After the matter of Kanae and Karin was more or less settled, Rowan looked around and noticed that Minato Namikaze was nowhere to be seen, so he couldn't help asking,
"Where's Minato? Haven't you gotten him out of the Shinigami's stomach yet?"
Tobirama nodded. "We only just got back ourselves. We've been busy dealing with Kanae's situation, so we haven't had time to summon the Shinigami yet. But all the preliminary preparations are already complete. We can save him anytime."
Rowan asked one more question out of curiosity. "Can I watch?"
He was pretty interested in seeing how they were planning to cut open the Shinigami's stomach and rescue someone from inside.
Tobirama nodded. "Of course."
He had already run through this process countless times in his head. Nothing unexpected would happen, so he had no issue letting Rowan observe.
So Tsunade and Shizune stayed behind to take care of Kanae.
Meanwhile, Rowan, Tobirama, Orochimaru, Hashirama, Kabuto, Robin, and the others moved to a different area.
It was a wide underground training ground.
The floor was covered with complex seal formulas written in script-like markings. It looked like some kind of barrier.
Tobirama said, "Go bring that person over."
Kabuto nodded and left. A short while later, he came back carrying an unconscious man.
Who the hell was this? Never seen him before.
Just as Rowan was wondering, Tobirama explained, "He's a wandering ninja who's committed countless murders and all kinds of evil. He'll be the sacrifice used to summon the Shinigami."
Rowan immediately understood.
To summon the Shinigami, one had to use the Dead Demon Consuming Seal.
The user formed hand seals to summon the Shinigami, then paid with their own soul to devour the target's soul and seal it away forever. Once the sealing was complete, a Four Symbols seal mark would appear on the user's body, and their own soul would also be imprisoned in the Shinigami's stomach.
In simple terms, it was a mutual-kill technique.
And the way to undo it was bloody and brutal.
You had to find the Shinigami mask in the Uzumaki clan's mask storage hall, put it on, and use it to guide the Shinigami of the Dead Demon Consuming Seal into possessing your body.
At that point, if you cut open the Shinigami's stomach, the sealed souls would be freed and the seal would be undone.
But the user would become a sacrifice in turn—their own stomach would be cut open as well, and they would bleed to death.
In the original story, Orochimaru survived only because after doing it, he used Living Corpse Reincarnation to transfer into a White Zetsu body.
But at this point in time, Orochimaru didn't have a White Zetsu body on hand.
So it was only natural that Tobirama had found a sacrifice.
After putting the Shinigami mask on the wandering ninja's face, Tobirama used the man's hands to begin forming seals.
This kind of trick had shown up in the original story before.
Once, Obito Uchiha used Kakashi's hand to perform Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique.
Another time, Sasuke Uchiha borrowed Naruto Uzumaki's hand to use a jutsu.
But this time, rather than Tobirama using the wandering ninja's hands to form seals, it was more like he had lent his own hands to the wandering ninja, helping him complete the Dead Demon Consuming Seal.
Of course, the wandering ninja definitely wasn't going to be grateful for it.
The moment the hand seals were completed, the Shinigami was summoned.
It was a gigantic phantom dressed in white, with a twisted, ferocious face, and several ghostly flames floating around it.
Because of the Shinigami mask, once it was summoned, it possessed the wandering ninja's body.
"Now!"
With a bark from Tobirama, Orochimaru pulled out a kunai and sliced open the wandering ninja's stomach. Then he shoved one hand inside, seemingly searching for something.
A moment later, he dragged a soul out of the wandering ninja's body—
No, more accurately, out of the Shinigami's body.
It was Minato Namikaze.
But when Minato came out, he looked completely confused, as though he had no idea what had just happened.
Once Minato was out, Tobirama let out a breath and pulled his hands back.
The Shinigami slipped out of the wandering ninja's body and floated into the air again.
But since no one was controlling it, it just stood there blankly, like some idiot.
Once the wandering ninja bled out and died, the Shinigami would disappear.
Looking at the Shinigami, Rowan suddenly felt a strange urge rise up inside him.
Want it. Want it. Want it. Want it. Want it. Want it. Want it. Want it. Want it. Want it. Want it. Want it. Want it. Want it. Want it. Want it. Want it. Want it…
No—not inside him.
It was his body.
His body was craving that mindless-looking Shinigami.
So Rowan walked over and reached out, grabbing the corner of the Shinigami's robe.
In that instant, something bizarre happened.
His hand seemed to turn into a black hole, and with a single whoosh, the Shinigami was swallowed up.
No—more accurately, it was absorbed into Rowan's body.
Everyone present saw it happen, and they all froze.
Where did the Shinigami go? That huge damn Shinigami—where did it go?
Rowan had swallowed it?
Did that make sense? Was that even logical? Was that even ninjutsu?
"Rowan, are you alright?" Robin asked immediately, afraid something had gone wrong with him.
"I'm fine." Rowan shook his head.
Tobirama walked over and asked, "Rowan, what exactly just happened? Why did the Shinigami…"
Rowan gave a helpless smile. "To be honest, I don't really know either. The moment I saw the Shinigami, I realized my body desperately wanted it, so I went over and touched it."
"And then… you all saw what happened."
"The Shinigami got swallowed by me."
Tobirama: "...What?"
Hashirama: "...What?"
Orochimaru: "...What?"
Minato, who had just been dragged out of the Shinigami's stomach: "...What?"
It was completely absurd. A human had swallowed a Shinigami.
Was this still the ninja world they knew?
Just how many years had Minato spent inside the Shinigami's stomach? Were ninja these days all this insane?
While Minato was questioning his entire life, Tobirama insisted on dragging Rowan off for a full examination, worried that something might be wrong with him.
Rowan went along with it, since he wanted to know what was going on with his body too.
But after a full round of examinations, Tobirama found that Rowan's body was completely normal. Nothing was wrong at all.
Just then, Tsunade, having heard the commotion, rushed over.
"What happened?"
"Rowan swallowed the Shinigami," Hashirama said.
"Huh?"
Tsunade looked completely baffled. For a moment, she literally couldn't process what her grandfather had just said.
What the hell did he mean by Rowan swallowed the Shinigami?
"You mean the Shinigami I'm thinking of?"
Hashirama nodded. "Yep. The exact one you're thinking of. The Shinigami summoned by the Dead Demon Consuming Seal."
Tsunade: "???"
~~~
Patreon(.)com/Bleam
— Currently You can Read 70 Chapters Ahead of Others!