A trickle of water emerged from Shinsei's palm, forming a lifelike little deer.
More water gathered into a tiger, which pounced on the deer and tore open its neck, swallowing it bite by bite.
Sakura and Sasuke stared wide-eyed, afraid of missing any detail. Such chakra control was unheard of.
"You can also work chakra control into everyday life, like washing clothes."
As he spoke, Shinsei set the water spinning. It flowed against his skin, washing his clothes back and forth.
The used water was flung aside, yet there was no trace of dampness on Shinsei.
Still not satisfied, Shinsei used another mass of fresh water to wash his hair.
By now, Sakura and Sasuke were numb. They watched Shinsei expressionlessly, as though he were about to take a bath right in front of them.
Shinsei felt a little awkward. He had gotten a little carried away just now.
He gave a dry cough and said seriously, "In short, chakra control is the key to ninjutsu!"
Shinjō created two shadow clones, one to teach Sakura and the other to teach Sasuke Uchiha, while his original body continued researching sensory ninjutsu.
"Sakura, I remember you have water release chakra, right?"
Sakura nodded and replied, "Yes, water release chakra, and earth-earth release chakra."
Earth release chakra? This was the first Shinjō had heard of it.
Water and earth chakra. Shinsei could not help giving Sakura a somewhat strange look. There was nothing unusual about either water release chakra or earth release chakra, but combining the two could produce a qualitatively different kekkei genkai.
That was Wood Release!
Wood Release held a truly special significance for Konoha! It was also the goal Orochimaru and Danzo had pursued so desperately!
As far as Shinjō knew, essentially all members of the Uchiha Clan had fire release chakra, while their counterparts in the Senju Clan essentially all had water and earth release chakra.
They generally only had more attributes, not fewer. Shinsei himself had water, earth, and lightning.
Could Sakura be a descendant of the Senju Clan? Shinsei was not quite sure. Still, Tsunade had taken Sakura as her apprentice in the original story. If he was also a descendant of the Senju Clan, that would make sense.
Sakura's achievements in the original story were not bad. Once she truly matured, her chakra reserves were not low, either. Later, in the battle against Sasori, Sunagakure's Chiyo had even used her body to defeat him, which at least showed that her physical strength was sufficient.
In Shinjō's view, Sakura had never lacked talent; she had simply lacked the desire to grow stronger before. If you did not intend to become stronger yourself, even the finest talent would ultimately go to waste.
Shinsei did not intend to concern himself with any of this. Whether she was a Senju or not had little to do with him. They were classmates, and he was merely helping as much as he could.
Shinsei had not studied Earth Release much and only knew a few basic ninjutsu. He planned to teach Sakura Subterranean Voyage to improve her chances of survival. Most of his efforts, however, would go toward systematically guiding Sakura through water release ninjutsu.
"Watch my hand seals!" Shinsei demonstrated as he explained, teaching Sakura his understanding of water release ninjutsu bit by bit.
On the other side, Shinsei was also explaining Lightning Release: Lightning Sword to Sasuke. The key was to use Lightning Release to increase the activation of the body's cells, thereby increasing physical speed.
It had to be said that the tremendous speed granted by lightning release ninjutsu and the dynamic vision provided by the Sharingan really were a perfect match.
The Lightning Release: Lightning Sword Shinsei had developed did not lack offensive power. Its destructive power within a small area would only be greater than Chidori's, but its difficulty of control was also greatly increased.
Sasuke tried several times, but the blue chakra in his hand burst apart each time.
No! Shinsei shook his head. This ninjutsu was still too difficult for Sasuke right now.
He could only train Sasuke's chakra control first.
I'm practically becoming Team 7's after-school tutor!
Sasuke is one thing. We're on good terms, and I owe the Uchiha a favor.
But Sakura, you like Sasuke, while there hasn't been a peep from anyone who likes me.
Meanwhile, Shinsei's original body was leaping through the trees.
He wanted to test a new ninjutsu, and this sensory ninjutsu made far too much of a commotion.
He did not want to expose information about his ninjutsu to others before he had even used it.
Shinjō stopped beside a small river at the edge of the woods. This was already far from Konoha's residential areas. If he climbed to the treetops, he could even see a large orange toad hopping around in the distance.
Naruto's new cheat had arrived, but Shinsei was not envious. Large summoning beasts like that were only sidelined extras by the later stages of the Fourth Shinobi World War. By comparison, he preferred Katsuyu of Shikkotsu Forest, who could not only assist with communications but also heal people.
Shinjō had always regarded the toads of Mount Myōboku with scrutiny.
When it came to practicing senjutsu, the fact that those who failed turned into stone toads was already hard for Shinsei to accept. Natural energy was not their private property, so why should failure turn someone into a stone toad? There could only be something strange in the toad oil used to help people sense natural energy.
The Great Toad Sage had easily lived for over a thousand years, and even now, no one knew when he would die of old age. Yet the more powerful Sage of Six Paths had been unable to preserve his physical body. This could only prove one thing: Mount Myōboku's system of senjutsu cultivation was unsuitable for humans.
Compared with animals, humans far surpassed them in both intelligence and lifespan. So why did humanity not have its own system of senjutsu cultivation?
If it did, where had those people gone? Shinsei knew there was a Fire Temple in the Land of Fire whose monks practiced something called the Gift of the Hermit Group, but compared with senjutsu, its power was far too weak.
The conclusion of his deliberations was that Shinsei did not want to practice a senjutsu cultivation system created by animals. What he wanted to establish was a proper senjutsu cultivation system for humanity.
Whether toads, snakes, or slugs, all could live long lives after practicing senjutsu. Why could humans not do the same?
For now, however, Shinjō could only think about those questions. Limited by his young body, his seated cultivation progressed slowly, and he was still laboriously opening the large and small meridians throughout his body. Only once all those meridians were unobstructed, connecting the inner and outer worlds to form a Macrocosmic Orbit, would Shinsei formally begin cultivating senjutsu.
It was still far too early!
Shinsei extended both hands, a mass of water in his left and a mass of lightning in his right, then brought his palms together.
Waves of white mist spread from Shinsei's hands. The mist grew thicker and thicker, gradually enveloping the entire grove.
He carefully sensed everything within the grove. Whether it was a small animal leaping or a tree swaying, everything was as clear as the lines on his palm.
Countless pieces of information suddenly flooded his mind, making his head feel painfully swollen. He hurriedly severed the connection.
He had not noticed it in the basement, but now that the ninjutsu's range had expanded, he immediately felt unable to adjust.
Such an enormous volume of processing really was not something an ordinary person could endure. Fortunately, Qingcheng's mental strength was powerful; otherwise, he would already have been dizzy.
Gathering his thoughts again, he intended to focus only on the important things-to assign priorities to the information. It was like human eyes: no matter how much or how far they saw, they did not make the mind feel swollen, because they only focused on what a person wanted to see and ignored the rest.
Among the seated cultivation practices of his previous life, there was a method in which the eyes seemed closed but were not, while sounds entered the ears unheard. This was where the term Guanyin came from: observing all the sounds of the world rather than listening to them.
He connected to the mist formed by the ninjutsu again. This time, it felt much better. He could clearly perceive the trajectories of everything moving within the area covered by the mist.
Details he had not sensed before also appeared in his mind.
For instance, a man was currently peeking furtively from behind a large tree.