The atmosphere in Granny Chiyo's house, which always had a faint Yakumi and old things, was a little different today.
A table in the outer room had been cleared out, on which lay the dark blue book " A Brief Introduction to Meridians and Illustrations of Common Acupoints," and next to it were several older, worn-out diagrams of the human body's Chiyo that Chiyo had hastily found.
However, the ink lines on them have blurred, making them look like an abstract painting.
Shira stood shirtless, wearing only training pants, in the center of the room, her back to Chiyo.
He tried to relax his shoulders, but his muscles were still slightly tense involuntarily, like a piece of hard wood waiting to be carved.
It wasn't cold; the houses in Sunagakure were always a bit stuffy. It was just tense.
"Why are you standing so stiff? Relax, I'm not going to tear you apart, old woman."
Granny Chiyo's voice came from behind, with a slow, leisurely tone typical of elderly people, and a hint of teasing, "You little rascal, you've finally met your match."
She held several silver needles of varying lengths in her hand, but they were unsharpened and purely for practice. Her thin but unusually steady fingers were making vague gestures above Shira's back.
"Yes, Grandma." Shira took a deep breath, trying to relax his muscles and focus his attention on his breathing. The rhythm of the Seven Heavens Breathing Method flowed quietly, helping him calm his mind and making him more sensitive to his internal body.
"First, locate the point. On the back, on the Du meridian, at the Dazhui point, one and a half inches to the side, is the Fengmen point."
Chiyo's fingers landed, her fingertips slightly cool, pressing precisely on a point below the back of Shira's neck.
"Here. Press down a bit, or use Chakra or subtle force to stimulate it, and it will make your shoulders and neck feel sore and numb, and your movements will be restricted. Remember this feeling, and use your breathing technique to feel below this spot. Is there something... hmm, something blocking it?"
Shira focused her mind and felt it. At first, it was just the sensation of her skin being pressed, but soon, as Chiyo's fingers applied a little more pressure, a strange, aching sensation, as if a thin thread was being gently plucked, spread from that point, and the movements of her shoulders and arms seemed to become slightly sluggish.
It's very faint, but it definitely exists.
"Hmm, I can feel it, it's a little sore, and my arm seems a bit heavy?"
"Remember this feeling. Next, the Lung Shu point."
Chiyo's finger moved down and pressed again.
"Uh..." This time the feeling was clearer. Shira even felt her breathing rhythm get off track. Although she quickly adjusted, the momentary feeling of "stuttering" was very real.
"Does it hurt?" Chiyo asked.
"It's a bit... boring," Shira answered honestly.
"That's right, it'll make you feel suffocated. This is a key acupoint related to the lung meridian. If you really hit it, it can make you gasp for breath, and even your Ninjutsu will be forced back down."
Chiyo snorted, moved her fingers away, and searched for the next acupoint.
And so the lesson began. Chiyo was indeed a bit "rusty," as she herself had said. After all, pressure Sunagakure techniques were a niche and difficult-to-master skill in Sunagakure, where puppets and Ninjutsu were prevalent, and she hadn't seriously studied them for almost ten years.
But her hands, which had been manipulating Puppet Strings for decades, possessed a stability and accuracy ingrained in their very bones.
Accurate acupoint identification relies on mastering the "force," sometimes applying slightly more pressure due to unfamiliarity, and sometimes applying less due to caution.
"Ouch! Grandma, be gentle, it hurts!"
When Chiyo found an acupoint related to a nerve in her leg and pressed a little too hard, Shira finally couldn't help but let out a distorted gasp from her throat.
The sensation was a mix of soreness, numbness, and swelling, like a tiny scorpion had burrowed into my leg bone and stung me hard. My entire left leg went limp, and I almost couldn't stand.
"What are you yelling about?" Chiyo slapped him on the back with a gruff "smack," but it didn't hurt much.
"You can't even handle this little bit of pain? When I was learning Puppet Technique, and the strings were cutting my fingers to the bone, did I utter a single sound? Bear with it! How will you remember it if you don't use force?"
That being said, when she pressed her fingers on the "Zusanli" acupoint, the force was noticeably less, more like guidance than punishment.
Shira grimaced as she felt the indescribable tingling and numbness spreading down her calves, but her mind was perfectly clear. She tried her best to match the acupoint locations, the feeling of pressing them, and the specific reactions her body produced—such as soreness, numbness, distension, pain, shortness of breath, and weakness in her limbs—and memorized them all.
This was far more vivid and intuitive than reading a book on hard positions; it was like using one's own body to "draw" another detailed battle map.
Fun fact: Shira is not an m
One teaches, the other learns; one occasionally uses too much force, the other gasps in pain but endures it.
Aside from Chiyo's explanations, the soft sounds of fingers pressing on flesh, and Shira's occasional gasps, the only other sound in the room was the constant whistling of the wind outside the window.
After a while, Chiyo had Shira turn around and began to identify the acupoints in front of her: Tanzhong, Zhongwan, Guanyuan...
When Chiyo pointed her finger at Shira's chest and explained how to disrupt the gathering of Chakra in the main meridians of the chest and abdomen, her expression became noticeably more serious.
"These acupoints are connected to the heart meridian and the most important pathways for Chakra flow," Chiyo's voice was lowered, her fingers not actually pressing hard, but merely lightly touching the points.
"Ordinary Taijutsu strikes here cause external or internal injuries. But if a skillful strike is used, or a special technique is employed, it can temporarily disrupt or even cut off the flow of Chakra. Especially..."
She paused, raised her eyes, and looked at Shira. In her slightly cloudy old eyes, a solemn light shone.
"Especially that green-skinned kid from Konoha, Might Guy, that kind of... what's it called again? Oh, ' Eight Gates Released Formation ' Taijutsu."
Shira perked up and focused all her attention.
"I've heard some of the principles behind that technique."
Chiyo withdrew her hand, walked to the table, and pointed to the lines on the diagram that represented Chakra pathways. "It's about violently breaking through the 'gates' that bind Chakra within the body to gain explosive power."
"With each opening of a gate, the flow path, speed, and pressure of Chakra change drastically. This process inevitably depends on the smooth flow of several major meridians and the 'opening' state of specific acupoints."
She looked at Shira and said, word by word, "If you can accurately press those acupoints during their activation process, or right after they activate and before the power flow is fully stable—such as the acupoints on the Du meridian on the back that connect to the ' Gate of Opening ' and ' Gate of Healing,' or the hubs on the limbs that control the burst output of Chakra —it might be like throwing a boulder into a torrent, interrupting their charge and causing that rampaging power to backfire against itself, breaking them down without a fight."
Shira's heart skipped a beat. This was exactly what he had vaguely hoped for when he bought the book, and it was also what Shira had done in the original story!
Chiyo's words pointed him in the right direction from a theoretical perspective.
"But, Shira, listen carefully." Chiyo's tone was more serious than ever before, even carrying a hint of warning.
"This move is dangerous. First, you need to accurately strike the pressure point when the opponent is in that explosive state, which is extremely difficult and requires incredible speed, sharp eyesight, and fearless courage. Second, the timing must be absolutely perfect; too early and it's useless, too late... you might already be shattered. Third, and most importantly—"
She looked directly into Shira's eyes. "If you were facing an opponent who had fully opened multiple gates, Chakra was erupting like a volcano..."
"Pressure point striking might not work. A raging torrent of Chakra will overwhelm any tiny obstruction; your finger striking it might feel like plunging into magma. At that point, what's needed isn't skill, but the strength to withstand that force head-on, or the resolve to escape."
"I understand, Mother-in-law."
Shira nodded emphatically, engraving these words into her heart. This was not a foolproof method of winning, but a tactical choice that required extremely high skill and courage under specific conditions. It was the wisdom of the weak, and also a risky move in the game between the strong.
It might be useful against Li, but he wouldn't even dare to think about dealing with Kai at full power.
"Good to understand." Chiyo's expression softened slightly, and she regained her calm demeanor. "So, remember my words: if you ever encounter an enemy like this in the future, the first thing to do is stay calm and don't be intimidated by their aura."
"Second, carefully observe the signs of him opening the 'gate' and the trajectory of his Chakra flow. Third, either don't attack at all, or when you do, be precise and decisive, catching him off guard. After you attack, regardless of whether it hits or not, immediately create distance; don't foolishly stand still and watch the effect."
"Yes, I understand," Shira replied solemnly.
For the rest of the day, Shira spent most of it at Chiyo's place.
He not only "recorded" acupoints with his body, but also began to try pressing some unimportant acupoints with his own fingers under Chiyo's guidance, such as those on his own arm, to feel the technique of exerting force—not with brute force, but with instantaneous, concentrated "strength," like piercing a water sac with a fine needle, striving to penetrate the skin and reach deep inside.
This requires him to have extremely high control over his strength; if he's not careful, he can easily pinch himself until he's bruised.
Chiyo would occasionally correct his technique, but most of the time she let him experience it for himself.
The old man sat to one side, drinking tea and looking at the worn-out meridian chart. Occasionally, he would drift into a daze, perhaps recalling a distant afternoon when he also needed to study acupoints, or perhaps to deal with some troublesome enemy.
As the sun set, Shira put on her clothes and took her leave.
The areas on my body that had been acupressured were still tingling with various aches, numbness, and swelling, while my mind felt somewhat swollen from being filled with new knowledge and bodily memories, but mostly I felt fulfilled.
"Take the book back and read it carefully, combining it with your feelings today. Theory without practice is useless; when you really need it, you rely on your memory of what you've learned here."
Chiyo tapped her temple, then pointed to Shira's fingertips and body, "And the reaction here. Go back, don't practice recklessly these next few days, let your body recover."
"Thank you, Grandma." Shira bowed and left Chiyo's courtyard, carrying the old book that had become incredibly precious and the "marks" all over her body.
As I walked home, dusk settled in.
The discomfort in her body was still there, but Shira felt a sense of peace in her heart.
Acupressure was like opening a small window to the mysteries of the human body for him, deepening his understanding of "combat".
As for Chiyo's final admonition about "calmness," he pondered it repeatedly.
Can we truly remain calm in the face of a violent aesthetic that burns with life, like the Eight Gates Released Formation?
He didn't know.
We don't know yet, at least not at the moment.
But he will remember his mother-in-law's words and try his best so that when that day comes, his fingers will not tremble with fear or excitement.