Chapter 23 - Tailed beasts and pieces of cloth

It had been two weeks since the kenjutsu training with Daiki and Kamin started, and while they had been training almost every day, there had been enough time to organize the return to Konoha, which would complete the main mission. Other than that, the two women who would help Mito with sealing the nine-tailed beast, turned out to be Kushina and kana's mothers.

The reason, or reasons, that they were chosen, was that aside from the clan head and the hair, they were some of the most proficient seal users who reside in the village, was them. Of course, there was also the fact that they would want to visit their daughters, and Sakumo even brought up, that it probably would help them accept their new status. While they were at it, Kamin would also go to, so he could visit his sister, his cousin and his two second cousins who also resided in Konoha.

On the topic off Kushina's mother; Akane Uzumaki, was the one who offered to help with the secondary mission; finding out if, and possibly how, the magnet release was connected to sealing and its connection to the one-tailed beast's markings. In the original series, it was mentioned that Minato learned some sealing from Akane, though that didn't add up, since Minato wouldn't have graduated yet nor would he have been good enough friends with Kushina yet…

Another point was Akane's siblings, one who happened to be Akako, Kana's mother. The other sibling was more problematic, given that it was a male named Ise… who was married to a woman named Fuso… and they both chose a nomadic lifestyle, only visiting Uzushiogakure every few years, but was currently declared missing due to loss of communication…

(AN: Probably know what this means… :P)

From the time they were introduced, the two Uzumaki had helped doing research, but nothing conclusive was found out about the connection yet, making their only lead some ancient texts, which stated that the tailed beasts' personalities were created with chunks of an evil higher beings consciousness of equal size, and that the reason Shukaku was insane, was that his chakra wasn't strong enough to suppress the influence, unlike his other eight sibling.

Learning of this knowledge, most certainly got Yoshio thinking…

Thinking a little further debunked that idea.

'The two-tailed beast; Matatabi, also has some symbols on its body, but none of the others have them, meaning that the three-tailed beast; Isobu and all the others was powerful enough to keep it in check with their own power… If that is the case, what does Matatabi's symbols represent, if Shukaku's symbolized the magnet release?'

For the answer, he searched through his knowledge from the canon.

'The most likely would be scorch release or blaze release, but neither of them are blue, but the blaze release is black like the markings on Matatabi… other than that, it could be some kind of plasma release, but it was never confirmed to exist in canon and was mostly a fan creation…'

(AN: All confirmed canon nature kekkei genkai are; Dust, Wood, Magnet, Scorch, Ice, Magma/Lava, Explosion, Boil/Vapor and Storm/Gale. That makes Crystal, Dark, Smoke/Iburi clan kekkei genkai, Mud, Steel and Swift filler kekkei genkai and Ink, Blaze/Inferno, Coral, Acid which could be Vapor, Truth seeking orbs, Yin-yang and Insect/Scale abilities that are not confirmed to be nature kekkei genkai, and are only gained from tailed beasts or the Sharingan/Rinnegan, Ink being the only exception with Sai. Everything else is, as far as I know, made up fanfic. Also, in this fic, Sand falls under magnet release)

No matter how hard he thought, there were multiple problems with each idea.

'In the case of the scorch release, was Pakura using white fireballs, but the color of heat goes from red being the coldest, to yellow, then white, after which is blue as the hottest. This makes scorch release a possibility… hmm'

It suddenly dawned upon him, that he had been stupid in his thinking.

'OF CAUSE, fire turns blue when it has enough oxygen, which means that the seal on Matatabi is most likely blaze release… this means that Hagoromo sealed the pieces off consciousness with an element that supplemented the tailed beasts… Better tell them about this theory…'

Over the two weeks, his progress became exponentially slower, and he still hadn't cracked the code to make it work and was therefore still stuck on the final step. Last time he tried, he was pretty sure at least some of his clones body made it out on the other side, so in order to test it, he decided to make the clone wear small pieces of cloth this time, all marked with what limb they belonged to so that when his clone dispelled, the pieces of cloth that made it out, made it possible to track his progress.

Through this testing, he concluded that depending on the angle/position the clone took, he could make up to twelve cubic decimeters come out on the other side, which was equivalent to twelve liters of water, about twelve kilo and an estimated forty-five percent of his body!… Either way, it was progress from not even being able to make it out of the space-time tunnel the technique created.

After the private training, he joined Daiki, Sakumo and Kamin in the kenjutsu training, just like he had the last two weeks, finishing the training sessions full of small cuts from the sparing, and with a little food, he quickly found his way to bed once more…

'I have less than a week left before the invasion, and I'm not even close to being ready… Hopefully I can finish the flying thunder god to a workable level, so that I can at least save some of the Uzumaki… My priority should be Akane, Akako, Kamin, Kazu and Daiki, so that Kushina and Kana can still have some family alive… Kazu and Daiki will probably have to protect the village, so I can't flee with them and Konoha's forces won't make it in time…'

Thinking for about thirty minutes, there where still a few thing he could do to increase the number of surviving Uzumaki…

'…So, with that in mind, the most effective and least suspicious method, would be to send a message to Konoha before the attack began, so that the forces were already mobilized, but I would need to make it trustworthy and give it the right clearance level and authority… Arg I'm too tired to think about this now, I'll think about it tomorrow, I should go to sleep now'

And so, he went to sleep