Chapter 191: The Classic Tsuchikage Guards the Nation's Gate
"...Aren't you really afraid of dying?"
After realizing the guard wasn't dead, Shion finally confirmed that Shiromo and the others truly came with good intentions.
Their attitude was a bit strange, but if they were genuinely evil, there would've been no need to do all this.
Unsealing Mōryō didn't actually require her, on the contrary, she was the key to sealing Mōryō.
If Shiromo and the others only wanted to exploit Mōryō's power, they should've killed her.
So Shion started trying to persuade them again in a gentler tone.
"Honestly, it's really hard for me to imagine us dying just fighting Mōryō. You might as well prophesy that we choke to death while drinking water, that probability's higher."
Shiromo laughed helplessly.
"Exactly. If Yachihoko could be directly engraved onto the soul, we wouldn't even need to come to you."
Uchiha Hikari pouted.
This little shrine maiden was really stubborn.
"But if someone is killed, they will die."
Shion still hesitated.
"How original. Did you just discover that today? I discovered something else too, putting strawberry cake into the organ under your nose feels really good."
Shiromo was speechless.
Even that classic line "if you're killed, you'll die" had come out.
"Ah?"
Shion froze.
Wasn't that called "eating"?
While she was spacing out, Uchiha Hikari had already taken out a small cake she carried with her and stuffed it into Shion's mouth.
"Lead the way. You're just like I used to be, too far removed from the current ninja world for too long, and your perspective is too narrow."
Hikari dusted off her hands after feeding her.
"The old you?"
After struggling to swallow the cake, Shion looked at Hikari in confusion.
After eating something sweet, the little shrine maiden's mood really did improve quite a bit.
Seems like giving food to increase affection, like Gaaraga did with Mūri, was perfectly reasonable.
"Hikari was sealed during the Warring States Period and only got unsealed recently. If you talk about sealing time, hers was even longer than Mōryō's."
"Ah?"
After hearing Shiromo's explanation, Shion was stunned.
She had already said "ah?" who knew how many times today.
Just like Hikari said, Shion's world wasn't just culturally backward, the shrine maidens were born solely to seal Mōryō, which made her knowledge extremely limited.
Just like Hikari when she'd first been unsealed, she hadn't yet truly understood the present ninja world.
What shocked Shion was, weren't the ones who got sealed always demon kings and bad guys?
Then why was this red-eyed big sister in front of her also someone who'd been sealed?
Sure, her methods were a bit forceful, but she didn't seem like some great demon lord villain at all.
Finally.
With the help of strawberry cake and Uchiha Hikari's story, Shion decided to lead Shiromo and the others to where Mōryō's soul was sealed.
Shion had also thought it through.
If Shiromo and the others really wanted to use Mōryō's power to conquer the ninja world, then there should've only been people from a single faction.
Why would there be both the Tsuchikage and the Hokage here?
Since that was the case, it meant Shiromo and the others weren't lying to her.
As long as their intentions were good, she could accept it.
And if Mōryō really ran rampant, then she'd just seal it again.
That was the shrine maiden's mission.
Rather than living in constant fear every day, she might as well face it head-on once.
"Once Mōryō revives, its undying stone soldier army will appear, and the ninja world will become very dangerous. So when the time comes, I will…"
Shion walked in front, explaining her preparations.
To be fair, the power of the shrine maidens really wasn't small.
Passed down through generations, then sealed with bells, once unsealed, their strength was still quite something.
It was just a pity that Shion, and all the shrine maidens before her, had basically no combat training.
Every shrine maiden relied on mechanics and raw stats to overpower enemies.
Normally their strength was sealed and they lived as ordinary people. At critical moments, it was released.
Their actual battle experience could probably compete with "sleepy Kaguya."
"So this undying stone soldier army of yours… then tell me, years ago before your mother sealed Mōryō, how far did this mighty army manage to invade?"
Shiromo shot back.
"Nowhere. Mother sacrificed herself to protect the world and sealed Mōryō before it could rampage."
Shion shook her head.
"Then have you ever thought about this, if Mōryō hadn't been sealed and started invading the ninja world, what would it have had to face first?"
Shiromo continued pressing.
"...I don't know. The Tsuchikage?"
Shion clearly hadn't studied geography much. Based on what the guards had mentioned about bordering the Land of Earth, she tentatively looked at Kurotsuchi.
"Not me. Back then it would've run into the old man."
Kurotsuchi spread her hands. "If it were the old man, you shrine maidens wouldn't even need to seal Mōryō. He could use Dust Release to physically seal Mōryō and its army."
Well, Dust Release did consume a lot of chakra.
But if Mōryō was claiming it wanted to conquer the world, making the old man work a little harder wasn't too much to ask, right?
"What is Dust Release?"
Shion asked curiously.
"..."
Kurotsuchi had just been lifting her chin in a calm, proud smile, but upon hearing that, her face instantly darkened.
"You don't know anything, so what makes you think Mōryō can conquer the ninja world?"
Perfect.
That line voiced the feelings of countless people.
Honestly, the Land of Earth was something else.
In several movies, whenever a villain tried to conquer the ninja world, they always had to go through the Land of Earth first, always had to let Ōnoki warm up his Dust Release.
That snow-country villain, Kazahana Dotō, who tried to conquer the ninja world with a geothermal generator, was one example.
Now Mōryō was another.
When you watch the movie climaxes, they're all hot-blooded and full of flashy Rasengan variants.
But from a bystander's perspective, you start wondering, how strong is that version of Naruto actually? How far is it from Nine-Tails Mode Naruto?
If even that level of Naruto could beat the villains into screaming misery, how much presence and threat could those villains really have?
What's even stranger is this, in the Naruto mobile game, Shion never got released as a character.
Plenty of other movie characters did.
Shion, as a shrine maiden, after unsealing her power, could be considered one of the rare ones with absolutely busted strength.
Her prophecy mechanics could even be designed into something like King Crimson.
So why would they rather make some original wandering shrine maiden like Rin than make Shion?
Could it be because Shion bluntly talked about "having babies," and the production team's pure-love warriors treated it as NTR and blocked her?
While Shiromo was thinking about that, Shion quietly led the way.
She no longer dared to speak.
A little wronged.
She was starting to realize that, just like Uchiha Hikari said, she really was kind of ignorant.
Every sentence she spoke exposed how little she knew.
"Who goes there?!"
Several kunai were casually swatted aside by Kurotsuchi and clattered to the ground.
Then a few tightly wrapped figures jumped out.
That shout of "Who goes there?!" wasn't from Kurotsuchi, it was from them.
"Attacking first and only then asking 'who goes there', looks like enemies."
Uchiha Hikari stepped forward.
As everyone knows, kunai are terrifying weapons.
Senju Hashirama could use a kunai to kill himself.
Danzō could use a kunai to stab Susanoo.
These people attacked them with such a dangerous weapon, clearly they had a death wish.
"Amaterasu."
"..."
The flames of benevolence burned away the sins of the disposable villains.
Hikari nudged Shion, who had been stunned by the villains' screams, signaling her to keep leading the way.
(End of this chapter)