Between the stale air and the choking dust, one thing was clear from the cracked stone around us — this place was ancient. As old as Uzushiogakure itself.
"Foundation and maintenance seals… these markings go back centuries," one of the older masters muttered, his voice echoing faintly against the walls. "This place is old, really old."
The narrow stairway spiraled downward, its every inch carved with faint, fading runes. Time had gnawed at the stone; fissures ran like veins through the once-living chakra lines of the seals. The air grew heavier with every step, the weight of history pressing down until even the sound of our breath felt intrusive.
At the base of the steps stood a massive grey door, easily three men tall, covered entirely in intricate Uzumaki sealing scripts carved into the door itself. — layer over layer of interlocking spirals, talismans, and ancient characters. Each pulse of our lantern light revealed more detail, more complexity.
"Incredible…" one of the Fūinjutsu masters breathed, his awe mirroring everyone else's. "There are almost as many lost seals on this one door as in the entire vault above. Maybe even more. Some of these—" he traced one tremblingly with his finger, "—I've never even seen before. Is this… a real seven-layer containment seal?"
------
"Stop gawking, you old fools. Tell us what this is," Tsunade snapped, her voice cutting through the heavy silence.
One of the seal masters stepped forward, excitement and unease mixing on his face. "It appears to be a genuine seven-layer containment seal, augmented with at least a dozen auxiliary matrices. We… don't recognize more than half of the scripts here."
The oldest of them — a man with liver spots on his hands and chakra lines trembling faintly with age — exhaled deeply, eyes tracing the swirling sigils. "From the looks of it," he said quietly, "the founders of the Uzumaki were terrified of what lies beyond this door."
Every head turned toward him. Even Tsunade's usual impatience faltered for a moment.
He straightened his back, though his voice carried the tremor of someone who'd just realized how deep the rabbit hole went. "Lady Tsunade," he began carefully, "I urge you to turn back. I can't tell exactly what this seal holds, but I can tell this much — this is no mere vault. It's an Isolation Barrier, and not just any kind. The greatest minds of the Uzumaki clan, and yes, I am talking about the Founding generation of the great village on whose ruins we stand, wanted whatever is inside to stay sealed forever. And they weren't just afraid. They were terrified. There are multiple duplicate redundant seals here. Which means since they couldn't find a bigger lock, they basically repeated the biggest one they knew as many times as they could."
He paused, letting the weight of his words settle before continuing.
"Just so you understand the magnitude of this," he said, his voice dropping to a near-whisper, "each additional layer multiplies the strength of the seal exponentially. Our current knowledge extends only to four layers, and even that is purely theoretical. Most of what was known was lost in the age of the Warring States."
He glanced back at the massive door, reverence and dread in his eyes.
"For reference, Lady Tsunade… the Nine-Tails itself is contained within a three-layer seal."
A chill crawled down my spine. My eyes widened as the implications hit me — Just what in the seven hells did the system want me to acquire? The nine-tails was the ultimate existence in this world. Short of monsters like the Sage of Six Paths, his brother, Asura, Kaguya, and the like. Nothing could contain it. Not even the rest of the beasts together.
And yet, here we were.
"As if we could move forward," one of the masters muttered bitterly. "Even if we worked for decades, I doubt we could decipher these seals enough for a safe unlock."
Murmurs of reluctant agreement rippled through the group. The oppressive silence that followed felt heavier than the dust-choked air around us.
Then—
System Feature: Flame of the Call unlocked temporarily. Unlocking conditions met. Proceed?
I froze.
For the first time since I'd transmigrated, I hesitated.
The system — that unseen force I'd taken for granted, the invisible hand that had guided every step of my new life — suddenly felt alien.
I had never questioned it before. It was just there. Constant. Like gravity, like sunlight. Transmigrator → System — the most natural equation in all those stories I used to read.
But standing here, before an ancient door that even the Uzumaki had feared…
For the first time, I wondered — what are you, really? Where did you come from? Why are you here?
Are you something born of me? Or something that found me?
The questions burned through my head, but so did the truth. I was already too deep in this world — too far gone to stop now.
Note- Classified. Not enough Call Strength.
"...Yes. Proceed."
My SS bar plummeted. Fifty points — maybe less remained — blinked faintly in the corner of my vision. I could also feel that the System was using some of itself. Did it have SS points in store? Was it using its own reserves for this? Then, heat. A strange flicker danced in my palm, alive and whispering. A flame, pale and translucent blue, neither chakra nor fire — something older, more primal appeared in my hand.
The moment I lifted my hand, the flame surged forward like a stream of liquid light, roaring into the sealed door.
The air hummed. The runes blazed in violent protest — crimson, violet, gold — as if the entire chamber was rejecting my existence. The ground quaked, the seals screamed… and one by one, their glow began to dim.
The resistance faltered. The intricate web of Uzumaki craftsmanship collapsed like a dying constellation.
And then, with a slow, echoing crack, the massive door began to melt — stone and steel warping, seals dissolving — until only a dark, yawning passage remained beyond.
-----
All around me, people stared like I'd just grown a second head.
Whispers died in throats. No one dared move.
A steady, rhythmic pulse rolled out from beyond the door — a deep vibration that seemed to echo straight through the bones. Every few seconds, it throbbed again, like a heartbeat trapped behind stone. Whatever was sealed inside… was alive.
Terror settled over the room like frost. The Fuinjutsu masters — men who had seen decades of war and horror — now stood rooted to the spot, eyes wide with something close to awe.
And I couldn't blame them.
I had just melted through a Seven-Layer Isolation Seal — one that the Uzumaki themselves had made to lock away their greatest fear — in a handful of seconds.
I could feel their fear pressing against my back. The unspoken question in every glance:
What are you?
Before any of them could move — before Tsunade's sharp, commanding voice could even form — I acted on instinct.
I dashed forward.
"Ren!" I heard her shout, but it was already too late. The pulse was calling, dragging me forward like gravity itself.
The moment I crossed the threshold, the air changed — colder, denser, thick with pressure. My senses flared.
And then I stopped.
Right in front of another door.