"Tenzo, wait!"
However, by the time Habara shouted "wait," Tenzo had already opened the scroll.
It's been proven that when someone yells, "Stay your blade!" there's a good chance the blade will be stayed. But when someone yells "wait," in most cases, things can't be slowed down at all.
The sealing scroll in Habara's possession had a dual-layered structure. Inside the scroll was half of an extremely advanced, uncertain-of-success jutsu, "Living Corpse Reincarnation." But the sealing jutsu used to close the scroll was incredibly shoddy. After all, it was a sealing jutsu used by Habara, so how advanced could it be? It was basically like a zipper. Although it kept things sealed, any ninja could reach out and unzip it.
Whether it was a spiritual entity or a mass of chakra, something burst forth from the sealing scroll. The moment it broke free of the seal, it began to rapidly dissipate.
Unsealing the scroll meant initiating the second half of the "Living Corpse Reincarnation" process. Ideally, Habara should have prepared a body full of vitality, highly compatible with Daigo's spiritual energy composite, and with an extremely weak spirit of its own. But the problem was, there was nothing like that here.
After leaving the scroll, the spiritual energy entity automatically initiated a "pathfinding program." However, because there was no suitable host body, it simply floated there. After a while, it would likely dissipate completely.
Then, something bizarre happened.
It should be noted that Habara and the others were currently within a certain sealing jutsu. And this sealing jutsu possessed a kind of driving force… Driven by the "water membrane" of the "Water Erosion Binding Seal Array," the spiritual energy entity began to move towards the high-density chakra energy sphere above the Three-Tails. Eventually, it plunged into that mass of chakra.
Like a boulder thrown into a calm lake, this seemingly simple integration caused a series of violent ripples across the surface of the chakra energy sphere.
Kushina Uzumaki didn't know what had happened, but she was highly alert. She felt that after whatever that was merged with the chakra energy sphere, this mass of pure energy had suddenly "come alive." She couldn't describe this peculiar sensation, nor could she pinpoint what specific changes had occurred in the energy sphere, but she just felt like it had gained a life force.
The ripples on the surface of the chakra sphere fluctuated for a while before finally subsiding. After a bit longer, it calmed down completely.
The ten ninja present remained silent, each on guard, because they also felt that something had happened. After Habara's "Tenzo, wait," everyone seemed to have been petrified.
After about three to five minutes, Kushina Uzumaki finally spoke, "Habara, what exactly happened? What was sealed inside your sealing scroll?"
Habara was about to answer Kushina's question, but at that moment, the surface of the chakra energy sphere began to ripple again. And as it rippled, something even more unsettling and bizarre occurred.
"Habara?"
It actually made that sound, and it seemed that the utterance of "Habara" had triggered its reaction.
So, how could a mass of chakra energy make a sound?
Habara was completely stunned. After another period of silence, he finally tried to speak, "Daigo?"
"Dai…go…is…me…"
Habara: "…"
He just lay down on the ground. He didn't want to ask anything, didn't want to hear anything, didn't want to say anything… His mind was a complete mess.
The other ninja also moved closer to Kushina. Tenzo, holding Habara's ninja tool pouch, approached him and asked hesitantly, "Did I…do something bad?"
Okay, this couldn't really be blamed on him. Habara was more than half responsible. Why hadn't he thought about the fact that he was carrying more than one sealing scroll when he mentioned sealing tools? If Tenzo had even opened the scroll sealing Daigo's corpse, there wouldn't be so much trouble.
After playing dead for half a minute, Habara stood up. He took his ninja tool pouch and went to Kushina Uzumaki's side. "Kushina-sama, please come this way… This is a bit complicated. I need to explain it to you privately."
Kushina hesitated slightly, but eventually nodded.
The Three-Tails had lost most of its energy and wouldn't wake up anytime soon, so it wasn't a threat. What concerned Kushina more was the chakra energy sphere, because she didn't know what it was now. But one thing was certain: it contained a huge amount of energy… the very energy she had extracted.
After getting away from the others, Habara said to Kushina Uzumaki, "It's like this, Kushina-sama…"
He then briefly summarized Daigo's life, up to her unfortunate death during a border patrol mission.
"Daigo was only thirteen years old. Her grievous injuries and impending death filled me with unbearable sorrow. This child was supposed to die in a pointless war because of the incompetence of her commanders? Where's the justice in that?
Unable to control my emotions, I used a certain secret technique. At her dying moment, I extracted her spirit and sealed it away. I hoped that one day, if possible, I could revive her… I know using this forbidden jutsu is not permitted, but I knew even more strongly that her life shouldn't have ended there."
Habara was genuinely expressing his true feelings. He truly believed Daigo shouldn't have died, which was why he used the "Living Corpse Reincarnation."
To prove his words, after speaking, Habara took out another scroll. With Kushina Uzumaki's permission, he unsealed the scroll, and a small, broken corpse appeared before her eyes.
"This is Daigo's body," Habara said.
The sight of this small, lifeless body with its eyes closed also stirred a sense of compassion in Kushina Uzumaki. She was a normal person, with empathy exceeding the average moral standard.
Kushina exhaled deeply. All of this was caused by war. She waved her hand, signaling Habara to reseal the corpse, and then said, "No wonder…"
No wonder Habara, at such a young age, could propose a ban on ninja under the age of fourteen participating in war. He had witnessed these things firsthand… Kushina was inclined to believe Habara's words, because his experiences, thoughts, and actions all aligned perfectly.
And if everything about him was revealed, it would become clear that this seemingly mature and profound individual was actually extremely easy to understand.
Why did he stand in opposition to the ninja clans, fighting for the rights of commoner ninja? And why didn't he want to see young people go to war? All of this had a traceable origin.
"That forbidden jutsu for extracting the spirit…" Kushina asked.
"It's Orochimaru-sama's secret technique. Kushina-sama, you know I spent a long time under Orochimaru-sama's tutelage," Habara said directly. And in a sense, he wasn't wrong, he just wasn't telling the whole story.
After thinking for a moment, Habara continued, "When I used that forbidden jutsu at the time, I had absolutely no certainty of success. I just wanted to make one last effort. In truth…I myself felt there was little hope. So, what's happening now, I have no idea."
After listening to Habara, Kushina offered her own speculation, "This should be considered a successful reincarnation, right? That high-density aggregate of chakra, in a sense, could be considered a 'life form'… Think about it, what kind of life form are the Tailed Beasts? Perhaps Daigo's current state is similar."
Mass is energy. This explanation was very…physics-based. However…
Habara smiled wryly. What kind of success was this? Daigo was a thirteen-year-old girl before, and now she was a…baby girl sphere that had just been born fifteen minutes ago?
"Kushina-sama, are you saying that Daigo is now a chakra-based life form?" Habara asked.
"Not entirely. Creatures like the Tailed Beasts have physical parts capable of producing chakra, but Daigo isn't like that now. It's purely an energy entity. If that chakra is depleted…"
Kushina shook her head. Tailed Beasts were incredibly high-level beings. They were immortal and indestructible. Even if Daigo was considered alive now, the gap between her and a Tailed Beast was enormous.
In other words, they had to think of another way.
Anyway, after explaining the situation, Habara and Kushina returned to the others. They saw Kakashi quickly approaching them. He said hurriedly, "Kushina-sama, this sphere…it seems to have suddenly become intelligent. It suddenly said it's a Konoha ninja."
Kakashi hesitated, but overall, he had broadened his horizons.
"Habara, is that you?"
It seemed Daigo had fully awakened by now. She had also completed her "hardware self-check." In short, her current state was completely different from before.
Habara was stunned for a moment. "Daigo? How did you recognize me?"
A chakra sphere didn't have eyes to identify people, so how did she recognize Habara?
"I'm a sensory ninja, remember? Your chakra is very distinctive. And…for some reason, my chakra sensing seems particularly acute right now."
The surface of the chakra sphere rippled continuously. This was Daigo speaking.
Habara's feelings were hard to describe, somewhere between better and worse. He could only ask, "Daigo, do you remember what happened before?"
"I was severely injured by Hidden Mist ninja. In the end…you seemed to be trying to save me, and then I lost consciousness."
Hearing her say this, Habara took a deep breath and then said:
"Kushina-sama, it's Daigo."
Although it was just a chakra sphere, Habara was willing to see it as a human, as Daigo.
Kushina nodded along. She was also inclined to accept this… If Konoha could allow a thirteen-year-old ninja to sacrifice herself, what right did she have to reject this kind of "resurrection"?
In short, Daigo was revived, but not completely.
________________
patreon.com/Shinobi_Scrolls