Chapter 177: Ten Demonic Gates

While Mei was thinking and sad, Ao dropped in and handed the scroll:

- Madam, here ...

- I know, - the girl took the scroll and frowned at it with a glance, and then sighed:

“These animals are still causing trouble. Until we get rid of them and the like, the village will not be able to continue to develop normally. Ao, take people and go.

The man nodded and was about to leave, but still resolutely stopped:

“Lady Mizukage, I ... I wanted to ask.” After looking at the girl’s face with permissions, he let out a long sigh and said, “This concerns that person - Shikamaru Nara.

The girl immediately changed in her face and showed a completely unexpected reaction of concern. Ao noticed this and immediately added:

`` This is none of my business, but - be careful, Lista shinobi, this ... This kind of relationship can be dangerous and ...

Before he could finish, Mei stood up abruptly and said in an icy tone:

- Even a word of Ao!

The man coughed and turned around with a wry smile:

- I understood everything, but later ... In any case, I am always on the side of the village!

- How do you know? - all with the same notes of anger asked the Mizukage.

- I ... - Ao, embarrassed and coughed: - I did not use my abilities, if you are talking about it ... I just saw you two at the moment of his leaving, well ... On the balcony.

- Here's how ... Keep quiet about it, it's nobody's business! If anyone else finds out, I swear I'll rip off your skin myself!

Ao just nodded and immediately left the village chief's office.

Mei followed him with a displeased glance and turned away sharply:

"Big-eyed fool! Here ... "- biting her nails, the girl went out onto the balcony and peered into the distant fog:

"It doesn't matter ... Shikamaru said that they couldn't see us inside, and that's the main thing!" - With a fierce glint in her eyes, Mei still decided to silence Ao. Whatever she had to do, she wasn't going to let him open her tongue! It's not time yet!

Time passed and Shikamaru had already got close to his goal, two months of searching finally yielded results.

Through the Land of Hot Springs, through their peaceful hidden village, Shikamaru had to make a long detour along the river and return back to the borders of the Land of Fire. Then he finally recognized the large coral footprint of the only creature capable of leaving it. It was on that day that Shikamaru stopped by a large lonely lake. The coral footprint increased and he was finally able to lead his quest to the decisive step. Feeling the reserves of chakra underwater was not easy, the Three-Tails was able to somehow seal his position. But, Shikamaru was not so simple, he easily passed through the water with his eyesight and reached the body of the hiding beast. Possession of Dojutsu along this path had come in handy for him not for the first time.

“Interesting ... He is cunning, used his powers to dig deeper into the silt and covered himself with corals. Unfortunately, on his way, he left many of his traces. As strong as he is, he is still a giant beast, without the proper ability to cover up his tracks. You can call it my luck. If it had been a different tailed beast, I could have spent more time. Fortunately, he was only able to cover himself with a barrier and did not cover himself completely, otherwise it would be even more difficult. "

Throwing his cloak aside, Shikamaru, out of habit, threw off his shirt and spread a dozen sealed scrolls in front of him. Of course, he understood that it would not be easy to lure the Bijuu, especially the marine species. Now he was in his native element, and the battle could become much more difficult because of this. Plus, he could just run away and not accept the fight. It should be borne in mind that the strength of the tailed beast is at least equal to the not weak Jonin. Shikamaru never dared to fight him, yet his strength has not increased so much lately. He also did not count on the Sharingan, and he never acquired Mangeky. The only thing that could help in battle was the Flying Thunder God Technique, which he nevertheless mastered at the moment of rest. Thanks to the skill in fuin, it was even easier than most easy jutsu. Only all this cannot be called super-strong techniques, without the proper ability to use them. Shikamaru recognized his strength, especially in merging with the Sage Mode, but even so, he still did not believe that he was able to go against the strongest of Akatsuki. He can give a fight, but it is difficult to judge the victory. With Three-Tails, you need to keep everything under control, and it was here that he was sure, because he possesses the element of wood! For the rest, it was worth relying on the techniques of the First and your Extended Genome.

Sitting next to the ten scrolls, Shikamaru began to tidy up the data. All these records were kept by his main invention - the Ten Demonic Gates!

Collecting his thoughts in order, Shikamaru arranged the scrolls in the desired sequence in front of him and folded a row of hand seals, after which he cut a vein in his arm and began spilling blood on all the marks on each of the scrolls. As soon as they brightened with a bloody brilliance, Shikamaru folded the seal of the Tiger, Snake and Bird, then hitting the central seal with his palm, at the same moment the chakra from his body poured into the prepared structure. He arranged all the scrolls so that a general pattern was obtained: ten rotating circles connected by creepy chains, all of them connected to the main and largest central circle of fuin symbols, it was the main center of everything and had a black triangle in the middle. In addition, hundreds of different seals towered around each of the circles. Basically, there was almost no blank piece of paper. Shikamaru filled in everything, and in the main base he introduced a system similar to thousands of wires. All this was needed for the correct distribution and control of the chakra. The purpose of the circles is natural sealing, that is why they were surrounded by so many constructions, even somewhat resembling the Seal of the Eight Trigrams. Only now has Shikamaru finalized it and was able to tie it to the central pull and suppress seal. It was she who turned out to be the most difficult in his research, if not for the find in the ruins of Uzumaki, he would never have been able to strengthen it and create such a structure. At least not in the next couple of years.

Even if he prepared everything and chakra entered each symbol, he was still not sure of the quality result. In fact, he did not even know if he would be able to capture the beast, but he could not risk it either. He had to prepare this foundation now!

With a drawn-out sigh, Shikamaru folded the seals of inner concentration, and the earth trembled beneath him. Sharp blue streams of chakra swept over his entire body, and his hair flew into the air. The guy's calm aura instantly turned into a tyrannical one, and after a while, his body was covered with a row of red sage. Finally, he exhaled again and opened his eyelids.

- Let's get started!