Naruto: The Ninja World's Life Buyer

Chapter 16 The Logic of Hand Seals

"Let's put hand seals aside for now." Genzo hiccuped. "Yesterday I asked you to stick a leaf to your forehead, how many seconds did you last?"

"Three seconds."

"Then keep practicing." Genzo tapped the ground with his iron crutch. "If you can't absorb it, don't even think about practicing ninjutsu. If you can't even control your chakra, you won't be able to breathe fire even if I give you a Fireball Jutsu; you'll just burn your mouth."

Sousuke put away the scroll.

He picked up a withered leaf from the ground and stuck it on his forehead.

Mobilize chakra.

A surge of heat flowed along the meridians to the head.

Very strong.

If it had happened yesterday, this force would have definitely sent the leaves flying.

But today, it feels different.

Perhaps it was the effect of the liver from the fox spirit last night.

Sosuke felt that there seemed to be a faint "lightness" in his chakra.

Although very faint, the original viscous, sluggish flow became smoother.

hum.

The leaf trembled slightly, then pressed itself tightly against my forehead.

One second, two seconds, three seconds...

Five seconds.

ten seconds.

The leaves remained completely still.

Yuanzhao, who was still pouring wine into his mouth, suddenly stopped.

He squinted at the sweating boy.

"That's interesting," Genzo muttered.

Yesterday he was a complete failure, and today he's already figured it out?

This rate of progress is unlike that of an elderly apprentice who only started learning at the age of fifteen.

Don't get cocky.

Suddenly, Yuanzao raised his hand and smashed the empty wine bottle in his hand like a cannonball.

Extremely fast.

Sosuke instinctively turned his head to dodge.

Snapped.

The bottle smashed on the pile of garbage behind him, shattering into pieces.

But in the instant he dodged, his attention wavered, and the leaf on his forehead fell down.

"rigid."

Yuan Zao sneered.

"On the battlefield, no one will wait for you to stand still and gather chakra. You have to keep moving. When you run, when you jump, even when you're being stabbed, your chakra can't be interrupted."

He pointed to the mountain of garbage.

"Climb up. Keep the leaves from falling."

It was a mountain made of scrap metal, rotten wood and household garbage, more than ten meters high, with a very steep slope, and it could collapse at any time.

Sosuke picked up the leaves and reattached them.

He started climbing.

The trash underfoot was soft and slippery.

Every step must be taken with utmost care.

It requires maintaining physical balance while also diverting some mental energy to maintain the chakra absorption on the forehead.

It's hard.

To do two things at once.

I had only climbed two steps when my foot slipped, my body swayed, and the leaves fell.

"Ten push-ups," Genzo's voice came from below.

Without saying a word, Sosuke stepped down from the garbage heap, did some push-ups, picked up some leaves, and continued.

Once, twice, ten times.

Fall down, get up, fall down again.

His clothes were torn, and his palms were cut by rusty iron pieces.

This is a battle against gravity.

It is also a contest of willpower.

On Sousuke's forehead, chakra seemed like an invisible hand, gripping the veins of that withered yellow leaf tightly.

One step, two slides.

The garbage mountain emitted a suffocating stench.

This place holds the remnants of Konoha's daily life, as well as the affectations of Sousuke as a modern man.

ten minutes.

twenty minutes.

Sosuke climbed to the halfway point of the mountain.

His thigh muscles were trembling, a spasm resulting from overexertion.

Sweat got into my eyes, blurring my vision.

"Don't stop."

Yuanzhao shouted from below, holding the empty wine bottle in his hand, as if watching a farce.

"Stop, and you'll stop breathing. Once you stop breathing, you'll roll down."

Sousuke gritted his teeth.

He felt like his lungs were on fire.

That's the residual chakra in the wind fox's liver causing the problem, or it could simply be due to lack of oxygen.

But he can't stop.

In order to become stronger, he spent all his savings and ate poisons that ordinary people dared not eat.

If he can't even climb a mountain of garbage, how can he survive in this cruel world?

"superior!"

Sosuke let out a low growl.

He exerted his strength, stepped onto a discarded washboard, and used the momentum to propel himself two meters upwards.

The leaves rustled.

Sousuke's mental energy tightened instantly, like a lock, instantly increasing the output power of his chakra.

It's stable now.

at last.

A blood-stained hand gripped a broken plank at the top of the garbage mountain.

Sosuke rolled over and climbed up.

He lay on the mountaintop, breathing in the air thick with the smell of hydrogen sulfide.

The leaf was still stuck to his forehead.

Although it was soaked with sweat, it didn't fall off.

"Get down here," Genzo shouted from below. "Don't stand there like an idiot, or the crows will peck at your eyes, mistaking you for carrion."

Sousuke picked off the leaves.

He slid down the hillside, unsteady on his feet.

When I landed, my legs went weak and I almost knelt on the ground.

Yuanzao tossed him a rag to wipe his hands.

"Your self-control is passable now; you can start practicing hand seals."

Genzo picked up the scroll and pointed to the hand seal diagram on it.

"Now, I will teach you the logic of hand seals."

"Logic?" Sosuke asked.

"What do you think hand seals are? Magic spells?" Genzo scoffed. "They're switches. The twelve seals correspond to the nodes of the twelve main meridians. The Zi seal mobilizes the kidney water energy, and the Wu seal mobilizes the heart fire energy."

Genzo extended his withered fingers and quickly formed a "Tiger" seal.

"Look carefully. The angle at which your fingers bend and the pressure of your fingertips when they touch will affect the nature transformation of chakra."

"Don't try to memorize the form. Instead, feel it. When you form this mudra, feel which tendon in your body is throbbing and which energy is moving."

Sosuke seemed to be deep in thought.

This is very similar to his understanding of "programming" in his previous life.

Hand seals are like inputting code, chakra is like electricity, and ninjutsu is the final program that runs.

"Give it a try," Genzo said.

Sosuke took a deep breath.

He no longer simply imitates actions.

He closed his eyes and slowly formed a "未" mudra with his hands.

He is feeling.

As his thumb and middle finger clasped together, he felt a surge of heat in his abdomen tremble slightly.

This is a switch.

"Even the simplest Three-Body Technique is the optimal code that countless predecessors have tested and found."

The source relies on returning containers.

"Keep practicing, just these three mudras. Practice until your fingers cramp, until your fingers can move on their own without you having to think about it."

Sosuke stood in the junkyard and began the tedious practice over and over again.

Wei, Si, Yin.

This is the hand seal for the Shadow Clone Technique.

They practiced until evening.

Sosuke's fingers were swollen like carrots, making it difficult for him to even bend them.

"Alright, get lost."

Yuanzao issued an order to leave.

"Bring two bottles of good wine tomorrow. Today's wine is too weak, like horse urine."

……

Back in the store.

The first thing Sosuke did was not to rest.

Instead, he boiled a pot of water.

He poured a bottle of liniment into the water.

Then I soaked my swollen hands in the water.

This "physical therapy" can help his hands recover quickly.

The hot water was a bit too hot.

The spiciness of the medicinal wine seeps into the skin through the pores.

Sosuke looked at his hands.

My ten fingers were red and swollen, like carrots that had been scalded with boiling water.

In particular, the joints of the index and middle fingers, having maintained a stiff hand seal posture for a long time, are now twitching involuntarily.

He closed his eyes, enduring the excruciating pain.

It soaked for about twenty minutes.

The swelling has subsided slightly.

Sosuke dried his hands and applied a thick layer of ointment—very effective for external injuries.

He slept soundly that night.

I didn't even dream about it.