"Alright then. I'm going to begin the process, watch my back." Shiki declared.
And without further ado, the un-sealing and re-sealing of Roen began.
First, the boy set up an isolation barrier meant to block off any leaking chakra.
After all, as soon as the beast was unsealed, even if he perfectly restrained it, its violent chakra would inevitably spill onto the surrounding area, alarming anyone with even a modicum of sensory ability.
With that done, it was time to move onto the main course.
The only difficulty in terms of breaking Roen's seal was making sure it was not damaged too badly so it could be reconstructed afterwards.
However, Shiki had already spent some time studying it from a distance with his Kukyo - Seven Senses, it was a rather simple formula so the boy managed to figure out its inner workings quite quickly.
Now, he set about carefully unlocking the seal.
In the eventuality that they might need to release Roen and make use of it, the Kodon clan built in a proper release mechanism that would reduce the damage to the seal when the beast was released.
This was so that they could just toss it back into the same seal as creating a powerful new one would take a lot of skill and resources.
It was fortunate.
The Kodon clan's consideration for this eventuality made Shiki's job that much easier.
A black sealing formula appeared on the cask-like box placed at the shrine's altar and, after Shiki went through a simple sequence of hand seals, the symbols of the formula started shifting to allow the box to open.
With a final hand seal, the cask's lid began to slide open and fierce, dark blue chakra began to leak out.
'It is actually somewhat similar in nature to my Void Chakra.' Shiki noted.
Not that there was any actual relation of course.
Roen was an ancient beast while Void Chakra was a very recent creation.
If one was to metaphorically describe the difference, Roen's Chakra was raging waves, violent, heavy and volatile while Shiki's Void Chakra was similarly heavy, it was also cold and still like the deep ocean.
Both were dark and heavy but there was still a clear distinction.
'Maybe there will be some synergy. Roen might even find resonance with my chakra' The boy theorized, preferring to see this as a positive.
He was partially right.
When Shiki extended his own chakra through the opening of the sealing vessel, the cask, in order to begin the re-sealing process, the beast eagerly clinged onto it.
But not out of some sense of affinity.
Instead, as a chakra eating beast, Roen had just found the most delightful of treats and spared no effort in attempting to surge out of its seal before it was even fully open, seeking to devour this premium snack that delivered itself into its maw.
Unfortunately for the beast, sucking up chakra imbued with fuinjutsu was not a great idea if one valued freedom.
'Unintelligent beasts are truly much easier to deal with.' Shiki thought.
The boy wasted no time in taking advantage of Roen's foolish move in order to draw it in.
He had yet to create a personalized jinchuriki type seal by the Uzumaki were unquestionable experts in this area.
Shiki opened his sleeveless hakama and lifted up his chainmail shirt, holding the latter up with his mouth while fusing two Four Symbol Seals into an Eight Trigrams Sealing Formula, much like Naruto's in the original series.
Eager to devour him, Roen comically followed the flow of the boy's chakra, jumping into the open seal of its own volition after which Shiki unceremoniously closed it.
For a few moments, the boy just sat there in incredulity.
He was confident in his ability to seal the beast, sure, but never had he expected it to be so dumb as to jump into the seal without him needing to forcefully pull it in.
"Well, I won't be complaining that's for sure." Shiki muttered to himself, still feeling some disbelief.
"Complaining about what?" Benihime inquired from behind.
She had watched the whole process with the Shuigan's omnidirectional gaze while being on the lockout for possible interlopers.
"Nothing." Shiki simply replied as he rubbed his hands.
Standing up and spreading his arms wide, the boy took a deep break.
Immediately, all the chakra Roen leaking into the surroundings while being unsealed surged into his body, leaving no trace for anyone to detect later.
"Is this . . ." Beni trailed off.
"Roen feeds on chakra, it naturally has the ability to drain and absorb it." The boy explained.
He closed the seal, fixing it haphazardly as doing it normally would leave it in a much better state than before, alerting the Kodon clan due to his superior fuinjutsu skill which would be quite ironic.
Shiki then lifted the barrier and vanished with Behime, heading back to their inn.
The operation had been a resounding success!
'I can feel Roen's wild nature but Kukyo prevents it from affecting me at all. Channeling and controlling its abilities is also seamless.' The boy thought.
He then turned his senses inwards to analyze the beast more closely, now that it was his.
'Seems a bit emaciated, it's hunger is probably what made it so easy to trick into the seal, even a wild beast's normally sharp instincts will suffer under such conditions.' Shiki observed.
The boy then tweaked his seal a bit, feeding Roen with a small but steady amount of his own chakra while also drawing the excess chakra emanating from the beast into his body.
This process would increase his chakra capacity and potency over time, even his physical abilities and stamina would benefit.
It was a similar but slightly different process than the one Minato set up in Naruto's seal.
Whereas his seal merely siphoned the chakra Kurama was willing to release and blended it with Naruto's own chakra to increase his healing, stamina and chakra, Shiki's seal worked as a filtration.
It pumped the boy's chakra into the seal, feeding to Roen and extracted the beast's chakra in return.
'I could probably turn into Roen or just flood my body with its chakra to boost my abilities but that is a crude and wasteful use of its power. I should try and develop methods to more efficiently take advantage of it.' Shiki planned.
But that could wait.
Just in case, the boy preferred to do these tests in a controlled environment, maybe even requisite Mito's assistance, after all, who knew more about being a jinchuriki in the current world?
'There is the Sage of Six Paths but I doubt he's available for consulting.' Shiki jokingly thought.
For the time being though, he would just attempt to finish the overly troublesome escort mission, rob the Howling Wolf Village for all its medicinal worth, and deliver a message, or maybe an offer, to a certain clan in the Land of Hot Water.
While Shiki considered his next steps however, Behime who was closely following him, ever watchful, also had her own considerations regarding the future.
Namely, the girl thought about what to do once the caravan ran its course and the Daikin Merchant group settled back into the Land of Fire . . .
+++++
Hey, Author here!
To promote the novel I will be releasing BONUS CHAPTERS on SUNDAYS based on the previous week's power stone count.
100 Power Stones = 1 Bonus Chapter
500 Power Stones = 2 Bonus Chapters
1000 Power Stones = 3 Bonus Chapters
Every earned BONUS CHAPTER on Webnovel will also be posted on Scribble.
Just a reminder that you can read up to a FULL MONTH ahead of this site on pa-treon.
I'm trying to become a full time Author now and I'm not going to be starting any new novels just so I can make sure this one is properly completed.
Find those sweet advanced chapters on pa-treon.com/lusoba without the -x