The Order of Jashin finds and cleans a device that plays music. They set it to play while they clean the temple. Many of the Order start dancing while they dust and clean. Arashi finds himself dancing too, sometimes. There is only a limited number of songs on the recording device, and before the first day is out, all those in the temple are singing along to the songs. Dust rags swish in time to the music, mops clean in patterns, showing how thick the dust is. Every now and again a dust cloud poofs up, making everyone cough and dive for cover until it settles.
"We are fighting dreamers," Arashi finds himself singing as he dusts a particularly odd-looking gadget. That's about the only line he knows of that song, but judging by the amount of cleaners who joined in with just that line, he is not the only one. He is not the only one who hums along to the rest of the song, either.
The sealing team spends hours pouring over the Caged Bird Seal, trying to decipher it. Iruka copies it out onto a scroll in order to be able to study it while Neji helps clean the temple. Iruka and Pantsu soon move on to figuring out how to remove the seal. Naruto and Burifu help, although they mostly just learn from the more experienced seal masters. It is difficult to tell how far Burifu is on her sealing journey, but he does not think she is at master level.
Burifu spends more time making mud pies than helping with the Caged Bird seal, after all. Naruto, on the other hand, spends some days helping Arashi and some helping Iruka and Pantsu. Naruto, Neji and Burifu are all great friends now, and Iruka thinks they are adorable.
Over the ten days it takes to clean the Temple of Jashin, Naruto spends a lot of time thinking. Sometimes he helps Iruka-nii and Gramps Pants with Neji's seal. Sometimes he helps Grandpa, Neji and the Order of Jashin clean the Temple. Sometimes he and Neji play with Burifu. But all the while, Naruto is searching his mind for answers.
What should he do about Mr. Nine Tails? Did Naruto's parents love him or not? Why was he the one who had to bear all this?
Sparky is set loose inside the temple, as there is no way for him to get out by himself. Naruto still feels bad about the leash, but knows it is necessary. He doesn't like it, but it is necessary. Does the same hold true for sealing away Mr. Nine Tails? No matter how much Naruto doesn't like it, is it necessary? But would it be necessary if Mr. Nine Tails had never been sealed away in the first place? If Sparky wasn't Naruto's responsibility, he would not need to keep him on a leash: Sparky would be free to do whatever he wanted. But Sparky is Naruto's responsibility.
And so is Mr. Nine Tails.
Naruto wishes he could have talked with Bee longer and learned what it means to have a Tailed Beast as your responsibility.
When the cleaning is finished, Arashi begins to document everything in the temple. Unlike the well-maintained Temple of Steve, the Temple of Jashin is not organized very well. Nothing is labeled well, and it seems as if everything is simply put where it looks the best. Arashi is so lost that he has to drag in Iruka to help. Iruka figures out that everything is categorized by the person who made or documented it, and ordered by its perceived importance to the Hidden Whirlpool.
However, what is considered important is a lot different from what is considered cool. The cool stuff is in the centre, on the raised dais, and the fancy pedestals, while the important stuff is on the shelves. The more important it is, the higher up it is. The fact everything is mainly organized by author means that some cool stuff is high up with the vastly important other things the author made. In a perfect illustration of the weird categorizing, there is a book of cat pictures with a hefty device containing a recording of the life of one Uzumaki Queen. And that is only one half of the picture. There is also a list of the Uzumaki and Umino clan heads, complete with portraits, in with the cool stuff because the author also made a comprehensive list of every hair-dying seal. Apparently, if someone has the seal put on them, their hair will turn whatever colour the seal dictates until the seal is removed. If the hair is removed, it will grow back within the hour.
The people of the Whirling Tides were truly amazing.
Pantsu missed the Umino clan. Like, really missed those cool dudes with their boring, perfect hair that would make an Uchiha jealous and their unbreakable common sense. Not to mention their amazing fuuinjutsu skills and immunity to nonsense - unless they get dragged into the nonsense. Then they become the nonsense.
Pantsu puffs on his pipe and studies the Umino studying the Caged Bird Seal. The Blonde Uzumaki - an odd phenomenon - is staring at the seal like he is not sure if he should be destroying it or learning all its secrets. Lying on his tummy with his head in his hands, Naruto reminds Pantsu of his great nephew - or whatever the relation is - Nawaki Senju. It was a proud day for Pantsu when he introduced Tsunade to alcohol. Pity she will only remember Pantsu while she is drunk now. Little Nawaki was disturbed by the whole affair, the poor, helpless Senju.
"What if we try removing the seal, like when we practiced placing and removing that confetti seal?" asks Naruto, poking the scroll upon which the Caged Bird Seal is copied.
"Confetti?" asks Pantsu. "Did ya make a seal that spits confetti, eh?"
"Yep!" says Naruto. "Infinite Confetti, 'tebbayo. And we had these special scrolls to practice removing it from different surfaces. I have a bunch of scrolls for practicing removing things from the human body. We could use them to figure out how to remove the Caged Bird Seal from Neji, dattebayo."
"I brought some too," nods Iruka. "I figured we would need them eventually."
Naruto whips out one of the special scrolls - Patsu knows all about them, he may or may not have been the one who invented them - unrolls it and draws the Caged Bird Seal on it before Iruka even has time to talk sense into the little blonde. Naruto then tries to deactivate the seal, only to have it explode in his face.
"Well, that's a start, eh," comments Pantsu, puffing out some square smoke rings. "We now know one way to not do it, eh."
Neji is kept so busy he has no time to be impatient, or to worry that Iruka, Naruto and Pantsu will not find a way to undo the Caged Bird Seal. Even once the cleanup is done, there is still a lot of information to go through. Arashi is determined to make a record of everything he finds important, and he spends two weeks doing just that. (Why Naruto's grandpa thinks a folder full of pictures of kittens and puppies is important is not something Neji wants to question.)
None of any of it concerns Burifu, who is quite content to make a mud lake nearby and ignore any part she should have in the sealing. Neji does his best to keep away from Burifu when she is covered in mud because ew. (EEEWWWW.) Neji hates mud. And yet, here he is, walking straight towards the muddy five year old to tell her that it is nearly lunchtime, and she needs to wash the mud off. There is really no point in getting her to wash the mud off, Neji thinks sourly. She will just get muddy again.
"Burifu!" Neji calls when he is close enough to be heard, but still out of touching range. "It's nearly lunchtime! Come and wash the mud off so you don't get it in your food!"
"Mud is healthy!" protests Burifu from the centre of her lake. "It is natural, and stuff! So there!" she sticks her tongue out at Neji.
Neji takes a step closer to the horrible mud and threatens, "Don't make me come in there and drag out out!"
"Don't make me come over there and drag you in, pussy!" yells back the small mud-monster.
Neji sees red. How dare she call him a pussy! Using his water walking technique, Neji runs over the top of the mud lake to drag that little brat to good, wholesome, clean grass.
A moment later, he is face down in the largest mud puddle he has ever laid eyes on. Burifu is standing triumphantly on his back laughing. Neji raises his head and screams in terror. His hair is dirty! His clothes are ruined!
Naruto hears a terrified, and somewhat angry scream ring out from the direction of Burifu's mud puddle. He and Iruka look up from their fuuinjutsu to see Naruto's Grandpa and Gramps Pants run, as fast as their old legs can carry them, towards the mud puddle. Naruto shrugs and goes back to his sealing. Not his problem.
After a minute or two, Naruto hears Neji yell angrily, "Why are you just watching? HELP ME!"
Wondering what Neji is doing in Burifu's mud puddle, Naruto wanders over to see what is happening. What is happening is that Burifu keeps pushing Neji into the mud while Naruto's Grandpa and Gramps Pants watch and chat like a couple of old people.
Oh, that's right. They are old people.
Naruto thinks that covering Neji in mud looks like fun, and he heads over to join in. But when he gets closer to the two old geezers, Naruto hears what they are talking about and stops to listen.
"So why did you decide to visit the temples?" Gramps Pants asks, puffing on his pipe.
"There were so many inconsistencies in the information I had," explains Naruto's Grandpa. "I want to figure out what really happened to the Hidden Whirlpool, and what went so wrong. But I cannot figure it out with the information I had before, so I thought I would go to the source and visit the Whirlpool ruins and the storage vaults. Maybe once I have, I will be able to figure out what happened."
"So you don't believe that the other nations all attacked the Whirlpool at once, then?" asks Gramps Pants.
"No, something is off about that story," says Naruto's Grandpa. "I only have one side of the story: the survivors' side. But what about those who died? What did they see? I must know. I must know both sides of the story."
Both sides of the story.
The words ring in Naruto's head. What if the answer to his problem is within his reach, after all? What if Naruto went into his seal and asked Mr. Nine Tails for his side of the story?
Naruto turns and runs into the trees, finds a quiet place and sits down. Then he closes his eyes, takes a deep, calming breath, and enters his seal. "Hello Mr. Nine Tails, Sir," Naruto says, staring up at the glowing eyes behind the huge, sealed gate.
A purring growl rolls out from the darkness. "What do you want, Naruto?" asks Mr. Nine Tails.