Success

Under normal circumstances, the growth of a ninja's strength followed a discernible pattern. A ninjutsu- or genjutsu-focused ninja could not suddenly become a taijutsu master.

Ninja was a highly serious profession. Konoha's ninjas spent roughly five years at the Ninja Academy learning the fundamentals.

Once they had built up sufficient foundations and passed through the stage of rapid growth, their progress would slow drastically after reaching their early twenties.

From then on, it was a matter of accumulating time and honing experience. At that stage, without some extraordinary opportunity, overtaking others on a curve and rapidly increasing one's strength was basically impossible.

Many secret techniques capable of drastically increasing one's strength in a short time were either extremely dangerous or incredibly difficult to master. In any case, none of them came easily.

The effort one put in and the risks one endured were the price of gaining great power.

In Mizuki's hands, the Inorganic Reincarnation Technique was a sage art with versatile applications, immense power, and incredibly fast casting speed, capable of achieving countless effects.

For Mizuki, it was the sage art he used most often aside from those he had created himself.

That alone showed just how powerful this technique was.

But when Kabuto Yakushi used it, it displayed many different traits when combined with his own characteristics.

The sage art, Inorganic Reincarnation Technique, attacked in Gaara's direction, only to be stopped by a barrier formed from sand. The sharp stone spikes penetrated only a shallow layer and could not breach Gaara's defenses at all.

It would have been a fatal wound for a human, but before a wall made of sand, it still could not break through.

Kabuto Yakushi had anticipated this, however.

The stone spikes created by the Inorganic Reincarnation Technique suddenly began exploding inch by inch.