Medical Ninja Beast: Umibozu

The waves looked ferocious, but Touma had no intention of dodging, for he could clearly see a distinct, almost human-like expression on the surface of the rising crest.

Sure enough, when the wave crashed into him, he felt no heavy impact; instead, it felt as gentle as a caress.

Touma was able to recognize the creature before him precisely because he had a very deep impression of the original TV-exclusive plotlines from the Naruto Shippuden anime.

This particular arc involved Naruto's team being hired by the Land of Sea to protect a gold-transporting ship, which led to a series of events involving one of Orochimaru's secret experimental bases located in the Land of Sea.

Among those events, the head of the experimental base—who had undergone human experimentation—possessed a spirit beast identical to the one before him, known as an Umibozu.

Although Umibozu were rare in the ninja world, they were not undocumented; Touma had seen many relevant descriptions in the ancient texts collected by Orochimaru.

In the eyes of ordinary people, an Umibozu was a demon that lived in the sea and attacked ships, but to ninjas who had successfully captured one, it was a useless summoning beast so gentle that it possessed almost no offensive capability.

Of course, to say it was completely useless would be unrealistic; Umibozu were naturally capable of regeneration and using large-scale Water Release ninjutsu, so if one used seals to control them, their combat power could be quite considerable.

However, capturing and restraining an Umibozu was already difficult enough, and to then apply seals to it and train it for combat was considered a highly inefficient endeavor in the eyes of efficiency-obsessed ninjas.

Therefore, even ninjas living by the sea would not target such special creatures, at most treating them as a form of entertainment to spice up their leisure time.

This Umibozu that had suddenly appeared had likely noticed Touma, who was surrounded by natural energy, and wanted to play with him.

However, as the water brushed against the surface of Touma's body, he could feel a rich surge of Yang Release chakra drilling into him.

Clearly, this Umibozu was attempting to heal the wounds on Touma's body caused by the tearing of the space-time teleportation, though it likely lacked specialized medical skills and only knew this method of infusing Yang Release chakra.

Touma formed hand seals with one hand to perform the "Mystical Palm Technique," using the Yang Release chakra of the technique to guide the nature transformation of the Umibozu's chakra.

In a short while, the colorless chakra originally released by the Umibozu began to emit a faint yellow-green glow, which was the hallmark of medical ninjutsu chakra nature transformation.

However, this type of Yang Release nature transformation was still a bit beyond the capabilities of the Umibozu before him; Touma could clearly see it shrink from a large, ten-meter-tall water curtain into a slime-like form the size of a fist.

This was because its internal chakra was being consumed too quickly, and it lacked sufficient chakra to maintain its size; keeping a small form could reduce consumption and would not damage its core.

The essence of an Umibozu was actually its internal core; as long as the core was not destroyed by Lightning Release or Fire Release, it would not perish, and it could infinitely repair itself by converting chakra from natural energy.

Yes, you read that right: the way an Umibozu obtained chakra was almost no different from a Tailed Beast, as both acquired it by converting natural energy.

The only difference was that Tailed Beasts could store a vast amount of chakra, and they would replenish it from natural energy long before they ever ran dry, leaving them with almost no worries about exhausting their reserves.

An Umibozu, however, had a very slow conversion rate, so after exhausting its chakra in a short time, it had to hide and wait for a slow recovery.

Of course, if someone could help it accelerate its core's operation from the outside, an Umibozu could recover quickly, and Touma happened to be capable of doing exactly that.

He restored his own chakra levels using a Chakra Pill and then entered "Sage Mode" for the second time.

However, this time he did not absorb all the gathered natural energy into his body, but instead used a portion of his own senjutsu chakra to create a vortex of natural energy in the palm of his hand.

Once the vortex neared the Umibozu, Touma could clearly see ripples of excitement and joy appearing on its tiny body, and under his gaze, its size grew rapidly until it reached a height nearly ten times its original form.

Upon reaching this size, the total amount of chakra the Umibozu's core could manipulate reached its limit; if it were forced to convert more, it would either be unable to grow further or the core would fall into an overload.

Touma did not force it, instead pulling a red silk scroll from his ninja tool pouch and summoning a blue gourd from it.

This gourd was a treasure ninja tool Touma had picked up as a bargain; it was said to have been crafted by a ninja clan in the Land of Water during the early Warring States period, modeled after the Six Paths tool "Crimson Gourd," and was capable of holding vast amounts of liquid.

Named the "Sea-Swallowing Gourd," it was developed by that clan specifically for using Water Release ninjutsu in arid environments, though unfortunately, the clan never mass-produced it, and shortly after creating a single prototype, they were wiped out in a major war.

This prototype was something Touma had salvaged from a salvage team in the Land of Fire; they hadn't mastered the seal to open it and naturally considered it a useless antique, and it was only after Touma found scattered descriptions in Orochimaru's library that he pieced together its background.

However, he hadn't unlocked the corresponding seal on it himself; he had sought out Kushina Uzumaki, and it took an entire afternoon of experimentation before they gradually figured it out.

If he had tried to experiment with it slowly on his own, it would likely have taken years to obtain the specific seal required to open and close it.

Originally, he hadn't known what the item could be used for, as his specialties were Wind, Lightning, and Fire, and he was quite unskilled in the use of Water and Earth attributes; he didn't drink much alcohol either, so using it to store wine would have been a waste, and it had remained sealed in his scroll.

Now, however, it was perfect; the item was highly compatible with the Umibozu, and especially after he signed a blood summoning contract with it, the Umibozu didn't find the space inside the "Sea-Swallowing Gourd" cramped at all. In fact, to furnish the interior, it had specifically brought in a batch of fish, shrimp, and water plants from the seabed.

What Touma valued in the Umibozu wasn't its Water Release affinity, but rather its slightly underdeveloped Yang Release attribute, which, with the right guidance, could absolutely become a fantastic companion for medical ninjutsu.

He remembered that among Orochimaru's ninjutsu scrolls was a complete medical Water Release lineage originating from the Land of Wind, which had been researched at great cost by the Second Kazekage, Shamon, and after being passed down to his disciple Chiyo, had gradually developed into one of the two major medical systems in the ninja world.

Yes, the two major medical systems in the ninja world today were the Yang Release medical system of Konoha and the Water Release medical system of Sunagakure; the former was developed by the Second Hokage, Senju Tobirama, based on the special constitution of the First Hokage, Senju Hashirama, while the latter was developed by the Second Kazekage, Shamon, based on the special properties of the Loulan Medicinal Spring.

Other than these, no other ninja villages, whether large or small, possessed advanced medical systems, relying only on healing arts passed down from the era of the Ninja Sect and simple surgical techniques, which was the fundamental reason why other villages suffered such heavy losses in major wars!