Seven days passed quickly.
In the face of experiments that often take months, years, or even decades, this amount of time felt as brief as a single blink.
Fortunately, although the Phantom Dragons Nine Consuming Seals is an S-rank sealing jutsu, it was not difficult for Simu and the others to learn. They only needed to serve as auxiliary personnel to coordinate with Pain in performing the technique.
In essence, they were just there to provide support, while the core sealing work was handled by Pain.
Nevertheless, participating in an S-rank sealing jutsu provided great inspiration for Simu to improve his own sealing techniques.
It could be considered an extra harvest he gained from the Akatsuki organization.
At the Akatsuki headquarters, the leader, Pain, had already arrived early.
By the time Simu arrived with Hidan and Sasori, all the other members had reached the location.
The current members of Akatsuki were Pain, Konan, Black and White Zetsu, Tobi, and Orochimaru. Including Simu's trio, there were seven members in total.
"This isn't even ten people..." Hidan complained. The learning scroll clearly stated that ten people were required to activate this sealing jutsu together.
Hearing Hidan's doubt, Tobi suddenly appeared beside him and chimed in, "Right, right? Hidan-senpai, I said the same thing just now, and the leader gave me a real earful for it!"
Seeing this, Pain could only sigh and explain helplessly, "The effect of the Phantom Dragons Nine Consuming Seals is best when performed by ten people, but that does not mean seven cannot perform it."
However, Hidan was clearly not so easily convinced. "If seven people can do it, why does it say ten on the scroll?"
"Yeah, why?"
The masked man, Tobi, followed along in agreement.
Pain could only add one more detail. "With seven people, the process will take longer, roughly seven days. If there were ten, three days would be enough."
To be honest, Hidan and Tobi were arguably the two people Nagato found most annoying.
Is everyone with 'Bi' or 'Fei' in their name this talkative?
Nagato felt that the next time he chose new members, he might need to consider multiple factors rather than just their combat strength.
Filtering them starting from their names seemed like a good option.
Regardless, Hidan finally shut his mouth and took his place on one of the three vacant fingers along with Simu and Sasori.
But before it could stay quiet for long, Tobi, standing nearby, struck up a conversation with Hidan again.
"Hidan-senpai, how many days did it take you to learn this sealing jutsu?"
"Seven days. What about you?"
"I learned it in six and a half days! It looks like I'm a bit more talented than Hidan-senpai after all..."
"You bastard!"
"Tobi, Hidan, prepare to begin," Pain said sharply, a visible vein of irritation popping on his forehead.
Hidan curled his lip. "Fine, fine. Let's just start then."
Tobi scratched his mask and fell silent.
Simu, however, pushed up his glasses and asked, "Leader, I want to keep this child alive after the Tailed Beast is extracted. Is there a way?"
Generally speaking, the lives of the Tailed Beast and the Jinchuriki are one. When the Tailed Beast is extracted, the life force of the Jinchuriki's body vanishes, resulting in death.
If possible, Simu did not want a child like Gaara to die just like that.
After all, those who have experienced true despair often erupt with even more startling power. Simu was quite looking forward to Gaara's future performance.
Pain instinctively wanted to tell whoever was speaking to shut up, but after seeing it was Simu, he seriously considered the idea.
As the eyes of a Sage, the Rinnegan indeed had ways to bring people back from the dead, but the cost was equally high. At the very least, Nagato would never waste such a precious technique on Gaara.
However, aside from that jutsu, there were other ways to maintain Gaara's life.
"The extraction process only damages the brat's body. His soul will not be affected. There is a chance to preserve him."
Pain looked at Simu and asked seriously, "I indeed have a way to transfer his soul, but you must find a body capable of carrying it."
"No problem."
Simu agreed quite decisively.
Finding a suitable body was far too easy for someone like Simu.
He only needed to extract Gaara's genes and create a clone.
Hearing Simu agree so readily, the others had varying reactions.
Pain was somewhat surprised that Simu actually cared about a brat's life.
Orochimaru, on the other hand, was curious to see what kind of body Simu would manufacture for Gaara.
After all, he also happened to be in dire need of a new body.
"If there are no other matters, let us begin."
Under Pain's lead, the other six figures formed hand signs simultaneously, and the Phantom Dragons Nine Consuming Seals unfolded successfully.
A key tool for this technique was the rings representing their identities.
As the sealing jutsu activated, everyone rapidly injected chakra into their rings. Soon, a ghostly green light enveloped them. Corresponding code names from the rings emerged within the green glow.
Simu's was "North," Hidan's was "Three," and Sasori's was "Jade."
From a distance, they looked like green orbs of light condensed upon the fingers of the giant statue.
Driven by seven powerful chakras, the massive and majestic Gedo Mazo finally reacted.
A terrifying aura radiated from the Gedo Mazo.
Accompanied by a low, rumbling sound, the statue slowly opened its mouth.
Immediately afterward, a massive amount of blue chakra poured from its mouth, forming nine giant dragons in the air. They lunged from various directions, biting onto Gaara, who was suspended in mid-air.
The moment the nine chakra dragons bit Gaara, they merged into a massive sphere of chakra resembling a ball of water.
Wrapped in this colossal chakra, Shukaku inside Gaara's body showed a look of horror.
But this chakra seemed to possess a natural, terrifying suppression over Tailed Beasts. Shukaku's massive body quickly turned into orange-red chakra and began to dissipate.
From the outside, Gaara's mouth fell open, and that awe-inspiring Tailed Beast chakra flowed out from his eyes, mouth, nostrils, and ears.
Like a stream flowing into the ocean, it followed the path formed by the nine chakra dragons and was absorbed by the Gedo Mazo.
As the Tailed Beast chakra was absorbed, one of the nine eyes on the Gedo Mazo slowly opened.
Simu observed this process intently.
Just as he expected, Nagato was indeed using the Gedo Mazo to absorb the Tailed Beast.
Combining this with how Shukaku had previously mistaken a fragment of the Gedo Mazo for the God Tree, and the legend it had mentioned, it was basically certain that this Gedo Mazo was the so-called God Tree.
However, Simu did not yet know how the Gedo Mazo was supposed to turn back into the God Tree.