Super Recovery Potion

Karin happily went off to school. Yes, happily. And this was only her second week there.

Perhaps the scum of the Grass Ninja had been too inhumane. At Konoha Academy, Karin finally experienced something like the life of a normal child after so long.

Karin enrolling in school was no major event. Moreover, Aoba could clearly sense that Konoha's higher-ups had relaxed their scrutiny of him. So her enrollment went very smoothly.

However, because Karin's foundation was too weak, she had not joined Sasuke and Naruto's grade. She was one grade below them.

That was what Aoba wanted, actually. He did not want Karin getting too close to Konoha's twelve rookie elites. Those children either had clan legacies or were Jinchūriki. Too many eyes were on them.

Karin would inevitably take part in all sorts of his experiments in the future, and she would have many secrets of her own. Too much attention was not a good thing.

There were not so many children from prominent families in Karin's grade. There were more civilian ninja, so she was very happy at school.

And unlike Naruto, while Karin could not compare to a top student like Sakura, her grades were still excellent.

Perhaps because she knew her current life had not come easily, she studied extremely hard and had a solid grasp of all kinds of theoretical knowledge.

After checking Karin's homework, Aoba was very satisfied.

"All right, that's enough for today. Those little brats outside are your friends, right? They've been waiting for quite a while. Go play, and remember to come back for dinner tonight."

"Got it, got it. You're more nagging than Mom." Karin waved as she dashed out the front door to play with her friends.

Behind Aoba, Yumi watched Karin's retreating figure, her eyes becoming slightly moist.

"Aoba, thank you so much."

"Heh, no need to be so formal. Honestly, watching a child grow up healthy and happy is a kind of enjoyment in itself."

"The way you think really doesn't seem like that of a ninja."

"Heh, ninja... What exactly is a ninja? Who gets to define that? I've always believed that everyone has their own answer in their heart. As long as you hold fast to your true heart, then it's the right answer."

"You really are different from the other ninja I've met."

"Perhaps. All right, let's continue. Be my assistant."

Every time Aoba returned home from a mission, he buried himself in the laboratory.

His study of Sealing Jutsu had already continued for some time. His ability to learn was quite strong. Thanks to his powerful spiritual strength and the basic skills he had honed through fierce competition in his previous life, he had quickly gained a preliminary grasp of Sealing Jutsu.

Sealing Jutsu was used extremely widely in the world of Hokage.

The most common were scrolls used to seal supplies. However, those did not require the user to cast a Sealing Jutsu. In truth, the Sealing Jutsu formula had already been drawn on the scroll beforehand. The user only needed to inject chakra to activate or deactivate it. It was a foolproof operation.

Moreover, such scrolls were quite expensive to make and easily damaged. After being used several times, they would be discarded.

After understanding the basic logic of Sealing Jutsu, Aoba did not continue studying other advanced Sealing Jutsu. That was because he needed a formula that did not exist in this world.

He wanted to seal the life force that overflowed whenever Karin's blood was drawn, together with the blood itself, and turn it into a potion that could be used at any time.

This required a small yet extremely precise Sealing Jutsu formula. Aoba consulted many Sealing Jutsu for reference, then tried to develop one suitable for the task himself.

This was no simple job. It was more than twice as difficult as developing Nintaijutsu had been. Fortunately, Aoba had enough materials on hand.

Orochimaru truly lived up to the name Hokage Doraemon. He had an incredible amount of good stuff in his possession. Aside from Sealing Jutsu like the Reaper Death Seal, which only the Hokage knew, he probably had nearly all the Sealing Jutsu records kept by Konoha.

Aoba had already failed many times before this, but he had also accumulated plenty of experience. The formula was basically complete now. All that remained was the final test.

On the table before him was a complex formula. At its center sat a metal cylinder the size of a syringe, containing Karin's blood.

At that moment, the life force within the blood had already been successfully sealed. But the formula was still too complicated and too large. It did not meet Aoba's goal.

His requirement was that the formula had to be compressed onto a container the size of a syringe. Then, whether it was injected or drunk directly, it would be more convenient. It would also be easier to carry.

Aoba placed both hands around the cylinder and injected his chakra. A moment later, the formula on the table began to squirm slowly. Like a living thing, it gradually crawled onto the metal cylinder's surface.

Dense, intricate formulae appeared across the metal cylinder. As Aoba worked, he carefully sensed the changes in the blood inside it.

The process itself was not complicated. However, it required a considerable amount of chakra and extremely precise chakra control. Aoba soon felt sweat forming on his forehead. By then, the formula had only been compressed by about half.

At that moment, Yumi promptly took out a Soldier Pill and stuffed it into Aoba's mouth.

The chakra replenished by the Soldier Pill finally allowed Aoba to hold on and barely complete the first compression of the Sealing Jutsu formula.

Yumi used a towel to wipe the sweat from his forehead. Aoba immediately picked up the metal cylinder impatiently and examined it carefully with his senses.

"It looks like it worked. But we still need an actual test."

Aoba used a kunai to cut open his arm, then picked up the blood beside him and drank it.

A few seconds later, the wound on his arm began to heal. But what concerned Aoba was that it was not as fast as he had expected.

The wound took around thirty seconds to heal completely.

The effect was completely acceptable, but the speed did not meet his requirements. In Aoba's memory, Karin's recovery ability should have allowed even a piercing wound through the body to heal rapidly within ten seconds.

He thought for a moment, then looked at the remaining blood and considered a possibility.

"It's the blood. With this kind of sealing, the life force is forcibly locked inside the blood. After entering the body, it needs time to be released. That process slows the wound-healing effect."

Having found the cause, solving the problem naturally became easier.

By this point, the development of this medicine had basically succeeded. Even without solving the final problem, taking this thing out would still make it an extraordinarily valuable recovery item.

A potion that rapidly healed injuries with no side effects whatsoever—who would not want something that good?