Becoming the Tsuchikage in the Naruto World

Chapter 20: Five-Elements Seal

Seeing Ishiro arrive, Bunji immediately went to his side and briefly explained the situation.

It turned out that the Five-Tails within Keimu hadn't suddenly gone berserk. In the beginning, Keimu was still conscious. Sensing something amiss, he had someone hurry back to the village to report.

The Barrier Division and the Tsuchikage's office received this report almost simultaneously. Based on his experience, Bunji knew that if Keimu hadn't fully lost control, then Tsuchikage Onoki alone could reinforce the seal. But now, with the tailed beast having broken free, the village was left with two choices: either seal it with overwhelming force or fight the Five-Tails, drain its chakra, and then seal it. The second option would require a huge sacrifice, and was only considered when there was no other way. As for the first choice, Iwagakure originally lacked a sufficiently powerful sealing technique to subdue the beast. However, they now had at least a hypothesis: the Five-Elements Seal. Although untested in practice, it could be worth trying.

Thus, Bunji had immediately instructed the Anbu messenger to find Ishiro, since Ishiro was both the originator of the Five-Elements Seal concept and had participated in its entire design process. While Ishiro couldn't personally help cast the seal, he could be immensely valuable in making the five different elemental sealing scrolls required for it.

Ishiro understood the gravity of the situation. He followed Bunji without further questions, and they arrived at Meisha's location. Bunji, for his part, rushed over to Onoki to report their plan and clarify details about the Five-Elements Seal.

Standing next to Meisha, Ishiro glanced at the materials before him and asked, "Meisha-senpai, do we have everything we need?"

Meisha, apparently having expected Ishiro to arrive, seemed unsurprised and answered, "Everything's here. We were just about to discuss the five-element division of labor."

Then Ishiro and a few other involved seal experts started delegating tasks. Ishiro was assigned to create the Water-attribute scroll—not because he was overconfident, but because only he and one Jōnin who had learned A-rank sealing happened to possess Water-nature chakra. That Jōnin, however, would soon help seal the Five-Tails, so he couldn't afford to waste any chakra or time, and he also wasn't well versed in the Five-Elements Seal concept. Together with another Jōnin returning from the battlefield, that shinobi needed to learn from scratch how to perform the technique.

With their tasks settled, everyone got to work. Ishiro had three sets of materials in front of him, with two extras prepared since his grasp on Water Release was incomplete. Meisha wanted backups, just in case.

Ishiro took a moment to compose himself before picking up his brush. While he wasn't fully proficient with Water Release, he did have the best grasp of the Five-Elements Seal, so his success rate was fairly high. Otherwise, he wouldn't have volunteered for this responsibility.

He glanced briefly at the Anbu safeguarding them, then focused on engraving the seal. To his surprise, everything went extremely smoothly—within a quarter-hour, he'd completed his first scroll in a single go. After handing it off to the Anbu, seeing that the others weren't done, Ishiro calmly created a second scroll.

After finishing his two scrolls, he saw that everyone else had also completed their assigned tasks. By this time, the two Jōnin skilled in A-rank sealing had wrapped up their crash course in the Five-Elements Seal. Meanwhile, Onoki was still holding the Five-Tails at bay while listening to Bunji's explanation of the seal. He, too, would be one of the five casters.

They proceeded with the plan: Onoki, two Jōnin of A-rank sealing, Bunji (barely capable of using A-rank sealing nowadays), plus one B-rank sealing Jōnin formed five points around Keimu. Each held one of the specialized scrolls, then began activating the Five-Elements Seal.

Surprisingly, casting it was simple. If Ishiro had enough chakra, he himself could have performed it. Typically, the challenge lay in merging five separate chakra natures. But the runic scrolls now performed that function, stabilizing the synergy among the five casters. Partially freed, the Five-Tails was swiftly forced back into Keimu's body.

With that, everyone breathed a collective sigh of relief, a bit excited, too. While tailed beasts made formidable strategic weapons, they could just as easily harm their own side when rampaging out of control.

Unlike Konoha—whose Uzumaki Mito and the Uzumaki Clan had left a legacy of advanced sealing arts—Iwagakure traditionally relied on the sheer power of the shinobi performing the seal. Typically, they would subdue a weakened tailed beast, then seal it using raw force. But now, with the Five-Elements Seal, they'd effectively patched a major shortcoming in their repertoire. Most crucially, it enabled better control over Jinchūriki. Sure, gathering five Jōnin-level seal experts wasn't easy, but simply having a workable method to seal a rampaging beast meant the village had solid incentive to nurture more sealing specialists.

Ishiro shared their joy. He was no longer that displaced outsider—he had friends, teachers, and precious bonds in the village. More than ever, he felt like a true resident of Iwagakure.

Moreover, the success of sealing a tailed beast guaranteed the village would grant them all a worthy reward. And, in Ishiro's view, the greatest perk of being in Iwa rather than Konoha was that once your skill or fame grew, you generally didn't have to worry about being stabbed in the back by the "darker side" of the ninja world.

The spectacle ended with the Five-Tails vanishing from sight, leaving behind only the battered body of Keimu. Onoki quickly summoned medical ninjas to attend to him. In truth, Keimu was the biggest hero here—he'd held the Five-Tails at bay, keeping it from truly running wild. If the beast had fully emerged, the Five-Elements Seal would've been much harder to cast. Even Onoki couldn't pin down a complete tailed beast for that long, so employing five people to do the sealing would've been nearly impossible. If Onoki had fought with full force, they wouldn't have had enough Jōnin left over to perform the seal.

Hence, Onoki was particularly concerned for Keimu's well-being. However, after this near-disaster, Keimu would never again serve as Iwagakure's "weapon" on the battlefield. He had lost his capacity to suppress the beast. Having become a Jinchūriki back in the First Tsuchikage's era, he was already quite old.

"It's time to plan for a new Jinchūriki," Onoki muttered as he gazed at the unconscious Keimu. Even if he disliked the notion of sacrificing Keimu, the needs of the village came first. At least the war was nearing an end, so they wouldn't need the Five-Tails' strength anytime soon, allowing them to delay the process for a while.

Once Keimu's wounds were seen to, the Anbu stayed behind to clean up the mess, and Ishiro left with the rest of the Barrier Division team. Despite having studied countless sealing techniques, Ishiro was still awed witnessing their sheer power in action. Five Jōnin unleashing mere moments of chakra could contain a tailed beast indefinitely—completely defying logic.

All the way home, Ishiro pondered the essence of sealing arts. It clearly involved chakra, but the exact principle remained obscure. Sealing might represent an entirely separate branch of ninjutsu, tapping chakra in a special, super-efficient way. Perhaps it was somewhat akin to a bloodline limit, merging multiple forms of chakra to yield a result far beyond 1+1. Or maybe it drew on natural energy to strengthen chakra's quality.

Sadly, the likes of natural energy or bloodline limits were far beyond his current reach. The path of a ninja was still lengthy, and Ishiro was only just beginning.

---

The following day, while Ishiro was at home trying to deepen his Water-nature chakra transformation, he was summoned to the Tsuchikage's office. His mind instantly leapt to thoughts of a reward. Without delay, he hurried over.

Onoki gazed at Ishiro and felt a twinge of emotion. Though he'd always known Ishiro's spiritual gifts were substantial, he hadn't expected that in a mere four years, the boy would become so proficient in sealing that he could produce something powerful enough to restrain a tailed beast. Even though Ishiro only contributed ideas for the Five-Elements Seal, it was still a remarkable feat. Onoki was glad he had granted Ishiro that early entry into the Barrier Division.

"Little Ishiro," Onoki began, "you did very well. Developing the Five-Elements Seal and helping seal the Five-Tails—because of this, the village is awarding you an S-rank mission credit."

Ishiro was thrilled. S-rank. That meant serious compensation—both in money and contribution points. Before he could think further, Onoki continued, "You'll also earn the option to exchange for an A-rank ninjutsu. Considering you're still nowhere near able to cast an A-rank jutsu, the village is letting you pick an equivalent reward. Have you decided what you'd like?"

Ishiro, delighted by the notion of something matching A-rank ninjutsu in value, thought for a moment and finally said, "Lord Tsuchikage, could I learn a method to develop a bloodline limit? Is that possible?"

Onoki looked surprised, then shook his head. "Your chakra nature is Water plus Earth. Our village has never had a bloodline limit arise from those attributes, nor do we know any method to create one. The only stable hereditary bloodline here is Explosion Release, and developing that is… well, it differs from anything else."

Though disappointed, Ishiro wasn't too disheartened. He suspected Explosion Release might be linked to a tailed beast or special factors. And from what he recalled, combining Earth and Water mostly led to Mokuton, the Wood Release. But rumor had it that Mokuton required Earth, Water, and Yang Release. In either case, that kind of advanced technique wouldn't be available here.

Nonetheless, there was indeed something Ishiro urgently needed. "Lord Tsuchikage, my chakra is now sufficient for C-rank ninjutsu, so could I exchange this A-rank reward for resources to train in C-rank ninjutsu instead?"

Onoki nodded. "That's one of the more common and practical choices. It's a bit of a downgrade, though." He paused in thought. "All right, we can grant you resources worth about one-and-a-half C-rank ninjutsu. Just visit the supply office—they'll set you up. Of course, how you use those resources will be up to you."

Ishiro readily agreed, grateful for the extra resources.