Celestial Path Chapter 26

We soon found ourselves at Tamaji Clan's estate, which was the home of the heir we needed to take to the Shrine of Amaterasu after running through the small city of Tanzaku Gai.

"Alright, kiddos, make sure to be on your best behavior!" Yoruichi spoke in her typical flippant manner that made both Uchiha throw a look of disdain at her.

"We won't be the ones throwing noble etiquette back into the trash and ruining Konoha's image." Kiyome said flatly, making me nod in agreement.

"Wow, these kids get more and more sarcastic with each year." Yoruichi muttered as we approached the large gate that had several shinto charms plastered all over it.

Which reminded me that it was good that I had already used a transformation jutsu to hide my kitsune features.

"Halt! State your name and purpose at the Tamaji Clan!" The guard demanded with a strong voice that made the air echo.

No, it wasn't just mere sound. I realized the man had Chunin level chakra stores and was flaring them at us in clear warning as his enhanced jutsu had a really... Really shitty fear like genjutsu attribute to it.

'Hmm, my first Samurai.' I thought as I took in the Samurai that was supposed to be a physcial powerhouse compared to ninja's anyway.

But I was a cheater... And the bullshit Gate training that Samurai used wasn't something I was afraid of. As Samurai were the type of fighter I was least afraid of honestly.

"We are here to escort your clan's heir to the Shrine of Amaterasu. Here is the clan's copy of the mission scroll with the commission made in Konoha." Yoruichi spoke in a more serious then usual tone.

The samurai took the scroll and after checking the seal to see if it was authentic. He nodded and then looked to us and said in a more relaxed voice. "Everything seems to be in order. Please wait here, the young master will be out in his carriage within the next ten minutes." 

Though... Even though the guard sounded more relaxed. There wasn't any hiding the disdain in his voice as he looked at the four of us.

Which was a firm reminder about how Samurai typically looked down on ninja's. Except for outliers like Hashirama and other Kage's who had the hands to throw down with demi-gods and such.

We stepped away from the gate with Kaori asking curiously with a low voice. "So, Akari do you feel weird around those Shinto seals that are supposed to repel youkai?"

My face twitched at that and I replied rather flatly. "Nope, my soul is still human despite having the furry bits of being a youkai." Well that and a fuck load more magical potential and acceptance for divinity but that wasn't here nor there.

Still we kept up a light conversation with Yoruichi hovering off to the side until the heir of the clan came out in a large carriage that was completely blocked off.

Then the guard who was initially at the gate climbed up to the front of the carriage to take control while saying firmly. "Good! Our young lord has provisions for the ride to the temple, you four must merely do your jobs to protect us from other brigands and your kind on the road!"

"Cheery guy isn't he?" I muttered as Yoruichi nodded and we set off without the heir actually showing himself or anything. Though it was likely he was hiding as he was supposed to be deformed rather badly due to the curse of that Daiyoukai.

The walk to get out of Tanzaku Gai was quick and without issue besides the guard threatening the guards of the city itself when they wanted to check the inside of the carriage.

But beyond that minor kerfluffle we made our way outside the city without any issue... Until we got away from the city and the people before the young heir literally spoke with a voice broken up with hiccups and squeals.

"Ryousuke! I am hungry! Give me more meat!" 

The guard's expression turned pale and he turned around and yelled helplessly. "I will have these ninja find a deer or something for you young lord. Please have patience as you already ate enough food for a dozen to have over a week!"

The curse the youkai put on the kid... Obviously had something to do with gluttony, and Yoruichi sighed before she looked to me and said quietly. "Akari, you are the fastest besides myself. You have been trained to track and am strong enough to bring such a catch back."

I nodded even as the guard looked back towards us with a helpless smile and bowed his head before he said with humility. "Ninja's of Konoha, please hunt down a beat and bring it to the young master. The young master has an attendant within the carriage to cook and clean any kilsl you make."

With a sigh, I looked to Yoruichi and said. "I will meet you guys like five miles north of here in like half an hour. Try not to get accosted by bandits in the meanwhile."

Yoruichi gave me a slight huff before she retorted. "Like any bandits would be an issue... Not that there would be any bandits so close to Tanzaka Gai anyway."

Yeah not that she said that. I could already see them running into every fucking bandit in the Land of Fire with how she tempted fate.

Still, I filled my body with chakra and I shot off into the nearby tree line before I leapt up into the thick branches and began tree leaping at high speed and quietly to find some prey to feed whatever was wrong with this kid.

And with my enhanced senses, it didn't take me long to find a couple deer and a pack of swine I quickly dispatched with a few tossed kunai. So after quckly bleeding out the animals to make them easier to carry, I sealed them up and quickly headed for the meet up point and worked my way further south to find the group again.

But it I didn't need to track down the group... As the screams and yelling of the young heir was loud as fuck and carrying far through the endless forests that made up the Land of Fire.

"Feed me! Feed me! Feed me! I need food!" The heir screamed hysterically with the air actually vibrating from the force of his screams.

I came up and shouted back quickly. "I have several deer and pigs, let your attendant out to get it alright!"

The screams were choked back with the guard looking at me with honest relief and the door of the carriage was thrown open with a young girl that was clearly a servant that had tears in her eye's all but thrown out of the carriage towards me.

"Master... Ninja, please give- Where are the animals?" She demanded with something akin to hysteria in her voice that made me frown as something was wrong beyond just the boy obviously.

Still I quickly unsealed the animals and helped drag the kills to the carriage where the civilian girl threw the corpses into the carriage. Where I heared a familiar squealing noise that was then broken up by the very distincive sound of ripping and tearing of fresh flesh from bone.

The carriage's interior was barely lit with candles and combined with all the windows being blocked off I normally woudn't be able to see that well. But I had several forms of sense enhancement so I was able to see the young heir and it was horrifying.

He had a humanoid body, but his upper chest and head was instead the merging form of a massive brutal looking wild boar with giant tusks.

And I saw in the brief moment as the obviously cursed boy ripped flesh from bone and broke the deer's ribs with it's powerful jaw.

Then I looked away and returned to the group even as the carriage kept moving... But at a faster rate as the guard knew that the deer and such I hunted wasn't going to be a true solution.

"These missions aren't that common are they?" I muttered quietly.

To which Yoruichi sighed and said quietly. "No they are not. Normally if the clan is powerful enough. They can have several priests come to break the curse such a Daiyoukai would have done. Or they would pay for ninja's trained in sealing to seal them in stasis so they could more easily be carried directly to a temple."

She looked over to the carriage and said with finality. "The Tamaji clan isn't rich or powerful enough for either easier solution. The only reason we are doing this mission is because the Tamaji clan doesn't have a true born spare heir. The rest are concubine and bastard born." 

Even as she spoke however, Kaori, Kiyome, and myself noticed her hands folded under chest were making the typical Konoha hand signs as well which translated to. 'Youkai following, Six O,Clock. 500+ Meters.'

We three knew better then to look, still I pushed some chakra to my nose and I softly inhaled before my face twitched at the smell of despair and rotting flesh.

A smell that was... The common trademark of youkai that regularly ate the dead and hunted humanity to eat their flesh and souls.

'The fact such a youkai is following us... It's clearly the Daiyoukai that cursed the boy.' I thought with a frown though unless it was one of the Daiyoukai that Jiraiyia mentioned. I was thinking the Daiyoukai was one who only recently reached such a rank.

Either way, we all kept moving with Kaori and Kiyome managing to keep themselves in a somewhat relaxed state though there inner tension was actually good still as it would disguise our knowledge.

But after a couple hours of riding, the heir roared out furiously. "More food! I ate everything and I need more food!"

"That is just crazy." I muttered with a frown as he in the course of but a couple hours ate two deer, and a half dozen good sized wild boar I managed to kill.

Then the servant girl screamed out. "No Yushiro, I am not food!" And in an instant I shot forward as I realized how bad this actually was.

I ripped open the carriage door and a scream rang out as the boar head of the heir bit off the serving girls fucking hand before I could react.

Then I shot in and punched the young heir in the chest directly in the center of his chest to collapse his lungs to clear his head hopefully. Before I grabbed the girl and shot out of the carriage just avoiding the blade of the guard who snarled at me.

"Ninja rat! You dare harm your client and a member of the Tamaji Clan!?" I

I gave the man a dark look before I said flatly. "Your fucking heir is a cannibal... I can smell the depravity on him already. That's the real reason there isn't a large procession isn't it. You wanted to keep this as quiet as possible."

Then I looked at Yoruichi who nodded and stepped forward to guard me from the guard whose form glowed with blue chakra as I exhaled and decided that letting this servant girl bleed out or be crippled for life was a shitty thing to do even if it would let out a secret or two of mine.

I held up my hand, and my face twitched as I drug my thumb across my canine tooth to cut it open and I used my chakra to make sure the wound didn't close instantly due to my immortality as I dribbled my immortal blood onto the mangled stump of her wrist.

The servant girl thankfully was already unconcious at this point due to the stress and trauma so I was able to hold up a hand sign and mutter as I activated my immortal blood within her that entered the blood. "Blood demon art- Revival of the flesh." 

Complete bullshit jutsu, but it was for the other's to hear as I glowed a dark green as I pumped my chakra into the girl to keep my immortal blood active outside of my body. And in the next minute the girls hand regrew in a violent show of flesh growing and skin sleeving over the raw muscles.

'My blood running through her veins for a couple minutes and healing her so deeply will probably even give her a couple extra decades of lifespan... She will probably have the Uzumaki lifespan of a couple centuries honestly.' I mused to myself.

But I was forced to refocus as the guard said through gritted teeth. "The lord will hear of this insult to his progeny. Now, let us continue... We still have two day's of travel via carriage to get to the temple."

I sighed with some annoyance as I realized now I myself had dead weight to carry with Yoruichi snorting and saying with a look of understanding. "Akari, often times on missions the hardest thing is saving someone's life. As now she is your responsiblity." 

A grunt left me and with a flurry of hand signs a flat board with some wheel's formed to make a sort of wheelbarrel with the handles at the front so I could carry the girl with us more easily while she was unconcious.

'Whatever, it's annoying but I am not going to leave the girl behind to be eaten by the damned youkai that's tracking us.'

The youkai however was seemingly content to leave us be... And the march continued with the civilian girl being knocked out from the trauma of having her fucking hand ripped off for the rest of the day.

The civilian girl herself wasn't special in anyway though, actually on the plain side and very basic looking... Hell she didn't even have odd colored hair!

Still, the little bastard in the carriage just moaned and groaned for the rest of the day as even the guard knew that his hunger woudn't be sated by mere deer and wild game.

But as night came, and Yoruichi shot off to get a brace of rabbits and other shit to keep the heir from trying to attack us.

The Daiyoukai made it's move!

Tree's parted under it's great girth, it's foul scent washed over our senses like a miasma that clung to our lungs.

And then it came into view even as it very heavy steaming breath and glowing red eye's broke through the tree line.

"Little morsol... Why do you run from me?" The Daiyoukai's rumbling and deep voice rang out like a slimly weight on our ears.

"Foul demon! For touching the young master you should die!" The guard yelled as his body and sword glowed with blue chakra as he shot forward to attack the Daiyoukai.

Still Kiyome called out. "It's a Daiyoukai! You can't beat it!"

And Kiyome was all to right as the horrid and brutal looking giant boar of a youkai shot forward, shattering the ground as it screamed as it's tusk met it's sword with a sound similar to metal on metal.

The guard was strong, physcially at least to my experience as a ninja as he was like peak chunin in terms of strength. That strength amounted for fucking nothing as the boar threw his head forward and upwards sending the Samurai literally flying through the air and through the tree line above our heads.

Yoruichi was hiding probably for a killing strike off to the side so I just exhaled with my hand already having been doing hand signs while Kiyomi and Kaori sent a couple large exploding fire balls that made the youkai just huff in amuesment.

But then the ground in the surroundings shattered as I said coldly. "Nativity of a World of Trees!"

Tree's uncountable broke through the ground with the Daiyoukai screaming in fear and horror. "The Wood Release? Konoha's has another wood user!? You! You have the blessing of Amaterasu as well!" The youkai roared in fury at the end as he seemingly only just truly paid attention to me.

The tree's I summoned and created shattered and smashed into the monster all the same with the daiyoukai grumbling with anger and lust in his voice as he said. "On the other hand... You would make a good priest for me as well. I will enjoy seeing two such pretty things in my cave."

My eye twitched even as I felt Yoruichi shifting in my lashing tree's to get a good shot. "Fire jutsu's!"

And it was only now that the guard managed to hit the ground as he jumped out of a tree. Then as Kiyome and Kaori blew a stream of fire at the Daiyoukai that made it growl in annoyance.

I shot off from the side and then sprinted up while it was blinded by the flames to bring the Black Knife down onto the monster.

It screamed in utter agony as Destined Death's flames began burning it's life force and cursing it with conceptual death even as it whirled it's head towards me and I met it's own saber tusk that slashed at me.

And as that tooth and my blade met... I muttered. "Ah shit." And my feet left the ground as the multi ton supernatural fucking massive hog threw me backwards through the nearby forest and through a tree that snapped on my back meeting it.

'Daiyoukai will still get fucked over by Destined Death... But it's not an instant win button with their stronger souls and other factors.' I thought with a frown.