Shikurin did indeed appear where Piccolo-Sensei had promised to find him, and that was not in a training-ground or a fortress, but in a spot in the dappled shade of a tree, with his eyes shut. He was sleeping to any disinterested observer. But as they came near Naruto was able to touch it, a faint, ultra-vires field of Prana emanating out of the boy, sniffing the air, the light, the very purpose of their coming.
Before a word could be uttered his eyes opened. They were whipped up, on a single, exhausted stroke of indigo depths: the tenacious Prana Vanguard, the pompous Lone Prince, the tech-enhanced Healer and the crackling, tumultuous storm of Hidan.
You took me too long, Took you too long, you snark of a jade, Shikurin said. Your little ice-capade, and the tantrum in the Expanse, have been screaming the forest all hours. He rose, shaking off a piece of a leaf of his battle outfit. "So. You have chosen to fight with a bio-divine being that wishes to transform the universe into a bonsai tree. And the idea that came to your mind was to enlist him. He pointed a thumb at Hidan who only grinned and revealed teeth.
"Problem, strategist?" Hidan rumbled.
But your answer to all problems is to punch it until it goes bang. What, like the Prana echoes, it is." Shikurin switched his focus on Sakura. "The data. Give me everything."
Sakura had a hologram the first spike of Gohan, the models of cellular decay, the energy signature of Janebasame the whereabouts of the frozen village. The laziness in the eyes of Shikurin had disappeared, the indigo glow increasing when his Prana Vision was on. He did not just look at the information, he consumed it, his brain resonated between points that they had not even seen.
And he is not here only, he is here everywhere, said Shikurin, and the Shadow-Prana Staff appeared in his hand. He made it to attract the loose soil of the clearing. A crude map of Shinra came out. It is with an attack on his main base, which here is in the Eclipse Valley, that he wants. It's a fortress. He would pulverize you into paste and put your DNA in his collection.
Two other points on the map were tapped by him, well out of the valley. There were two nodes which shone with vile network light. His power does not drive the ritual. It laps on the blood of the planet. The main Prana Ley Lines supplying the valley are these. He has made them his arteries to himself.
You know, I only knew, a multi-pronged attack, Sasuke replied. "We split his forces. We undermine what was earlier, the ritual.
"Exactly," Shikurin said. "He can't be everywhere at once. He will have lieutenants looking after these convergence points. Powerful ones. We struck ley lines both at the same time. It will not end the ritual, but will make it unstable, as kinking a garden hose. It must purchase a window to enter into the valley.
He glanced at all of them, already offering them roles with his strategic attitude. "Team One: The frontal assault. To assail a position strongly entrenched, you require crude, brute force. Hayate. Hidan." He pointed to the two most physically dogged of their spontaneous alliance. You will have the greatest possibility of overwhelming a guardian by brute force.
Raizo knuckled his joints and his visage flashed with an ugly expression of joy. "Finally, a straight-up fight!"
Hidan let out a low chuckle. "Just point me at the wall."
The second strategy is called Team Two: The precision strike. His eyes rested on Sasuke and Gohan who had just turned up and his face was grim with his calculations. The other ley line is situated in a complicated geothermal area. It will need nuance, strength and a brain capable of computing energy variances in pressure. Your Rinne Saiyan powers and your Chrono Theorem shall be most useful to it.
Sasuke gave a curt nod. Gohan took the time to move his glasses, and there was something looking purposeful in the symbol of a book on his jacket which was gold. "Understood. We can disrupt the flow."
Naruto left the rest of us to the main event and clenched his fists. We burst into the valley when they are paid off.
Shikurin looked him in the face, and a touch of gravitas was there in the steady composure of his face. "It's the best plan we have. But know this, he knows we are coming. He has, most likely, already estimated this very probability. We're not outsmarting him. We hope our turmoil to be less foreseeable than his order.
He went and studied the map, the lines of power he had made in the dirt. It was a characteristic bluff, a gamble of risks, one over the other, on a bedrock of hope.
As the teams turned to form up, the familiar whisper wound into their minds but this time it was not so. It was not addressed to the entire outfit, but appeared to address Shikurin himself, its calm being spiced with a suggestion of sincere admiration.
A stylish, however, derivative solution. The shadow is willing to darken the sun. I shall be glad to see what pattern you make of your failure.