Yozuki Blade

The blade ultimately stopped one centimeter above Tamura Hiroshi's head, almost touching his scalp.

"Hoo, hoo..."

Tamura Hiroshi panted heavily, sweat beading on his forehead, his face flushed. His heartbeat was nearly twice its normal speed, and the arms holding the swords trembled slightly.

This was the side effect of his previous burst. Even though he used his comprehension boost to elevate his chakra control to the absolute limit achievable at his current stage, such a prolonged, high-intensity burst still placed a heavy load—and even damage—on his body.

At the same time, Fukai's explosive power was simply too immense. Every impact was a severe test for his arms, and he felt that the muscles in his arms had suffered multiple strains.

Teacher is too strong. Even with my full-out burst, I couldn't make him take a single step back.

Catching his breath, Tamura Hiroshi stowed the twin blades into the sealing object spell on his arm guards, marveling at the strength of his teacher.

The man far surpassed him in both strength and speed. Just now, he hadn't even used any ninjutsu, relying purely on chakra to amplify his physical strength to casually block his rapid-fire onslaught.

He had landed over a hundred strikes without scratching the man at all, and the subsequent counterattack had swept him away like dead wood, forcing him back step by step.

He truly lived up to being a jōnin specializing in nintaijutsu, and to being the future Eight-Tails Jinchūriki.

Of course, the main reason was that he himself was too weak. His current combat power was roughly comparable to Rock Lee during the Chunin Ninja Exams in the original storyline without opening the Eight Inner Gates.

Moreover, he had been in an explosive state just then, which couldn't be sustained. From the start of the battle to the end, he had run out of steam in less than a minute.

It wasn't even three minutes!

The main issue was that his chakra had run dry; relying purely on physical fitness made it impossible to contend with Fukai.

Fukai glanced at the ninja sword, its edge nearly worn into tiny serrations, and sighed inwardly, though he felt quite satisfied with this student.

"Your burst just now was very powerful, enough to match a chunin specializing in taijutsu. It is quite rare to possess such strength at age ten."

"Choosing this kind of long sword to make up for your lack of long-range ninjutsu attacks to a certain extent is also very wise, especially when dealing with opponents like a puppet master who rely on full-body mechanisms. Fighting this way is much safer."

Possessing such strength at the age of ten could be considered nothing short of a genius. If his chakra quantity hadn't dragged him down and made his recent burst unsustainable, he would have possessed genuine chunin-level combat strength.

Of course, strength was only one part of a ninja's rank evaluation. For a chunin, tactical command capability was much more important, which wasn't something that could be seen just yet.

"I had to put in several times the effort of an ordinary person to achieve these results today."

Tamura Hiroshi shook his head, feeling quite helpless about this. This was a gap in physical aptitude, something that couldn't be continuously improved by relying on acquired effort alone.

In this world, innate talent determined the upper limit, while hard work merely determined the lower limit.

Without the Otsutsuki Bloodline, one wasn't even qualified to become a Ten-Tails Jinchuriki, let alone anything else.

"You are still too young, and your physique is not yet fully developed. It is not suitable for you to focus on strength. Furthermore, your sword and swordsmanship primarily rely on thrusting with slashing as a secondary focus, making you much better suited to master speed-based bursts."

"Afterward, I will guide you in the cultivation of Lightning Release Nature Transformation. Once you master it, you can use Lightning Release Chakra to stimulate your nerves and bones to increase your explosive speed."

"Besides, the stimulation and burst of speed places a much smaller load on the body than a strength burst, making it much more suitable for your current age and build."

"And then there is actual combat. You have almost no real combat experience. Although your foundation in swordsmanship is solid, it is relatively rigid. You need a large amount of actual combat to bring your swordsmanship to life."

Fukai offered his suggestions, formulating a rough plan for this student's cultivation over the coming period.

"Am I right? A-Hiro is truly a rare genius."

At that moment, a figure flashed to the side of the two, none other than Yozuki A.

Yozuki A had arrived long ago and watched the entire battle between the two.

Although it had only lasted a brief minute, it had left him deeply interested and mildly surprised.

He knew this junior brother was a genius, but previously he had only thought his talent lay in the research of weapons and ninja tools, or perhaps in those novel ideas.

Who would have thought he was also so talented in cultivation and combat?

He had watched the recent battle very clearly and could distinctly see this junior brother progressing during the actual fight. Even when finally facing Fukai's proactive offense, his responses became increasingly fluid.

If not for the vast difference in strength and the exhaustion of his chakra, he probably could have held out for a bit longer.

"Big Brother Yozuki!"

Tamura Hiroshi greeted Yozuki A.

"Let's go. I've already prepared the medicine, medicinal bath, and a medical ninja for you."

Yozuki A put an arm around Tamura Hiroshi's shoulders, leading him away toward the edge of the training grounds.

He had come here specifically to take this junior brother for a medicinal bath.

Fukai also lifted his feet to follow; he still had much to discuss with this student regarding future cultivation, especially to understand his thoughts on his own future path.

"Isn't this medicinal bath a secret recipe of the Yozuki clan?"

Arriving beside the three large vats and looking at the medicinal liquid inside, Fukai was extremely shocked.

He had used the Yozuki clan's body-refining medicinal bath before, finding it very effective for physical cultivation while also healing hidden bodily injuries.

However, he had only enjoyed it fewer than ten times, primarily because it was too expensive. A single vat cost one million ryo, an expense that even their family's wealth could not sustain too often.

Most importantly, this was a secret medicinal bath of the Yozuki clan, further refined by the Second by gathering the inherited secret medicines of many clans within Kumogakure. It was priceless—an uncommunicated secret of both the Yozuki clan and the Raikage lineage.

Now Yozuki A had actually brought that kid here to enjoy such a medicinal bath; something was deeply amiss.

"This is even higher-grade than the kind of medicinal bath you enjoyed back then. We use this to temper our hand blades in the Yozuki clan. My father's Hell Stab was also forged with the assistance of this medicinal bath over years and years."

Yozuki A said proudly. This kind of medicinal bath was the most perfect one; the whole-body body-refining type they used in the past was merely a simplified version.

However, the cost of this medicinal bath was simply too high. Each of these three large vats cost ten million ryo. In the past, they could only use small portions simply to temper their palms, thereby practicing the hand blade secret technique passed down through the Yozuki clan.

The core secret technique of their Yozuki clan involved forging the body through Body Shattering training, honing an heirloom hand blade as sharp as lightning, which allowed them to unleash the Lightning Oppression Horizontal Chop with unbreakable might.

Because of this, although the Lightning Oppression Horizontal Chop was only a C-Rank Ninjutsu, its power was no weaker than an S-rank ninjutsu, capable of piercing even the defense of a tailed beast.

His father had built upon this foundation to cultivate an even stronger Hell Stab, using it to repeatedly suppress the rampaging Eight-Tails and Two-Tails.

And now, he had extravagantly used ten times the medicinal bath portion, enough to temper the entire body.

"A-Hiro, this is the secret medicine passed down within our Yozuki family. A single vat of this size costs ten million ryo just in raw materials, meaning three vats come to thirty million ryo. The medicinal power that infuses your body with each bath can last for a month, and you can take this bath once a month. Can you handle it?"

Turning his gaze to Tamura Hiroshi, who was looking eagerly at the three large vats of medicinal liquid, Yozuki A tied these future perks to this little junior brother.

This little junior brother was passable in other areas, but his ability to make money was truly top-tier.

His current income was already terrifying, and it would increase significantly in the future. Surpassing the village's overall income was merely a matter of time.

After discussing it with his father, they came up with this crazy idea.

With the help of his little junior brother's supernatural financial power, they would maximize the strength of the three of them, at least building up their physical fitness to the limit.

In the past, the Yozuki clan had limited financial resources and could only use this precious medicinal bath to temper their palms to master the heirloom hand blade, but now they could take it a step further and temper their entire bodies.

Once their bodies were tempered to absolute perfection, the power when unleashing nintaijutsu later on would truly be unimaginable.