Chapter 9

Following her, I found myself in a spacious room, the far wall behind the altar of which was adorned with numerous masks, typically depicting shinigami. Damn, there was such an episode in the manga when Orych stole a mask from here!

"Welcome to Uzumaki Ichizoku no Nomendo!"

The Uzumaki clan's mask house? Original!

"Hmm, so, are masked orgies held here," I joked and immediately received a slap on the back of my head.

"We'll talk about orgies later," Uzumaki menacingly promised, and with an irritated sigh, continued, "but now it's time for history. Before you stands the Shrine of the Shinigami."

Yeah, got it.

"Our clan has revered the god of death for centuries, and even some of our fuinjutsu is tied to his summons."

"And I need to know this because...?"

"As the only Uzumaki in Konoha besides me and Kushina, you have the right to know. Plus, one of these masks is a powerful artifact and requires constant supervision behind the protective barrier in case I'm absent for a long time."

"And will you tell Kushi-chan too?" I asked, inspecting the masks and trying to determine which one was genuine.

"No, she's too trusting, hot-tempered, and can't keep her tongue in check," the kunoichi frowned, shaking her head, "and such an artifact can cause a lot of harm in the wrong hands."

"Then why not just seal the mask away, hiding it among other important items?"

"It won't work—once the artifact is taken out of the shrine, a good sensor can easily detect it even behind the most reliable barriers, and sealing it into a scroll won't work," she explained. "In this place, the aura of the Shinigami's power is neutralized, and the mask looks like a simple wooden item among many others."

"I see. What do you need from me?"

"A drop of blood infused with your chakra," Mito responded, approaching the far pillar of the shrine and revealing the binding seal with a single touch.

Shrugging, I drew out a kunai and provided what was needed. The binding and obtaining the key seal weren't particularly difficult, so after a few minutes, I felt the entire space both inside and outside the shrine up to the established barrier. Considering the almost complete suppression of my sensory abilities inside, this was a good defense job.

"Now you'll always know if someone tries to break in here," Mito nodded satisfactorily.

There was nothing more to do in the shrine, and we headed back. Walking leisurely along the path, I pondered the fickleness of fate. In a normal course of events, about two decades in the future, this shrine would have been abandoned, and the powerful artifact would have simply gathered dust on the wall, like all the Senju clan's possessions.

Of course, until Orochimaru took it for himself. At present, that snake would barely know about the existence of such a mask, let alone appear on the clan's territory, and I became the next guardian. Ha, if Minato knew about the possibility of using a sealing jutsu on a tailed beast without any consequences, he would have gladly given his right arm to use the mask.

However, I'm not going to share such information with anyone else, including Kushina, as sad as it may be. If I have to seal away the tailed beast, having such a trump card up my sleeve will come in handy. And that's just one artifact. How many more are stored in Uzushiogakure—it's hard to imagine!

Another confirmation of the coolness of the red-haired fuinjutsu masters. I wonder if anyone besides them is capable of creating something similar to the Shinigami mask using seals? I doubt it.

"How's the technique training going?" I asked Mito, emerging from my thoughts.

A few months ago, I presented the "new" way of using our kekkei genkai to the elder Uzumaki, greatly surprising and impressing her. However, the second feeling was not towards the chakra chains themselves but rather towards the simple barrier that I created around myself literally in split seconds using them.

I decided to demonstrate the overwhelming properties on a live target, releasing a couple of salty jokes about the spiny Mito. For which I suffered later. However, it was worth it. A scroll with detailed instructions was also sent to our ancestor in Uzushiogakure at my insistence. The first time I saw a summoned animal live. A very disgruntled summoned animal, to be more precise.

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