"Next, it's time to test the Swamp of the Underworld…"
Link swallowed a soldier pill and, feeling his chakra restored to nearly full strength, once again used Summoning: Rashōmon.
"Grr~ga…"
Accompanied by the sound of a door opening, a short, pudgy man in a suit stepped out, his face furious. He opened his mouth to curse: "You damned—"
But a shadow promptly gagged him.
Without even looking at the man, Link formed a serious expression, brought his hands together, and channeled:
"Swamp of the Underworld!"
The targeted patch of ground instantly turned into an ominous, foul-looking mire. Beneath the moonlight, the strange aura emanating from the swamp made it look truly sinister.
"Mmmf—!" Gatō's face contorted in terror. He tried to beg for mercy, but two shadows grabbed him—one on each side—and flung him into the mire.
"Spare me—! Gah…pfft!" he cried as he sank rapidly, muddy water flooding his mouth in the blink of an eye.
Next, as though the "framerate dropped," the man was completely swallowed up.
"Bang!" At the same time, the Rashōmon door slammed shut and vanished.
"It changed…"
Link's gaze grew intent. Even the Rashōmon had ended. That meant Gatō went back to the Pure Land?
Could the Swamp of the Underworld's ability be that it sends the dead directly back to the Pure Land? Would that be especially potent against Edo Tensei?
Carrying his doubts, he formed seals again to cast the Summoning Technique. Yet this time, he couldn't find Gatō's soul at all. In other words, Gatō was…
"Either I can't reach him with the Summoning Technique, or he's really been destroyed…"
Link frowned, running through the possibilities. Whichever it was, he had to be cautious with the Swamp of the Underworld. If it could thwart the Summoning Technique's detection, it might also undermine his own powers.
If it actually destroyed a soul, repeated uses might provoke the Sage of Six Paths. This wasn't something to take lightly—there was scarcely any jutsu in the Naruto world that could kill a soul.
Even when Kaguya was at her peak, she couldn't prevent Obito's spirit from giving his chakra and Mangekyō abilities to Kakashi. The only thing that came close to destroying a soul was the Reaper. But that Shinigami lacked true self-awareness; the Reaper's blade simply cut the soul and stuffed it inside its belly. Strictly speaking, it didn't annihilate it.
Orochimaru, after slitting open the Reaper's stomach, got his arms' souls back right away—meaning the "lost" soul was restored to him. Hence, the Reaper only isolates souls, not destroys them.
While the Sage of Six Paths is described as peace-loving, if a person showed up who could wantonly obliterate souls, as the "GM" of the Pure Land, he'd probably appear to "knock some sense" into them. The Sage claiming he can't interfere with the real world is likely half-truth. He could gather all the Five Kage from different eras, or summon Kakashi's squad who had no prior link to him, and he could directly cancel Edo Tensei. Even if he's not physically strong, just the power to summon the dead at will is a superior version of Link's Summoning and Rashōmon.
"Huh?"
Caught in thought, Link realized the Swamp of the Underworld hadn't dissipated. Theoretically, it should have ended by now. Yet it remained in place.
"Gurgle…" The swamp started bubbling and churning, as though something was surfacing from below. A rank stench spread into the air. Link instinctively held his breath, about to cancel the jutsu, when a figure rose from beneath.
Judging by the tattered suit and hairstyle, it appeared to be Gatō. But this was a horrific sight—his entire body grotesquely swollen, crawling with insects that darted in and out of enlarged pores. His face was beyond recognition, lumps disfiguring his features in a twisted mass, while one eye sat bigger than the other, brimming with hatred.
The stench was coming directly from him.
Gatō's upper body emerged from the mire and stopped. When he opened his mouth, a handful of writhing maggots spilled out. Glaring with a look of abject malice, he just stood there.
"He's not annihilated, but…"
Link could feel his mental "SAN" meter dropping. Even if this thing were alive, it would be a fate worse than death.
"Are you Gatō?" he asked, now in no hurry to cancel the jutsu. Shadows gathered before him, ready to intercept any sudden threat.
But Gatō—fallen into the Swamp of the Underworld—gave no response. His eerie eyes showed only hatred. No speech, no reaction, like a lifeless puppet.
"In Japanese myth, 'Yomi' (the underworld) is a land of filth and impurity, but this Swamp of the Underworld is way too foul…like…"
Link recalled an unfortunate soul he'd once heard of who drowned in an open-air latrine. The resemblance to Gatō's current state was uncanny.
He tried asking a few more questions, but got nowhere. In the end, he simply canceled the jutsu.
Gatō gurgled back down, and the swampy ground gradually dried out—though not very quickly. It took around ten-plus seconds to become parched, and even a few minutes later, the patch where Gatō was remained damp and muddy, a stark contrast to how it would normally revert instantly upon release.
Link had a shadow poke the remaining mud with a stick. No reaction. He tossed two rabbits onto it; they hopped around a bit, stepped in the mud, then scurried off. Apart from the putrid smell and sickly blackish-yellow color, it appeared ordinary enough.
"I'd better not touch it. Let the shadows keep watch. See if anything changes…"
…
Next morning, dawn.
"Open! Gate of Opening!"
"Gate of Rest!"
"Substitution Jutsu!"
The usual, Metallica.
"Hah…" Link disengaged the Eight Gates mode, flopping onto the tatami mat. While a shadow fed him a soldier pill, he took a moment to recover from the severe fatigue. Then he administered Delicate Illness Extraction on himself to ease the strain from having overtaxed his body's stamina, slowly pulling himself upright.
He eyed the cluster of small, wiggling little "cuties" he had summoned, flexed his muscles, and used Delicate Illness Extraction once more before heading out for breakfast.
For Link, the greatest change that the Eight Gates mode brought was in how he used the Substitution Jutsu. In the past, he'd typically cast it during combat, trying a handful of times—maybe a dozen—hoping for something useful to appear. After all, under normal circumstances, emptying all his chakra would only keep a single summoned "Stand" active for about an hour.
Even putting aside other energy consumed in battle, he couldn't rely on just a single cast of the jutsu for "drawing," as he never knew if a useful Stand might appear. So, typically, he summoned them on the spot. As most fights were fast-paced, if the summoning lasted one minute, it was often enough to decide the outcome—"first sight kill." Stalemate battles were rare.
But ever since he could overdraw his body using the Eight Gates for massive chakra—on top of super-effective soldier pills—he could theoretically maintain a single Substitution Summon for eight hours without worrying about physical damage. Which meant he'd drastically shifted his combat logic.
~~~
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