Won the Grand Prize

In the days that followed, Kanna and Ringo Ameyuri received sword training from Shinnosuke. After several months, they finally managed to patch up the gaps in their respective abilities.

During this time, the interactions between Kanna and Ringo Ameyuri gradually increased, allowing him to understand the gap between them.

In a one-on-one fight, Kanna and Ringo Ameyuri were fairly evenly matched, with his shortcomings mostly lying in fundamentals. His ninjutsu was undoubtedly far more powerful than hers, but her reaction time and ability to adapt on the fly were superior. In a real combat scenario, it would depend on the specific situation—a toss-up.

However, Ringo Ameyuri was a genin who had received formal training in Kirigakure. Had she not been caught in the power struggle between the Third Hokage and the clans regarding examination reforms, she would certainly have been promoted to chunin by now. According to her, she possessed a wide range of skills, including tracking and counter-tracking, intelligence gathering, basic medical knowledge, basic weapon modification, stealth, and the ability to create, identify, and neutralize poisons.

By comparison, Kanna had become a ninja who was all muscle and no nuance. To Kirigakure, his current combat power, while not exactly common, was far from indispensable. It was talent like Ringo Ameyuri's that the village truly needed.

Modern ninja warfare, barring unexpected skirmishes, was mostly fought at the legion level, which tested a person's comprehensive capabilities. Kanna still had much to learn from Ringo Ameyuri.

Fortunately, Shinnosuke's guidance had shored up some of his weaknesses, greatly broadening his horizons and providing him with a wealth of new perspectives.

For instance, the Seimusō Style swordsmanship that Kanna had been obsessed with emphasized understanding the heart through the human heart and taking the heavens and earth as one's teacher. Every move and stance of a swordsman carried the momentum of the world—sometimes as heavy as a mountain, sometimes as boundless as the sea, or as ethereal as white clouds in a blue sky. This was a path to deducing one's own ninja way; if developed to its peak, it would lead to the same destination as the Sage Mode of the ninja path, gathering the power of heaven and earth for one's own use. It was truly extraordinary.

Other sword styles had their own strengths, but Kanna figured he shouldn't bother delving into them. Ninja arts and sword arts were merely different modes of combat. Moreover, modern swordsmanship was withering, with almost no path forward, whereas the ninja path had reached its zenith. Naturally, he chose the latter.

The Silent Killing Technique that Shinnosuke taught Kanna was a genuine ninja sword art. Before learning it, Kanna had assumed it was merely a technique for stealth and assassination, but now, he understood its true profundity.

The Silent Killing Technique, Kirigakure's signature assassination art, emphasized concealing one's presence to deliver a fatal blow. Often, the target would not even know they had been ambushed until the moment they died.

The reason this assassination art was classified as a sword art was that it contained an exploration of the human body's essence, energy, and spirit. Its core philosophy could be summed up in one word: Restraint!

Swordsmanship combat had three methods of killing: killing the blade, killing the technique, and killing the spirit. This meant suppressing the opponent's weapon so they could not use it freely; seizing the initiative with tight attacks to seal the opponent's moves and deny them a chance to win; and destroying the opponent's will to fight with overwhelming spirit and crushing their courage with a formidable aura.

The Silent Killing Technique did the exact opposite. It avoided direct confrontation entirely, instead focusing on restraining the mind and spirit, keeping chakra contained rather than released, and brewing one's intent. Finally, one would hear the thunder in the silence, striking a single blow to kill the enemy instantly.

Stripping away the stealth, concealment, and breath-holding techniques used during the engagement, this was a formal sword art for tempering the mind. Practiced to the end, one would become like Shinnosuke: a sharp blade kept hidden, silent until the moment of release, at which point it would shake the heavens and earth.

The difference between ninja sword arts and traditional sword arts was clear at a glance.

Kanna practiced this sword art day after day. Rather than perfecting the art of killing, he pondered the methods of nourishing the mind. He gradually felt his essence, energy, and spirit becoming complete. Unlike the mental expansion brought by traveling the world with the Flying Thunder God, the Silent Killing Technique brought a stillness of mind that was simultaneously restless—like the tension before a volcano erupts. It was clear that if he were to draw his sword against an enemy one day, it would be a case of "silent until the roar."

Kanna slowly ground away his previous restlessness, and the dark clouds left in his heart by the struggle between the Third Hokage and the clans dissipated.

Three months later, he drew another S-rank ninjutsu: the Double Lariat. Three months after that, he drew the Sage Art: Rasengan. He was quite satisfied with these results.

The Double Lariat required two ninja with a deep connection to work in tandem, synchronizing the frequency of their Lightning Style chakra. By utilizing the attraction between magnetic lightning, they could drastically amplify their speed, rivaling the Flying Thunder God in short bursts. It was a classic example of a super-speed attack.

However, Kanna would never practice this technique with anyone else—at least, not until he found a partner to whom he could entrust his life.

Generally, when two people fought, their chakra frequencies would never match, causing their ninjutsu to cancel each other out—much like the Fire Style clashes between Sasuke and Itachi, or the Lightning Style interactions between Sasuke and Killer B. If an outsider learned one's chakra frequency, it meant one's defensive system was completely exposed to them; related ninjutsu would be unable to harm them, and if the opponent had sufficient chakra control, they could even manipulate the ninjutsu to attack the user.

The Fourth Raikage and Killer B were a pair of brothers not easily found elsewhere. Kanna figured he wouldn't find such a partner in Kirigakure. Fortunately, there was a workaround: using a physical clone technique, he could perform this move with his main body. Of course, a Water Clone wouldn't work; the physical nature of the clash meant the clone would collapse upon using Lightning Style. Thus, a Wood Release clone or a Shadow Clone was required.

As for the Sage Art: Rasengan, it contained the only ninja system in the world capable of contending with Yin-Yang Release: Sage Arts.

However, just like the Water Style: Water Body Flicker, without obtaining the formula for the Rasengan, Kanna could only grasp the underlying concept without being able to execute it.

The Rasengan created a high-speed rotating sphere of chakra. Its attack could penetrate the surface, driving the force of the "rotation" directly into the interior. Thus, while a victim might show no external damage, their internal organs and bones would be pulverized, leaving no hope for survival. The Sage Art: Rasengan drew upon the natural energy drifting between heaven and earth, using the Rasengan as a core to imbue it with the power of the world, shattering everything in its path.

Kanna's chakra refinement technique turned himself into a "circle," a world of his own, while Sage Arts drew upon the greater world. The two complemented each other perfectly. However, there was only one Highland, and Kanna needed its assistance to use either technique. To connect the earth, he would need to continue his training.

In the final two months, Kanna drew two A-rank ninjutsu, and this time, he felt he had hit the jackpot.

Human Path: Mind Reading!

White Secret Technique: Chikamatsu Ten Puppets!

One was a signature technique of the Rinnegan! The other was the secret technique of the puppet master Chiyo!

The former possessed memory extraction capabilities far beyond any intelligence department in the ninja world, allowing one to peer into the deepest layers of any creature's mind and forcibly strip away their soul. The latter could be considered the definitive manual of modern puppetry, as ten fingers were the limit for what an average puppeteer could control.

Having acquired so many ninjutsu to date, Kanna finally began to feel that the limitation of the Highland only being able to store one ninjutsu at a time was a problem that needed to be solved as soon as possible.