Chapter 44.2- One Thousand Hands

“Do you think one just becomes the Head of the Uzumaki clan just like that?” Souta asked with a chuckle.

“I do wonder at what you have been teaching the boy, Mito” Kaito said. He wasn’t painting me. Instead, he stood off to the side, watching everything with a careful eye. I hadn’t believed it when I’d been told, but somehow this man was Grandmother Mito’s Uncle. That made him so old that he could have been my Great-Grandfather. Needless to say, he’d gone on the years. His hair had lost its redness and lustre, being a dull grey that fell down to his knees but he could still move around with only a cane and apparently remained the clan’s foremost expert on the adamantine sealing chains. He was a man very much set in his ways and seemed keen to find fault in everything.

“With how far he was from the line of succession, you can’t have expected me to waste time teaching him that stuff”

“Waste time?” Takeshi almost roared.

“The traditions of our clan are not a waste of time”

“I am sure she did not mean it that way, Takeshi-chan” The old man stepped in, diffusing the tension. Correction. He was intent on finding fault in everything other than his precious niece.

“Yes, I didn’t. I just meant that it never came up.” She said.

“So what are these rituals?” I asked, as I swallowed the instinctive gasp that came from Ayame pulling my penis to one side to begin scrawling on my left thigh. I just thanked the heavens and everyone up there who would listen that being a shinobi meant I could control my blood flow enough to avoid getting hard— that would have been even more embarrassing.

“The Uzumaki clan head goes through rituals to connect you to those who came before, to allow you call on their wisdom where necessary and their strength when expedient. The Clan Head must be the greatest and most powerful of us to bear this burden, so there are rituals to ensue he is so. Small things— strength, speed, better chakra control, better chakra recovery through seals to make all that possible” Kaito said. I nodded, not allowing my excitement to show on my face even if it was palpable.

“Okay, the seals are done. Now for the chants and dance” Souta said, slapping me on my sole unmarked shoulder. I sighed as he stepped back and began to sing. It was in a language I couldn’t truly understand when it was spoken. I could read the Uzumaki script as well as anyone could, but speaking it was a completely different matter. I began the dance with a lurch to the left. In my first life, I’d been a terrible dancer, and while I could scarcely claim to be a great one, I had far greater control of your body and we had rehearsed this part for hours.