Listening to the fuming Jiro's command, the guards scurried away. They knew how cruel Jiro was with his own people and the only reason the Tsuchikage ignored his atrocities was because he got results and most of the time he would be out of the hidden stone plotting something and finding new land to capture.
Seeing that everyone except his own personal guards had left the vicinity of the warehouse, Jiro looked at his guards and said "You both stay here and kill anyone who tries to enter the warehouse. Even if that person is someone from our village."
The 2 bodyguards simply nodded and stood in front of the door while Jiro proceeded to head inside. The man had already gone inside with the hooded figures. When he reached the source from where the scream had come, he saw that one of the boxes was lying open and one jar was smashed on the ground with the bloody heart crushed into pieces. Anger welled up inside the man and the color of his skin started to change but then one of the hooded figures stepped forward and put his hand on the man's shoulder and said "Priest Ji, don't lose yourself."
The man who was called Priest Ji by everyone gritted his teeth as he looked at the destroyed heart and said "How can I not be angry? Such a perfect specimen was destroyed. It takes some much to create even one of these demonic hearts."
The hooded figure nodded and said "I understand what you are saying but as long as lord Jashin's blessings are with us, we can have hundreds of such hearts. Our priority is to become stronger without the great villages finding and the perfect place to do it is the hidden mist. So don't do anything to blow your cover."
Hearing this Priest Ji calmed down a little and heard the sound of someone coming toward him. He looked back and Jiro walked toward him. Jiro also looked at the destroyed heart and asked "How did this happen?"
Ji looked like he wanted to strangle Jiro but he said "Lord Jiro someone seems to have stumbled upon these boxes. We didn't find anyone when we came in here. I don't think there is much reason to worry."
Jiro looked at him in annoyance and said "No reason to worry? Are you out of your mind? What if the one who did this is a spy? What if he leaks this information to the outside world? I only agreed to help you fanatics with my goal. If this news gets out then I will be dead before I know it."
Ji nodded and said "Don't worry Lord Jiro. We will keep our promise. As long as you let our cult grow, we will keep supplying you with a few of these hearts so that you can create shinobis who are way stronger fighters and more obedient than usual shinobis. You have already seen the strength it gives and we have even implanted 2 of such hearts in your bodyguards who were hopeless when you sent them to us.
"Clean up this mess and find out who came in here. I will send you a few of my people to get the hearts implanted. I want to see what they can do in the conflict against the bloodline clans. Their lava release is quite annoying and that bitch Mei already has 2 kekkai Genkais."
Ji clenched his fists but didn't say anything. Seeing that Ji was just quiet after all this, Jiro turned around and left.
"I will have his heart implanted in an animal for sure." Ji muttered. For seeking help in hiding in return of giving Jiro stronger soldiers, Ji formed an alliance with Jiro. But now this was getting more of a relationship where Jiro would bark orders and expect Ji to accept it. Ji also had to swallow all the humiliation because right now he needed cover to hide himself and his cult. His most special experiment had already gone and joined a criminal organization named the Akatsuki.
"Hidan you idiot...just come in my grasp once and I will tear you apart." Ji muttered as he saw Jiro walking away. After Jiro left, the hoodied figures started inspecting the jars for damages. A common symbol was visible on their hands. It was a simple symbol with a red triangle inside a red circle.
"We need to find who did this." Ji said. The hooded figure who was overseeing the inspection and who had calmed Ji looked back at Ji and said "Whoever did this is already long gone. We have to work with the probability that whoever saw this will tell the world about it. We have to make a big move...All the hearts that arrived today, implant them in Jiro's people."
As the hooded person said that, everyone turned around to look at him. Even Ji was shocked by this. "What are you saying? To waste such precious specimens for those filthy stone Shinobis?"
The hooded figure nodded and said "Yes...the problem isn't what the other villages will do if they find out but what the hidden stone itself will do. No matter how cunny the old man Onoki (Current Tsuchikage) is, he will never be in support of Lord Jashin. He will do everything in his power to find us and attack us. Before that, we need to make Jiro strong and independent and also overconfident."
Ji nodded and said "Yes...Jiro has no idea what the consequences of the heart implant are. I even tried to suggest to him that he should get his implanted but he denied my suggestion."
"I guess he isn't a fool after all." the hooded figure said.
Ji nodded and said "You all continue. I will go and give Jiro the good news." After saying that Ji left the warehouse.
Yami was listening to all this from the inner roof of the warehouse. He had blocked even the tiniest amount of chakra from leaving his body. He even created a pocket of air around him so that not even his breathing could be sensed by whoever entered the warehouse.
'Lord Jashin? Hidan from the Akatsuki? Damm, he was a pain in the ass and not so easy to kill. Even Asuma fell prey to him. Very less is known about them. As far as I remember they did find a small base in the Land of hot water (Yugakure) but what are these bastards doing here? Probably preying on Jiro's thirst for power. I can't let them use the rest of the hearts.' Yami thought. He didn't know how much strength would a shinobi gain after getting one of these hearts implanted, but he didn't want to take a risk because, in the end, he was going to end up fighting with them. Except for Mei Terumi and a few others who had kekkai Genkai, Yami didn't expect them to be much useful.
Maybe Chojuro because he is one of the seven mist swordsmen but Yami had seen Chojuro and wasn't ready to get into such a fight.
'Damm the shinobi world that they had shown in the anime was already complex enough but I didn't know so many things were going on behind the scenes.' Yami thought. He saw the hooded figures inspecting the glass jars and making sure that those specimens weren't damaged in the slightest.
Yami looked at a hooded figure exactly below him who had one of the jars in his hand and he was checking it properly. Yami jumped down toward him as he propelled himself from the roof. He didn't use any chakra as he didn't want to get spotted instantly. He used raw physical strength to do this. Though it didn't give him much of a boost, it sure caught the hooded figure who was under him off guard.
Yami plunged the thing hidden blade that he had hidden under his sleeve into the hooded person's neck. The man didn't even get to know what happened as he coughed up blood.
Ughh.
Everyone looked back as they heard the sound on him falling on the ground. The jar that he was holding in his hand also fell down making it smash into pieces. Due to this, the painful scream rang through the entire warehouse and the area around it.
All the hooded figures except the one who talked openly with Priest Ji rushed at Yami. They pulled out sickles from their robes. The sickles had many things drawn on them as if they were made with some kind of ritual. Yami didn't recognize what its effect was so he wasn't going to take any chance and get hit by them.
The scream had alarmed everyone outside the warehouse as well and things had started to get pretty chaotic now. Seeing the hooded men come to him, Yami spewed a fireball at them. He had already kept most of his ninja weapons including his sword inside a storage scroll. The hooded figures dodged the fireball pretty easily but the hooded men's leader quickly shouted "IDIOTS"
The hooded figures didn't understand why their leader who had even calmed Priest Ji would lose his composure but they understood pretty quickly.
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