Sunagakure. What a wonderful place. Trilby never expected to become so fond of it when he first arrived here. He imagined he would feel a vague sense of gratitude and nothing more. However, he had to admit, he started to feel like he was truly... at home. He had snuck his way onto the roof of the kazekage's building, and the view was fantastic. He could see his apartment complex, the home that had been given to him free of charge, allowing him to stay in Sunagakure until he became a genin. The Tsumi training grounds, where he had sweat blood and tears with his former sensei, Tanzo. The sandy arena, where he had met Shibirin and Ryu. His friends, and the closest thing he had to a family. Trilby stared at his left hand. The Ouroboros, the symbol of reincarnation. Of immortality. It still burned through his flesh some nights, reminding him of his past. He still believed he would turn it from the symbol of his incarceration to that of his power and freedom. “Son, this area is restricted, get off the damn roof.” A Jounin appeared behind him, his hand rested casually on the hilt of his sword. Trilby knew it was only a matter of time before someone would notice he was on the roof, but still, seven minutes was a reasonably pathetic response time for the Kazekage's office. “I'm going” Trilby said, leaping from the rooftop into the streets of Sunagakure.

The streets were as crowded as you would expect for mid-day. Children charged back and forth up and down the streets, and people marched shop to shop. It was the sort of activity you would expect. Trilby walked aimlessly from street to street. He had no more books to read that he had clearance to and he had done all his practical training. No missions, no assignments and he couldn't find any of his friends. He had nothing to do but wander. A thick hand reached through the crowd, grabbing Trilby's shoulder. He jumped, turning around to come face to face with a rather unusual shinobi. He was in his 50s at least, and he wore the headband of the leaf. Though they were allies, it was still unusual to see them in Sunagakure. “I didn't expect to see a friendly face around here, let me buy you a drink” The man said gruffly. His smile was warm but it was clear he was no amateur. His entire body was covered in scars, and the Anbu symbol was clearly tattooed on his shoulder. Still, they were allies, and it wasn't like he was valuable enough to be killed in the middle of his own city, so cautiously, he accepted the strange man's offer.

He lead Trilby to a dusty old bar, the smell of smoke and bourbon filled the air. “What will you have” he said, gesturing towards the bar. “Bourbon.” Trilby replied dryly, examining the man in further detail now that they weren't so crowded. He certainly was an interesting individual. He had long, spiky red hair hanging down to his neck, and wore a sleeveless flak jacket. On his side hung two katana, which judging from the wear and tear on the hilts, were old and well loved. The man came over with the drinks and gestured towards an empty table, sitting across from Trilby. “I was surprised to find another Uzumaki here, the sand isn't exactly well known for having our kind.” The man said, drinking a large mouthful of his beer. Trilby paused, glass to his lips. “Uzu what?” He said, confused. He had absolutely no idea what an Uzumaki was, or why the man seemed so convinced he was one. “Come now, no need to hide it, you're an Uzumaki. I can tell by your life-force, it's so easily noticed.” Trilby slammed his glass on the desk. “I have no idea what an Uzumaki is!” He said, raising his voice slightly. He despised the notion of a complete stranger knowing something about him he didn't. At Trilby's outburst, the old man put down his beer, looking him deep in the eyes. “You... really don't know, do you?” he said, a tone of genuine shock ringing through his voice. “What's your name son?” “Trilby” downing his bourbon in one mouthful, Trilby pushed the glass aside. His blood was boiling. Some stranger shows up, drags him off to a bar and starts telling him he's an Uzumaki? What the hell does that even mean? “Trilby what? You must have a last name.” “I don't. I'm still not used to having a first name. I was born raised in slavery, we had numbers. I've only had this name for four years.” Trilby didn't know why he was telling the man this, but something about him seemed trustworthy, even if he was angry. “What about your parents, what were their names?” “Names weren't allowed. Anyone caught using names were killed. People had names. Property had numbers. That was the law of the pit.” The old man pushed his pint of beer aside and leaned back, looking Trilby up and down. “My name is Shinji Uzumaki, and you boy, are an Uzumaki too.”

Trilby was in shock. He was an Uzumaki? How?! How could some random stranger show up and tell him who and what he was?! “And how the hell would you know that?” Trilby said, his volume increasing. He was struggling to hold back his anger. It couldn't be true, it was some scheme. Someone was plotting to mess with his emotions, torment him over the things he never had. “Because” Shinji began to explain, “The Uzumaki have incredibly powerful life-force, I'm trained in sensor ninjutsu, and we can smell a member of the Uzumaki a mile off.” Shinji held his hand out, facing the palm down towards the floor. A length of glowing white chain began to lower itself from the palm of his hand. “These are chakra chains. A technique only the Uzumaki can perform. Most of us learn how to use it naturally once we get ninja training, so I'm sure you've found you can do this.” Trilby mimicked the man's actions, extending his own chain out of his hand. He couldn't help but notice his was a lot less impressive. Simply by visual examination, Shinji's chain would be able to withstand so much more force than Trilby's, but he assumed that came with experience, or stronger chakras.

There were no words, no thoughts, no feelings to describe how Trilby felt. He could barely form words. So all he did was listen. Shinji bought him drinks all night, and told him stories. Stories of the Uzumaki, of himself, his battles and why he was here. He was looking for his daughter, who went missing many years ago. Her caravan was attacked, her husband killed. He caught wind that the people behind her kidnapping were running some operations in the area. All Trilby did was drink, until the man said two words; Ironarm gang. Trilby immediately shattered the glass he was holding, the colour draining from his face. “Your daughter was kidnapped, by the Ironarm gang?” he said slowly, making sure he didn't mishear what he just said. “Yes.” “HOW LONG AGO?” Trilby couldn't contain his emotions any longer, they were flowing out of him like a torrent. “Now son, I think you should calm down, there's no need to get angr-” Trilby grabbed the table, throwing it across the room. “HOW LONG AGO WAS YOUR DAUGHTER TAKEN?!” Shinji stood up, taking a few steps back from Trilby and placing one of his hands on the hilt of one of his swords. “ANSWER ME!” he screamed, staring at Shinji, a terror and a fury roaring up through his stomach. “Twenty five years ago.” he said.

Trilby dropped to his knees, he didn't know what to think. He screamed, cried, shook. It couldn't be. The time matched perfectly. It was all he could do to explain to Shinji about his own life. About how he was born in an iron mine, into slavery, by a woman who's caravan had been attacked, and her husband killed. His father had told him that she was a shinobi, that when they captured her she was branded with seals to block her chakra flow so she couldn't escape. And that she first arrived in the mine twenty five years ago. It fit. It all fit. The dates, his Uzumaki bloodline, everything. “So that means you're my... grandson?” Shinji said slowly, in complete disbelief. As soon as the words left his mouth, Trilby took off, running into the night. He ran all the way home, and sat on his bed crying into his alcohol until he passed out. He had too many emotions to process, and he couldn't handle what was going on. The man without family, without a name, without anything, just got everything thrown at him at once, and he couldn't handle it.

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Trilby stayed in his apartment, sculling liquor and eating scraps of old food for three days. He was a miserable wreck. He never thought his emotions would react this badly if the day came that he found out who and what he was, but it burned inside of him. It devoured him like an inferno, and it was all he could do to drink and scream and break random objects in his apartment. After three days of this, he knew he couldn't hide any more. Opening his front-door, he saw Shinji sitting on the balcony outside his house. “Feeling better kid?” He said smiling at Trilby as he exited the house. He wasn't, but he was surprised that his grandfather was waiting to check on him. They sat there on that balcony while Shinji talked about his mother for hours. He told trilby everything he knew about her. Natsu Uzumaki. That was her name. Apparently she was a fuuinjutsu expert from the hidden leaf. A talented and beautiful Kunoichi. Trilby was fascinated to finally learn about his mother, she sounded like a fantastic woman. “Her husband and her were planning on having children, you know” Shinji said, a look of mild nervousness in his face. He wasn't sure how Trilby was going to take what he was about to say, given his previous outburst. “She said if it was a boy, She would name him Crowley. Crowley Uzumaki." Trilby's heart skipped a beat. Crowley Uzumaki. That was his name. He didn't even react. He had so many emotions running through his system that he couldn't feel any more.

He met with his grandfather every day over the next week, mostly sharing stories and learning more about each other. The final day, however, was eventual. They met at the bar they had shared their first night together, as they had for most of that week. “Come with me.” Shinji said flatly. “Excuse me?” “Come with me, to the leaf. Given your situation the sand would have no problems extraditing you, and its where you belong. Come home with me.” Trilby was shocked. He was glad to finally have a family, to know who he was, but this? Abandoning the sand, for Konoha? Never. “No. I can't come with you, Shinji. This place is my home, I have friends here, and while my roots may be in the leaf, I am a child of the desert, and always will be. The wind runs in my veins.” He said resolutely. He could never leave the home he so loved. Shinji nodded, reaching into his flak jacket and pulling out a scroll. He unrolled it to reveal a summoning fuuinjutsu. Cutting his finger with a kunai, he bled onto the centre of the scroll, causing it to trigger. A small pile of scrolls appeared in-front of him. “Your mother was working on her own style of Fuuinjutsu. I could never figure out her notes, after all I was bad at fuuinjutsu. But I am confident you can, my boy. Take them, they're yours.” He said, before standing up. “I'll be off now, the leaf needs me back now that I know I will not find my daughter here.” He hugged Trilby before disappearing into a plume of smoke,leaving behind the mound of scrolls he left him.

Trilby gathered them up, taking them home and reading through them all. They were encrypted. It made sense, Fuuinjutsu researchers often encrypted their notes if they were so important, so that most people couldn't understand them. It took Trilby weeks to decode them all, and it was only then he realised how little he comprehended. His mother truly was a genius. He had spent most of his free-time studying Fuuinjutsu in depth and he had never even stumbled across anything this complex. Most of the techniques were incomplete, and his mother referenced several times to what she called the Icarus Key. It was the missing component in her research. The seals themselves were perfectly fine, but they needed specifically shaped chakra to trigger, and in all her research she could never find anything that made it work. However, she did mention that the closest she ever got to reaching her goal was during her time at the fire temple of Konoha. She referred to an ancient style of fighting they kept records of in their archives, that was very similar to ninjutsu, but with completely different seals and completely different ways of combining energies.

Trilby had no intention of giving up simply because his mother couldn't find the answer. Perhaps what she couldn't find was in the sand somewhere. Hitting the grand library, Trilby spent weeks reading every book he could on chakra frequencies and natures, on ancient fighting styles and on Fuuinjutsu. It took him over a month before he eventually found something that looked even vaguely useful. The yasuraka tribe of the northern sands supposedly had many secrets of old world ninjutsu, but they were very controlling. Only allowing in very specific people who passed their tests and proved their worth. Still, the grand library clearly wouldn't be of any use to him. Packing him his scrolls, his gear and some travel equipment and rations, Trilby set out, for the yasuraka tribe.

It was a week of hiking through the desert before Trilby reached his goal. In the far north of the land of wind, there was a legendary monastery of warrior priests, who practised the ancient ways. Trilby finally found them when his rations had run out. In the distance, he saw a tower of stone sticking out of the peak of the mountain, a fire ablaze at it's top. Just as the books had described. Climbing to it's summit was not easy to say the least. The slopes were steep, and the sun was harsh. It took Trilby the better part of two days to finally reach the steps to the monastery, by which time he was at his limit. He hadn't eaten in days, and he had run out of water on his climb. The monks dragged him in, and fed him. Though the way up was harsh, the actual facility was beautiful. It was like a city hidden in the mountains, hundreds of men bustled around, all warrior priests, masters of their arts. Gorgeous plants he had never seen before snaked their way along the walls, and people fought with techniques he had never seen before. Blue fire, solid fists of wind. The warriors here were truly terrifying indeed.

When he recovered, Trilby was taken to present himself to the holy lord Shinjinka, leader of the monks and guardian of their ways. The man himself sat before a statue of some god Trilby knew not, dressed in ash white robes. He turned to face him when he entered, revealing that he had no eyes. Instead, his sockets were completely hollow. Trilby recoiled slightly when he saw this. “Do not be afraid, child. It is the price all leaders of our order pay. Now, sit. Tell me why you are there.” Trilby sat before the man, and drew from his jacket his mother's notes. “These notes belonged to my mother, she was a fuuinjutsu scholar. She invented a new style of sealing techniques, but couldn't perfect it. She believed the secret lied in the ancient ways, lost to us in the world outside. I believed by coming here, I could learn how to complete her work.” The man smiled, taking the notes from Trilby and looking through them like a man with eyes would. “These notes are interesting, your mother was a wise woman. However, I cannot take you at your word alone.” The man reached out, placing his hand on Trilby's head. “Calm yourself, clear your mind” he said, as a feeling of calm rained over Trilby. “I see. You are telling the truth. You come here to fulfil the work of a mother you did not know. You believe that by mastering her techniques, you can become strong, to protect what you love. Noble.” “So you'll let me see your archives?” “I'm afraid not, only someone who has proven themselves worthy of the gauntlet of wind can access the archives. If you wish, you are welcome to live along us and train for the trials. Your heart is pure, so you are welcome.”

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Trilby settled into his new home with ease. His live as a slave had him used to harsh routined existence, and this was no different. His long black hair was shaved down to nothingness, and his uniform was replaced with a set of light black robes, a Sunagakure headband logo braided into the back. Visitors were not commonly accepted here, as was indicated by the reaction of the other monks. He wasn't allowed full access to the facility, as most of their techniques were completely classified. However, they were welcoming enough. Monks weren't allowed out of the facility, and tales from the surface seemed to fascinate them. Day to day life was simple enough, Trilby lived as the monks did. Every morning at 4 am, they would rise for prayers, which consisted of two hours of meditation and prayer rituals. They would then feast, and begin to train. Training lasted until sundown, and typically involved Ninjutsu sparring and copious amounts of physical exercise. Trilby wasn't involved in most of this, as most of their techniques were secrets, but he trained with them when he could, and studied otherwise. Afterwards, they would gather in the main hall where they would feast and pray for another two hours, before finally retiring to bed, to start the process all over again the next morning. Here, Trilby learned of their faith and beliefs, and of their ways of training. He enjoyed his time here, and he learned a lot of the nature of life within those walls. Weeks turned to months, that turned to a half a year. And he was finally ready.

Shinjinka summoned Trilby to his inner sanctum. It was a rare occurrence, as he hadn't stepped foot in the sanctum since the day he arrived. “I am aware that it has been half a year since you were first found your way to us. It is time for you to take the trials of wind. Are you willing?” Trilby nodded with confidence. He hadn't spent half a year away from home, and worked so hard, simply to turn away now. “As you wish. But be warned, these are trials of your will, not your body.” Shinjinka formed a hand seal Trilby had never seen before, causing the ground beneath their feet to sink down for what seemed like an eternity, before it landed into a large, black cavern. There was only one form of light, a row of blue fire, lining the wall of a stone corridor. “Proceed down the hall, if you survive, you'll end up back in my office. If you don't... then may the gods be kind.”

Trilby proceeded along the hallway, the blue flames enthralling his focus as he marched along. He was always fascinated by those flames, but their nature, along with that of so many other things he had seen here, was kept under great guard. Even if he passed the trials, he would only be given limited access. After ten minutes of travelling down the dank stone corridor, he reached a large stone doorway, with the words “May the gods be kind” Carved above the entrance. Brilliant, dark hallway, ominous signs, this will probably be reasonably horrific.


Sliding the door open, he stepped into a square room, lined with dusty old mirrors covered in moss. There was a circular platform, slightly raised, in the centre of the room. As Trilby stepped in, a exact duplicate of himself rose from the platform. Trilby stepped forward cautiously, and the clone mirrored him. He stepped forward again, and so did his duplicate. “Hello” the Trilbies said in unison. Trilby raised his fist, and so did his clone. “So, you mimic everything I do. So if I don't attack, neither will you” said the two Trilbies. They looked around the room, studying the environment. The mirrors, while filthy and ivy covered, were all in perfect condition. There was text on the wall opposite from the door he entered through, stating “Defeat yourself to proceed” Trilby paused, considering what the text meant. The clone was identical to himself, and mimicked him, so he would never defeat it in a fight. It had to have a different meaning altogether. There had to be some sort of symbolism at play. Then, he reflected upon what Shinjinka told him. It was a trial of the mind. Surely, the only way to win a fight that you can never win is to not start it to begin with. Walking to the side, his clone mimicked him, moving out of the way, allowing Trilby to sit down on the stone platform the clone rose from. There he meditated, as they did during the prayer meetings, and waited.

After ten minutes of meditating, the platform he was sitting in clicked, lowing itself to be level with the floor. The mirror opposite the door he entered through shattered, revealing a path deeper inwards. Trilby turned around to see his clone was gone. “First trial down it seems” he said aloud, as he turned towards the new corridor.

Trilby reached the second door, which had large words etched into it's surface.

“The contents inside are not as they seem
Find the flaw within the dream”

Pushing the door open, Trilby was bathed in a blinding bright light. When the light faded, he was in a courtyard. Strange flowers bloomed around him, and a stone statue in the centre was spraying water into a basin. In-front of him, two old men sat before him, playing Shogi. “The flaw within the dream? What did he mean” Trilby said aloud, staring at the odd world around him. The two men jumped when Trilby spoke, and turned to him, shouting in a strange language he had never heard before. Figuring he shouldn't be here, Trilby looked around for an exit, seeing a doorway. Walking through it, he found himself outside. Tall, monolithic buildings of glass and steel rose miles into the sky, and strange tin cans rolled past at insane speeds. People in odd garbs moved this way and that, some talking to strange boxes they held to their heads. Every word they spoke meant nothing to Trilby, as he didn't speak their language. Signs hung from buildings and on benches, pictures of beautiful women with text next to it, people holding bottles of strange black fluid. “Find the flaw within the dream...” trilby said aloud, staring at the world. The only thing that was out of place here was... himself. It was clearly a genjutsu of some kind, it had to be. Perhaps biting his finger would break the spell. Trilby crunched down, but all that resulted was pain. Clearly this wouldn't be so easy to break. Regardless, Trilby pressed on. A man walked past him, drawing on a flat brick of some description. Kids ran past, with lights in the heels of their shoes. Across the street, a man pointed a strange L shaped black stick at a woman, who was screaming “Don't hurt me!” before the stick kicked back, releasing a loud bang, and the woman collapsed. This certainly wasn't anything like his world at all. The people around him began to run and panic at the gunshot, one of them knocking Trilby to the ground. As he got up, he saw his reflection in a shop window. Of course! The previous room was lined with mirrors, and there was a clone that reflected what he did. Now this. The laws of this world, as odd as they were, seemed internally consistent. The only anomaly was him. Trilby plunged his fist through the window, and the world around him began to dissolve in a flash of bright light. Trilby woke up inside a pitch-black room with sunlight shining through the crack of a door. Trilby walked forward, pushing it open to reveal... another hallway. Fantastic.

This hallway was a lot longer than the others, and pitch black. Trilby walked along, running his hand along to wall for guidance. Unlike the others, which were straight and narrow, this one was wider than the others and snaked around multiple times. Eventually Trilby reached the end, a round room with a single shaft of light coming from the roof. As he stepped in, the room was lit up by purple fire lining the walls, and a stone tablet rose from the centre of the otherwise spotless room.
Etched into the tablet was a carving of the Yggdrasil, the world tree. Above it was the words “Feed the tree the fruit of it's loins.” Yggdrasil, the world tree. Fruit of it's loins. Trilby sat and pondered this for awhile before realising that the answer was incredibly simple. Yggdrasil was the tree that supported the world, it gave it what it needed to live. So the world itself and it's children were the fruit of it's loins. Biting his thumb, Trilby ran it across the tree's roots, bleeding onto them as he did so. The stone tablet began to shake, splitting in two. From the ground where it rose from, a spiral staircase rose from the ground, tearing a path through the roof.

Trilby made the long climb up the stairs, eventually coming out in Shinjinka's chamber. “I see you made it out. But did you comprehend?” Shinjinka said with a smile, gesturing Trilby to sit with him. Sitting next to him, he replied, “The first test, I couldn't defeat myself. I had to not try to fight myself to proceed. The second room, I was the only thing wrong with the illusion. It wasn't my world, I didn't belong. The third room, I had to give my blood to Yggdrasil.” He said, a tone of new-found thoughtfulness seeping through. “The first room. It is impossible to defeat yourself. Internal conflict is an un-winnable battle. The second room, was conformity. Trying to fit in where you don't belong, how it wouldn't work. The third room was to do with the cycle of life. Yggdrasil represents the world, and bleeding on it's roots signifies giving your life back to the earth when you die. Put the three together and it's about harmony. Within yourself, your environment and the world.” Shinjinka stood up without a word, walking over to a large bell, which he held his hand against. It chimed loudly once before coming to a complete stop, and a young monk entered the room. “You called, my lord?” “Take our esteemed guest... to the archives.”

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Trilby spent the next month studying whatever he could find about ancient chakra weaving, and ancient fuuinjutsu. Thankfully, Shinjinka let him make copies of any relevant information he found, so he didn't have to reply purely on memory. After a month of 12 hour a day reading sessions, he found mention of a small clan of shinobi mercenaries called the Hotoke. The Hotoke used their own handseals, and apparently had a very strange kit of techniques no shinobi could copy, even the Uchiha. However, they were not using kekkei genkei, as they adopted and trained war orphans. Which meant the secret they had was probably related to their unique form of shaping and manipulating chakra. Thankfully, the archives went into great detail about what they believed and how they performed these techniques. They used their own hand seals, nine of them. Which they called Confront, Peace, Fight, Apology, Release, God, Anger, Sin, and Sage. Trilby spent a long time studying the way these seals effected the chakra flow. They seemed to be useless for regular ninjutsu, only working in very low frequency charges, with a heavy yang flow. Trilby compared these pulses to the only one of his mothers seals he fully comprehended at his level of skill; an unnamed technique which seals ninjutsu inside it, and triggers on enemy proximity, an enemy being anyone except the one who primed the technique. His mother postulated this seal would work if it had a very specific frequency of chakra. Trilby concluded this frequency could be formed by combining Confront, God, Sage and Release. Trilby formed those handseals slowly, before pressing his hands against the seal. It crackled slightly, the kanji glowing softly. This was exactly the reaction he expected, as it did not have a ninjutsu sealed inside it. It had worked!

Trilby organised his notes. He had copies of all the notes he had reviewed during his extensive time in the archives. Thankfully, the Holy Lord of the monks was allowing him to keep them, as he had proved himself. Still, the time for him to leave had come. He took the gear he arrived there with, a week's worth of supplies, and his original clothes, which he hadn't worn in a year, as well as the robes they gave him for his time with them. Slinging his pack onto his back, he stepped out the stone doors of the monastery, for potentially the last time. He had almost forgotten the feeling of the sunlight on his face as he began the long and painful trek down the mountain and across the desert.

It was a week before Trilby arrived back in Sunagakure. The town looked the same as before he left, the hustle and bustle was identical, and the people looked and felt the same. Trilby's hair had grown back in the month he had spent in the archives, and well enough, too. He didn't want to return home bald. He had a b-line for his old apartment and found it was still exactly as he left it, to his satisfaction. He grabbed his money, which he had the foresight to leave behind, knowing he'd likely lose it in the monastery anyway, where it had no use. Heading into the crowded streets of Sunagakure, he swung by the local bar, grabbing a strong drink and pouring over his notes again. It was clear the 9 styles of the Hotoke were the Icarus key his mother spoke about, but he still couldn't decode any jutsu beyond this first one he had translated. The rest were beyond his understanding at his level of proficiency. Still, the brilliant foresight of his mother was clear, she knew that it was possible and kept developing, even without the Icarus key, knowing it would be mastered one day. For now, Trilby needed a name for the seal he had decoded, the seal he would begin to train. He decided on Jigoku Youjinbou. Hell's guardsman. A fitting title, considering the technique judges those that pass within it's range and assaults those it finds unworthy. As for the family of jutsu his mother invented, he would call them Kuroimibe Geijutsu. The dark priest arts.

It was a week before Trilby arrived back in Sunagakure. The town looked the same as before he left, the hustle and bustle was identical, and the people looked and felt the same. Trilby's hair had grown back in the month he had spent in the archives, and well enough, too. He didn't want to return home bald. He had a b-line for his old apartment and found it was still exactly as he left it, to his satisfaction. He grabbed his money, which he had the foresight to leave behind, knowing he'd likely lose it in the monastery anyway, where it had no use. Heading into the crowded streets of Sunagakure, he swung by the local bar, grabbing a strong drink and pouring over his notes again. It was clear the 9 styles of the Hotoke were the Icarus key his mother spoke about, but he still couldn't decode any jutsu beyond this first one he had translated. The rest were beyond his understanding at his level of proficiency. Still, the brilliant foresight of his mother was clear, she knew that it was possible and kept developing, even without the Icarus key, knowing it would be mastered one day. For now, Trilby needed a name for the seal he had decoded, the seal he would begin to train. He decided on Jigoku Youjinbou. Hell's guardsman. A fitting title, considering the technique judges those that pass within it's range and assaults those it finds unworthy. As for the family of jutsu his mother invented, he would call them Kuroimibe Geijutsu. The dark priest arts.

The actual nature of Jigoku Youjinbou was rather simple once you mastered the art of weaving chakra with the different seals. Still, Trilby couldn't properly stress test it without a clear area and an assistant. After a quick trip to check, Shibirin wasn't home. That left only one option. Knocking on the door, the sound of many bolts scraping their way out of locks began to resonate, before the door opened and firm, bandaged arms reached through, grabbing Trilby and hugging him. “Master Tanzo, good to see you” Tanzo broke the hug and punched Trilby firmly in the stomach. “You fool boy, I thought you were dead dammit. If you disappear on me like that again I'll kill you myself” “Yes sir. I'm sorry but I didn't come here to make small talk, I need your help” He explained the situation while they made their way to the sandy arena, a perfect place to test his new technique. “Go ahead, show me this Fuuinjutsu of yours.” Trilby stretched his arms out before beginning to form his handseals. Confront, God, Sage, Release, Anger; Dog, Boar, Bird. Trilby slammed his hand into the ground, forming a large circular seal, about half a metre in diameter. Tanzo stepped towards it, staring it with fascination. “What an interesting juts-” Tanzo got a bit too close, Triggering the seal. From the seal, a swarm of stone spears shot towards Tanzo. He leapt out of the way, avoiding them. “My god son... that is a fantastic seal. It really does seal your ninjutsu and detonate it on proximity. You said it also had a contact form?” Trilby nodded, forming the hand seals again. Confront, God, Sage, Release, Fight; Dog, Boar, Bird. This seal had an obviously different kanji in the centre, but was otherwise identical. Tanzo made a clone, who immediately stepped on the seal, being impaled with sharp stone spears the second he made contact. It worked, and perfectly. Over a year of hard research had paid off. But Trilby knew, he was only scratching the surface of this research. Fuuinjutsu contained an unlimited power to those that had the will to crack it, and Trilby would find the answers, in time. Nothing would stop him. His mother had left him a gift. Crowley Uzumaki. Her child. She left him knowledge, the greatest gift she could've. And even the greatest minds in the Uzumaki of the Fire, masters of sealing, could not crack it. It was clear this was a path only he could walk.

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