Fire Style Nature Transformation

Having cultivated the Spirit Activation Technique to the Second Stage, one could maintain a relatively focused state no matter what they did, applying it to studying, training, and even combat.

As for the third stage, it required one's Mental Energy to become powerful enough to overflow, allowing them to directly sense everything happening around them with extremely high precision. It felt almost like the Spiritual Sense found in Xianxia novels.

Dan Katō believed that once someone reached this point, learning a few Sensory Ninjutsu techniques would basically make them a top-tier Sensor Ninja.

Unfortunately, none of the people he had taught this ninjutsu to had reached that stage. Only Jiraiya had barely touched upon that realm.

The fourth stage was when one's overflowing Mental Power became strong enough to affect reality itself. Dan Katō was at that level.

Only upon reaching that realm could one be considered capable of safely learning the complete Spirit Transformation Technique, at least according to Dan Katō.

Of course, all of that was still far too distant for Meikyō.

He was still at the first stage, though his concentration was steadily improving. He simply did not know how far he still was from the Second Stage.

At the very least, after meditating, he could maintain a fairly focused state while training.

Perhaps it was because the soul within this body was equivalent to two souls, causing his Mental Power to stack and amplify. That was why his progress in cultivating the Spirit Activation Technique was so fast.

That was also why Dan Katō had said that someone like him, with innately powerful Mental Power, was best suited to inherit his ninjutsu.

Aburame Nami had only barely reached the first stage, while Inuzuka Ryo had made no progress at all—if he sat still for ten minutes, he would become completely unable to sit any longer.

Just like now. This time, he had only lasted nine minutes before he could no longer stay seated. He simply dragged Tetsu Maru farther away to practice the Inuzuka Clan's Nintaijutsu.

As for Meikyō, he had already finished his morning training and was sitting quietly beneath a tree, carefully reading and comparing the three different scrolls in his hands.

They contained the Fire Style training experiences given to Meikyō by Uchiha Fugaku, Uchiha Yu, and Dan Katō respectively.

"Blast and High Temperature nature transformations... Or rather, High Temperature is the most common Fire Style nature transformation. Over many years of Fire Style training, the Uchiha Clan further evolved the High Temperature nature transformation into the Blast nature transformation. That makes sense. Only the Sharingan can grasp such an unstable nature transformation."

The more Meikyō read, the more amazed he became.

The Fire Style nature transformation mastered by Dan Katō was the mainstream among Konoha's Fire Style Jonin, and his material covered it in exceptional detail. Yet the nature transformations mastered by the two Uchiha Jonin differed somewhat from that mainstream.

They were more powerful, but also harder to control. Yet they were more suitable for the Uchiha, and the High Temperature nature transformation itself was included within the Blast nature transformation.

"Just like Earth Style. The mainstream throughout the Ninja World is to enhance Earth Style's Heavy and Solid properties, but Iwagakure possesses the Light-Weight Rock Technique, which can Reduce Material Density and allow people to fly. That is probably another Earth Style nature transformation secretly passed down by Iwagakure. Similar examples might include Jiraiya's Water to Oil, Kumogakure's Black Lightning Secret Technique, and so on."

Meikyō's thoughts expanded further and further as he tirelessly read through the scrolls, quickly beginning to try them out himself.

"Fire Style: Great Fireball Style!"

An orange-red fireball immediately slammed into the distant ground, drawing the attention of Inuzuka Ryo, who was training in taijutsu nearby. As for Aburame Nami, she worked hard to keep herself from being affected by what was happening outside.

Whether one could find calm amid chaos was also an important key during the early stages of cultivating the Spirit Activation Technique.

"Orange-red flames... The core is a little more yellow. As the temperature rises, the flame's color keeps changing—from red to orange, from orange to yellow, then eventually white and blue. At the very least, the flames at the center need to turn white during the use of ninjutsu before one can be considered to have mastered the Fire Style Chakra nature transformation. To achieve the Blast nature transformation, the core of the flames needs to turn blue."

Meikyō crouched on the ground, stroking his chin as he thought carefully.

The flames produced by a ninja through Fire Style ninjutsu were never a single color.

If it was a Jonin who had mastered the Fire Style Chakra nature transformation, the core of their Fire Style would definitely be different. Meanwhile, most—if not the overwhelming majority—of the outer flames would still be red, orange, and yellow.

For the rest of the day, Meikyō immersed himself in Fire Style training.

It was not until that evening that he dragged his exhausted body back to rest.

But after getting up the next day and receiving the news handed over by Inuzuka Gaku, he knew that the good days were over.

After Konoha formed an alliance with Amegakure, Iwagakure and Suna naturally suffered defeat after defeat against the combined forces of Hanzo, the Sannin, and Dan Katō.

At this time, Konoha decided to launch a large-scale campaign against Suna, thoroughly cementing Konoha's advantage on the Land of Rain Battlefield and compressing Suna's territory as much as possible. Ideally, they would drive Suna out of the Land of Rain in one stroke. With only Iwa remaining afterward, things would be much easier to handle.

To launch such a large-scale campaign, naturally, the more ninja they could use, the better.

Although Meikyō and the others had previously been nothing more than three unknown nobodies, their three-man squad had repeatedly killed Chunin head-on in their last battle. They had also fought an equal number of Chunin and directly killed one of them. Naturally, they were considered a useful force and transferred to the front lines.

They only had one day to rest and replenish themselves. Tomorrow, they would join some of the camp's members to form two companies and head to the frontline camp.

"In a war of this scale, we'll probably be nothing more than an inconspicuous ripple."

Aburame Nami said this as she watched the insects fluttering before her, then looked at a ripple splashing up in the distant river.

"There's nothing we can do about it. As Konoha ninja, going to war for the village is only natural. Right now, we should think about how to survive once we get to the battlefield. Hopefully Teacher Kato and Lady Tsunade will look out for us a little over there, so we won't be sent straight against the enemy's core forces."

Meikyō sighed.

To be honest, their squad was already quite strong.

After returning from the front lines three months ago and going through the tempering of life and death, all three members of Kato Squad had improved greatly. After another three months of further consolidation and growth, each of them had surpassed the Chunin standard and could be considered quite capable even among Chunin.