Five Elements Seal


 * Name: Gogyō Fūin, 五行封印, literally "Five Elements Seal", English TV "Five Pronged Seal"
 * Type: A-rank, Supplementary, Short range (0-5m)
 * Users: Orochimaru

This jutsu is used to strengthen the seal on the demon fox. The original seal allowed the demon fox's chakra to seep out into Naruto Uzumaki, but the additional seal disturbs this, preventing Naruto from using the demon fox's chakra or even controlling his own chakra properly. This is because an odd-numbered seal creates an imbalance when placed on top of an even-numbered seal. The five elements in the seal are probably wood (木), fire (火), earth (土), metal (金), and water (水) though it may possibly refer to the Japanese five elements version which contains earth (chi), water (sui), fire (ka), wind (fū), and void/heaven (kū). This is difficult to ascertain as many Japanese anime and manga will use either version.

More recently the five elements used in Ninjutsu have been revealed as: fire (火), wind (風), thunder/lightning (雷), earth (土), and water (水). The five elements of the seal likely refer to these rather than one of the standard sets.

When Orochimaru noticed that the seal was removed from Naruto when he was searching for Tsunade, he said that only a Sannin or somenone at that level could remove the seal which suggests that it is very powerful.