"Do you know what you just said?"
"What you just said is enough to brand you a [traitor], and in the end, drag the Uchiha Clan into it."
"Where did you get the courage to say that to Konoha's Jinchuriki?"
"I'm just stating the facts!"
Chiba replied calmly.
"I told you, didn't I? Who says children always speak without restraint?"
"Besides, you should know exactly what the Konoha High Command is like, right?"
"The destruction of the Uzumaki Clan and the Land of Eddies... don't you think it's suspicious?"
At that, Kushina Uzumaki's eyes narrowed slightly.
"Looks like I really can't treat you like an ordinary child!"
"You can even figure something like this out?"
"Judging by what you said, does that mean my guess was right?"
Kushina Uzumaki shook her head.
"Who knows? I'm only guessing."
"After all, it's been so long since it happened."
According to history, the Land of Eddies was destroyed because the other nations feared the Uzumaki Clan's Sealing Jutsu.
But that raised a question.
Where was Konoha when the Uzumaki Clan was destroyed?
The Land of Fire was just across the sea from the Land of Eddies, after all.
More importantly,
the entire Shinobi World knew that the Uzumaki Clan had the ability to suppress Tailed Beasts, making them natural Jinchuriki.
In Chiba's view,
the other nations' desire to seize the Uzumaki Clan's Jinchuriki abilities was a far more convincing reason than their supposed fear of Sealing Jutsu.
And the strange thing was, the Uzumaki Clan had been wiped out by the other nations.
Yet, apart from Konoha, not one nation had a Jinchuriki from the Uzumaki Clan.
Were all those major nations stupid?
"The Uchiha Clan is no longer the Uchiha Clan of the Warring States period. But Konoha is still the same Konoha that looked at the Uchiha through colored glasses from the very beginning."
"So if all you have to offer are pretty words... take back your scroll. Thanks for your kindness."
With that, Chiba tossed back the scroll Kushina had given him earlier.
But after catching it, Kushina tossed it right back.
"No, consider it a gift for our first meeting..."
"It's nothing particularly valuable."
"Even if it can't change anything,"
"you still have a lot of potential."
"I'm not part of the Konoha High Command. I won't look at the Uchiha through colored glasses."
Kushina Uzumaki meant well.
It was clear that she truly wanted to make Konoha a better place.
Unfortunately, she was putting her effort in the wrong direction.
As Konoha's Jinchuriki, she had already grown accustomed to the village.
She had made many contributions to Konoha by using the Nine-Tails Jinchuriki to deter the other nations. She was a bona fide hero.
But—
her child wouldn't get the childhood he deserved.
If she knew what her child's life would be like in the future,
would she choose to understand, or would she raise her blade against Konoha?
Chiba opened the scroll Kushina had given him.
Every nation had Sealing Jutsu.
But the Uzumaki Clan's Sealing Jutsu was exceptionally powerful, and particularly suited to sealing Tailed Beasts.
Every Jinchuriki of the Nine-Tails throughout history had used the Uzumaki Clan's Sealing Jutsu to seal the Nine-Tails.
That alone showed how powerful the seals were.
Although Chiba's main focus was swordsmanship, and Fujitora Issho's template was his greatest asset at the moment,
he would still learn the Ninjutsu he needed.
Now that Sealing Jutsu was right in front of him, there was no reason to pass it up.
After all, more skills never hurt.
The scroll didn't record any particular Jutsu. Instead, it explained some of the fundamentals of Sealing Jutsu.
This was the foundation passed down through generations of the Uzumaki Clan. Though Kushina had said it wasn't anything precious,
Chiba thought that the more fundamental something was, the more valuable it could be.
Even the most incredible Sealing Jutsu had been developed from the basics.
If you mastered the fundamentals and added your own understanding, you might be able to create entirely new Sealing Jutsu.
Of course, that depended on having enough talent.
Whether it was this knowledge passed down through generations or the powerful Sealing Jutsu developed from it, all of it was a treasure of the Uzumaki Clan.
More importantly,
Kushina Uzumaki had added her own notes and explanations beside quite a few of the concepts in the scroll.
"I didn't expect Kushina to give me something like this."
It was clear
that she had indeed wanted to take Chiba on as her student.
And she had probably been sincere about helping Namikaze Minato resolve the problems between the Uchiha Clan and Konoha.
Unfortunately, she had picked the wrong person to solve them.
With the help of Perfect Observation Haki, Haki replaced Chiba's eyes as he carefully read through the scroll.
After finishing it, Chiba slowly exhaled.
Unnoticed, beads of sweat had already appeared on his forehead.
Perfect Observation Haki consumed far too much energy.
Just reading a scroll had nearly drained all his strength.
Although this Observation Haki was immensely powerful, it wasn't something he could casually use in battle.
At least, not at his current level.
He would only use it when facing a truly formidable enemy and needing to find their weakness.
Or perhaps, once Chiba had grown enough that his stamina could keep up with the Haki's demands, he would be able to use it freely.
After Chiba had finished reading all the basic material in the scroll,
he found a large [Seal] character on the very last page.
It was a sealing formula.
"This is..."
Chiba formed Hand Seals and directly undid the seal inside the scroll.
With a pop,
a cloud of white smoke appeared, and a new scroll materialized in front of him.
Chiba untied the cord around it. The instant he opened it, he sensed the name of a particular sealing formula.
"Five Elements... Seal?"
The Five Elements Seal gathered five different types of chakra at the fingertips to perform a seal.
The target's chakra would be thrown into disarray, or even completely sealed off.
Even among Sealing Jutsu, it was considered a high-level forbidden technique.
In the original story,
Orochimaru used the Five Elements Seal to seal the Nine-Tails Chakra flowing out of Naruto.
So this Sealing Jutsu had also been passed down from the Uzumaki Clan?
Chiba remembered that the Five Elements Seal was supposed to be an A-rank forbidden technique.
Yet Kushina had handed it over so casually, saying it wasn't anything particularly valuable.
At that thought, Chiba's mouth twitched.
Was this really not something valuable?
Or was the Uzumaki Clan's Sealing Jutsu so powerful that the Five Elements Seal was the weakest of them all?
Chiba thought about it and realized that might actually be the case.
The Four Symbols Seal, Eight Trigrams Seal, Contract Seal, Dead Demon Consuming Seal...
Those famous Sealing Jutsu were probably the Uzumaki Clan's true top-tier techniques.
Compared to them, the Five Elements Seal really did seem rather insignificant.
Chiba took a deep breath, slowly let it out, and put the scroll away.
Clearly, the Five Elements Seal was beyond what he could learn right now.
He would focus on mastering the fundamentals of Sealing Jutsu first.
And there was something even more important to do tonight.
His Fujitora Issho template progress had already reached 9.9%.
If nothing unexpected happened, once midnight passed and the Daily Mission refreshed, he would be able to raise Fujitora Issho's template progress to 10%.
By then, he wouldn't just gain another of Fujitora Issho's template abilities; he would also unlock the next unknown template.
Inside him stirred a sense of anticipation he hadn't felt in a long time.
Chiba loved seeing his strength grow with his own eyes.
And the template progress from this Daily Mission—
the feeling of growing stronger it brought would be greater than ever before.
Time passed, one second at a time.
The instant the system announced the Daily Mission refresh, Chiba drew his sword and then... swung it once.
The Daily Mission—swing your sword 1,000 times—had begun.
With each satisfying swing,
Chiba put all his strength into every strike.