Sealing Jutsu

"With your current strength, you're ready to learn some of the Uchiha's secrets." Uchiha Tenjo took a scroll from the shelf and handed it to Fugaku. "This is a Sealing Jutsu scroll treasured by the clan.

"Sealing Jutsu is easy to learn but hard to master. Few ninja ever truly master it, and most of those who do were taught from childhood by powerful ninja."

Fugaku nodded. The handful of ninja in later generations who had mastered Sealing Jutsu showed just how difficult it was.

"This is the key to the Secret Chamber." Uchiha Tenjo handed Fugaku an unusually shaped key. It was pentagonal, with many irregular patterns etched into it.

"From now on, you can set aside a few days each month to study some of the clan's secrets and treasured Ninjutsu," Uchiha Tenjo said. "But I don't want you to become obsessed with them.

"Strength matters most in the end. No matter how many Ninjutsu you know, they mean nothing if you lack the strength to use them.

"Too many gifted clan members throughout the generations became so absorbed in them that they neglected their own strength. In the end, they were merely among the clan's elite. They never became true powers of the Shinobi World, much less reached its pinnacle by awakening the Mangekyo Sharingan."

"I'll remember your words, Father," Fugaku said.

After they left the Secret Chamber, Uchiha Tenjo hurried off to his duties with the Security Force. Fugaku looked at the scroll in his hands and slowly opened it.

Sealing Jutsu used formulas to isolate objects or confine them within a specific space. What it could seal included the tangible and intangible, the living and nonliving.

The Uchiha were never known for Sealing Jutsu, but the scroll contained plenty of them. Many had been collected bit by bit since the Warring States era.

In that era, clans fought constantly. As one of the Shinobi World's most powerful clans, the Uchiha had fought countless battles and claimed just as many spoils.

To learn Sealing Jutsu, one first had to inscribe sealing formulas. Each formula carried a meaning, and combining different formulas created different seals.

Some Sealing Jutsu also required hand signs. True masters could inscribe sealing formulas directly inside a person's body with Chakra.

Orochimaru's Five Elements Seal, for example, used five different kinds of Chakra to inscribe its formulas inside Naruto, disrupting the Sealing Jutsu the Fourth Hokage had used to seal the Nine-Tails.

Fugaku began by practicing how to inscribe the formulas. Only after he had memorized each one and could inscribe it with ease could he gradually move on to using Chakra.

For two straight weeks, Fugaku spent every moment outside his daily training learning to inscribe sealing formulas. He had committed some simple ones to memory. It was time to test them.

The Uchiha's Back Mountain was covered in forest. Fugaku planned to experiment on small animals first, then work his way up.

The Land of Fire had plenty of greenery. Its climate was springlike year-round, and the forest was always lush. Fugaku passed the place where he usually trained, with its wooden targets set up for Kunai practice.

Many had cracked from long use and needed replacing. He would have to rearrange them, too. They were a little too easy now.

The forest had no shortage of snakes, insects, rats, and ants. Fugaku chose an ant nest first, watching the ants stream in and out.

He inscribed formulas on the ground around the nest, drawing each stroke with painstaking care. Even this simple Sealing Jutsu took him ten minutes to inscribe.

This was Sealing Jutsu in its most basic form: casting a seal through a Sealing Formation.

He formed hand signs, and his Chakra resonated with the formulas on the ground. Then he slammed his right hand onto the ant nest.

The formulas raced across the ground and converged above the nest. The seal was complete.

The ants going in and out were stopped by the seal, piling up on either side. Some opened their jaws and began gnawing at it.

The seal lasted less than a minute before it broke. It was only a simple seal with no vessel to anchor it, so it had little power.

Fugaku kept experimenting until afternoon. Once he had grown proficient with the seal, he decided to take a live animal home, find a vessel, and inscribe sealing formulas in it to test their strength.

A rabbit darted past him and into a burrow. A rat crawled out behind it. Fugaku caught the rat by the head and picked it up.

Back home, he found a clear glass box and inscribed sealing formulas inside it. He placed the rat in the box, formed hand signs, and struck it with his palm.

Sealing formulas spread around the box, trapping the rat inside.

The lid was loose enough to open with a light touch, but the sealing formulas now bound it tightly to the box.

The box rattled from time to time as the rat inside struggled to get out. The seal showed no sign of weakening.

This experiment with Sealing Jutsu was a success. For the next half month, Fugaku kept catching small animals and bringing them home to test it.

He sealed each one in turn, starting with rats and moving on to squirrels and rabbits.

A month had passed since his return from the Land of Rain. After a month of studying Sealing Jutsu, Fugaku had a basic grasp of it and could cast seals by laying out simple Sealing Formations.

Fugaku headed to the Back Mountain again, this time intending to catch a larger animal for his next sealing experiment.

"Fugaku, I hardly see you these days." Uchiha Jin's voice came from behind him. "I heard from the Clan Head that you've been studying Sealing Jutsu. Advanced Sealing Jutsu certainly has its merits, but isn't it a waste of time to study it now instead of using this chance to train your Ninjutsu and grow stronger?"

Fugaku turned to look at Uchiha Jin's smiling face. He was certain Jin had come specifically to remind him not to let Sealing Jutsu interfere with his training.

Fugaku nodded in greeting. "Don't worry. I haven't gotten any weaker. I've been training all this time, and I've even made some progress."

Uchiha Jin's eyes lit up. "It's been a month since we returned from the Land of Rain, and all we've done is train. How about a spar? It's been a long time since we last fought."

Fugaku nodded. He wanted to see whether his strength had improved. No matter how hard he trained, he needed a real fight to test his progress.

The two had fought once before Fugaku became a Jonin. He had been nowhere near as strong then as he was now, and Uchiha Jin had defeated him.

They stood facing each other in a clearing in the Back Mountain forest. The Fugaku before Jin was nothing like the one he had beaten before. Jin's expression grew serious.

He had no intention of slipping up and losing to someone younger whom he had already defeated once.

Both had activated their Three-Tomoe Sharingan. As their eyes met, Fugaku believed he held a considerable advantage. They might both have three tomoe, but he had absorbed Pupil Power several times. His Sharingan was stronger than that of many other clan members with three tomoe.