Uchiha Clan Territory
An uninhabited, remote area that no one approached.
This was Uchiha territory, but the Uchiha seemed to have abandoned it.
At that moment, Yayoi was inside a slightly renovated house.
He was trying to study Senjutsu.
Senjutsu was difficult to master. Even within a great clan like the Uchiha, there were only a few records of it.
Natural Energy was elusive, its whereabouts hard to trace. It existed in nature, yet roamed between heaven and earth.
To capture Natural Energy, one had to merge with the world.
Innocent Heart
Chakra and Natural Energy had to be mixed in a certain ratio. One had to prevent the Natural Energy from spiraling out of control, as there was a risk of mutation.
The answer was so esoteric that Yayoi felt at a loss, unable to make heads or tails of it.
Innocent Heart? He might as well give up right now.
After fusing with Dragon Blood and awakening the Divine Tree Bloodline, he wasn't exactly violent, but he certainly couldn't keep his mind still.
It would be easier to wait for Natural Energy to absorb him than to make him attain an Innocent Heart.
Still, considering the limitations of those who came before him, Yayoi was sure there had to be a method they hadn't thought of.
Since Senjutsu was currently beyond his reach, Yayoi decided to study Dragon Script and the elements first. Perhaps the insights would lead him to something else.
First, Yayoi considered what the elements and Natural Energy had in common.
Both roamed between heaven and earth, and both were forms of energy that ordinary people couldn't use.
However, compared to the elements, Natural Energy seemed to have some sort of connection with Chakra. Perhaps.
He first used Mirror Eye to record Wind King Eye. The Dragon Script chanted, drawing out an elemental resonance.
Guided and controlled by the Dragon Script, the elements gradually formed a faint tornado.
Yayoi once again felt the presence of the elements. The Wind Element was like a sprite in the breeze, wandering through nature.
Yayoi tried once again to take in the Wind Element, but this time he was prepared and absorbed only a minuscule amount.
After entering his body and losing the Dragon Script's guidance, the Wind Element began to turn into tiny Wind Blades and scatter in all directions.
Tiny beads of blood seeped out through Yayoi's skin. He endured the pain and patiently felt the power of the elements.
Since the amount of elemental energy was so small this time, it vanished inside Yayoi and returned to nature without him even needing to release it himself.
"Elements..."
Yayoi patiently focused on the feeling of the elements appearing and disappearing just now, recording the process with Mirror Eye.
"Elements can't dissolve into the human body. So what does Natural Energy feel like?
"The difference between elements mixed with Chakra and elements on their own is the variable of Chakra."
Time passed quickly. Yayoi continued to ponder every day over how to guide Natural Energy the way he could guide the elements.
Then Yan arrived with good news: the items Yayoi had asked her to buy had arrived.
Speaking of Yan, the two of them hadn't seen each other for a week.
At school, it seemed Yan had taken leave at the same time as him. He didn't know what she'd been up to.
Still, Yayoi had a few guesses. Her Second Grandfather had probably taken her away for special training.
During that time, Yan had come by once, and the two of them had finally had a spar after so long.
This time, Yayoi had actually been unable to match Yan even without using Word Spirit.
As expected, this time was no different. The two were evenly matched, but Yan had a clear advantage.
"Two Tomoe?"
Watching Yan move with such precision, as if she could predict the future, Yayoi helplessly raised his hands in surrender.
"You guessed right. It's the Two Tomoe Sharingan."
Yan tied up her hair and openly showed him her Two Tomoe Sharingan.
Two black Tomoe turned slowly in her blood-red eyes, beautiful and dangerous.
"Your Sharingan evolved. Did something happen?"
Yayoi knew a bit about how the Uchiha Sharingan evolved.
It was triggered by emotional upheaval, but—he hoped she'd forgive him—he couldn't think of anything he'd done lately to upset her.
"It's not that you made me angry, Miyoshi-kun. It's just that Second Grandfather wouldn't let me see you lately."
She seemed to have guessed what Yayoi was about to say and puffed up her cheeks, looking like a little ball.
"I came to bring you some things."
"Mercury extracted from Cinnabar, a small piece of Chakra Conductive Metal, Pure Gold, and some metal materials."
Yan bit her finger, formed hand seals, and summoned a small orange cat.
The orange cat had a huge package on its back. As soon as it appeared, it set the package down and happily ran to Yan's feet, meowing.
"Okay, okay, I know."
Yan smiled and took out a dried fish to feed it.
Meanwhile, Yayoi opened the package the Ninja Cat had brought and checked the things he'd asked for.
These weren't equipment for studying Senjutsu, of course, but consumable materials for analyzing and testing Alchemical Circuits.
He wanted to experiment with carving the Dragon Script he'd deciphered onto materials.
That might help him analyze Dragon Script more deeply and, in turn, discover or create a Dragon Script suited to guiding Natural Energy.
"I had fun today, too. Keep working hard, Miyoshi-kun, or I'll leave you way behind."
Yan smiled, dimples appearing in her cheeks, and spoke to Yayoi.
"That won't happen. I won't let you leave me behind."
Yayoi smiled as he spoke.
Deciphering Dragon Script was difficult. Yayoi had tried before, but in the end he'd failed and wasted a lot of time.
Still, it hadn't been a complete loss. He'd discovered the structure of Dragon Script, its model.
It was held together by three layers, overlapping and interwoven to form a complete Word Spirit.
For example, the inner layer of the Word Spirit—Mirror Eye—consisted of analysis and memory.
The middle layer consisted of Dragon Script for control and information processing.
The outer layer manifested Mirror Eye's ability to transcribe and copy.
Then there was Wind King Eye.
Its inner layer was a Dragon Script called "Spiral."
The middle layer consisted of Dragon Script that guided the Wind Element and controlled its quantity.
The outermost layer consisted of Dragon Script for dispersal and release.
Yayoi had tried to analyze it with Mirror Eye, but it took an extremely long time. The few minutes he could keep Mirror Eye active before were nowhere near enough.
Each piece of Dragon Script required a long time to analyze.
But even during the spare moments he had each day over the past three years, Yayoi had kept using what little time he had to make progress.
He hadn't wasted a single moment.
And now, at last, he'd managed to decipher it.
After carefully weighing his options, he'd ultimately chosen the middle layer of Wind King Eye, balancing its usefulness against the time required to work it out.
Carefully separating the Dragon Script's structure had taken a year.
Then he went all out, running Mirror Eye at full power to analyze that section of Dragon Script. He'd finally finished deciphering it yesterday, after studying the elements.
After seeing Yan off, Yayoi first took a small piece of Chakra Conductive Metal.
He tested its properties.
As its name suggested, Chakra Conductive Metal could conduct Chakra, undoubtedly giving a ninja a considerable boost in combat.
What Yayoi wanted to know was whether he could make a Chakra Sword that guided the power of the Wind Element while still conducting Chakra.
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