Turning Point

The first D-rank ninjutsu Jiraiya taught Chiba Etsu was the Earth Flow Spear.

To put it simply, this technique is quite straightforward: it attacks the enemy's lower body by shooting jagged stone spears from the ground.

Well, the technique is actually quite lewd, and even Chiba Etsu himself felt it was a god-tier skill for drawing aggro.

He never expected that just as he was planning to develop along the path of a meat shield, Jiraiya would teach him such a taunting masterpiece.

In fact, this technique is also the prerequisite for many subsequent techniques, such as the Rock Pillar Spear and the Earth Rising Spear.

The principles behind many other Earth Style ninjutsu are also very similar to this one.

It can be said that for an Earth Style user, this technique is indispensable.

Therefore, the moment Chiba Etsu obtained this technique, he made up his mind to master it.

Who says Earth Style ninjutsu has weak offensive power? Perhaps one day he could use such a simple technique to pierce through everything.

For a time, Chiba Etsu's enthusiasm for training soared, and he practiced desperately every day, striving to gain powerful strength.

However, it didn't take long for him to recognize the gap between reality and his ideals.

Watching Yahiko, Konan, and the others training hard in the distance, Chiba Etsu felt quite conflicted.

He knew the gap between them would gradually widen, but he hadn't expected it to happen so quickly.

While learning the same D-rank ninjutsu, he spent over a month, whereas Yahiko and Nagato only took less than half a month.

Furthermore, in the days that followed, his progress in learning and developing various ninjutsu clearly lagged far behind.

Nagato had already mastered D-rank basic ninjutsu of all five elements and was beginning to move toward C-rank techniques; Yahiko had also completed his training in three D-rank techniques of his own affinity, yet Chiba Etsu was still lingering on the simple Earth Flow Spear.

The fundamental reason for this was not a gap in elemental affinity, nor was it a lack of diligence in Chiba Etsu's training; it was the fundamental disparity caused by his insufficient chakra reserves.

Whether in terms of total chakra volume or chakra recovery speed, the accumulation over the past half-year had clearly widened the gap between them.

Although Jiraiya claimed that the rare medicinal herbs and large amounts of meat he provided had caused their chakra growth rates to far exceed those of ordinary ninjas, the gap between them continued to grow as their chakra growth rates increased.

Nagato, without a doubt, possessed the most massive amount of chakra. Not only were the Uzumaki clan naturally gifted with abundant chakra, but Nagato was also the chosen one selected by Madara and Zetsu, and he possessed chakra affinities that complemented the five elements, which was enough to minimize chakra consumption to the greatest extent.

It could be said that when practicing ninjutsu, Nagato never had to worry about his chakra running dry.

Yahiko's strong body also provided him with sufficient chakra; facing a simple D-rank technique, he could release dozens of them in one go before returning to rest, and it wouldn't take long for him to be full of energy and ready to continue training.

Chiba Etsu, however, had to return to rest after releasing only a dozen or so, and the recovery time he required was particularly long.

If one were to list the data for comparison, Nagato could release five hundred D-rank ninjutsu a day, Yahiko could release over two hundred, while Chiba Etsu could only manage a pathetic total of less than one hundred.

And this gap would only continue to widen as time passed.

Even Konan, due to her excellent chakra control, consumed very little, allowing her to release a dozen more techniques than Chiba Etsu.

This time, Chiba Etsu truly felt a sense of despair.

Compared to the insufficiency in elemental categories, this more intuitive slowness in progress was undoubtedly even more painful for him.

All he could do was watch as one companion after another slowly surpassed him.

No matter how he looked at it, he felt the full weight of the world's malice.

Although his performance wasn't bad—he likely still had an advantage over the average child—the gap between his progress and that of Yahiko and Nagato was simply too vast.

Perhaps, if he were lucky, he could become a Jonin after reaching adulthood, but what would that even accomplish?

Yahiko and Nagato were people who would be fighting against Hanzo as soon as they reached adulthood.

In such a great war, would he really have the qualifications to participate?

Perhaps this was just the norm in the Ninja World; ordinary ninjas could never catch up to the footsteps of geniuses.

Yahiko, Nagato, and Konan were all destined geniuses, while the person he had possessed was just an ordinary individual who couldn't provide him with any assistance.

Even Jiraiya couldn't just turn anyone into a Kage-level ninja.

He had foolishly claimed he would change Yahiko and the others' fate and protect them, but now it seemed he wouldn't be able to do anything at all.

If there were no powerful enemies lurking, perhaps Chiba Etsu could have remained calm, but now, he was clearly feeling desperate.

Chiba Etsu's depressed mood clearly affected Nagato and the others, and everyone's spirits began to dampen.

Although Yahiko and the others had tried to comfort Chiba Etsu several times, it had little effect.

Jiraiya saw all of this, but he had no good solution.

In fact, Jiraiya had seen many people like Chiba Etsu who felt a sense of loss because they couldn't keep up with their teammates, but there was basically no solution to this; talent was right there, and it was a matter of destiny.

The Ninja World was sometimes just that cruel; the gap created by talent was enough to completely erase all of a person's efforts.

Just as Chiba Etsu was growing increasingly worried, one day, Nagato found him.

"Chiba Etsu, I think I've found a way to help you."

"A way... to help me?"

Chiba Etsu looked at Nagato in confusion, his face full of astonishment.

"Yeah."

Nagato nodded excitedly.

"I asked Master Jiraiya, and if all goes well, this method of mine should at least greatly accelerate your training speed."