Naruto Shippuden: girl from whirlpools

The Temple of Fire

Chapter Twenty-Three: The Temple of Fire

He didn't know what Kushina had expected when she'd offered to partner with him on this mission, but it was clear that it wasn't this. When he'd first mentioned the need for research, an expression had come over her face like he'd just suggested they take a bath in sludge. When he'd added that the library would be a good place to start, her eyes had glazed over and had been like that ever since, and though she'd followed him without complaint it was clear that she would rather be somewhere else.

Minato quite liked being in the farthest wings of the library, where the oldest books and scrolls were kept. It was dry, warm, and smelled of aged leather and parchment, quiet, but all these documents and tombs contained a hundred chattering voices just waiting to be heard. Some of the books were as old as the village itself. Some were even older.

With his back to a radiator, Minato had surrounded himself with a nice pile of volumes. A few modern ones with more up to date information, like Shinobi and the Art of Death lay by his knee alongside older books like The Comprehensive Encyclopaedia of Kinjutsu which was far from comprehensive but it included a lot descriptions of forbidden techniques that had been forgotten by the modern world.

At first Kushina had done her part, picking up one of his books and skimming it with a look of intense concentration. Unfortunately, the next time he looked up she had disappeared. When she reappeared again, she was reading a small paperback with lurid art of zombies on the cover.

"This guy digs up bodies to create his own army of the undead," she said to him after a while.

"That's not research," he replied patiently, "that's fiction."

"It's not just important to figure out how he's doing it. We need to figure out why as well," she retorted.

"Unless he gets his ideas from cheap horror novels, I doubt the answer will be in there."

She ignored him and carried on reading. Minato turned back to his own, but he was speed-reading the final chapter and so far this author had not mentioned any forbidden jutsu that had power over death. Orochimaru hadn't been kidding when he'd called it a rare kind of jutsu. At last he tossed aside the book and picked up a volume published some thirty years ago that promised accounts of jutsu so salacious that no other books would write about them. Of course, half the accounts Minato read he had already seen described in fifteen other books. He browsed on, however, until he came to the chapter called 'The Masters of Death'.

It began:

Many a man has sought to master the world around him, whether in the form of elements, his land, or his fellow man. But that which men desire most to control is that which eludes him the most. To take life is the shinobi's purpose. To give it back escapes all but the most exceptional of individuals.

Minato skimmed on. He was already beginning to understand just how rare the jutsu was – what he needed was examples.

"Ah ha!" he said aloud, startling Kushina.

The author had moved on to describe cases of jutsu forbidden for their use of corpses. Some Suna nin who specialised in puppetry had been known to use corpses on the battle field if they ran out of custom made puppets. But this wasn't so much control over life and death as it was disrespectful of the dead. A more promising example given was of a tribe of unaffiliated mountain shinobi who could implant the life force of other people or animals into the recently deceased to give the appearance of reanimation, however temporary. These reanimated bodies could not be controlled however.

He grew more disappointed as the examples got weaker from there and the end of the chapter grew closer. He skimmed the last paragraph where the author redundantly reiterated how rare manipulation of the dead was, if not out of complication but because of the moral objection to such techniques. Only one line leapt out at him.