The first signs of progress

That afternoon, in Minato Namikaze's courtyard.

"Ri, practicing Sealing Jutsu leaves very little room for error. Even the slightest deviation can cause the formula to collapse. Are you ready?" Minato stood in the middle of the courtyard, his expression gentle but his tone exacting.

"I'm ready, Sensei." Asami Ri took a deep breath, his eyes fixed ahead.

"Good. Here it comes."

Minato rapidly formed hand seals, his chest rising slightly before he spat out a searing ball of flame the size of a human head.

The fireball hurtled forward with a scorching gust, its heat making the air ripple.

Asami Ri did not retreat from the approaching flames. Calmly, he flicked open the Scroll he had prepared in his right hand.

Half a meter of white paper unfurled in the air, densely covered in intricate, profound black cursed seals.

His fingers flew, blurring with speed.

Rat—Rooster—Tiger!

"Fire Sealing Method: Flame Seal!"

Asami Ri slammed his left hand onto the blank space at the center of the Scroll.

In an instant, azure Chakra rose from the cursed seals on the paper.

As though drawn by an invisible force, the flames were enveloped in Chakra, then pulled along its flow and absorbed entirely into the Scroll.

The character for "seal" appeared at the center of the Scroll, and everything fell still.

"Your movements were smooth, and you timed the Chakra infusion perfectly." Minato stepped forward, looking at the new "seal" character at the Scroll's center with genuine admiration. "Ri, you really have surprised me. You mastered the B-rank Fire Sealing Method: Flame Seal in just one month. That learning speed is exceedingly rare even in Konoha's history."

Minato raised a hand and patted Asami Ri's shoulder, looking gratified as he encouraged him. "With your keen intuition and precise control, you're practically a born genius at Sealing Jutsu."

"You're too kind, Sensei. It's thanks to your teaching." Asami Ri bowed slightly, his tone as modest as ever.

Yet deep within his field of vision, a blue light display was quietly fading away.

[Fire Sealing Method: Flame Seal node calibration complete.]

[Chakra flow frequency recorded in the database. Margin of error kept below 0.1%.]

Asami Ri knew perfectly well that behind this display of "genius" lay the three-dimensional cursed seal models Celestial Pivot had constructed for him.

Without Celestial Pivot precisely locating every Chakra node for him, without its accurate spatial analysis, memorizing those labyrinthine sealing formulas with the human brain alone would probably have taken years of painstaking work.

"Next," Asami Ri said as he put away the Scroll, "can I start learning more advanced Sealing Jutsu, Sensei?"

"Of course. You can try the Evil Sealing Method and the Four Symbols Seal next," Minato answered with a smile.

Night fell, and moonlight passed through the window lattice, spilling softly into Rin Nohara's study.

Under the orange glow of the desk lamp, Rin Nohara closed the thick volume of A Detailed Treatise on the Nervous System in her hands and looked at Asami Ri in disbelief.

"Ri, you really... memorized all of it?"

The material had originally been expected to take three months to absorb, yet Asami Ri had taken only one month to learn it well enough to answer without hesitation.

His answers to several tricky questions about drug proportions and the locations of obscure points on the human body had been almost as precise as the books themselves.

"I knew you had a good memory, but this is a stack of specialist books half a person tall." Rin propped her chin on her hand, sounding a little defeated, though an admiring smile colored her voice. "It took me an entire semester to memorize all this, and I stayed up through several nights, too."

"Just luck, Rin." Asami Ri closed his notes, wearing just the right amount of modesty on his face. "I suppose I've had a slightly better memory since I was little."

"You had the highest theory scores in the whole Ninja Academy, Ri. Looks like that 'first place' really was worth something." Rin Nohara nodded in understanding, remembering how this quiet companion of hers had always dominated the rankings back at school.

Asami Ri maintained his gentle smile, but inwardly, he was exhausted.

Indeed, he had only managed to swallow this pile of dry, abstruse medical textbooks in a single month because Celestial Pivot continually distilled the vast amounts of text into key points and built efficient retrieval pathways, coupled with the instinct for memorizing books that endless practice questions had drilled into him in his previous life.

But he also knew very well that Medical Ninjutsu was unlike ordinary Sealing Jutsu or Ninjutsu. It was a discipline that placed tremendous importance on "feel" and "perception of life."

Having the knowledge in his brain did not mean his fingers could control a scalpel with precision.

"Although you've already graduated in terms of theory, the hardest part of Medical Ninjutsu is the practical work." Rin Nohara stood and walked over to the workbench, her expression turning serious. "Next, we'll try stopping the bleeding in a live fish. Ri, this is the real hurdle."

"I understand."

Asami Ri walked over to the workbench, where a faint fishy smell hung in the air.

Rin Nohara deftly scooped a wriggling grass carp out of a basin and pinned it to the cutting board with practiced ease.

The scalpel at her fingertips flashed coldly as she cut a wound two fingers wide across the fish's belly.

Bright red blood immediately seeped out. The fish, which had been struggling violently, gradually grew sluggish and weak from the pain and blood loss.

"Ri, watch closely. The Mystical Palm Technique isn't simply about plugging a wound. It uses your Chakra to guide the target's life force into repairing itself."

Rin Nohara held both hands above the wound and took a deep breath. A soft, vibrant emerald glow suddenly lit up her palms.

At that moment, the world in Asami Ri's eyes changed.

He clearly perceived how the Chakra in Rin's hands precisely stimulated the fish's damaged blood vessels and muscle tissue, producing extraordinary contractions and clotting responses.

Under the powerful stimulation of yang release Chakra, the fish's damaged blood vessels rapidly closed. Its gruesome wound seemed to be smoothed over by an invisible hand, and the bleeding stopped abruptly.

In just a few seconds, the fish, which had been on the verge of death, lashed its tail and sprang off the cutting board with a smack, sending up a spray of water. It began thrashing wildly in the basin again, as though it had never been injured.

"So this is... the power of Yang Release."

Asami Ri murmured under his breath.

He reached out and lightly touched the spot where the fish had been wounded. His fingertips seemed to sense the lingering warmth of vitality.

"That's incredible, Rin." He raised his head, his admiration sincere.

Celestial Pivot, record the treatment process and analyze the effects of yang release Chakra.

[Command received.]

"Ri? What are you thinking about?" Rin Nohara asked with concern as she watched Asami Ri stare into space.

"I was thinking that perhaps... Medical Ninjutsu really can work miracles." Asami Ri withdrew his hand and gave her a sincere smile. "Let me try next, Rin."

At nine that evening, Asami Ri returned home.

He sat cross-legged in the center of his bedroom and began his Storm Release training for the day.

"The Chakra synthesis map is halfway complete. The rest will probably still take quite some time," he murmured to himself.

Closing his eyes and concentrating, he carefully sensed the water release and lightning release Chakra he had molded within his body.

Under his guidance, the two previously distinct streams of Chakra slowly approached each other along his Chakra pathways, tentatively attempting to blend.

But just as the first signs of fusion appeared, an unstable fluctuation suddenly arose.

Having failed to reach a point of balance, the two types of Chakra rapidly separated.

"Good thing it was only a small-scale attempt. There wasn't any backlash." He let out a soft breath.

"Although I already have a Storm Release Chakra map as a reference, which has helped me grasp the key to balancing them... perfectly harmonizing Water Release's suppleness with Lightning Release's violence is no easy task after all."