Finally Found a Way to Strengthen Mental Power

In a vast room crammed with ancient books, Uchiha Ensei's four shadow clones searched through the piles, occasionally tossing a finished book out the door.

Ensei himself appeared to be testing something.

Boom!

A loud explosion tore a hole through the palm of Ensei's hand.

Blood dripped from the wound, but Ensei seemed unable to feel a thing.

"Original, take your experiments somewhere else. You're making it hard for me to read," one of the shadow clones complained, scratching his head.

This was Ensei's eleventh failed attempt. He could safely conclude that it wouldn't work; he just hadn't wanted to give up.

Over the past two days, Ensei had searched the libraries of every nation on a massive scale and uncovered quite a few training methods recorded over a thousand years ago.

Ninja of that era had no chakra. They were largely servants and expendable fighters kept by the powerful.

Back then, the supernatural powers active in the Ninja World were chiefly gods and great monsters.

Humans, meanwhile, fell roughly into three groups: shrine maidens, onmyoji, and samurai.

Shrine maidens borrowed power from the gods. Though extremely rare now, their tradition had survived.

Onmyoji mainly used various techniques and commanded lesser monsters. Occasionally, one would even subdue a great monster.

Later, upheavals in the world made Natural Energy volatile. Onmyoji were the first to disappear, and ninja inherited their legacy.

Sealing Jutsu, for example, had grown out of onmyoji techniques. Ninjutsu probably had its roots there too.

Most secret techniques that suddenly appeared in ninja clans were recreations of things passed down from a thousand years ago, adapted to use chakra.

As for the samurai...

Because they relied purely on physical strength, their tradition had survived best. The Land of Iron still housed a great many samurai.

With chakra available,