Rest and Recuperation

After the four left the battle zone, Kitsuchi bandaged the wound on Yichen's lower abdomen. Fortunately, it was not deep.

Then Kitsuchi and the other two made a stretcher and hurried toward the Land of Earth with Yichen.

The four first traveled swiftly for a long stretch before stopping to rest in a forest.

Each of them took out a Soldier Pill and spent some time recovering Chakra.

Then Kitsuchi and the other two arranged the watch schedule.

As for Yichen, he had already been the most exhausted one over the past five days, and now he was injured as well, so he was not assigned a watch.

Yichen had been under tremendous pressure during the previous battle, especially when Shinohara had nearly been killed by ice spears several times. It left him deeply shaken.

Now that everything was over, the combined exhaustion of his mind and the injury to his body quickly sent Yichen to sleep.

When Yichen woke again, he found that their hiding place had changed.

He did not know how long he had slept. It seemed that everyone had traveled another stretch while he was unconscious.

When they saw Yichen awake, Kitsuchi and the other two said nothing. They only explained the situation after settling into their new hiding place.

It turned out that Yichen had slept for a full day and night without realizing it.

Shinohara and Wada carried Yichen as they traveled continuously for more than ten days before Team Five finally returned to the village. By then, Yichen's injuries had nearly healed.

Because there had been too many unexpected developments during this mission, Kitsuchi directly gave Team Five ten days off.

He told everyone to go back and sort through what they had gained from this mission.

Kitsuchi himself took several Sealing Scrolls to the Tsuchikage's Office Building.

How the village would extract intelligence from those Mist ninja had nothing to do with Yichen.

He could use these ten days to deal with the pile of matters he had accumulated.

Yichen truly had quite a few things to do. The most time-consuming was the research being conducted by the Barrier Team. He decided to spend a few days participating in it. After all, his injuries had just healed, and he was not yet suited for physical training.

After resting at home for a night, Yichen went back to work at the Barrier Team early the next morning.

He first carefully reviewed the Barrier Team's research results, then took part in several experiments, treating it as a way to refresh his Sealing Jutsu and keep himself from getting rusty.

But there was still too little time. In the blink of an eye, five days had passed.

Once he felt that his body had fully recovered, Yichen resumed physical training.

After recovering physically, Yichen stopped going to the Barrier Team. Instead, he made a trip to the Exchange Office and used Contribution Points to exchange for information on Kekkei Genkai.

His encounter with Yuki Kagami of Kirigakure had taught Yichen a major lesson. It was downright embarrassing for a transmigrator. As one of the transmigrated, he had actually been caught completely off guard by Ice Release.

The core secrets of Kekkei Genkai were naturally classified by the village, but the village still had plenty of information on Bloodline Ninja from other countries, and the exchange cost was low.

After all, the village could not endanger its own people just to keep foreign ninja's secrets.

So, without spending many Contribution Points, Yichen exchanged for a large stack of documents. He obediently spent an entire day learning about Kekkei Genkai throughout the Ninja World.

After reading them, Yichen slapped himself. His understanding of Kekkei Genkai had always remained stuck in the perspective of Konoha from the original work—or, more accurately, the protagonist's perspective.

At the protagonist's level, he had encountered far too many Kekkei Genkai.

And all of them had been outstanding members of their respective Bloodline Limit families.

But in reality, Kekkei Genkai were still very rare. Iwagakure, Kumogakure, and Sunagakure did not have many, while Konoha and Kirigakure had a great number of them.

Moreover, the Bloodline Limits possessed by those two villages were powerful ones.

The Ninja World's definition of a Kekkei Genkai was not simply the combination of two attributes.

It was a special ability that could be passed down to descendants through bloodlines.

For example, the Uzumaki Clan's enormous Chakra Amount was also regarded in the Ninja World as a type of bloodline limit.

The ocular bloodline limits of clans like the Uchiha and Hyuga were likewise not produced through the combination of two attributes.

There was also Kirigakure's Kaguya Clan. Its Shikotsumyaku was similar to the Uzumaki Clan's trait: it could be inherited through bloodlines, but could not be explained through attribute combination.

In the Ninja World, many bloodline limits were not particularly useful, or only had supporting effects. Red Eye was one such example.

But most bloodline limits could grant ninja a tremendous boost in strength.

However, there was one thing Yichen had never understood.

That was that among Kekkei Genkai formed through the combination of two attributes, the same bloodline limit could still be developed to different degrees.

Generally speaking, developing a bloodline limit had two stages.

The first was to master two attributes, then fuse the two types of Chakra outside the body, thereby gaining the ability to use Bloodline Ninjutsu.

The second was to fuse the two attributes within the body, altering one's constitution and allowing the bloodline limit to be inherited through blood.

The intelligence explained that this distinction in development level mainly applied to the first person to develop the bloodline limit.

For that person's descendants, the usual outcome was either directly awakening the bloodline limit, skipping the first stage and reaching the second, or never awakening it at all and failing to even reach the first stage.

Then Yichen saw the point that stirred him most.

If a bloodline limit reached the second stage, it would gradually improve the user's constitution. That improved constitution could grant a ninja a large amount of Chakra and stronger Taijutsu.

It could be said that this was a path that altered a ninja's body at the Genetic Level.

Yichen carefully recalled his battle with Yuki Kagami that day. His opponent had first used a B-rank Ninjutsu to form over ten thousand ice needles, then forcibly used Ice Prison Jutsu, which consumed Chakra equivalent to a B-rank Ninjutsu.

He had also used C-rank Ninjutsu repeatedly as though it were nothing.

Even so, the opponent's Chakra had been nowhere near depleted.

This also proved that the opponent's Chakra Amount was truly enormous.

The intelligence also mentioned power. A powerful bloodline limit like Ice Release could roughly raise the power of a Ninjutsu by an entire rank.

Yichen had experienced just how terrifying that was firsthand that day.

Yuki Kagami, who was not much older than Yichen and the others, had reached Chunin strength through his Chakra Amount and Ice Release.

And that was not all. His immense Chakra allowed him to learn B-rank Ninjutsu. Although he was not proficient with that B-rank Ninjutsu and had probably only recently learned it.

Still, the B-rank Ninjutsu cast by a Chunin surpassed that of most Jonin, its power directly reaching A-rank.

One had to know that many Jonin did not even know A-rank Ninjutsu.

Although S-rank Ninjutsu existed above that, S-rank techniques were what Kage Level fighters used when risking their lives. One S-rank Ninjutsu could seal the Nine-Tails or defeat Orochimaru.

For Kage Level fighters, B-rank Ninjutsu were also their most frequently used techniques in battle. When they found the right opening, they would use a few A-rank Ninjutsu.

So, given enough time to prepare, a ninja whose strength had only reached Chunin level could actually unleash a Ninjutsu more powerful than a Jonin's.

That alone showed how terrifying Bloodline Ninja could be.

And all of this only applied to bloodline limits formed through the fusion of two attributes. The Ninja World's strongest bloodline limits were not these, but the Sharingan, the Senju Clan, the Uzumaki Clan, the Hyuga Clan, and the Kaguya Clan.

None of these were bloodline limits created through attribute fusion, yet every one of them truly stood at the pinnacle of the Ninja World.

Setting down the intelligence scroll, Yichen felt somewhat emotional. No wonder Orochimaru had become obsessed with research into bloodline limits and similar matters later on. They were simply too overpowered.

To say nothing else, take two equally genius ninja. Orochimaru was already extraordinarily gifted, but his ceiling was only Kage Level. And without considering Giant Summoning Beasts, his combat power was not particularly strong even among Kage Level fighters.

But when he encountered someone like Itachi Uchiha, whose talent was no weaker than his but who possessed a bloodline limit—and a top-tier one at that—he seemed completely outclassed.

After reading the intelligence, Yichen too became filled with longing for bloodline limits.

Because he had an overall feeling that no matter how hard one worked, one's upper limit was predetermined. Compared to any particular person, he might not necessarily be inferior, but compared to the entire Ninja World, the descendants of those bloodline families simply had a higher ceiling than him.

Yichen was still in his growth phase. He could not even guarantee victory against an ordinary Chunin, so he did not feel it too deeply.

But if the day came when Yichen realized that his strength could no longer grow, he would not be able to stop himself from thinking that the Geniuses of those bloodline families would eventually surpass him.

Just thinking about that stifling, frustrated feeling made it hard to suppress.

After putting the scroll back, Yichen left the Exchange Office, muttering as he walked, "Bloodline limits, bloodline limits."

He returned to his residence in a daze and sat foolishly on the bed alone for quite a while before finally coming back to himself.

After slapping himself several times, he thought, So what if I don't have a bloodline limit? I'm a transmigrator. Can't I develop one myself?

Ōnoki had not possessed Dust Release at first either. He learned Dust Release later, and it had not come through bloodline inheritance but through acquired training. That showed that Iwagakure had methods for cultivating bloodline limits.

But Yichen also understood that, setting aside how he would obtain such a method, mastering it would not be easy even if he did.

Still, the village surely had cultivation methods for ordinary bloodline limits, or at least related theories. These methods were probably like advanced Sealing Jutsu, requiring a certain level of authority before they could be exchanged through merit.

First, he would save up Contribution Points. The next time he had a chance to render great service, he could bring it up to Ōnoki.

Given how highly the village currently regarded him, such a request would not be excessive.

Having made up his mind, Yichen stopped dwelling on bloodline limits. Over the next few days, he would first become more proficient with Earth Style: Earth Rising Spear and Earth Style: Earth Flow Wall.

For the two Water Style: Water Line Jutsu, the number of hand seals had already been reduced considerably. But Earth Style: Earth Flow Wall and Earth Style: Earth Rising Spear, his primary methods in the early stages, still required too many hand seals.

The remaining four days were neither long nor short. With Yichen's Chakra Control ability, coupled with the fact that his Chakra Amount was no longer small,

he should be able to make some gains.

Speaking of which, over the years, because Yichen had been willing to invest heavily in physical training and diet, the resources he received were actually no less than those of children from ordinary ninja families.

So Yichen's constitution was now among the better ones for his age.

It was just that all the companions Yichen interacted with were outstanding among their generation, making his Chakra Amount seem like a shortcoming.

Yichen deliberately slowed his hand seal speed and carefully felt the flow of Chakra when using Earth Style: Earth Flow Wall and Earth Style: Earth Rising Spear. Then he began analyzing which steps could reduce hand seals and be replaced by superior Chakra Control.

To improve efficiency, Yichen used the methods of Sealing Jutsu research to make a list, writing down every idea for reducing hand seals and testing them one by one.

Sure enough, the method was remarkably effective. In just four days, Yichen directly reduced Earth Style: Earth Rising Spear from twelve hand seals to ten, and Earth Style: Earth Flow Wall from ten to nine.

Moreover, Yichen could clearly feel that this was far from his limit. As long as he had enough time, he could definitely simplify them further.

Yichen also felt that if he carefully analyzed the two Water Style: Water Line Jutsu with this method, he might be able to improve them as well.