Chapter 95: Dungeon

Eight of the eight bricks have been activated. As soon as Shikamaru's finger touched the latter, the wall suddenly trembled and there was a lingering noise of moving stones. He slowly grew, as if getting closer and closer ...

After a couple of seconds, on the marked stones, the fuin symbols light up slightly, and then the bricks slowly began to move in a certain sequence. Some moved inward or to the side, and some, on the contrary, moved forward. In the end, all the bricks took on a completely different shape. Now it was no longer an empty fireplace, everything turned into a low passage to an underground room. All the steps were of exactly the same gray brick. The passage was not very large for just one person. Fuying seals on the stones glowed slightly, some brighter, some dimmer than others, and some even fade away at all. Even so, there were still enough of them to see how deep this tunnel was, and they served as a kind of lamps on the way into the unknown.

"So this is it ..." - Exhaling, Shikamaru looked around, and then folded the seal formed a shadow clone. Turning back and coming close to the aisle, Shikamaru ordered:

"Do it again and then guide Naruto while I look around."

Shikamaru didn't want to show this place to his friend right away, wanting to check it for traps or dangers. Still, although he was confident in the safety of this place, he was not going to risk it. And the blocking of the Hokage's technique should have been extended just in case.

Shikamaru slowly descended the steps, causing the muffled noise of his footsteps to echo throughout. The tunnel was incredibly long, and due to the structure of the walls, the sound was long and drawn out, pumping up the already gloomy atmosphere. A disappeared clan, an abandoned house ... Going down to such a place was not the best idea.

At the same time, the newly created clone arrived at another clone and again injected chakra into Naruto's body, making sure in advance that the old one was intact. It would fade over time, but if it had already happened, Shikamaru didn't want to make it so obvious in front of the Hokage.

Walking down the stairs for almost a minute, Shikamaru thought.

"Knowing the old man, he certainly will not act rashly and rush here at the slightest danger. Even if he suspects that Naruto and I may be harmed, he will not rush to immediately destroy the barrier. This is not his style ... A person who is too insecure could have done just that, but what Hiruzen does best is to endure and wait, even in the worst situation. After all, he is no stranger to taking the blame. The problem is that he will also not be idle for a long time, and a lot of time has passed. He will obviously do something, I took this into account when I walked here. But, I did not take into account exactly how he would act ... Still, he is not just some small shinobi. Even if I have a past life experience, compared to an old man, I am still a snotty boy, not to mention ninja experience and knowledge of hundreds of techniques that I do not have. A simple learned theory will not help me here. That is why it is necessary to act sharply and for sure, not to leave the old man able to make a move. Blocking his Jutsu is not a bad option to prevent him. The telescope technique followed a specific chakra signature, this was both an advantage and a weakness. Therefore, if the chakra is changed or influenced, the technique will naturally be useless. The crystal ball is usually used as an artifact conductor and in such a situation it cannot do anything. This is inevitable, no matter how experienced the shinobi is in this jutsu. It's like folding hand seals. No matter how much a ninja trains, and you still can't do without them, these are the rules of Ninjutsu. Also here ... But even so, who knows what this Jutsu is capable of in the hands of experienced ninjas. As a last resort, my clone is watching from the shadows. If he does arrive, he will have to act differently ... "Shikamaru sighed in displeasure. To some extent, he was just doing pointless things. After all, not a single normal ninja would simply hide anything from the Hokage of his village, it was not only stupid, but also unreasonable. Now it looked like creating problems from scratch and a clear demonstration of distrust to Shikamaru. Perhaps that is why he did not want to give Hiruzen direct evidence of his involvement in blocking the technique. The old man must have doubts.

Shikamaru had his own views on this strange situation. First of all, he simply did not like surveillance and the fact that others intervene in his affairs, even if it is someone - the Kage of the village. Yet even living in the ninja world, he still retained the mentality of the leader of a criminal gang. He was well aware that some information should not be disclosed even to the most trusted people. He still did not believe the old man and acted cautiously. Although he showed himself to be a man of honor and word, and did a lot for the guy. Shikamaru was not one to lose his guard so easily. In addition, the guy did not want Hiruzen to get involved in the case between him and Naruto because of his beliefs and somehow interfered with his plans. Shikamaru did not plan to change or harm Naruto, but still he wanted to force the guy to repay the debt on a certain day and he simply would not have a chance to refuse when the time came. Therefore, Hiruzen should know as little as possible.

The progress was long, but after another couple of minutes, Shikamaru finally descended to the lowest level of the dungeon. It was clearly some kind of secret bunker, otherwise this place cannot be called. The staircase was so long that it seemed as if it led to another world. Probably only Orochimaru has such deep dungeons, if any ...

Just at that moment, the clone sent to Naruto dissipated, transferring the memories to the original. Shikamaru nodded glumly and waited. Once the clone has finished the job, the other must lead the boy here, and at the same time convey everything he found.

"Hmm, it's been almost twenty minutes, we don't have much time. Telescope Technique ... "Suddenly Shikamaru stopped abruptly and frowned seriously.

With his abilities, at the moment he could create only ten clones, having used up all reserves. Therefore, almost always he used no more than half of them. One guided Naruto, two performed work in the villages, and two more remained on guard. But, one of the two watching clones dispersed, which meant only one thing - someone had arrived, and it could only be one person ...

Even memories were not needed to understand everything, from which Shikamaru grinned wryly.

- So already ... Yes, I was surprised.

Just then, right in front of the first barrier to the Uzumaki quarter, an old man in baggy clothes appeared. He slowly removed his large hat with the red "Fire" kanji and walked slowly towards the barrier. Hiruzen got tired of waiting and doing nothing ... He wanted to at least check the situation. He did not hide and calmly moved in only one direction.