Modern Version of Water Release: Water Severing Wave II

Over the next few days,

Life in the camp continued in a tense calm.

Yet Hinata Tianyi felt that every day was incredibly fulfilling, even somewhat insufficient.

Like a parched sponge, he greedily absorbed every source of nourishment he could reach.

During the day, he trained at the practice grounds with Nawaki and Moonlight Kaede.

At night, after Nawaki and Kaede had gone to rest, he quietly left and headed into a dense forest.

Following the water cutter described in the materials, he adjusted it bit by bit.

Failure, adjustment, failure again, adjustment again... In the silent mountain hollow,

there was only the faint sound of flowing water, rustling leaves, and his heavy breathing from excessive chakra consumption.

Time flew by amid his focused experiments.

Until the deep night of the fifth day.

In the dense forest, Tianyi faced a large tree fifteen meters ahead.

His expression was calm, his gaze focused.

Above his right palm floated a water sphere no larger than a pigeon egg.

Inside the sphere, countless particles could vaguely be seen swirling at high speed.

He locked onto the center of the tree trunk ahead, and his thoughts shifted slightly.

"Screech—!"

An extremely brief, piercing shriek rang out!

A stream of water as thin as a pen refill shot forth at incredible speed.

The large tree ahead offered no resistance at all, leaving behind only a small hole.

Then the waterline pierced through the rock behind the tree and emerged from the other side.

Its remaining force had not faded, boring a tiny hole of unknown depth into the mountain farther behind it.

Tianyi dispersed his chakra and walked over to the tree trunk.

He reached out and touched the edge of the hole. It was smooth and slightly warm.

Leaning closer, he saw that the hole extended through the tree trunk, the rock, and all the way into the distant mountain!

Then Tianyi raised his hand and looked at it, recalling the power of that attack.

Even his own eyes flashed with a hint of shock.

"It worked..." Tianyi slowly exhaled the stale breath in his chest.

At last, the most relaxed smile he had worn in days appeared on his face.

Although it consumed more chakra and was harder to control, its power had far exceeded his expectations.

This proved that the scientific approach to optimizing ninjutsu was not only correct, but held enormous potential.

He looked up at the sky, which was about to brighten with dawn, and steadied his emotions.

After quickly erasing the faint traces of his practice, his figure quietly vanished into the fading night as he returned to camp.

Back in bed, Tianyi considered the strengths and weaknesses of this ninjutsu.

As for its advantages, the first was concealment. The more powerful a ninjutsu was, the greater its chakra fluctuations usually were.

But his water cutter was essentially a purely physical phenomenon driven by chakra: generating high pressure, then releasing it.

The chakra fluctuations when it activated were exceptionally faint. After repeated testing and sensing,

they were only equivalent to those of an ordinary C-rank ninjutsu, making them easy for opponents to overlook or underestimate.

Next was its penetrating power. An ultra-high-pressure water jet, especially when mixed with abrasives,

derived its cutting ability from purely physical laws.

As long as the pressure was high enough and his chakra control precise enough,

it could absolutely ignore most conventional defenses built on chakra strength or special properties.

Earth-Style Wall? Water Formation Wall? Even some chakra shields? Before a sufficiently high-pressure water cutter,

they would likely be pierced like paper. In terms of point-to-point piercing and destructive force alone, it would not be an exaggeration to rate it S-rank.

Finally, it required no hand seals, nor did he need to account for the coordination of chakra pathways. Once he became proficient, it would activate extremely quickly.

As for its weaknesses, the first was its limited range.

At present, even going all out, the range at which it could maintain sufficient cutting power was only about twenty meters.

Beyond that distance, due to air resistance

and issues with its own stability, it would weaken rapidly, its power dropping in a straight line.

The second issue was the high risk during use.

At best, the ninjutsu would fail. At worst, the high-pressure water sphere would explode in his palm or in front of him.

Its power was enough to injure its user in return, which doomed it to being unusable in intense close-quarters combat.

However, compared with its unparalleled concealment and bug-level penetrating power,

those flaws were not unacceptable.

"Next, the main focus will be compression and shaping speed."

Tianyi's gaze burned in the darkness.

"I have to reduce the ninjutsu's casting time to within two seconds!

Or even strive for instant activation."

This ninjutsu used a waterline to attack, and its original modern industrial counterpart was a water cutter.

Then "let's call it Water Release: Waterline Slash!"

With a slight shift of thought, the attribute panel of the Book of Ten Thousand Worlds unfolded.

Tianyi's gaze swiftly moved downward and settled on the [Mastered Skills] section.

Sure enough, beneath the existing entries, a new line of text had appeared:

Release: Waterline Slash (Beginner)

"As expected..." His heart stirred as he looked at the "Beginner" suffix.

A powerful urge rose within him to add that one attribute point to it.

In the end, he suppressed the impulse.

Attribute points were too precious, and there were currently too few ways to obtain them.

Unless he was at a life-or-death juncture and urgently needed this skill to undergo an instant qualitative leap to break the situation,

otherwise... he could not put it all into a single skill.

Closing the panel, his thoughts returned to his plans ahead.

His offensive capabilities had been strengthened. Next, he needed to fill out his interference and concealment abilities.

Only concealment and interference could fully bring out the power of his Byakugan.

"Hidden Mist Technique, Earth Dragon Hide Technique..." He silently recited the names of these two target ninjutsu.

The most likely route at present was undoubtedly...

"Orochimaru." That figure appeared in Tianyi's mind.

One of the future Three Ninja, he had not yet fully revealed the obsession and madness he would display later.

But his interest in "things of value" was obvious.

Tianyi's act of saving Nawaki had undoubtedly already caught his attention.

He had even received an initial investment. Using that as a bridge,

perhaps he could attempt a deeper exchange of value.

"I need to display enough value or potential to make investing in me a worthwhile deal."

Tianyi silently pondered what could truly move this research-oriented ninja.

Thinking of this, he could not help comparing them with the Hyuga Clan he had been born into.

"For hundreds of years, they've only known how to cling to that close-combat Gentle Fist system..."

Tianyi felt speechless. Gentle Fist truly was unparalleled in close combat.

Its approach of striking chakra points and sealing chakra was also sound, but its limitations were far too great!

Its attack range was a glaring weakness, and it lacked effective long-range and area-of-effect attack methods.

There were too few tactical options. Had the Hyuga Clan ever produced top-tier experts in its history?

Perhaps they had, but they had absolutely never reached the level of a Kage.

Not to mention existences like Hashirama Senju and Uchiha Madara, who could suppress an entire era alone.

They would even struggle to produce a ninja on the level of the Fourth Kazekage.

All their glory and the title of Leaf Village's foremost clan

before the Uchiha Clan was exterminated—how much of it had truly been supported by strength?

The more he thought about it, the more ironic it seemed.

Even to obtain a decent ninjutsu, he had to turn to someone else.

But first, he had to tell Commander Tian and the others this good news.