New Ninjutsu

After the first match concluded, all the examinees seemed to have their fighting spirits ignited; with Ringo Ameyuri setting such a high bar, they had no choice but to strive harder.

However, one must admit that there is always a group of people in this world born with extraordinary talent in certain areas. Take Ringo Ameyuri just now: the Lightning Style she used to nearly carbonize her opponent in an instant was beyond what an average Chunin could unleash, not to mention she hadn't even performed a single hand seal.

Once a ninja's training reaches a later stage, they can slowly break free from the constraints of hand seals, modifying or even setting their own. As long as the chakra within your body circulates according to the requirements of the ninjutsu, the technique can still be released. Yet, this is much like solving math problems; while one starts by using equations step-by-step, one can eventually perform mental calculations after gaining proficiency. It still requires considerable cultivation.

Ringo Ameyuri had clearly streamlined her Lightning Style to a certain degree. She released a massive amount of chakra directly from the acupoints and meridians throughout her body, converting it into lightning to instantly strike down Hayashinaka Shigure. It could be considered a victory achieved by brute force.

Ninjas like her have actually appeared quite often in the original story. For instance, Jiraiya could exhale fire directly; Kisame Hoshigaki only needed a few measly hand seals to create an entire lake; the Second Hokage, Tobirama, discarded the vast majority of Water Style hand seals, integrating his techniques entirely into his close-quarters combat system; and the First Hokage, Hashirama, goes without saying—he could crush the ninja world of that era, and even his Wood Release: Deep Forest Emergence required only a single seal.

It is worth noting that whether it is Jiraiya, Kisame, or Hashirama, the single hand seal required for a significant portion of their ninjutsu is not actually one of the twelve standard ninja hand seals! Instead, it resembles the Buddhist gesture of palms pressed together.

What does this "palms together" seal represent? On Earth, this gesture signifies the unification of the dharma realm into one mind. The Ten Stages Sutra states: "The three realms have no distinction; they are created solely by the mind." The meaning is the same as those scrolls written by Kanna Tokiomi: "Neither coming nor going, neither death nor life, existing only in the center." It implies that all things are void, and only the original mind is true. Since everything is illusory, all things are naturally no different—you are fake, and I am fake. It is a form of subjective idealism that most people simply cannot accept or understand.

In this world, the "palms together" seal is also derived from Buddhism. Because the Sage of Six Paths was once a monk, it is impossible to verify whether the Sage was influenced by Buddhism to create the twelve ninja seals, or if Buddhism referenced the Sage's twelve seals to create its own. However, one thing is clear: there is only one result when using the "palms together" seal, and that is to trigger and activate ninjutsu!

A considerable number of high-level ninjas, when attempting to simplify advanced ninjutsu into fewer or even zero seals, discover that this trigger seal is impossible to reduce any further. Moreover, the chakra flow and circulation after simplification do not correspond to any of the twelve standard seals, so they resort to the "palms together" seal.

Ringo Ameyuri's Lightning Style only produced high-voltage electricity without any significant form or nature transformation, so it couldn't be counted as advanced Lightning Style and naturally didn't require the "palms together" seal. Even so, it was already quite impressive. Looking at Kanna, he was still stuck in the realm of controlling basic Water Style without seals; while he had made progress, he hadn't fully reached that other level yet.

After watching Ringo Ameyuri's battle, Kanna felt quite satisfied. He had confirmed that in terms of pure combat, he had fully reached the Chunin level.

However, for the subsequent battles, even though the examinees were giving their absolute all and fighting with every ounce of their strength, Kanna found it somewhat dull. It was as if, after seeing the battle between Gaara and Lee, the tactics and flashes of inspiration from the likes of Sasuke and Naruto seemed like child's play.

An hour later, all the battles ended. The result was one death, two others severely injured, and two lightly injured. Ringo Ameyuri had left early, seemingly certain that she would definitely be promoted to Chunin.

Powerful strength is the greatest source of a ninja's confidence. Ringo Ameyuri thinking this way was, of course, not wrong, but Kanna secretly glanced at the Third Hokage's expression and found that the Third did not seem very satisfied.

One cannot blame the Third. He had originally hoped that from today on, everyone would maintain a certain level of restraint during future tests and exams, rather than acting as they had in the past; this was part of the exam reform. But now, with Ringo Ameyuri pulling a stunt like that, she had—much like Zabuza—incited everyone's ferocity, and the resulting casualties were no different from previous years.

The bloodthirsty atmosphere in Kirigakure was already somewhat pathological. According to investigations, fights at the Ninja Academy had increased significantly compared to previous years. With such an incident occurring today, how could the exam reform continue? If they didn't push it, they could just wait for every future class of students to be slaughtered. If they did, how should Ringo Ameyuri be handled? Reward or punishment? What kind of impact would it have on the village's public opinion?

If the Ringo Ameyuri incident wasn't handled properly, and the villagers were allowed to spread word of it and praise her, future exams would remain unchanged, and everyone would still fight until they were covered in blood, because in their eyes, this was glory!

Therefore, the Third was quite dissatisfied. Ninjas are like an army; what is needed is obedience, but Ringo Ameyuri refused to comply! She insisted on acting like a proud peacock, showing off her strength, yet one could not criticize her based on the rules.

Thus, Kanna heard the following conversation.

"Tokiomi, what do you think?" The Third leaned in slightly and asked in a low voice.

Kanna Tokiomi naturally knew what the Third wanted. He pondered for a moment and replied, "I believe Ringo Ameyuri is not suitable to become a Chunin, at least not this year."

The Third's expression eased slightly; he nodded and stopped discussing the matter.

Behind them, Kanna kept his eyes straight ahead, pretending he hadn't heard the conversation between the Third and his own father.

In a way, this was classified information! If it weren't for the fact that everyone around was "their own people" (the Third's personal guards and Kanna, the son of the Mizukage Aide), there was no way he would have overheard this.

No matter how strong Ringo Ameyuri was, if she didn't meet the Mizukage's requirements, it was a no-go! This time, she was definitely destined to miss out on becoming a Chunin. He wondered what her expression would be when she heard the news of her rejection.

The big picture! The big picture was what mattered most! One could not disrupt the long-planned agenda just because of her. If Ringo Ameyuri were promoted to Chunin, it would mean the village tacitly approved of her attitude toward the exam, which would be a loss that outweighed the gains.

After the exam ended and the Mizukage gave a brief speech, everyone was dismissed. The injured were sent to the hospital to await news, while the others returned home.

Kanna was too lazy to wander around the village. After returning home and tidying up a bit, he began his daily training, then imagined in his mind how he would handle things if he were to face Ringo Ameyuri or the other examinees.

Some examinees were fine; they were still stuck at the level of close-quarters combat without any practical mid-to-long-range ninjutsu. Kanna wasn't worried about this type; his progress in the Body Flicker Technique was quite rapid, and combined with the fact that he had practiced the footwork and palm techniques of the Eight Trigrams Sixty-Four Palms to proficiency during this period, it was enough to cope.

But for the other type—those who fought primarily with ninjutsu—he would need to bring out some real goods, though his chances of winning were still quite high.

As for the last one, Ringo Ameyuri, Kanna wasn't being self-deprecating; that girl was truly strong. Her status in this Chunin exam was equivalent to the future Gaara, belonging to a level of complete suppression for the average examinee.

In other words, even if she faced some Special Jonin who weren't particularly skilled in combat, it was hard to say what would happen.

Gradually, the time reached midnight, and a new day began.

"Time's up!" Hearing the chime of the wall clock, Kanna's expression sharpened. Three months had passed; excluding the nine days when he originally drew the Eight Trigrams Sixty-Four Palms, it was now exactly the eighty-first day—another S-rank ninjutsu!

To be honest, Kanna sometimes struggled with whether he should draw more mid-level and low-level ninjutsu to enrich his combat power and solidify his foundation, or choose S-rank ninjutsu that he couldn't use much right now but were quite helpful for understanding the Way of the Ninja and the truth of the world.

However, whenever he thought of the first two S-rank ninjutsu, Kanna always felt a sense of being favored. It seemed his luck was often quite good when drawing S-rank ninjutsu?

Then, he would choose S-rank!

After issuing the command in his mind, Kanna obtained the third S-rank ninjutsu of his life. However, although the result this time was definitely not bad, Kanna felt quite helpless.

The consumption of the Flying Thunder God Technique was calculated by usage, and the Shinra Tensei could freely adjust its range and intensity, but for this one, it required a massive, or even excessive, amount of chakra.

Water Style: Great Shark Bullet Technique! The strongest offensive ninjutsu used by Kisame Hoshigaki, an upgraded version of the Water Style: Water Shark Bullet Technique. It uses a massive amount of chakra to create a high-pressure water cannonball in the shape of a shark. It can absorb the chakra from an enemy's ninjutsu, becoming stronger as the enemy grows stronger. As long as the absorption of chakra does not exceed a certain limit, in principle, this technique can be strengthened infinitely!

Therefore, the core of this technique lies in two points: first, the chakra reversal formula developed by referencing Samehada, which reverses the way chakra is normally used against an enemy to instead absorb the enemy's chakra—it can be considered a ninja version of the Northern Profound Divine Art. The second point is the steady-state qualitative change of chakra; the user needs extremely high control to maintain the Great Shark Bullet, which has absorbed a large amount of chakra, so that it does not collapse.

In other words, the Great Shark Bullet Technique contains both the steady-state fixation of the Yin Seal and the chakra reversal formula of Samehada, along with other common compression techniques used in Water Style. It belongs to the category of top-tier, anti-army level Water Style ninjutsu.

Imagine the scene of Madara Uchiha fighting the Allied Shinobi Forces after his resurrection; if Madara had released the Great Shark Bullet at that time, he could have absorbed the chakra from the Water Formation Wall Technique released by over a hundred Water Style ninjas combined, then strengthened the Great Shark Bullet to an outrageous degree before counterattacking!

This is a ninjutsu with complete strategic significance, but the average person has absolutely no ability to use it, because it requires a ninja with a chakra volume comparable to a Tailed Beast, like Kisame Hoshigaki, to be qualified to release it!

With the Highland, Kanna didn't need to worry about the technical aspects, but he lacked the chakra.

After passing through the smooth sailing of his initial training, Kanna was once again stumped by chakra.

Knock, knock, knock! Just as Kanna was struggling, there was a knock on his door.

Opening the door, Kanna was stunned; it was his father.

"Not asleep yet? Good, I have something to discuss with you." Kanna Tokiomi looked at the light in Kanna's room and said.