Araki opened his eyes and rubbed his head hard.
Although he had died the instant Yasuo unleashed his ultimate, the sensation of being sliced and shredded by endless storm blades had been far too vivid, leaving him slightly unsettled.
"Wind-Slaying Sword Technique?"
As an ordinary man who had lived in a world without magic in his previous life, Araki had seen plenty of extraordinary sword techniques through all kinds of fantasy works. But those had all been castles in the air, with no way to explain their true underlying principles.
Otherwise, why had no one ever managed to learn them in reality?
Could it be that the whole world was at fault?
But this battle with Yasuo, who truly wielded the power of the gale, had opened the door to a New World for him. He seemed to have gained a deeper understanding of wind.
Araki took out his longsword and gathered chakra in the palm gripping the hilt. Rather than forming hand seals, he tried to directly transform the chakra he released into wind.
Pfft~
A sound like air leaking from a balloon rang out. The chakra in Araki's palm dispersed directly, and the wind power he had expected failed to appear.
"Tch, still not working."
Araki bared his teeth, his molars aching slightly. "Looks like I'll have to get a little closer to Yasuo. After all, taking a beating is the fastest way to grow!"
"But I can't just keep begging to be abused without making any progress. I still can't control wind out of thin air, but this time, it wasn't entirely fruitless."
He formed the hand seals for Gale Palm, then gripped his sword with both hands. The gale that had previously only been released outward or spread over his entire body now swirled entirely around the blade, like a transparent, flowing scabbard had been added to it.
"Yasuo's blade is constantly wrapped in a gale, so every time our blades clash, I'm the one who gets blown away. But things are different now. My swordsmanship may not yet be able to control wind, but I can achieve the same effect with ninjutsu, and..."
With a thought from Araki, the gale wrapped around the blade gradually began to spin at a strange frequency. As he continued making minute adjustments, only the hilt remained in his hand. The entire sword blade, over a meter long, had actually vanished!
"As expected, the Wind King Barrier worked!"
Araki watched the invisible blade in his hand and nodded in satisfaction.
"A deeper understanding of wind power will help me recreate many wind-related skills and techniques from my previous life. But whether they're actually useful will have to be tested in real combat."
Then he lightly swung the blade forward.
Whoosh~
A spinning sword gale howled forth, churning the cabin into a complete mess.
"Whirlwind Slash?"
Araki now looked at Yasuo as though he were looking at a mountain of gold. He felt that every part of Yasuo held techniques he wanted to learn, and he had temporarily even forgotten his fear of being torn apart by Blade Storm.
"Come on, Yasuo, let's have some fun together!"
The days spent sailing at sea were extremely dull. Aside from taking turns guarding the ship, Araki spent all his time fighting Yasuo.
Of course, with his current strength, he truly was no match for Yasuo. His record of 0-11 said it all.
But Araki had not gained nothing from being brutally slaughtered. At the very least, his perception and control of wind power were becoming increasingly keen, and a sharp aura unique to wind had gradually begun to appear around him.
Kisame Hoshigaki was the first to notice this.
As expected of an expert who already possessed jonin-level strength, he had likely long since encountered advanced knowledge such as chakra shape transformation and nature transformation.
Once, just after Araki had finished fighting Yasuo and before his emotions had settled, someone outside suddenly shouted that a reef ahead was blocking their path and the situation was urgent.
Araki did not think much of it and ran outside with his sword. By the time he reached the deck, Kisame had already shattered the reef with a Water Dragon Bullet, but the faintly sharp aura around Araki still caught Kisame's attention.
"Araki, have you been studying the nature transformation of wind-attribute chakra lately?"
There was a hint of surprise in Kisame's voice, because even ordinary chunin had no access to such knowledge.
When the team had first been formed, Kisame had given Araki and Zabuza chakra paper to test their chakra affinities. But it had not been to teach them chakra shape transformation or nature transformation; it had merely been to help them choose ninjutsu better suited to themselves.
Generally speaking, when ninja used ninjutsu that matched their own chakra affinity, its power would be enhanced somewhat. This was the only method ordinary ninja could use to increase the power of their ninjutsu.
Beyond that, for ninja pursuing greater strength, the most universal method was to study chakra shape transformation and nature transformation. Each additional elemental nature transformation they mastered would noticeably increase the power of ninjutsu of the corresponding attribute.
For example, grasping part of the nature transformation of fire-attribute chakra allowed one to add traits such as burning, high heat, or explosions to the Great Fireball Technique to increase its power.
To become a jonin, one generally needed to master two or more chakra nature transformations.
This was also one of the key reasons why the same ninjutsu could differ in power when used by different people.
And the faint sharp aura now appearing around Araki was, in Kisame's eyes, clearly the first step in cultivating wind nature transformation—enhancing chakra's characteristics.
Wind's traits were sharpness and cutting, so ninja undergoing this stage of training would often occasionally give off a sharp aura.
"Nature transformation?"
Araki was also startled. Although he knew what it meant, he had been practicing swordsmanship all this time and had genuinely never considered it from that angle. Yet at Kisame's reminder, he immediately understood. In a sense, the method he sought—transforming chakra into wind without hand seals—seemed to be exactly like the nature transformation of wind-attribute chakra.
"I just wanted to make my sword sharper."
Araki did not admit it. After all, he was a ninja of commoner birth with no teacher or lineage. It was one thing if he had stumbled into results similar to nature transformation by accident, but such a high-level term was not something he should have known.
"You wanted to make your sword sharper?"
Kisame glanced at the unsheathed longsword Araki held against his chest, his tone somewhat wistful.
He suddenly realized that although all three members of the team carried swords, he and Zabuza normally only strapped theirs to their backs. Only Araki was often seen holding that sword in his arms.
Kisame had examined it carefully. It was not a sword with any special abilities, nor was it even a particularly high-quality blade. It was merely an ordinary longsword casually forged by the village blacksmith.
"So you want to become a taijutsu ninja who uses blades as his primary means of attack?"
Thanks to Feidan and Aiya Hero for the tips~ Thanks to Yan Siqing for the monthly vote~
Before you continue