Chapter 70 - 70 – Bunpuku

"HUMANS!" Shukaku screeched as room trembled and currents of wind appeared out of nowhere.

[Shukaku Lvl ??]

With a shout, a wave of wind blasted through, attacking Raito and Inoichi.

"Hmph," Inoichi snorted then waved his hand and creating a barrier, fueled by his mental power, around him and Raito.

Raito waved his hand inside the barrier then extended outside, which he immediately pulled back. The barrier had nullified the wind blast as Raito felt the small space devoid of the raging wind as compared to the space outside the barrier, where wind with strong destructive power nearly sliced his hands.

"Don't do stupid things. Let's go." Inoichi walked forward without dispelling the barrier and Raito followed behind him, eyes darting around.

"I have never seen a bijū's attack," Raito answered as he activated his mental power and conjured his most familiar weapon.

A big, fat, sandy brown creature with a long, thick, jagged tail that looked a bit dangerous, opened it jagged, concave mouth, and asked with anger and pride. "You puny humans… why have you come to meet my esteemed self?"

"Esteemed self? Esteemed self with garlic breath," Raito snickered as he covered his mouth and nose.

"Huh?" Shukaku waved its tail and banged the ground creating a wave.

"Raito," Inoichi waved his hand blocking Raito then pushing his hand forward.

Shukaku pushed the floor and straightened his body. Then with anger in his face, he pointed his fingers towards Raito and cried out childishly, "I have garlic breath? You have garlic breath, you-you are garlic. You…"

Raito looked at the big monster and felt like laughing. As Shukaku shouted, Raito noticed the dark markings over Shukaku's body moving ever so slightly in circular patterns. 'What's that?'

"Shukaku," The voice of an old man sounded in the room, paralyzing everyone including Shukaku.

Shukaku turned his head and looked at a corner of the room and found a weak old man in monk clothing walk slowly towards him.

"A monk," Inoichi looked at the old monk then at Shukaku who reacted a bit oddly to the monk. Coming to a conclusion, Inoichi took small steps back and at the same time blocked Raito's way forward. "Don't act rashly."

It looked like Shukaku was about to calm down but the room trembled as Shukaku roared. "Go away, old baldy!"

Shukaku released wind blades from his body as it pushed Raito and Inoichi. These wind blades created cracks on Inoichi's barrier, pushing him back.

"Sensei," Raito hurriedly stood in front and copied Inoichi's last move and created a shaky barrier inside Inoichi's barrier.

"You bald donkey, go away. Leave." Shukaku waved his tail and attacked the old monk but his tail never hit the old monk but the place beside him.

"Shukaku, calm down," The old monk looked at Shukaku and said with his weak, gentle voice.

Shukaku harrumphed as he swept his tail, which knowingly or unknowingly slammed on Raito's barrier for a moment before he pulled it back. Shukaku narrowed his eyes as he pulled his head down, leveling his gaze to the old monk then asked, "What are you doing here, old baldy? After so many years…"

"I don't know but I believe that it should be related to the two of them." The old monk answered and looked at the two Konoha shinobi.

"Look at you, sensei. You ignored your own rule and became like this." The barrier around Raito swirled and formed a perfect barrier without any cracks. "We should have done it tomorrow."

"It's nothing. I was just-"

"Don't even try to explain. You have been working too much." Raito snorted then turned his head to look at the old monk, "He is looking. Who is he?"

"Shinobis from Konoha." The old monk cupped his fist and bowed slightly.

"My name is Yamanaka Inoichi and this is Yoshizawa Raito." Inoichi looked at the monk, who seemed amiable and introduced himself and Raito.

"Elderly are to be respected," Raito whispered.

"Your arrival has let the part of my soul, which has been sleeping for so long, to awaken, that means that we share some destiny." The elder monk raised his head and looked at Shukaku then he looked at the two and added, "My name is Bunpuku, a priest in Sunagakure and former Jinchūriki to Shukaku."

When Shukaku heard the word Jinchūriki, he let out a deep grown filled with anger.

"We won't take too much time." Inoichi stepped forward and directly started his intentions. "We need some of Shukaku's chakra."

"My chakra? Why should I give it to you? You filthy little human," Shukaku snorted and waved his tail, creating a gust of wind. "Go away."

Raito frowned and rotated the barrier, neutralizing the gust. With his palm thrusted forward, Raito added to Inoichi's sentence. "We need your chakra to complete a Fuinjutsu so that your current host, Gaara, doesn't die."

Shukaku looked a little dumbfounded as he heard Raito then he laughed, "What does that little pipsqueak's life and death has to do with me? Let him die."

Looking at Bunpuku then at Raito, Shukaku raised his voice and said, "I will never die. I will just dissipate then naturally reborn a few years later anyway. It has happened before and it will happen again. What about it?"

"Shukaku," Bunpuku called out then turned his head towards Raito and Inoichi then asked, "What may be your intentions? If, I may ask,"

Raito looked at Shukaku then looked at Inoichi. Frankly speaking, talking with the Shukaku was a waste of time.

"Our intentions are clear. We want to replace the old seal with a new one." At this time Inoichi stepped forward and answered Bunpuku.

Looking at Bunpuku's old face, Inoichi added, "We found that the current seal used to seal Shukaku is…"

Inoichi looked awkward as he tried explaining but was missing critical words. And it wasn't helping that Bunpuku was focused on Raito rather than himself.

Raito stepped forward and continued the explanation, "Sand Soul seal is an old Fuinjutsu, which was used in the old days. Sunagakure is now using the modified form of the 'Sand Soul Seal' to seal the Shukaku into their Jinchūriki."

Ignoring the growls coming from Shukaku, Raito continued, "Although it is a modified seal, the Sunagakure created… many mental traumas to Gaara, causing the seal to be affected, in one way or another. This has led to Gaara being affected by Shukaku."

"Affected?"

"Shukaku has been whispering Gaara to kill everyone, all the time. He is not letting his host sleep, leading to developing mania, and also causing mental blocks from time to time…" Raito answered.

Inoichi pulled back Raito lightly and asked in a low voice. "How did you know? We didn't-"

"I just did," Raito replied and gave a small nod.

"I understand." Bunpuku still clasped his hand and give Shukaku a quick glance, "But why does Konoha wants to help Sunagakure with this?"

Raito and Inoichi looked at one another. The more time Inoichi spent in here the weaker he became. And as for Raito, strangely it didn't seem like a problem, staying in this mindscape.

At this point, Raito guessed that he would have to do most of the work by himself if they continued talking with this old monk.

Just when Inoichi was about to answer, Raito pulled his jacket while looking at Bunpuku. "We are taking too much time. Let me."

Raito stepped a couple of steps forward, which made Shukaku turn his head and shift his body. Seeing that even Shukaku had problems moving in this room, Raito chuckled and said. "This place is so cramped."

"First of all, we are not doing it for Sunagakure. We are doing it for Konoha because in month time… Sunagakure is planning to release Shukaku in the middle of Konoha and let it go on a killing spree."

Bunpuku listened to all Raito had said as he looked at Shukaku.

"We hope to replace the Fuinjutsu. But as you know that once a bijū is taken out from Jinchūriki, the host will die. So-"

"Not giving, not giving, not giving."

"If that pipsqueak dies I will be free. Who will stop me?"

Raito frowned as he heard Shukaku. Exchanging glances, Raito communicated with Inoichi.

"I am sorry but we don't have much time left." Raito bowed his head slightly towards Bunpuku then turn towards Shukaku.

"I am not giving you filthy humans my chakra," Shukaku shouted slamming the ground with his tail.

"I am not asking. Not anymore." Raito jumped and dashed straight towards Shukaku.

"Hmph," With a snort, Shukaku waved his claws. Even though his swing was lazy, it came really fast in front of Raito.

"I would have feared if you were in the outside world but here…" Raito pushed his hand towards the side as black blob appeared out of nowhere and restrained Shukaku's arm.

Shukaku turned his head, looking at his restrained arm. After a few failed attempts at escaping, he growled and shouted at Raito, his breath bringing a strong gust of wind. "What did you do?"

Tap, Swish.

Inoichi who was standing at the back suddenly dashed with blue chakra covering his hands. Effortlessly, he appeared on Shukaku's body, his feet glued to the front as he jabbed his hand deep inside.

Half his hand inside Shukaku's belly, Inoichi let out a yell as he pulled back a mass of chakra with black markings.

"Like hell!" With an outburst, Inoichi was thrown back. The chakra with black markings slipped out of Inoichi's hand as it returned to Shukaku's body.

"Sensei, get back," The black blob turned into restraints tying Shukaku down.

"Crafty little humans," Shukaku laughed as he escaped out of restrains with little to no efforts, by changing into sand and back, and then he released extra-strong breath filled with destructive wind.

Raito jumped to the ceiling and Inoichi used barrier as he had no time.

"Sensei!" Raito jumped down with the black earth turning into a huge hammer.

"Hmph!" Ignoring Raito, Shukaku continued his attacks on Inoichi.

"[Crush]"

The black hammer glowed with yellow-brown chakra as it hit Shukaku.

BOOM!

Shukaku's head turned into sand which gave Inoichi time to breathe. Not letting a time to waste Inoichi dashed forward, his hand covered with bluish chakra.

"Go away!" The sand exploded, attacking at Inoichi's and Raito's direction.

"It will be easy," Raito gritted his teeth remembering Inoichi's words as he quickly opened the inventory and took out barrier seals. Under the effects of '[Fast Thinking]', Raito quickly took out barrier seals and appeared in front of Inoichi in a blink of an eye.

Swish

A red-colored screen appeared around Raito and Inoichi blocking the sand attack.

"How did you do that?" Inoichi looked at Raito in shock as it was nearly impossible to do what Raito just did. The avatar was made as a replica to the original body with similar attributes. Even he couldn't make an avatar that had higher attributes than his original body then how did Raito?

"Don't know," Raito answered focusing on the seals. Raito had broken his limits inside the mindscape with '[Fast Thinking]' but there was no explanation of what really happened.

"And is that… talisman?" Inoichi looked at the two talismans in front of Raito and asked.

"So?" Raito pushed his hand forward and at the same time, the black blobs turned into spears, attacking towards Shukaku.

"Nothing." Inoichi exhaled as he concentrated chakra over his palms. Was it possible to bring talisman and those things inside the mindscape?

More thinking, more questions.

Raito looked around and shifted his body slightly in the direction towards the gate and said, "Let's get out, sensei. We need to plan and-"

"It will be over soon." Inoichi clapped his hands and the chakra over his palms turned into gigantic hands, covering his arms.

As he stepped forward, Inoichi glanced at Raito and said, "If we don't finish it today, Gaara will really die and it will be full-blown war."

"Huh!? Are you serious?" Raito looked at Inoichi in shock, which didn't last long as Raito turned his focus back to Shukaku.

'Why are you not popping up, stupid notification.' Raito cursed and took out several talisman papers from his inventory. 'Tell me it's a lie.'

Giving Raito a glance, Inoichi dashed towards Shukaku.

By this time Shukaku had re-gathered himself and was acc.u.mulating chakra in front of his mouth.

"[Fast Thinking]" The black earth along with the talisman rushed alongside Inoichi whereas Raito had already jumped over with a huge hammer in tow.

"You think I will fall again?" When the hammer was about to land on Shukaku's head, the chakra gathered in front of Shukaku turned into wind shockwave.

"Take this." Raito who was thrown away by the shockwave got hit by Shukaku's tail and slammed onto the wall behind.

"What!?" Shukaku whipped his head back and looked at Inoichi who had a globe of bluish chakra with black marking over his hand.

"Got it." Inoichi jumped back with the help of black earth.

At the same time, Raito on the wall disappeared in haze and another appeared behind Inoichi.

"You… hateful humans. I will crush you." Shukaku flew into a rage as the sand attacked relentlessly.

The chakra on Inoichi's palm shrunk down and disappeared completely. Raito looked towards Inoichi and asked while taking a few steps back due to Shukaku's attack on the barrier. "Sensei, can we go back now?"

Inoichi didn't answer but closed his eye for a while as Raito continued with the barrier.

A moment later Inoichi finally opened his eyes and answered, "No, we still have to take more."

"What? Why?" Raito asked as he was now pushed behind the gates.

"We need a little bit more," Inoichi answered as he started gathering chakra over his palms.

"Sensei, you are lying." Raito jumped towards the sides of the door and looked at Inoichi.

"I wish I was." Inoichi's face turned grim as he failed to gather chakra.

"I am not surprised." Raito felt his face twitching looking at Inoichi's acting. "You want me to complete, right?"

"Haha…" Inoichi laughed awkwardly as he looked at Raito.

"You should have brought someone like Jiraiya-sama, sensei," Raito grumbled as he coated his hand with chakra, similar to that of Inoichi, then ran inside.

"You greedy little," Shukaku was spewing fire as sand exploded targeting Raito.

"[Fast Thinking]"

"Hup," With light taps, Raito dodged all the sand attacks along with his clones, closing the distance between Shukaku and himself. Just before jumping towards Shukaku, Raito gave Bunpuku, who was silent all this time a glance.

Shukaku moved wildly as Raito hurried towards his back.

"It's just a bit of chakra. You can have it back once it's all over." With that said, Raito jabbed his hand just below Shukaku's shoulder and expected for a strong repulsion.

"Ahhhh." With a loud shout, Raito pulled with all his might. Gritting his teeth and stomping on Shukaku's back, the chakra came out of Shukaku.

Plop, bang.

On the floor, Raito lay in a daze as he looked at the sphere of chakra with black markings then at Shukaku, who was oddly quiet.

[Shukaku's Chakra]

A ball of chakra extracted from one of the nine chakra monsters of the continent of five elements.

Effect 1: Upon absorption, permanently gain 1000 CP

Effect 2: Slight chance to gain skill 'Magnet Release'

Effect 3: Slight chance in increasing Fuinjutsu skill

"It isn't that hard." Raito looked at the ball of chakra then looked around him. His drawing of chakra was far easier than what Inoichi had shown as if Shukaku had handed him his chakra voluntarily.

"No way, right?" Raito looked at the sphere of chakra and Shukaku.

"Raito," Inoichi walked beside Raito and clasped his shoulder. "Send it using the seal mark."

"Hai, sensei." Activating the seal mark, Raito saw the chakra hovering above his palm disappear silently.

Inoichi looked at Shukaku and Bunpuku, who were so much different when he tried. Feeling that there was something more, he raised his question, "Is there anything that you would like us to do?"

"I want a bigger place than this dump, a lot bigger. I also want sand here, a big one." Shukaku's huge head came down leveling his gaze to Inoichi and made his request. "I know you humans can do that."

'It was like that…' Inoichi let out a breath of relief looking at Raito. Turning his head towards Shukaku, he nodded and replied, "I will see to it."

"You will see to it?" Shukaku raised his voice and glared. "I want a bigger place, otherwise…"

"Inoichi-Senshi, may I talk to the young one… if you don't mind." Bunpuku clapped his fist, raised his voice slightly, and looked at Raito in curiosity.

"Me?" Raito pointed at himself and asked.

"Yes, please." Bunpuku bowed his head and replied with his trembling voice.

[Bunpuku Lvl ?? (Fragmented Soul)]

"Can I ask what it is?" Raito asked after looking at Inoichi, who had a small frown.

Bunpuku raised his head, smiled, and started, "I had a wish on my last breath…"

"Deathbed wishes?" Raito shrunk his head and looked at Inoichi, who turned a bit more serious.