"Alright, Karin's back. Let's head upstairs."
Karin was gradually adapting to life in Konoha. The timid and submissive demeanor she had developed in Kusagakure had completely disappeared, transforming her into an energetic and carefree girl.
Yumi, however, was a bit worried about this. She feared that Karin might have trouble finding a husband in the future. Aoba, on the other hand, didn't seem to mind at all.
"Don't worry, when she grows up and meets someone she likes, she'll naturally change. Parents don't need to stress too much. Most of the time, the more you interfere, the more you mess things up."
"Hopefully," Yumi said, still a bit anxious.
"Mom, is dinner ready? I'm starving!"
After a wild afternoon, Karin was clamoring for food. Yumi, though a bit helpless, still went to the kitchen with a doting smile to prepare dinner.
Meanwhile, Karin grabbed hold of Aoba.
"Aoba-nii, can you teach me a few more cool jutsus? I've already mastered the three basic techniques. I can climb trees and walk on water too."
"Really? Let me see."
In the original manga, most of Karin's screen time was focused on her fawning over Sasuke, with little attention given to her development as a ninja.
Later, she followed Orochimaru, and given Orochimaru's focus on immortality at that time, he likely didn't put much effort into teaching her. Yet, despite that, Karin still managed to rise to a management role in one of his bases.
This convinced him that Karin was a genius, even though her talents weren't fully displayed in the original story.
But what Karin demonstrated still surprised him.
After all, it had only been about half a year since she started attending school. Even though she had some prior training, the speed at which she mastered the academy's curriculum was impressive.
Sure enough, under his watchful eye, Karin fluently executed the Transformation, Substitution, and Clone Techniques, as well as walked on trees and water.
"Very impressive! You're ready to start the next phase of your training."
In fact, not only had she mastered these basic skills, but the amount of chakra inside Karin's body had already surpassed that of an average Konoha genin.
The strength of the Uzumaki clan's physique was truly astounding.
Based on all the signs, he even suspected that the Uzumaki clan was the closest to the "Sage Body." The Senju clan, except for Hashirama, seemed rather average in terms of physical abilities.
Aoba had already planned out the next phase of Karin's training. He had previously tested her chakra nature, and it was earth and water, neither of which he specialized in. However, he didn't plan to develop Karin solely as a conventional ninja.
After all, the original story showed that Karin had awakened some of the Uzumaki clan's most distinctive abilities, including the Kagura Mind's Eye, which had already manifested.
In addition, later in the story, Karin also awakened the Adamantine Sealing Chains, a powerful sealing technique that required significant talent to use.
This indicated that Karin's true development path should focus on sealing techniques. In the Naruto world, high-level sealing techniques could be just as powerful as pure ninjutsu in combat.
In fact, sealing techniques had the potential to surpass regular ninjutsu. The Uzumaki clan's seals might even have connections to the Shinigami.
From Orochimaru, he had acquired a large amount of information on sealing techniques during their previous exchange, in preparation for future confrontations with tailed beasts.
Conventional ninjutsu would be largely ineffective against tailed beasts' overwhelming raw power. But techniques like the Uzumaki clan's Adamantine Sealing Chains and the Eight Trigrams Sealing Style were specifically designed to counter tailed beasts.
By that time, Karin would become his ace in the hole.
Soon, Karin began to regret her request. Compared to the physical exercises like tree climbing and water walking, training in sealing techniques required a lot of specialized knowledge.
In other words, Karin needed to start with a large amount of theory.
Poor Karin! At school, her least favorite subjects were the theoretical classes. She had hoped to learn some cool skills from him and then show off to her friends, but now she found herself stuck with even more difficult and obscure theory, even worse than the school's lectures on the "Will of Fire."
But there was no escape—she had asked for it, and he had agreed. Now, it was too late to back out. Her only form of resistance was to play outside longer after school, because once she returned home, it would be endless days of studying.
As Karin's studies progressed, he continued to seize every moment to improve himself.
After mastering Sage Mode, his need for conventional ninjutsu had grown. In Sage Mode, even simple techniques could become extraordinarily powerful.
Normally, commoners in Konoha had few ways to obtain ninjutsu. They could either save up mission points and exchange them with the village, or receive ninjutsu as rewards for completing high-level missions. Another option was to claim jutsu as spoils of war.
But he didn't need these methods—he had Kakashi.
As one of Konoha's famous elite jonin, Kakashi possessed a vast array of jutsu, likely second only to the Third Hokage, and possibly even surpassing him in quantity.
Previously, he had relied mostly on taijutsu and kenjutsu to conserve chakra. But with Sage Mode amplifying the power of ninjutsu, he sought out Kakashi to learn a variety of techniques to broaden his combat arsenal.
Of course, he didn't just take advantage of Kakashi's knowledge. He offered Kakashi two doses of life-saving potions in return. These potions, if used correctly in combat, were equivalent to a second life, with no side effects. Their value was more than enough to compensate for some basic jutsu.
At the same time, he had begun attempting to learn one of the most famous jutsu in the Naruto world—the Rasengan.
The concept behind the Rasengan was inspired by the tailed beast bomb: extreme chakra compression followed by release.
However, humans couldn't truly replicate this. No matter how much chakra they had, they could never achieve the same level of compression as a tailed beast. Even if they did, they couldn't sustain it.
The tailed beast bomb relied on sheer chakra volume and the ability to compress it to an extreme level. Without enough compression, the chakra sphere wouldn't cause damage because chakra dissipates rapidly once it leaves the body.
This is why ninjutsu exists—to transform chakra into a tangible form or energy state, enabling it to be released at a distance.
Minato realized this and changed his approach. Instead of purely compressing chakra, he attempted to make it rotate in his hand, stabilizing it while creating a compressed effect.
This became the basic principle of the Rasengan. Now knowing the theory, Aoba naturally couldn't resist learning the jutsu.
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