#fuinjutsu

Chalk it up to me being blindsided by so much Kakashi that I did not pick up that Kakashi used his own blood to seal Sasuke's curse mark.

Anything I am writing in this post are my head-canons and assumptions.

Tsunade wasn’t always destined to be a medic. In the early months of her training under Sarutobi, no one had even considered it. The plan had been to hone her natural strength, focusing on Taijutsu, leveraging the legacy of her grandfather, Senju Hashirama. Certain expectations came with her lineage, and medical training wasn’t part of that vision.

But life had a way of altering plans. Tsunade's path took a decisive turn after her first kill. She didn’t regret the act—she was under no delusion about the life of a shinobi, even at that young age. She understood her duty to the village, and though killing didn’t fill her with remorse, it left her with an unexpected clarity about her desires. She realized there was more she wanted for herself beyond the battlefield.

That moment of realization led her to make a decision that no one had anticipated. With her mind made up, she approached Sarutobi and Uzumaki Mito. It was then she expressed her desire to learn medical ninjutsu. This choice wasn’t driven by regret or a rejection of her shinobi duties, but by a deeper understanding of what she could offer. She wanted to balance her ability to take life with the power to save it.

Her sensei and grandmother had been taken aback by the sudden change in her path. Yet, they recognized the strength of her resolve and the clarity of her vision, even if it meant deviating from the expectations placed upon her by her lineage. It was a path she chose for herself, one that would redefine her legacy and shape the future of the medical field in ways no one had foreseen.

The second stage of Tsunade's training had always included fuinjutsu, taught by Uzumaki Mito. Mito had trained other prominent figures in Konoha, including Senju Tobirama and Sarutobi Hiruzen. For Tsunade, this training was not only practical, given her perfect chakra control, but also a birthright through her Uzumaki lineage.

When Tsunade declared her intention to become a medical ninja, it opened a new path for her. This decision enabled her to learn medical skills that Konoha had never had access to before - advanced skills that had only been accessible to Uzushiogakure, until now. Alongside her ongoing training under Sarutobi and her team, she was placed under the supervision of Sarutobi Biwako for her medical training, and continued her fuinjutsu training with Uzumaki Mito.

Under the meticulous guidance of these two formidable women, Tsunade’s skills flourished. Biwako’s rigorous and comprehensive approach to medical ninjutsu complemented Mito’s profound understanding of fuinjutsu. Tsunade’s natural aptitude, combined with her relentless hard work, allowed her to start making a name for herself in the medical field in less than half a decade.

By the time she had completed her training, she had learned all she could from both Mito and Biwako. Her mastery in both medical ninjutsu and fuinjutsu set her apart, marking the beginning of her legacy as one of the most skilled and innovative ninjas in Konoha.

This period of her life would lay the foundation for the legend she would one day become. Equipped with her medical knowledge and fuinjutsu skills, Tsunade began exploring the idea of combining the two on a level that had never been attempted before. It was an immensely challenging endeavor, fraught with more failures than successes in the early days. Many of her experiments ended up becoming techniques adopted by Konoha's T & I force.

Each failure, however, only fueled her determination. She meticulously analyzed her mistakes, learning from them, and gradually began creating techniques that revolutionized the medical field. Her innovative approach and unwavering persistence allowed her to bridge the gap between healing and sealing, crafting methods that were unparalleled in their effectiveness and ingenuity. Tsunade carved out a legacy that would not only define her career but also transform the future of medical ninjutsu in Konoha. Her contributions became the cornerstone of advancements in the field, solidifying her status as a pioneer and a legend in her own right.

Then, war threw a wrench in her plans. She had to pull away from her research once she was deployed. Yet, even on war-torn fronts, it was her medical skills that shone brightest. Against Chiyo of Sunagakure, who had already established a reputation as the best poison concoctor in the world, Tsunade rose to fame across the lands. There was no poison Tsunade couldn't counter. She even took to adapting Chiyo's creations, turning them into weapons for Konoha-nin with her own twist to the formulas.

Tsunade's skills saved countless Konoha nin while wreaking havoc on the Suna populace. Her ability to neutralize Chiyo’s poisons and repurpose them into potent weapons underscored her genius and adaptability. The battlefield became another arena where her medical expertise and innovative mind were unmatched, further cementing her legend.

Having achieved all she had, and with the war over, Tsunade took her research in a new direction. Much of her focus and experiments were now conducted on herself, as she dabbled in techniques both dangerous and likely forbidden, requiring a level of chakra reserves, control, and understanding of human anatomy that few possessed. This was where her Uzumaki and Senju genetics set her apart. As a descendant of both the Senju and Uzumaki clans, Tsunade inherited their life-force and physical energy, allowing her to turn her body into a weapon.

Creation Rebirth was the final form of her work—a skill she finally perfected after having left the village. This technique, the culmination of her years of research and experimentation, showcased her unparalleled mastery over medical ninjutsu and fuinjutsu.

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and i kinda put it out of my mind after that, but its reared its head again after reading fics where sealing is presented in ways that the author is trying to subvert cannon ideas on what sealing is. portraying it as poetry, or fluid networks stuff like that. So i decided to take a look again as to what cannon actually describes sealing as.

so imagine my suprise to find out that the common fanon idea of storage seals and explosion seals/tags... aren't actually distinct sealing things.

as far as i remember, having looked into it again, sealing scrolls, as in the unique idea of a scroll that has a specific arrangement of sealing jutsu for sealing things in like a hammer space pocket dimension thats very common in fannon, aren't ever actually mentioned in the manga as a thing. and in fact, in terms of source listing the wiki gives here the name of "enclosing jutsu", is unique to the anime apparently.

regardless though it is admittedly not too much of a leap of logic. as seen above with things like sasukes wrist seals being applied directly to his skin with the kanji within the seal being a component of whats sealed within, the enclosing jutsu becomes a far more almost disappointingly mundane thing then as its often made out as in fannon material. it isnt a 'sealing scroll' with a complex array to create a hammer space written on it [and thus the domain of dedicated specialists/artisans], rather its a scroll with a basic sealing jutsu slapped on top of it that even genin can learn [which makes a lot more sense for tenten, a BUKIJUTSU expert as a recently graduated genin to know even if the anime apparently threw in a thing about her having a talent for fuinjutsu]. it also makes the whole thing more economically viable instead of special inks or complicated production manners, but thats a whole different discussion.

then i was reminded that the enclosing jutsu can also work on... ninjutsu

well this also further demonstrates that the enclosing jutsu is just kinda a common thing for shinobi to learn, enough so anyways that kisame a shinobi that well more intelligent then he seems is also a shinobi that prides himself as a physical fighter kinda type would pick up and use. but thats not the important thing here, what is important is what this tells us about exploding tags.

namely, exploding tags aren't unique sealing arrays to create explosions as again fanon would have you believe/often portrays as. rather an exploding tag, is just an enclosing jutsu used on an explosion.

which ya know, makes a lot more sense when you actually look at an exploding tag and its visual depiction and compare it to an enclosing seal and notice that like an enclosing seal, it has the kanji for what its storing inside it centred at the heart of the seal. literally baku or 'explode'.

heres tenten in the anime storing things in her scrolls for comparisons sake and you can notice that each seal has the kanji for whats stored in it at the centre. truly fanfiction has made fools of us all.

that isn't to say theres no complexity to things, its just things you never really see talked about or expanded upon in fanfiction. which partly speaks to how messy internal continuity often is within naruto as a narrative, but also not the main point.

firstly, fuinjutsu or sealing jutsu seems to be a lot more literal then what people make it out to be in fanfiction. specifically that it is a jutsu for sealing things into other things. in fanfiction for instance people will often have things such as privacy seals as catchall privacy bubbles or barrier seals that erect barriers. as far as the manga alone is concerned these aren't things you can do with sealing jutsu, rather they would likely fall under the category of 'barrier jutsu' which, as we see with kisame sealing ninjutsu into an enclosing seal, can be stored in a seal as seen with the barrier tags but could likely not be created by a sealing jutsu alone

for an example of what barrier ninjutsu can do incidentally, consider the barrier that the sound four erected around orochimaru and hiruzens fight

this brings us to the next important factor which is the squiggly lines seen in relation to all fuinjutsu. one would think these are, if we accept that these aren't just squiggles kishimoto threw on to make the seals look cool, unique to the function of fuinjutsu. they aren't however, because we also see these squiggly lines used in relation to other jutsu. the summoning technique for instance which is, officially, not classified as fuinjutsu but rather ninjutsu

we also see these squiggly lines used in relation to medical jutsu, importantly in my opinion when neji is getting surgery post sasuke retrieval mission and when tsunade is using long distance healing on people with katsuya during peins invasion of konoha

this i think suggests that the squiggly lines themselves are not what constitutes or helps constitute what sealing jutsu is. certainly i would say its an important factor, but it seems to be applicable in other branches of jutsu as well. therefore that suggests that these 'chakra arrays' as it were are not applications of fuinjutsu but rather fuinjutsu is a specific application of these chakra arrays, with the arrays themselves being techniques to control and apply chakra in specific ways. tsunades long range healing array sending the chakra outwards like a radio signal for instance, moulding it into what it needs to do and where it needs to go.

so what is essential to fuinjutsu outside of 'it seals something within another thing'. at first i was tempted to say kanji but then i nejis surgery and another thing ill mention came to mind, but then i remembered that an important aspect of fuinjutsu seems to be how it can interact with other jutsu such as storing ninjutsu. and nejis surgery is suppose to be a complicated risky one so combining different jutsu to achieve the desired effect seems reasonable. and kanji seemed the most likely culprit as to what was essential to sealing, despite not all seals looking initially like kanji, because

a] seals often change shape especially the more powerful or complicated ones. considering seals mainly function in the literal sense of sealing things within other things, i think it makes sense that you can seal seals within seals or the full complexity of a seal within itself.

and also b] one of the most distinctive seals we see actually being applied in real time is the five elements unseal, which is still fuinjutsu cause its about unsealing things from within other things, and what features prominently in the fire elements unseal?

kanji for the five elements. so were done right? seals are about applying kanji with chakra arrays to seal things within other things? only were not because we also have to acknowledge danzo and the unique seals he uses.

these dont look anything like any other seal we see in naruto. at most the second 'self cursing seal' share similarities with orochimarus curse marks [which apparently aren't officially classified as seals, but i feel would atleast in part fall under a fuinjutsu classification], but even then as i noted seals seem to store parts of themselves internally all the time before expanding [including hypothetically whatever kanji is being used to fuel the seal].

but the naruto wiki provided an interesting alternative. chinese hexagrammic symbols. i wont claim to be an expert on them, but the important factor to know is that hexagrams are formed by combining the eight trigrams [the bars that ya sometimes see combined with the yin yang symbol as part of the ba gua which represents physical reality, and which mean their own individual things] to create new symbology and meanings as part of a taoist belief system. the important thing being how each hexagram can represent both a number and a word. meaning in essence, danzos unique sealing method [outside of being cryptic as hexagrams are intentionally designed to be cryptic] is also still rooted in language just a more chinese influenced spin on things. even danzos final deadman seal the reverse four symbol seal seems to be based on that same principle only instead of hexagrams it uses the si xiang which are also derived from yin and yang and part of the ba gua. only instead of the trigrams 3 bars the si xiang only use two bars.

and as already noted, seals especially complicated ones seem to store parts of themselves within themselves. so overall, what seems to be essential to sealing is combining language with the universally applicable array lines to derive functions. language being the most important point in this matter when it comes to sealing itself.

also as a side note, narutos own seal is also named after the eight trigrams but visually does not use the trigrams and instead uses the standard for naruto chakra arrays and symbols.

and for some bonus information on sealing

fūinjutsu master/uzushio naruto redesign!!

Kakashi Week 2022

Day 7 / Ink

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