Yurei was inside the cave with Gedo Mazo. Now that he had the thing he needed, he was ready to get rid of the statue. A fact not many people paid attention to was the concept of sealing scrolls. It was a shame really. They were so versetile.
When you create a sealing scroll, you connect a limited amount of pocket dimension to our world. Each seal will be affixed to its own space, and if you destroy the seal, there is no way to retrieve the items.
Of course, there were exceptions. Sometimes, the dimension connected to the seal is not strong enough to hold the object. A good example would be how you couldn't use normal scrolls to hold a human body. The dimension must be capable of holding the object.
When the dimension was not strong enough, there were two possibilities. The first case was when you couldn't seal the object at all, and nothing happened.
The second one was when the object would be sealed, but the seal would become unstable. This was especially dangerous if the thing you sealed contained chakra or reacted to chakra since the instability could cause the seal to fail, and there was no exact telling of what would happen to the sealed objects.
An example would be Gaara's old Jinchuuriki seal, where Shukaku could influence the world outside and break out. Of course, since Biju are chakra constructs and don't exactly have a physical form, it wasn't so dangerous for him to send himself in and out of the seal.
One of the things Yurei extensively researched was Obito's Kamui. The Kamui dimension is counted as a pocket dimension. There was a limited amount of space; he discovered this fact when he was once fighting him in that dimension, and some of his Justus would stop after a certain point, and his eyes were the key to getting to that space.
His eyes used the Yin chakra and spiritual energy to connect himself to that dimension, and just like with a sealing scroll, he could send himself or objects to that dimension. The only remarkable thing was how he could do it partially with his body, which could also be explained by space-time theory.
When he was partially in that dimension, he was using his sharingan to keep the dimension open and keep himself in between the dimensions. Of course, there were more complex details involved, but it didn't really matter.
When Yurei killed Obito, he destroyed all of his body except for the eye. And now he wanted to use the eye to seal the statue and the blade. So that no one could free Zetsu or the statue. Of course, he knew that Kakashi also had access to that dimension with his Kamui.
Which was why he was also sealing a clone he prepared. The clone could last there for a decade, which was a lot longer than the time he needed to finish his plans. The clone had enough sealed food, water, and other necessities to survive.
He would guard the items until both eyes were destroyed. There was no way to replicate the keys to a dimension so they will forever be gone. All Yurei had to do was capture Kakashi and take the eye before destroying the one he had.
He finished the preparations. And started the sealing ritual.
It took him a month to finish the ritual. Was that how the Akatsuki in the original timeline felt after sealing a Biju in the statue? He was tired beyond what words could describe. He could sleep for months and need more rest.
It took a lot of chakra to seal that damned statue. Even Kurama was passed out inside his seal. Thankfully, he could rest in the cave for a while since it was protected by his seals. No one could enter the place, but before drifting off to sleep, he sealed Obito's eye on a seal he designed in his chest. It would have to do for now.
Yurei was back to his village. He slept for an entire week before heading back. He sent a fox to Orochimaru before heading back to the sannin could give him a checkup. His condition was worsening.
All the damage he took as Naruto had piled up. While some of them lessened when they merged, some did not. His chakra coils burned every time he used chakra. His lungs didn't keep up with his stamina, and he had to take frequent breaks, or he would cough up blood.
He had trouble with his hand, but not as much as Naruto. But most importantly, the added chakra of Kurama was putting strain on his seal. While it wouldn't be a problem if he was fully healthy, in his condition, it would send random jolts of burning chakra inside his whole body. It was not fun.
He was getting a checkup to make sure his condition was stable after the long sealing session. Orochimaru was updating him on the news of the village. Apparently, shortly after Naruto's death, the Yondaime resigned. He was grieving and couldn't handle it.
He tried joining the ANBU, but they wouldn't let him. he was unstable. So, he was now working a desk job in ANBU while also working in the sealing division. The others weren't fairing much better. His funeral was a somber event.
His friends graduated from the academy and were now in teams. The teams were the same as the original timeline. The only differences were that in team 7, Anko was the sensei, and Sai was in his place. It was a strange choice, but Anko was a respected student of a sannin, so it wasn't strange for her to become a sensei.
There were also other news regarding the daimyo. Just as he predicted, the daimyo was furious with the whole ordeal but satisfied that it was dealt with before it reached anyone. They also paid some compensation to appease him.
After the visit with Orochimaru, Yurei was back to work. There were so many things he had to do in the next three years. That was when he was going to execute his plan. His first step was to renew the barrier seal of Uzushio. Since cleaning up the village and bringing people there to live, he started this mission.
With the remaining Uzumaki seal masters, they started going through all the remaining documents. It took them a while, but when they were done, they held a meeting with all the villagers. They asked for ideas and opinions.
They wanted to gather as many opinions as they could. It was essential to know what different people considered significant. It was easy for experts to fall into standard solutions and joint problems and not consider the specifics. So, gathering non-expert opinions could be beneficial.
After organizing all opinions and separating them into categories, they got to work. It was nice working with so many people. They each had their own experiences and methods, and Yurei could say for sure that he learned many things.
After reaching an initial design, they started working on details. A seal of this magnitude needed a lot of work, but they had the time. They were testing the seal part by part and layer by layer. They couldn't risk finishing the whole thing without any tests and applying it to the village.
Yurei had his clones do most of the testing since if anything went wrong, he didn't want anyone to get hurt. His clones were expendable. It took them a lot of trial and error, but they finished the seal.
It was a magnificent thing. It would go around the whole island like a sphere. There were no weak spots or penetration points. No one could go in or out without using the front entrance. The entrance itself was located on a small piece of land outside the main body of the island. It would take a chunin five minutes of water running to reach the area, and there were boats to carry those who couldn't do so.
The whole barrier was covered in natural energy-based chakra sensors. If anyone came close to a radius, they would be aware, and if they were not expecting them, they could close the barrier so no one could enter.
The barrier could completely isolate them from the outside. Nothing could get past it. No Jutsu or natural element could get past it without permission. There were water and air purifying seals to ensure the water and air that entered were not tampered with.
If the shield was triggered by attacks, it would take years of relentless attacks to bring it down. There were many chakra sources sustaining it. there were seals constantly filtering nature chakra, and there were seals to gather residual chakra like the ones that remained from a Jutsu dispersing.
There were also seals that gathered chakra directly from people. There was a giant storage space that people could go and push their extra chakra into a seal that connected to a complex underground system that stored chakra.
With so many jinchuuriki in the village, they never had to worry about the barrier running out. Even if the barrier was low on chakra, there were countless other measures taken into place to evacuate everyone to safety and lock the village away.
All that remained was finishing up the last details and applying it to the village.
Another project he was working on was making Uzushio completely self-sufficient. He's been improving agriculture and number of livestock steadily. Soon, they will be able to sell some of their products. Some of the people even started putting their skills to use.
They've started using sheep wool to make fabric and cows skin for leather. They were making some excellent products, but they were not of the quality to sell for a high price in the market yet. Instead, what they really improved on was weaponry.
There were quite a few mines around the village, and the ore was of high quality. They had some blacksmiths in the village, and with the help of scrolls, they found it was a matter of time before they produced the weaponry Uzushio was famous for.
Yurei was really grateful for Uzumakis' obsession with seals and, in turn, excellent documentation. Uzumakis were known to be a little airheaded, so having good documentation helped them keep track of things they might have otherwise forgotten.
Another thing Yurei was working on was a greenhouse. He brought a lot of his plants from Konoha during the years. He now had enough variety to make all sorts of poisons and medicine. It was also how he first started making some money.
Orochimaru had set up a lab, and years of having clones trained by him taught him enough that he was knowledgeable enough to take care of these things. Of course, Orochimaru still visited once in a while to check and give feedback on his work.
He was even training a batch of new recruits to run the lab in Uzushio. Yurei was teaching them the basics and his areas of knowledge, but Orochimaru was like an ocean of information. He was loved by everyone because of it.
They all appreciated the time and effort he was putting into training them. While Orochimaru was a harsh teacher who expected perfection, he was fair and just and never expected things from others that they were not able to do.
There were even a few kids who always loved to gather around him during his visits and bombard him with their questions about everything and nothing. Orochimaru always made sure to answer all their questions as best as he could, and it made them love him even more.
Day by day, Uzushio was becoming a Utopia, especially for the outcasts who had never had one before. Yurei smiled at the thought.