A year later.
At the Senju clan compound, within Mito’s quiet little courtyard— “Fire Sealing Method!” Akira activated the sealing technique, channeling the burning flames on the ground into the open sealing scroll.
Once the large “Seal” character appeared across the scroll, he finally let out a relieved sigh.
Not far away, inside one of the side rooms, Tsunade was buried beneath a mountain of books, studying with complete concentration.
Watching Akira successfully perform yet another sealing technique, Mito nodded in satisfaction.
At the same time, however, she found herself wondering what she should teach him next.
Just yesterday, she’d handed him a scroll containing several sealing techniques.
Today, he’d come back claiming he’d already mastered them.
Naturally, she hadn’t believed him.
Yet to her complete astonishment, Akira had demonstrated every single sealing technique she’d given him.
According to him, there was even another one he’d deduced himself, the Five Elements Seal, but he simply lacked the chakra to perform it.
I knew you were talented…
but this is absurd.
Do you know how difficult those Uzumaki sealing scripts are to learn?
Even Mito, who had seen countless prodigies throughout her life, had never encountered anyone like this.
Fine.
Let’s see where your limit really is.
Without another word, Mito dramatically raised the difficulty.
The One Origin Seal.
The Duality Seal.
The Three Talents Seal.
The Four Symbols Seal.
Each was more complicated than the last.
Seals for storing objects.
Seals for containing energy.
Seals for binding souls.
Seals for restraining physical bodies.
Akira was completely overwhelmed.
Although the system allowed him to forcibly comprehend the knowledge, advanced sealing techniques contained an absurd amount of information.
The flood of complex formulas slammed into his brain all at once, leaving him so dizzy he nearly collapsed before throwing up.
Mito assumed he’d finally reached the limits of his comprehension.
Yet when she questioned him about the principles behind the techniques, Akira answered every single question flawlessly and in perfect order.
That only made her happier.
Seeing such extraordinary talent, Mito immediately decided to accept Akira as the inheritor of everything she knew.
After all, the Uzumaki clan’s sealing arts had long since become intertwined with the Senju clan.
Tobirama had already researched the vast majority of them thoroughly.
And with the Senju now integrated throughout Konoha, the inheritance of sealing arts was no longer limited to a single bloodline.
Still, Mito placed a sealing technique upon Akira.
It existed solely to protect his memories, ensuring that if he were ever captured or killed, the Uzumaki sealing arts couldn’t be extracted by enemy forces.
It was the price for inheriting the Uzumaki legacy.
Akira accepted it without hesitation.
I’ve got nothing to lose.
Besides, I’ve got the system.
He wasn’t worried that Mito might secretly tamper with him.
More importantly, he was just an ordinary civilian-born shinobi with nothing worth coveting.
Mito wasn’t Orochimaru, she certainly wasn’t interested in stealing his body.
The benefits vastly outweighed the risks.
Akira’s greatest weakness right now was still his lack of chakra reserves.
To address that, Mito taught him the S-rank forbidden technique, the Strength of a Hundred Seal.
Once his body finished developing, he would be able to begin training it and completely eliminate that weakness.
The technique continuously stored excess chakra generated during daily life, allowing it to be released later in battle for tremendous endurance.
It also preserved youth, making it Mito’s personal secret art.
Unfortunately, children couldn’t practice it.
Doing so would interfere with their physical development.
And so, Akira’s daily schedule became completely packed.
During the day, he devoured every useful book in the Ninja Academy library.
After school each afternoon, he went straight to Mito to study sealing arts.
He spent nearly sixteen hours every day learning.
Basic sealing formulas were easy enough.
What Mito truly taught him, however, was the underlying framework of sealing arts, their philosophy, and how to create entirely new seals from scratch.
No longer was he merely memorizing techniques.
He now understood why every symbol existed and why each seal was constructed the way it was.
Those were things no book could ever teach.
They had to be passed down personally from master to disciple.
It was wisdom accumulated by the Uzumaki clan over a thousand years.
Meanwhile, Tsunade refused to fall behind.
She had never been one to admit defeat.
Watching Akira spend sixteen hours a day learning sealing arts from her grandmother filled her with an overwhelming sense of urgency.
Someone more talented than you is working even harder than you are.
How can you not push yourself?
She transformed that pressure into motivation and threw herself into relentless studying.
Poor Hiruko suffered the consequences.
Keeping up with geniuses required incredible mental fortitude.
As for Tsunade?
Her logic was simple.
I might not be able to outwork Akira…
…but I can definitely outwork you.
Study harder.
Everyone studies harder.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Another year passed in the blink of an eye.
A person’s mental capacity was limited.
So was their time.
Once Akira had filled every waking hour with learning, he no longer had spare energy to deliberately chase Reputation Points.
Even so, the year had been incredibly rewarding.
He had completely mastered every sealing art possessed by the Uzumaki clan.
He had even begun developing seals of his own.
After countless discussions with Mito-obasan, he already had a general direction.
All that remained was careful experimentation and gradual refinement.
The Uzumaki clan’s Strength of a Hundred Seal stored vast quantities of Yang Release chakra within the forehead.
Since the forehead was associated with the pineal gland and, in Eastern philosophy, closely connected to concepts like the Upper Chakra center Akira wondered…
Could I create a Yang Seal instead?
Rather than storing chakra, it would continuously gather the tiny amounts of spiritual energy naturally dispersed by the body, nurturing the Upper Chakra center and strengthening the soul itself.
Meanwhile, the chakra gathered by the Strength of a Hundred Seal could instead be stored in the Lower Chakra center.
The two seals would form a perfect Yin-Yang circulation throughout the chakra network without interfering with one another.
In theory…
It might dramatically extend one’s lifespan.
Perhaps even allow someone to live for centuries, becoming something akin to the legendary immortals of old.
Mito found the idea fascinating.
She had little else to occupy her time in Konoha, so she devoted herself entirely to researching the Yin-Yang Seal alongside Akira.
The Second Hokage, Senju Tobirama, had been quietly observing Akira’s growth all along.
When he learned about their research, his interest was immediately piqued.
As the foremost master of forbidden techniques, Tobirama had always specialized in soul-related ninjutsu.
He had personally developed techniques such as the Impure World Reincarnation and numerous other spiritual arts.
So when Akira proposed strengthening the soul itself, Tobirama immediately contributed a massive collection of research materials concerning spiritual energy.
As Hokage, he even invited shinobi from several clans renowned for their Yin Release techniques to participate.
The Kato Clan.
The Yamanaka Clan.
Even members of the Uchiha Clan joined the project.
With everyone’s combined efforts, the Yin-Yang Seal slowly took shape.
Eventually…
Version 1.0 of the Yang Seal was completed.
And when the volunteer test subject, Uchiha Kagami, activated it…
…he unexpectedly awakened the Mangekyo Sharingan.