"Earth Release: Earth-Style Wall."
A two-meter-tall earth wall rose from the ground, standing before Uchiha Kiyoshi.
Looking at this miniature Earth-Style Wall, two meters tall but only one meter wide, Uchiha Kiyoshi felt completely secure.
Though it could not compare to the original Earth-Style Wall, after constant practice, he had made this simplified version quite sturdy. Its defensive power was already sufficient against Chunin-level ninjas.
"Unfortunately, this Ninjutsu still consumes a little too much Chakra. With my Chakra reserves, I can only cast it three times."
Uchiha Kiyoshi shook his head and withdrew the Earth Style Wall, restoring everything before him to how it had been.
His hands formed seals once more.
"Earth Release: Earth Shield."
This time, forming the seals did not take much time. Just three seals, less than a second.
A shield appeared before Uchiha Kiyoshi, made of earth. Then, earthen shields appeared behind him, to his left, and to his right as well.
That was not all. After the shields appeared, Uchiha Kiyoshi tried controlling them. The shields rotated around him, covering every angle in a full three hundred and sixty degrees.
This was the result of Uchiha Kiyoshi's recent training.
More than three months had passed since his last C... uh, B-rank Mission.
Uchiha Kiyoshi had originally planned to get some defensive Ninjutsu from Orochimaru, preferably ones that consumed as little Chakra as possible. Unfortunately, there were none. Orochimaru's defensive Ninjutsu were all B-rank or A-rank, and all consumed a great deal of Chakra.
With no other choice, Uchiha Kiyoshi could only try to develop a Ninjutsu himself.
That was the Earth Shield Technique he had just used.
Based on the principles of the Earth Style Wall, he omitted much of the Chakra circulation. Combined with the effects of the minor circulation marked out when he learned the Earth Spike Jutsu, he had created a Ninjutsu roughly at the C-rank level.
It might not even count as a C-rank Ninjutsu. Its defensive power was not that high, barely enough to block a single attack from the weakest C-rank Ninjutsu.
Even so, it held great significance for Uchiha Kiyoshi.
First, limited by his Chakra reserves, what Uchiha Kiyoshi needed at this stage was not an exceptionally powerful defensive Ninjutsu, but one he could use frequently.
It did not matter if Earth Shield's defense was weak. Couldn't he just stack two of them? Besides, it was similar to how Fireball Jutsu was used. There was no need to fight to the death. By angling it properly, he could offset part of the damage, as long as the remaining attack did not hit Uchiha Kiyoshi himself.
Beyond that, the most important thing was that this was a Ninjutsu Uchiha Kiyoshi had created himself. Though its rank was low, it proved that his theory was correct.
With just the minor circulations from two Earth Release Ninjutsu, Uchiha Kiyoshi had preliminarily developed a Ninjutsu like this. As he improved his records of the functions of those minor circulations, he would sooner or later develop advanced Ninjutsu of his own.
Wasn't the Uchiha Clan famous for Fire Release? Didn't it lack Fire Release Ninjutsu above A-rank? What if he developed one himself? In the future, it would become his signature in the Ninja World!
What about Buddha's Wrath Fire Lotus from A Certain Firmament? Though he did not have any Heavenly Flames or whatever, different flames could explode when combined, right?
"Not bad, not bad. I'll write it down first and study it once I have the ability."
Uchiha Kiyoshi was fairly satisfied with this Earth Shield Technique. At the very least, it did not consume much Chakra.
Besides his Earth Release Ninjutsu, Uchiha Kiyoshi had also made considerable progress in other areas over the past three months.
Name: Uchiha Kiyoshi Chakra: 340 Ka / 340 Ka (370 Ka) Nature Transformation: Fire Release (Scorching), Earth Release (Hardness) Ninjutsu: omitted Secret Jutsu: Body Nourishment Technique, Substitution Body Flicker Technique Others: Basic Sealing Jutsu, Fire Sealing Method
Putting Chakra aside, Uchiha Kiyoshi's greatest progress had been in his Nature Transformation training.
Back at the Ninja Academy, Uchiha Kiyoshi had already begun training in Fire Release Nature Transformation. However, because the scorching Nature Transformation he trained in leaned toward offense, he had not focused much attention on it. By graduation, he had only barely gotten started and could not incorporate it into his regular attacks.
Now, Uchiha Kiyoshi had mastered this Nature Transformation. After all, when ambushing someone, his first strike still had to be an attack. If his attack power increased, the following battle would become easier as well.
The power of Uchiha Kiyoshi's Fire Release had now increased dramatically. For a moment, he had even considered returning to being a normal ninja, one capable of both attack and defense.
Unfortunately, Uchiha Kiyoshi ultimately had to painfully snuff out that fantasy.
Want to become an offensive ninja? Learn how to stay alive first. You're only a Chunin, and you're already getting impatient? Where is your ninja essence?
For his Earth Release Nature Transformation, Uchiha Kiyoshi chose hardening, greatly reinforcing the Earth Style Walls, Earth Spikes, and similar constructs he created through Earth Release.
Still, three months was a little too short. This Nature Transformation had only barely reached the introductory stage and could not yet be used in battle.
"Both my defensive Ninjutsu and Ninjutsu training have met expectations. Now all that's left is the Substitution Body Flicker Technique that can save my life."
Uchiha Kiyoshi called the Ninjutsu he intended to perfect through the Substitution Technique the Substitution Body Flicker Technique. Of course, it was still only in the theoretical stage for now.
Both were Space-Time Ninjutsu, but the Substitution Body Flicker Technique involved spatially exchanging positions with a replacement object. Flying Thunder God, meanwhile, used reverse summoning to achieve a Space-Time Ninjutsu with summoning-like properties.
At the level of fundamental principles, the two were different.
However, space was elusive and difficult to study. If Uchiha Kiyoshi wanted to perfect his Secret Jutsu, he could only focus on the most basic principle of spatial exchange in the Substitution Technique and keep refining it.
One aspect was increasing the exchange distance. On one hand, Uchiha Kiyoshi increased the Chakra left on the replacement object for sensing, strengthening that sense. On the other hand, he further improved the method of triggering Chakra during the exchange between himself and the replacement object. By tackling both fronts, he significantly improved the efficiency of the Substitution Technique.
The other direction was improving the replacement object.
The Substitution Technique was a Ninjutsu that left Chakra imbued with a specific function on a replacement object, then activated it to exchange the object with the user's body. This required the replacement object to be able to contain Chakra, even if only temporarily.
The best replacement object was Chakra Metal, but that stuff was too expensive. Thus, he could only choose specially treated wooden stakes that still retained a trace of vitality.
However, wooden stakes were still too conspicuous. They also had to be placed in advance, requiring too much mental effort. They did not meet Uchiha Kiyoshi's expectations.
What Uchiha Kiyoshi wanted was the Fourth Hokage's Flying Thunder God model, using ninja tools such as kunai as replacement objects.
And this was actually achievable.
Flying Thunder God made use of extensive Sealing Jutsu knowledge, even advanced Sealing Jutsu knowledge. Uchiha Kiyoshi also intended to solve the replacement object problem through Sealing Jutsu.
Chakra would corrode ordinary metal or fail to adhere to it, so why not seal that Chakra inside a kunai? That should work, right?
With an idea in mind, Uchiha Kiyoshi naturally began to act.
Over the past three months, he had obtained some Basic Sealing Jutsu from Orochimaru. Like the Basic Barrier Uchiha Kiyoshi had learned before, it was not particularly useful, but it was the most fundamental application of Sealing Jutsu.
With these, Uchiha Kiyoshi began researching how to seal Chakra into kunai.
Fortunately, Team 3 was rather special. Nawaki was the young master of the Senju Clan, Sarutobi Saku was the Hokage's nephew, and then there was an Uchiha. On top of that, he was Orochimaru's disciple, so they received quite a bit of special treatment.
They rarely went on missions, or rather, the missions they did take carried little risk. Even that previous C-rank Mission that became B-rank had been relatively low-risk overall. They had it much better than civilian ninjas.
But even so, the danger from last time had worried Tsunade. She directly forbade Nawaki from leaving the village on missions. At least for the next half year, he could forget about it.
What else could they do? They could only agree! The Hokage and Orochimaru both gave Tsunade face as well, no longer allowing Team 3 to take missions outside the village. For the next half year, they would train in the village.
Before you continue