Spellcasting Without Seals? This Child, Looking at Him, is Not Human.

"Ah, who made this Water Dragon Tornado?"

By the waterfall, traces of ninjutsu destruction were everywhere.

Kisame Hoshigaki appeared in a blur, his body covered in mud and water.

He used a Wind Release ninjutsu to blow away the thick fog, his expression grave as he looked at Kazama Kaguya and said, "After you cast the Mist Technique just now, did you use B-rank Water Release: Water Dragon Tornado?"

"No, I used D-rank Water Release: Water Breaking Wave. The chakra just flowed too fast, and I couldn't hold it back for a moment," Kazama Kaguya said with a hint of embarrassment.

"Flowed too fast? Couldn't hold it back?" Kisame Hoshigaki didn't understand the meaning behind his words and looked unconvinced. "Even if you output too much chakra, D-rank? Can it produce this effect?"

He looked at the circular crater, over two meters deep and more than thirty meters wide, in front of him, his brow furrowed.

"D-rank Water Release: Water Breaking Wave can only form a circular water wall within three meters of the user, with limited power. It's a foundational ninjutsu of the Breaking Wave style. Even if you increase chakra output, you can't achieve this effect."

"The Mist Technique obscured my vision just now. Cast it again so I can see."

Kazama Kaguya naturally had no objections.

He immediately put his hands together.

Then, under Kisame Hoshigaki's bewildered gaze, a high-intensity water stream, fifty to sixty meters tall, appeared out of thin air. It spun, a multi-stage impact wave forming a circle, sweeping through the large crater once again like a water dragon tornado.

"???"

Kisame Hoshigaki was stunned.

He didn't look at the damage caused by the ninjutsu; he just stared intently at Kazama Kaguya's hands.

"Hands together? No, what kind of hand seal is that?"

He had studied ninjutsu his entire life and had never known a hand seal to be formed by putting his hands together.

This clearly went against common sense for ninja hand seals.

Kazama Kaguya naturally knew there was no such hand seal.

However, seeing the dumbfounded Kisame made him feel quite pleased.

He once again formed the 'hands together' seal and smiled as he explained, "Well, Teacher Kisame, please don't mind it. I was just influenced by a certain senior. After all, performing ninjutsu requires a sense of ritual. If you don't even form hand seals, isn't that disrespectful to ninjutsu?"

"????"

This time, Kisame Hoshigaki's face showed even more confusion.

He listened to Kazama Kaguya's words, and while he understood every single word, they made no sense when put together.

"So, this 'hands together' seal is for respecting ninjutsu? Meaning, you can completely omit it and cast the ninjutsu directly?"

His words were full of questions, the question marks on his forehead almost becoming tangible.

Kazama Kaguya nodded, confirming Kisame Hoshigaki's question. "Yes, I just discovered it myself. I can cast ninjutsu without hand seals."

"Casting without hand seals???"

Kisame Hoshigaki felt like he had learned something new again.

Hand seals were the means of controlling chakra, invented by the ancestor of ninjutsu, Indra.

Forming hand seals had always been a necessary condition for casting conventional ninjutsu.

Forming hand seals with one's hands was the most common method.

Besides that, some geniuses, after arduous practice, could form hand seals with their feet, blink their eyes to form seals, and so on.

Wielders of a Kekkei Genkai could largely bypass the need for hand seals, such as the use of the Sharingan, Shikotsumyaku, or Byakugan. However, this was a Kekkei Genkai ability, not conventional ninjutsu.

Kisame Hoshigaki could understand simplified hand seals; he himself could cast D-rank and C-rank ninjutsu with just one hand seal.

But no matter how simplified, a seal was still necessary unless it was a ninjutsu that didn't require one.

If no hand seal was formed, chakra would become extremely difficult to control, not only affecting the ninjutsu's power but potentially causing it to fail.

However, casting without hand seals, to be honest, was too far ahead of its time. He had never heard of it and couldn't understand it.

After all, the Ninja God, Hashirama Senju, who could do anything with just a 'hands together' gesture, was already a thing of the past.

Kisame Hoshigaki pondered, trying to find an explanation.

He racked his brain, recalling all his knowledge, and muttered to himself:

"The essence of ninjutsu is the conversion of energy and matter."

"Hand seals are not only a bridge for communication between the internal and external but also a means of controlling both."

"You can cast ninjutsu without hand seals. Ruling out all other possibilities, the only explanation is that your compatibility with chakra far exceeds my imagination."

"Using chakra for you might be more like an instinct, requiring no assistance from hand seals at all."

He stared at Kazama Kaguya, articulating his guess.

This statement almost revealed Kazama Kaguya's true identity.

As everyone knew, the Otsutsuki were the source of chakra.

Pure-blooded Otsutsuki possessed at least one common ability.

It's perfect control over Chakra.

Ninja? That's just a profession with high offense and low defense, developed by Indra after the Sage of Six Paths shared Chakra seeds, and then cultivated through Ninjutsu.

It's just that Kisame Hoshigaki doesn't know about the existence of the Otsutsuki Clan. Otherwise, Kazama Kaguya would have been exposed long ago.

His gaze drifted between the boy's blank white eyes and his pale bone-like small horns, recalling the boy's abilities like flight and All-Killing Ash Bones.

He only felt that the mysteries surrounding the boy were increasing.

Suddenly, a thought surfaced from the depths of his heart: This child is not human.

Kazama Kaguya felt a bit uncomfortable under Kisame Hoshigaki's strange gaze and quickly changed the subject:

"Teacher Kisame, look at my Water Release, how should I train further?"

"Train? Train what?"

Kisame Hoshigaki withdrew his scrutinizing gaze and said speechlessly, "You can already cast spells without hand seals, what else do you need me to teach? Teach you how to form hand seals?"

He was a bit stumped.

He had originally planned to properly train the kid in front of him in his area of expertise.

But clearly, Kazama Kaguya's approach had disrupted his plans.

Even now, the image of him clapping his hands together, both grotesque and powerful, was still in his mind.

For a moment, he fell into a rare silence.

However, Kazama Kaguya couldn't let such a good opportunity to "shear the sheep" pass him by.

He trotted forward and said, "Teacher Kisame, I only know these two Water Release Ninjutsu right now. You can teach me a lot more. As long as it's Water Release Ninjutsu you know, I'm willing to learn. Also, in terms of Taijutsu, I have no experience in battlefield combat and need your guidance."

"You are an elite who developed the Shark style. If it weren't for the Fourth Mizukage, Karatachi Yagura, being the perfect Jinchūriki of the Three-Tails, with your abilities and loyalty to the village, you could have been Mizukage without any problem."

Kazama Kaguya put on a humble and eager-to-learn appearance, showering Kisame Hoshigaki with flattery and giving him plenty of face.

Kisame Hoshigaki was momentarily flustered and stammered, "Huh? Mizukage? Me?"

"Of course, it's you, Teacher Kisame, you're a titled ninja, the 'Tailed Beast Without Tails,' who doesn't know you in the ninja world? You're one of a kind in all of Kirigakure."

"..." Kisame Hoshigaki's face turned red from the barrage of flattery.

A hint of abnormal blush appeared on his grayish-blue shark face.

He had always maintained a cool, tough-guy persona. People often gossiped about his strange appearance behind his back, but being praised so directly to his face was a first.

He looked at Kazama Kaguya, and an involuntary sense of goodwill arose.

But the next moment, he remembered the frustrating experience of being tricked and his previous intention to "wholeheartedly train" him.

The blush on his shark face quickly faded, replaced by a hint of annoyance. He thought to himself:

"Damn it, I almost fell for this guy's trick again."

"Is buttering me up now meant to make me go easy on you during future guidance? Hmph, impossible!"