Ruin exploration

The door slowly opened up, accompanied by the sound of moving cogs and other mechanisms, whistling and clattering. At around halfway the door failed and couldn't move anymore, but there was just enough space for a human to squeeze themselves in. The ruin itself looked quite suspicious and dangerous, so Dix summoned a few clones with EMS, so they can see if there are any traps on the way.

And traps there were. There always was a safe route, that someone could find if they knew the layout of the building, but those who don't were subjected to many kinds of extreme dangers. These traps were quite well hidden, both physically, and with concealing fuinjutsu, but Dix realized nobody could predict that someone with EMS will try to enter the place. It was around 30 years old, or even older, and the only known EMS user at that time was actually hidden from the world, the original Madara. Such a rare ability was never considered a potential security problem while setting the traps and designing the layout.

Because of this the clones were able to neutralize most of the traps, and even reverse-engineered some of them. Deactivating a seal without completely destroying it is quite hard to say the least.

From the entrance there was only a single corridor leading to a staircase that lead way down underground, around a hundred meters. At the end of the staircase the building opened up, as there was an intersection where the clones could go three different directions. All of them led to different parts of the facility, with many doors on the sides, leading to different rooms, like labs, workshops, storage rooms, libraries and many more.

The facility was similar to Orochimaru's hideouts, because those were usually used for scientific purposes, and this one seemed to be for the same .

After exploring most of the building, one of the clones found another door with an Uzumaki emblem, which seemed even stronger and more secure than the one at the start. The area was secured by many clones, so Dix was able to move in himself to check out the second door. Once again he cut his palm, smeared blood on the emblem then waited out. Nothing happened.

At first he thought the door was unlocked but the mechanism failed to move it. Then another thought occurred to him. His chakra was heavily changed by the sharingans he implanted before. This could mean that even his blood was influenced, and considering the quality of this second door, it might be able to detect the contamination in his blood. He sent out a few clones to FTGT back to his camp and try to get together some equipment he can use to somehow purify his blood, or get an extract the door can accept, or something.

He didn't expect much from that plan, so he started trying to bust the door open right away. That door was serious business, it was heavily reinforced and strengthened by seals that were positioned on the other side of the door, so he had no access to those. He had the idea to move around the door and try to burst trough the walls, but it turned out the whole room behind the door was made with the same security considerations as the door itself.

putting one and one together, Dix came to the conclusion that he will have to break trough the door somehow, as it was the most vulnerable point of the room. He had to get rid of the seals at the other side somehow. Then he remembered his Antimaterasu is able to suck away chakra from its environment, and even though he had his doubts, he still summoned a huge chunk of it onto the door. It seemed to be working, because as soon as it touched the door the blue flames immediately brightened up, and soon started encompassing the whole area.

Dix had to move away, if a flame so huge were to blow up in such closed spaces then the consequences could be unimaginable. He left a few clones behind to try and control the flames that were sucking away incredible amount of chakra from the door. He used FTGT to teleport to the entrance of the building, then moved even farther away just to make sure.

After a minute or so a huge explosion shook the earth, even as far as Dix went. His clones memories poured into him, those who were at the site of the explosion and died to it. Instead of using FTGT he walked in the building and retraced his steps to the sealed door. There the destruction was unreal.

Due to the space being closed, the explosion was kept inside the building without any way to dissipate on its own. This way a few meters around the door everything was completely destroyed. The wall, the corridor, everything. At some parts the building collapsed a bit, but fortunately the rest of the pillars held out and there was no chain reaction to bury the whole facility.

The door itself was still there, but it wasn't standing so proudly as before. The explosion blasted it in, but it was so heavy and strong it didn't actually move, just tilted inwards. There wasn't enough space to safely move trough the opening, so Dix threw in an FTGT kunai and made a few clones teleport in. It seemed to be another library, full of scrolls and books neatly stacked and well-categorized on different shelves. There was one half-pillar structure in the middle of the room. It looked like the pedestal holding the most valuable treasure in some kind of Indiana Jones movie. It had a pillow on it, at which a fancy-looking scroll was resting.

The clones checked it out with their EMS, and didn't seem to find any traps under it, contrary to their expectations. Some clones started checking out the books and scrolls, while a few stood around the fancy scroll in the middle of the room and was thinking if they should move it or not.

In the end they decided they would clear the whole room before attempting anything. Who knows what the old Uzumakis were capable of? It seemed like that room was a treasure trove, as all the books were about different seals and knowledge of them, very well described and documented experiments and research. They also found a book containing information about the facility itself.

It turns out this really was a research lab for Uzushiogakure, the hidden ninja village of the Uzumakis, and it was built way before the downfall of the clan. When the Uzumaki Clan was destroyed, this lab got a last message about the news and were told to disperse into the world, as they won't be able to get any more support from home, considering there was no 'home' anymore.

The researchers did as they were instructed and abandoned the facility, leaving it sealed so if any surviving members of the Uzumaki Clan were to be left in the future, they could uncover their inheritance the Clan left for them. This facility was specialized in dimensional research, and how seals could be applied to them, also they had a small team working on storage seals. All of the work they did in the past was recorded in that one room.

Dix was so excited at the news he was having a hard time properly breathing. He kept getting reports of the read books from the clones, and every single research he got trough in his mind he could feel that he will be able to work with these. Most of them weren't at an advanced state, but the foundations were there, Dix just had to build on them.

When every book was moved out of the room one of the clones were left behind to check out the fancy scroll in the middle of the room. After a few minutes the report came that there really wasn't anything to be afraid of, and the scroll was readable too, without any apparent trap on it.

Upon reading, it turned out to be the crown project of the facility. It was a dissertation about the successful creation of seals that are able to influence the space around them, and some of its explanations and implications. It was probably the most valuable piece of knowledge in the room, so Dix was happy that he was able to put his hands on it.

He looked around once again in the facility, then had a sudden idea. If he were to use clones to clean out and repair that building... it could be an extremely useful base of operations. If he were to crumble the entrance, thus sealing it away from the outside, he would be the only one capable of moving in and out, while also having an incredible amount of space and equipment available for his personal use. It was perfect. Camping out in the woods was both annoying and risky, and he was lucky that nothing happened there before, but now he wouldn't have to worry about his hidden research being discovered anymore.

The second he received the inspiration it was already set in stone. He started moving all of his important equipment he had in his forest camp, while leaving the structures there so Yami can still live there. He also set up a squad to meticulously go trough the whole facility, clean out and repair, and also take an inventory of what they had there. He also set up the research squad, so in the end he had more then a thousand clones up and running doing their various tasks. It was frightening how he had a huge army of himself to do everything at once, but it was also a comforting thought. He himself was the only one he could count on, and he was more than qualified for the job.