Water Release Transformation

Water Release: Water Line Technique consumed 0.9C of Chakra Amount and required eighteen hand seals. Its attack range was concentrated at a single point, and its power depended on how compressed the water was.

Besides Chakra Control, the degree of compression also depended on one's understanding of Water Release.

During his repeated practice of the Water Clone Technique, Yichen had gradually grasped some of the essentials of Water Release Transformation.

But he was still unfamiliar with it and had yet to form his own insight into Water Release.

Moreover, his previous Earth Release Transformation had not come from his own comprehension, but from directly accepting someone else's results, so it had brought him no experience.

Fortunately, as a transmigrator, he understood the principles of Five Elements Inter-creation and Inter-restriction very clearly. Combined with his solid performance in theory classes, Yichen did not lack a basic understanding of the various attributes.

When he had previously used Earth Release Chakra to perform the Water Clone Technique, what he had needed to overcome was water's fluidity. Thus, the first Water Release insight he had thought of pursuing was making use of that fluidity.

It was precisely through that use of fluidity that Yichen had barely managed to transform Earth Release Chakra into Water Release Chakra.

But after many more attempts, he found himself at a loss. His insight no longer improved, and although he could barely perform Water Release Transformation, using it freely remained very difficult.

Considering that water's fluidity did not greatly increase his combat strength, Yichen decided to change his training direction.

This time, Yichen chose compression, though the direction he chose differed from the conventional approach.

He intended to make use of the principle that water pressure varied at different depths.

The pressure an object endured underwater was related to the depth of the water. Simply put, the deeper it went, the more water pressed down on it.

The greater the pressure it endured. But that explanation was incomplete, because water exerted pressure in every direction underwater.

For example, if a cube were placed underwater, its upper surface would receive pressure, which was easy to understand. But remarkably, its bottom and sides would also receive pressure.

That was the pressure Yichen wanted to use.

Water Release: Water Line Technique could create a thin, elongated stream of water. If he could apply forward pressure at every point along that water line, then the pressure would travel to the very front of the line and create an extremely considerable force.

If that force were concentrated at a single point, it would be terrifying.

Coupled with the Water Style: Water Line Jutsu's own impact force, Yichen believed that if he successfully developed it, this technique would surely surpass other Water Release Ninjutsu in power and might even rival powerful Wind Release techniques.

Of course, all of that was only Yichen's theory. How to use Chakra to create continuous pressure that could constantly travel forward would have to wait for future development.

Yichen was not in a hurry. Even genius Ninja like Kakashi and the Yellow Flash had spent several years developing their unique Ninjutsu.

Since he had a goal and there was theoretically a way to achieve it, all he needed to do was keep trying in practice, slowly accumulate experience, and achieve a qualitative breakthrough.

Yichen had confidence in himself, and he also believed that miraculous Chakra was capable of doing this.

But those were long-term plans. At this stage, Yichen's task was simple: practice the Water Style: Water Line Jutsu and continuously familiarize himself with Water Release Transformation.

It was several days later when he confirmed this general direction for his training and resolved to work toward it.

After adjusting for those few days, Yichen began a new round of C-rank Ninjutsu training.

But this time, it was far less smooth than before. On one hand, he was unfamiliar with Water Release; on the other, transforming Earth Release had become instinct, and he was heavily affected by that instinct.

In any case, Yichen's training in the Water Style: Water Line Jutsu went very poorly.

Fortunately, the Water Style: Water Line Jutsu was simple and consumed far less Chakra, giving Yichen plenty of chances to try.

In the end, after nearly three hundred failures, Yichen successfully performed the Water Style: Water Line Jutsu for the first time.

This Water Style: Water Line Jutsu produced a straight, thin line roughly ten meters long.

It was unlike the water line he had produced at the beginning, which had been nearly as thick as the mouth of a bowl and no more than half a meter long. Beyond that half meter, it had possessed no force at all and could not even wash away an ant.

The Water Style: Water Line Jutsu he successfully performed this time struck a rock ten meters away and directly bored a small hole into it, as deep as a finger joint.

If such power struck a human body rather than stone, it would be enough to pierce straight through it.

At this point, the Water Style: Water Line Jutsu could be said to have barely gained a certain level of lethality.

But using it in actual combat was fundamentally impossible. Yichen had only just learned it and had only succeeded once. He had not even tried simplifying the hand seals, much less ensured a one-hundred-percent success rate.

It would be awkward if he froze up in battle, or if the water line shot out without any accuracy whatsoever.

Yichen estimated that he would need at least several hundred more attempts before he could master the Water Style: Water Line Jutsu as thoroughly as Earth Style: Earth Flow Wall.

Unfortunately, his Medicinal Food was almost gone. When he had finished training Earth Style: Earth Flow Wall, he had still had twenty-seven meals left, but he had used twenty-three portions on the Water Style: Water Line Jutsu.

What remained was not even enough to last two days.

Yichen shook his head. The path of Ninja training was far too difficult. He truly envied a protagonist like Naruto, who had nearly endless Chakra to squander and could create countless Shadow Clones to deepen his insights.

The Ninja world really was not a hot-blooded manga. Beneath all that passion lay the theory of bloodlines.

Just as Yichen was thinking of spending another two days becoming a little more familiar with the Water Style: Water Line Jutsu, he received a message from the Anbu.

When he arrived at the Tsuchikage's Office Building, Bunji and Meishe had already arrived ahead of him.

Before long, the Jonin who had participated in sealing the Five-Tails last time also arrived. Together with those who had made the Five Elements Sealing Jutsu scrolls with Yichen, nearly everyone in Iwagakure with some skill in Sealing Jutsu had gathered.

Once everyone had arrived, the Anbu led them into the Tsuchikage's Office.

This time, besides Tsuchikage Ōnoki sitting at his desk, several additional chairs had been placed in the office. Two Ninja who were a generation older than Ōnoki, along with two about the same age as him, were seated in them.

The moment Yichen saw this arrangement, he knew these were the village's four advisors. The two elderly figures, one man and one woman, were from the same era as Second Tsuchikage Mu. Back when they had assisted the Second Tsuchikage, they had already served as advisors.

Of the two middle-aged Ninja, the woman was a classmate of Tsuchikage Ōnoki. Ōnoki had been directly taught by Mu and had no fellow disciples, so although she had been his classmate, she was not a disciple of the Second Tsuchikage. She was simply a Ninja who excelled in administrative affairs.

The other middle-aged Ninja was around Ōnoki's age and had also been an elite Ninja of their generation.

The four of them, together with Ōnoki, formed Iwagakure's current leadership. With all five gathered and every capable Sealing Jutsu practitioner summoned, something major was clearly happening.

Could something have happened to the Jinchuriki? It doesn't look like it. If something had happened to the Jinchuriki, the leadership shouldn't be this calm.

Yichen did not know why the leadership had summoned them. In an occasion like this, it was not his place to speak first, so he could only listen quietly.

Once everyone had arrived, the male middle-aged elder spoke first. "Lord Tsuchikage summoned everyone here today mainly for two matters."

"First, some time ago, you successfully used the Five Elements Sealing Jutsu to control the Five-Tails Jinchuriki in a Partial Tailed Beast Transformation. This demonstrates the value of the Five Elements Sealing Jutsu, so today we will discuss how to expand the Barrier Team's Sealing Squad and how to train sealing specialists."

As Elder Bao spoke, he glanced at Yichen with approval in his eyes.

He then continued, "Second, after the last incident, the Five-Tails Jinchuriki can no longer bear the burden. The village must consider replacing the Jinchuriki. As for how to seal the new Jinchuriki, we will discuss it together."

With that, he looked at the head of the Barrier Team, one of the Jonin who had participated in sealing the Five-Tails, and said, "Minister Wen, do you have any suggestions?"

Minister Wen had long been prepared. Now that the village possessed a Sealing Jutsu capable of sealing the Five-Tails but lacked sufficient personnel, the Barrier Team would definitely need to expand. He took out the recruitment plan he had prepared beforehand and explained it.

After hearing him out, Ōnoki and the advisory council had no major objections. They directly asked whether the Barrier Team had a plan for training newcomers.

Minister Wen had no good solution to that. Sealing Jutsu had few practical uses. Other than making items such as Storage Scrolls, it was mainly used to routinely inspect seals on confidential objects and reinforce or reseal them when the seals proved insufficiently secure.

Thus, many of the Barrier Team's sealing specialists had never truly performed Sealing Jutsu. Under those circumstances, improving their Sealing Jutsu was simply too difficult.

They could not exactly release a Tailed Beast every now and then for Sealing Jutsu practice.

Leaving aside how many people would die from such an operation, the damage caused to the Jinchuriki by releasing a Tailed Beast was already more than the village could bear.

The room immediately fell silent. The leadership understood the key difficulty of Sealing Jutsu—it was easy to learn but hard to master—so they were not overly disappointed.

Instead, Ōnoki looked at Yichen and asked, "Yichen, you proposed the concept for this Five Elements Sealing Jutsu. Before that, you also split a B-rank Sealing Jutsu into three parts for step-by-step practice. Your thinking is broader than everyone else's. Do you have any good suggestions?"

Yichen was somewhat surprised. He had not expected Ōnoki to question him individually in such a setting.

After thinking about it, he really did have an idea. He said, "Perhaps we could try developing more Sealing Jutsu."

"Previously, our sealing specialists only made consumables like Storage Scrolls. That does little to improve their Sealing Jutsu."

"But if we try developing Sealing Jutsu ourselves, then during the discussions and experimentation, perhaps our Sealing Jutsu proficiency will improve without us even noticing."

Bunji's eyes lit up when he heard this, and he immediately interjected, "Lord Tsuchikage, Yichen is right. Previously, I could only independently perform B-rank Sealing Jutsu, but during the discussions on the Five Elements Sealing Jutsu, I successfully Reached the A-rank level."

"Besides me, several others who participated have also significantly improved their Sealing Jutsu."

The others beside him nodded repeatedly at Bunji's words. They had all been important participants in developing the Five Elements Sealing Jutsu alongside Yichen and had learned quite a lot.

Ōnoki's eyes brightened. This truly was a good method. As an A-rank sealing master, how could he not understand the reasoning behind it?

But on second thought, he felt it was somewhat difficult. "The method is certainly feasible, but how do we find inspiration for Sealing Jutsu? That is even harder than learning Sealing Jutsu."

Yichen and the others thought about it and realized that was true. If they had that many ideas, they would have perfected them long ago. Why wait until now?

At that moment, Meishe offered an idea. "Lord Tsuchikage, esteemed advisors, perhaps we can seek inspiration from people outside the Barrier Team."

"For example, we could ask Ninja Academy students for their ideas. Their thoughts may be childish, but perhaps some of them will actually be useful."

Everyone's eyes lit up. This truly was a good idea. In fact, Meishe had drawn inspiration from Yichen. He felt that Yichen's thinking had not been constrained by the Barrier Team's traditional mindset, which was why he could propose such imaginative ideas. If that was the case, perhaps the children at the Ninja Academy would also have good ideas.