Lest you fade here all alone

Chapter 15: Threads of life

Mountains, rivers, forests were always in line with the laws of the cosmos. Various elements aligned, excess and impurities chipped away as years passed, and paths opened up for the natural energy to flow. It circled through these formations until it bent the natural laws and birthed an anomaly: a section of forest from which no one returned, a cave which transported intruders to a place unknown, a blessed land where any plants grew double their normal size.

A long time ago, humans watched the world around them and learned from it. As they discovered explanations behind those anomalies, they learned the laws and found ways to replicate them through the application of chakra: barriers that barred passages to unwelcomed visitors, summoning formulas to call battle animals for aid in fights, the natural energy condensing arrays that enriched the soil and stimulated the growth of crops. Eventually, a new branch of jutsu— Fuuinjutsu—was established.

When the Uzumaki nomads decided to settle down, it just so happened that the place they chose was actually inside a naturally born formation. By accident or knowingly, history concealed these facts. As years passed, generations changed, the small settlement developed into a bustling village. The Uzumaki clansmen's already vigorous and vibrant chakra was further nourished and enhanced by the constant exposure to the unique environment inside the formation and with time they developed a connection with the land which led into evolving a natural aptitude to Fuuinjutsu.

So the very first seals weren't created by humans, but formed by nature itself. That was why twisting the natural laws that governed the universe was possible in the first place. Unsurprisingly, destroying those laws was within the bounds of possibility too, but no one wanted that. Not even Rei Uzumaki. He had dealt with enough cataclysmic forces that brought a near end of the world, thank you very much.

Rei tapped his chin with a pencil, eyes fixed on the open journal in his hand. Pages upon pages were filled with notes, calculations, sealing formulas, and fragments of the array system he was currently working on. It seemed that he had hit a dead end on his project for now. No matter how he calculated, the result always ended either with the seal burning a hole in the fabric of reality or not activating at all.

He hummed to himself, frowning at the conundrum lying on the pages in front of him.

"Rei?"

Rei glanced up, blinking in surprise. Jiraiya gazed at him, features set in a very peculiar expression as if he was trying to make sense out of him. Standing next to the Sage, the Sandaime seemed equally weirded out, only a bit less expressive in his confusion. Blue eyes swept the room he was in. The Hokage's office? Wasn't he still at Naruto's apartment? How did he end up here?

"You appeared all of a sudden and just stood there, staring at your notes without saying a word," Jiraiya said, one eyebrow rising in amusement.

Ah. So that was what happened. So used to Hiraishin at this point, that he didn't even notice teleporting the moment it crossed his mind.

Breaking into a sheepish grin, Rei put the pencil inside his journal and snapped it shut. "Sorry about that," he apologized, letting one of the storage seals on his person suck the notes in. "My mind was somewhere else."

The duo observed him. Their initial bemusement soon faded and only fear remained. No, it wasn't quite fear. Something closer to apprehension. Weariness, maybe. Distrust.

Being looked upon with that kind of bias wasn't new for Rei. He grew up surrounded by fear and hate, got several years of reprieve, and went back being feared and distrusted after what befell him at the end of the war. Perhaps, if he was still purely Naruto Uzumaki, he would have been hurt and upset. As it was, it merely made him curious.