Chương 305

After the horrific experience I just had copying Naruto's seal, I was so drained and exhausted that after Takemura came and picked him up, I went directly to sleep even though I had woken up not so long ago. I ended up sleeping for more than twelve hours, waking up groaning as my body and muscles were very stiff. It was late at night, so after a nutritious dinner followed by some light stretching and exercising, I felt somewhat back to normal, concluding the routine with a meditation session.

As always, all the windows to my house were open to let the cool, fresh night air in. Now that I figured out how to create condition-specific barriers, I could create one to let those I trust in while the barrier remains to block the others. That, however, will be a project for another day. For now, I have something huge to do. With a chakra pulse, multiple seal scrolls appeared on the ground from my hand seal. I rotated my shoulders before arranging those open scrolls to match the seal on Naruto.

After I was done, I stuck to the wall and walked up to the ceiling. Hanging down, I observed the seal from above. I made sure that the seal was magnified to reveal its smallest components. My eyes and mind were fully focused. The seal in front of me somewhat made sense in a diabolical way. Most of the seals I studied are derived from the Uzumaki given the close relationship Konoha had with them, however these were vastly more complicated.

Konoha's seals were a simplification in both function and structure of the Uzumaki ones, which meant that I had to start adding to the seals I know to make them reach the same level of complexity as the originals, or at least close enough to imitate the function. Naturally, the village has examined Naruto's seal before. I opened Master Shuzo's seal scroll and found their notes on the Nine Tails' seal. They mostly checked it to make sure it was stable and safe, and they concluded that it was very much so.

There were also some attempts to analyze it, however the village's seal grandmasters were very few and overworked to the absolute limit. Master Shuzo himself was retired, and yet the village couldn't let him go and basically made him mentor me and maintain the village's barrier because the only true rest seals grandmasters get in this village is the eternal kind. I sighed, finally understanding why Jiraiya spent so much time outside the village.

If he stayed for too long, he would be chained and worked to death most likely. I shook off the frightening thought of me achieving that rank and the village knowing about it before I became strong enough like Jiraiya to set my own terms, and so, to take my mind off it, I started to break Minato's seal down. It was two Four Symbols Seals layered on top of each other. My head was already aching trying to visualize the full array, as it was like two entangled Mobius strips.

They floated incredibly close to one another without touching in most places, yet combined at specific points. In some areas, the functions resonated to amplify their original power, while in others, they merged to create something entirely different, like mixing two colors to get a new one. Now, I had to unmix them to understand each individually, then reassemble them exactly as they were to grasp where, how, and why they merged in those specific areas.

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"Minato, you absolute mad lad," I said out loud, smiling. Any seal master enjoys a complicated seal puzzle, and I was no different. However, this will take a really long time if I do it alone, and I am on a strict time limit due to the Hokage's mission, which I can't stretch for too long.

I want to understand that seal because the new knowledge will help with my Stormdrive seal array project, and it will also help me understand Minato's seal philosophies before I start biting at the huge great blue whale that is the Flying Thunder God jutsu. I stood still for a long time before finally sighing, resigning myself to my painful fate and future suffering. With a hand sign, four shadow clones appeared. I created them to eat away at the outer layers of the seal while I focused on the juicy inner parts.

I planned to dispel the clones one by one with a meditation break between each. That way my brain wouldn't get fried from overload. The kickback would still be horrific but it was my best approach. For the next two weeks I was consumed by that task. I still met Naruto and Genta, however, I was mostly absent-minded as I was consumed by the seal. They noticed and grew worried enough to send Takemura.

After I told a technical white lie that it was related to a task given to me by the Hokage, he understood and asked Naruto and Genta not to interrupt me. Then on a random night after dispelling a clone and writhing on the floor for ten minutes while suffering a terrible headache, something clicked. The two Mobius strips were oriented differently from each other.

They connected at different places, which was lucky, since if they had matched in direction and orientation and connected at the same points, it would have been impossible to separate them. I now had the details of both seals. I started to study the separated Four Symbols Seals. They were masterpieces of sealwork and extremely advanced.

It was a nightmare trying to analyze each component and how the system operated as a whole, however, the task was much easier now that I had the full image of a separated seal array. My clones worked tirelessly as did I to imitate the functions using the seal knowledge I had, adding to it to get the results I wanted. After another week I was finally able to do it. I smiled in victory as my version of the seal shone in front of me.

It was much bigger than Minato's seal, however I had to compensate for the high-level concepts that were beyond me with volume, making my seal much larger. Now that I had the functions understood, I was able to translate those high-concept seals and eventually understood the Four Symbols Seal in its original form. Working on the One-Tail seal certainly helped as both seals did the same thing. Although Konoha's seal was leagues above Suna's, some similarities were still there.

Combining the two seals took me a couple of days of nonstop work, however it was surprisingly easy since I knew the mechanics and had the original form. It was just a matter of matching the primary layout while threading the needle where the seals combined or resonated. Once I finished, I stood frozen for a couple of hours. I was left speechless by how ingenious that array was.

Merging two functions to create a new one that still operates as part of a whole is a pure seal grandmaster muscle flex that actually serves a purpose instead of just being for show. It was like active noise cancellation. The seal listened to the Nine-Tails and received its hateful chakra, then generated a specified barrier that matched the chakra frequency and canceled it, leaving only the music, which was the purified Nine-Tails chakra in this case to enhance Naruto's body. I was in awe as things clicked.

My understanding reached higher and higher before I finally realized the whole thing. I then redrew the entire seal from scratch while smiling heavily as I enjoyed the fruits of my labor, proud that I could understand and draw something this advanced. Looking at the working seal, I smiled in pride. While it made sense that I should start working on my Stormdrive seal now that I was high on Uzumaki seal comprehension, my intuition told me otherwise. With a pulse of my chakra, the Flying Thunder God scroll unrolled.

I cracked my knuckles and said with a confident and excited tone, "Time to mess with space time."