The border between the Land of Fire and the Land of Water.
Inside a dilapidated ancient castle, Kiyosuke strolled through the ruins, gazing at the crumbling walls around him and letting out a sigh.
This used to be Uzushiogakure... and now it's ended up like this.
Uzushiogakure was once a village founded by the Uzumaki clan. There were no other ninja clans here—only the Uzumaki.
This clan shared blood ties with the Senju, and along with the Uchiha and Senju, they were descendants of the Sage of Six Paths. They possessed vast chakra reserves and terrifying sealing techniques. Most members of the clan were known for their longevity.
After Hashirama Senju founded Konoha, the Uzumaki clan established Uzushiogakure in the Land of Whirlpools. Later, they allied with Konoha, though they never merged with it. To honor this bond, the higher-ups in Konoha had the Uzumaki symbol added to the standard jōnin uniform. It symbolized generations of friendship and deep ties between the two nations.
However, the Uzumaki were hot-tempered and wielded fearsome sealing jutsu, making them a target for many nations and clans.
The attack came too swiftly. Konoha didn't have time to send reinforcements, and in the end, the Land of Whirlpools was utterly destroyed. The surviving members of the clan scattered across the world, hiding their identities. The Land of Fire could only absorb the former territory of the Land of Whirlpools into its own.
Now, there are very few pure-blooded Uzumaki left in the entire ninja world.
But Kiyosuke had come here for one specific thing.
...
He walked through broken streets, across overgrown paths, until he arrived in front of a ruined shrine.
Without hesitation, he stepped inside.
The interior was empty and covered in dust. There were no tables, no chairs—not even the offerings or ceremonial tools typically used in a shrine. However, the walls were covered in grotesque, demonic masks. Their hollow eyes stared at him, and their eerie, grinning mouths sent chills down the spine.
Kiyosuke wasn't fazed at all. Sure, at night it might be a little creepy being watched by all those masks, but in broad daylight? Nothing to worry about.
Trying to pick out the correct one among these hundreds of identical masks? That wasn't going to be easy.
This place was the Uzumaki Clan's Mask Hall—a storage site for their various ceremonial and sealing masks.
Among all these masks, only one was the true Shinigami Mask. By wearing it and offering oneself as a sacrifice, the wearer could summon the Shinigami who controls the Reaper Death Seal. Once the Shinigami possessed the user's body, they could slice open the Shinigami's belly and release the soul of someone who had been sealed, thereby undoing the jutsu. But the user would also die in the process.
Only someone like Orochimaru could cheat death—using the Living Corpse Reincarnation technique to transfer his soul into a new body and survive. Anyone else would become a sacrifice and be dragged into the Shinigami's belly in place of the sealed soul.
Even Kiyosuke wouldn't dare use the mask casually. Who knew if his elementalization ability would still work under that kind of injury? If it didn't, he'd be dead for sure.
He was here to retrieve the Shinigami Mask—so he could one day reincarnate Minato with Edo Tensei and, if necessary, unleash him as a trump card.
After all, Minato had nothing better to do inside the Shinigami's stomach—and had actually managed to subdue the other half of the Nine-Tails in there.
What else could you say? Minato was just that badass.
Most people couldn't do something like that—taming a Tailed Beast with nothing but their soul.
"So first, I need to figure out which one is the Shinigami Mask. But damn, there's so many. Ugh... whatever, I'll just take them all back."
He sealed every mask on the wall into a storage scroll.
Clack!
One mask dropped to the floor. Kiyosuke walked over and picked it up—then paused. The sound it made when it hit the ground... something was off.
He knocked on the floor.
Hollow?
Could there be a tunnel underneath?
He quickly sealed the last of the masks, then lifted up a loose floorboard. The wood, riddled with insect holes, had rotted away into an empty shell. Peering through the gaps, he saw a hidden passage below.
With one stomp, he smashed through the wood, revealing the underground tunnel.
Then he jumped in.
...
As he descended, the tunnel grew darker. Kiyosuke lit a torch fixed to the wall and continued forward under its dim, flickering light.
There were no traps.
Eventually, he arrived in a room thick with dust. The place was unremarkable—except for three scrolls sitting on a shelf, covered in a thick layer of grime.
He walked over, opened the first scroll, and broke into a grin.
Jackpot.
It was a scroll detailing the Reaper Death Seal—complete with detailed explanations of the hand seals, the unsealing method, and even the underlying principles. It was clearly labeled a Forbidden Jutsu, and written in red ink was a note about the cost of using it.
He stored the scroll and opened the second.
This one described the Reverse Four Symbols Sealing Technique.
To use this jutsu, one had to carve a special seal onto their body ahead of time. When activated, the user would die as their blood erupted outward, drawing the seal mid-air as it expanded into a sphere that dragged everything within hundreds of meters into the afterlife.
The downside? It took too long to prepare. Unless the target was immobilized or extremely slow, they'd likely escape before it activated. It was generally used to seal something important within oneself—or to take down an incapacitated enemy with you.
Danzō had one, for example. He activated it right before his death, using it to seal Shisui's Sharingan to prevent it from falling into the wrong hands. Shisui's eye was simply too dangerous for just anyone to possess.
And... well, sealing half a bridge along with it had become something of a meme-worthy moment.
"Too impractical to use, too valuable to waste. But it might be perfect for certain people."
He put the scroll away.
Then he opened the last one—and his eyes lit up in surprise.
"This time I really hit the jackpot. With this, I can boost my power even further."
This scroll recorded the Yin Seal!
By gradually storing chakra in the forehead, a diamond-shaped mark would form. When needed, the seal could be released to unleash the accumulated chakra all at once—providing a massive burst of energy.
This was a secret technique unique to the Uzumaki Clan. Those chakra monsters had reserves that rivaled even the Senju. They had so much chakra they couldn't use it all—so they sealed it away for later.
Tsunade knew this technique too. She had used it as the foundation to develop the Strength of a Hundred Seal and Creation Rebirth.
The Yin Seal had originally been passed down to her by her grandmother—Uzumaki Mito, wife of Hashirama Senju.
Kiyosuke had once considered learning the Yin Seal directly from Tsunade, but now... no need.
Although it was an S-rank jutsu, it wasn't difficult to learn. The hard part was slowly building up chakra over time. But for him? His chakra was already just like the Uzumaki—overflowing. He could start storing it right away without worrying about waste.
"This trip was totally worth it."
He chuckled and stored the scroll.
The Reaper Death Seal could be a hidden ace.
Combined with the Reverse Four Symbols Sealing Technique? Devastating.
And the Yin Seal?
A perfect reservoir of backup power.
Heh. His firepower anxiety had just been cured quite a bit.
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Pls Drop some Power Stones
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