Chakra Nature Transformation

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Happy times were always short-lived. A few days later, Kanna was back to her monotonous life.

Perhaps to outsiders, Kanna seemed no different from a shut-in, but he found a unique pleasure in studying ninjutsu. As he worked through one difficult problem after another, he experienced a feeling of exhilaration, much like the satisfaction of solving a math problem after hours of work in his previous life.

And now, he had found a new question to explore.

Everyone knew that chakra was the foundation of everything, and that it had two types of transformation: form and nature. Form transformation was easy enough to understand, but what exactly was nature transformation?

Was it simply making flames hotter, water pressure stronger, or wind blades faster and sharper? Was that all there was to chakra nature transformation?

Kanna was certain that chakra nature transformation was far more complicated than that, but he couldn't explain it yet. For now, he could only analyze it by looking at examples.

Take the Eight Trigrams Sixty-Four Palms he had just acquired. Kanna had experimented on plants. When he used the Pulse-Sealing Style along the grain of a tree trunk, the bark split open to reveal the tree's veins, which had been completely destroyed. When he used the Vibration Style, the inner layers of the trunk were pulverized. And no matter which variation he used, he could sense residual chakra scattered around the deadened areas.

At first glance, it seemed to be nothing more than the force of the blow passing through the target, but that wasn't the case.

Kanna had wondered before: ninjutsu could be strengthened through chakra's form and nature transformations, but what about taijutsu? Taijutsu seemed to use neither form nor nature transformation. Was its only advantage over ninjutsu and genjutsu its speed, strength, and low chakra cost?

Then why had the samurai system declined? In the Warring States Period and before, samurai had been the most powerful fighting force in the world! In close combat, they were even superior to shinobi.

Now Kanna thought he understood. Advanced taijutsu actually involved chakra nature transformation.

To understand it, he first had to figure out what chakra nature transformation really was.

Nature transformation didn't just strengthen the power of elemental techniques. It also involved all kinds of extraordinary changes. Typical examples included the explosions of Explosion Release, the highly concentrated acid of Boil Release, and the disintegration of Dust Release—kekkei genkai. A less typical example was the Eight Trigrams Sixty-Four Palms. When a finger jabbed into a target, chakra could remain lodged in the victim's tenketsu for a long time, obstructing the flow of chakra instead of dispersing naturally. That was nature transformation.

Looking at the ultimate development of ninjutsu, nature transformation was slightly more powerful than form transformation. At their peak, nature transformations became all kinds of kekkei genkai, as well as the highest form of Yin-Yang Release. Of course, even the most advanced techniques still relied on form transformation. Take the Tailed Beast Ball and Planetary Devastation, for example. Both required a stable spherical form: form transformation shaped the chakra into a ball, while nature transformation stabilized and altered it. In the original story, Naruto's experiments with the Tailed Beast Ball failed because he couldn't control its nature transformation. He formed the sphere, but it quickly collapsed.

Once Kanna understood this, he realized something else: the most basic forms of chakra transformation were spherical form transformation and stable nature transformation.

The Fireball Jutsu was spherical. The Phoenix Sage Fire Jutsu was spherical. The Water Cannon Jutsu was spherical. The Rasengan was spherical. Shinra Tensei was spherical. Planetary Devastation was spherical. The Tailed Beast Ball was spherical too.

As for stable transformation, it was the basis for many ninjutsu. With low-level techniques, hand seals helped the chakra take shape and stabilize naturally. But slightly more advanced techniques often defied the laws of physics, so the user had to stabilize them personally. There were countless such techniques, but one example was somewhat unusual.

The Yin Seal! Princess Tsunade created this special technique to collect and store chakra. Since chakra was formed by combining physical and spiritual energy, using the Yin Seal was like storing a person's vitality. In a sense, it could even prolong their life. But there was a problem: chakra storage wasn't limitless. Generally, after refining enough chakra, a person had to return some of it to their body to replenish their physical and spiritual energy before beginning the next cycle of refinement. The Yin Seal, however, pushed stable nature transformation almost to its limit! It could forcibly seal away refined chakra, greatly reducing its loss. It was like taking in energy, then "separating" it from the body and storing it within. The concept wasn't difficult to understand, but for a human body, it was practically a miracle.

During the battle in which the Fourth Hokage sealed the Nine-Tails, he absorbed half of its chakra into himself and said, "My whole body can't move... This chakra is so heavy." That showed that there was a limit to how much chakra a person could bear. Princess Tsunade had stored chakra for years, so there was no doubt that she had an enormous amount. Otherwise, she wouldn't have been able to use Cherry Blossom Clash as a regular combat technique. And yet she moved freely, almost without any hindrance.

The Yin Seal clearly had some unique intricacies. In Kanna's eyes, it had become the perfect technique for analyzing chakra nature transformation.

Kanna had already reached the level of chakra form transformation. With the help of hand seals, he could also achieve an elementary level of nature transformation by setting chakra into a fixed circulation pattern. Of course, that was only the most basic form. It was like how a drop of water naturally approached a spherical shape as it fell. He still had a long way to go before he could defy the laws of physics.

"Spherical form transformation is the easiest. There's no difficulty in doing that. But if I want to control flowing water without hand seals, I'll have to draw a Water Style technique that can be used without seals and experience it for myself. Otherwise, this really won't be easy."

In the living room, Kanna rested one hand against his cheek and laid the other flat on the table, staring into space. Above his palm, a perfectly round droplet of water bobbed gently in the air.

He had created it by absorbing moisture from the room after learning a basic Water Style technique.

"But if I want to control the droplet and turn it into a flat sheet..."

Kanna frowned, took a breath, and blew hard at the droplet.

Ripples spread across its surface. The next moment, it burst apart with a pop, and Kanna could no longer maintain its shape.

"Ah, it's still the same as last time," Kanna said helplessly.

"You've already made progress," Morishita Mai comforted him gently. "You didn't use any hand seals, after all. If you did, your technique would be much more stable."

"Not enough," Kanna said, shaking his head. "I still have a long way to go. Shinobi still need weapons and armor because there are plenty of situations where they don't have a chance to use hand seals, so they have to fight at close range. Especially in our village, where there's water everywhere. If I can truly use techniques without hand seals, I'll have a huge advantage. My combat strength could reach an entirely new level."

The nature transformation involved in Water Style wasn't especially complicated. It usually involved stabilizing and compressing chakra. That was why Water Style shinobi could fight at far greater strength than usual in places with abundant water. Take the A-rank Water Style: Great Waterfall Technique. It required seventeen hand seals. In a dry environment, its power was fairly ordinary, but in a lake or river, it could wash away an entire forest like a flash flood. It was almost impossible for a person to resist.

Imagine the sandstorm flood that Gaara created when he fought Kimimaro, covering an entire grassland. In terms of scale, the Great Waterfall Technique was absolutely its equal!

The number of hand seals required for this technique was only moderate. Look at the Water Style: Water Dragon Jutsu. It was one rank lower than the Great Waterfall Technique, only a B-rank technique, yet it required as many as forty-four hand seals! And its power?

Compression! More compression! Then even more compression! The Water Style: Water Dragon Jutsu was practically an ultra-high-pressure water cannon. Tens or even hundreds of tons of water were compressed into the shape of a dragon and blasted into a person's body. Unless you were a monster like the Third Raikage, who dared to fight Tailed Beasts hand to hand, death was almost certain.

But forty-four hand seals! Forty-four! Even a super-genius like Itachi, who could make hand seals so fast that ordinary people couldn't see them, still needed a few seconds. For an ordinary person, using this technique in battle was practically giving their enemy a perfect opening.

Kanna didn't consider himself a super-genius. He had some talent, but nothing extraordinary. So, with Highland at his disposal, he would never bother learning techniques that were powerful but required complicated hand seals. Even if he drew one, he would at most transfer it to Highland and use it there.

"I still have a lot to learn..." Kanna sighed. He pressed his palms together and formed four hand seals, then clenched his right hand. The water splashed across the table moments earlier gathered in midair and condensed into a small column of water in his palm. He flicked his finger.

Thump! The water column struck the teacup, leaving cracks across its surface.

With hand seals, Kanna could make the droplet withstand the force of a finger flick without breaking apart. But what about without hand seals?

He was still a long way from the level he wanted to reach.

(PS: Baidu Baike says that Yagura, the Three-Tails Jinchuriki, was apparently forty years old because he didn't seem to age. But the official Jin no Sho repeatedly describes Yagura as "young" and "youthful," which contradicts that. So I'm going by the official databook: Yagura is still a teenager, around thirteen or fourteen.)