Sealing Jutsu

Beneath the Tiger-Pattern Mask, the corners of Neji's mouth lifted slightly. In an instant, he raised both hands and murmured almost inaudibly, "Divine Vacuum Strike!"

Boom! A thunderous crash echoed throughout Root. The entire Root Base shook as though an earthquake had struck.

Within his Byakugan's field of vision, the two Root ninja and their combination ninjutsu were blasted apart by his Divine Vacuum Strike in an instant.

Crack, crack, crack! Part of Root's underground base began to collapse, chunks of rubble crashing down.

"Hmm? He actually used special insects to eat through the obstacles blocking his way. Not bad." Neji spotted what Aburame Ryoma was doing.

The barrier around the room ahead, which he suspected held Root's secret techniques, remained intact. The commotion outside had not disrupted it.

Neji approached the barrier and extended his palm. He sensed that it was not a Sensory Barrier like the one surrounding Konoha, but a Defensive Barrier.

Danzo had certainly spared no expense. To maintain protection of this strength around the clock, he would need at least eight people working in shifts. Neji could imagine just how precious the contents must be.

Neji aimed his hand at one corner of the barrier, making sure he would not damage the scrolls inside. "Let's see how sturdy this barrier of yours really is! Divine Vacuum Strike!"

Thud! A muffled impact was followed by a cascade of shattering sounds as Neji smashed the purplish-black barrier outright.

Even so, the gust stirred up by the shattering barrier unfurled some of the scrolls.

When the barrier was forcibly shattered, the four Root ninja sitting cross-legged on the floor to maintain it swayed.

Neji seized the opportunity and sent four shuriken flying, striking them directly in the throat.

"Wood Release: Deep Forest Emergence!" Neji read the contents of an unfurled scroll and felt relieved. "This really is where Root stores its secret techniques."

"I need to hurry." Through his Byakugan, Neji saw that Root's ninja had finished assembling and were heading toward his position.

"Spirit Transformation Technique!?" Neji opened a scroll, read the writing inside, and shook his head. "Not the ninjutsu I'm looking for. Set it aside for now."

"Woode Human Technique. Not this one either."

"Wood Dragon Technique. Not this one either."

"Oh? Impure World Reincarnation Jutsu!? It's not what I'm after, but I can take it." After rummaging through the scrolls, Neji finally found a secret technique worth taking.

A Storage Scroll could not hold very much; it was no legendary storage pouch. In this world, perhaps only those few Treasure Tools forged by the Sage of Six Paths could hold large quantities of items.

Storage Scrolls like these could only hold small objects, such as scrolls containing ninjutsu—and not the large ones, either.

"Wind Release: Vacuum Serial Waves!? Why is a B-rank Wind Release technique here, padding out the collection!?" Neji was speechless. What was Danzo playing at?

"Wind Release: Vacuum Wave!? Wind Release: Vacuum Great Sphere!? What is Danzo doing?" Neji tossed the scroll away.

"Evil Sealing Method!? It's a Sealing Jutsu, but not the kind I want..." Despite that, Neji still set the scroll aside. He had not brought many Storage Scrolls and could not afford to waste them.

"Five Elements Seal! At least I've got something." At last, Neji found a barely acceptable Sealing Jutsu.

Neji remembered that the Pseudo-Nine-Tails Jinchuriki at the Fire Temple had been sealed with the Five Elements Seal. In other words, this Sealing Jutsu was just barely capable of sealing tailed beast chakra.

Without hesitation, Neji put it into a Storage Scroll.

"Let's keep looking. Huh, what's this? Yin Seal!?" As Neji sifted through the scrolls, he discovered something unexpected.

The Yin Seal! This was the S-rank medical Sealing Jutsu developed by Tsunade. Neji had never expected to find it here.

This was Tsunade's crowning achievement, no ordinary Sealing Jutsu. Accumulating chakra was only one of its functions. It could also regulate chakra, maintain bodily functions, preserve youth, enhance attacks, and more.

It could be described as an extraordinarily difficult composite Medical Ninjutsu. Created by combining Medical Ninjutsu with Sealing Jutsu, it was far harder than an ordinary S-rank ninjutsu.

Throughout the entire Shinobi World, only its creator, Tsunade, had mastered it. Even Shizune, who stayed by Tsunade's side every day and could receive her guidance at any time, had failed to learn it.

"Good stuff. I'm taking it!" Neji stuffed it straight into a Storage Scroll.

Neji figured he might just manage to learn it himself. He had to have dreams, after all. Mastering this technique would mean that his proficiency in Medical Ninjutsu had reached a certain level of mastery.

"More Wind Release!" Neji picked up the next scroll, then tossed it aside in disgust.

"Wind Release again! That Danzo..." Neji threw away another one.

"Wood Release: Deep Forest Emergence!?"

"Ranking Technique? Wood Release: Hotei Technique?"

"Four Symbols Seal!? Yes, yes, yes!" Neji was delighted when he found this scroll.

The Four Symbols Seal was a sealing formula originating from the Uzumaki Clan, designed specifically to seal evil powers.

What counted as an evil power in this world? Tailed beasts, of course!

This was a Sealing Jutsu specifically designed to deal with tailed beasts!

The Four Symbols Seal was an S-rank Sealing Jutsu, the same rank as the Reverse Four Symbols Seal.

Back then, the Fourth Hokage, Minato Namikaze, had layered two Four Symbols Seals to form the Eight Trigrams Seal, sealing the Nine-Tails inside Naruto and making him the Nine-Tails' jinchūriki.

Naruto had never gone berserk while growing up. Even the Nine-Tails, the strongest tailed beast, had been held firmly in check by this seal. It was so powerful that the Nine-Tails could do nothing about it.

Moreover, this seal could convert the Nine-Tails' chakra into the jinchūriki's own chakra, which was one reason Naruto had such enormous chakra reserves.

As for Sunagakure's Shukaku, he went berserk all the time.

The Pseudo-Nine-Tails Jinchuriki at the Fire Temple also had several recorded incidents of going berserk.

Clearly, neither the seal on Sunagakure's Gaara nor the one on that Pseudo-Nine-Tails Jinchuriki was particularly reliable.

The Eight Trigrams Seal is probably the strongest conventional Sealing Jutsu, Neji thought.

After packing away the scroll containing the Four Symbols Seal, Neji glanced at the remaining scrolls. No longer inclined to keep searching, he turned and placed the scroll containing the Spirit Transformation Technique into his last Storage Scroll.

Brushing off nonexistent dust, Neji turned and left the room, using the Body Flicker Technique to head toward the passage with the fewest Root personnel.

"Aburame Ryoma? Fine. Let's see what he can do." Through his Byakugan, Neji saw that Aburame Ryoma had already used his insects to tunnel through the passage.

Without pausing for a moment, Neji headed straight toward Aburame Ryoma. The passage he occupied had the fewest Root ninja.

He had obtained what he wanted. The crucial question now was whether he could take it away with him.

The entire passage was pitch-black, but Neji was completely unaffected.

Up ahead, Aburame Ryoma showed no sign of being affected either as he ran swiftly.

The secret chamber at the end of the passage ahead held items vital to Root. Aburame Ryoma did not dare imagine what would happen if someone got their hands on those secret technique scrolls.