Cultivation

There are twelve hand seals in total: Rat, Ox, Tiger, Rabbit, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Ram, Monkey, Rooster, Dog, and Boar. Each seal requires a unique hand gesture.

When Houka practiced for the first time, his fingers began to tremble by the fourth seal. By the eighth, his pinky was already cramping slightly. By the time he finished the full set of twelve, both his hands were sore, aching, and incredibly uncomfortable.

After practicing for just over half an hour, Houka's hands cramped up completely.

"Hiss! That hurts!"

But Houka knew he had to persevere. His body was only six years old and highly malleable; if he waited until he was older and his finger bones had set, practicing then would likely yield half the result for twice the effort.

"Keep going!"

Houka gritted his teeth, beads of sweat rolling down his forehead and soaking his collar. He practiced one gesture after another, resting whenever his hands cramped before continuing. Gradually, the sun dipped low, and the evening sunset, like a sea of blood, instantly flooded the entire courtyard.

All ten of Houka's fingers were bruised and swollen; his pinkies and ring fingers couldn't even be pressed together anymore!

"Whew!"

Houka collapsed onto the grass in the courtyard, his hands aching so much that he... almost wished he could just have them amputated!

"Right, I wonder if chakra can heal this soreness."

Houka hurriedly closed his eyes and channeled the blue chakra in his body, slowly directing it toward his hands.

One could see a faint blue glow flickering over Houka's ten fingers, looking exceptionally dreamlike in the sunset.

However, having never learned medical ninjutsu, no matter how he covered his hands and fingers with chakra, he couldn't truly achieve any healing effect.

"Sigh."

Just as he sighed, the boisterous Uchiha Obito suddenly walked in.

"Houka, time to make dinner!!!"

Uchiha Obito's face was beaming with a happy smile. He had helped over a dozen elderly ladies cross the street that afternoon, achieving the Lifetime Achievement Award for Helping Others. He was in such a wonderful mood that he felt light on his feet, as if he were about to ascend to immortality.

Then, he saw Houka slumped on the ground, his two hands curled up like chicken claws in an irregular shape.

Uchiha Obito's eyes widened: "Houka, what happened to your hands?"

As he spoke, he ran over and grabbed Houka's hands, poking and prodding them with the expression of a pedantic scholar, looking as if he were about to lean in and take a bite.

"You idiot, it hurts! Let go!" Houka pulled his hands back, shot Uchiha Obito a glare, and huffed, "As for dinner, I'll guide you through it."

"What? Why like that!" Uchiha Obito looked depressed, but under Houka's forceful demeanor, he eventually gave in.

However, this guy's intelligence was definitely in arrears. Despite Houka's repeated reminders, he still made mistake after mistake while stir-frying, either forgetting the salt or mistaking sugar for MSG, and eventually burning the dish.

Uchiha Obito scratched his head, looking inexplicably embarrassed.

"Sigh, at least the rice is cooked."

Houka looked helpless. They made do with the meal, and he kept a close watch on Uchiha Obito until he finished washing the dishes before finally letting him leave.

With the moon hanging high, Houka soaked his hands in hot water for a while before starting to practice tree climbing and water walking.

Both of these training methods were meant to exercise chakra control. Some people had great talent and mastered them as soon as they tried, while others needed long periods of practice to slowly grasp them. Fortunately, Houka had over twenty years of life experience. Once he overcame the initial discomfort of acrophobia while climbing the tree, he quickly entered the zone.

"This is actually quite fun!"

Houka stood on the tree trunk, his body parallel to the ground. He turned his head from time to time to look around; the surrounding scenery presented a novel perspective due to the different angle of view. After a while, he grew accustomed to this perspective, walking back and forth on the trunk, and finally slowly moved along the trunk to the underside of a branch, hanging upside down like a bat.

Gravity made Houka's internal organs feel a bit uncomfortable, so he subconsciously circulated chakra to protect them, quickly eliminating the sensation.

"Let's try water walking!"

Houka climbed down from the tree and walked to a small pond in the corner of the courtyard, slowly covering his soles with chakra before gently stepping onto the water surface.

Splash!

Without a word, Houka fell straight into the water.

"Seriously!"

Houka swam out of the water, soaked from head to toe.

"This isn't scientific. It went so smoothly when I was climbing the tree."

Houka covered his soles with chakra again and stepped onto the water. This time he was prepared; as soon as his soles sank into the surface, he pulled his feet back. After several attempts, his shoes were soaked through, but he hadn't made any progress at all.

It wasn't until late at night, with the moon high in the sky, that six-year-old Houka finally couldn't hold on any longer, yawning repeatedly.

"Yawn~ Looks like I'll have to wait until tomorrow."

After that, Houka took a quick shower and went to sleep.

The next morning, Houka was woken up by Uchiha Obito next door. He groggily made a simple breakfast, and after eating, he realized that his hands were no longer sore.

"Healed? Could this be my transmigrator's golden finger? Rapid recovery from soreness and fatigue?"

Houka carefully examined his small hands; they were fair and tender, his ten fingers as slender as scallions. As he looked, Houka became captivated by his own hands, his eyes almost turning into heart shapes.

"Sigh, perfect hands. In my past life, not playing the piano with these would be a crime."

After shaking his head and sighing for a moment, Houka began to refine chakra.

Because of the massive amount of mental energy in his mind, refining chakra became relatively simple for Houka. After all, with ten trillion cells in his body, he could extract energy with ease.

Houka felt the chakra in his body increasing bit by bit, and a sense of inexplicable fulfillment filled his heart.

"So this is what it feels like to grow stronger."

By noon, Uchiha Obito arrived right on time once again, clamoring for a feast made by Houka.

Houka didn't find it annoying, smiling as he prepared a meal for three.

"Houka, why did you make three portions?" Uchiha Obito asked, looking quite puzzled at the dishes on the table.

Houka rolled his eyes at him: "The other portion is for your grandmother."

Uchiha Obito froze, and then tears started streaming down his face: "Wuu, Houka, you're truly the best! I've decided, I'm going to be your best friend for life!!!"

Uchiha Obito stepped one foot onto the dining table, roaring like an angry youth with veins bulging on his forehead, sporting a look so arrogant and over-the-top that it seemed as if he were declaring, "I'm going to stew you as a side dish for my wine, and it's useless for you to resist!"

Houka's eye twitched, and he delivered a flying kick that sent him straight off the table.

Sorry, he was a bit of a germaphobe.

In the end, Uchiha Obito, still teary-eyed, packed up the extra portion and hurried back to his house next door.

Houka shook his head with a wry smile: "That guy Obito, he really is too kind."

Thinking of the things he would do in the future as Tobi—releasing the Nine-Tails to destroy Konoha, directly causing the death of his teacher's wife Kushina, and later instigating a series of wars—it was like looking at two completely different people.

"Could this be what they call the deeper the love, the deeper the hate?"

After lunch, Houka looked at his flawless hands and began practicing hand seals once again! (To be continued)