Fujin approached a bandit. The Eight Trigrams Divination Seal appeared on his right palm as he placed the palm on the bandit's abdomen. Immediately, a seal formed on his abdomen.
The bandit, who was still unconscious, winced but didn't wake up. Fujin observed the seal and analyzed, 'That looks about right. Now, let me see how it works.'
Fujin placed his palm on the seal and inserted some chakra in it. In an instant, the scenery around him changed. Fujin looked around. He was standing in what seemed to be an abandoned cave. The entrance of the cave was locked behind a large gate.
Fujin observed, 'Hmm, as I guessed. The Eight Trigrams Divination Seal allows us to access a spiritual space within ourselves. A spiritual space that can be used to seal up massive Tailed Beasts… The Four Symbol Seal can also create such a spiritual space, but it isn't flexible. Only the person and the sealed being can access it and it doesn't create such a space when there is nothing sealed inside.
Anyway, it looks like its appearance differs from person to person. This guy's spiritual space looks like a cave. I wonder what it will look like for others…'
Fujin immediately began testing it out on the other bandits. As he expected, everyone had a different type of spiritual space. Some had plain grasslands, some had buildings, some had mountains, a couple had sea and so on.
Satisfied with his experiments, Fujin thought with a smile, 'I haven't made any mistake while creating it. The Eight Trigrams Divination Seal is perfect. Now, I can finally move on to the next step and the difficult part. That is, to improve this seal further! To create a seal that no one has done before! If I can make it as I envisioned, then I could increase my power exponentially. At the very least, I'll be a step ahead of every rank S ninja. Only the likes of Hashirama and Madara will be stronger than me.
Unfortunately, this will be very difficult and could be risky. Not to mention, I have to ensure absolute secrecy. And, I need something weaker to test the more advanced seal on. Fortunately, I will have a perfect opportunity not too long from now. I just have to prepare the seal by then…'
Fujin's smile faded away as he began planning for the future. His eyes landed on the bandits. His hands moved like a blur weaving a set of hand seals. Chakra began emitting from his body. Instead of turning into the wind, it turned the surroundings extremely hot. In the blink of an eye, the entire camp caught fire!
The houses in the camp, the unconscious bandits and any other object in the camp began burning! The pain caused every bandit to wake up. Their noses were immediately bombarded with the smell of burning flesh. In a fraction of a second, their brains registered the pain they were feeling.
Terrified screams full of pain and fear could be heard for hundreds of meters around the camp. Unfortunately or fortunately, there was no one around to hear it. The only one who could hear was standing in the middle of the fire, completely unaffected by the heat and the screams.
Some bandits managed to get up to their feet and wanted to run away. To their horror, their feet sunk into the ground. They looked down and to their dismay, the ground itself was melting!
Within a couple of minutes, every bandit met a painful and traumatizing death. The fire had thoroughly destroyed their bodies. Their skins and even their bones had melted! In fact, all signs of the camp had been destroyed. The only thing that was left was the burnt ground!
The jutsu Fujin had used was Fire Release: Fiery Hell jutsu. During the First Great Ninja War, a dozen ninjas who were under Hiruzen's command were captured by Kirigakure ninjas and tortured brutally. By the time Hiruzen reached to rescue them, all he found were their tortured and mutilated dead bodies. It was then that Hiruzen had created this jutsu to take revenge for his fallen comrades.
When Fujin asked for Hiruzen's help to learn Earth and Fire jutsus, this was one of the jutsus that he taught to Fujin. As usual, Fujin used an Earth jutsu to bury the burnt soil deep underground and make the ground look as good as new. If someone who didn't know about the existence of the bandit camp arrived there, they wouldn't even suspect that there used to be a bandit camp there. Let alone think that the remains of 32 bandits were buried there.
With the Eight Trigrams Divination Seal tested, Fujin decided, 'I should rest for the night. Though I am stronger, it'll be best to fight Raiga when I am properly rested. After all, that guy is someone who survived or managed to escape from Might Duy…'
While Fujin was dealing with the bandit camp, his clone ensured that the girls reached their village and killed a couple of bandits that they encountered. There were a couple of other bandits as well who weren't in the camp. However, Fujin didn't care about them. The bandits weren't ninjas. There was no reason why a few adults from the village couldn't deal with a couple of ordinary bandits. And, that was if those two still dared to continue their activities after seeing that their entire camp was missing!
The next morning, Fujin continued his journey. In a couple of hours, he arrived at the village where the Kurosuki family had established their base in. As soon as he reached close to the village, he began hearing loud bells, surprising Fujin who wondered, 'Hmm? What's happening in the village?'
He flickered and appeared atop one of the cliffs surrounding the village. His eyes glowed as he observed the situation.
Some distance away from the village, over a dozen people wearing cloaks were walking towards the graveyard. Four of them were carrying a coffin.
"Why?"
"Why?"
"Why did he have to die so young?"
Walking behind the ones carrying the coffin, one guy was mourning sorrowfully. Despite his words, there didn't seem to be any sorrow in his voice or his facial expressions. He continued mourning, "I remember when we met. You were so enthusiastic when I drove away the greedy officials. I remember how happy you were when I threw you into the mines to work for me. I still recall how happy you were to see all your fellow villagers working without any breaks with you! Why did god take away such a kind soul?"
The group finally reached the graveyard and placed the coffin in a hole. Sounds of struggling and muffled screams could be heard from the coffin. However, none of the cloaked people seem to care. They began pouring soil into the grave.
While Raiga was mourning, he suddenly heard a worried voice, "Raiga! I can feel that someone is staring at us. I can't sense where he is at but I have a feeling that he is very strong."
Raiga was surprised. He softly muttered, "Someone even you can't sense, Ranmaru?"
Fujin, who was watching the procession from the top of a cliff, thought, 'Looks like the intel was accurate. The person in the coffin is very much alive. Still, they are burying him… Oh well, it's a good thing that they are already in a graveyard. Will save me some time.'
Fujin continued watching. He obviously wouldn't go out of his way to save someone and get a weakness while fighting one of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist. However, he didn't intend to kill the person either as it was just a civilian. He just waited for them to finish burying him because, ironically, that would soon be the safest position in the graveyard.
Raiga's followers continued pouring the soil until the ground was levelled. Raiga was about to say his final condolences when a ragged voice was heard, "A live burial. Hehe, now that's something I haven't seen in a long while."
The sudden words surprised everyone, including Raiga and Ranmaru who didn't detect anyone. They immediately looked in the direction of the voice and saw Fujin standing there wearing a demon mask and a long black cloak. Most of them immediately drew their weapons. One of Raiga's subordinates shouted aggressively, "Who are you? What are you doing here?"
Fujin chuckled and replied, "Just a traveller. I came looking for a village to eat some food. Your little show just attracted me here, hehe."
Raiga's subordinates immediately became angry as they understood that they were being mocked. One of them said, "You want to eat food? Sure, we will arrange it for you. It shall be your last meal before your funeral!"
As he spoke, some of the subordinates began walking towards Fujin. Fujin broke out into laughter and replied, "Hahaha, that sounds fun! You guys seem to be the kind of guys who can arrange for my favorite meal as well."
Raiga's subordinates were surprised by such an answer. The only ones who weren't surprised were Raiga and Ranmaru, who felt that something was odd about the cloaked stranger. Even so, one of his subordinates laughed and asked, "Arrange your favorite meal? Hahaha. Sure we will. What is your favorite meal?"
His laughter and the mocking grins of others froze as an arm poked through his chest, holding his heart in his palm. A whisper was heard through the graveyard.
"Human hearts!"
