Nindō 0088: Sealing Talent

"Naruto-kun is so bad …" Hinata mumbled weakly as she limply leaned into Naruto's arms, unable to even raise her finger.

"I have to satisfy myself somehow," Naruto said. "Seeing you like this, weak and unable to even stand on your own two feet after my care, makes me very satisfied."

"Haah …" She let out a tired and relieved breath and closed her eyes while leaning on his shoulder when she felt Naruto pulling his hand away from inside her leggings.

"Sleep. I'll take care of dinner tonight, don't worry," Naruto said. Instantly, Hinata was out like a light, too tired to even respond.

'I really need some kind of teleportation technique … it would make things much more convenient.'

As the thought appeared in Naruto's head, he created a Truth-Seeker Ball that floated all the way up to his bedroom. Under the perception of his chakra, he was able to activate a hidden mechanism that opened a section of the wall, revealing a safe. Once the safe was unlocked, the ball formed into the shape of a hand that grabbed a large scroll from inside. Closing the safe behind it, the ball floated down to Naruto and hovered in front of him with the scroll.

'Let's see …' Naruto continued, unfurling the scroll and looking through its contents. 'There it is … The Flying Raijin, with modifications by the Fourth Hokage. Now if only I had any fucking talent when it comes to sealing, things would be so different.'

After glancing over the contents of the technique, Naruto summoned a shadow clone.

"Copy down the version of the Flying Raijin that my dad modified onto another scroll. It's time for a training montage."

[Naruto …] Kurama spoke in his head as the fox observed his jinchūriki's actions. He naturally hadn't been privy to anything related to Cronai since the entity was just that far beyond reality. To Kurama, nothing really changed as Naruto continued going about his day. Even the memories that the fox could access didn't include anything related to Cronai or him putting the Dominion Mark on Kaguya.

[Had a nice nap, bud?] Naruto responded telepathically so as not to disturb Hinata as she slept in his arms.

[What's going on?]

[The Flying Raijin? I just think that it's a convenient ability to have.]

[My actual question is, why do you need to use your clones to learn it? You should be able to shape your chakra into appropriate seals without any trouble. Logically, you should be able to do it even better than Minato.]

[It's not all about chakra manipulation. Yes, I can perfectly replicate the markers with a far greater efficiency than my father. It's locking onto and teleporting to those markers that I'm no good at. That's where the aspect of talent comes into play. Fundamentally, the entire system of creating and manipulating seals is dependent on a separate dimension of existence. When a person creates a seal, they harness the energy of that dimension by using chakra as a medium. Some people have a good connection with that dimension, while others don't. Hence, talent.]

[Are you telling me that what everyone has ever thought about seals, that chakra is what is used to manipulate reality by means of a seal, was completely incorrect?]

[That's exactly what I'm saying. I can already manipulate reality according to my whim by directly using chakra, but I cannot replicate the effects of seals without creating an actual seal. Let me simplify it. You can think of seals as ritualistic circles that summon a specific kind of energy from another dimension that then manipulates reality according to the instruction of the seal.]

[Assuming what you say is correct … How does the Flying Raijin work?] Kurama still wasn't convinced by Naruto's theory but didn't have anything to counter it with either.

[Those markers are created to emit a certain frequency through the alternate dimension. The holder then taps into that dimension with their mental sense and searches for the specific frequency that the marker emits. Once the frequency is sensed, a slight mental tug will activate that seal and summon you to it. That is why the Second Hokage wasn't as good as my father at that specific technique. Not because his technique was flawed but because the Fourth had a far better talent in terms of sensing the alternate dimension that seals are based on. I didn't waste the millions of years I've lived. I know all of the theory; it's just that since I didn't see a need for teleportation, I didn't bother putting in the effort to learn the Flying Raijin.]

[So the ability to sense this … Seal Dimension. It's random for every creature?]

[Pretty much. Of course, as long as one is willing to brute force things and spend decades of fruitless effort, they should at least be able to form a rudimentary connection with the Seal Dimension, as you just called it.]

[You never tried to come up with a pure chakra technique for teleportation? I'm sure you spent a significant amount of time exploring chakra, from what I see.]

[I just said I didn't particularly need teleportation, but I did try for a little while. That's when I found out that Chakra has an upper limit on how much it can impact reality. Biggest example — most elemental kekkei genkai are significantly inferior to even the most basic dōjutsu abilities. That's because our world's dōjutsu all originate from Kaguya and, by extension, the Ōtsutsuki, and hence are an inferior form of shinjutsu.]

[So you can't use pure chakra to surpass a certain ceiling of abilities …]

[Exactly. That's the main reason I say that seals don't actually use chakra, but it is merely a medium to summon a higher form of energy that can impact reality in whatever way necessary.]

[How complicated …]

[Sadly, it is what it is.] Naruto sighed. [That's why I call it brute force training. That's literally all this is going to be. I'm going to make hundreds of thousands of clones and have them train to use the Flying Raijin. That will at least give me a rudimentary connection with the Seal Dimension so that I can at least use it as a convenient means of long-distance teleportation. While I won't reach my father's or even Tobirama's level of efficiency, it will be better than simple travel at the very least.]

[I'm surprised that you didn't do this sooner. It would've made that Suna trip much easier for both you and your wife.]

[I see spending three consecutive nights fucking my wife as an absolute win.]

[Fair enough. I guess you are doing this for that little disciple of yours.]

[To an extent, yes. I did tell her that I would be training with her every morning. She's already lagging behind because of her mission. But the main reason is that I don't want to stay awake for the whole week. And having to send clones all the way across two countries for the simplest nap is more stressful than it should be. I'm going on vacation, and I'm going to treat it as one.]

[You say that like you spend a lot of time working …]

[The work still needs to be done. Whether it is me or my clones.]

[Right …] Kurama didn't respond to Naruto further and went back to do his usual thing. [Enjoy the headaches, I guess.]

[Please. If you think a hundred thousand clones are enough to overwhelm me, you have another thing coming. My current record stands at close to two hundred trillion clones bursting at the same time. While I went into a coma for a whole year after that. I can literally overwhelm the entire solar system as long as I have enough chakra.]

[… Then it's a good thing that Earth's natural energy is limited …] Kurama wanted to say that Naruto was bluffing but couldn't actually muster up the words.

[It's not just natural energy per se. My perception can't extend that far just yet. I was talking about raw chakra capacity. To increase my perception to a cosmic scale, I need to let my brain develop. Anyway, you were about to go to sleep.]

Kurama responded with a growl at Naruto's dismissive attitude but didn't say anything further.

At this point, Naruto's clone handed the scroll back to him, which meant leaning it on the side of the couch.

"I'm done with the copy," the clone spoke with a slightly suppressed voice.

"You know what to do. Let 'er rip. As many clones as you can," Naruto spoke back in a soft and low voice. "Don't worry about the mental strain. Talk to the clone in the Hokage office and take one of the empty training grounds. Make sure you use chakra to create seals. I want none of that resource bullshit going on. You should be able to create the marker seal in thin air if need be. Your chakra manipulation is good enough for that."

"You fucking bastard. This is clone abuse," the clone whispered with clenched fists despite its outraged expression, but seeing Naruto's impassive face, it left quietly.

Once the clone closed the main door behind him after leaving, Naruto tightened his arms around his wife and enjoyed a moment of silence with her, simply enjoying her presence.

***

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