The Bottleneck of Technique

It seems the pursuit of combat ninjutsu among ninjas far outweighs their interest in medical arts.

Ninjutsu based on the five elements offers the most direct display of destructive power. While learning medical knowledge and practicing medical ninjutsu can also grant immense strength, few people show interest in it compared to the simple and straightforward elemental ninjutsu, as medical arts involve the complexities of Yang Release and biomedicine.

Consequently, unlike other deserted libraries, the ninjutsu archives—which house records of countless techniques—are frequently visited.

As soon as Yuehua Ai entered the ninjutsu archives, he noticed how different it was from the medical records room. The room was situated on the sunny side of the library building, providing excellent lighting. The space was five or six times larger than the previous room, with neat, numerous bookshelves, clear categorization, and far more tables and chairs by the windows.

After a rough survey, Yuehua Ai discovered that this area was divided into three sections, just like the classification of ninjutsu: Ninjutsu, Genjutsu, and Taijutsu. The sizes of these sections varied, but the Genjutsu and Taijutsu sections combined were not as large as the Ninjutsu section alone.

Although Yuehua Ai had always been deeply interested in Genjutsu, he did not immediately seek it out when the materials appeared before him.

Stepping into the Ninjutsu section, Yuehua Ai searched carefully through the rows of bookshelves. Compared to the Genjutsu he had long yearned for, he was currently more desperate for information regarding the nature transformation of chakra.

Yuehua Ai's own strength was primarily composed of a combination of ninjutsu and taijutsu. His sensory talent currently served mainly as an auxiliary for reconnaissance; while it could provide a degree of predictive foresight during combat, it was still far from the state of perfect, reflexive counterattacks.

At this stage, Yuehua Ai's strongest combat component remained his ninjutsu. However, in the long time since he had perfected the Spirit Light Jade and simplified it into the Spirit Light Bullet, he had made almost no progress in the way of ninjutsu.

Yuehua Ai understood his own situation far better than others. During the years he spent training under Jiraiya, he had accumulated potential that had almost entirely been converted into strength through learning and modifying techniques. Without further accumulation and potential, there naturally wouldn't be any significant breakthroughs.

After a period of steady accumulation, Yuehua Ai's growth had finally hit a bottleneck.

In recent days, although he had not slacked off in his chakra refinement, he was unfortunately limited by his physique and age, and his progress in total chakra volume had been extremely minimal.

The growth potential of chakra places an incredibly high demand on one's physique. A ninja's total chakra volume is eighty percent dependent on physical and mental constitution, with only the remaining twenty percent attributed to the diligence of their training.

Therefore, no matter how much time a ninja spends refining chakra, the speed of their growth will never surpass the gains brought by physical development. This is because chakra in the Naruto world must be synthesized by the human body; it requires the body's strength as a foundation.

To put it simply, a person's physique is like a mineral deposit, and chakra is the resources contained within it; a ninja's training is the exploitation of that deposit.

Thus, even the most highly developed small veins can rarely compare to the slight excavation of a massive deposit.

Consider Naruto: by his early teens, his chakra reserves were already four times that of Kakashi's, and that didn't even account for the Nine-Tails' chakra within him; otherwise, the gap would have been a hundredfold.

Chakra refinement is not like the cultivation found in Xianxia worlds, where one can achieve infinite growth through constant refinement—that would be a joke!

The duration of chakra refinement does not signify much. Think of why the Third Hokage would eventually die at the hands of Orochimaru; the primary reason was not his aging or declining physical strength, but simply that he lacked sufficient chakra during the battle.

The Third Hokage had refined chakra for decades without any particularly brilliant display in combat, which goes to show that refining chakra has no significant effect on increasing one's upper limit; the greatest use of such training is to improve the recovery speed of chakra!

The slow growth of chakra was Yuehua Ai's greatest weakness, but he was truly helpless regarding this, as it was not something that could be changed by effort alone.

In terms of ninjutsu training, he had almost reached his limit. The development of an ultra-A-rank technique like the Spirit Light Jade meant that his training in chakra shape transformation had already surpassed the limit.

If he wanted to continue strengthening his ninjutsu prowess based on his existing chakra, the only viable path left was to train in chakra nature transformation.

Think of the Wind Style: Rasenshuriken that Naruto created in the original story after mastering the nature transformation of wind-attribute chakra; how many levels did that single technique elevate his combat power!?

Therefore, in Yuehua Ai's estimation, whether he mastered water-attribute nature transformation or wind-attribute like Naruto, as long as he mastered any one type of nature transformation and integrated it into the Spirit Light Jade, his strength would undoubtedly experience an unprecedented, explosive growth!

Unfortunately, the ideal is plump, but reality is rather skeletal.

On the road to Konohagakure with Jiraiya, Yuehua Ai had once asked for his guidance. Unfortunately, Jiraiya was only proficient in Fire and Earth Release among the five elements. He knew the nature transformations of Fire and Earth like the back of his hand, but when it came to Wind and Water, he knew nothing beyond their basic manifestations.

Though disappointed, Yuehua Ai still sought Jiraiya's advice on Fire and Earth transformations, operating on the principle of drawing inferences about other cases. Even if he couldn't practice them himself, knowing more was always better; after all, who knew if he would encounter a ninja proficient in Fire or Earth transformations in the future?

He recorded Jiraiya's insightful explanations and, while pondering the Fire and Earth transformations, summarized the characteristics of these two types, making conjectures about the other three based on his own unique understanding.

Although he already had relatively reasonable guesses in his mind, he was still very much looking forward to the most orthodox explanations within the ninja training system.

And today, through this archive that recorded almost all theoretical foundations of ninjutsu, he finally had the chance to see for himself!

Searching bit by bit through a row of tall bookshelves, after a long time, Yuehua Ai finally found what he was looking for on one of the shelves.

Basics of Chakra Nature Transformation!

The title was truly simple and clear!

Yuehua Ai excitedly pulled out the slightly worn book, which looked as if it had been flipped through by countless people.

Even before opening it, just by taking a brief look, Yuehua Ai made a discovery that thrilled him.

On the back of the book, in an inconspicuous spot, was a small signature, and that name was Senju Tobirama!

Senju Tobirama was the Second Hokage of Konohagakure, the younger brother of the First Hokage, and one of the founders of Konohagakure. During his lifetime, he made unparalleled contributions to the prosperity and development of the village.

Senju Tobirama was most skilled at researching and developing ninjutsu. He was the most creative ninja of that era; not only did he develop countless conventional combat techniques, but he also left behind many forbidden ones.

Techniques like the Flying Thunder God Jutsu that Minato became famous for, the Reanimation Jutsu that caused countless waves in later generations, and the Shadow Clone Jutsu that Naruto excelled at, were all masterpieces he left behind.

Undoubtedly, Tobirama had reached an unprecedented height in ninjutsu research. The books he left behind—even if they weren't forbidden techniques or ninjutsu, even if they were just about basic ninja training issues—would likely be highly sought after. After all, his name was Senju Tobirama; even on the most basic issues, his insights would far exceed the understanding of ordinary ninjas.

Unable to wait, he went to a chair by the window, sat down, and carefully placed the book on the table to open the cover. Reading every word, Yuehua Ai soon became immersed in it.

Indeed, the Ninja World possessed a thousand-year history; even as a transmigrator, he had to approach this place with a sense of awe. Just this simple book managed to dispel much of the pride Yuehua Ai felt as a transmigrator.

The book not only contained a detailed introduction to the ninja system, but also featured endless ingenious ideas regarding ninjutsu training, with many thought-provoking points. Furthermore, between the lines, he could tell that the author's understanding of chakra was in no way inferior to his own.

The interweaving of two cultures and the collision of different civilizations—after only a short time of reading, Yuehua Ai felt his previously exhausted inspiration gushing forth again, with countless creative ideas brewing in his mind.

"Creak—"

Just as Yuehua Ai was lost in the world of the book, a sharp, grating sound suddenly startled him. Looking up, he realized it was the young man who had been sitting across from him sharing the same table, who was now standing up; the sound had been caused by him pulling back his chair.