In the central room at the lowest level of the cave, the Grand Priest was meditating at the center of the cave. The Grand Priest was from the same generation as Konoha's Legendary Sannins. His body was extremely muscular. However, he had numerous sword scars and burn scars all over his body. Even his face had two huge sword scars forming an X on his face. In addition, his left cheek had a burn scar that covered it entirely.
The room was quite unique as well. There was a circle dug into the ground that surrounded the entire room. It was about 3 inches deep and 6 inches wide. 5 straight lines were dug from this circle into the 5 rooms that surrounded the central room with the same depth and width. In addition, an equilateral triangle was dug such that it was inscribed in the circle. There were also 7 pillars in the room. They were all equidistant from where the Grand Priest was meditating.
Most importantly, blood flowed through the circle and the triangle. In addition, the ground and the walls were covered with mysterious symbols. The devotees and the servants were working on drawing even more symbols as the Priests supervised.
On one of the pillars, an old man sat. He had a long white beard that extended up to his abdomen. However, in contrast to his beard, his head was as bald as a desert landscape. Like the Grand Priest, he too had a few sword scars on his body. However, unlike him, the old man's body was very fragile. He wore a clean silver robe and observed everyone around him while stroking his beard.
He thought, 'The preparations for the ritual are almost over. Soon, we will only be missing the children. Once Datsuron and the rest bring the children, we will add the blood of the children from the 5 rooms to this room and begin the ritual. Then we can begin the ritual.'
The old man, who thought about killing 375 children with no remorse or pity, was the one who had placed seals in the cave. As he was observing everyone's work, he noticed 3 devotees approaching him. He looked at them and asked, "Why aren't you three resting?"
One of the three devotees laughed awkwardly and said, "Isamu-sama, the ritual is so close to completion. We were excited and couldn't sleep. So we decided to help complete all the preparations before sleeping."
The old man looked at them and thought, 'Not bad. Unlike the other priests, all my devotees are extremely dedicated to Lord Jashin!'
He said, "Good, with your help, the work should be done in the next three hours. Aid your fellow devotees."
The trio nodded and went past his pillar towards other devotees. Everyone continued working as normal. However, they were ignorant about the calamity that was about to befall them.
The Konoha ninjas were hiding in the walls of the room. Fujin concentrated chakra in his eyes while others had their Sharingan activated. They were waiting for Sora and Haru. In a few minutes, Sora set up barriers to isolate the rooms that held the kids from the central room.
As soon as the barrier was up, Fujin and Mieko built up their chakra and exited the cave walls. Their entrance instantly attracted dozens of eyes. All the 3 Priests looked at them too. The Grand Priest also opened his eyes.
However, before anyone could act, their eyes could only see a firestorm. Fujin and Mieko both used their respective jutsus.
'Fire Release: Majestic Destroyer Flame'
'Wind Release: Infinite Breakthrough Jutsu'
The combination jutsu threatened to consume everyone in the circular room. The sudden attack caused a lot of panic. Many tried making a jutsu, but the short time meant that most couldn't. Only two people managed to act in time.
Isamu made a hand seal. Immediately, a barrier appeared across the room. It divided the room into two, with Mieko and Fujin on one side and all the Priests and the Grand Priest on the other side.
The Grand Priest Zankoku was the other one to act. He controlled the blood in the room to rise up and act as a barrier. However, the short time meant that he couldn't infuse much chakra into the blood to make the barrier sturdy.
Fujin's winds blasted through the blood barriers. The Firestorm hit Isamu's barrier and was halted. However, all the Jashinists on their side of the Barrier were burnt alive. Many painful screams could be heard in the fire. Their screams unnerved the Jashinists. The kidnapped children also heard the screams and began crying.
All the devotees and servants who were alive gathered around their Priests. Everyone took out their weapons. Only Isamu's devotees were all alive as they were working behind him. The other two Priests lost half of their subordinates.
Isamu said loudly, "It looks like the rats from the Land of Grass have found our hideout. Don't panic! This is our base. They will be sacrificed to Lord Jashin."
However, Zankoku looked menacingly at Isamu and asked, "How did you not know that there are intruders in our hideout, Isamu?"
Zankoku's menacing tone frightened him. He looked back at him and said, "Zankoku-sama, I am not sure how they infiltrated so deep without alerting me. I had inscribed all the seals properly."
He truly didn't understand how they infiltrated the hideout without triggering a single seal. After all, he had inscribed over a hundred seals in the cave!
Zankoku said, "Let us first deal with these insects. Then I'll take care of you."
Isamu's expression was grim. He focused his eyes beyond the barrier. A Firestorm was still raging in that part of the room. He thought, 'How the fuck did these rats appear here? I need to finish them off personally. Otherwise, I might be the unlucky person to suffer Zankoku-sama's wrath!'
He made a hand sign intending to activate the seals that he had placed in the room. However, at that time, two swords pierced through his body!
This sequence of actions shocked all the Jashinists. They looked at Isamu with a stunned expressions. Even Zankoku was shocked. He initially suspected that Isamu had betrayed them. But now Isamu was betrayed by his own devotees!
Isamu's face was full of disbelief. He turned his head around and looked at his two devotees. He asked, "W..
H….Y…?"
He died without understanding why his obedient devotees killed him.
The remaining 5 devotees of Isamu were the ones who had the highest impact other than Isamu himself. They looked at their fellow devotees in rage and disbelief. One of them yelled, "Why did you kill our Priest?"
One of the killers shouted, "This perverted old leecher killed my mother!"
The other one shouted, "He killed my friends. He is as sick as that pedophile Jashin!"
Their words shocked everyone. They were filled with rage. Zankoku shouted, "How dare you commit blasphemy?"
Akihiko saw these interactions and smirked. He thought, 'It's so easy to rile them up.'
Their small argument caused a distraction. Zankoku was about to kill them when he heard a cracking sound. He looked to see that the barrier that Isamu had erected was getting broken. Without Isamu providing chakra to it, the barrier could no longer hold the combination jutsu back.
A frown formed on his face as he made a hand sign. All the blood around him rose and formed a dome with him at the center. The dome also covered the other two priests and their subordinates. However, the subordinates of Isamu were left without any protection.
With Isamu dead, his devotees understood that they wouldn't get any help from Zankoku. They looked at Isamu's killers in anger while making hand signs to use a jutsu to protect themselves. However, the two who killed Isamu began attacking the devotees who were making hand signs. This enraged them even more.
They shouted, "You killed our Priest and now you two want to eliminate us too?"
In a rage, 4 devotees attacked the two 'traitors'. The two traitors resisted. They were about to engage in an all-out fight when 2 kunais pierced the back of two of those devotees. They turned around to see one of their fellow devotees killing them.
They exclaimed, "You too?"
At that instant, the barrier finally broke! The firestorm hit the blood dome and the subordinates of Isamu. All of Isamu's subordinates were burned alive like the others who had already died. However, the blood dome stayed strong. Fujin and Mieko's combination jutsu wasn't able to pierce through it at all.
Fujin thought, 'This is new. He is using the blood that was flowing in the room like a Water element user would use water. I wonder if all water affinity ninjas can do this or is this something different? Also, his chakra is very strange. I have never sensed a chakra like his. It's quite high but is unstable. And it gives a different feeling as compared to normal chakra.
From within the blood dome, Zankoku too observed Fujin and Mieko.
