Jingxin's eyes shifted slightly. "Where might it be?"
That thing was a genuine treasure.
According to Jingxin's memories, the sealing techniques recorded by the Uzumaki Clan were terrifyingly powerful.
Aside from those overpowered freaks with absurd stats who appeared after the numbers went haywire and who were connected to the Sage of Six Paths.
The Uzumaki Clan's Sealing Jutsu had almost no rivals in the entire Ninja World.
Chinatsu recalled that painful night, her brows knitting slightly. "That day, because we hadn't received any intelligence beforehand, the clan was thrown into chaos."
"Before we evacuated, the clan leader ordered Princess Kushina and me to hide a thick scroll in a secret passage beneath a dry well."
Jingxin made a reasonable deduction. "So there are three possibilities for the scroll's location."
"First: the Kirigakure ninjas who attacked the Land of Whirlpools found it and took it back to Kirigakure."
"But so many years have passed, and they've kept their borders closed. There haven't even been any rumors about Sealing Jutsu, so there are only two possibilities."
"They never found the scroll, or... they found it but couldn't understand it at all."
"Second: if Kirigakure didn't find the scroll, it might have been found later by Konoha."
"That's the likeliest possibility, because my aunt and Kushina hid it together. Later, Kushina went to Konoha, where she was a contemporary of the Fourth Hokage, and eventually died during the Night of the Nine-Tails."
"During that time, Kushina had countless opportunities to tell Konoha about the scroll."
That was what worried Jingxin the most.
In the original story, Kushina had mastered powerful Sealing Jutsu, and Minato knew the Four Symbols Seal and the Eight Trigrams Seal.
There was a good chance they were connected to that scroll.
If Konoha had found it, Jingxin's chances of getting his hands on it were now practically zero—unless he could take on all of Konoha by himself, or learn a ninjutsu that allowed him to teleport over vast distances, such as the Flying Thunder God.
"That's unlikely." Chinatsu's words gave Jingxin hope. "The clan leader told me that only Princess Kushina, the clan leader, another elder who evacuated with us, and I knew the scroll's location. The clan leader said that after the elder escaped, he would return to the Land of Whirlpools once things had calmed down and retrieve the scroll, so it could be preserved and the Uzumaki Clan's Sealing Jutsu could be passed down."
"Besides, Kushina wasn't just a theoretical genius back then. She was also exceptionally skilled in practice."
"Although Princess Kushina couldn't use powerful Sealing Jutsu at the time, she knew how to train in it, and her theoretical scores were nearly perfect."
Jingxin drew a deep breath. "In other words... the scroll might still be beneath that dry well."
Chinatsu nodded.
Jingxin thought it over carefully, then made a decision. "Aunt Chinatsu, may I tell Lord Tsuchikage about this?"
"If it's possible... although the chances are slim, if it really is still there..."
"Getting the Uzumaki Clan's scroll would benefit the village and help preserve the Uzumaki Clan's Sealing Jutsu."
Chinatsu nodded earnestly. "That's why I told you."
The next day, at the entrance to Iwagakure.
A team had assembled.
The Anbu team consisted of Jingxin, Shifeng, and Yeying.
There was also a three-person team of elite jōnin, including Akatsuchi, Ōnoki's student, and his son, Kitsuchi.
Their leader was a towering, masked man clad in heavy red armor. He was a man of few words, but also the strongest among them.
Han, Iwagakure's Five-Tails Jinchuriki, known as the Steam Ninja.
Ōnoki glanced over the team's lineup and nodded slowly, reminding them, "Remember, the mission is a long way from home and takes us close to the Land of Fire. Your first priority is to keep your teammates safe."
"If the scroll isn't in the Land of Whirlpools, don't linger. Return to Iwagakure immediately."
Han's voice was slow and steady. "Understood."
After leaving the village, Han led everyone north until they reached a port.
Since traveling by land would mean crossing too many countries and attract too much attention, they chose to travel by sea.
It was Jingxin's first time seeing the ocean.
Once the novelty wore off, all that remained was boredom.
Fortunately, Jingxin had brought the Sealing Jutsu materials Chinatsu had given him, so he could use Shadow Clones to study them.
The ship sailed toward the Land of Whirlpools, stopping once at a small port to restock, but moving on again quickly.
After reaching the Land of Whirlpools without incident, they disguised themselves as merchants and entered the country. Then, following the location Chinatsu had provided, they found the Uzumaki Clan's ruins.
The place was a maze of crumbling walls, with moss covering everything. The wooden structures that had once burned down had rotted away, new trees had grown in their place, and weeds choked the surrounding area.
The grounds weren't very large, and the dry well was easy to find.
The Land of Whirlpools was now guarded only by the Daimyo Palace and the ninjas and samurai it had recruited as its military force. Calling their supervision of the area lax would have been an understatement—they had none at all.
Yeying climbed down into the dry well and found the secret passage without trouble. Then he brought up a scroll as thick as a bucket, its surface nearly rotted away.
They inspected it and, after confirming that its appearance matched Chinatsu's description, carefully put it away.
After all these years, unrolling it might cause some of the writing to flake off because the material had grown so fragile.
"The first mission is complete." Han slung the large scroll, known as the Uzumaki Secret Scroll, over his back and gave the order. "Proceed with the second mission."
The second mission was to search for the Uzumaki Clan's shrine.
According to Chinatsu, it contained many terrifying beings sealed inside masks.
Those things were mysterious and dangerous.
But if used properly, they could still be considered a kind of "resource."
Soon, the group gathered at the spot where Orochimaru had found the Death God Mask in the original story.
Sure enough, they found the snarling masks on the wall, each one held by an incredibly powerful seal.
No one knew what was sealed inside them.
Jingxin examined them one by one, his gaze sweeping across the masks, when suddenly his brow furrowed.
In his previous life, he hadn't paid attention to these details when he read the original story.
And since all the masks looked like demons, Jingxin couldn't tell which one was the real Death God Mask.
But what surprised Jingxin was that one spot in the middle of the row of masks hanging on the wall was empty!
Jingxin stepped closer to inspect it. Judging by the dust marks on the wall...
The sealed mask that had originally hung there had been taken not long ago.
Could this be the butterfly effect?
Jingxin frowned, feeling a growing sense of unease. Orochimaru's sinister face involuntarily flashed through his mind.
"Blood Gold."
"Let's go."
Yeying's voice came from behind him.
Jingxin looked up.
The others had already collected all the masks and were preparing to return to the ship.
Unable to figure it out, Jingxin could only set his doubts aside for now and follow them.
The Land of Whirlpools was now a desolate backwater.
The Daimyo Palace could barely defend itself, and its control over the country was weak.
No one spotted them. They boarded the ship without incident and set sail.
Before you continue