So You Have a Responsibility to Take Care of the Wandering Uzumaki Clan Members

Tamaki explained to Tsunade about the Genjutsu inside the mask.

"Uzumaki Ashina? If it was him, that's certainly possible. He founded Uzushiogakure and lived through the Warring States period. He had the strength to do it."

"Have you learned how to undo the Sealing Jutsu?"

"I've pretty much memorized it."

"Then give it a try."

"But sorry to trouble you, teacher, I'll need your help moving this stone monument. I'm not strong enough."

"No problem. Come on, I'll teach you the Super Strength Fist, kid. Just gather your Chakra and throw a punch like this."

"?"

Faced with the Super Strength Fist Tsunade suddenly threw at him, Tamaki felt a little numb. All he'd done was tease her a bit about her monstrous strength.

It didn't take him long to learn the technique, though.

"All right, teacher, I've got it."

"I don't think you have."

Bam—

Only after Tsunade finally landed a punch on Tamaki did she stop.

"Looks like you've learned it. Go on."

Shizune covered her mouth and laughed as she watched Tamaki walk toward the stone monument, clutching the huge lump on his head.

Channeling a large amount of Chakra, Tamaki struck the base a few times, pushing the monument aside and exposing the floor beneath it.

"I wonder how Uzumaki Ashina cast a Sealing Jutsu underneath this thing back then. Could he have planned it all along?"

"A guy like that definitely didn't do this on a whim. He must have had several tricks up his sleeve, and this mask might not even be the only contingency he left behind."

"The older generation of shinobi was really terrifying."

"You're not much better, kid."

"I'll go undo the Sealing Jutsu."

Ignoring Tsunade's remark, Tamaki walked over to a section of flooring carved with the Uzumaki Clan crest and began undoing the seal.

The steps weren't difficult. As long as he got the Hand Seals right and channeled Chakra into it, he would succeed.

The Uzumaki design carved into the stone slab began to twist and spin, then spat out a huge scroll and several other items.

The large scroll went without saying. After a quick look through it, they determined that it contained an almost complete collection of Sealing Jutsu, as well as a great many records of intermediate results from experimental Sealing Jutsu.

Among the other items was another, smaller scroll. A quick look showed that it contained almost nothing but Sealing Jutsu meant to take the enemy down with the user.

Another was a token of the clan head's authority: a small seal. After Chakra was channeled into it, the imprint it stamped would carry a Genjutsu that made the imprint spin, identifying an order as one from the clan head.

"They're all good finds, especially this method of inscribing Sealing Jutsu onto objects. You hardly ever see it in the Shinobi World nowadays."

"Could this method be used for Medical Ninjutsu too?"

"It's still unclear. Maybe this large scroll can give us the answer."

With that, they began looking through the Sealing Jutsu on the scroll.

The Sealing Jutsu it contained covered everything under the sun.

There were seals targeting Chakra, such as the Four Symbols Seal, Eight Trigrams Seal, Five Elements Seal, and Yin Seal;

restrictive Sealing Jutsu for trapping enemies, such as the Adamantine Sealing Chains;

space-time Sealing Jutsu for sealing objects and space, such as supply scrolls;

the Contract Seal, which severed a connection to a summoned beast;

and object seals that sealed Ninjutsu into items.

There were also all sorts of barrier Sealing Jutsu.

They covered everything under the sun and opened their eyes to a whole new world.

One experimental Sealing Jutsu in particular caught Tamaki's attention.

The goal of this Sealing Jutsu was to first make a defensive barrier-type Sealing Jutsu portable, then seal it in an item so that, when used, it would take effect directly on the surface of the human body.

As long as Chakra was continuously supplied to the item, the user wouldn't have to worry about maintaining the defensive barrier Sealing Jutsu in battle.

Having it take effect on the surface of the body was also meant to bring it closer to the Chakra donor.

But this technique raised a very important question: people's heights, builds, and muscular states were all different, so how could the barrier seal automatically cover the whole body?

There were two approaches: give the Sealing Jutsu a system for assessing and identifying human body data, or custom-make each sealing item for its user.

In the end, neither approach produced a final result. All they managed to make was a portable version of the defensive barrier, at a high cost.

But the various intermediate results of both approaches had been recorded.

Seeing these two experimental approaches, Tamaki was overjoyed. There was now a clear approach to assessing and identifying human body data; what remained was to try to refine it.

Then he could seal the data and, after an injury, use it to guide Life Return in repairing the body.

"Teacher, take a look at this."

"This is... It looks like your Life Return has taken a crucial step forward."

Seeing it, Tsunade was a little excited too.

The two immediately began discussing how to connect Sealing Jutsu with Medical Ninjutsu. Shizune, standing beside them, couldn't get a word in at all.

"What you need to do next is incorporate the part of my Strength of a Hundred Technique that repairs missing parts into your Life Return."

"After that, you'll use Sealing Jutsu to anchor it to the body and guide it after an injury."

"Object seals can let Medical Ninjutsu truly shine."

"But teacher, there's a huge problem here. Repairing missing parts takes too many nutrients, and on top of that, there's the speed of human digestion. If too much is missing, I'm afraid the person will already be dead before the missing parts are repaired."

"Kid, what more do you want? This is already a huge breakthrough."

"True. Speaking of which, teacher, could your Strength of a Hundred Technique be made widely available this way?"

"Just like your nutrient shortfall, the amount of Chakra needed is enormous. It's not something one or two shinobi can provide. There are probably only a few people in the entire Shinobi World who can afford to use this kind of Ninjutsu."

"But teacher, your Strength of a Hundred Technique could be made widely available as long as the Chakra problem is solved. And I have a feeling Chakra won't be an obstacle in the future."

"A future like that would be wonderful."

"So, for the sake of that wonderful future, if we haven't found anything else, we can head to the next place."

"Where is the next place?"

"The Land of Grass, Kusagakure."

"Why go there?"

Tsunade's expression darkened a little. Clearly, reaching the Land of Grass meant passing through the Land of Fire.

Tamaki had long been prepared for this, and a whole speech to guilt-trip her came spilling out.

"Even if we don't want to admit it, now that we've obtained the Uzumaki clan head's token, we count as leaders of the Uzumaki Clan. We have to take responsibility, teacher."

"There are Uzumaki Clan members over there?"

"When I went to the Land of Earth on a mission before, I happened to hear some things about Kusagakure, something about redheads healing people."

"Then let's make the trip."

Tsunade's expression eased a little.

"Thank you for understanding, teacher. I'll arrange the route and avoid passing through the village as much as possible."

"I'll leave it to you."

With that, Tsunade went to find somewhere to rest.

"Shizune, sorry to trouble you, but I need you to come with me and check the other places for anything else that might have been left behind."

"All right, Tamaki."

The two searched the ruins again, but found no more clues or remnants. They didn't linger any longer and set off for the Land of Grass.