Water Release Mastery, the Beginnings of a Kekkei Genkai!

Outside the laboratory gates, atop the massive boulder used to block the entrance.

Yamanaka Kei sat cross-legged and opened the personal panel he had not examined closely in a long time.

...

Host: Yamanaka Kei

Class: Ninja

Activated Entries: Transmigrator (Red), Yin Release Master (Purple), Space-Time Insight (Purple), Say What You Get (Purple), Water Release Mastery (Blue), Ninja World Know-It-All (Blue), Handsome (Blue)

Unactivated Entries: Wriggler (White), Glass Cannon (White), Brother, You Smell So Good (White), Smiling Face (White)

Entry Gifting: 4

Entry Copy: 1

Entry Stripping: 1

Entry Upgrade: 1 (Blue)

Entry Downgrade: 1

...

"Four Entry Gifting opportunities actually accumulated?"

Yamanaka Kei looked over the lengthy personal panel and sifted through the System log notifications one by one.

He had earned one from taking the Three Little Ones on a mission, one from killing Suikazan Fuguki, one from messing with Pakura, and another from messing with Minato this time.

I should clear out the White Word Entries later. There are getting to be too many of them.

Yamanaka Kei muttered to himself before turning his attention to the remaining rewards.

There was nothing more to say about Entry Copy.

He had had his eye on Minato's Super-Speed Reaction for a while now, all so he could make the Flying Thunder God Technique flawless.

As for Entry Stripping, it did not seem useful at the moment.

But there was no denying that this reward was even more valuable than Entry Copy by a wide margin.

Just imagine it.

Uzumaki Nagato controlled the Six Paths of Pain and had just leaped out, ready to carry rice.

Yamanaka Kei used Entry Stripping and immediately tore away the Rinnegan Entry from the other side.

The six bodies controlled by the Rinnegan would instantly be GG.

A blind Nagato could only rely on the Uzumaki Clan's massive Chakra reserves to use some ordinary ninjutsu Jiraiya had taught him.

Holy shit!

If I don't beat the shit out of Nagato, then he can count himself lucky!

"Hehehe~"

Yamanaka Kei grinned, letting out the laugh of an elder from the Soul Hall.

After enjoying himself for a while, he finally looked at the next reward: the Blue Entry Upgrade opportunity.

The value of a reward that could directly upgrade a Blue Entry into a Purple Entry needed no explanation.

But... should he use it?

Yamanaka Kei looked at the three Blue Entries on the System panel, utterly torn.

If his Blue Entries had been Namikaze Minato's Energy Storage or Strong Luck, Might Guy's Extreme Recovery, or Shiranui Genma's Influence of Good Company—

He would have upgraded them without a second thought.

But his three Blue Entries were Water Release Mastery, Ninja World Know-It-All, and Handsome.

Upgrade them?

That felt like wasting such a good reward.

Not upgrade them?

Was he supposed to sit on the reward instead of using it to quickly improve his strength, then wait until he died and went to the Pure Land to shoot the breeze with the Sage of Six Paths?

"This damn System doesn't even have an upgrade preview function or something."

Yamanaka Kei complained inwardly.

After a brief hesitation, he selected Water Release Mastery for the upgrade.

Neither Handsome nor Ninja World Know-It-All directly improved his combat strength. In this cruel ninja world, strength was the foundation of everything!

Buzz~

A vast amount of Water Release Ninjutsu training experience surged into his mind along with the Entry's upgrade.

Water Transformation Technique, Water Gun Technique, Water Mirror Technique, Water Ball Technique, Oil Transformation, Mirage, Vapor Explosion, Great Water Arm Technique, Water Transformation Healing Technique, Medical Water Release · Water Mosquito, Medical Water Release · Water Jellyfish...

The Water Transformation Technique, which he had previously been unable to use due to the restrictions of a special Kekkei Genkai, was now completely mastered.

The inherited ninjutsu of the Second Mizukage, Gengetsu Hozuki, which he had seen just half an hour ago, felt as though he had practiced it for decades.

All kinds of Water Release techniques he had seen while reading other people's memories in the Analysis Team surfaced one after another.

Fierce water. Surging water. Razor-sharp water. Bone-eroding water. Gentle water.

It was both destruction and rebirth, both unyielding and yielding.

Yamanaka Kei opened his eyes and raised his right hand. A stream of water seemed to come alive, darting nimbly across his palm.

The next moment, his entire right arm transformed into water, becoming a translucent liquid.

"Partial Water Transformation Technique... feels kind of weird."

Yamanaka Kei felt his arm in its Water Transformation state and raised his left hand to poke his right one.

His left index finger passed through his right palm, splashing droplets of water everywhere. Once he released the Water Transformation Technique, his right hand had not suffered the slightest injury.

"Is it like sweating? Did my body lose a bit of water?"

Yamanaka Kei glanced at the wet patches scattered across the ground.

He formed a seal with one hand and absorbed a large amount of moisture from the air. His body visibly became broader and more muscular, while his strength instantly increased by a large margin.

"The Great Water Arm Technique can absorb moisture from the air. If it doesn't absorb enough, it still consumes the water inside the body."

Yamanaka Kei tested each of the Water Release Ninjutsu that affected the body.

While marveling at the astonishing brilliance of the Hozuki Clan's ancestors, he also understood why Suigetsu Hozuki was always drinking water in Naruto: Shippuden.

For Hozuki Clan members who inherited their ancestors' bloodline, the entry threshold for these secret techniques was not particularly high.

The real difficulty was absorbing enough water from the air while using them.

But that posed no difficulty whatsoever for Yamanaka Kei now.

By his estimate, the only difference between his Water Release and that of the Second Hokage Tobirama Senju was the amount of Chakra they possessed.

"So the threshold for a Kekkei Genkai is Purple Entry-level mastery over ninjutsu?"

Yamanaka Kei repeatedly experienced the changes throughout his body while in the Water Transformation Technique state.

He was already looking forward to seeing what kind of Kekkei Genkai he could fuse together once he obtained Purple Entries for other elemental release techniques in the future.

After testing all the abilities the System had instilled in him and initially adapting to them—

Yamanaka Kei saw that Namikaze Minato still had not returned. Keeping his right hand in its partially transformed state, he formed a Rasengan in his palm and slowly began infusing it with the nature transformation of Water Release.

Boom~

Yamanaka Kei froze as his arm exploded into a spray of water, then stubbornly began trying again.

Buzz~ Boom~

Buzz buzz~ Boom!

Buzz buzz buzz~ Boom!!

His arm exploded into water again and again, then recovered again and again.

After trying for more than an hour, with the Chakra in his body nearly depleted, Yamanaka Kei finally relied on the extraordinary Chakra control brought by Say What You Get to vaguely grasp a hint of the trick.

Who knew how long it would take to truly complete this move.

"Damn it! That idiot Naruto definitely only managed to create the Wind Release Rasenshuriken because Kishimoto gave him cheats!"

Yamanaka Kei cursed furiously in his heart.

He had encountered countless ninjutsu since childhood, and he had seen quite a few forbidden techniques with S-rank difficulty.

But never had there been a single ninjutsu that made him feel so utterly lost.

Hard!

It was way too damn hard!

The Rasengan's high-speed rotation made the nature transformation of Water Release incomparably violent.

It was like forcibly compressing countless high-pressure water blades capable of cutting through iron into a single sphere. Even the slightest friction between the water blades would make the whole thing explode.

And as the Rasengan spun faster, those damn water blades would stretch and deform too.

Who the hell could handle that?