Five-Attribute Chakra

"Master!"

Seeing Chiriku appear, Li Chuan stepped across the water's surface a few times, like the legendary light-footed water-walking technique, and leaped to land before him.

Chiriku nodded with satisfaction.

"Starting today, I'll teach you some D-rank jutsu. But first, I need to test your chakra nature."

With that, he pulled a small slip of paper from his hand and handed it to Li Chuan.

Li Chuan looked at the paper in his hand.

"Is this... chakra paper?"

"Correct. As for the specifics of testing and using chakra paper, I should have taught you in previous lessons."

Chiriku looked at Li Chuan with anticipation.

Though the secret jutsu of the Fire Temple only required Sage Art chakra to use, with no attribute restrictions, he still hoped Li Chuan would have as many elemental affinities as possible.

"Yes, I know how to test it."

Li Chuan raised the test paper and slowly channeled a bit of his chakra into it.

He already knew what chakra natures he possessed; this was just going through the motions for Chiriku's sake.

Under the influence of Li Chuan's chakra, the paper first caught fire, then a layer of mist appeared on its surface to extinguish the flames. Next, it wrinkled, then split cleanly in two, and finally crumbled into shreds that fluttered to the ground.

"Fire, water, lightning, wind, earth—you have a Five-Attribute Chakra talent!"

Seeing the changes in the chakra paper, Chiriku first smiled, then showed surprise, and finally turned to shock.

He had originally thought that if Li Chuan possessed three chakra natures, that would be excellent. But he never expected Li Chuan to have the extremely rare talent of all five attributes.

Five chakra attribute talents—as far as he knew, even across the entire ninja world, such people could be counted on one hand, even rarer than those with Kekkei Genkai.

That wasn't to say someone with five attribute talents was necessarily powerful. The Third Hokage, for instance, had mastered all five and possessed an astonishing repertoire of jutsu for each—a singular case.

But having five attribute talents at least gave you the potential to become as strong as the Third Hokage, without fear of being countered by elemental disadvantages.

Fire beats wind, wind beats lightning, lightning beats earth, earth beats water, water beats fire.

If two ninja of equal strength faced off and one was countered by the other's element, the battle would be extremely taxing.

With five attribute talents, Li Chuan wouldn't have to worry about that.

And that wasn't even the most important part. The more chakra natures one had, the easier it was to combine them into jutsu that far exceeded normal power.

For example, using a fire release first, then a wind release—wind fueling fire—could create a composite jutsu surpassing the original rank of both techniques.

"Master? Master?"

Seeing Chiriku still frozen in shock after the test, Li Chuan couldn't help stepping forward to remind him.

"Oh, good. Five-Attribute Chakra talent—good, very good."

Snapping back to reality, Chiriku suppressed his inner excitement and forced himself to calm down. He couldn't help but admire Li Chuan's composure as a prince of the royal family.

He had covered chakra attribute talents in detail during lessons, and he trusted that with Li Chuan's strong memory, he fully understood the power of five attributes.

Yet after the test results came out, Li Chuan's expression hadn't changed at all—still as calm as ever.

"Master, can I start learning new jutsu now?"

Li Chuan asked once Chiriku had steadied himself.

Chiriku nodded firmly.

"Of course. Today, I'll teach you a D-rank fire release jutsu—the Fireball Jutsu."

Leading Li Chuan to the training ground, Chiriku began teaching him the hand signs for the Fireball Jutsu and the techniques to focus chakra.

At that moment, Chiriku's only regret was how few jutsu the Fire Temple had passed down.

The Fire Temple focused mainly on Body Technique, with ninjutsu serving only as support. Most of the inherited jutsu were D-rank or E-rank, with only two secret techniques reaching A-rank.

He had originally thought that since Li Chuan was so talented in combat, he would focus on Body Technique. But he never expected Li Chuan to possess such a rare talent as five chakra attributes.

If he ended up focusing on Body Technique and using ninjutsu only as support, it would be a terrible waste.

Another month passed, marking the last day of Li Chuan's third month in the Naruto World.

That day, he specifically asked Chiriku for leave and returned to the Prince's Mansion, which he hadn't visited in three months.

"Kino, how are the matters I entrusted to you progressing?"

Inside his room, Li Chuan ate a fine meal while asking the mansion's steward, Kino.

Kino knelt beside him and reported respectfully.

"Your Highness, ever since receiving your orders three months ago, I selected a servant with business talent from the mansion and funded the formation of a trade caravan.

Thanks to Your Highness the Prince's influence, the caravan has been smooth in all aspects and has already turned a profit."

In this world, money wasn't everything—strength was paramount—but wealth could save a lot of time and trouble, and greatly aid early strength growth.

The Fire Temple lacked jutsu inheritance, so he could spend generously to place bounties at the Underground Exchange. While he couldn't buy S-rank or A-rank jutsu, he could at least pick up some C-rank and D-rank ones.

If he wanted someone dead but couldn't act personally, he could also place a high bounty at the Underground Exchange.

A fair number of skilled rogue ninjas were willing to take the job for money, especially the Immortal Duo from the Akatsuki Organization, who were specifically tasked with raising funds.

The reason Chiriku and the Fire Temple were destroyed by the Immortal Duo was that someone had placed a high bounty on Chiriku's head—offering thirty million ryo for his death.

Since his starting identity was the Prince of the Land of Fire, he naturally had to make full use of it and not let it go to waste.

Though he was a martial man with little skill in commerce, he could easily send subordinates who excelled at business to earn money for him. With his princely status backing them, things would go smoothly at least within the Land of Fire.

"No need to kneel. Come up and eat with me. Did you get what I asked you to buy?"

Li Chuan was quite satisfied with Kino's progress, and his smile grew a few degrees warmer.

Seeing Li Chuan smile, Kino also breathed a sigh of relief. She rose and sat across from him, pulling a box from her bosom and placing it on the table.

"Your Highness, I bought it. This is the finest quality available."

In Kino's eyes, the Prince now seemed somewhat different from the one she remembered. Though he still spoke little, his presence was far stronger than before.

She attributed it to the Prince studying ninjutsu under Master Chiriku at the Fire Temple.