24 Rite of Passage

Sitting in the middle of the extravagant sealing hall that rises high above the Uzumaki compound is Shiran, looking as serious and focused as he has ever looked. Within this hall, the air seemed to hum with chakra and anticipation. The chakra, from the amount that was gathered in one space, and the anticipation to see just how much of a prodigy this young Shiran is, filled every corner.

"Shiran, are you prepared to make the Crimson Spiral Seal today?" The first elder, Fuji, asked Shiran in a voice that exuded a powerful presence but also had an undertone of curiosity to it.

"Yes, I believe that I am ready to be officially recognized by the clan, Elder Fuji," Shiran responded with not a hint of uncertainty or nervousness. Even going as far as to not glance at his dad who was at the head of the table all the elders were sitting at.

The first elder nodded, recognizing the pride behind those words. Fuji signaled for one of the hall workers to bring a piece of parchment and a cup full of ink out and put it in front of the four-and-a-half-year-old Shiran.

Shiran looked at the cup of ink and put his hand to the very delicately designed glass cup where the ink sat.

'First, I need to insert my chakra into the ink. I ended up figuring this out after my brainstorming session with my clones, and it made so much sense in the end. Sealing, or fuinjutsu, is just another type of ninja art similar to ninjutsu. Thinking along those lines, we need chakra to perform ninjutsu, so, it would make for a perfectly logical step to say that to be able to make a seal you would need to infuse something with chakra during the process of making a seal.'

Letting my chakra flow into the ink felt exactly like when I fed my chakra into the chakra nature paper when I found out what my elements were. Which, surprisingly or unsurprisingly, feels different from when I perform any kind of ninjutsu.

Taking the brush off the ground and dipping it in the chakra-infused ink, I took it out and focused my full attention on the task at hand while closing my eyes to gather myself. The scene inside my mind was like the river, as I sat with my eyes closed I watched as all other thoughts floated by me as I concentrated.

Opening my eyes, I focused on the blank scroll that sat before me, awaiting the drawing of the Crimson Spiral Seal. With the chakra-infused ink on the tip of the brush, I focused on the raw emotions that floated around inside of myself constantly.

I thought of all my hopes for the future, bright and boundless, painting the scroll with broad strokes. My fears of the dangers that lurk in the future, painting smaller lines coming off of the wider strokes. The happiness at having a family that I can love and cherish and also the nervousness that follows the love of other people. The excitement flows through every brush stroke creating small imperfections here and there but ironically enough the small imperfections make the seal look perfect.

Taking all of the emotions that I had from deep down in my soul to the ones that I experience on the surface of everyday life, all of them were put into the first seal I've ever made.

Every brush stroke I made, I felt the chakra build up and the seal become warmer, glowing a faint lavender color as more chakra was being infused into it.

As I approached the end of the creation of the Crimson Spiral Seal, I took a second to stop and admire the seal that I had just made.

The seal itself looked exactly like the Uzumaki clan symbol to the t, but upon closer inspection, you could see smaller, more intricate designs on the black spiral marks that looked like looping chains and also small lightning strikes that seemed to be branching off of those chain-like patterns.

Smiling at the symbol and the little intricacies within the seal, I could feel the power of seals running through my veins. It was addictive to create a seal; my blood seemed to be boiling, ready to create more seals, the feeling almost identical to when I spar with my dad.

I rose from my sitting position with the scroll held tightly in my hand and walked over to the clan head, my dad, and handed him the scroll with my head raised and my eyes keeping eye contact the entire time.

As Haru took a look at his son's first seal, his eyebrows raised just a fraction of a centimeter as he looked back at his son who was staring at him with a firmness he doesn't usually see in his son's eyes unless Shiran is training.

Looking back at the vibrant, pulsating seal in his hands, he nodded his head in acknowledgment. This was a completed rite of passage seal and it showed that Shiran had truly taken the last couple of months to think about what he wanted to do and how he wanted to complete the seal. He also seemed to have realized that seals are not just ink on a piece of parchment but are the embodiment of your chakra and will infused onto a surface.

My dad smiled at me while passing the seal around to the other elders at the table, each of them taking a few moments to appraise the newly made seal. As the paper was passed around, the second elder, Hiashi, let out a chuckle.

"I guess you really weren't lying to us all those months ago, Haru. I shouldn't have had my doubts but that's neither here nor there. Your son has seemingly managed to learn the inner workings of seals and how to create them, so I suggest we get him a fuinjutsu teacher."

Hiashi looked at me and then back at my dad as if to ask what he thought about the suggestion.

"I agree. He'll be starting the academy in a couple of months, so we should start getting him to train the basics with someone as soon as possible," Haru said, nodding his head in ascent.

"How about Yoko?" The third elder, Hideki, offered up his opinion as he saw everyone else deep in thought at the time.

"Yoko? She hasn't wanted to train anyone since Daichi passed on to the pure lands." My dad furrowed his brows as he thought about the idea but shook his head as it was unrealistic. Even if Yoko was the best teacher of sealing techniques in the Uzumaki clan, by far, they couldn't force her to do anything especially since she was a retired shinobi.

"I think that if we give her the seal that Shiran has just created she'll genuinely think about it." Hiashi piped up from the side.

My dad nodded and grabbed the parchment with the seal on it again, looking at it intensely.

"I'll talk to her and see if she'll at least think about it," Haru said with finality in his voice. The elders all smiled and nodded their heads to Haru's words.

"Shiran, you can go head back home for now. Also, please tell your mother that I might be home late because of clan matters." Nodding my head, I told my dad okay and left the grand hall where the sealing took place.

As I stepped out into the cool evening air, a sense of accomplishment washed over me. Today marked

 the beginning of a new chapter in my life, one where I would delve deeper into the ancient art of sealing and carve my own path within the Uzumaki clan.

(A/N: The next chapter starts the Academy arc. With it you can expect a couple of cool power-ups, Shiran starting to play with jutsus, and also 3 new characters that will stick around for the majority of the story.)