17 Hashirama’s Legacy

Mito and I left my practice room together and headed deeper into the unkept areas of the compound. We passed our footprints from our tour with Nawaki along the dusty halls.

"Where are we going, obasan?"

"My husband left something behind in case another person in the family ever became a sage. His brother also used the place to store his notes and ideas for his ridiculous jutsus."

"Hashirama had a secret jutsu library?!"

"It wasn't just his, Tobirama used it too."

We stopped at a blank wall. It looked like everything we passed: old, cracked paint job and worn wood. I looked at Mito for an explanation.

She chuckled at my blank look and put a hand on a seemingly random spot on the wall. At first, nothing happened, but then thousands of glowing seals appeared and vanished again after several seconds.

Then, in the location of the blank section of the wall, an empty doorway appeared. The smell of old books and stale air assaulted my nose.

I didn't even have time to process the meaning of all those seals; how did she hide an entire room?!

"Close your mouth, or you'll start catching flies." Mito made a small quip at my expense.

I closed my mouth and pouted slightly. "How do you expect me to react at such a display?! That was a ridiculous amount of seals! It must have taken you ages to set all that up!"

"Well, you aren't wrong. It was one of my masterpieces from when I was younger. Hashirama wanted an unbreachable room that could be hidden, even from a Hyuga."

I followed her as she walked into the small office. The interior of the room was simple but elegant. The room was lined with bookcases around three walls. Each was full of small boxes designed to store scrolls for long periods. 

In the middle of the room was a desk carved in the likeness of a thriving forest. A few folders sat upon it, which I ignored in favour of the shelves. An old, cracked leather chair behind the desk hadn't been taken care of.

"Awesome!" I barely contained myself from sprinting over to the shelves. Speed walking to the nearest one. The label on the box was faded but still legible: Faulty Reincarnation of Dirty Soil V 8.

I knew what it was, but I still had to ask Mito to keep up appearances. I looked back at her and asked about the Jutsu.

"Reincarnation of Dirty Soil was a jutsu created by Tobirama and myself. Its purpose is to call a dead person's soul to inhabit the body of a dead person. It is a limited form of reanimation."

I acted disgusted and quickly put it away. It is a good jutsu, but too much preparation is required to be viable most of the time. Just then, a thought occurred.

"Couldn't that justu be used for training?"

"What do you mean?"

"The Jutsu can call back any ninja from the dead, so couldn't you call back Tobirama or some other strong shinobi and have them teach people? They could also be a training partner. You can't kill them if they are already dead."

Mito looked at me strangely and was about to say something but stopped. After a few seconds, she raised her eyebrows in surprise.

"You know what, that might actually work. I'll have to talk to Hiruzen about that later. Your brain just works differently, doesn't it."

"Maybe, I don't really know. It just works." Shrugging my shoulders, I responded without turning around. In my head, I thought I may need to fall into the background for a while.

I continued looking throughout the library of scrolls and was amazed by the fact that Tobirama had tried to create so many jutsu. Hashirama also had his scrolls here on one wall. They were all complete, ranging from Jutsus to sage arts and combat techniques, but were small in number compared to his younger brother.

As I went through the shelves, I stacked the Justus that interested me on the table. There was most of the wood releases, a few lightning release, one fire, two wind and three earth. Then, of course, there was the shadow clone jutsu.

After the 30th scroll was placed on the table, Mito spoke up.

"Kane, I get that you are excited about the Jutsu, but do you even know what chakra natures you have?"

I didn't.

"That's not surprising. Nature transformation isn't taught to most 3-year-olds. Stay here. I'll be back in a bit with a way to check yours. Stop stacking too many jutsu; you'll have to return the ones you can't use."

"I won't; these were just the interesting ones."

Mito left the room muttering something to herself while I continued browsing.

Working my way down Hariama's shelf, I found a different box near the floor in the corner. It looks like it was one of the most ignored boxes in the place. Of course, this drew my interest; the box was thicker than the others.

Its label was a bad shape, so it took a little bit to decipher the label.

Nature Energy Transformation Theory.

"This. This could change everything."

I ran to the table and cleared enough space to unfurl the scroll properly.

The scroll detailed how chakra interacted with Nature Energy while performing wood release.

–While in Sage Mode, Nature Energy increases the quantity and quality of chakra. Performing jutsu with this mixed chakra gives greater output with smaller input; this is true for both nature transformation and physical enhancement.

Therefore, it should theoretically be possible for someone who can fully control Nature Energy to transform it and gain some variation of elemental control. Similarly, the jutsu is still within the caster's control in large-scale wood release. Such a thing should be possible by imbuing natural energy.

Furthermore, could all Nature Energy be controlled and transformed?

If so, would this energy lose its ability to be controlled, or would it remain in control?

The main problem with this idea is how do you control Nature Energy? The most they could deduce would be if someone's bloodline mutates in the future. Otherwise, the closest we can come is sage mode.--

Following the initial theory, there were descriptions of experiments and their results.

'The biggest problem with this theory doesn't exist for me. Could this be possible? I'll need to research this myself when I get stronger.'

I dived into what was written in the scroll with great interest. Apparently, I lost track of time since Mito arrived far sooner than I expected.

"What are you reading there, Kane."

"A paper written by the brothers on a theoretical technique. They were quite creative in their desire to grow stronger.

"Indeed they were. Now come here, and we will see what your affinities are. Just pass your chakra through the paper, and it will react based on its affinities."

I left the scroll on the table and headed over. I was hoping that I had Water and Earth so I could have access to all those powerful wood-release jutsu.

I took hold of the paper and passed my chakra through it, causing three reactions. One section wrinkled, one section got damp, and the last part fell to the floor the edge looked cleanly cut.

"Those are pretty good affinities—Wind, Water and Lightning. It seems you are a free spirit who fiercely defends your bottom line. No wood release for you, it seems. Now put the scrolls you can't use away. Afterwards, you can take the ones of your nature on the table. Afterwards, you must return to practicing for your mastery certification."

My train of thought hit a brick wall at her last words. "Mastery Certification? What do you mean?"

"The scroll you have been working on copying. That is the Mastery certification scroll. Once you can copy it down without needing paper or ink, you are an official Uzumaki Seal Master. Didn't your Sensei tell you?"

"No. She just told me this was the entry-level scroll." My lip was twitched as I answered.

Mito found great amusement in this. "I think I like your sensei already. Now hurry up and clean the place up. The others should be coming back soon."

"Hai"