Chapter 76.3- One Thousand Hands

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“Sensei, what are these?” She asked in shock. Instead of the battlements or the armoury, they’d taken her to the musuem. Except that instead of the museum itself, she had been taken to a subterranean level that she had never seen before. It was almost definitely a secret of some sort. So secretive that she was almost certain she did not belong there. That point was driven hime as he sensei led her through the vault of artifacts. Quite a few of them caught her attention. She recognised the first Tsuchikage’s armour on display and silently wondered if this was the original and if the one above was the copy or the other way around.

Something told her no one would go to this much trouble to secure a copy. Without stoping, Sensei led her forward to an upraised Dias. This thing had pride of place. Even beyond the armour of the first. Even beyond that spear that was glowing for some reason in the dark room. She walked forward, and when her Sensei stopped, she stopped as well. On the bias was a bowl, and in the bowl were a set of worms? It was those worms she asked about.

“Iwagakure’s greatest secret. They are the key to the Explosive Clay Kekkei Genkai”

“What is that Sensei?”

“The explosive clay was a kinjutsu created even before the formation of Iwagakure. When the First Tsuchikage defeated the explosion release clans, he took the Kinjutsu because of the potential it had to create a superior breed of shinobi. Unfortunately using the kinjutsu has not been so easy for the village” her sensei said. Jirachi just looked at the worms, wondering what they could do.

“Do you know what a kinjutsu is?”

“It is a jutsu forbidden by the Tsuchikage. Either because of its danger to the general public, or the danger it poses to the user” She answered just like she was back at the academy.

“Exactly. These worms are a kinjutsu because if they bond to someone without a great enough affinity for the explosion release, the person will die” Jirachi took a step back eight then. She was not a fool. Far from it. The enemy was at the gate, and now her Sensei had taken her somewhere to be exposed to something that could create a superior shinobi? There was only one reason she would have been brought here.

“Don’t worry, Jirachi. We’ve been testing you for the past few days. Your affinity with the kekkei genkai is greater than anyone else we have ever measured. You would have been offered the worms sooner or later. This isn’t just a desperate gambit because we think we need you” Sensei said, but Jirachi did not believe her. How could she?

Just last year, Jirachi had been in the academy, not even top of her class. They were going to sacrifice her. This was a death sentence.

She moved to run, but then she felt a hand on her wrist.

“Please” She begged her sensei, tears falling from her eyes as her voice choked up against her will.