Takara reached and scanned the area where the Shukaku's "egg" should be, leaving behind a Surface puppet to do the surveillance task in his place.
"Since when are there pyramids in this desert?" he wondered to himself, puzzled by the results of what lay beneath the sand.
It wasn't unusual to find round or slightly geometric rocks in the depths of the desert, but the inverted triangular shape was too perfect and its size exaggerated. Not to mention that there were similar structures nearby, although the sand and depth made precise readings difficult.
Human work, no doubt.
It also made sense that it would be the place where the desert tailed beast, the Shukaku, would be reborn; it could simply swim to the surface, and the sand would conceal any trace of its emergence.
Now, how should he descend there?
He couldn't waste time assembling a giant fan to blow away all the sand in the area; it would be too costly, and the amount of chakra required to power it would be significant.
"I'm going to need another puppet," Takara reflected as he tried to think of what type would be useful in this situation.
He could make an imitation of Gaara or Rasa, but the amount of manipulable sand would be severely limited to whatever affinity he could achieve once completed. And after making so many puppets, he had a feeling these wouldn't be good, not even decent.
How about the sandworm from Dune?
He wasn't going to make a full-scale one, but a miniaturized version that could be used as a hybrid between a vehicle and a tunneling device was perfectly viable.
But there were other things to consider, like the air quality in the ruins, the likely lack of light, and traps.
Even if a thousand years had passed, he doubted there wouldn't be some defensive mechanism against potential invaders; Hagoromo couldn't be that stupid.
Wait, the man was played by a toad...
He could simply make several sandworms descend to swallow the ruins and sort through their stomachs later, but that would also damage the pyramid and very possibly the wall engravings it surely had.
And those were important clues if he wanted to search for the other eggs. He hoped.
So, he had no choice but to descend in person.
Honestly, he wasn't too worried. With the versatility of his puppets, there were only a few things that could be problematic for him at this point, like a space-time seal.
Well, he had some resurrected who could pave the way and probe a safe path.
He ordered the noxinas to form a surveillance perimeter around and continue trying to probe in more detail, while he moved to the workshop to sit at the worktable and began drawing lines on paper, designing the new puppet.
Its size dimensions, resistance to the weight of the sand around it, the drilling and sand-splitting system, joints for articulation...
"2B!" Takara called.
His most recent puppet walked on her black heels to stand beside her master, awaiting his instructions.
"Take this list to the materials warehouse so that Winry Rockbell can give you them and take them to the assembly area," he instructed as he handed a paper to the puppet and mentally reviewed the sandworm design to ensure there were no functional errors.
While it would theoretically be a one-time-use puppet, it had to meet his standards, and if its performance in the field was acceptable, he would consider preparing an additional pair for tougher terrain.
But that was for another time; now time was running out, and he needed to finish this matter as soon as possible.
After a session in the assembly workshop and filling the puppet with what was necessary, Takara boarded its interior accompanied by some egoless resurrected and delved into the sands.
As he descended toward the buried pyramids, he recalled the idea he had while assembling the sandworm halfway through.
Should he make a puppet for archaeological work?
Nico Robin, Lara Croft, Indiana Jones...
But as quickly as the idea came to him, he discarded it.
He couldn't bring the knowledge or instincts of those characters, so their ability as archaeologists would be equal to or worse than his noxinas. After all, his noxinas were small and could fly while glowing their abdomens to illuminate the surroundings simultaneously.
A strong jolt snapped Takara out of his thoughts as he realized he had collided with something.
Something that supposedly wasn't there, yet was still blocking his path.
"Strange, I'm still two hundred meters from the entrance," he checked the depth as well as the front lens and frowned at seeing nothing but sand. "Is there some kind of barrier that I'm missing?"
That reminded him that after finishing the Kushina matter, he needed to transplant the Byakugan, given his mask and the seals on it; no one would notice the change unless they had the Rinnegan.
And he didn't think Nagato cared enough to inform the Hyuga clan.
He spent nearly fifteen minutes working with various instruments and machines until he managed to understand that the barrier was likely being sustained by natural energy.
"Of course, how else would it maintain a barrier for over a millennium and with this level of strength?" Takara was annoyed because he hadn't even entered and already had problems. "My knowledge of natural energy isn't enough, and I can't overload the barrier to petrify it, nor do I know at what rate it replenishes if I want to sacrifice noxinas to empty it."
Takara weighed the pros and cons, deciding to leave some small sandworm puppets behind to investigate more deeply around, and he would mark the place to return later.
"If each egg is protected by a barrier of natural energy, perhaps I need to delve into its mysteries. But where to turn?"
The toads are out for obvious reasons.
The snakes are a more realistic possibility, but instead of asking Orochimaru for the contract, it would be better to find the place and pass the tests.
Although...
"Wait a second!" he felt like he had just realized something important. "I killed Tsunade, who was the only summoner of the slug clan, so I don't have to worry about Katsuyu informing anyone of my movements. As long as she doesn't know that her previous summoner died by my hand..."
Takara must admit that Katsuyu's attitude toward her contractor is the best of the three by far. Snakes aren't trustworthy, and toads are manipulative.
But he realized a problem in his plan.
"Where is the slug contract?"