A ninja's peak period is actually very short. It often lasts only a few years, and after thirty, their strength declines rapidly.
This is because refining chakra is essentially a means of extracting power by squeezing the body.
If refined moderately, it wouldn't be too problematic.
Unfortunately, the nature of a ninja's profession determines that they encounter various dangers, often requiring them to over-extract chakra to cope, even at the expense of their bodies.
After all, this is more reasonable than losing one's life outright.
However, as a result, as soon as a ninja gets slightly older, they suffer hidden injuries all over their body, and their strength declines rapidly.
Ultimately, they face either a quiet retirement or death due to diminished strength.
At the same time, early ageing among ninjas forces many young ones to go to the battlefield even earlier.
Lacking experience, they have no choice but to squeeze their bodies to survive...
Such a vicious cycle continues, leading to even four or five-year-old children picking up weapons to fight, with few surviving to adulthood.
Mito's husband, Hashirama Senju, aspired to end the chaos and establish the Hidden Leaf Village to prevent children from going to war at a young age.
Ironically, he died young due to the hidden injuries left from the Battle of the Valley of the End.
The false peace he maintained with his strength collapsed, leading to even more intense wars compared to the Warring States period.
The graduation age from the ninja academy kept dropping.
To the extent that no one found it strange for Kakashi to graduate at five.
In fact, they felt proud, glad that the Leaf Village produced another genius.
This, perhaps, is the greatest irony of the Will of Fire.
As the wife of the First Hokage, Mito noticed the resurgence of this vicious cycle early on, but there was little she could do.
After all, she couldn't suppress the entire ninja world alone like Hashirama.
What she could do, at most, was to push for the establishment of a medical department so injured ninjas could receive more comprehensive treatment.
It's worth mentioning that Tsunade followed in her grandmother's footsteps to become a medical ninja and realise her grandfather's dream.
Mito's only regret was that coming from the Uzumaki clan, she had mastered a secret technique to maintain physical vitality and heal hidden injuries through chakras.
She could maintain her youthful appearance thanks to this secret technique.
The Uzumaki clan developed it after years of studying their constitution.
However, it requires a highly high talent for chakra control and extensive knowledge of sealing and medical ninjutsu, which few in the Leaf Village could learn.
Plus, there were concerns about preventing it from leaking, making it even less likely to be taught to many.
So Mito had given up on the idea, leaving the Yin Seal and the secret technique to Tsunade, hoping she could complete it someday and solve the problem.
However, the appearance of Natsuhiko's somewhat ridiculous bodysuit gave her new hope.
The bodysuit's ability to copy movements could bypass the learning difficulty.
And Natsuhiko's idea of teaching training methods through body memory also suited her needs.
Although the secret technique worked best with the Yin Seal, even a reduced version, using chakra to heal hidden injuries, could still be valuable.
This meant she could develop a health exercise method that guided chakra to heal hidden injuries and teach it through the bodysuit!
During development, she also adopted Natsuhiko's idea of disguising the meridian exercise as radio callisthenics, camouflaging her health exercise as square dance to avoid enemy village scrutiny.
That's why Mito was seen dancing in a bodysuit in the courtyard earlier.
In fact, she was conducting serious research and development work.
Unfortunately, not everyone could understand her good intentions.
For instance, Kushina, who just entered, felt a toothache seeing her grandmother dancing in a bodysuit.
She regretted giving the bodysuit to her grandmother, leading to such an eyesore daily.
Bring back the dignified, graceful Mito in a cheongsam!
Moreover, Kushina had heard about her grandmother's square dance plan.
Knowing she planned to promote her health exercise through the bodysuit.
Plus, Natsuhiko's radio callisthenics promotion was about to start next semester...
Thinking of future ninja school students doing radio callisthenics in bodysuits and middle-aged ninjas square dancing in bodysuits, Kushina felt helpless.
The clothing options for ninjas were running out!
Kushina also heard that Natsuhiko's tight battle suit would be popularised later.
Considering the boys' horrible fashion sense, it was foreseeable that many would wear such strange outfits.
Does this mean kids, young adults, and middle-aged ninjas would all be in bodysuits?
Is Natsuhiko trying to create a world dominated by bodysuits?
With no place to vent her complaints, Kushina quickly opened the chat tool and typed a line.
[Red Comet: Natsuhiko, you bodysuit fool!]
Red Comet was the nickname she gave herself earlier.
Seeing a big question mark slowly appear on the scroll, imagining Natsuhiko's bewildered expression, Kushina couldn't help but laugh.
"What's making our little Kushina so happy?"
Just then, Mito, who had just finished dancing, walked over.
Since Kushina used the illusion mode, Mito saw her standing at the door, laughing at the air.
It looked creepy.
Seeing her grandmother approaching, Kushina quickly closed the virtual scroll and smiled awkwardly:
"Nothing, just thinking about what to eat tonight."
Mito was slightly stunned, then covered her mouth and smiled:
"I wanted to surprise you, but seeing you so happy, you must know about it."
"What is it?" Kushina asked in confusion.
"Our cook finally learned how to prepare rabbit dishes. Didn't you say you wanted to try it?"
"..."
Kushina's face froze because she really had said that.
But it was almost a hundred chapters ago... no, nearly a semester ago.
Her resentment towards chickens and rabbits from the chicken-and-rabbit problem had long dissipated, and she didn't want to eat rabbits anymore.
Chicken: "…"
Seeing kushina's expression, the observant Mito guessed her thoughts and helplessly touched her cheek:
"That's a problem because dinner is almost ready, and Chef Nakiri is very enthusiastic today."
Feeling embarrassed for causing so much trouble with an offhand comment, Kushina awkwardly said:
"If it's already cooked, then I might as well try it…"
Author's Note:
Mito's secret technique is actually an unfinished version of the Strength of a Hundred Technique, which only maintains youth.
Tsunade later completed it, developing the Creation Rebirth.
Incidentally, in Boruto, the Strength of a Hundred Technique is mentioned as an ancient technique from the Sage of Six Paths era, seemingly to connect it with the Kama. This book will also adopt this setting to raise the technique's upper limit.
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