Asuma's Tragic World

The speed of healing injuries and illnesses with Medical Ninjutsu isn't too fast. Even with the advanced technique "Palm Healing Technique," treating such large abrasions would take at least five minutes for a normal Medical Ninja.

So, during this free time, Miyadai continued his explanation, "Medical Ninjutsu works by forming hand seals, activating the Physical Energy within Chakra, and then circulating this activated Chakra within the body in specific combinations to release it."

Soseki offered his understanding, "Could it be explained like this: Chakra is the known numbers, Elemental Ninjutsu are the formulas, and hand seals are the auxiliary calculation tools? The more powerful the Elemental Ninjutsu, the more complex the formula, and the more auxiliary calculation tools, or hand seals, are needed. The final result is the Ninjutsu we release."

This was the first time Miyadai had heard such a novel explanation. She instinctively felt Soseki made a lot of sense, but the lack of emphasis on foundational teaching among ninjas made her hesitant. "Why do you think that?"

Soseki earnestly replied, "Today, I browsed through 'Introduction to Chakra,' 'Encyclopedia of Ninjutsu,' 'Essentials of Ninjutsu,' and many other books at the library. They all stated that the three keys to using Ninjutsu are sufficient Chakra, correct hand seals, and complete Ninjutsu formulas."

Misa and the other two by his side asked in confusion, "Is there something wrong with that?"

"But I heard that the First Hokage, who founded Konoha, could heal without hand seals." Soseki said in a deep voice. "This means the process of forming hand seals can be omitted, right?"

In Soseki's view, if hand seals were calculation tools, then the First Hokage was a mental arithmetic master, able to skip the tedious intermediate steps.

"It seems you've also noticed the impact of hand seals on Medical Ninjutsu!" Miyadai sighed softly. "Every second we spend forming hand seals could be a price transferred to the injured. Therefore, every Medical Ninja must spend a lot of time practicing hand seals."

"However, even Lord Tsunade cannot achieve healing without hand seals, so don't overthink it, and don't neglect your training with hand seals."

Soseki nodded vigorously. "I will."

His vision was long-term, but he wasn't arrogant or impatient. Those who try to surpass something without understanding it rarely go far.

Seeing that Soseki didn't possess the typical self-centeredness of a genius, Miyadai breathed a sigh of relief and continued her explanation, "Medical Ninjutsu and Illusion Arts are much more difficult to use than general Ninjutsu, due to the control over Chakra. General Ninjutsu only requires forming hand seals to mobilize Chakra within the body. But Medical Ninjutsu is different; it requires precise control over the Physical Energy component of Chakra."

Kotoko raised her small hand and asked, "Miyadai-senpai, why don't we directly mobilize Physical Energy when using Medical Ninjutsu?"

"You're a ninja, and you've forgotten the most basic knowledge?" Miyadai replied irritably. "Physical Energy and Mental Energy are more like concepts. Only when they merge into Chakra do they truly gain substance. To achieve what you're suggesting, one's Physical Energy would have to be so powerful as to become tangible, but how could that be possible?"

"Oh, oh." Kotoko sheepishly shrank her head. Her mind had been so focused on formulas and tools that she hadn't reacted properly.

Soseki, on the other hand, cupped his chin with his small hand, pondering, "Most people use basic Chakra with nature transformation to perform Elemental Ninjutsu. Sage Mode is powerful because the nature of the Chakra itself changes. Could the root of the First Hokage's strength also be related to the nature of his Chakra?"

At night, in Soseki's small wooden house.

Soseki sat at his desk, holding a small knife, and carefully made a shallow cut on the back of his left hand.

He quickly formed hand seals with both hands, then placed his right hand, which was glowing with a faint green light, onto the back of his left hand.

"It's a bit itchy and painful. It must be the granulation tissue growing rapidly, while the nerve endings are recovering more slowly... One minute? Even for such a minor wound, one minute is my limit," Soseki murmured, carefully collecting the bodily feedback.

This wasn't because Soseki was particularly kind and preferred to harm himself rather than capture small animals for experiments. He did this because only his own body could provide the most accurate feedback.

If simply using healing techniques yielded an experience of 1, and conducting experiments yielded an experience of 3, then the feedback Soseki was getting from his own body was 10!

Given the limited amount of Chakra he could refine per day, this was the best way to improve his proficiency.

Furthermore, Soseki needed to understand his tolerance for pain and the precise recovery time when using Medical Ninjutsu on himself.

As a Medical Ninja, he had to ensure his own physical condition was always under absolute control.

"Only by doing this can I precisely control... the extent of injuries I sustain in the battle half a month from now!"

And so, Soseki attended classes diligently during the day, spent his lunch breaks at the library, "drained" Asuma's remaining value after school, "self-mutilated" at home in the evenings, and interned at the hospital on weekends.

During this period, although there were occasional minor romantic interludes, Soseki easily resolved them and poured all his energy into this incredibly fulfilling study life.

Soon, half a month passed in a flash.

Ding ding ding—

As the school bell rang precisely on time, a cheer erupted in the classroom. Then, almost everyone's gaze turned towards the two protagonists of the day.

Since it was a private "duel," and to avoid using public time, Soseki had specifically arranged for it to take place after school that day.

"Soseki, you have to win!"

"Class representative, it's up to you!"

"Asuma... um, never mind, I called the wrong name."

The surrounding crowd was cheering for the "two."

Although Asuma didn't care much about others' opinions, hearing the cheers made his heart ache involuntarily.

Just then—"Classmate Asuma..."

Hearing the sudden voice, Asuma's spirits lifted. It seemed he still had supporters!

Following the direction of the voice, the girls in the class seemed to have formed a united front, shouting at him:

"If you dare to win against Soseki-kun, we won't let you get away with it!"

"You shouldn't say that, Soseki-kun will get angry, but if you dare to hurt Soseki-kun... Hmph!"

"Oh dear, you all shouldn't say that, or Asuma-kun will start crying!"

Actually, they didn't have much malice towards Asuma. Since Asuma and Soseki became "friends," their impression of Asuma had also improved considerably—how could someone who became friends with Soseki-kun be a bad person?

Of course, the warning was also genuine!