"Fine," Kabuto Yakushi agreed. Other matters could wait—for now, Kabuto Yakushi's priority was to get out safely. "But in my current state, there's no way I can write anything..."
Mizuki looked at Kabuto, who was completely wrapped in bandages, and immediately understood his predicament. Just moving his head and speaking was already a struggle—expecting him to write by hand was simply impossible.
"Fine then, you talk, and I'll write."
Badly injured as he was, Kabuto had little room for resistance under these circumstances. Besides, Mizuki wasn't completely ignorant about cursed seals. Kabuto knew he couldn't pull any tricks with this technique, so he reluctantly dictated everything to Mizuki.
After a long silence, Mizuki stared at the scroll in his hands, frowning deeply in thought. Then he lifted his head toward Kabuto, who wore an expectant expression, and asked, "The medical ninjutsu Yin Healing Wound Destruction doesn't seem problematic, but there's one thing I'm confused about regarding the Cursed Seal Technique—it has absolutely no method of removal. Why is that?"
The scroll in his hand clearly laid out the structure of the Cursed Seal Technique. Everything lined up closely with what Mizuki himself had researched and suspected. Overall, he believed Kabuto hadn't tried to deceive him. Details could always be checked later.
However, here lay an obvious abnormality. Based on Mizuki's understanding, all techniques built upon sealing techniques should be reversible; what could be sealed could also be unsealed. For example, the Five Elements Seal had its corresponding counter—Five Elements Seal Release. The Fourth Hokage Minato Namikaze left behind the Eight Trigrams Sealing Style used to bind Nine-Tails, yet also created keys to unlock it. Even the Dead Demon Consuming Seal had been cracked by Orochimaru, enabling him to recover his sealed arms. What made the Cursed Seal strange was that it allowed absolutely no possibility of removal. Once infected by the curse seal, there was only one path forward—a downward spiral—unless one completely eliminated the caster's mark entangled with the recipient's spirit. But how could that ever realistically be achieved? Unless someone possessed divine weapons like the Sword of Totsuka, capable of imposing absolute laws onto reality itself. In theory, once activated, the cursed seal became irreversible. Short of resisting it from the very start—as White Zetsu did—it would be nearly impossible to eliminate. Even standard methods could barely suppress its effects, let alone remove it altogether.
"I really overestimated myself—I thought I could unravel a secret technique Lord Orochimaru spent a lifetime studying, in just two or three years. Looks like I'll have no choice but to follow the route of mimicry after understanding its principles," Mizuki murmured to himself.
Hearing Mizuki's question—an inquiry directly tied to his own survival—Kabuto dared not respond carelessly. He carefully recalled before answering, "I don't know either. The Cursed Seal Technique is simply too advanced. Honestly speaking, even after acquiring it, I've only mastered its superficial applications. Understanding its true nature clearly takes an exceptional mastery of sealing techniques. As for the fundamental principle..." He hesitated slightly before continuing, "Once, I heard Lord Orochimaru say something—'Is there *nothing* a ninja can't do?'"
"There is nothing a ninja cannot accomplish?" Mizuki repeated softly, almost talking to himself.
"That doesn't quite add up," Naruto said. "Ninjas aren't omnipotent—they definitely have limits. But Orochimaru's arrogance reveals something important: anything your mind can dream up, a ninja can probably pull off. That includes even bringing back the dead."
"So you're saying this jutsu can be cracked—I just don't get it?"
"Exactly," Kabuto confirmed.
"You sure that's all there is to the Cursed Seal Technique?" Mizuki asked suspiciously.
"I can't be certain, but that's everything I know. Lord Orochimaru isn't someone I can easily predict."
"There's just not enough data here. Maybe I should run my own experiments?"
After thinking it over, Mizuki abandoned the idea. Orochimaru had sacrificed countless test subjects to obtain the perfect Cursed Seal of Heaven. There was no way Mizuki could replicate that process himself.
"There's one more condition—I want the experimental data on cursed seals you've collected, especially detailed information about the Otogakure Five."
"That information is extremely valuable and hard to deliver."
"Orochimaru has many abandoned laboratories. Just leave the records in one of them and let me know when they're ready."
Kabuto hesitated before saying, "That could work, but it'd put me at serious risk."
"If you practice Sage Mode, I'll give you one question!"
"A single question? That seems far too cheap. Are you saying if I refuse, you'll cancel the deal altogether?"
"Precisely." He still carried a mutated, incomplete Cursed Seal. Until he completely figured it out, who knew when problems might arise?
"I can give you one hint—Sage Mode isn't like ordinary Ninjutsu. The dangers and difficulties involved sometimes can't be overcome by intelligence or hard work alone. Surely you wouldn't go ask Lord Orochimaru about personal matters like this? How valuable a single question is—you should carefully consider that..."
Mizuki's words gave Kabuto pause. After recalling Mizuki's warning, he finally nodded and agreed: "Then let's settle on that. Don't even think about going back on your word now."
"There won't be any more changes."
...
He'd walked away with solid gains and even more potentially on the way, yet he noticed something unusual—wasn't Kabuto actually more anxious than himself?
[More anxious? Something's wrong?] Suddenly halting mid-dash along the road back to the village, Mizuki looked back toward where Kabuto had been. By now, it was probably too late to chase after him!
"I made a mistake after all, getting caught up in Kinjutsu. I thought I'd gained the advantage, but it seems Kabuto hasn't lost anything either!"
A sudden realization hit Mizuki—Kabuto hadn't been in such a hurry just to escape. His real goal had always been to master Sage Mode!
At first, Kabuto had aimed for the Breath-Sealing Art, with Sage Mode as his second priority. Because of Kabuto changing his focus, Mizuki had overlooked a crucial fact—the two techniques shared one key characteristic: they both boosted Chakra, one through quantity, the other through quality.
Mizuki initially believed Kabuto Yakushi was after Sage Mode just to boost his combat power—but now things looked far more complex than that.
Whether it was the Breath-Sealing Art or Sage Mode, both were simply tools leading to a deeper purpose.
A massive amount of chakra from the Breath-Sealing Art—or even higher-grade Sage Chakra—was needed to move forward. As far as Mizuki could recall, only a handful of people had ever sought something like this.
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