Hard to Handle

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

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

"Fine! Starting tomorrow, I'll help you master Sage Jutsu with everything I've got!"

Doichi Hyuga felt rather helpless. This woman was a little hard to handle.

"Hehe! That, I can agree to!"

Tsunade looked 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? Where is this place?"

Tsunade saw more than a dozen pieces of laboratory equipment, but she was not overly surprised. She merely sighed inwardly. This brat is ridiculously rich. I need to figure out how to get some of this stuff and satisfy my urge to get hands-on.

"Mm! This is my laboratory!"

There was no helping it; Doichi Hyuga did not want any unnecessary trouble. This place had every kind of barrier technique against spying and eavesdropping. No one could steal his cultivation methods.

Not even the old man with six paths could. He was the main one being guarded against. Yin-Yang Release, anyone? He could try breaking in by force, but Doichi Hyuga would know immediately.

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

Tsunade stared at him seriously, not knowing 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 think!"

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

"Hm? This is Danzo's Root base?"

Damn! Has this woman been here before? I'm screwed! This is going to be hard to explain away!

Doichi Hyuga was startled inwardly and felt somewhat depressed.

"I heard this place had been abandoned, so I took it for myself!"

Doichi Hyuga organized his words and answered 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 would make up his story.

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

Ryoma Aburame: ???

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

Having lived with Doichi Hyuga for nearly two years, Tsunade's assessment of him was simple: easygoing, gentle and quiet, hated trouble, and liked staying at home.

"I'm a little surprised. You seem to know me quite well... As for the reason? Danzo 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 reputation was still holding strong.

"That old bastard Danzo deserves to die!"

Come to think of it, I should thank him. I found the Flying Thunder God here."

"Only the Flying Thunder God?"

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

"There were also sealing techniques from the Uzumaki Clan, as well as some secret techniques he had collected."

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

"You'd be better off not knowing!"

Tsunade came to a realization inwardly. The other three must have been people from Konoha too, right?

"Enough! Let's stop talking about that and get started!"

Doichi Hyuga took out three sheets of paper, each bearing 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. Those eight parts encompass every part of the body."

"Among these eight bodily regions, each has a different attribute. They belong to metal, wood, water, fire, and earth—the five elements, five distinct attributes. The five elements restrain one another, yet 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 generate and transform one another in order to strengthen the physical body."

"The five viscera are a five-element relationship. So for the first step of cultivation, you must first achieve a five-element balance among the five viscera and actively control their mutually generating, strengthening relationship!"

"As for the five viscera, 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 the Natural Energy of the outside world into the body to strengthen the five viscera!"

"Of course, you cannot get the order wrong. If you do, you'll be injured. If it's serious, you could die!"

"This sheet contains some important points. You must memorize them thoroughly! Once you learn the five-element balance of the five viscera, I'll teach you the Eight-Trigram Great Five-Element Balance for the entire body."

"Alright! I understand!"

Tsunade's beautiful eyes shone brightly. 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 held the paper and memorized it by rote for half an hour, stopping only after she could write it all out from memory.

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

"Ha! What kind of weird taijutsu is this? Doesn't it hurt when you make these movements?"

Tsunade immediately burst out laughing, then gradually frowned. Every movement challenged the limits of the human body. It practically defied common human 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 within your body will be easily stirred and guided into the next organ. Of course, you'll also need to guide and assist it with your spiritual power. You absolutely cannot send it into the wrong organ!"

Tsunade followed 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 more than an hour of practice, Tsunade finally managed to complete all the movements on her own.

"Next, use the Six-Syllable Breathing Method to guide Natural Energy, while using these five sets of movements to assist you."

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

Doichi Hyuga reminded her sternly. There was absolutely no room for error with this.

Spiritual power alone could not pull the qi of the five elements. The five sets of movements had to serve as the foundation, while spiritual power guided the 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 power had grown to a certain level. Only then could his spiritual power easily pull the energy of the five elements.

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 viscera.

Several times in the middle, she had nearly caused a major disaster, but Doichi Hyuga stopped her in time and corrected her. Then he spent ages carefully explaining it to her, until Tsunade had been dealt such a blow that she was nearly out of confidence.

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

It was far more dangerous, and all the body's tissues were even more complex.