"According to the meridian diagnosis, the amount of chakra retained by the cells in your body is rapidly declining. Some chakra pathways required for casting techniques have already begun to atrophy...
May I ask—have you recently experienced any technique failures due to difficulty mobilizing chakra during casting?"
"Just as you said, that is indeed the case."
Soji did not lie.
It was not only composite magic-plus-ninjutsu skills. As the purity of the magic power within him gradually rose, Director Yamada was finding it extraordinarily difficult even to use the basic Three Body Techniques at this stage!
And by the boy's own estimate, once the energy purity reached B-rank, he would likely also lose passive abilities such as tree climbing and water walking.
Of course, the collapse of a ninja's combat system did not mean Soji's actual combat strength was weakening.
In fact, although he was indeed in a relatively awkward adjustment period, spells that were gradually breaking free of chakra's constraints were becoming increasingly lethal to ordinary ninja.
Take the Confundus Charm as an example.
Its previous use in tandem with genjutsu had offered endless variations, but it had also left openings that genjutsu specialists or ninja with special bloodlines could exploit to counter it.
Even a secret technique like "Life and Death at Will," whose unique mechanics made it extremely difficult to break free once struck, could theoretically be neutralized by an opponent using "Mirror Return" before it took effect.
Not to mention the low-level genjutsu immunity practically written into the Sharingan's settings...
But now, as chakra accounted for less and less of his abilities, spells completely stripped of Kaguya's mark could break through these countering relationships based on "skill priority," making Soji's attacks far more threatening!
Moreover, since Director Yamada had risen from the traditional ninja system sustained