Chapter 171: Ruins

Poisonous rivers freely flowed between several hills and each of their channels was covered with some kind of poisonous algae. Pink flowers on water lilies every minute threw out golden pollen into the air, which was picked up by the wind and scattered around the area. At the same time, Shikamaru noticed the first territory of the battle. A huge scorched earth with hundreds of craters right next to the river testified to something terribly dangerous. In the same place, the number of poisonous roots of this plant was impressive in its number.

“It’s still alive and doesn’t seem to deny itself anything, except people ...” With a wry grin, Shikamaru crept closer and found many rusted kunai and ninja equipment. There were no bones, rather caked mud, and in some places just burnt spots on the ground. This happens only at the moment of terrible explosions, then only a dark shadow remains from people and nothing else. In places of such explosions, armor and equipment were not present, and indeed there was not so much of it, and everything was in a terrible state. Of course, traces of even normal remains were not foreseen.

Shikamaru drew attention to a huge trunk with a thousand tentacles, this monster seemed to be rooted to the edge of the river and this territory of death. The concentration of poisonous fumes here was terrifying. Not only are there strong shinobi here, no one can survive here at all!

- Yeah ... And why is there always poison? First Santoru, then the spiders ... I feel like being drawn to such places, - with a gloomy look, Shikamaru reached the huge plant and, without unnecessary worries, simply touched the huge green trunk. Then he seemed to feel a pulsation in its depths, and after that he nodded gloomily:

- A terrible thing, whoever raised it, but I see this for the first time. Either a rather dangerous call tried here, or Hashirama was resurrected and demonstrated his talents. Only, I'm afraid, even for him or me, this is unlikely. The creature stretched all its sprouts along the river and with its vapors deprived the forest of living creatures. Remarkably, the plants were not affected. An ideal weapon against people and beasts. ”After scraping off a piece of the bark of this plant, Shikamaru put the material in his bag and set off on his way. He understood plants quite well, even such an unusual one. It is very unlikely that it came here just like that. Naturally, the moment with Senju is very unlikely, but a call or experiment is quite. Shikamaru from the very beginning was surprised by such a concentration of vitality in these places, and such a complete absence of them on the shore. Fish and any other living creatures here probably haven't built their homes in a century. No dead bodies, as if they didn't even live here. However, this is not surprising in the current circumstances. Only, it could not touch the past, long before the destruction of Uzu ... So the variant with an ancient experiment is quite possible.

Since this is just a plant, it naturally did not intend to attack, so Shikamaru did not touch it either. Since this is his house, let it live, the ruins of Uzumaki were of interest ...

After running along a small river bed, Shikamaru crossed a hill with several stone ruins. The symbols of Uzumaki were recognizable, but he could not find anything useful in them. Then he finally saw ahead of the Hidden Maelstrom, or rather what was left of it ...

Ruin. Basically, nothing solid, the city seemed to have undergone a real bombardment and nothing was left intact. It didn't even look like the result of a battle, but rather a ruthless annihilation. The city, like the surrounding lands, was covered with sprouted plants, mostly parts of that poisonous cactus. Several of his exact copies were also present here, and as Shikamaru understood - his main essence. A huge thirty-meter something was slowly shuddering on the outskirts of the ruins, a dozen meters from this creature stood strange stone statues completely covered with writing fuin. Their activity, of course, did not matter anymore, someone destroyed all the columns. As for the city ... It didn't make much sense to describe the situation here - mountains of stones that barely reminded of the fact that a civilization once existed here. Stone, sometimes wooden fragments, from which it was even possible to determine the once existing streets of the village. In some places, the Uzumaki symbolism was traced, carved in stones. Well, well, basically, quite a large and impressive land. At least there used to be some kind of high-rise buildings, at least five or six stories high. In the Land of Water, this is not particularly surprising, here they were built of stone, but in the Maelstrom they chose a style similar to the pyramids. From the height of the hill, Shikamaru examined several stone statues surrounding the ruins, which were destroyed like the rest. They have clearly served as something of a barrier in the past. At least one of these columns was destroyed worse than the others and there was clearly a heavy battle, from which the hill turned into almost flat ground.

The picture of the battle cleared up a bit. First of all, the invaders hit at two points, but it was at one that they managed to break through. The battle took place on the outskirts, but still further beyond the village. Someone most likely summoned the poisonous roots of the plant and wanted to put them into battle. The village was bombarded and leveled to the ground. The cleared forests in the west spoke of a difficult battle, only ... there was actually too little information. The invaders came from two directions, from the north and northwest. Simply put, both passed from the approximate location of the Land of Fire and Lightning, it is also possible that the detachment appeared from the east, since there were signs of destruction there too.

Shikamaru did not intend to speculate, it was not the history that worried him anymore. It may well be that Madara did his best here, or maybe even Zetsu. In any case, it will not be possible to find out now, it was just necessary to penetrate deeper and, if possible, get useful knowledge about Fuinjutsu. It is unlikely that there is anything left here, at least here ...

Shikamaru's gaze turned to the high ground towards the most ruined buildings in the center of the village. This place seemed to be the center of a great battle and also the main village of Uzumaki. You can search in the surroundings, but it was worth starting from there. Due to such a concentration of poison, it is unlikely that very many managed to escape from here, and it is even more unlikely that someone was smart enough to return here. Hiruzen mentioned the Uchiha squad, who knows what happened to them ... At least the case in this place is covered with a veil of secrecy. There are almost no survivors, and those who stayed do not seem to really remember everything. At least Shikamaru did not manage to learn something integral, only the basics: there was a war, many were killed, there is no word about survivors. At least the Uzumaki who were far from their country were able to survive, just like Kushina, but as for the refugees during this battle ... Shikamaru did not know that either! Everything seemed vague and strange, and also these poisonous miasms. A sense of danger involuntarily engulfed his body, but he nevertheless decided to continue on his way. At least in his knowledge, Fuying Shikamaru made good progress, but he lacked an excellent method of controlling seals. Moreover, Mito's scroll ... You need to investigate everything, otherwise you won't be able to calm down.