Looking at the inconspicuous, weathered building before him, Mizuki hadn't expected the Sealing Corps to be in such a sorry state. Was this really the fabled Sealing Team of Konoha? It looked more like a dumping ground for underutilized shinobi. The village had known peace for far too long; perhaps cracks were beginning to show. The entire unit was pitifully understaffed—just a few overworked shinobi sorting through scrolls and paperwork, none of it resembling active sealing research. Clearly, the unit was in decline. Perhaps it would only be reorganized once Tsunade succeeded the Third Hokage.
Seeing the state of things, Mizuki's heart sank. Whatever plan he had to exploit the Sealing Corps had just died.
He had once believed sealing jutsu to be one of the pinnacle arts of the shinobi world. Even the Uzumaki clan—renowned and feared for their sealing prowess—had been wiped out due to the threat they posed. Konoha's Sealing Corps was meant to be a secretive arm of the village, hidden and powerful. But this? This was a joke.
To Mizuki, two possibilities emerged. Either the true core of sealing knowledge was hidden somewhere else entirely, perhaps under ANBU-level classification, or sealing techniques had become the private domain of a select elite. What he saw here—mundane maintenance logs, seal reinforcement diagrams, records of barrier upkeep—was surface-level fluff.
And yet, he knew better than to dismiss sealing altogether. From Iruka's sealing barrier used during the Academy's final test, to Jiraiya's intricate fire seals and the sophisticated chakra storage of the Yin Seal used by Tsunade—sealing was everywhere. The Hyūga's cursed seal, the Jinchūriki containment seals, even the Six Paths Chibaku Tensei that sealed Kaguya Ōtsutsuki—all stemmed from the same mysterious art. It was clear: sealing jutsu had nearly limitless potential. If applied correctly, it could do almost anything.
"Shuimu, why are you here?" a familiar female voice interrupted his thoughts. It was Chie Tsubaki—"Xiao Chun" to him.
"I came to see you," Mizuki said, turning to her. "I'll be out on a mission starting tomorrow. Might not get the chance for a while, so I dropped by today while I had the time."
"Really? You hardly came around before. What changed? Is the mission dangerous?"
"Not really. It's something the Third assigned me—more time-consuming than risky."
"That's good then. I'm off work early today, but I still have a few things to finish up. Feel free to look around, though."
"Go ahead, Xiao Chun. I'll just browse a bit."
…
Mizuki wandered through the dimly lit office. Apart from a few shinobi moving about, it was uneventful. He stopped someone and asked, "What are those books and scrolls on the shelf over there? Are they for public reference?"
"Oh, that?" the shinobi replied. "Mostly seal maintenance logs for the village's protective barriers and a bunch of outdated records. We're set to dispose of them soon. You can look through them if you want, but nothing can be taken out."
"Got it. Just passing time anyway. Thanks."
Dragging a chair over, Mizuki casually picked up a scroll. What began as idle browsing turned unexpectedly serious. The more he read, the deeper his frown became. After some time, he returned the scroll to the shelf and pressed his temples, overwhelmed.
"I didn't expect this," he muttered. "The sealing arts are even more complex and dangerous than I thought. No wonder they could contain someone like Kaguya."
To the average shinobi, the documents might seem like junk. But Mizuki, approaching the information with a structured, analytical mindset honed by his previous life's education, began to piece together patterns and insights.
"Sealing has absurd strategic priority in this world."
Though Mizuki had basic knowledge of seals, he'd never devoted serious effort to studying them—largely due to the scarcity of accessible material. But what most ninjas would disregard, he could now reinterpret with fresh eyes.
"Sealing techniques are like the programming language of this world—rules that define the very structure of chakra and reality itself."
He recalled a passage from a science fiction novel he had read in his past life, The Three-Body Problem: "If a painting is a world, then the painter is a god. And if that god makes a hole every centimeter in the canvas, the inhabitants, after much study, would conclude: our world has a hole every centimeter." That analogy lingered in his mind. In the ninja world, sealing was that language—etching laws onto the fabric of chakra. And with the right knowledge, one could rewrite those laws.
"But the problem is time. Developing seal techniques requires experimentation, precision, and analysis. It's slow. I need shortcuts—existing seals and techniques I can reverse-engineer."
Drawing on his linguistic talent and curiosity, Mizuki believed sealing could become his secret weapon—a way to surpass others not through brute force, but through mastery of the system itself.
Resolved, he pulled another scroll and continued reading.
Before he realized it, the afternoon sun had slanted westward.
Suddenly, he felt a tingle in his right arm—a reaction. Someone was close.
"It's Anko… What's she doing here?"
"Hey Mizuki, I find you everywhere these days. Came to visit your little fiancée again?" came the teasing voice of Mitarashi Anko.
"Yeah, but she's not off work yet. I'm just killing time. What about you?"
"The sealing formula from the Heaven and Earth scrolls we used in the Chūnin Exams—they say there's a copy here. I'm here to find it."
"Oh, not sure. The place is a mess, though. Good luck digging it out."
"I'll ask around," she said, striding off confidently.
Mizuki returned to his scrolls until Xiao Chun came to fetch him.
…
"I thought you weren't interested in sealing techniques," she said with a curious smile. "You look totally absorbed."
"It's just something to pass time. But it's actually… interesting."
"Really? I don't know much, but we could go over some basics together."
"I'd like that," Mizuki said genuinely.
"What do you want for dinner?"
"Potato stew."
"With meat, I assume?"
"Plenty. No cilantro."
"Got it." Xiao Chun laughed.
…
The next morning, Mizuki headed out to the Forest of Death to begin his assignment. The forest was vast, its flora unnaturally large—dangerous creatures surely lurked within.
After dispatching two massive boars with rudimentary traps, he sat down to rest.
"Even animals in this world develop battle instincts. With chakra saturation, it's no wonder we have beings like summon beasts. But I wonder—why do creatures like the Toad Sage, Snake Sage, and Slug Princess involve themselves in human conflicts? What do they gain?"
He resumed his mission, setting up perimeter wards and clearing beasts. Again, his right arm flared with heat.
"Again? No way this is coincidence. Am I being watched?"
Mizuki had taken every precaution to remain inconspicuous. Still, surveillance seemed inevitable. "I was only setting up a few contingency seals. Nothing even actionable yet…"
By dusk, after fulfilling his daily quota of exterminations, he made his way back—only to find Anko already waiting.
"How'd it go today?"
"The mission is brutal. There's too much to handle for just two of us. We should request backup," Mizuki said, suppressing his irritation. "Iruka would be perfect. His single-use sealing arrays are effective against low-intelligence enemies."
"I'll report that to the Third. Rest up for now—we'll regroup tomorrow."
"Yes," Mizuki replied, already eager to return to the sealing texts. His foundation was still weak, but hard work would close the gap. His combat talent was average—but when it came to deciphering hidden systems, like a new language, he excelled.