Chapter 605: Yin Seal
Konohagakure was, on the whole, a massive and busy administrative apparatus, but the Barrier Department was an exception.
At least, it used to be an exception.
In the past, the entire department consisted of thirty to forty people, all non-combat personnel proficient in Sealing Jutsu. Their daily job was to stare blankly at the Great Barrier; a cup of tea and a newspaper would sum up their day.
Even if there was a life-and-death struggle going on outside, it would absolutely not disturb the peace and tranquility here.
Konoha had been established for over sixty years, and the Great Barrier and the Barrier Team, created by the First Hokage's wife, Mito Uzumaki, had also been around for nearly sixty years. During this period, the Great Barrier had only been breached twice:
The first time was when Madara brought the Nine-Tails to exact revenge on the village, breaking the Great Barrier;
The second time was three years ago when Orochimaru led the Sound and Sand Ninjas to attack Konoha, finding a loophole to invade from outside the long-neglected Great Barrier.
Other than that, no matter how fiercely the several ninja world wars were fought, the main body of Konoha village had always been strictly protected by the Great Barrier. It had never been directly invaded by enemies, acting as a truly safe rear base.
It was a pity that this once-powerful Great Barrier was proven to be an illusory bubble, a paper tiger that could be punctured with a single poke, during the Konoha Crush operation a few years ago...
Later, when Tsunade took office and reorganized the Great Barrier and the Barrier Team, she discovered that since the Nine-Tails' Attack over a decade ago, the Great Barrier had become unstable, with countless large and small loopholes continuously cropping up, to the point where it was almost worn out by certain individuals!
Over the past two years, as Konoha's vitality gradually recovered, the Fifth Hokage freed up her hands to thoroughly reform the Barrier Team. She temporarily recruited nearly a hundred people to fill this ancient department, investing a massive amount of manpower and material resources to repair and patch up the long-neglected Great Barrier. Finally, they managed to restore this most important protective barrier right before the war.
Strangely enough, after that, the temporary staffing of the Barrier Team not only did not shrink, but they actually recruited another batch of ninjas. This small department instantly swelled up.
No one knew Tsunade's intentions.
Nor did anyone know what kind of mission the Barrier Team still had that required organizing such a massive force to complete.
Only a few people knew the truth.
The newly appointed (acting) captain of the Barrier Team, Haku Minazuki, was one of these few people.
It must be clarified that Haku had no intention of switching careers from being a medical ninja. She was also not proficient in Sealing Jutsu; most of her knowledge about it came from her close friend, Haruno Sakura. The latter was the inheritor and modifier of the Yin Seal, a young expert in Sealing Jutsu, and also the one who recommended Haku Minazuki.
That's right, the person who abused her authority to handpick Haku Minazuki to be this acting captain was Haruno Sakura, because Sakura needed someone she could absolutely trust to take control of the Barrier Team for her and guard her secrets.
And the reason for doing this was related to a mission the Barrier Team had undertaken over the past year—
Modifying the Yin Seal.
A long time ago, Haruno Sakura discovered the limitations and developmental potential of the Yin Seal. The Yin Seal was a practical and powerful secret jutsu that played a massive role in her early battles. But Sakura quickly realized that the model of painstakingly accumulating chakra for several years and then releasing it all in a single burst—like her master Tsunade did—was not suitable for her. The battles she experienced were more frequent, her demand for chakra was more vigorous, and her daily training also consumed a large amount of chakra, making it difficult to save up enough power.
Thus, Haruno Sakura decided to improve this secret jutsu.
Open new sources. Expand capacity.
She decided to look for new energy sources from elsewhere, including tamed electrical energy or the power of a clone, solving the charging issue. At the same time, she expanded the capacity of the chakra pool within the Yin Seal, upgrading its limit from Kage-level capacity to Super Kage.
Devoting herself to research, continuously experimenting...
At first, it was only used to store the daily leftover chakra;
Later, referencing sealing formulas like the Evil Sealing Method, she added the technology to absorb and store external energy;
Backed by Konoha's entire database and resources (as well as a portion of the power from the Land of Snow), Haruno Sakura madly excavated the potential of this jutsu. She fundamentally transformed it, expanding it to more than a hundred times its original version, enabling it to contain more powerful and more violent energy, elevating it to a realm that not even its original creators could have imagined!
A realm transcending Kage-level...
Tsunade once thought this was the end of the story, but Haruno Sakura told her that the story had just begun.
This young girl, whose creativity and imagination for ninjutsu was infinitely vast, intended to play a massive game.
She intended to tame nuclear energy and store the energy of nuclear fission within the Yin Seal!
From the Kage-level to the realm transcending Kage-level, Haruno Sakura was still not satisfied and still yearned to transcend!
To transcend the level of "Super Kage"!
She wanted to create a "Six Paths" level secret jutsu.
The development work for the Yin Seal - Fourth Stage was carried out synchronously with the collection of fissionable materials.
Initially, Sakura still thought she could complete the design of the new seal fighting all alone. She spent two months, using her free time between training and missions, to finalize the overall framework design and write tens of thousands of runes, only to discover she had completed less than one ten-thousandth of the work! This feeling of despair was like outlining a detailed and complete plot for a brilliant novel, writing a hundred thousand words just to finish setting up the first plot point of the first volume, and realizing there were still ninety-nine volumes left to write...
In short, the young girl was startled at that time. She hurriedly halted her work and re-examined the entire project, realizing she had underestimated the difficulty of this undertaking. According to the complete design, the entire Yin Seal surprisingly required hundreds of millions of runes to construct!
She made a rough estimate: even using Shadow Clones and working tirelessly day and night, it would probably still take her several years to complete this monumental project!
Fortunately, when she later chatted with Haku Minazuki about this, Haku suggested she ask the Barrier Team for help, a single sentence that awakened Haruno Sakura from her tunnel vision.
As for what happened next, it was very simple. It was nothing more than Haruno Sakura blatantly abusing her power for personal gain, using the elite members of the Barrier Team to solve her problem...
"These things cannot be explained in detail; I can only say that those who know, know. For those who don't, I won't explain much because you wouldn't understand even if I did, so it's better not to say it. Just savor the implications. Also, don't ask what's going on; the interests involved here are too massive, and talking about it won't benefit anyone. Just pretend you don't know. As for the rest, I can only say the waters here run very deep, involving many things, such as a certain village tyrant's disciple who allegedly gained favor through her pretty face..."
—It was said that rumors circulated outside like this.
Of course, these low-level, powerless rumors couldn't be stopped anyway. After all, every village had many posers who pretended to understand what they didn't, and sour lemons...
Regardless, it couldn't hurt a single hair on Haruno Sakura's head.
The logic of this world was exactly like this: Haruno Sakura possessed such strength, so she had to bear corresponding obligations. But at the same time, she also had the right to demand manpower and material support from the village!
This was a benefit that rogue ninjas and wandering ninjas would never be able to enjoy.
Including—
Decades of accumulated Sealing Jutsu, the Great Barrier protecting the village, and the Uzumaki Clan's secret Sealing Jutsus (special thanks here for the full support of the destroyed Land of Whirlpools)—all these files and documents were open to her.
The village's Barrier Team, thousands of high-quality Chunin and even Jonin, dozens of experts who had been immersed in Sealing Jutsu for years—a massive amount of human resources was at her disposal.
Not to mention the mountains of scrolls, contract papers, runic brushes, runic ink, and other materials piled up in the village's warehouses...
What was meant by the foundation of the number one village in the ninja world?
This was it! (Said with resonance)
With a single command, these things were hers to mobilize, helping her complete the new generation of jutsu formulas.
The village cultivated her, and she protected the village; the village cultivated her further, and she further became the village's pillar.
A reciprocal cycle of mutual promotion.
Speaking of which, why do transmigrators in those Naruto fanfictions always like to defect?
Haruno Sakura would occasionally recall matters from her past life, and found it impossible to agree with such tropes.
In short, it was precisely by relying on these benefits, on Konoha's abundant foundation, manpower, and material resources, and on Haruno Sakura's overall control of the situation...
...that all the work was finally completed not long ago.
Yin Seal - Fourth Stage, "Yin God".
About to be activated!
On this day.
Shikkotsu Forest.
While those few in the Land of Sound were fighting until the heavens turned upside down and the mountains and rivers shattered, this wild land far from civilization was as peaceful as a paradise.
It was currently noon, with the scorching sun high in the sky.
Shikkotsu Forest boasted thousands of miles of green waves, dense water mist, sparkling ripples, and picturesque lake scenery.
Rugged ancient trees stood in the lake, their bark as pale as bone, towering into the clouds and blotting out the sun, casting vast shadows over the tranquil lake surface.
In the shadows, floating on the vast and expansive acid lake, was a colossal mollusk of indeterminable length.
It was a slug.
It raised its head, revealing only a small portion of its distinctly striped back. Just the part above the water surface was hundreds of meters long; the body hidden beneath the water was an immeasurable, unimaginably massive size. When scaled to such an extent, even a weak slug would become majestic and awe-inspiring.
This entity was none other than Katsuyu the Slug Sage.
In the current world, obviously, only Katsuyu the Slug Sage possessed such a terrifying size and such powerful strength!
Atop Katsuyu the Slug Sage's head, Haruno Sakura stood facing the wind, her clothes fluttering like a goddess.
She stood high up, looking down at her feet.
There, a large expanse of the lake water in front of Katsuyu the Slug Sage had already been frozen into a thick layer of ice.
On the ice surface, thousands of Ice Clones were busily working, carving and arranging an unprecedented, massive, and complex sealing jutsu formula.
Black talismans were spread across the smooth ice, covering an area equivalent to four or five Katsuyu the Slug Sages. Tadpole-like twisting incantations densely packed the entire ice surface, mighty and magnificent to behold!
"Is this the new sealing formula?" The Sage looked at those endlessly complex lines, and even with its vast experience, it felt somewhat shocked. "I remember Tsunade's Yin Seal... was not this complicated!"
"Hehe." The young girl smiled slightly. "The original Yin Seal cannot be spoken of in the same breath as the new formula I've designed now!"
She reached out, pointing to the endlessly dense runes beneath her feet.
"Three hundred and fourteen million, one hundred and fifty-nine thousand, two hundred and sixty-five runes."
"That is the total number of incantations."
The reason the number was so exaggerated was because only then could it store such volatile energy as nuclear fission energy.
If the entire Yin Seal was compared to a reservoir, then the difference between storing a Kage-level ninja's chakra and storing fission energy was the difference between a small rural earth dam and the Three Gorges Dam.
To achieve this effect, Haruno Sakura and the members of the Barrier Team studied for a long time. Finally, imitating the Great Barrier, they reversed the direction of defense, changing it from defending against external forces to defending against internal energy impacts. They deleted the early warning and analysis sections, removed the physical defense formulas, strengthened the energy defense formulas, reduced the protection diameter, and created an anti-energy protective shield designed exclusively for the Yin Seal.
Then, they continuously repeated it, stacking layer upon layer!
The Great Barrier itself was a complex and powerful sealing formula. After being magically modified by Haruno Sakura and the others, its complexity and power did not diminish in the slightest; a single barrier contained over a hundred thousand runes!
After stacking dozens or hundreds of layers, the number of runes required rapidly inflated into an astronomical figure.
And this was just one part of the entire sealing formula.
This was an incomparably colossal undertaking.
For the people of the ninja world, who had never experienced the Industrial Age or the Information Age, this was a miracle.
Just as people from a small-peasant economy or feudal era would find it hard to imagine a country's steel production reaching over a billion tons...
Or, just as people from the era of classical Chinese literature would find it hard to imagine that in the future, a novel could be written with tens of millions of words...
"How did you accomplish this?" Katsuyu the Slug Sage asked.
The Sage had seen Tsunade's Medical Ninjutsu and highly praised her innovations.
It had also seen Hashirama Senju's Wood Release and marveled at his unparalleled combat power.
It had witnessed many masters and powerhouses who could summon it throughout history, and had even seen the heroic bearing of the Sage of Six Paths at the beginning of Ninshu.
It had seen much and possessed vast knowledge.
Its mind was as calm as an ancient well.
But today, it was still shocked by Haruno Sakura. Had it not seen it with its own eyes, Katsuyu the Slug Sage would truly find it hard to believe that there could be such a complex and astonishing jutsu formula in this world!
Not tens of thousands, but hundreds of millions of runes!
An incomparably vast and complex, yet perfectly neat and orderly formula!
This was a shock on an entirely different level.
Not because of her massive chakra, not because of the novelty of her ninjutsu, and not because of anything related to ninjas.
But rather, it was due to factors originating from another, more advanced civilization that had gone much further.
Such a feat, without Haruno Sakura, could not have been completed by the First Hokage, could not have been completed by the hundred or so members of the Barrier Team, could not have been completed by Katsuyu the Slug Sage, and even if the Sage of Six Paths were resurrected, he could not have completed it either!
Only a transmigrator who straddled two realms and possessed the wisdom and knowledge of both worlds could spearhead all this.
Specifically speaking...
"First, it would be standardization and modular design," she thought for a moment and explained.
After all, no one could design a formula utilizing hundreds of millions of runes in one breath, not even Haruno Sakura could do it.
She could only rely on collective wisdom and strength.
But how could one break down a super-complex design task onto the heads of over a hundred people?
The natives couldn't imagine it, but Haruno Sakura could.
In modern society on Earth in her past life, such examples were everywhere.
Therefore, in her design of this super-large formula, all the complex and powerful functions were assembled and stacked together from individual, simple, and weak modules.
The entire process sounded very simple: first design modules with single functions, complete the standardization, then plan it out, and the rest was simply stacking the massive number of modules together like building blocks.
For example, the most critical energy storage section was formed by stacking nearly a hundred energy barriers used to bind energy.
As for the energy output section, she converted the original energy release formulas into standardized chakra release modules, connecting them to the energy pool's exit like pipelines, stacking them in large quantities, and finally packaging them.
Of course, things are easy to say but extremely difficult to do.
Stacking a massive number of formulas was inherently a major engineering challenge. A minor issue in the original formula, when multiplied ten thousand times, would become a daunting and massive difficulty.
For example, to achieve a higher ratio of micro-sealing, the members of the Barrier Team redeveloped a new, more powerful Rune Micro-Sealing Jutsu—this jutsu could be used on ordinary scrolls, advancing the practical application of small and micro-scrolls by at least ten years. (1. For the Micro-Sealing Jutsu, see Chapter 127; 2. Estimated based on the development speed in Boruto.)
"In short, it's roughly like that."
Haruno Sakura let out a long breath. After speaking at length, she was finally done.
Listening to the young girl's words, Katsuyu the Slug Sage gradually fell deep into thought.
The Sage sighed slightly in its heart: it hadn't understood most of that explanation. But it at least understood a few things, such as the fact that this was a secret jutsu completed by gathering the wisdom of many humans, based on a certain guiding ideology it had never heard of; and that the function of this brand-new secret jutsu was extremely powerful, so great that it was enough to store power even stronger than the Sage itself.
That was already at the level of the Six Paths.
Humans are a race adept at pioneering and innovating, always giving birth to miracles.
Katsuyu the Slug Sage had seen many such examples. And right now, Sakura's new jutsu verified its thoughts once again.
It was precisely because it believed in this, believing that humans were not insignificant, that the mighty Katsuyu the Slug Sage condescended to sign summoning contracts with frail humans, instead of shrinking back into a mountain ravine to act as a carefree king of the hill.
The Sage pondered silently.
Right at this moment, Haruno Sakura's busy Shadow Clones on the ice surface gradually finished their tasks and disappeared, leaving behind only the completed, massive sealing array.
The complete array consisted of several concentric circles, with a few curves broadly dividing them into four sections.
Haruno Sakura jumped down, landing in the smallest concentric circle. The inside of the circle was blank without runes, just big enough for one person to stand in.
She took off her shoes and stood barefoot. The chilling ice surface clung tightly to her skin, sending a coldness rising from the soles of her feet that mixed with the fiery restlessness deep in her heart, forming a complex and indescribable sensation.
Sakura took a deep breath.
With her back facing Katsuyu the Slug Sage, her expression couldn't be seen; only the young girl's clear, cold voice could be heard:
"Then, I am going to begin."
Katsuyu the Slug Sage nodded.
"Begin... May the fortunes of war be with you!"
Haruno Sakura raised one hand, giving a thumbs up, the corners of her mouth curling up slightly.
Then, the young girl lightly stood on the tips of her delicate toes. As chakra leaked out, the runes beneath her feet lit up one after another.
Hum—!