Uchiha Kiyoshi knew full well about the harm caused by Chakra. Extracting too much would damage the body's cells, which was why ninjas tended not to live long. Ever since extracting Chakra for the first time, Uchiha Kiyoshi had never done so at full capacity.
But this could not go on forever. If he failed to find a solution, the rate at which his Chakra improved would definitely suffer. If his Chakra did not increase, he would even have to scrimp when learning Ninjutsu. Sooner or later, it would drag him down completely.
Uchiha Kiyoshi was anxious as well. Every day, he set aside five or six hours to visit the Uchiha Clan's Archives, hoping to find some inspiration.
However, a solution was not something he could find so easily. Uchiha Kiyoshi could only settle down and properly do what he needed to do each day.
Half a month passed just like that.
There were still ten days until the Ninja Academy opened, but Uchiha Kiyoshi did not feel much about it.
Over the past half month, Uchiha Kiyoshi's hand seal speed had doubled again. He could now form two seals per second, meeting the standard for learning Ninjutsu.
As mentioned before, Ninjutsu was released through the circulation of Chakra within the body, which required a certain hand seal speed. Otherwise, if the effect of the previous seal had already passed before the next seal was formed, how could the technique possibly succeed?
Moreover, Uchiha Kiyoshi's hand seal speed referred only to raw hand speed.
Without any assistance from Chakra circulation, he could only form two seals per second.
If Chakra activation were added, and he also had to pay attention to the rhythm between seals, he might not even be able to form three seals in two seconds!
Uchiha Itachi's six seals per second in the original work also referred to when he was releasing Ninjutsu—that was, while activating Chakra—and in the middle of battle at that.
That was why Uchiha Itachi's six seals per second was so impressive. Otherwise, as long as someone was willing to practice, practically anyone could achieve the hand speed of six seals per second. The difficult part was activating Chakra.
In short, one had to become familiar with the flow of Chakra throughout the entire Ninjutsu release process, then circulate Chakra while keeping up with a speed of six seals per second.
After the seals were formed, the speed of Chakra flow was actually fixed, though it could naturally be controlled by the ninja. An increase in hand seal speed also came with an increase in the ninja's speed of pushing Chakra.
Even with the guidance of hand seals, this process was extremely troublesome. It was difficult to accomplish without day-after-day practice.
As for hand seal speed, Uchiha Kiyoshi could only take it one step at a time.
He had already gotten on track with recording and summarizing the Chakra circulation corresponding to hand seals. He had completed his records on how the twelve hand seals affected the Chakra in his lower abdomen, and he had begun researching other parts of the body as well.
However, because of Uchiha Kiyoshi's condition, his Chakra reserves were not especially outstanding, so the time he could devote to research each day was limited.
And so, the problem returned to Chakra once again.
Looking over the history of ninja development, Chakra had always been a major factor restricting ninja progress. Therefore, Uchiha Kiyoshi did not actually have much time left.
Uchiha Kiyoshi decided that if he still could not find a solution within three months, he would abandon his original plan and extract Chakra with all his strength.
After all, the Ninja World had all sorts of strange Ninjutsu. At worst, he could get himself a new body later. Impure World Reincarnation combined with One's Own Life Reincarnation—then he could start over from scratch!
Of course, that was only possible if he became strong enough to leave himself such a backup plan.
Once again running out of Chakra during his research, Uchiha Kiyoshi sighed helplessly. After recording the previous data, he stopped this round of research.
After recovering his mental energy, Uchiha Kiyoshi got up and headed for the clan's Archives.
Along the way, Uchiha Kiyoshi kept thinking about his earlier problem, feeling both hopeful and uneasy.
"Three months... how can I find a way to use Chakra to nourish the body? Sigh! Could it be that I chose the wrong path?"
Uchiha Kiyoshi frowned at times and sighed at others. Fortunately, he walked with his head lowered, and there were few pedestrians around, so no one saw him looking like this. Otherwise, would they not have thought Uchiha Kiyoshi had gone mad?
After arriving at the Archives, Uchiha Kiyoshi first greeted an old man at the entrance before walking inside.
He did not greet him because he thought the old man was some hidden master sweeping the floors.
Rather, the man truly was that sort of person. It was not as simple as it looked.
Every Uchiha Clan ninja who had come here to consult the records knew that the old man at the entrance was no ordinary man.
Uchiha Yu, a retired ninja of the Uchiha Clan, had possessed the strength of an Elite Jonin at his peak. Even now, he served as the Uchiha Clan's Elder of External Affairs!
After all, a place as important as the Archives could not be watched over by just anyone.
Uchiha Yu raised his head and looked at Uchiha Kiyoshi.
He remembered this junior. Uchiha Kiyoshi had often come here to read since childhood. He was a good child. Yet some time ago, Uchiha Yu had learned certain details from Uchiha Shin and felt great pity over Uchiha Kiyoshi's situation.
Only he can overcome this hurdle in his heart. Sigh! Such a studious junior surely cannot have poor talent. What a pity. If only...
Still, if this little fellow can truly make it through, his future may be limitless!
His cloudy eyes watched Uchiha Kiyoshi's retreating back as Uchiha Yu silently made his assessment.
Unfortunately, Uchiha Kiyoshi knew nothing about it.
He also had no idea that one act of pretense on his part had led someone to imagine such an entire story. As expected, the human capacity for making things up was the strongest.
Uchiha Kiyoshi entered the Archives and headed straight for the medical section.
The Uchiha Clan was proud and arrogant, but it was not careless. Its records were organized very neatly.
The entire Archives was divided into different sections. The largest section contained materials related to the Sharingan, and naturally, only members of the Uchiha Clan could enter it.
Next came Genjutsu Fundamentals, followed by Fire Release, then sections for other elemental releases, medical studies, Sealing Jutsu, and more.
Recently, Uchiha Kiyoshi had been reading in the medical section, hoping to find inspiration for using Chakra to nourish the body through methods of improving physical fitness.
For the past four years, Uchiha Kiyoshi had frequently visited the medical section and the Sealing Jutsu section, so Uchiha Yu, as the caretaker, naturally knew this well.
Uchiha Yu had not said anything about it. In this regard, he would not interfere with the training paths of clan members. Besides, Uchiha Kiyoshi had "liked" reading such knowledge since childhood, and he seemed able to understand it. Perhaps he truly had talent in this area!
It was naturally a good thing for the clan to produce another outstanding medical ninja, or perhaps a ninja proficient in Sealing Jutsu.
Besides, considering Uchiha Kiyoshi's situation, perhaps becoming a medical ninja would not be bad either...
Uchiha Yu withdrew his gaze and closed his eyes again, remaining alert.
Time passed as Uchiha Kiyoshi diligently read.
Uchiha Kiyoshi put down Ninja Body Tempering Basics and swept his gaze across the bookshelf. Suddenly, a book titled Samurai Body Tempering Method caught his attention.
"Why is there a samurai book here?"
Holding Samurai Body Tempering Method, Uchiha Kiyoshi felt puzzled. He did not know why his clan, a ninja clan, had collected such a thing.
"Maybe they obtained it by accident and thought it would be a waste to throw it away, so they put it here?"
Uchiha Kiyoshi had originally intended to put the book back, but upon further thought, he realized he had never researched methods for improving a samurai's physical fitness. Had he been too narrow-minded by keeping his focus solely on ninjas?
Should he research other systems?
With that thought in mind, Uchiha Kiyoshi opened Samurai Body Tempering Method and began studying it seriously.
Afterward, Uchiha Kiyoshi specifically found several books about samurai and planned to research them himself.
Two hours passed without him noticing.
Uchiha Kiyoshi remained unaware, still reading the materials in his hands.
The book Uchiha Kiyoshi held now was a biography of a certain samurai.
When he saw that this samurai had lived to be one hundred and twenty years old, Uchiha Kiyoshi's eyes sharpened. He felt that his inspiration was about to arrive.
One hundred and twenty years old was practically an impossible lifespan in the Ninja World. Even Uchiha Madara had relied on the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path to sustain himself and had only lived into his eighties or nineties!
After carefully studying the biography, Uchiha Kiyoshi discovered that this man was no different from other samurai. He had not taken any miraculous pills either. The only difference was that this samurai who lived to one hundred and twenty had a mild temperament and rarely fought with others.
"So that means he had no hidden injuries or anything like that?"
Uchiha Kiyoshi muttered to himself. Staring at the book in his hands, his gaze became unfocused as his thoughts flew somewhere far away.
Uchiha Kiyoshi suddenly snapped awake and began searching for biographies of other samurai.
"Sure enough, it is not an isolated case. Any samurai who suffered few injuries in youth, or received prompt treatment, tended to live quite long.
"Even without cultivating Chakra and without being troubled by illness, humans in the Ninja World absolutely cannot reach one hundred years of age!"
Uchiha Kiyoshi felt his brain heating up and his breathing quicken. He felt that he had found the right direction.
After five minutes of excitement, Uchiha Kiyoshi finally calmed down. He took a deep breath and slowly exhaled, bringing his emotions under control.
He picked up Samurai Body Tempering Method again and began studying it. He felt certain that he had missed something and needed to examine it carefully once more.
Before he knew it, it was already late at night. Only after Uchiha Yu urged him did Uchiha Kiyoshi come back to his senses. He hurriedly apologized, returned the books to their original places, and left the Archives.
After seeing Uchiha Kiyoshi leave, Uchiha Yu did not immediately close the door. Instead, he turned his gaze toward the materials Uchiha Kiyoshi had just studied.
"Samurai Body Tempering Method? Why is that kid reading this kind of thing? And he was so absorbed in it?"
Uchiha Yu took out Samurai Body Tempering Method and skimmed through it. Once he roughly understood its contents, he said in confusion, "Isn't it just a method for samurai body tempering? Does he need to take it so seriously? The samurai way wastes far too much effort. Although it surpasses ninjas by quite a bit in Taijutsu, it has already been eliminated."
Uchiha Yu muttered to himself, then suddenly sucked in a sharp breath.
"Hiss... That kid, no way?"
Uchiha Yu could not believe it.
"Is he that afraid of dying? He is even interested in samurai body tempering? Medical Ninjutsu, samurai body tempering... Hiss... That is a lot to take in!"
Immediately afterward, Uchiha Yu began worrying about Uchiha Kiyoshi's situation.
Could this kid truly have the perseverance to learn the samurai way? That would be far too regrettable. Such a hardworking child—how had the blow affected him so badly that he became this afraid of death?
"Forget it. I'll observe him a little longer. If he truly starts practicing this, I'll talk him through it then. Such a promising seedling cannot be delayed on the samurai path."
Uchiha Kiyoshi had no idea that his actions had made the old man at the door imagine so much.
If he had known, Uchiha Kiyoshi would only have said, "You are overthinking it. That kind of training is so difficult and so slow to show results. I could never keep it up!"
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