Chakra Mode and Elemental Infusion

The scroll given by Sarutobi Hiruzen contained not only the Flame Bullet series of ninjutsu he had developed himself, but also his self-created Shuriken series.

The Flame Bullet series consisted of the C-rank "Flame Bullet," and the B-rank "Great Flame Bullet" and "Fire Dragon Flame Bullet."

The Shuriken series included the C-rank "Shuriken Body Manipulation Technique," the B-rank "Shuriken Giant Body Technique," and the A-rank "Shuriken Shadow Clone Technique."

All of the above were developed by Sarutobi Hiruzen himself, though the scroll also contained general-purpose ninjutsu.

These included the "Contract Seal" and "Contract Sealing" related to the "Summoning Technique," as well as the basic procedures for constructing a "Space-Time Warehouse" model, and the selection, raising, and breeding of summoning beasts, along with basic, simple medical ninjutsu.

It even included a set of Ninja Ape Staff Technique originating from the Ninja Ape clan's ancestral land, "Flower Fruit Mountain," which was the very same staff technique Sarutobi Hiruzen used himself.

Looking at it this way, it seemed Sarutobi Hiruzen had initially intended to groom his cheap father into an all-around ninja.

It was just a pity that his cheap father never fulfilled his obsession with becoming a Chunin before bidding farewell to his mother and him.

Touma was also very happy to receive the scroll; it wasn't that he liked these ninjutsu, but rather that he could now clearly explain the origins of those entries.

During the few days of vacation after returning to the village from the border, Touma had swept through the training grounds several times, gathering all the chakra attributes.

Originally, his chakra attributes leaned toward Wind and Water, but after being refined by the Wood Style creation's chakra, he awakened Earth and Yang.

Now, he had also popped Lightning and Fire from the Cloud Ninja and the training grounds, leaving only the Yin attribute yet to be awakened.

Touma's chakra attribute awakening didn't come from thin air, because under normal circumstances, as long as one could refine chakra, they possessed all seven attributes.

It was just that due to innate physical constitution, there was a clear bias in chakra attributes; practicing ninjutsu corresponding to those biases resulted in much higher efficiency and power than practicing ninjutsu without such biases.

Some people, in order to use five-attribute ninjutsu, chose to develop their own five attributes, such as Sarutobi Hiruzen and his student Orochimaru.

Sarutobi Hiruzen's primary attribute bias was originally Fire and Earth, and he later completed the remaining three through practice, while Orochimaru's primary bias was the single attribute of Wind, and it was only under his teacher's guidance that he slowly cultivated the other four.

This wasn't Touma's guess, but something his predecessor had seen with his own eyes, because when his predecessor was a child playing ninja games with the neighbor kids, he could often see Orochimaru practicing attribute cultivation alone at Training Ground C.

For a time when he was young, the original owner had mistaken Orochimaru for a girl, calling him "big sister" and asking him all sorts of questions, until Orochimaru, unable to bear the annoyance, finally began to communicate with him.

Because of Orochimaru's raspy voice, the original owner had even cried for an entire night due to the disillusionment of his first crush!

The only C-rank Wind Style ninjutsu the original owner had mastered, "Wind Style: Gale Palm," was taught personally by Orochimaru, starting from the very first hand seals and chakra meridian flow charts, including how to integrate "Gale Palm" into his own combat system and carry out subsequent development.

Perhaps Orochimaru also wanted to see if his own ideas could be successfully verified in someone else.

Regrettably, the original owner's learning progress was slow, and he couldn't accept the cram-style teaching where Orochimaru treated him like a genius; by the time Orochimaru was promoted to Jonin and sent to the border for long-term stationing, he still hadn't managed to use "Gale Palm" even once.

However, the current Touma was completely different; not only had his total chakra volume leaped by a dimension, but even his Wind attribute chakra had completed its initial nature transformation. With a C-rank Wind Style like "Gale Palm" in his hands, he could completely omit all hand seals without affecting the ninjutsu's power.

Using "Gale Palm" as a foundation, Touma absorbed the Nintaijutsu concepts of "Thunder Motion Fist" to develop his own unique "Wind Style Chakra Mode," but he didn't notice that Orochimaru had appeared silently beside the remote and empty Training Ground C.

About two hours ago, Orochimaru had been recalled to the village from the border by an emergency summons from the Hokage.

Returning this time was, on one hand, to report the latest situation at the border to the higher-ups, including subsequent border defense arrangements;

On the other hand, it was to see his "little brother." When he heard the garrison ninja report the incident with the Cloud Ninja, he immediately recalled little Touma, who used to call him "big sister."

Regarding his feelings for Touma, Orochimaru was extremely conflicted.

After his parents both died in battle, he had completely sealed off his emotions. Even after graduating from the Ninja Academy and being assigned to a team with teammates and a sensei, Orochimaru had never opened his heart to anyone.

On the contrary, little Touma had suddenly appeared, sitting beside him every day, pretending to practice like a little follower. As time passed, Orochimaru adapted to his presence and was gradually melted by little Touma's warmth.

He still remembered that the first time little Touma heard his voice, he was so scared he burst into tears and couldn't be comforted, until he took little Touma to eat plenty of ginger dumplings, which finally made him laugh through his tears.

Although Orochimaru didn't say it out loud, after seeing Touma's name on the garrison ninja's report, he also wanted to see how his "little brother" was doing.

He just didn't expect that when he found the training ground, he would see a shocking scene.

First, without any hand seals, Touma relied solely on chakra manipulation to instantly fire "Gale Palm" from both hands simultaneously—a result of the improvements Orochimaru had researched at thirteen to increase the flexibility of "Gale Palm."

Immediately after, Touma pulled out the short staff from his back, and after it lengthened, he used the same "Gale Palm" ninjutsu model to attach Wind attribute chakra to the staff, producing a scaled-up "Gale Palm" effect.

While such ninjutsu upgrades weren't common among Ninja Academy students, they certainly weren't without precedent.

As far as Orochimaru knew, he himself, as well as his contemporaries Hatake Sakumo and Hatake Inami, were capable of optimizing and upgrading existing ninjutsu models.

However, the next moment, his filter for his "little brother's" clumsiness was completely shattered: Touma had further optimized and improved the ninjutsu model, developing a C-rank Wind Style ninjutsu with no potential for improvement into a "Wind Style Chakra Mode."

Watching Touma's raw usage of the "Wind Style Chakra Mode," Orochimaru dared to be certain that his "little brother" had just finished developing it, which was truly terrifying.

One had to know that so-called "Chakra Modes" were generally special states where the entire body's chakra attributes were activated after a certain chakra attribute had undergone deep nature transformation.

In this state, not only would a ninja's basic "Strength, Speed, and Essence" improve significantly, but the consumption and delay of using corresponding attribute ninjutsu would also be minimized. The next step further would be the legendary "Attribute-ization," a field very few people understood.

So-called "Attribute-ization" was the manifestation of chakra nature transformation affecting the physical body. For example, the Hozuki Clan's secret "Hydrification Technique" was a manifestation of "physical Water Style attribute-ization," and the Kekkei Genkai of the Iburi Clan, "Smoke Style," was the actual result of "physical Smoke Style attribute-ization"!

In Orochimaru's eyes, for Touma to develop his own "Chakra Mode" at eleven, he definitely had a chance to touch the highest realm of "Chakra Attribute-ization" in his lifetime!