Medical Ninjutsu and Days of Training

Medical Ninjutsu and Days of Training

Time passed day by day.

During this time, Hyuga Yuto had adapted to his current status. As one of the Three Sannin's disciples, he received far more attention than before.

Other than returning to the Hyuga Clan Grounds at night, he spent most of his days at the Senju Clan Grounds, either practicing the medical ninjutsu and Monster Strength Tsunade had taught him or studying medical texts.

Because she had to teach Hyuga Yuto, Tsunade temporarily ended her wandering life and moved into the Senju Clan Grounds with Shizune. She could not be bothered with Hidden Leaf Village affairs and was only responsible for teaching Hyuga Yuto each day.

Shizune was a year younger than Hyuga Yuto, the same age as Kakashi. She was still an eleven-year-old little brat, nowhere near as gentle and virtuous as she would be when the manga's main storyline began.

At first, the little girl was rather hostile toward Hyuga Yuto. It was probably childish jealousy—she felt that this guy with no black pupils had stolen Teacher Tsunade's attention.

However, that slight hostility lasted less than a day. Having endured the bombardment of short videos from another world, Hyuga Yuto was a bona fide master of the theory of charming girls. With a little effort, he had the little girl grinning from ear to ear, calling him "my junior brother is so nice" over and over as she happily went off to buy fish.

—Beginners in medical ninjutsu often used all sorts of small animals for experiments. Fish were the choice of most beginners. These ancient vertebrates had relatively simple anatomy and were well suited for practice. More importantly, even if the medical ninjutsu failed and left the fish's body in a complete mess, it could still be made into fish soup, so nothing went to waste.

Medical ninjutsu did not sound particularly "cool," but only after actually practicing it did one realize that it was an extremely demanding form of ninjutsu when it came to chakra control. When channeling chakra, even the slightest excess of force could cause the recipient's nerves and muscles to necrotize.

This was rather similar to training in Monster Strength. The same technique, in some people's hands, could only split bricks and tree trunks, but a powerhouse like Tsunade could use "Monster Strength" to split mountains and shatter rocks.

Both were ninjutsu that demanded an exceptionally high degree of precision in chakra manipulation. Training in Monster Strength and medical ninjutsu complemented each other.

He practiced medical ninjutsu in the morning and honed Monster Strength in the afternoon. Tsunade often came to teach him medical knowledge, and everything proceeded in an orderly fashion.

The only thing that had stalled was the development of Lion Fang Severance.

The concept behind this technique was extremely ambitious. When Hyuga Yuto had first conceived it, he had thought, "Combine the Gentle Fist forms with the chakra projection techniques of the Rasengan, layering a sturdy chakra shell over the palm to make up for my lack of armor-piercing power."

Simply put, it was a smaller, weakened version of Susanoo, covering his hand and designed specifically to work with the Byakugan.

However, while the idea was beautiful, putting it into practice was extremely difficult.

Fixing the chakra's "shape," increasing its "hardness" without losing flexibility, maintaining offensive power without harming himself...

Every problem was a hurdle, but fortunately, Hyuga Yuto had made a good start by first forming the outer shape.

In the second month after becoming Tsunade's disciple, Hyuga Yuto could already pull out a fish's spine and insert it back in. After being released, the fish would swim about energetically, and the soup made from them was especially delicious.

As for Monster Strength, because he had trained in the Gentle Fist since childhood, Hyuga Yuto took to the technique very well and improved at a rapid pace. He could already shatter adult-sized rocks with a single punch. When combined with the Gentle Fist, hard and soft forces erupted in alternation, greatly boosting his combat power.

However, Lion Fang Severance had made almost no progress.

Tsunade was also quite frustrated by this. She was an expert in medical ninjutsu, but she did not know much about the chakra field. Turning energy into armor of unimaginable hardness was something she could do almost nothing about.

Left with no choice, Tsunade took Hyuga Yuto to see Minato Namikaze.

To some extent, the Rasengan could be viewed as "flowing armor." Minato Namikaze's greatest talents lay in his reflexes and spatial sensitivity, but beyond that, he also had considerable insight into changes in chakra nature.

Minato Namikaze naturally did not refuse. Publicly, Princess Tsunade was one of the Three Sannin and held a higher status than him. Privately, she was a comrade who had shared life-and-death bonds with his teacher. Minato Namikaze had no reason not to help.

The Yellow Flash truly was an outstanding ninja, and he was also very good at dealing with people. He set aside some time to conduct an in-depth study with Hyuga Yuto.

"Yuto, this may not be pleasant to hear, but I think you may be overthinking things."

"I don't know where this idea of yours came from, but... why turn chakra into armor?"

"Chakra is energy. It is wind, lightning, water... It flows."

"On a microscopic level, everything, including time, is in motion. What is the difference between turning chakra into armor and killing it? Yuto, I think that next, you should..."

Minato Namikaze's words greatly inspired Hyuga Yuto. He immediately realized that he truly had been fixating on the wrong thing.

—Susanoo had left too deep an impression on him when he read the manga and watched the anime in his previous life, to the point that it had affected his thinking.

After Minato Namikaze cleared away the fog, the development of Lion Fang Severance also found a new direction.

Medical ninjutsu and medical knowledge, Monster Strength, and the development of his new ninjutsu had all gotten on track. Hyuga Yuto spent more and more time at the Senju Clan Grounds. Often, he simply did not go back at all and slept in the room beside Tsunade's.

And so, a full three months passed after he became Tsunade's disciple.

The ninja world entered winter.

Cold winds howled, and everything was blanketed in silver.

While Hyuga Yuto immersed himself in training, many things happened in the outside world.

Friction among the Five Great Nations grew increasingly severe, and everyone could smell the smoke of war; Minato Namikaze fought fiercely against the AB Brothers of the Hidden Cloud Village and emerged unscathed, his reputation soaring; the Uchiha Clan head's wife, Uchiha Mikoto, gave birth to a healthy boy more than a month ago and named him Uchiha Itachi...

The era was quietly changing, though no one knew it yet—except Hyuga Yuto.

That day, Hyuga Yuto emerged from three months of frenzied training. He found Tsunade and prepared to leave for a while.

His reason was simple, so simple that Tsunade could not refuse it.

"Teacher, I'm a ninja of the Hidden Leaf Village, yet I've been holed up in the village for three months. I only realized after coming out today that this year is almost over. I should take on some missions and get some fresh air... Who ever became strong by training alone?"

After bidding Tsunade farewell, Hyuga Yuto left the Senju Clan Grounds.

It was very cold outside, and the snow lay thick on the ground.

Hyuga Yuto looked at the village adorned by snowflakes, then looked at himself. He felt that many things had changed, yet some things had not changed in the slightest.

—The Bird in a Cage engraved upon his forehead was still there.

Becoming Tsunade's disciple could not bring him true joy.

The branch family boy glanced indifferently at the distant Hyuga Clan Grounds, then turned away.

It was time to handle some proper business, he thought.