chapter 79 part 3
Power, huh... Ordinary ninjutsu, and most forbidden jutsu, could indeed be evaluated with that word, but not the Reaper Death Seal jutsu. You either knew it or you didn't.
Once you knew it, as long as the jutsu could be successfully cast, the subsequent events would be exactly the same, with no difference.
"However, why would a Corpse Release ninja specifically choose our clan's Reaper Death Seal? The one jutsu he should least choose is this kind of mutual annihilation jutsu."
Mito Uzumaki had this thought, feeling slightly puzzled.
It was indeed illogical. Tsukasa Kaede had the Spatial Rift jutsu, so he could completely escape if he couldn't defeat an enemy; he also had a pile of bodies he could manipulate, so he wouldn't feel bad no matter how much they were consumed.
Mito Uzumaki thought the same way as the Third Hokage, believing Tsukasa Kaede would prefer a jutsu like Mutually Multiplying Explosive Tags, but both of them were wrong.
Perhaps he had some special idea, but no matter what that idea was, it couldn't reduce the price paid to the Shinigami. Even at the peak of the Uzumaki clan, they had to be cautious when dealing with the Shinigami.
Mito Uzumaki said sternly, "Get some rest early. Tomorrow, we will officially begin the cultivation of the Reaper Death Seal jutsu. You must be mentally prepared; the coming cultivation will be very arduous and dangerous."
A few days later, Tsukasa Kaede made the same assessment.
"This jutsu is truly outrageous; the difficulty of cultivating it is even more unimaginable than I realized."
Tsukasa Kaede was truly scratching his head.
He fought tirelessly for several days, forcefully replenishing his physical state and nourishing his spirit with Life Force whenever he felt exhausted. He finally finished deciphering all the text and jutsu formulas.
Before formally attempting to cultivate, he even slept for three hours, greatly alleviating his mental fatigue, and then extracted a wave of Life Force to elevate his state to a very high level before beginning.
The result of his initial cultivation was a struggle.
According to the content recorded on the scroll, he once again combed through his Chakra, distributing it through the pathways throughout his body, into his chakra points, using Chakra to connect body and soul, and then performing the hand signs to perceive the ethereal Shinigami.
Chakra was a versatile substance, capable of being both energy and matter, and also a bridge and medium between the soul and body.
Theoretically, as long as one could integrate oneself and perform the hand signs in the order of Snake-Boar-Ram-Rabbit-Dog-Rat-Rooster-Horse-Snake, the Shinigami could be summoned.
But the problem lay there: Tsukasa Kaede had no idea what stage his cultivation was at because there was no objective reference point to gauge his progress.
When cultivating other forbidden jutsu, such as the Creation Rebirth Technique, Tsukasa Kaede could continuously cast the jutsu to confirm its successful execution, using practical results to verify where his cultivation had gone wrong, where there was room for improvement, and what else needed to be done to achieve perfection.
But the Reaper Death Seal jutsu was different; it had none of these things.
Successful cultivation? Kaedegnificant progress? Unfortunately, he couldn't personally cast the Reaper Death Seal jutsu to verify his cultivation results. If he accidentally summoned the Shinigami, he might just kill himself.
"My body can cope with most risks. No matter how treacherous the environment, as long as my reserved zombies aren't completely depleted, and unless I'm instantly killed by the enemy, there won't be any major problems. But my soul is not strong; its intensity isn't outstanding. Against the Shinigami... I wouldn't even have room to resist."
Tsukasa Kaede knew clearly that even native ninja of the Ninja World, Kage-level experts, would perish after being hit by the Reaper Death Seal. His soul strength couldn't possibly be stronger than a Kage-level expert.
This meant that if the Shinigami wanted to harvest his soul, he actually didn't have the qualification to struggle.
"However, the so-called Shinigami should essentially be a super spirit body that objectively exists. Minato was able to use the Shinigami to split a perfect form Nine-Tails in half, showing how terrifyingly strong the Shinigami is. But there are also drawbacks; the strength of the caster and their state at the time of casting determine what level of power the Shinigami can exert."
Tsukasa Kaede recalled that the aging Third Hokage had sealed the First Hokage and Second Hokage in one go. In his severely weakened state, he had fought desperately to seal the soul of Orochimaru's hands, effectively crippling Orochimaru's ability to perform hand signs.
That's why Orochimaru later used various hand seal-less jutsu.
But the Shinigami was a spirit body without clear self-consciousness, and Orochimaru later exploited a bug, causing all the absorbed souls to be regurgitated. After Orochimaru regained his hands and his ability to perform hand signs, he immediately used Impure World Reincarnation to summon all the Hokage.
"No clear self-consciousness is good, being exploited by Orochimaru is good. This means the Shinigami can be tricked. If I use Reaper Death Seal to eliminate an enemy, and then immediately stab myself in the stomach, it's like having the Shinigami stab my stomach, releasing the souls it devoured..."
Releasing them would be useless, unless it was a ninja like Kato Dan, who specialized in spirit bodies. Otherwise, disembodied souls don't have the ability to return to their bodies independently, effectively meaning death, with their souls directly entering the Pure Land to accompany the Sage of Kaedex Paths.
However, Tsukasa Kaede wouldn't personally use such a crude method. Apart from anything else, the stab to his stomach alone, involving both physical and spiritual levels, might not stop the Shinigami from taking his soul. Even if the Shinigami swallowed Tsukasa Kaede's soul and then spit it out through the wound in his stomach, Tsukasa Kaede felt he couldn't endure such a process.
"So, I want the Reaper Death Seal to be an effective means of killing enemies, yet I don't want to give my soul to the Shinigami, but I still want the Shinigami to work for me..."
Tsukasa Kaede already had a rough idea, but it was still immature and required more preliminary attempts. This vague idea was also why he gave up Mutually Multiplying Explosive Tags and insisted on choosing the Reaper Death Seal jutsu in the first place.
If the Reaper Death Seal jutsu could truly be transformed into an attack jutsu suitable for him, there should be two modes of use.
Tsukasa Kaede was currently attempting the first one.
Another six days passed.
Tsukasa Kaede's average daily sleep time was less than an hour, typically working hard for three days and then sleeping for three hours, then continuing to work hard.
He was immersed in this stable rhythm of life, unable to extricate himself. When a person is fully absorbed in something, they don't feel bored, because cultivation is a process of continuous self-improvement, not meaningless mechanical repetition.
"Hmm?"
Tsukasa Kaede was about to perform hand signs, intending to first try the preliminary jutsu formulas prepared for the Reaper Death Seal jutsu, to gather more information and continuously refine his jutsu.