Why did Natsuro find it so easy? Because learning medical ninjutsu requires precise chakra control and a delicate mindset, both of which he had in abundance. In fact, he was particularly outstanding in precise chakra control.
Moreover, before learning medical ninjutsu, he had already studied a lot about the human body for his Lightning Release massage technique. He also gained considerable knowledge about medical ninjutsu.
Thus, when it came time to learn medical ninjutsu, he was able to use it after just a few attempts, including the A-rank medical technique, Mystical Palm.
Medical ninjutsu, at its core, is a type of jutsu where the practitioner uses chakra to stimulate cells, helping the patient heal wounds. Through different transformations, it can also detoxify or be used for offensive purposes.
In reality, it consumes more than just the user's chakra; it also relies on the patient's own recovery ability. In other words, if someone reaches the point of complete physical exhaustion, with their cells entirely devoid of vitality, medical ninjutsu would likely be ineffective.
For Natsuro, none of this was particularly difficult. However, when using Mystical Palm to heal himself, he couldn't help but feel like he was just "robbing Peter to pay Paul."
Note: "Robbing Peter to pay Paul" meaning to take money from one person or thing to pay someone or something else, resulting in creating another debt or same outcome.
Chakra is a combination of physical and spiritual energy, with physical energy coming from cells. So in the end, it's using energy extracted from cells to stimulate the cells themselves? And then achieve recovery?
Why not skip this part entirely and directly control the physical energy to replenish the wound? Since ninja can could train to manually control the extraction of physical energy and combine it with spiritual energy, it should theoretically be possible to transfer pure physical energy to the wound and save on spiritual energy being wasted.
This would bypass the step of converting it into chakra, greatly improving control over one's own physical condition.
Unfortunately, despite repeated attempts, Natsuro hadn't achieved any results. It seemed impossible to control physical energy alone.
He originally thought that if he succeeded, he could then try transferring pure physical energy to someone else's wound to see the effect—whether the body would reject it, or if it would lead to an alternative form of healing.
But since he hadn't even passed the first hurdle, he abandoned that idea for now. However, during his experiments, he made another discovery: he could directly use chakra to heal from within, without needing to outwardly apply Mystical Palm.
This could be considered a decent breakthrough, though Natsuro still hadn't given up on his original idea. He felt that both physical and spiritual energy might have other applications.
As for other uses of medical ninjutsu, such as the chakra scalpel, he was already highly proficient. He had long since integrated this technique with Wind Release cutting.
So, it wasn't easy to block his sword. More importantly, his chakra scalpel could not only cut through the surface of the body but also directly slice the internal organs. He also infused it with chakra-based cutting.
As a result, Natsuro could use his sword to cut through many weaker ninjutsu. In fact, if his sword reached the opponent before they could cast their jutsu, he could forcibly disrupt their chakra flow to prevent the jutsu from being released.
"Physical energy…" Natsuro muttered, recalling the concepts of Yin and Yang Release, though he couldn't quite remember the specifics.
He only knew that they existed, but as for how they were formed, he was unclear—probably something to do with physical and spiritual energy.
After roughly planning his path forward, he returned to his training. For now, he aimed to quickly master the Wind Release: Rasenshuriken, using what he could borrow from the original.
Natsuro extended his hand, and a Rasengan began to form in his palm. This was a Rasengan he created using the basic nature transformation of Wind Release, and now his task was to maximize the cutting properties of the wind element.
He needed every strand of chakra forming the Rasengan to act like a needle, displaying cutting power.
Soon, the training ground was filled with a noisy and piercing sound. The Rasengan in his hand was surrounded by increasingly dense chakra, but shortly afterward…
Natsuro paused as the Rasengan in his hand dissipated. He wasn't surprised by this outcome.
Even though his chakra control was exceptionally strong, and his mastery of nature transformation was advanced, it was almost impossible to succeed on the first try.
Natsuro pulled out a soldier pill and swallowed it. He realized that creating the Rasenshuriken would likely consume quite a few soldier pills, but fortunately, money wasn't an issue for him now, and Fox from his old team had plenty of pills.
"Combining Rasengan with Wind Release is indeed a bit challenging. No wonder the Fourth Hokage couldn't complete it in a short time," Natsuro thought, feeling the soldier pill digesting and his chakra recovering as he prepared to continue.
Then, a thought struck him—he was adding Wind Release, but what about Lightning Release? He had previously abandoned that attribute, but with his current level of control, he should be able to forcefully create a Lightning Release Rasengan, right?
With this idea in mind, Natsuro didn't hesitate. Lightning began to flicker in his palm, and beads of sweat formed on his forehead. After a long effort, he gave up.
It still didn't work. Controlling lightning's shape in midair was too difficult—the power of lightning was simply too wild. Rather than that, it might be easier to add Lightning Release to form a Chidori.
But what if he could combine them? Instead of forming a Rasengan purely with Lightning Release, what if he only used Lightning Release's acceleration properties and then threw it?
This sparked an idea in Natsuro's mind—his lightning-enhanced sword technique, where the enemy believed his slash had vanished.
Perhaps, it could work?
Once again, he formed a Rasengan in his hand, this time a regular one. Then, he injected his Lightning Release chakra. This time, he succeeded.
Natsuro looked at the lightning flickering in the center of the Rasengan. One of the key aspects of Rasengan was maintaining its power. To do so after throwing it, the speed needed to be incredibly high…
In the next moment, the lightning in the Rasengan began to jump wildly. Sensing a critical point, he threw the Rasengan.
In an instant, the Rasengan seemed to disappear. When it reappeared, it was already colliding with a wooden post wrapped in iron plating.
Boom!
A violent explosion resounded, and Natsuro walked over to the thoroughly destroyed post to inspect it. Residual lightning still danced across the remaining fragments of the wood.
However, in terms of pure power, it was still weaker than a regular Rasengan. Even with such speed, some of the power dissipated, but overall, it was still more than adequate.
Moreover, it seemed to add a paralysis effect.
But for Natsuro, it felt a bit underwhelming. If he already had his electromagnetic field set up, he might as well throw an electromagnetically accelerated kunai. While it might not be as powerful, it would have better piercing ability and would be more chakra-efficient.
However, the downside to setting up the electromagnetic field was that it made a lot of noise. So perhaps the Lightning Release Rasengan would be more convenient for stealth attacks? It did consume less chakra than a Chidori kunai, so it wasn't too bad.
Natsuro had figured out a use for the Lightning Release Rasengan, but what intrigued him more was whether he could add lightning attributes to the Vacuum Wave.
What if the extreme cutting power was combined with speed that was fast enough to disappear from sight?
He thought about it and began forming hand seals again, this time very slowly. He aimed to infuse Lightning Release chakra into the technique while forming the seals…
However, he failed right from the start, causing him to frown. The difficulty was on a whole different level.
Rasengan, after all, was an attribute-less jutsu with great versatility. It was a technique created by the Fourth Hokage, and it served as a foundation with endless potential.
Even as a base, its power could reach A-rank ninjutsu, which was why the Fourth Hokage was so widely regarded as a genius. Creating such a versatile A-rank jutsu in just three years was truly impressive.
On the other hand, Vacuum Wave had already pushed the Wind Release nature transformation to its limit, leaving little room for versatility. Adding Lightning Release chakra to Vacuum Wave was far more difficult than doing so with Rasengan.
Still, after some thought, Natsuro decided to continue experimenting. This time, he chose to start by integrating the Wind Cutter technique before moving on to Vacuum Wave. If he could create the technique he envisioned, he could potentially keep combining elements in the future.
Cutting power combined with extreme speed... He thought the combination was promising and didn't want to give up easily.
But when he checked the time, he sighed. Things were tight—there wasn't much time to relax.
So, back to training. Although he didn't have Naruto's vast chakra reserves, he had plenty of soldier pills to keep him going.
Training was always tedious, and Natsuro found himself once again caught in the cycle of failure and repeated attempts.
Time flowed by like water, and before long, the day of his meeting with Sasuke arrived.
Natsuro glanced at the time and headed in the familiar direction.
"You finally showed up, Natsuro!"
As soon as he stepped onto familiar ground, a voice filled with intense fighting spirit rang in his ears.
"Mm, long time no see, Sasuke," Natsuro replied as he spotted Sasuke. He wasn't sure when Sasuke had arrived.
"Don't rush. Aren't you going to tell me about how you've been lately? Like your grades, for example? I remember we talked about these before," Natsuro suddenly smiled as he spoke.
Sasuke immediately fell silent, then eventually turned his head away and muttered, "Why are you asking about that..."
"Oh, judging by your expression, it looks like you didn't manage to take my place after I graduated, huh?" Natsuro actually already knew the answer but just wanted to see Sasuke's reaction.
"After you left, I've been the top of the class, no one could surpass me! Always number one!" Sasuke couldn't hold back and responded directly.
"Oh? And how about your theoretical knowledge? And your physical stamina?" Natsuro asked knowingly, as if he hadn't already asked Ino about it.
Sasuke couldn't find any words to respond because he really hadn't achieved his goals in those areas...
But then Sasuke thought of Naruto's stamina and muttered to himself, Can a normal person even compare with a freak like that?
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