed past his ears, and the boundless starry sky stretched out before him. The exhaustion from a day and night of busy work finally dissipated for the most part at this moment.