At that moment, the mask that Ginkaku had been staring at suddenly emitted a chilling aura that sent a shiver down Arima's spine.
He abruptly felt as if his soul was being pulled out of his body by some invisible force.
It reminded him of the Reaper Death Seal technique he had studied before, but this sensation was far more intense, as if this technique far surpassed even that forbidden jutsu.
'Maybe the Reaper Death Seal was derived from this technique,' Arima thought.
A wave of helplessness washed over him. He couldn't move. His chakra refused to gather properly, and every ninjutsu he knew had become unusable.
At that moment, he felt weak and powerless.
Arima had heard that, when someone is on the brink of death, their life flashes before their eyes, like time itself rewinding.
Right now, the image that filled his mind the most was of little Tsunade. A heavy sorrow welled up in his heart.
'In the end, I still broke my promise. I didn't stay by her side until the very end. Tsunade... will you forget your Arima-nii?'
He thought back to his days in Konoha. It had only been twelve years, yet those years had been full of color and meaning.
He had a little sister who clung to him and always kept him in her thoughts. A mother who loved him, cared for him, and accepted him with endless tenderness.
Two Grandfathers and Granny Mito who had taught him how to live, how to navigate chaos with wisdom.
Many villagers respected him, admired him, some even saw him as a role model, a goal worth striving for.
His only regret now was that he could no longer protect those people.
But then, in the darkness of despair, a vision appeared in his mind. He saw Tsunade's tear-filled eyes staring at him, filled with pain and accusation, asking why he broke his promise.
Hadn't he said, "I'll always stay with you, Tsunade"?
The sorrow and devastation on her face tore at Arima's heart. He couldn't give up. Not yet. Maybe... he still had a chance.
With renewed determination, he quickly accessed the system interface in his mind and scanned the exchange catalog.
Before long, he found what he needed. Spirit-Flesh Seal, priced at 500,000 virtue points, with full credit available.
The repayment period would begin from the date of unsealing, to be completed within one year.
The Spirit-Flesh Seal would seal the user's body into another dimension, while their soul would remain stored within the system space.
To undo the seal, the blood of both the sealed individual and the one performing the unsealing would be required to summon the body and soul back from the void.
One detail left Arima rather frustrated, time within that sealed space would remain in stasis. In other words, his body would remain in its exact condition from the moment of sealing.
Still, this was the only path left to him. He had no better option to counter the ancient and troublesome Uzumaki sealing technique.
And once he was released from the Spirit-Flesh Seal, he would be obligated to undertake judgment missions immediately to repay his "debt."
That meant he'd have to personally pass judgment on countless evildoers across the shinobi world.
But as long as he lived, there would always be another chance to start again.
And his blood contract with the Reverse Summoning Scroll in the Shikkotsu Forest would remain intact, Tsunade would know he was still alive.
Hope began to flicker in Arima's heart, a faint light in the abyss. All he could do now was pray that someone in the future would use their blood to summon him back.
He used the last trace of chakra he could muster to unlock the Yin Seal on his forehead.
Chakra burst forth from the seal in an instant, clearing the blockages in his body and granting him a brief window of action.
He had two things to do. First, inscribe the Spirit-Flesh Seal onto the mask that was sealing him, marking it as the entrance to his sealed space.
Second, create a massive disturbance to draw the Uzumaki clan's attention and, hopefully, get Ginkaku and Kinkaku captured.
With near-superhuman speed, almost seven hand seals per second, Arima performed the jutsu.
"Wood Style: Deep Forest Emergence"
In an instant, the entire shrine was swallowed up by surging vegetation.
He had hoped this would interrupt the strange sealing technique, but the tug on his soul persisted. It was clear that once this seal had begun, no physical force could stop it.
Ginkaku's expression was one of brief surprise, thinking Arima was merely making a desperate final stand.
But then, seeing the despair in Arima's eyes, he sneered and said, "Don't bother. You can't break the seal this way. This is a piece of sealing art left behind by the Sage of Six Paths."
Arima's eyes suddenly lit up. 'A blessing in disguise,' he thought. That bit of information confirmed many of his past suspicions.
'So, if the Sage of Six Paths really existed, then the "reincarnation of Indra's chakra" mentioned by that figure in the shadows must come from one of those major shinobi clans.
There's still a chance for me to strike back. This isn't a complete defeat.'
Playing into Ginkaku's expectations, Arima deliberately acted defeated, stumbling around the shrine like a headless chicken, as if searching desperately for an escape.
Seeing him flailing like a drowning man, Ginkaku chuckled coldly, feeling a twisted pleasure from watching Arima's struggle.
Using the cover of the vines, Arima smeared his blood onto the mask, forming the sealing formula.
At first glance, the only noticeable change on the mask was a tiny, almost invisible speck on the forehead.
Yet that unremarkable spot was the portal, and beyond it lay the dimension where Arima's body and soul would be sealed.
His final contingency was now in place. As long as someone spilled blood onto that mark in the future, he could be revived.
All that was left to him now was to do his best... and leave the rest to fate.
Time was running out. He made the trade for the Spirit-Flesh Seal through the system on credit, and, carrying the weight of all his regrets, cast one last glance in the direction of Konoha, then resolutely sealed himself within the blood-stained dot.
The figure, his face still ashen, noticed the sealing power within the mask had vanished.
He was exceedingly pleased with himself. Without lifting a finger, he had wiped out one of the strongest figures in the shinobi world.
Smirking, he thought, 'Kids are still just kids, too impulsive. Think they're invincible just because they're the best in the world. No different from those arrogant Uchiha.'
Then he muttered, 'Time to retreat. Ginkaku and Kinkaku still have their uses. The rest of the plan will need those two pawns to keep moving.'
Without another word, he led the puppet-like Ginkaku and Kinkaku into the shadows and disappeared completely.
At that moment, a squad of elite Uzumaki shinobi arrived to investigate the commotion at the shrine.
They found it overrun by vines, the interior wrecked. Only the masks remained untouched. The altars and ancestral tablets had long since crumbled to dust.
Curiously, the vines had not damaged the shrine's roof or exterior at all, as if some invisible force was holding them in.
Only the current Uzumaki clan leader, Uzumaki Ashina, knew the reason for this. He entered the shrine quickly and checked the mask, its sealing energy was completely spent.
Ashina frowned. 'I'm the only one left who knows this seal exists. All the records were destroyed. Who could've activated something this terrifying?'
He stared at the thick vines all around. Clearly, this was the work of Wood Release. To find the source, he would have to coordinate with Konoha.
He immediately took out a scroll, wrote a secret message, and sealed it.
Handing it to a trusted shadow guard, he instructed, "Deliver this to Mito personally. Do not let it fall into anyone else's hands."
Once the guard departed, Ashina looked at the devastated shrine and sighed.
"A chaotic time indeed. One more hidden trump card lost to Uzushiogakure ."
With a tinge of regret, he glanced at the Shinigami mask in his hand and casually tossed it among the others. It had lost its power and was now nothing more than trash.
He never imagined that the faint speck on the mask's forehead concealed a portal to another dimension. And so, Arima missed his first chance at rescue.
Meanwhile, the scroll recording Arima's last known trace was already on its way to Konoha, about to trigger a massive upheaval that would change the fate of thousands.
----
[A.N: Arima won't be sealed for long time, just 2 to 3 chapters, so don't worry about MC being sealed or such stuff and please read further.]