The Upgrade of Water Style: Water Line Jutsu

At Yichen's urging, the six members of Team Two and Team Five fleeced their respective captains for a meal. After a lively feast, they went their separate ways.

Today's assessment had exhausted Yichen, so he decided to rest for the day. Tomorrow, he would collect his Medicinal Food and train in Ninjutsu.

As a newly promoted Chunin, Yichen was entitled by village custom to a fairly long break. This leave was meant for new Chunin to learn C-rank Ninjutsu and undergo intensive training to rapidly improve their combat strength. This system had never been suspended, even during wartime.

Tana also needed time to practice the Body Flicker Technique, so Team Five had no missions for the time being.

After collecting his Medicinal Food, Yichen returned to the Training Ground, feeling somewhat excited. This training was a village benefit, and as usual, the village would arrange for an experienced Chunin to guide him.

However, Yichen had written Water Style: Water Line Jutsu as the technique he wanted to practice on his application.

There were already few Water Release Ninja in Iwagakure, and Water Style: Water Line Jutsu was such an unusual Ninjutsu that Yichen doubted whether the village could even find a suitable instructor.

Still, that was beyond his control. His purpose was not to learn Water Style: Water Line Jutsu, since he already knew it.

His goal was to find someone who could guide him in upgrading Water Style: Water Line Jutsu.

Yichen's understanding of Water Release was not particularly strong. His advantage lay in his astonishing Chakra control.

As he walked the path of Water Release training, it felt as though experience was driving his understanding forward.

He had first begun to sense Water Release through the Water Clone. Back then, he had been muddled and unsure, and later, he had only barely mastered Water Release Transformation through repeated practice.

With that level of understanding, developing Ninjutsu was impossible.

After finishing his Medicinal Food, Yichen saw that the Chunin he was waiting for still had not arrived. He did not mind and began practicing Water Style: Water Line Jutsu by himself.

Some time ago, thanks to his improved Chakra Control, Yichen had barely managed to add pressure to Water Style: Water Line Jutsu.

But that pressure was far from sufficient. Leaving aside cutting through the Ten-Tails like the Second Hokage, even in actual combat, it was probably only a little stronger than kunai and Shuriken.

Water Style: Water Line Jutsu did not consume much Chakra, but applying pressure greatly increased the expenditure.

Yichen still could not control it properly. Sometimes, he used too much Chakra and achieved no effect at all. Other times, he used too little, and while it worked, the result was insignificant.

He practiced alone for most of the day before a Ninja finally walked toward him.

He had not expected a Jonin. It seemed the village truly could not find a suitable Chunin.

Although Yichen had guessed that the man had come to guide him, he suppressed his excitement and tried to remain calm.

Sure enough, after the man stopped in front of him, he spoke first. "You're Yichen, right? You're really young. You became a Chunin at such an age. I'm the Jonin responsible for guiding your Water Style: Water Line Jutsu training this time. My name is Seiichi."

Yichen hurriedly bowed. "Hello, I'm Yichen. It's truly an honor that the village sent a Jonin like you to guide me in learning Ninjutsu."

Yichen was not merely flattering him. Such guidance missions paid poorly, and the village had to spend both money and contributions to hire people for them. Most people did not like accepting these missions.

Seiichi was a fairly easygoing Ninja. At Yichen's words, he smiled awkwardly and said, "Actually, the village couldn't find a suitable Chunin. You chose Water Style: Water Line Jutsu, and there aren't many people in the village who practice it."

"Actually, I don't know Water Style: Water Line Jutsu either. The village mainly sent me to guide your Water Release Transformation training."

Rather than feeling disappointed, Yichen was delighted when he heard that. "That's wonderful. My Water Release Nature Transformation is actually rather ordinary. The only reason I can use Ninjutsu is because of my talent for Chakra control. I was just worrying about how to improve my Water Release training."

Then Yichen poured out everything at once: his understanding of Water Release, why he had chosen Water Style: Water Line Jutsu, and his idea of adding water pressure to the technique to develop a new Ninjutsu.

At first, Seiichi listened with the mindset of guiding a junior, but the more he heard, the more astonished he became. Shouldn't a newly promoted Chunin be struggling with how to use Ninjutsu? Why is he thinking about advanced fields like Shape Transformation, Ninjutsu development, and Water Release comprehension?

In particular, when he heard Yichen's ideas about pressure, Seiichi felt as though a great revelation had struck him. It was as if his understanding of Water Release had instantly deepened.

Who exactly is guiding whom here? Seiichi thought.

After Yichen finished, Seiichi sank into deep thought. Yichen could only wait beside him eagerly.

After a long while, Seiichi finally came back to himself. Seeing Yichen's expectant gaze, he smiled. "I came to guide you, but I didn't expect you to guide me first."

"Since that's the case, as repayment, I'll carefully explain what Water Release is in the days ahead. You can also hear about my own insights."

Yichen was initially confused. How did I guide you? But the next two sentences immediately thrilled him.

Outside of master-disciple inheritance, this kind of guidance simply did not exist in the Ninja world. Today really was his lucky day.

Seiichi then began explaining the relevant knowledge of Water Release to Yichen. None of it could be found in books; it could only be exchanged from the village with contributions.

Yet now, Seiichi was teaching it to him for free.

During the twenty days Yichen consumed Medicinal Food, Seiichi did not take on missions. Instead, he trained with Yichen at the Training Ground.

One taught wholeheartedly, while the other listened attentively. From time to time, Yichen's way of thinking, so different from that of the Ninja world, produced unusual insights and conjectures.

Gradually, the two became more and more compatible in conversation. Then Seiichi guided Yichen through Ninjutsu practice, using practical demonstrations to help him understand the principles involved.

What excited Yichen most was that, when Seiichi once explained that Water Release also possessed a certain cutting ability, he taught Yichen a B-rank Water Style Jutsu: Water Style: Raging Frost Stream.

He had Yichen use Water Style: Raging Frost Stream to deepen his understanding of Water Release's cutting properties.

With his extraordinary Chakra control, the careful guidance of a Jonin skilled in Water Release, and the boost from Medicinal Food, Yichen actually succeeded in using this B-rank Ninjutsu.

Of course, Yichen understood that he could use it now only because the Medicinal Food provided him with a huge amount of Chakra.

In a normal battle, he would be unable to use it.

From Seiichi's explanation of Water Release insights, Yichen realized he had previously held a misconception. He had always wanted to magnify a particular trait of Water Release, overlooking the fact that its greatest characteristic was its diversity of properties.

That was to say, Water Release possessed countless traits. Without any one of them, it would no longer be water.

For example, if Yichen wanted to add pressure to Water Style: Water Line Jutsu, he had to consider that the pressure in the strengthened water line would spread in every direction. He had to restrain the pressure in all other directions before he could achieve a powerful strike.

Over these twenty days, the one who gained the most was actually Seiichi. Though he had not gained much directly from Yichen's insights, Yichen's words, which broke habitual patterns of thought, often inspired him.

With the help of Medicinal Food, Yichen still had not completed the upgrade to Water Style: Water Line Jutsu.

Yet Seiichi had completed the development of three Ninjutsu.

Seiichi himself was already an expert in Water Release Ninjutsu within the village, but training Water Release in Iwagakure came with too many limitations, restricting his growth.

Yichen, however, had helped him open the door that had confined him.

As a result, Seiichi's strength advanced by leaps and bounds over those twenty days. He was even beginning to show signs of becoming an Elite Jonin.

Yichen could not sense any of this. He still did not understand the difference between a Jonin and an Elite Jonin.

He could only tell from Seiichi's generosity toward him that Seiichi's gains must have been considerable as well.

Still, Yichen was very satisfied. During the Chunin Assessment, he had realized that his offensive methods were too limited and that his Ninjutsu was too slow to use. He had only intended to practice Water Style: Water Line Jutsu properly and improve its attack power and casting speed.

He had not planned to use this opportunity to learn new Ninjutsu, but thanks to Seiichi's generosity, he had successfully learned the B-rank Attack Ninjutsu, Water Style: Raging Frost Stream. What was there to be dissatisfied about?

Moreover, his gains over these twenty days went far beyond that.

Over these twenty days, Yichen's greatest change was that, in the subject of Water Release Transformation, he had gone from an elementary school student to a high school graduate.

Seiichi's explanations had made up for the gaps in his theoretical knowledge. He would have to walk the rest of the path himself; his teacher's guidance would no longer be as important.

And this transformation brought many benefits.

It greatly reduced both the casting speed and Chakra consumption of his Water Release Ninjutsu.

Even the number of hand seals required had been drastically reduced.

Although he had not fully developed a new Ninjutsu in those twenty days, the power of the upgraded Water Style: Water Line Jutsu was already incomparable to before.

After testing it, Yichen found that the new Water Style: Water Line Jutsu could directly pierce through his Earth Style: Earth Flow Wall and injure anyone behind it.

Original Water Style: Water Line Jutsu: 12 hand seals, 2.7 per second, 0.8C.

Now, Yichen needed only 5 hand seals to use the original Water Style: Water Line Jutsu, with a Hand Seal Speed of 3.5 seals per second and a Chakra cost of 0.6C.

The upgraded Water Style: Water Line Jutsu had slightly adjusted hand seal sequences. It required 7 hand seals, had a Hand Seal Speed of 3.5 seals per second, and consumed 5.8C of Chakra.

Countless Ninjutsu practices over twenty days had brought a qualitative leap in Yichen's Hand Seal Speed.

Yichen felt that his Ninjutsu could finally be truly used in actual combat.

If he could spend more time practicing the two Earth Style Ninjutsu afterward and simplify their hand seals as well, he believed his strength would increase by a great deal.

When the training ended, Seiichi bid Yichen farewell. He had gained so much that he needed time to convert those gains into actual combat ability. He also needed to demonstrate his value to the higher-ups through missions.

Tomorrow, missions would begin again. Today, he would go take a look at the Barrier Team.

He had not visited the Barrier Team for more than twenty days in a row, and he did not know how far they had gotten in deciphering the "Fire Domain" fragment.

Thinking of this, Yichen became impatient. He quickly picked up his pace.

The Barrier Team had not been as relaxed as Yichen during these days. The entire Barrier Team's research into the "Fire Domain" fragment had never stopped for a moment.

Three Jonin took turns leading shifts, operating around the clock in three rotations and conducting nonstop experiments.

Although they had not yet cracked it, their theoretical gains had far exceeded everyone's expectations.

The method Yichen and the others had discussed long ago, searching for inspiration among Ninja Academy children, had produced little effect. However, during this analysis and research process, all kinds of ideas kept emerging.

Furthermore, after obtaining the Uzumaki Clan's Sealing Jutsu, the Barrier Team had already entered a period of rapid growth in its Sealing Jutsu standards.

Driven by this research project, they had undergone several more qualitative leaps.

There were now too many people in the Barrier Team whose Sealing Jutsu had reached A-rank to count on both hands. As for those at B-rank, even Ōnoki and Mizuhara did not know how many there were.

Yichen's return was met with enthusiastic greetings. Many familiar and unfamiliar sealing specialists eagerly shared the progress of their research with him.

After listening, Yichen was dumbfounded. When they had first discussed research methods, everyone had proposed a wide variety of ideas, and these days they had been testing them one by one.

He had assumed that after so much time had passed, there would not be many experimental projects left.

Yet there were now countless more untested projects than before.

It turned out that new ideas kept being proposed throughout the research process.

Sometimes, a single experiment could generate dozens of new ideas.

Some of those ideas were refinements to details, while others were flashes of brilliant inspiration.

After hearing everyone's descriptions, Yichen became immersed in the bombardment of novel ideas and the analysis reports of various experimental results.

It was not until someone reminded him that it was time to go home that Yichen came back to his senses. Looking at the documents, he realized he had read less than one-tenth of them and could not help feeling that there was not enough time.