Chapter 23: Land of Whirlpools (9): Uzumaki Clan Scroll and the Summoning Contract.
Disclaimer: I do NOT own Naruto. Naruto is the work of Masashi Kishimoto.

The air was polluted by dust, and the sun was blocked by thick clouds, making it seem as if dusk was approaching. The grass on the ground was sparse, and the cracks in the soil spread throughout the area like a never-ending spider web. There were no trees in sight, and not a single plant was alive in the vicinity of this broken village.

Everywhere Yukito looked, all he could see were broken buildings, and fallen towers, and he even saw a steep mountain split in half!

Because every building had been razed to the ground as if a giant had stomped on the ground, a single building stood out from the rest.

It was a tower, painted in deep red with a large vortex pattern sculpted at the front of the tower. The dust that had accumulated made it look darker, and Yukito couldn't say it was unscathed, literally the left half of the tower was missing.

However, it was the only building that wasn't in complete ruins.

"I wonder if it's similar to the hokage tower. It must be sturdy, too, for it to survive the fall of Uzu."

Yukito had long realized that this place was most likely the fallen Uzushiogakure, his ancestral home.

Yukito shook his head. Uzumaki's downfall was a mystery to him, and now, he had the chance to learn the truth. Yukito moved closer to the tower and opened the door.

Creaaak—

The rusty hinges made it hard for Yukito to open the door, and when he did, the door creaked loudly. In all honesty, he could enter from the broken half of the building, but that felt too disrespectful even for his taste.

Yukito's arrogance had long been dulled down not only by the bandits but also by that one crow.

His goal was still as grand as before, to become a god-like being, but he would now proceed with caution and be sure to not step over everyone he sees. He would still pummel others into the mud, but that's only after he confirmed that he could handle the consequences.

'I've come a long way, haven't I?'

Looking back on when he first left the village with Orochimaru, Yukito couldn't help but smile wryly. If his past self could see the present him, he would surely mock his present self, saying things like "You're a coward" and "You're weak."

"Sigh… It's a good thing I left the village. I was being raised like a greenhouse flower without even realizing it."

Thud.

After closing the door behind him, Yukito looked around and tried to ignore the left side of the tower.

". . ."

The result rendered him speechless.

"What an addict. I approve!" Yukito laughed merrily like a child who saw his friend trip and fall on his face.

The walls were covered in scrolls. You couldn't even see the wall, the scrolls were the wall!

After releasing all the pent-up stress inside him through that one long laughing session, Yukito smiled brightly and opened the first scroll on the far left.

He didn't need to read the entire scroll before his smile faded.

"What the hell?"

The scroll was full of rubbish. To be exact, it was full of records about the village.

"No, there's no way…"

Yukito unrolled the scroll and saw nothing about fūinjutsu. Then, he opened the next scroll and the next…

Soon, the sky had turned dark, the wind had turned cold, and Yukito was lying on the ground, lifeless.

"I thought I found a kindred spirit, turns out it was a fluke."

Yukito mumbled, looking at the bright, circular full moon in the sky. The moon looked extra bright today, and it looked extra pretty too.

'I wonder how Hinata's doing…'

Yukito spaced out.

'What the hell? Why'd I think of her?'

Yukito didn't think further, he already knew the answer. It was because of the moon.

The moon looked similar to Hinata's pale, lavender eyes, even though the moon looked mostly silver and white.

"Sigh… let's head upstairs. I'm going nuts."

Yukito wished that he could talk with the fox, but alas, it was a hopeless wish. His mindscape remained closed for some reason.

"The Uzumaki clan must've placed a defensive fūinjutsu to reduce a jinchūriki's combat potential."

Yukito mumbled. It made sense. They were the Uzumaki clan after all, they were the ones who invented the concept of jinchūriki. Only, they invented the concept of jinchūriki to house, contain, and study the hazardous bijū, not to make them weapons. They knew that an unstable weapon is as dangerous as an elite enemy, hence they didn't bother weaponizing the bijū.

The result left a bad taste in their mouths, the other villages actually succeeded in weaponizing the bijū without suffering too many setbacks. Only a few like the one and nine-tailed beasts were troublesome to control.

"Damn it, why couldn't they make a fūinjutsu that can recognize Uzumaki clan members? So that the defensive seals won't affect them… on second thought, never mind."

Yukito realized that if the clan did that, they would be defenseless if an enemy casts a genjutsu on an Uzumaki and forced them to wreak havoc within the clan.

As he climbed upstairs, he saw another wall made out of scrolls. This time, he didn't have any expectations.

"Is it another set of records? Just how many records does this guy keep?"

As expected, all the scrolls were miscellaneous. Not a single one of them contained any information about fūinjutsu.

"Up we go."

On the third floor, things were different.

"Finally! Cough! No, I better not get my hopes up. The higher the expectations, the higher the disappointment," Yukito muttered before calming himself.

The third floor was an office. The office had one desk, one chair, and one shelf. There were four scrolls on the shelf, and there was one big scroll behind the desk. The scroll was twice as big as his golden dragon scroll.

"It must be some very important record about the village."

Yukito convinced himself while repeating a mantra in his head to further douse his expectations.

Yukito approached the shelf and opened one of the four scrolls.

"Guide about creating fūinjutsu…" Yukito mumbled, his eyes dull and lifeless as he opened the second, third, and fourth scrolls.

"Guide to improving charka control… guide to cultivating better sealing chakra… guide to using adamantine sealing chains… huh, pretty basic. Yes, very basic. Definitely. The big scroll must be even simpler."

Yukito mumbled, his tone even and calm, yet the corners of his lips were twitching violently, his cheek had a pink blush, the back of his ears was deep red, and his eyes were curled like crescent moons.

Yukito carefully stored the four scrolls in his phoenix scroll (A/N: do you still remember this?) and strutted toward the big scroll behind the desk, his steps neither too small nor too large.

Finally, he grabbed the big scroll and opened it.

"The history of Uzushiogakure…records of the previous Uzumaki clan heads…forbidden fūinjutsu…"

Yukito's eyes turned into curved slits, his mouth nearly split his face in half, and a euphoric giggle came out of his throat.

'Jackpot.'

Three days had passed since Yukito found the scroll. The scroll's name was simply "Scroll of the Uzumaki Clan", or "Uzumaki Clan Scroll."

The Uzumaki Clan Scroll was special.

Each time Yukito tried to read it, he would feel exhausted. He reasoned that the scroll had a seal formula that made it difficult for others to read the scroll. It was effective, as Yukito had yet to read a single sentence from the history section of the scroll.

On the other hand, he could read all the names of the previous Uzumaki clan heads, as well as the names of the forbidden fūinjutsu formulas. The problem was, he couldn't read the description of them, similar to the history section of the scroll.

Nevertheless, he was pleased with his harvest.

He was planning on leaving the land of whirlpools regardless if he located Uzushiogakure or not, he wasn't even expecting to see a single fūinjutsu formula in the fallen village, so this harvest was a pleasant surprise.

"I should leave the land of whirlpools."

Yukito had yet to forget the dangers hidden on the island. Just that one crow managed to put him in a precarious spot, let alone the murder of crows it was part of or the packs of two-headed and three-headed wolves. He was sure that there were other chakra beasts hiding in the forest, but he didn't wish to see them now.

He'll come back to this place after he becomes a level 4 seal expert, or after he reaches the kage-level.

After all, every single one of the crows in the murder of crows he met before was kage-level, and the three-headed wolves were stronger than the crows. Having kage-level strength could be said to be the basic requirement if you wanted to step foot in the land of whirlpools.

"Since I'm inside the village, no matter which direction I head toward, I'll be heading outside the forest and toward the shore."

Naturally, Yukito realized that he had been heading deeper into the forest the whole time before arriving at the village. God knows how he dodged the invisible guillotine above his head.

"I really am too lucky."

He could only hope that his luck doesn't run out before he leaves the land of whirlpools. Scratch that, he hopes that his luck doesn't run out for the rest of his life!

Yukito chuckled and left the village, running in a straight direction without caring if he was found by other chakra beasts.

If he used all his chakra, he could outrun all of the chakra beasts here. Of course, they would catch up after he runs out of chakra, but the point is, he would've sailed with his boat by then.

"CAW! CAW! CAW!"

When Yukito heard a familiar call, he couldn't help but frown.

"Not this damned crow again. Has it been following me this whole time?"

Such a thought appeared in his mind before he threw it away.

"No way. If it had, it would've attacked me dozens of times already."

"CAW! CAW! CAW!"

As he was mumbling to himself, the crow was already hot on his trail, following fifty meters away from him. Yukito tried to run faster, but he realized that no matter what he did, the crow would always be fifty meters away from him.

Apparently, he couldn't outrun all of the chakra beasts in the forest.

"Is it playing with me? Hmph, this guy…"

Yukito's nerves had snapped. He had had enough of this crow. Placing his hand on his waist, Yukito took out six explosive scrolls and looked back, but before he could throw them at the crow, he hesitated.

"Sigh. You know what, let it be. If it doesn't attack me, then I won't attack it."

Yukito sighed and stored the scrolls back in his cloud scroll. The crow saved his life before, so it was time to settle his debt.

When Yukito reached the beach, he looked back and saw that the crow was still following behind him.

'Hold on…'

Yukito squinted his eyes.

'Is that… a scroll on its talons?'

He didn't see it clearly before because he and the crow were traveling at high speeds, but now that they stopped, Yukito was able to see the scroll on the crow's talons.

"CAW!"

As if sensing Yukito's doubt, the crow cried out, flew into the air, and hovered above Yukito, who was now holding his golden dragon scroll. Contrary to Yukito's expectations, the crow didn't swoop down but instead, dropped the scroll it was holding.

Wooosh—!

Yukito wasn't about to let that scroll touch him, so he jumped away just in case. When the crow landed fifty meters away from him and the scroll, and the scroll didn't explode, Yukito channeled his chakra into his chest.

Clang—clang—clang!

Suddenly, three fifty meters long adamantine chains sprouted out of Yukito's chest and grabbed the scroll from fifty meters away. Using precise control and movement, Yukito manipulated the chains to slowly open the scroll.

The scroll was still lying on the ground, so he couldn't see its contents. But now that the scroll was open, and nothing happened, Yukito built enough courage to approach the suspicious scroll.

When he reached the scroll and read what was written inside, his eyes widened in disbelief.

"CAW! CAW! CAW!"

Fifty meters away, the crow started calling out as if to tell him that he was too cautious.

"What's… this?"

On the scroll was a sealing formula. To be exact, it was a summoning contract sealing formula.

A/N: Sorry about the slow updates, I've been too busy lately. Anyway, The Land of Whirlpools arc is finally over! Stay tuned for the next arc. The next arc will signal the start of the original timeline's events. Thank you for reading!

If you want to read more chapters in advance (up to chapter 35) and influence the story, you can check out my pátreón!
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