Hard to Handle

"I disagree! Let's think of another way! And don't ever do something like this again!"

Tsunade cut Doichi Hyuga off, her tone carrying a warning.

"Fine! Starting tomorrow, I'll do everything I can to help you master senjutsu!"

Doichi Hyuga was somewhat helpless. This woman was hard to handle.

"Hehe! That works for me!"

Tsunade was immensely pleased. This was the first time she had made Doichi Hyuga admit defeat.

Early the next morning, Doichi Hyuga brought Tsunade to the experimental base.

"Did you just use the Flying Thunder God Technique? Where is this?"

Tsunade was not overly surprised by the dozen or so experimental instruments. She merely sighed inwardly: This brat is seriously rich. I have to find a way to get some of these and satisfy my itch to operate them.

"Mm! This is my laboratory!"

It could not be helped; Doichi Hyuga did not want the trouble. This place had every kind of barrier technique against spying and eavesdropping. No one could steal his cultivation methods.

Not even that old man with six paths could manage it. He was the main one these measures were aimed at. Yin-Yang Release, anyone? He could try to break it by force, but Doichi Hyuga would know immediately.

"But! Let me warn you in advance: no human experiments! Otherwise... otherwise..."

Tsunade stared at him sternly, unsure what to say next. If Doichi Hyuga really did it, she did not know what she could do!

"Don't worry! I won't conduct human experiments. My moral bottom line is far higher than you imagine!"

"I believe you. I hope you won't disappoint me!"

"Hm? This is Danzō's Root base?"

Damn it! This woman has been here before? I'm screwed! This won't be easy to bluff through!

Doichi Hyuga was startled inwardly and felt rather depressed.

"I heard this place had been abandoned, so I took it over."

Doichi Hyuga gathered his thoughts before answering calmly.

"Hehe! You heard? But I heard that four people attacked Root. One of them... wouldn't happen to be you, would it?"

Tsunade sneered repeatedly, wanting to see how he planned to spin this.

"That's right! I was involved! But I didn't make a move. Someone else killed Danzō."

Ryoma Aburame: ???

"From what I know of you, you wouldn't get involved in something so troublesome. So Danzō targeted you?"

Having lived with Doichi Hyuga for nearly two years, Tsunade's assessment of him was this: going with the flow, gentle and quiet, averse to trouble, and fond of staying home.

"I'm a little surprised. You seem to know me pretty well... As for why? Danzō invited me to join Root, and I refused. Then that bastard sent people to assassinate me, more than once!"

Doichi Hyuga felt quite gratified. His character was still holding strong!

"That old bastard Danzō really deserves to die!"

Come to think of it, he should thank him. The Flying Thunder God Technique had been found here.

"Only the Flying Thunder God Technique?"

Tsunade carefully watched the changes in Doichi Hyuga's expression. If she did not ask, then it was probably only the Flying Thunder God Technique. But if she did ask, perhaps she would gain something unexpected.

"There were also the Uzumaki Clan's sealing techniques, along with some secret techniques he had collected."

"Hehe! You really got a bargain! So, who were the other three attackers?"

"You're better off not knowing!"

Tsunade came to a realization: The other three must have been from Konoha too?!

"Enough! Let's stop talking about that and begin!"

Doichi Hyuga took out three sheets of paper, each containing three diagrams and some written explanations.

"You should recognize the Eight Trigrams! The human body can be divided into eight parts according to the Eight Trigrams; together, those eight parts encompass every part of the body."

"Among these eight bodily regions, each has different attributes. They belong to the five elements—metal, wood, water, fire, and earth—which are five distinct attributes. The five elements restrain one another, yet they can also strengthen one another. It is a contradictory relationship."

Doichi Hyuga carefully chose his words, trying to explain it as plainly as possible.

"Metal generates water, water generates wood, wood generates fire, fire generates earth, and earth generates metal! Therefore, when absorbing natural energy, the five bodily attributes must mutually generate and transform one another in order to strengthen the physical body."

"The five internal organs are one kind of five-element relationship. So the first step of cultivation is to achieve the five-element balance among your five organs and actively control their mutually generating and strengthening relationship!"

"As for the five organs: the lungs belong to metal, the kidneys to water, the liver to wood, the heart to fire, and the spleen to earth. Therefore, the qi of lung-metal must strengthen kidney-water, the qi of kidney-water must strengthen liver-wood, liver-wood must strengthen heart-fire, heart-fire must nourish spleen-earth, and spleen-earth must return to lung-metal. This cycle repeats endlessly, drawing natural energy from the outside world into the body to strengthen the five internal organs!"

"Of course, you cannot get the order wrong. A mistake will injure you, and a serious one can kill you!"

"This sheet records several crucial points. You must memorize them thoroughly! Once you master the five-element balance of the five organs, I'll teach you the Eight-Trigram Great Five-Element Balance for the entire body."

"Alright! I understand!"

Tsunade's beautiful eyes sparkled: Something this complicated, and he actually managed to research it? How is this guy's brain built? Could he be some kind of monster?

Tsunade spent half an hour memorizing the sheet by rote, only stopping once she could write down all of it from memory.

Next, Doichi Hyuga demonstrated five sets of movements for Tsunade to learn and imitate.

"Haha! What kind of bizarre taijutsu is this? Doesn't it hurt when you do these movements?"

Tsunade immediately burst out laughing, then slowly frowned. Every movement pushed the limits of the human body. It practically defied common sense.

"It won't hurt once you get used to it! These five sets of movements are the key to making the five elements strengthen one another. You can't get this order wrong either. Just keep doing them in sequence."

"When performing these movements, the qi of the five elements inside your body will be easily stirred and guided into the next organ. Of course, you'll also need to use your spiritual energy to guide and assist it. You absolutely cannot send it into the wrong organ!"

Tsunade followed along with the movements, baring her teeth in pain.

However, her physique was far stronger than Doichi Hyuga's had been back then, so she did not experience that heart-rending agony.

After studying for over an hour, Tsunade finally managed to complete every movement independently.

"Next, use the Six-Syllable Breathing Method to guide natural energy, while using these five sets of movements as support."

"Tsunade! You must focus and use your spiritual energy to guide it in the right direction."

Doichi Hyuga gave a stern reminder. There was absolutely no room for error with this.

Spiritual energy alone could not pull the qi of the five elements. The five sets of movements had to serve as the foundation, while spiritual energy guided its direction.

Doichi Hyuga had cultivated for five years before switching to seated meditation. After strengthening his body for five years, he had adapted to this circulation of the five elements, and his spiritual energy had grown strong enough that it could easily pull five-element energy.

Byakugan! Activate!

Doichi Hyuga closely monitored the flow of energy within Tsunade's body, preventing any accidents.

It was not until evening that Tsunade could independently complete the five-element circulation through her five organs.

Several times in the middle, she had nearly caused a major disaster, but Doichi Hyuga stopped and corrected her in time. He then spent ages carefully explaining it to her, until Tsunade was so discouraged that she was nearly stripped of all confidence.

After struggling through the day in fits and starts, she was barely qualified. What gave Doichi Hyuga a headache was that the full-body Great Five-Element circulation afterward would be even harder to handle.

It was far more dangerous, and all the tissues throughout the body were much more complicated.