Hearing this, Arata's face immediately lit up with joy. It seemed he had worried for nothing—the Uzumaki clan's sealing techniques were not so easily lost after all.
Thinking it over, the logic became clear. If the Uzumaki were truly foolish enough to keep their most important sealing techniques on Uzumaki Suigetsu's person, that would have been laughable.
After all, they knew perfectly well that the enemy's primary objective was that sealing scroll. Carrying it so openly would have been the same as shouting to the world: "The scroll is right here—come and take it."
This only meant one thing: from the very beginning, Uzumaki Suigetsu had planned to make herself the obvious target, drawing all attention onto herself, while the rest of the clan found a way to carry the real sealing techniques to safety.
And as for a Uzumaki Suikyō who was already dead—naturally, no one would bother to look too closely.
In the original history, the Uzumaki clan's destruction had likely succeeded only because the entire clan had been wiped out, leaving no one behind to safeguard the secrets. Otherwise, with even a little foresight, the allied forces' plan might never have succeeded.
Even so, Arata didn't rush to ask for the sealing scroll. At present, the Uzumaki hadn't fully joined Konoha, nor had they completely pledged their loyalty to him.
If he demanded it outright, his actions would be no different from those of the invading allied shinobi—and that would inevitably breed resentment.
Of course, Arata could take it by force if he wanted to. But there was no need to rush. Time was on his side.
Even if he obtained the scroll now, the Seven Ninja Swords wouldn't be completed anytime soon anyway—at the very least, it would still take years. Otherwise, in the original timeline, the Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist wouldn't have waited until the Third Great Shinobi War to emerge.
At that moment, Uzumaki Yūki asked curiously,
"Arata-sama… how did your battle with Uchiha Madara go? What was the outcome?"
It would have been a lie to say he wasn't curious. That was a genuine clash between two shinobi at the peak of the Kage level—a realm few in the entire shinobi world ever reached.
And to witness such a battle, even from afar, had completely overturned Uzumaki Yūki's understanding of what a shinobi could be.
So this was what it meant to cultivate to the highest levels—power akin to the gods themselves.
Once he spoke, the other Uzumaki nearby also revealed looks of eager curiosity.
Uchiha Madara was a legendary figure, and Arata's confrontation with such a monster was bound to be extraordinary. If they could learn even a few details, it would become a story they could boast about for the rest of their lives.
After all, this was a living legend of the shinobi world—someone most people would never even see in their lifetime. Yet they had not only seen him, but witnessed a battle of this scale firsthand.
Arata considered it briefly. There was no real reason to hide it. They had already seen Madara with their own eyes, so secrecy was pointless.
Besides, Arata had nothing to be ashamed of in that battle.
If anything, this was a good opportunity to establish even greater authority among the Uzumaki clan.
"It ended in a draw," Arata said calmly. "He was at a disadvantage because of his age—but I could tell he was still holding back."
In that battle, Arata had held the upper hand, but he never believed he could truly kill Uchiha Madara.
Just one use of Izanagi would have been enough to save Madara's life. Who knew how many Sharingan Madara still had hidden away?
A jutsu that could rewrite death itself at the cost of a single eye—such a forbidden art was Madara's greatest trump card. It was precisely because of it that Madara had once faked his own death and vanished into the shadows of the shinobi world.
And after lurking for so many years, Arata didn't believe Madara lacked other contingencies.
There was also the Gedo Statue—a chakra reserve at least at mid–Kage level. If the battle had truly dragged on to the end, victory was far from guaranteed.
Not to mention that even after losing the Nine-Tails, Madara still hadn't used his full Wood Style. In terms of raw combat power, Wood Style clearly surpassed the Nine-Tails by an entire tier.
It was entirely possible that Madara had restrained himself from beginning to end, only revealing enough strength to warn Arata that if the fight continued, he had no fear of seeing it through.
Hearing that the battle had ended in a draw, everyone present instinctively sucked in a sharp breath.
They had assumed Arata had merely been suppressed slightly and survived thanks to his ability to retreat.
But now it seemed they had underestimated him.
Arata hadn't escaped—he had fought Madara head-on, evenly matched, which explained why he now appeared so calm and unruffled.
As for whether Arata was exaggerating… most of them didn't think so.
Judging from his condition alone, he clearly hadn't been pushed into a corner. If he had barely escaped, he would have been battered and exhausted, not standing here as if nothing had happened.
Then Uzumaki Yūki suddenly thought of something crucial.
"Then… what about the Nine-Tails? Mito-hime is gone, and Uchiha Madara has retreated. Is the Nine-Tails still at the battlefield?"
The Nine-Tails was the lifeline of the Uzumaki clan. With it, they had the foundation to cultivate their own Kage-level powerhouse—just as Uzumaki Mito once had.
And in the future, Uzumaki Kushina would as well.
But if the Nine-Tails had escaped, then losing such a powerful political and military asset would cause the Uzumaki clan's status to plummet across the shinobi world—perhaps even leaving them overshadowed by the Uchiha within Konoha itself.
Hearing this, Arata suddenly slapped his thigh.
That's right—the Nine-Tails was still locked up by him!
Realizing this, Arata waved his hand decisively.
"Do you know sealing techniques? Come with me—we're going to take a look at the Nine-Tails."
Uzumaki Yūki froze for a moment at Arata's abrupt words, but out of respect, he quickly replied,
"Yes! My sealing skills are second only to Suikyō-sama and Suigetsu-hime."
Arata nodded, satisfied. Space ripples immediately spread around the two of them.
In the next instant, Arata and Yūki vanished—entering the Kamui dimension.
The Kamui space was already packed to capacity. Tens of thousands—no, hundreds of thousands—of people stood gathered there, silently praying for Arata's safety.
Even Arata hadn't expected that the people he had rescued so casually would revere him to this extent.
But thinking about it, it made sense.
What he had done was something most shinobi would never dare attempt. One mistake, and even elite jōnin would be swallowed by the tsunami without a chance to escape.
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