Darkness.
That was the only thing that appeared in front of all Paths of Pain. This darkness was different—beyond just the absence of light—even their Rinnegan wasn't able to see what was going on.
Their movements weren't restricted, and no harm came to them during this time, but their senses were playing tricks on them. No vision, no sound, no sense of direction either.
And when the light came back, they saw the monster gone, the man who summoned that monster gone, and even the Six-Tails Jinchūriki gone.
"What happened? Where is the Jinchūriki?" shouted Pain in anger. He couldn't sense them. Deva Path flew up and used his Rinnegan to spot any traces of them, but there were none.
With shared vision, all Paths saw that there was no sign of them, and this put a big frown on all of their faces.
Nagato, who was seeing all this from the Akatsuki base, was stunned. Even his Rinnegan wasn't able to find where the shinobi went. He immediately commanded all Six Paths of Pain to move and look for the shinobi, especially the Jinchūriki. However, little did he know that it was already too late.
—-
[Yūgure Base - Land of Snow]
A portal opened, and Shika came out, carrying a completely unconscious Utakata.
"Shika?" Karin was the first one to notice this, and she rushed to Shika to help him. Fū did the same when she noticed that Shika had brought someone.
"What happened? Who is this?" Fū asked.
"The Jinchūriki." Before Shika could even reply, Karin said, her Mind's Eye of Kagura sensing the Bijū's power inside Utakata.
"Yes, by the time I reached him, Akatsuki had already targeted him. He lost even in his full Bijū form," Shika said in a serious tone.
"Was the Akatsuki that strong?" Fū pursed her lips. She could only wonder what would have happened to her if Shika hadn't taken her in on time.
"Yeah, I ended up encountering the leader of the Akatsuki," Shika replied with a sigh. He too was tired. Using powerful jutsu cost too much chakra on his part. Since his Cursed Energy and chakra shared the same pool—technically, his system converted chakra into Cursed Energy—he always burned his Cursed Energy no matter whether he was using chakra or CE.
And today, he had to use powerful techniques back to back. He was spent. What really took too much from his tank was summoning Mahoraga and using his Domain.
Those two alone took out almost 80% of his chakra pool. Sigh… Shika now just wanted to take a long nap.
"Well, are you just gonna grumble or explain what's what? Tell us, how was the leader of the rival organization?" Karin asked with anticipation. Shika noticed that just as she got excited, the newly awakened Bijū chakra inside her flared up.
Inside Karin, the Three-Tails was snoring right now. He now regretted not making Shika put any kind of seal that restricted his chakra. Since then, he had to constantly look after any kind of chakra flare that happened due to Karin's emotional disturbances.
"Calm down. Let me get some rest first. And make sure to bind this guy tightly. He fell unconscious fighting, so chances are he'll wake up with his chakra flaring. Please make sure the base still exists when I wake up," Shika said offhandedly and moved to his room to get some sleep.
"SHIKA…"
However, just as he was about to open his room and go for a deep slumber in his cozy bed, Karin's voice jolted him up. The way she shouted told him that this was serious and not just her being annoying. He rushed out only to see Karin holding a scroll that was turning dark.
This was the same scroll Shika developed with the help of Fūinjutsu, which he gave to all the team so they could ask for help from the base in times of emergency.
"Which team?"
"Suigetsu and Haku."
"Again?" Shika couldn't help but have a tick mark forming on his head, but then he remembered the last message he got from both of them.
'Last I heard, they lost contact with the Four-Tails Jinchūriki. If they are asking for help now, then they either have found a way to save the Four-Tails or the Five-Tails is under attack…' Shika clenched his teeth in irritation.
He was seriously down on chakra right now… He could, of course, use his special chakra scroll, but since his chakra pool had increased over time, filling it up with just a chakra scroll was hard.
To make this chakra refill scroll, he used a normal sealing scroll but only put chakra-sealing inscriptions in them. Then, he created a shadow clone of himself and sealed them in the scroll.
Shadow clones are completely made of chakra, which is why they can transform into anything with the Transformation Technique, unlike a shinobi's real body. They can also be sealed completely since they are entirely composed of chakra.
Chakra could dissipate over time in a seal, and that's why others never thought about sealing chakra to use it to refill one's chakra capacity. However, if the said chakra was already in a construct form, it wouldn't dissipate—just like shadow clones.
So, once he sealed his shadow clone, which was mostly his own chakra, he could directly absorb his own chakra from the scroll, without ever having to bring out his clones.
However, even if this was his own chakra, it still took him time to completely refill his entire chakra pool. If he pushed himself and tried to absorb faster, the same problem he had from absorbing someone else's chakra would occur nonetheless—he would suffer from headaches. Thus, this method was only for emergencies.
Today was one of those days. Shika didn't take the chakra slowly and started to take as much as he could. He immediately felt his chakra pool filling up, but a headache also hit him at the same time. It was still manageable, though.
Just when he had enough chakra to open a portal, his left eye turned into a Rinnegan.
"Karin, I'm going. Make sure you and Fū handle Utakata when he wakes up. Hopefully, he'll believe both of you since you're like him," Shika said hurriedly and took the scroll from Karin's hands to find Suigetsu and Haku's location.
"Wait! Let me come. You're already down on chakra," Karin said, but Shika immediately denied her request.
"There's a chance that Akatsuki is involved. You'll all become an even bigger target if they know what the Jinchūriki looks like," Shika replied and immediately entered the portal.
xxx
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