The shadows

ch39

"So you found the Yondaime," Naruto said, his voice shaking with emotions.

"Yeah, brat. It was so damn complicated to get him in the hospital without being seen. There was a whole meeting with clan heads and the Hokage."

"based on what Orochimaru and others found in the lab, there wasn't any evidence on who conducted the experiments. We only found what you told me about that day. He was found right after the Kyubi attack. Pierced by the claw and barely alive."

"They kept him in a state of coma since they couldn't wake him up. There is the seal on his stomach which you told us is the Shinigami seal, but apparently, it's incomplete. In a sense, based on what Jiraiya found so far, it is trapping him in his own body." Tsunade said, anger and frustration evident in her voice.

"Jiraiya is here?" Naruto asked.

"Yes. He came back yesterday. He was so pissed and demanded to know what was going on. It's chaos out there. Everyone is trying to find out who is behind the whole thing, but there is no evidence to point fingers." Tsunade said.

"May I see him? I can help with the seal." Naruto said. He had a deep sadness in his eyes, and Tsunade knew who he was.

"Fine. I won't try and stop you, but you better get back to bed for monitoring in a few hours." She said. Orochimaru gave them a final goodbye and got out while Tsunade detached Naruto's IV and monitors to get him to the room.

Naruto was nervous. His hand was hanging over the doorknob, and he didn't know if he was ready to open it. When he first found out that his father was alive, there were a million things going on in his head. How he survived, and was it the same the first time around?

In the end, he came to a conclusion. The Shinigami seal wasn't able to fully work since when the Kyubi was being sealed, Naruto traveled back to his body. The Shinigami is an entity not bound by the rules of time and space.

The Shinigami had already performed the seal and taken the soul, which was the cost of the jutsu. So he wouldn't retake the soul. Plus, the whole Kyubi was sealed into Naruto, so the Shinigami hadn't taken the Kyubi either.

It was a complicated situation, but that was the only thing Naruto could come up with. There was a whole binder with various reports over the years. Since the body was in a state of coma, it took a long time to fully heal all the injuries.

They tried various methods and seals to break the seal on the Yondaime, but it was all unsuccessful. They even tried to use mind transfer jutsu to extract knowledge from him, but all attempts were in vain. The seal was holding his mind off limits.

In the end, they decided to just keep the body alive in case one day they found a way to break the seal. Naruto wasn't sure of the possibilities, but there was a chance that he survived the first time too. During the first time the Shinigami seal was performed, the Shinigami performed the seal; there was no evidence that the Yondaime died at that moment. Naruto liked to believe that he did, but based on all the scrolls he found over the years, there was a possibility that he didn't.

The scrolls never mentioned the cost of the seal, being that the caster will also be sealed at that moment, just the fact that they will be sealed when the time comes. Some interpreted that phrase as the natural death of the caster.

The only other instance that Naruto could think of which was for the third Hokage; Naruto knew that he was poisoned by Orochimaru and low on chakra. There was a chance he died due to those and not the Shinigami.

Naruto wanted to believe that his father died that night the first time around instead of being forgotten in the lab and died when Danzo was bored of taking care of his body. Naruto wanted to tell everyone the truth, but he knew that now Danzo was more careful than ever.