Chapter 78

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Title: Jashin

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Arriving in front of the large conference room that was the location of our monthly and emergency meetings, I shook my head feeling the number of individuals inside and knew that I was late.

"Well, whatever..." I muttered and pushed open the door and swaggered in with a toothy smile

"Yo...It's always nice to see some familiar faces." I waved at them as they all turned to glare at me, not like I could see them, so I ignored them.

"You're late." One of the captains, a lady who was in charge of squad nine, I believe should be the internal affairs department, said with a stern look.

"Mah mah. Always being stuck up won't land you a man Inoue-chan, you should be more graceful as your name suggests." I replied as I walked over to my seat.

"Plus, it's not like I'm actually late, I arrived right on time." As I said that, the Ding* sound from a timer in the center of the table rang out.

"See?" I pointed.

"That's enough from you Shun, let's commence this meeting." The Hanakage said. Kaito Hayashi was his name. Lazy appearance and all but fathomable strength to maintain the position.

"Yes, let's..." I said and turned to the captain of the Information Gathering Squad, Yumi Sakurai and asked. "I heard there was an emergency that warranted the presence of the captains"

Yumi merely looked at me before snorting and looking at Kaito who shook his head wryly.

"Hey! What's with that? I feel quite offended."

"You aren't the Hanakage yet young man, show some restraint."

General POV

"You aren't the Hanakage yet young man, show some restraint." An annoyed voice rebuked Shun causing him to turn.

"Hey, I never asked to be captain...just saying." Shun said, raising his hands in surrender as he reclined on his chair.

To make matters worse, he placed his legs on the table, looking totally unbothered by the glares he was receiving.

"You..!"

"Enough." Kaito said, quelling whatever it was the man wanted to say. "Kobayashi-san, let him be"

"But-"

"He's your fellow captain, and we all know his quirks, don't be the smaller man here. Look at your fellow captains." Kaito pointed, causing the man to realize that he wasn't the only one angry, but the only one reacting.

"Tch." He clicked his tongue while folding his hands. Emi Kobayashi was his name. He was the current Taijutsu Squad captain in the village and the strongest physical fighter at present.

In terms of strength, he was actually stronger than his predecessor due to his mastery of a breathing technique obtained from the village library.

This led to him believing he wasn't inferior to the village's proclaimed Genius in terms of talent.

"Yumi, repeat exactly what it was you told me earlier." Kaito said, causing the brunette captain to nod and tapped the table.

As she did that, a vivid holographic map of the entire world unfolded before her, revealing intricate details of landscapes, cities, and hidden villages. The holographic display emanated a soft, ethereal glow, captivating everyone in the room as despite being already accustomed to the sight.

Pinching her fingers and opening it, she zoomed in to a particular hidden village that was currently glowing black with a marking of H1-BS3 on it.

For an outsider, the marking wouldn't be all that important but to the captain, it represented; H1 for 1st Hanakage BS3 for Black Squad's third mission under him.

"Yugakure." She said, "Decades ago, a member of the Chinioke Clan went rogue and conspired a coup with certain clans in the area at the time." Yumi explained

"As we know, back then, it was the Warring States and the other Villages hadn't been formed yet so said Chinioke choose the next best thing, the most powerful clan after the Five Ancient clans."

"Kuchiki-sama was forced to seal away said Chiniok-"

"Jashin." Shun interrupted.

"Pardon?"

"His name is Jashin. Accord him with respect, traitor or not." Shun said as he glanced at the only Chinioke clan member in the room. "I get your clan's revulsion towards him, but at the end of the day, he was a genius of your clan. At least stand up for him."

The woman in question merely glanced at Shun before ignoring him entirely and focused on Yumi.

"Ahem...Jashin proved to be a force to be reckoned with due to his Unique Jutsu making him pseudo-immortal that the captains of the time were rendered-"

"They were defeated. Don't try to smooth it over. He was strong. Period."

"Do you mind?" Yumi glared at Shun causing him to raise his hand in surrender.

"Just saying. Gotta give honor to whom honor is due."

The captains all looked at him as if looking at a weird creature. This was their predecessors he was undermining.

"Anyways, Kuchiki-sama was forced to place a seal on him and shackle him to the land. According to the records of the seal, it was meant to draw Energy from both the Land and Air to keep him in place." Yumi said and looked to the captain to her side who nodded.

Aiko Fujimoto, captain of the Fuinjutsu Squad.

"Apparently, both Jashin and Kuchiki-sama were very versed in Fuinjutsu causing Jashin to be literally undying. As long as he had a drop of blood, he would not die." Aiko said, looking at the Chinioke clan captain who remained impassive.

"Then weren't there stronger Chinioke to drain him of his blood?" One captain asked but she shook her head.

"You'd have to trap him and make him immobile to do that. He was the strongest our clan has ever seen." The Chinioke said with a snort.

"He's right Haruto, unlike you medics, he was a fighter. Taijutsu, Ninjutsu, Genjutsu, Kenjutsu. He was versed in all of them." Aiko added.

"He was that strong?" Haruto asked. Unlike the medics outside the island, he was only interested in healing and nothing else. All his chakra was focused on that and nothing else.

"Yes." Both Yumi and Aiko replied at the same time, causing Shun to snicker.

"So? Why are we having a history lesson while praising a traitor?" Another captain asked. He was Takashi Naka, captain and commander of every active fighter of the village in the Hanakage's absence.

Yumi looked at Kaito who shared a nod with her. "As of today, we noticed movement from the seal." She said and brought up what looked like a satellite live image of the village.

"My word."

"This..."

"How dreadful."

Came the various exclamations of the captains who saw what was shown on the video.

The screen showed nothing but desolation, the air thick with an eerie silence, lifeless bodies sprawled across the scene. Corpses lay in twisted angles, a macabre tapestry of limbs. The ground stained crimson, a gruesome mosaic of spilled life. Strangely, each victim bore a similar absence of blood.

No matter the age or gender... children, boys, girls, men and women all dead.

"This is reminiscent of a... sacrifice?" Yamaguchi Mai, Captain of the Analytical Squad who had been silent since the meeting started asked but Yumi nodded before shaking her head.

"We thought the same, but quickly shook away that thought."

"Why is that?" Mai asked with interest. From all he knew, such deaths could only be conducted by psychologically deranged people aka Cultists.

"You should have gotten information on the Jashin Cult a couple years, back when the Akatsuki welcomed a new member." Yumi stated rather than asking to which the captains all nodded.

"This is their memo, or rather, we thought so since the Immortal Hidan also needed blood to perform his voodoo technique, however...this was much more than that. From what we gathered, it would take someone with control on par with the Kazekage and his sand to do this... Leading us to one conclusion."

The room fell into a deadly silence as everyone's attention was fully on Yumi who took a dramatic pause to build up suspense.

Shun however...

'He's breaking the seal.'

"Jashin is probably still alive."

...

Shun's POV.

Jashin...

I remember that fateful day as though it was yesterday... Back then, I had thought; What's the worst that could happen?

I felt his name was already ominous enough, afterall, Jashin, despite being acknowledged as a God in the original timeline, wasn't really one.

I had gone to the world outside this one and back and there wasn't a mention of the name Jashin.

As confident as I was, I thought he'd just be a slightly stronger kid from the Chinioke clan...Who would've thought he'd create an immortal technique that'd put him on level so out there?

At a point, I felt it was fate messing with me, after all, he was pretty invincible even amongst the captains of that time and sealing him was the least I could do. He had already merged both his body and soul.

In a way, he had achieved True Undying. His soul couldn't be separated from his body and his body won't die since he had limitless energy pouring in from his Soul.

(A/M: I did say in the past that the soul energy is limitless if you could touch upon the last realm of the seven spiritual gates.)

I had thought it a joke that he was supposed to be a threat to the me back then, after all I had created a body so strong that not even a 100M chakra Hagoromo could threaten it.

Now however... Interesting, he really could pose a threat to me.

As I am now, I was of the same power level I was at when I initially left the planet back then. A whopping 10M chakra unit.

I could fight for months on end without rest and not even feel the strain on my chakra since I recover them as fast as I lose them.

And unlike that time, my body and soul are in perfect sync. I could use this body and actually return to my original body's level of strength, although that would take centuries.

Looking at the Captains bickering on measures to take to counter Jashin, I was kinda amused.

Amused by the fact that some of them actually thought they stood a chance.

I don't mean to look down on them, but compared to Jashin..? Heh, even Prime Madara wouldn't even know how he died, Susanno or not.

And that was the Jashin from back then. Now? Heh.

"Shun, you've been silent this whole time." Kaito finally spoke, silencing the captains and causing them to look at Shun.

Some had questioning looks, some expectation, some annoyance.

The questioning ones probably wondered why Kaito asked for my opinion, the expectation was those who are actually old enough to understand where they stood in terms of strength and the last one was only Kobayashi.

As for his reason, it was pretty obvious.

"Forgive me but...I don't think any of you stand a chance." I said curtly, causing some angry looks while Kaito merely smiled.

"Kid, aren't you being too condescending?"

"Yeah, I understand you're strong, but looking down on Hana's strongest is a bit too demeaning."

Some ran their mouths while others merely observed.

"You think so too huh?" Kaito finally asked.

"Hanakage-sama!?"

Kaito raised his hands to calm them down. "I'm not stupid you know, and I'm not that strong. Keshiro-dono, my predecessor always did favor this kid. Why do you all think that?"

"Because he was a child genius?" Kobayashi snorted but to his shock Kaito shook his head.

"Not that...Shun is the strongest person in the village right now. Most of us watched his match in that particular Jounin Exams didn't we?" Kaito began and I tuned him out as I thought of how to face Jashin.

Meanwhile, Kaito went on to explain Senjutsu and its wonders to the Captains, allowing them to understand how far the disparity was between them.

"So you have a plan of action?" Hiroshi, the Chinioke clan man asked.

"Shun?" Kaito called.

Sighing deeply, I stood up and flung my hair over my shoulder. "I'll take care of it."

Creating a clone to queue them in on whatever questions they would have, I teleported out of the room.

****

0. Black Corp(Black numbers) - Hanakage Kaito Hayashi

1. Information Gathering Squad - Captain Yumi Sakurai

2. Police - Captain Chinioke Hiroshi

3. Sealing Squad - Captain Aiko Fujimoto

4. Medical Squad - Captain Haruka Sato

5. Defense Squad - Captain Takeshi Nakamura

6. Analytic Squad - Captain Mai Yamaguchi

7. Assassination - Captain Tengoku Shun

8. Taijutsu - Captain Emi Kobayashi

9. Internal Affairs - Captain Kenjiro Inoue