B-Rank Earth Release

After learning about the Rainbow Mist Mountain ninja, all three of them grew solemn.

After that, they merely chatted with Tony about trivial matters, then left after dinner.

Normally, Namiashi Raidō would have bragged and joked around after eating, grinning from ear to ear. Now, he looked as though he had lost his direction in life, even somewhat discouraged.

He was bold—someone as single-minded as him certainly was—but he was not stupid, merely a little too straightforward.

Though he was confident in his own strength, he had his own measure in his heart. For example, he could not beat Genma. He would never admit it aloud, but he knew it clearly enough.

Right now, the three of them were Genin who had only just graduated, while the other side already had four ninja who appeared to be Chunin.

Four ninja who were at least Chunin would completely crush three inexperienced Genin like them. And although Kamise Yushi was a Jonin, instantly taking down Chunin was impossible. One wrong move, and he might even end up losing.

They soon returned to the familiar inn and unexpectedly found Kamise Yushi standing at the entrance.

"Follow me!"

Without bothering to address their surprise, Kamise Yushi calmly left those words behind before darting away himself.

The three exchanged glances, then followed after a moment.

The wind howled endlessly past their ears as the buildings around them flashed by.

Before long, they arrived before a remarkably quiet forest.

The sun was setting, and the evening glow arrived over the town as though keeping an appointment, draping the forest in a layer of fiery red gauze.

As they ventured deeper into the forest, their surroundings gradually dimmed. In the end, they were brought before three towering trees.

Seeing the trees, Kurenai, who had practiced tree climbing with Genma, was the first to cry out, "Sensei, don't tell me you're having us practice tree climbing?"

"Hm?" Kamise Yushi raised a brow, the corner of his mouth twitching. He had not expected her to guess his purpose before he even spoke. Seeing Kurenai's expression, she seemed to have practiced it before, so he could not help asking, "You've practiced it already? I was indeed planning to teach you tree climbing today."

Kurenai nodded. "Mm. Not just me—Genma learned it a long time ago too."

Hearing Kurenai and Kamise Yushi's exchange, the utterly confused Namiashi Raidō scratched his head. "What's tree climbing? Is it a ninjutsu we're going to practice next?"

"Tree climbing isn't ninjutsu. It improves Chakra Control." Seeing this, Kamise Yushi understood. He probably only needed to teach Namiashi Raidō this exercise.

"Kurenai, Genma, since you've learned it before, show Raiton how it's done."

Kurenai and Genma did not linger. They set down their ninja tool bags and approached the trees.

Under Namiashi Raidō's astonished gaze, the two began walking up the bark. They were fairly slow at first, but gradually picked up speed, reaching the treetops in no time.

"Mm, it seems you've truly learned it. Kurenai, teach Raiton how to climb trees. Genma, come with me first."

Genma followed Kamise Yushi away, already forming some guesses. He was probably going to be given separate training, and changing locations made sense.

Sure enough, they arrived at a wide-open area that was perfect for cutting loose.

Just as Genma carefully surveyed the surrounding terrain, Kamise Yushi spoke. "There's nothing special about this place. I just found an open area to teach you a ninjutsu."

"Ninjutsu?"

"That's right. But it's not some especially powerful ninjutsu. It's merely a B-Rank Ninjutsu."

The moment he heard B-Rank Ninjutsu, Genma was stunned. Seeing his reaction, Kamise Yushi smiled faintly. "It's actually nothing too impressive. Your Fire Release leans toward offense while your Earth Release leans toward defense, which leaves a major weakness. This ninjutsu can make up for it somewhat."

"A weakness? Sensei, are you worried about fighting at night?"

Whether it was Hideyoshi or Genma himself, both knew exactly what that weakness was.

However, his family could not produce any ninjutsu suited to his affinities for the time being, and in the early stages, it was not something he needed to worry about too much.

After all, he had already learned so many C-Rank Ninjutsu. Even against Chunin, he would not be at much of a disadvantage.

If there truly was a weakness, it was only at night. Fire Release was too conspicuous, easy to evade and easy to spot, making it inconvenient to use.

But Earth Release was not just for show either. Earth Style Wall could defend, and with suitable terrain, it could attack as well. The Subterranean Voyage Technique could be used for escape and reconnaissance.

Now that Kamise Yushi had brought up his weakness and said he would teach him a B-Rank Ninjutsu, Genma was greatly startled but also deeply delighted.

"Looks like you understand it yourself. There's nothing wrong with teaching you Earth Release, but you cannot pass it on freely. If you have the chance to lead a team in the future, you may teach it to your disciples."

The words were tactful, but the implication was that he could not treat this ninjutsu as a family inheritance. Instead, it had to be contributed to the village.

Genma fully agreed with this approach. It felt like passing on a flame—taking it from where it came and passing it toward where it belonged.

"Understood, Sensei Yushi. I'll pass it on to suitable disciples and no one else!"

Shiranui Genma bowed solemnly, his resolute voice echoing through the forest.

"That will do. I can tell you know your limits. B-Rank Ninjutsu may be precious, but without someone suitable to use it, it's still useless."

Kamise Yushi stepped up to Genma and helped straighten his bent body.

"Still, three days may not be enough for you to learn it. I need to see just how far you've developed your Earth Style. Use that E-Rank Ninjutsu you often use to the fullest. It may be E-Rank, but it has limitless potential."

The E-Rank Ninjutsu he meant was the Earth Spear Jutsu Genma often used for sneak attacks.

The Earth Spear Jutsu truly had limitless potential. As long as he allocated more Chakra properly, it could develop into Earth Spear.

However, the Earth Spear Genma developed himself would definitely differ from the Earth Spear available on the market.

The difference was like one person blindly figuring things out from scratch, while the other had something already developed, studied, and refined by countless people.

Although Genma possessed ways of thinking different from this world, he did not dare guarantee that his ideas were the best. Therefore, he had never truly tried to develop the Earth Spear Jutsu into Earth Spear.

Besides, in darkness, his Earth Spear Jutsu was likely even more useful than Earth Spear.

In the blink of an eye, Genma completed his hand seals and created an earth spear before himself and Yushi.

The most common direction for developing Earth Style was hardness.

Thus, although the small earth spear Genma formed with all his strength was earthen yellow, a closer look revealed a metallic sheen.

Normally, he would never form an earth spear like this. It consumed too much Chakra and had too limited a range, completely losing the original value of an E-Rank Ninjutsu.

E-Rank Ninjutsu only needed to be easy to learn and consume little energy. As for power, it truly was not as practical as learning a C-Rank Ninjutsu.

The leap from E-Rank to C-Rank was a qualitative change, the result of countless people's wisdom. But since Yushi wanted to test his Earth Style development, Genma had no choice but to expend nearly as much Chakra as a C-Rank Ninjutsu to create an earth spear.

The moment Kamise Yushi saw the earth spear appear, he stepped forward and pulled it from the ground.

"Tsk, tsk. I never expected you to have such ideas. You actually concentrated a large amount of hard minerals at the tip, while the back is about the same as ordinary rock."

After touching the tip of the earth spear, squeezing various sections of it, crushing different portions, and rubbing the fragments between his fingers, Yushi sensed that this earth spear was unusual.

When he poured Chakra into it and sensed its internal structure, he was completely dumbfounded.

"This... you made the earth spear this complicated!?"

Kamise Yushi stared at Genma in shock, as though looking at some kind of monster.

"Ahem, it's not that exaggerated. There was simply nothing else to practice, so I kept studying the earth spear."

He had indeed practiced his ninjutsu to the point where there was little left to improve. Thus, during his usual training, Genma would try altering the earth spear's structure.

It was not actually that complicated. He had merely distributed the hard minerals inside the earth spear in the shape of a Spiral Cone.

This was also preparation for eventually integrating Earth Style into the Spiral Cone.

And it was not just Earth Style—he had developed Fire Style the same way.

For example, Genma could breathe out cone-shaped flames, though he would not normally use them.

He had spent a full two years developing these two affinities, so such results were hardly surprising.

What Genma did not know was that although his development had not truly reached its full potential, it was still extremely remarkable.

When developing Earth Style, most people focused on how to gather more hard minerals into their techniques rather than altering their internal structure.

After all, studying structure before even fully developing hardness was simply trying to do too much at once.

But Kamise Yushi understood the changes a spiral structure would bring to an earth spear.

In terms of overall toughness, it would definitely be far stronger than any ordinary earth spear he knew.

If the earth spear were thrown like a javelin, it would be fine if it struck something soft. But if it hit something fairly hard, an ordinary earth spear might shatter completely after piercing it, while Genma's could likely penetrate the hard object intact.

Suppressing his surprise, Kamise Yushi's gaze became even firmer.

The Earth Release he intended to teach required not only hardness, but also flexible arrangement of mineral distribution.

Making earth hard was simple, but arranging its minerals flexibly was difficult.

Therefore, seeing that Genma had developed Earth Release to such a degree, he was extremely satisfied.

"Watch this carefully."

"Earth Release: Earth Dragon Bullet Technique!"

Kamise Yushi rapidly formed hand seals. As he finished, the soil beside him swiftly gathered together, gradually forming a dragon's head. Then the dragon's body rose from the ground and charged at several enormous trees before them.

The earth dragon crashed into the giant trees without incident, snapping them in half at the waist before turning into dust.

Seeing such a powerful Earth Dragon Bullet, Genma was both shocked and delighted.

As expected, anything produced by dragons had to be exceptional. Though it merely borrowed a dragon's form, its power seemed almost enhanced by it.

"Sensei, do dragons really exist in this world?"

"Uh, why are you asking that...?"

He had expected Genma to react with childlike excitement and say he wanted to learn it. Instead, he had been given a question so baffling that even he did not know the answer.

"Since there's an Earth Dragon Bullet, someone must have seen a dragon and then created this ninjutsu."

People often accepted many things as normal without investigating why, but Genma's question truly made Kamise Yushi curious as well.

But time was of the essence, and this was not the time to discuss dragons.

"Ahem, let's not talk about that first. You saw the hand seals clearly, right? If you did, I'll explain the key points."

"Mm, okay."

Prompted by Kamise Yushi, Genma came back to his senses and nodded.

And so, under Kamise Yushi's patient instruction, Genma began training in the Earth Dragon Bullet.