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Naruto Saga » Kaminari no Kuni » Kumogakure » Decoding the Scrolls [Flashback/Training/Private]

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Bokuden

Bokuden


D-rank
Bokuden swept his hand gently across the surface of the old scroll that laid unrolled on the desk before him, wiping away unknown years of accumulated dust which would otherwise hinder his ability to read its contents. Even with his vision he would need every bit of help he could get to decipher the symbols inscribed on this parchment. The scroll was old, so much so that the parchment its secrets lived on was itself almost dying at the slightest touch. The room was dark, just a small candle illuminating a small area on the surface below, visibility wavering as the shadows danced along with the flickering flame. The dim setting was inconvenient, but necessary to prevent arousing suspicion and alerting others to his presence. The last thing he needed was to be found rummaging through his clan’s archives.

Ever since he was a child he was told to stay clear of this old wing of the Ryuzoji compound for one reason or another. When he was a small child the warnings ranged from hauntings to monsters and as he grew older it simply became an order. Childhood curiosity however, would blossom into adulthood suspicion, prompting Bokuden to take it upon himself to conduct his own investigation. Who could fault his suspicion? This area was supposed to be an archive, and if that was all it was there was no reason for it to be protected and labeled off limits even to Bokuden. Already more than suspicious of the intentions of his father and grandfather Bokuden intended to uncover whatever it was that they wanted to keep even him from seeing. As such, he snuck into the archive wing of the Ryuzoji compound under the cover of the night, using his master key made for all heirs of the main family to undo the nearly unbreakable lock that sealed the massive wooden doors shut for as long as Bokuden could remember.



Learning Fuuinjutsu: 322/1800

Bokuden

Bokuden


D-rank
The scroll that Bokuden found himself examining was left on top of a desk in the center of the room, noteworthy for being the only document that wasn’t neatly stored away in the shelves. It was curious to find a document in this condition not only because of how blatantly it stuck out being the only such scroll to be left out, but also because the thick layer of dust that blanketed the document when he found it also told him that it had not been touched in quite a long time. It had even been left partially opened, signaling that whoever it was that had been reading the scroll for one reason or another did not have the time to put it back where they found it, a curious thought considering who the only people who had access to this room were. It was highly unlike either Bokuden’s father or grandfather to leave something unattended to like this after use. The fact that one of them would even come to this section of the compound to use this scroll specifically however, denoted some modicum of importance of the document.

Much to Bokuden’s dismay however, his attempts at uncovering the scroll’s secrets for himself would prove to be completely unsuccessful. The characters inked upon the parchment were not those of any language he had ever encountered, in fact they hardly seemed like letterform at all. There were short segments of symbols that seemed to have some kind of commonality that could resemble a language, but then others just seemed to be completely out of place. The abstract shapes that the brushstrokes made were more akin to some kind of obscure fuiinjutsu script than an alphabet. “Wait… is that it?” he would ponder to himself as he examined the document more closely, “Could these be fuuinjutsu seals of some kind?”



Learning Fuuinjutsu: 635/1800

Bokuden

Bokuden


D-rank
Bokuden had been spending more and more time studying the sealing arts in recent months, valuing the utility they offered in the shinobi world and seeking to master them for himself. It is for that reason that he was able to recognize a seal when he saw one, even one that used completely unique and unorthodox symbols such as these. The symbols used for these sealing formulas was completely foreign to him however, nothing like the standard fuuinjutsu seals taught in the Academy or in the literature on the subject he had picked up for his own personal study. Their inability to be recognized, the age of the document, and the fact that they were in these archives pointed strongly towards these particular sealing formulas to be very old. Old enough for them to not share any discernable translations with their modern counterparts, in fact.

Thinking back on it, the layer of dust that he had cleaned off of the document upon finding did not compare to the dust that coated the rest of the old room nor did it do the age of the document justice. Looking at it more carefully he would estimate that the time between this scroll’s last use and Bokuden finding it was no more than a few months, meaning it was being looked at recently. For what reason? That still needed to be uncovered. Whatever it was, if it so compelled one or both of them to come into the archives and actively search for it, there was a good chance that it would be worth finding out exactly what it was.

That task would have been much simpler however, if he was capable of reading the damned things at all. Not having ever seen fuuinjutsu symbols like this it wasn’t even like he could take it to an expert to have it deciphered, not that he had any intention of doing so. When dealing with those two it was impossible to tell who they have working in their employ. There wasn’t even anyone he could trust in the village to sneak this scroll off to. He would have to work on it himself.



Learning Fuuinjutsu: 998/1800

Bokuden

Bokuden


D-rank
The first thing that came to mind as far as deciphering the symbols on the scroll was to seek out the section of the library that the scroll was taken from. Even without being able to read it totally, something about these symbols seemed… incomplete. If his suspicion was right, then this scroll was likely to be part of a set and hopefully being able to see the rest of them would give him a better indication of what purpose they served. With any luck there might even be a symbol key to give him actual translations of the symbols. If someone had gone through the trouble of picking out this document specifically there had to be some way to decipher it. He could only hope that it hadn’t been taken with them.

And so he would begin his search, first rolling back up the scroll on the table, taking special care not to damage the delicate parchment, and making his way into the veritable maze of shelves which housed countless numbers of scrolls and texts. The space was absolutely enormous, much larger than he had ever imagined. Rather than being separated by floors like the rest of the compound, the archive’s roof’s ceilings were visible from the ground floor, almost disappearing into an almost endless blackness as Bokuden looked up in the darkened, cavernous space. It was only after shaking himself free of the awe he felt from the grandeur of the library he found himself in that the realization of him having no idea where to begin his search began to set in. He had no idea how documents were sorted in these archives and even if he did it was not like he was able to read the scroll to know what he was actually looking for. At this point he might simply have to spend as long as he needed to just walking through and perusing the shelves and searching for an empty spot that the document could fill.



Learning Fuuinjutsu: 1334/1800

Bokuden

Bokuden


D-rank
The real problem was where he would start searching in this place. There looked to be no clear path for one to follow, only rows of shelves and winding stairs that led up to the next floor of the archives. Just by appearances alone the room was beautiful, designed like the type of library that dwelled in the pages of storybooks and it retained that air of majesty even through the shadows that blanketed the space. As innocent and peaceful as it seemed however, Bokuden knew that the walls and sealed doors were not meant to lock up this place because it was harmless. If there was one thing that his clan valued above all else historically, it was power, and they went to great lengths to consolidate as much of it as they could throughout the years. There was no doubt in Bokuden’s mind that this room housed great and terrible power.

That is why it was off limits, even to him. Bokuden had never even seen his father or grandfather actually go in the archives before. The deceptive beauty of the room was simply a mask for what dwelled within. Even the act of looking to decipher the symbols he had found in the fuuinjutsu scroll was a dangerous endeavor in itself. The techniques and knowledge locked away in this room were those that the Ryuzoji clan deemed too dangerous, one way or another, for public knowledge. The ones that they had not adopted for themselves, were sealed away in this room at the very heart of the Ryuzoji compound, far out of reach of even members of the clan, let alone outsiders, so that they may never be used against the clan.

His knowledge of this fact made Bokuden feel uneasy about delving too deep into the mysterious scroll he had found on the table, but he had to know. If someone else had been looking into it before him he needed to know why. And so he began his search for something, anything that would help him decode the puzzle that was the scroll he held carefully in his right hand.



Learning Fuuinjutsu: 1690/1800

Bokuden

Bokuden


D-rank
His eyes would dart back and forth, squinted low as he did his best to focus his eyesight to inspect the darkened room, the only available light source being the pale moonlight peering through the large glass window on the furthest wall. His search on the first floor would prove fruitless, as neither an abandoned spot on the shelves, nor any visible similarities could be drawn from the literature in that area. There were several books that had caught his attention, but once again, it was unwise to meddle too much with the documents in this room. It was bad enough that he was hunting down what he believed was likely some manner of forbidden or at least lost fuuinjutsu seal. More prominent than alluring titles or appearances however, were books that had absolutely no standout features. No titles on the covers or spines, not fancy embroidery, nothing, just old nameless books. He was most wary of those in particular.

“It looks like I’m not going to get any easy breaks after all,” he lamented to himself as he let out a light sigh in annoyance, “Of course it wasn’t going to just be on the first floor where it would be most convenient.” His gaze would shift to the spiraling staircase just off to the wall on his right before letting out another sigh, “This better be worth my time.”Bokuden would make his way up the spiraling steps and onto the next floor, making sure to keep his hands off of the railings as to not soil his hands with the caked on dust and dirt that sat upon the iron trimmings. He couldn’t help but wonder if the secrets in the tomes this room housed were really so dangerous that it wasn’t even an option to have the archives cleaned. As well maintain as the rest of the entire compound was, the dark and dusty chamber almost seemed like an entirely different world.



Learning Fuuinjutsu: 1800/1800
Training: 220

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