The next morning, when Hayate Gekko and Yugao Uzuki woke up, they immediately sensed that something in the team's atmosphere felt… distinctly different.
"Tatsuya-senpai, what's up with Anko?" Hayate asked Tatsuya quietly, glancing over at where Anko stood chatting happily with Yugao and Kurenai, her face positively beaming, a stark contrast to her moodiness the previous days.
"Mind your own business, kid," Tatsuya retorted curtly, shooting Hayate an annoyed look. "You worry about too much." After spending the last week or so traveling together, Tatsuya had discovered the perpetually coughing shinobi was surprisingly forward and could be quite the chatterbox when he wanted.
Hayate pursed his lips dismissively. "Tch! So you two finally started dating, huh? What's the big deal? It's not like Yugao-chan and I haven't been together for ages."
Hearing Hayate's unabashed muttering, Tatsuya felt imaginary dark lines etch themselves onto his forehead, but he found himself utterly speechless. When it came to the complexities of romance, Hayate was undeniably leagues ahead of him.
Seriously, how did a beautiful, graceful girl like Yugao end up falling for this guy? Tatsuya couldn't help but wonder silently, glancing discreetly at Yugao's elegant figure across the newly broken-down campsite.
After that brief morning exchange, the group's traveling pace picked up considerably, the earlier tension replaced by a renewed sense of purpose, and perhaps, a lighter mood thanks to Anko's change in demeanor.
The mission they were undertaking, formally titled 'The Miko's Plea for Aid,' was an official request issued simultaneously to all major hidden villages by the Miko, the spiritual leader of the Land of Demons. In the shinobi world, although the Land of Demons was situated on a remote island far overseas, its ruler, the Miko, held immense prestige and respect. This was solely because the Miko of the Land of Demons, generation after generation, possessed the unique and crucial ability to seal a powerful, ancient demon.
According to legends whispered across the ninja world, this demon sealed by the Miko originated from another dimension entirely and possessed the terrifying power to destroy the world. Its strength was rumored to be in no way inferior to that of the legendary Nine Tailed Beasts. Periodically, however, the seal containing this monstrous entity would weaken, requiring the successive Miko of the Land of Demons to perform a ritual to reinforce it, preventing its escape. The Miko's current urgent request for aid had been issued precisely because the next dangerous sealing period for the demon was imminent.
Tatsuya sifted through the fragmented memories of his past life, confirming vague recollections concerning the Miko of the Land of Demons. However, those specific events centered around Naruto Uzumaki and a young priestess named Shion, and they took place more than a decade later in the original timeline. Tatsuya wasn't clear on the exact details of the current situation, only vaguely recalling that Shion's mother, the Miko preceding her, seemed to have tragically lost her life during one such attempt to reinforce the demon's seal.
The Land of Demons was located on a large island north of the main continent. Tatsuya's team had already journeyed overland across the Land of Fields and the Land of Frost. It took them six days in total to finally reach the bustling seaport near the border between the Land of Frost and the Land of Waterfalls.
The port was named Flowing Cloud Port, renowned as one of the most prosperous and vital commercial seaports in the entire shinobi world. From its docks, ships sailed east directly towards the Land of Lightning, west connecting routes to the Land of Earth, and north towards the large island that housed not only the Land of Demons but several other smaller nations as well.
After resting for one night at Flowing Cloud Port, Tatsuya and his team boarded a ship the next day. Following a three-day voyage across the choppy northern seas, they finally arrived at the shores of the large island where the Land of Demons resided.
The territory of the Land of Demons itself wasn't particularly vast. Given their usual rapid pace, it should have taken Tatsuya's highly skilled team only a day or two of travel to reach the Miko's Palace, situated deep within the country's heartland.
Unexpectedly, however, the moment they set foot within the borders of the Land of Demons, they ran headfirst into serious trouble.
Inside a border village of the Land of Demons, night had fallen.
"What are those things?" Standing together grimly on a sturdy rooftop within the village, Anko stared in wide-eyed shock at the dark, densely packed mass of what looked like terracotta soldiers assembling just outside the village walls, her voice sharp with alarm.
The five shinobi had initially planned to simply stay the night in this seemingly peaceful village. But before they could even properly settle down to rest, they were abruptly jolted awake by the unmistakable, rhythmic sound of countless heavy footsteps approaching.
Leaping agilely onto the rooftops for a better vantage point, the sight that met their eyes was staggering: an endless, ominous expanse of terracotta warrior figures surrounding the village. These soldiers were fundamentally stone statues, yet they moved with an eerie semblance of life, formed into organized military ranks, and were steadily, relentlessly advancing towards the vulnerable village.
Within the village streets below, many civilians had already been roused by the terrifying commotion of the approaching stone army. Panic erupted instantly as terrified shouts echoed through the night air, people scattering in desperate, chaotic flight.
"Whatever they are, let's clear them out first!" Tatsuya commanded, his voice low and grim as he surveyed the implacable terracotta army.
With that decisive order, he took the lead, launching himself from the rooftop towards the vanguard of the stone soldiers. While still airborne, Tatsuya's hands blurred through a rapid sequence of complex hand seals.
"Earth Style: Earth Spear Thrust!"
As his feet touched the ground lightly between the village wall and the advancing army, Tatsuya pressed his palms firmly onto the earth. Instantly, countless lethally sharp earthen spears erupted violently from the ground directly in the path of the soldiers.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Amidst the continuous, deafening sounds of shattering stone echoing in the darkness, innumerable terracotta soldiers were instantly impaled, blasted apart, and smashed into fragments by the savagely erupting spears. Billowing clouds of dust filled the air as vast swathes of the stone army were seemingly obliterated in a single, devastating blow.
Watching this overwhelming display of power from the rooftop behind him, Yugao, Hayate, and Kurenai all secretly clicked their tongues in sheer amazement. The raw destructive force of that single Earth Style ninjutsu was almost ridiculously strong.
Shaking off their momentary awe, the four quickly leaped down to join Tatsuya on the ground.
"As expected of Tatsuya-senpai! You wiped them all out in one go!" Hayate exclaimed, perhaps a bit too optimistically.
Tatsuya shook his head, his expression remaining deadly serious. "It's not that simple."
"Hmm?" Hearing his somber tone, the other four looked at him, confused.
However, they very quickly understood his meaning.
Ahead of them, amidst the dust and debris, the shattered fragments of the terracotta soldiers destroyed by the Earth Spear Thrust began to stir. Impossibly, they started to automatically pull themselves back together, reassembling stone by broken stone.
Watching the pulverized rocks magically piece themselves back into fully formed soldiers, the expressions of the entire Konoha team turned grim.
"Quick!" Tatsuya ordered sharply. "You four, go evacuate all the villagers immediately! I'll hold them off here for now!"
"Right!" Without a shred of hesitation, Kurenai, Anko, Yugao, and Hayate acknowledged the command and instantly dashed back towards the panicked village to begin the evacuation.
An hour later, once confirmation came that all the civilians had been safely escorted out of the village perimeter, Tatsuya finally ceased his efforts to suppress the relentlessly regenerating terracotta soldiers. Casting one last wary look at the slowly reforming stone figures, the five shinobi turned as one and swiftly departed, leaving the eerie army behind.
During the next leg of their journey deeper into the Land of Demons, Tatsuya and his team quickly encountered several more waves of these bizarre terracotta soldiers. All of them possessed the same apparent, frustrating immortality. No matter what ninjutsu or physical attacks Tatsuya and the others employed to destroy the stone puppets, they would invariably reform back to their original state before long.
Based on their initial, sobering experience, the team abandoned any thought of completely eliminating these seemingly indestructible foes. It was clearly a waste of time and chakra.
After shaking off entanglement with these initial waves, they pressed onward, continuing their course towards the heartland of the Land of Demons. However, they soon encountered several more, even larger-scale armies of the stone soldiers blocking their path. Furthermore, compared to the earlier encounters, the intervals between discovering these subsequent waves were much shorter, suggesting a rapidly escalating situation.
Therefore, considering the clearly unstable and dangerous situation unfolding within the Land of Demons, coupled with the extremely time-sensitive nature of the Miko's plea for aid, the team held a quick council. They decided their best course of action was to take a significant detour, prioritizing reaching the Miko's Palace to complete their primary mission above all else. Tatsuya also shared his fragmented memory, suggesting these terracotta soldiers seemed intrinsically linked to the sealed demon itself. If they couldn't successfully assist the Miko in reinforcing the demon's seal, getting bogged down fighting these immortal soldiers indefinitely would be utterly pointless.
With the decision made, the five-person squad immediately altered their course and began a wide detour.
This detour lasted five long, arduous days. Traveling along the northwestern border regions of the Land of Demons, everywhere they looked, they witnessed devastating scenes of the terracotta soldiers rampaging unchecked through the countryside. Whether small, isolated villages or larger, more populated towns, all settlements seemed to be targets for the relentless stone army's attacks.
Although their hearts ached at the sight of the destruction and the plight of the citizens they couldn't stop to help, the five Konoha shinobi could only press onward, steeling their resolve and pushing their pace. They knew that only by reaching the Miko and reinforcing the demon's seal as quickly as possible could they hope to minimize the casualties and end the suffering across the Land of Demons.
Finally, five grueling days later, Tatsuya and his team succeeded in reaching the vicinity of the Miko's Palace, deep within the heartland of the Land of Demons.
Standing atop a high cliff overlooking the palace grounds below, they gazed towards their destination from a distance.
The sight was daunting. Innumerable, densely packed ranks of terracotta soldiers had completely surrounded the entire Miko's Palace complex. A massive, bright yellow barrier of pure light enveloped the central palace structure protectively. Even from their vantage point, they could see the barrier constantly shimmering with faint, impact ripples as the surrounding stone soldiers relentlessly hammered against its surface.