Nindō 0017: Unknown Seal

The lake was much deeper than any of the clones had expected. They had to dive for quite some time before they could reach the silt-covered bed of the water body. None of them cast any large-scale jutsu since they didn't want to disturb the natural order of the lake. There was a very high probability that a large-scale jutsu could destroy whatever clues might be there, or worse, it might even trigger a trap.

As the clones continued scouring every inch of the village, more of them ended up in the lake, almost half by the time a couple of hours passed. Searching on the land was much easier than underwater, which allowed many of the land clones to finish their sections much earlier, meaning that they could dive underwater to continue searching.

Eventually, one of them did truly find something. The signal was a huge beam of fire shooting out of the water like an overkill flare that illuminated the night sky as if it were the day and created enough mist all over the surface of the lake to rival the mist that was outside Uzushiogakure.

As the flare died down, that clone surfaced, "Yo, guys!" He exclaimed, "I found something. There's like a seal or something down there I couldn't make anything out but it seems important. It was a character that I didn't recognize, but it was clearly carved into a circular block of concrete or something." Moments after his exclaim, he exploded into a ball of smoke.

"Finally!" Another Poof.

"I hated every second of today!" Poof.

Hundreds of clones instantly started exploding into smoke as they either heard this clone's words or received his memories. They all disappeared after him as if he'd triggered a chain reaction, finally leaving a single clone in the water, who only surfaced by the time all of the clones had disappeared.

'Finally! I can go away now …'

Just as he was about to make a hand seal to dispel himself, he hesitated, 'That fucker didn't actually examine the seal before giving up,' He thought to himself. 'I can barely make out some random lines on a circular plate. That gives nothing, I gotta go down again …'

Taking a deep breath, the clone dived down into the water once again, going to the spot where the seal was present. He passed by some of the aquatic life, moving lower and passing a section of the lake that was filled with multiple corals, covering the entire section as the aquatic life made it into their home.

'Corals in a lake …' Naruto's clone thought, 'The destruction of Uzu really was a huge loss to the entire shinobi world. Even excluding the convenience that their sealing knowledge and research could've brought, close to fifty years after their destruction, there are still all kinds of miraculous things to see here.'

The lake's bed was comprised of rocks of all sizes, gravel, and stilt on the base upon which massive rocks lay, they were originally debris that fell into the lake after the destruction of the village.

Naruto was quick to swim past the huge before finally reaching the spot in his memories. As he planted his feet on the ground, he could feel the algae-covered gravel and rocks, making him feel a slimy feeling all over his feet.

'I should not have taken off my clothes for this dive. I'm just a shadow clone, they're chakra constructs anyway. Especially my boots …'

Putting his internal monologue aside, he moved through the floor and got down on one knee with some difficulty as the water tried to push him upward.

'It's all covered in moss …' He thought as he traced his hand over the surface of the circular plate. He could somehow make out an unfamiliar character on the surface of the thick plate but the moss and dust that had settled on it made it pretty difficult to recognize.

'Can I pull this plate out of the ground?' That was the clone's first thought as he examined the circular moss-covered plate. 'I'll first see what's written on it.'

He didn't want to use his chakra near the plate just yet, not wanting to see an abrupt and expected reaction from it, so he merely used his hand to wipe away the loose layer of dirt and moss that had settled on the plate. As his fingers traced the symbol on it, he made sure to clean out to crevices and make sure that everything was cleaned out thoroughly.

Finally, he was left with the somewhat clean circular plate with a seal on it that he couldn't understand along with another, smaller symbol in the center of the seal.

'Wait, that's a handprint,' He thought in disbelief as he wiped away some smudges that were left on it. The handprint was faint, almost unnoticeable, but it was there, making Naruto's clone narrow his eyes, almost as if trying to engrave the symbol into his memory.

'Let's try to move this plate thing.' That was the clone's next move. He first tried to hook his fingers under the plate to grip it and try to pick it up. Sadly for him, as he tried to dig under the gravel, the plate seemed to keep extending down until he hit some kind of rock that he wasn't able to dig into without destroying the structure.

At that point, he'd tried everything that came to his mind and decided to move on to using chakra to make the plate move. Sadly, that was also a bust. The moment his chakra came into contact with the material of the circular plate that held the seal, it disappeared as if having been absorbed by the seal completely. The effect somewhat reminded Naruto of Nagato's Preta Path which could absorb the chakra of whatever entity the holder of the ability comes into contact with. This plate worked in a similar, albeit weaker manner wherein it absorbed the chakra that touched it but didn't forcefully pull any extra.

'Last thing left to try. I am technically of Uzumaki Blood … Even if I'm just a clone.'

With that thought, Naruto swam around the plate once to position himself correctly to stand on the lake bed parallel to the handprint. Leaning forward, he placed his right palm on the indentation for his palm.

There was no reaction.

He had to shift his palm around to see if he had possibly placed it incorrectly, but there was still no reaction. Thinking of something, he stirred his chakra, focusing it on the surface of his palm that was in contact with the indentation for the palm.

His eyes widened as he felt the entire structure stirring. Unlike before where it merely absorbed all of his chakra and didn't show any reaction, this time there was a very distinct vibration that Naruto could feel from his palm. Before he could start to form theories in his head about the symbol, a spike jutted out of the center of the plate, right into his palm.

'Fuc—' He couldn't even complete the curse in his thought as he was forcefully dispelled due to the singular spike that jutted out of the center of the plate, stabbing into his palm.

…

By the time Himawari's birthday celebrations were finished, Boruto went to his room, feeling awkward about Naruto's actual presence in the house. He was used to not seeing his father at all and his constant presence made Boruto confused and anxious, not knowing what he should be doing.

As for Naruto, he was in the living room with Hinata and Himawari, watching some news about the current affairs of the shinobi world. He'd pulled Hinata close to himself, wrapping an arm around her as she leaned her head on his shoulder. As for Himawari, the girl was sleepy and was sitting in his lap lazily as he gently rubbed her head.

"Let me put Hima to bed," Hinata whispered in his ear after seeing Himawari's current state.

"Shh," Naruto rested his other hand on Hinata's head, pushing his fingers through her locks of hair to gently massage her scalp, "Rest, I'll tuck her in later," He whispered soothingly as Hinata felt herself losing her strength, nestling closer to Naruto as she put her hand on his chest.

"I wish we could do this every day," Hinata whispered. "I would give anything to be able to spend every late evening embracing you like this. Our Hima acting all cute and lazy while clinging to you like that. If Boruto could stop being rebellious, everything would be perfect."

"We will, I promise," Naruto said. "I told you, right? I had my priorities a little messed up for a second there. It's all going to be straightforward now."

Hinata smiled, nestling closer to Naruto without giving any indication of her thoughts. Naruto didn't pry her for a response either, gently continuing to massage her head instead.

Almost half an hour passed as Naruto continued catching himself up on the recent events. By this time, Himawari was out like a light in a deep sleep. As for Hinata, she was also pretty much asleep, though not as deeply as Himawari. Unlike Naruto, Hinata had no motivation to be a fighter or to involve herself in general politics, which was why she didn't particularly care for what Naruto was watching. She felt more than fulfilled by her current role as a housewife and mother of two. Naruto was very well aware of this, which is why Hinata, despite being a very capable shinobi wasn't on active duty anymore. She didn't even become a jōnin sensei for the new generation of shinobi even though her younger sister was one.

Suddenly, there was a knock on the door, startling Hinata awake as her eyes trembled open. However, instead of loosening, Naruto's arm around her tightened, holding her close, "Sleep," He whispered in her ear. "I told you, remember? It's Sasuke. I'll have to talk to him."

"I'll take Hima to bed," Hinata whispered, trying to get up once again. "You can have your talk."

"Fine," Naruto reluctantly agreed, freeing Hinata from his arms and letting her stand up from the couch as she took Himawari from him and took her upstairs to her room.

As for Naruto, he opened the door, "Sasuke," He spoke, looking at his old friend and rival.

***

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