Sage Art

Though ninjas were powerful, and ninja villages were a country's most important military force, in terms of status, most ninjas were far inferior to a country's nobles.

Thus, nobles in most countries would not spend time learning ninjutsu. Whenever something came up, they could simply pay a ninja village to issue a mission. Romance and enjoying life were what they truly loved.

As the prince of the Land of Fire, the foremost among the Five Great Nations, Li Chuan held no real authority, yet his status was noble. Chiriku truly could not understand why he wanted to become his disciple and learn ninjutsu.

"Abbot Chiriku, I am not joking. I am genuinely interested in ninjutsu and wish to take you as my master."

Li Chuan nodded with great seriousness.

Seeing Li Chuan's earnest expression, Chiriku revealed a somewhat troubled look.

As the abbot of the Fire Temple, accepting a disciple was naturally no trivial matter. Though the other party was the esteemed prince of the Land of Fire, he was simply too old.

If Chiriku remembered correctly, the prince before him was already twenty this year. Beginning to refine Chakra and learn ninjutsu at twenty, yet hoping to achieve anything, was simply a fantasy.

One had to know that becoming a qualified ninja required talent, hard work, resources, and time. Not one of them could be lacking.

However, the prince had asked him directly. If he refused, it would clearly be a slap in the prince's face, and that would not be good for the entire Fire Temple.

"Your Highness the Prince, learning ninjutsu is an extremely arduous matter."

"Rest assured, Abbot Chiriku. I am not afraid of hardship. As long as you accept me as your disciple, I am willing to offer a small token of sincerity and donate five million ryo to the Fire Temple as incense money."

With a smile, Li Chuan added another bargaining chip to the negotiation.

As a prince, if he insisted that Chiriku accept him as a disciple, Chiriku certainly would not refuse. But if he was unhappy and taught carelessly, Li Chuan would be the one to suffer.

Therefore, besides his status, he could also use money to get what he wanted.

In any case, as a prince, five million ryo was not a significant sum for him.

"Since Your Highness is so sincere and determined, how could I possibly refuse?"

When Chiriku heard "five million ryo," his eyes lit up. Pressing his palms together, he immediately changed his mind and agreed.

In truth, given his personality, he would not normally agree so readily just because of five million ryo. But the Fire Temple was currently in a difficult situation, and this donation would solve its most urgent problem.

Though the Fire Temple was a ninja temple, unlike Konoha, it did not receive all kinds of financial support from the Land of Fire, nor could it accept missions for generous rewards. Its primary income came from the Land of Fire's citizens who visited to offer incense and worship Buddha.

The people of the Land of Fire were prosperous, and the Fire Temple had once enjoyed abundant incense offerings. It had not lacked money before.

However, several years ago, the Chakra within Sora's body had gone berserk. It had not only injured many monks, but also destroyed the Fire Temple's strongest defensive seal, the Sealing Iron Wall.

Over the past few years, rebuilding the Sealing Iron Wall and treating the injured monks had nearly exhausted the temple's savings accumulated over many years. As the abbot and the one who had brought Sora back, Chiriku could not shirk responsibility.

If he accepted the prince as a disciple now and received a donation of five million ryo, it would greatly ease the Fire Temple's financial burden.

"Good. Then tomorrow, I will bring the donation and formally become your disciple!"

Seeing Chiriku agree, Li Chuan did not waste words and immediately settled on the time.

He had only three months in this Minor World, so naturally he could not waste any time. The sooner he began training, the sooner he could master more ninjutsu.

Early the next morning, Li Chuan brought five million ryo to the Fire Temple. After a simple apprenticeship ceremony, he began his formal training.

"Your Highness the Prince, let us begin."

Inside the training hall in the Fire Temple's rear courtyard, Chiriku took out a scroll and spread it open. Just as he was about to begin teaching, Li Chuan raised a hand to interrupt him.

"Master, now that I have become your disciple, please do not call me prince anymore. Just call me Chuan."

The Fire Temple had no special requirements for Dharma names, and it was even fine not to have one. For convenience, Li Chuan chose "Chuan" as his Dharma name.

Chiriku smiled at this and did not stand on ceremony.

"Very well, Chuan. First, I will explain the principles behind Chakra refinement. Then I will explain the difference between the Sage Art unique to our Fire Temple and ordinary Chakra."

"Thank you, Master!"

Li Chuan straightened his posture and assumed an attentive pose.

Chiriku began explaining.

"Chakra is essential for us to use ninjutsu, Body Technique, and genjutsu. It is produced by extracting energy from the body's one hundred and thirty trillion cells and combining it with spiritual energy.

"Our Sage Art Chakra, however, takes in an additional tiny amount of external energy on top of that foundation.

"It is precisely because of this small amount of external power that our Sage Art has an additional effect compared to ordinary Chakra: it nourishes the body, making Body Technique training more effective.

"That is why most Monk Ninja of our Fire Temple excel at Body Technique."

After Chiriku's explanation, Li Chuan finally understood why Sage Art had the word "Sage" in its name. It turned out that this Chakra was somewhat connected to Sage Mode.

Sage Mode, however, absorbed a large amount of natural energy during use, causing the power of one's ninjutsu, Body Technique, and genjutsu to increase by leaps and bounds.

Sage Art, on the other hand, absorbed an extremely small amount of natural energy while extracting Chakra, harmonizing the body and spiritual energy so that it could slowly improve the user's physical constitution.

"Does our Sage Art have any drawbacks?"

Li Chuan knew very well that if Sage Art truly had an advantage over ordinary Chakra, even if it only slightly improved one's physical constitution, various forces would likely have coveted it long ago. It would not have remained in the Fire Temple's possession all this time.

So there had to be a corresponding weakness.

Chiriku paused at the question, then Responded with slight embarrassment.

"Compared with ordinary Chakra, it does have a drawback that is not quite a drawback. Because it is mixed with external energy, the speed of Chakra extraction is somewhat reduced."

The moment Li Chuan saw Chiriku's expression, he guessed that it was likely far more than "somewhat." Otherwise, the Fire Temple would not have had only Chiriku as a jonin all these years.

Throughout the ninja world, most ninjas focused primarily on ninjutsu, while those who focused on Body Technique were in the minority.

Furthermore, physical strength could be improved through training or special ninjutsu. Few ninjas would likely be willing to trade slower Chakra refinement for a slight increase in physical constitution.

Only Monk Ninja like those of the Fire Temple, who usually did not need to carry out missions or frequently fight for their lives, would consider Sage Art superior to ordinary Chakra.

Still, after thinking it over, Li Chuan decided to learn the Fire Temple's Sage Art Chakra refinement method rather than the ordinary Chakra refinement method.

He had a feeling that the Sage Art Chakra refinement method might be beneficial to Sage Mode and to the cursed seal invented by Orochimaru.