Staring at the unremarkable little building in front of him, Mizuki had never expected the Sealing Squad to be in such a sorry state. Was this really the Sealing Squad? It was practically a gathering place for idle ninja. It seemed Konoha had enjoyed peace for too long, and problems had already begun piling up within the village. The Sealing Squad had pitifully few members. The handful of people there were sorting through documents, with hardly anything to do with sealing. Perhaps the squad wouldn't be reorganized until Tsunade took over as Hokage.
Seeing this, Mizuki couldn't help but feel his heart sink. His hopes of finding an opportunity here had been dashed.
He'd thought that, as one of the Shinobi World's highest-level powers, the place where Konoha researched sealing would be a closely guarded secret. After all, even the Uzumaki Clan, renowned for their Sealing Jutsu, had been feared enough to be wiped out. Yet he'd walked right in with ease, only to witness such a dismal scene.
In Mizuki's view, there were two possible explanations. Either the true heart of Sealing Jutsu research wasn't here at all, but hidden behind the scenes, while this place merely handled routine sealing maintenance and document organization—or Sealing Jutsu had become a secret weapon controlled by a small group of privileged people.
Although Sealing Jutsu rarely drew attention, its importance was beyond question. From Iruka's Binding Formation to Jiraiya's Fire Sealing Method, from the Evil Sealing Method to the Yin Seal, from the Hyuga's Cursed Seal to the seals used on Jinchuriki, all of them were applications of Sealing Jutsu. Even Kaguya Otsutsuki had been constrained by it. From what he could see, its power and potential were simply immeasurable. Judging by what known sealing techniques could accomplish, there seemed to be nothing they couldn't do.
"Mizuki, what are you doing here?" a surprised female voice came from nearby. It was Tsubaki Chie.
"I came to see you, Tsubaki." Mizuki turned to answer. "I'm going on a mission starting tomorrow, so I might not have much time to visit you. I happened to be free today, so I came by."
"Really? You hardly ever come here. What made you want to visit today? Is the mission troublesome?"
"No. Lord Third assigned it. It isn't very dangerous, but it'll take a lot of time."
"That's good, then. I still have a while before my shift ends, so take a look around. I have work to do, so I can't keep you company."
"Go ahead, Tsubaki. I'll look around on my own."
Mizuki had almost finished looking through the building. Apart from a few people hurrying back and forth, he hadn't found much of value. He stopped someone and asked, "What are those books and scrolls on that shelf? Can I look at them?"
"Oh, those? Most of them are maintenance records and reports on Konoha's formations, along with a bunch of other odds and ends. I don't know what most of it's for. The information in them is long out of date, and they'll be destroyed before long. You can read them, but you can't take them away."
"Got it. I'll just look through them to pass the time. Go on with your work, and sorry to bother you."
After watching the ordinary-looking person leave, Mizuki calmly dragged over a chair, picked up a book from the shelf, and started reading.
He'd originally meant to pass the time and maybe get lucky, but the more he read, the more deeply he furrowed his brow. After an unknown amount of time, he put the scroll in his hands back on the shelf.
"I didn't expect to find something like this." Mizuki rubbed his throbbing temples. "Sealing Jutsu is more dangerous—and more unbelievable—than I'd imagined. No wonder even Kaguya Otsutsuki couldn't do anything against it."
In Mizuki's eyes, the information on these shelves was meaningless when viewed separately. But if he organized it according to the logic of his previous life, he could reach a conclusion. It wouldn't give him any direct power, but the indirect benefits were far beyond what he'd expected.
"From what I can tell, Sealing Jutsu has an absurdly high 'priority' in this world."
That was right. Mizuki knew a little Sealing Jutsu and some basic theory, but he'd never studied it in depth. He'd simply lacked information. Most ninja in the Shinobi World would probably see the scrolls on these shelves as a pile of rubbish, but Mizuki had glimpsed a clue in them.
"Sealing Jutsu is the regulation and extension of the world's will. There's no doubt about that."
In his previous life, he'd read a popular science-fiction novel called The Three-Body Problem. One passage had left a deep impression on him. It went something like this: "Suppose a painting is a story world, and the painter is an omnipotent god. If the god punches a hole in the canvas every centimeter, then after careful scientific research, the people in the story would discover a truth: there must be a hole every centimeter in our world." Wasn't that ridiculous? To people, punching a hole was simply a way of telling the little people on the paper about the rules of their world. Applied to the Shinobi World, if the patterns and arrangements of Sealing Jutsu were a kind of language, then Sealing Jutsu itself was the world's rules, laws, or truths. It had to be a fundamental rule woven into the core framework of the world. Understand it, and one could obtain power of the highest order. Unless one could suppress it with overwhelming strength or counter it with Sealing Jutsu of one's own, it would be very difficult to deal with.
"But Sealing Jutsu takes a great deal of trial and error to produce results, which means it takes a lot of time to study. And time is exactly what I need most right now. I'll have to find a way to get my hands on existing sealing techniques and knowledge. Thanks to my previous life's knowledge of linguistics, my talent and personal interest in cryptography, and Mizuki's own knowledge, Sealing Jutsu is my best shot at overtaking everyone else."
With that thought, Mizuki took out another scroll and began reading it slowly.
Before he knew it, the sun had begun to set. Mizuki was still immersed in the pleasure of learning. Fortunately, his previous self had at least one skill that he could just barely call his specialty.
Suddenly, Mizuki's right arm twitched.
"Anko? What's she doing here?"
"Hey, Mizuki! How come I run into you everywhere? Here to see your little fiancée?" Her voice reached him before she appeared.
"Yeah, but there's still time before Tsubaki gets off work, so I'm passing the time here while I wait for her. What are you doing here?"
"I heard the Sealing Squad keeps the ready-made sealing formulas for the Heaven Scroll and Earth Scroll used in the Chunin Ninja Exams. I came to see if they're still here."
"Oh, I have no idea. But I wouldn't count on it. This place is a mess, so finding anything must be difficult."
"I'll ask first." With that, she strode off briskly.
Mizuki didn't give it much thought and continued looking through the scrolls until Tsubaki came over to call him.
"Weren't you never interested in Sealing Jutsu because it couldn't make you much stronger? Why are you so engrossed in it?" Tsubaki asked.
"I had nothing else to do, so I figured I'd pass the time. But after looking through it, I think it's pretty interesting."
"Oh? If you're interested, I can teach you. I don't know all that much, but it'd be nice to discuss it together."
"Sure." That was exactly what Mizuki wanted.
"Then what do you want for dinner tonight?"
"Meat and potatoes."
"Then let's go shopping together. It's been a long time since we cooked and ate together."
"Extra meat, and no cilantro."
"Sure, sure. Got it." Tsubaki smiled.
Early the next morning, after exchanging the paperwork, Mizuki arrived at the Forest of Death.
"This is it. It's really huge. All the plants and trees are noticeably bigger than normal. Who knows what frightening things might be lurking deeper in."
Thinking this, Mizuki plunged into the dense forest without hesitation.
After using a trap to kill two wild boars as big as elephants, Mizuki let out a long breath and sat down to rest on a boulder.
"Even two wild boars know how to set traps and split up to attack. Their combat intelligence is far beyond that of ordinary Genin. If a few more came at once, even I might not be able to deal with them easily. No wonder this world can produce mysterious creatures like summoning beasts. If they're left unchecked, the emergence of intelligent life beyond humans is only natural. In this chakra-saturated world, people have long since grown used to dealing with other intelligent creatures. Still, what exactly are the Snake Sage, the Toad Sage, and Katsuyu trying to achieve by getting involved in human conflicts? Their motives are truly impossible to predict."
After resting for a while, Mizuki resumed his search-and-clear operation. He was hard at work when his right arm began to grow hot again.
"What's going on? If yesterday was just a coincidence, then this can't be explained away. They said no one would come, yet someone's still watching me in secret?" Mizuki couldn't help feeling irritated.
He was certain he hadn't slipped up, and yet he was still being watched. It seemed something was wrong. But he didn't have any plans for the time being, so he had to put aside his original idea of laying some groundwork in the Forest of Death.
Mizuki continued carrying out his mission as planned. One giant beast after another fell to his hands. He didn't decide to leave until the sun was about to set. When he headed straight to the entrance of the Forest of Death, he found that Mitaraishi Anko had already arrived and was waiting for him.
"How did things go today?"
"Anko, there are a lot of problems, and we have a heavy workload. It'll be difficult for the two of us to finish the mission in ten days. I think we should request reinforcements." Mizuki suppressed his irritation before answering. "I think Iruka would be a good choice. Most of the beasts in the Forest of Death are powerful but fight alone. Iruka's Binding Formation would be an ideal weapon against them, especially since they aren't very smart."
"Mm, I'll report the situation to Lord Third. That's it for today. Let's head back and meet here tomorrow morning."
"Yes." Mizuki wanted to get back early, too, so he'd have more time to ask Tsubaki about Sealing Jutsu. His foundations were weak, but hard work paid off. Confident in his intelligence, Mizuki believed that if he was only average at learning different ninjutsu and at combat talent, then learning something like a foreign language would be much easier for him.
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