After finishing the mission, Mito Uzumaki and Uzumaki Shikou quickly left Shikkotsu Forest, taking with them the sealed bodies of the eight fallen Uzumaki ninja.
With the Uzumaki clan leader among the dead, and the Uzumaki still trying to get settled in Konoha after their arrival, explaining the deaths and handling funeral arrangements properly was especially important.
To keep morale steady, these things needed Mito's personal touch. Even though she was already worn out from releasing and then resealing the Nine-Tails, some things only she could handle directly.
Losing eight people at once was a huge deal. Plus, since they couldn't reveal the real reason for their sacrifice, Mito had to come up with a believable excuse—which was no easy task.
Though it might sound a bit exaggerated… those fallen ninja were destined to be "unsung heroes."
So far, only four people in the world knew about the Nine-Tails Splitting Plan—Haseo, Mito Uzumaki, Uzumaki Shikou, and Hiruzen Sarutobi.
Plus Katsuyu, the non-human mollusk.
Also included was the Nine-Tails itself—the main party involved and the victim—but considering its hatred toward human ninja afterward, plus its naturally proud and stubborn Tailed Beast personality, there's no way it would ever willingly talk about what happened.
Even if regular folks wanted to talk about it, they'd be way too embarrassed—it's not exactly dinner-table conversation. Actually, "embarrassing beyond words" was basically invented for moments like this... Would anyone really go around saying, "Hey remember when I got ambushed by some ninja and they did... well, you get the idea..."?
What happened to the Nine-Tails is kind of the same story. The difference is humans sometimes don't care about dignity—but Tailed Beasts always do.
In any case, this Nine-Tails plan was definitely going to stay a secret for quite a while.
Now, only the Third Hokage and Haseo remained inside Shikkotsu Forest. Their next problem was how to protect the remaining seven fragments of the Nine-Tails sealed inside the Impure World Reincarnation bodies.
Right now, Haseo was working with whatever he had on hand. He used overturned mountain rocks left behind by Katsuyu, chopped them up, and carved out seven very rough stone coffins, placing the seven reincarnated beings inside. All day long in Shikkotsu Forest, he was busy with nothing more than hard physical work like this.
"Even now, I still have a hard time believing that the Nine-Tails' immense power was actually split into eight parts. Haseo... did we really pull it off?"
The Third Hokage sat off to the side, tired and watching Haseo wear himself out doing all this pointless work. He finally spoke as Haseo was nearly finished.
"To be honest, I'm a little doubtful too, Lord Hokage. How about this—we open one seal right now and let one piece of the Nine-Tails out to see if it's really active and energetic?"
Haseo proposed conducting a "release test" to ensure the plan had no flaws, but as expected, Third Hokage did not approve.
"Even if it's severely weakened, you've felt that chakra before—do you really think the Nine-Tails becomes easy to handle when its chakra drops to just one-eighth of what it was?
The Nine-Tails has only lost overall chakra reserves. Its stamina in battle may be reduced, but it still retains its original intelligence and strategic thinking—in short, its combat techniques remain unchanged. That makes it extremely dangerous.
Without Lady Mito's special sealing capabilities, there's no way just the two of us could manage it. And on top of that, my current condition isn't great either… So your suggestion is officially rejected," said Third Hokage.
Hmm, an expected response.
Haseo thought to himself—Of course I understand those principles perfectly. That was just a joke earlier, but...
"Hokage-sama, why do you seem so exhausted? After all, you didn't do anything particularly draining recently. The Nine-Tails was sealed by Lady Mito."
Third Hokage: "..."
Some people, although clearly human and capable of speaking normally, will still choose to be deliberately obtuse—it's just their way of pushing buttons.
"Haseo, the Impure World Reincarnation technique causes tremendous mental strain to the caster. Not to mention I summoned seven individuals at once just now," Third Hokage had no desire to continue talking with Haseo after being caught off guard like that, but he couldn't avoid explaining himself to protect his reputation. Otherwise, what if people really thought he was incompetent? This made him very uncomfortable.
Let's be realistic—did anyone really believe that Impure World Reincarnation was a simple, risk-free technique? Keep in mind, it's classified as kinjutsu.
More importantly, while Third Hokage was a highly capable scholar, he wasn't truly a researcher... or at least hadn't extensively studied the Impure World Reincarnation technique himself. This meant he used only the 1.0 version developed by Second Hokage, rather than the improved 2.0 version later refined by Orochimaru and Kabuto Yakushi.
Version 1.0 lagged far behind Version 2.0—not only less effective but also carrying disproportionately higher risks.
So while Third appeared to be merely observing from the sidelines, his actual contribution to this plan far surpassed Haseo's—whose role had primarily been offering verbal suggestions.
"Cough, understood, Hokage-sama… Moving on.
Since it's not wartime and there's seemingly no need for the village to create seven Jinchuriki at once—and considering we must maintain secrecy—the remaining tailed beasts will remain sealed within the reincarnated beings, aside from the Nine-Tails already sealed inside Mito Uzumaki.
The problem now is deciding where to place these reincarnated beings for maximum safety and secrecy."
Haseo steered the conversation back on topic.
"Do you have something in mind?"
Third Hokage immediately saw through Haseo's intentions.
Since Haseo had brought up such questions, he certainly had some ideas already. Therefore, Third decided to hear him out first.
"Well, I do have some ideas. If the Hokage agrees, I believe the safest and most reliable option would be to seal the reincarnated beings inside a special slug.
Firstly, when this slug is in Shikkotsu Forest, it can move freely within Katsuyu's body. Even in the worst-case scenario, if Nine-Tails' information were somehow leaked and someone invaded Shikkotsu Forest, its location would still be impossible to pinpoint.
Secondly, this individual slug could also move between Konoha and Shikkotsu Forest. So deciding when it stays in Shikkotsu Forest or when it returns to Konoha would remain flexible. As mentioned before, even if one of these two locations was attacked, the slug could quickly relocate.
Lastly, the Hokage wouldn't need to worry about losing control. Although Haseo possesses the ability to summon slugs, the ultimate authority over summoning the reincarnated beings still rests with the Hokage himself. Thus, both the reincarnated beings and the Nine-Tails could appear at the Hokage-sama's side whenever needed.
In summary, I think constantly changing the Nine-Tails' location would be safer than keeping them locked away under heavy seals in a fixed place." Haseo briefly explained his idea to the Third Hokage, considering even his own "suspicions."
In short, Haseo thought it made more sense to keep things mobile, like a nuclear sub on patrol, rather than fixed land silos — safer, harder to target.
What's more, since the Third Hokage was the one who originally summoned the reincarnated beings, he could call them back anytime, no matter where they were. Given this premise, the Hokage really didn't need to worry excessively about any unexpected situations.
Haseo thought his plan made sense, but in the end, the choice was up to the Third Hokage.
Normally speaking, purely from a security perspective, keeping the Nine-Tails sealed inside the Shinigami's stomach would actually be the safest option.
Whenever necessary, the Dead Demon Consuming Seal could simply be activated.
However, releasing the Dead Demon Consuming Seal would always come at a price. It wouldn't be acceptable to require a Uzumaki Shinobi to die every time they needed to release a Nine-Tails.
More importantly, the Third Hokage just didn't trust the idea of keeping the Nine-Tails inside the Shinigami itself. The Shinigami was something intangible, neither seen nor touched—how could anyone really trust something like that?
Precisely because he found it unreliable, he immediately cast the Impure World Reincarnation Technique to retrieve the Nine-Tails' chakra from the Shinigami's stomach.
Therefore, compared in this way, Haseo's proposed solution seemed somewhat better... being both secure and tangible, something visible and graspable.
Thus, the Third Hokage fell into deep thought.
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