[Name: Seimei] [Overall Strength: Chunin (Kage)] [Talent: Chunin] [Attributes: Water, Wind] [Special Abilities: Ninja Tool Manufacturing, Research Ability.] [Evaluation: Useless as a ninja, but a top-tier craftsman. With ninja tools in hand, his strength will greatly increase, enough for him to become a legendary Ninja Craftsman.]
After entering the Land of Artisans, Ruri extracted the Sage Chakra from Seimei's body. Before reaching Takumigakure, the two of them needed to have a proper talk.
Communication was built upon Ruri's absolute strength. Every ninja tool on Seimei had been stripped away, and his own strength was simply not worth mentioning.
Talk no Jutsu was actually quite reasonable. Chakra was a combination of spiritual energy and physical energy. Once someone had been beaten senseless, they would surely have little Chakra left, meaning their spirit would be weakened to rock bottom as well. Under such circumstances, their will was easily influenced. It explained perfectly why Naruto's Talk no Jutsu was so powerful. After all, he lacked everything except Chakra.
Thus, after Ruri's Talk no Jutsu, Seimei agreed to become a member of Takigakure as a collaborator. The condition was that Ruri fulfilled everything she had promised and provided him with sufficient materials for manufacturing ninja tools and conducting research.
In truth, Seimei's goals did not conflict with Ruri's. Seimei wanted to break the Five Great Nations' oppression of smaller countries, while Ruri wanted Takigakure to rise and likewise needed the strength of smaller nations to contend against the Five Great Nations. Moreover, as a craftsman, Seimei possessed the spirit of pursuing perfect ninja tools. Ruri could provide more manufacturing materials than Takumigakure, as well as research directions he had never even imagined!
Naturally, Ruri had not completely let down her guard. While Seimei was not paying attention, she used the Phantom Dragons Nine Consuming Seals to seal Amaterasu's flames within his body. Seimei was not like Shizuka. Mitsunosuke was merely a warrior, so Ruri did not dare seal the Seven-Tails' Chakra or her own Chakra inside him. If she accidentally helped him break through, he would become even harder to deal with.
Although the system's civilian version of Amaterasu could not burn people to death, it could easily burn ninja tools. If Seimei developed other intentions and manufactured ninja tools for his own use, she could trigger the Amaterasu flames and directly burn those tools from within. Without equipment, Seimei was nothing to fear.
After returning to Takigakure, the first thing Ruri did was visit Kakuzu. Another month had passed, and she wondered whether the development of Medical Ninjutsu had made any progress.
"Lord Takikage." Jianming, the head of the Medical Team, happened to see Ruri at the entrance while preparing to go out and purchase materials, and hurriedly paid his respects.
"Jianming, has there been any progress with Medical Ninjutsu?" Ruri asked as she approached the house. Jianming was only at Chunin level, but he was young and possessed extremely precise Chakra control, which was why he had been chosen to lead the Medical Team. Both Kakuzu's treatment and the development of Medical Ninjutsu were under his sole responsibility.
"This... Lord Takikage, please look." Jianming motioned for an assistant to bring over a tray, upon which rested a freshly caught live fish.
Before Ruri's eyes, Jianming cut open the fish's belly with a knife. The fish, which had been flopping about only moments earlier, immediately lost all signs of life.
Seimei, following behind Ruri, watched everything with great interest. Ruri had previously told him about Medical Ninjutsu, and he found it fascinating. Human life was truly miraculous. He had conducted similar experiments while making ninja tools, and during his earlier battle with Ruri, he had even used a secret technique that borrowed others' vitality to increase the power of ninja tools. However, he did not know how to restore vitality.
Seeing the green Chakra appear in Jianming's hands, Ruri's eyes lit up. Wasn't this exactly what Medical Ninjutsu looked like in the original story? Had they actually succeeded?!
Jianming placed his hand over the fish's belly. The cut wound healed at a visible speed, and before long, it was completely restored. Yet the fish did not start flopping around as it had before. It still lay motionless on the tray.
It can only close the wound, but it can't make the fish move again? Ruri frowned. She could roughly guess the reason. In the original story, Medical Ninjutsu healed wounds by accelerating cell division. What Jianming had accomplished was merely using Chakra to promote the growth of skin tissue. The wound appeared healed from the outside, but it was really no different from sewing a patch of skin over it. It was not true treatment.
Of course, the Medical Team had only been established for four months. With no foundation at all, Jianming and the others had already done very well to reach this point. Furthermore, this technique was not entirely useless. It could be used to cover superficial wounds with skin, preventing them from becoming infected. It could probably be considered a type of Medical Ninjutsu—at least, it was a good start.
"Mm..." Jianming pondered for a moment before hesitantly saying, "It's not that it can't move."
"Mm?" Ruri was puzzled by those words. If they had truly achieved that much, they could immediately begin treating Kakuzu. But why had they not started? Moreover, Jianming wore his emotions openly. If progress had truly gone so smoothly, why would he look so hesitant?
Five Chakra Threads extended from between Jianming's fingers and connected to the fish's body. His fingers began moving rhythmically, and under the pull of the Chakra Threads, the dead fish actually began to move!
Uh... wasn't this Puppet Technique?? Puppet Technique and Medical Ninjutsu both required refined Chakra control, and both could make lifeless objects move, that was true—but these were fundamentally different types of ninjutsu. Had their skill points gone this far astray?!
Seeing no reaction from Ruri, Jianming assumed she felt that he had made a fool of her and had become enraged from embarrassment. Rumor had it that this Takikage acted with ruthless decisiveness and liked breaking people's arms and legs at the slightest disagreement. For instance, Kubi Ichiro had lost a foot, while Hagane Maomori and Senju Tobirama had lost hands...
Without the support of the Chakra Threads, the fish that had been flopping around fell to the ground with a smack. Jianming was extremely nervous. Somewhat reluctantly, he looked at the hands that could hold chopsticks and form hand seals. Would Lord Takikage...
Seeing Jianming's expression, Ruri could roughly guess what he was thinking. Was she really that brutal? This character setting was all wrong!
"You did very well. Although this technique cannot bring the dead back to life or regenerate flesh from bone, it has other uses—for example... puppet theater!" Ruri felt that she had come up with an excellent idea. Jianming could use Chakra Threads, but controlling puppets was on an entirely different level from manipulating a dead fish, let alone controlling puppets in battle!
Chakra Threads were only the most basic part of Puppet Technique. To develop combat power, they needed plenty of practice. High-quality puppets were also necessary, but no one in Takigakure seemed skilled at making them.
So, organizing puppet theater performances could, first, train the ninjas' control over Chakra Threads, and second, let them practice the finer details of puppet movement.
More importantly, Ruri felt that the village was far too boring. There were no entertainment activities at all. During wartime, everyone struggled desperately just to survive and had no time to think about such things, but it could not remain this way in peacetime.
With ninjas involved in production, food and clothing were no longer a concern, and there was a surplus of labor. The villagers naturally had more free time on their hands. Ruri suspected that these rumors about "Lord Takikage liking to break people's arms and legs whenever she disagrees with them" had likely been spread by people with nothing better to do after eating. They had to find some entertainment to keep them occupied!
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