"I called all the activities of human life—survival, daily living, production, culture, creation, war, love, and so on—Human Civilization!"
Yūhi Shinku nodded. He had never heard the term before, but it was not difficult to understand.
"And progress in humanity's methods of production and living is the progress of Human Civilization!"
Yūhi Shinku blinked. At some point, Yūhi Kurenai had finished dancing, taken a bath, changed into fresh clothes, and come to the backyard as well.
He beckoned for Yūhi Kurenai to sit beside him, and together they listened to Hyuga Ningyuan recount the greatness of the Second Hokage.
Though the Second Hokage had not appeared yet.
"In ancient times, people hunted with spears. They might eat one meal but have none for the next. When winter came and they could not catch prey, entire groups within a tribe would freeze or starve to death!"
"Then, at some point, someone discovered rice and wheat. People began farming and gained stable harvests, no longer relying on the heavens for food. From then on, humanity moved from the nomadic era into the agricultural era. They stopped living in caves and began living in houses. That was a form of civilizational progress!"
Yūhi Shinku nodded, beginning to truly understand the weight behind the word civilization.
"Later, as the population grew and villages became larger, city-states emerged, and then nations emerged!"
"As nations expanded, they began bordering other nations. For all sorts of reasons—territory, water, food—war began!"
Yūhi Shinku stroked his chin. He had never considered that this was how wars began.
So everything Hyuga Ningyuan was saying was history recorded by the Hyuga Clan?
"Later, the Rabbit Goddess ended the wars, and the Sage of Six Paths passed down Chakra, hoping people could understand one another and bring war to an everlasting end. Unfortunately, he failed!"
Yūhi Shinku nodded. This was widely known history in the ninja world, and he knew it too.
"Though wars became frequent afterward, Human Civilization undoubtedly advanced, because in the past, one person could never dig a well alone. But with Chakra, one person could accomplish all of it!"
"One person might need a long time to chop down a tree, but someone with Chakra only needs one Ninjutsu!"
Yūhi Shinku blinked. Put that way, the appearance of Chakra really did seem like a form of progress.
"While ninjas were studying Ninjutsu, the ordinary world was changing too. They discovered gravity, Electromagnetic Force, physics, chemistry, and the periodic table of elements."
The Chunin Ninja Exams had featured questions about chemical reactions and parabolas.
The antennas all over the streets also proved that Electromagnetic Force existed in the ninja world.
Yūhi Shinku continued nodding. He often went out on missions, so he did know that the ordinary world was developing rapidly.
"I had no doubt that at this rate, the mortal world would soon have vehicles that could travel a thousand li a day, machines that could fly through the sky, and machines that could reach the moon."
Yūhi Shinku could not imagine that. What kind of vehicle could travel so fast?
Still, Ningyuan was talking about the future. The mortal world was developing so quickly that perhaps such things really would exist someday.
"However, as good as this knowledge is, there is a problem with it!" Hyuga Ningyuan said.
"What problem?" Yūhi Kurenai asked curiously.
She was young and quick to accept new things. Besides, in addition to ninja knowledge, their classes also taught the natural sciences developed by ordinary people, so she readily accepted what Hyuga Ningyuan was saying.
"It is too difficult to learn!" Hyuga Ningyuan said. "We ninjas have Chakra to assist us, so our brains process information quickly. Yet even we find it difficult to learn ordinary people's knowledge. After five or six years of study, we can only grasp the basics. For ordinary people, it might take eight or nine years!"
"As civilization develops, there is more and more foundational knowledge, and ordinary people have more and more to learn. As a result, their years of study grow longer and longer!"
"A person's prime should be between eighteen and twenty-eight, but they are studying during precisely those years. They spend the brightest years of their lives studying, so where would they find time for invention and creation?"
Yūhi Shinku scratched his head. "You mean the Shadow Clone Jutsu could help them?"
"Of course!" Hyuga Ningyuan nodded. "The Shadow Clone Jutsu can record not only bodily memories, but soul memories as well. Two Shadow Clones mean twice the learning speed, and four means four times the speed!"
"Someone who originally needed to study until thirty before creating something new could shorten that to twenty, or even ten, with the Shadow Clone Technique. Wouldn't that give them much more time for invention and creation?"
Actually, there was an even more useful technique: the Art of the Ninja Sect!
It could use Chakra to completely transfer one person's memories to another!
What was that?
It was knowledge transfer technology!
As long as this technique became widespread, children in the ninja world could possess the research memories accumulated over an old scientist's entire lifetime. Those scientific techniques could also be passed down and accumulated generation after generation!
If this technology became widespread, the ninja world would be filled with scientists, and everyone would be an engineer!
Hyuga Ningyuan did not even dare imagine how fast that kind of development would be.
Three years to reach space, five years to land on the moon, a hundred years for water droplets, a thousand years for a two-dimensional foil!
What the hell was the Otsutsuki Clan? Could the Otsutsuki Clan withstand a few shots from a Star Destroyer?
But the Art of the Ninja Sect was still too far away. There was no point talking about it, so for now, he could only hype up the Shadow Clone Technique.
"The Shadow Clone Technique..." Yūhi Shinku thought about it and realized he really could not refute that.
Because the Shadow Clone Technique really did have that potential!
However—
"The Shadow Clone Technique has severe side effects. While it retains soul memories, it also retains the exhaustion originating from the soul. If too many clones are created at once, then when they return, the massive exhaustion could even turn someone into an idiot!" Yūhi Shinku said.
"Then improve it!" Hyuga Ningyuan said. "Every technique has some problems when it is first invented, but as later generations refine and complete it, its flaws will grow fewer and its strengths will grow greater!"
Just look at how Snake Uncle had improved the Impure World Reincarnation.
"I believe that one day, the Shadow Clone Technique's flaws will be optimized away as well!"
Yūhi Shinku found this somewhat strange. He felt that Hyuga Ningyuan was good in every way, except perhaps he worshipped science and technology a little too much.
He was a bit like someone Yūhi Shinku knew: Orochimaru.
Oh, the Second Hokage was that kind of person too. And he was Ningyuan's idol.
Then it was fine!
Orochimaru had not defected yet, and the Second Hokage had always enjoyed an excellent reputation. So although Hyuga Ningyuan's words made Yūhi Shinku feel that something was slightly off, he did not associate them with a mad scientist.
Instead, he felt that if Ningyuan truly took the Second Hokage as his goal, then even if he did not reach the heights of the Sannin or the Second Hokage, achieving even one-tenth of what they had would be good enough.
"You really like the Shadow Clone Technique?" Yūhi Shinku asked.
"Yes!" Hyuga Ningyuan nodded.
"But it is a B-rank Ninjutsu. You still cannot learn it!" Yūhi Shinku said with a smile. He had listened to this little brat talk nonsense for so long; this time, he had finally hit a wall!
"Ah?" Hyuga Ningyuan froze, instantly understanding. This was the consequence of the groundwork he had laid when hiding his abilities.
I said I could not learn B-rank Genjutsu to hide my abilities, and now the boomerang has come back to hit me!
"Hahaha." Yūhi Shinku laughed and patted the Shogi board. "You lost at Shogi too!"
"Is that so?" Hyuga Ningyuan chuckled. "Another round!"
"You will lose again!"
"Oh, really?"
"Nani?"
A moment later, Yūhi Shinku stared blankly at his pieces, which had been slaughtered beyond recognition. "Didn't you say you could not play?"
"Didn't you just teach me?"
Shogi level 1 (0/10)
It had not even leveled up, but he had the Arcane Brush Palace at level 5.
With that level of mental computational power, I was a Shogi master!
There was no way I could lose. Even Shikamaru might not be able to beat me!
While writing this, I wondered whether it was a little exaggerated for a five-year-old to say such things.
But then I thought of myself. Back in elementary school, had I not spent all day talking about America, Japan, Zhu Mao, and the Three Kingdoms? It should be perfectly normal.
Before you continue