Chapter 525: Everyone's New Jutsu
"It's the Wood Release used by the First Hokage-sama!"
The first to react was Udon, who wore glasses; he liked reading and knew a lot of useful and useless knowledge, so he recognized it first.
The vine wrapping around Haruno Sakura's legs, waist, and body, tightly binding her like a rope, was clearly the effect of Wood Release.
"Wood Release?"
Konohamaru and Naruto said simultaneously.
One was surprised, the other puzzled.
"Naruto Nii-chan, Wood Release is the ninjutsu used by the First Hokage-sama. Legend has it that its power is extremely strong. Hashirama-sama used it to pacify the troubled times and establish Konoha Hidden Village." Konohamaru quickly explained, recalling the knowledge his grandfather had taught him.
Mentioning the prestige of the First Hokage, even Naruto instantly understood.
"So Moegi will become the next First Hokage?" He was a bit surprised.
"She's still far from it!"
Haruno Sakura laughed. Exerting a little force with her limbs, she broke free from the seemingly tough and thick vines and walked out of Moegi's jutsu.
"However... I am indeed very surprised."
She tore off a piece of vine, rubbed it, held it up to her eyes for careful observation, and clicked her tongue in wonder.
This was indeed a living plant.
Just now, Haruno Sakura sensed Moegi simultaneously using Water Release and Earth Release nature transformations, followed by generating a chakra with a somewhat familiar texture, and guessed she was performing a Kekkei Genkai nature transformation.
Water plus Earth is obviously Wood Release.
Of course, Moegi's Wood Release, compared to the First's Wood Release brimming with life force, naturally had a huge difference; as mentioned before, Hashirama's Wood Release was essentially a Kekkei Tota fusing Water, Earth, and Yang.
And vines of Moegi's strength couldn't even compare to Yamato's Wood Release.
—Yamato is an elite Jonin after all, a ninjutsu-type ninja who plays with Water and Earth nature transformations very smoothly.
However, being able to develop a Kekkei Genkai on her own at this age was already quite astonishing.
"To think it's Wood Release, amazing!" Haruno Sakura nodded and sighed sincerely, "Developing your own Kekkei Genkai at your age, such talent is considered rare in the entire ninja world!"
Haruno Sakura had always felt Moegi had a talent for practicing Water Release.
But she never thought Moegi would be so stunningly brilliant!
"I listened to the experience you shared, Sensei, about when you first cultivated Ice Release, and thought I could also try, so I cultivated Wood Release." Moegi laughed complacently, "It seems it's not very difficult!"
Moegi looked smug and satisfied.
Haruno Sakura raised her eyebrows.
Kekkei Genkai isn't difficult? How many ninja in the entire Naruto world have Kekkei Genkai altogether?
The active ninja of the five villages combined are not even two hundred thousand. Among them, the ninja who can use attribute Kekkei Genkai—especially those who created Kekkei Genkai themselves without relying on bloodline inheritance—can be counted on two hands.
Even for Haruno Sakura herself, when she developed Ice Release back then, it wasn't easily accomplished.
"But the strength of the jutsu still needs to be improved." Sakura-sensei decided to pour a basin of cold water on her, changing the subject and saying, "Your Water Release nature transformation can only be called passable, and your Earth Release nature transformation might not even be considered roughly proficient."
"So you spent so much effort, and the resulting Wood Release effect is not even as strong as honestly using a Water Release effect."
"With your current level of Wood Release, at most it can only be called Grass Release!"
"Ah?" Moegi pouted, lowering her head, greatly struck.
"Grass Release...? Sounds terrible!" She murmured.
Looking at the girl's frustrated expression after being struck by her, Haruno Sakura also felt a bit helpless. Many things are only understood after experiencing them oneself; after becoming a teacher, the girl realized that a student's arrogant and complacent emotions absolutely cannot be indulged. Appropriate blows, although helpless, are also necessary. And the more she criticized, the more it showed Haruno Sakura's attention to Moegi.
"Ramming the foundation solid first, then discussing advanced attribute fusion makes sense." Haruno Sakura warned her.
"Otherwise, relying solely on your rough Water and Earth nature transformations, no matter how much you cultivate the resulting Wood Release, there won't be any qualitative progress; it will forever stay at the level of a half-bucket of water!"
Blindly pursuing powerful ninjutsu while neglecting the foundation is a common failing of many young people. Sasuke once made this mistake and had now corrected it; what Haruno Sakura worried about was that Moegi would also be tempted by the power of Wood Release, neglecting her own foundation, and becoming a ninja world version of Fang Zhongyong (T/N: a child prodigy who failed to live up to expectations due to lack of study).
Sakura even considered asking Moegi to pause Wood Release cultivation and make up for her terrible Earth Release nature transformation first.
It's just that Haruno Sakura was temporarily not Moegi's master, only a leading teacher, and had no stance to make such strict demands.
To be honest, Moegi's aptitude gave her an urge to take her as an apprentice.
Haruno Sakura smiled faintly and rubbed Moegi's head.
"Alright, don't be sad... Sensei being stricter with you is also for your own good!" The girl smiled, "As long as you don't aim too high and cultivate down-to-earth, with your talent, sooner or later you will surpass Tsunade-sama and become a great female ninja!"
"Work hard, Moegi!"
"Yes, Sakura-sensei!"
A slap followed by a sweet date, and Moegi recovered her vitality again.
Finally, Udon came up to demonstrate his new jutsu.
If Konohamaru gave her a worry-free surprise, Moegi gave her a mix of labor-intensive surprise and fright, then what Udon brought Haruno Sakura was pure exhausting fright—
"Wait, Udon... is your new jutsu this?"
Haruno Sakura looked at the colloid in front of her that looked crystal clear, like pure ice blocks, and a severe chill rose from the bottom of her heart.
This jutsu looked very beautiful, but the problem was...
It was made of snot!
Haruno Sakura was truly frightened by Udon's creativity.
Yet Udon still looked very proud: "I fused snot and water, and then used chakra to solidify it, forming my new jutsu, Snot Water Jutsu!"
"Ta-da, how is it, very amazing, right?" He turned his head with a smug look.
"Amazing my foot..." Haruno Sakura almost couldn't complain enough. The greatest lethality of this jutsu is probably disgusting the opponent to death, right?
"This kind of disgusting and useless ninjutsu is banned!" She quickly used Water Release to wash away Udon's ninjutsu from her eyes, sighed, and said, "Udon, your talent lies in genjutsu. Honestly cultivate that genjutsu move of mine well! Advancing steadily, you can also become a powerful genjutsu ninja."
"Why spend energy on developing these flashy but impractical secret techniques?"
Haruno Sakura taught earnestly.
Udon's aptitude was the most mediocre among the three, and his talent was in genjutsu. This happened to be the field Haruno Sakura was least adept at, so she had no better method to guide him.
Udon's best master should be Shisui Uchiha, followed by Itachi, and then other ninja in the village skilled in genjutsu.
However, ever since the Uchiha clan was annihilated, the overall genjutsu level of Konoha had dropped several grades.
So much so that even a ninja like Kurenai Yuhi, who only had genjutsu to show, was promoted to Jonin.
It wasn't that Haruno Sakura had any objections to Hinata's leading teacher.
She was just objectively evaluating Kurenai's genjutsu level—picking a general from among dwarfs. Kurenai's level was indeed much higher compared to other ninja, but compared to Haruno Sakura who possessed the Mangekyo Sharingan, Kurenai was nothing.
The three students of Team Haruno Sakura already had their own ninja paths and futures.
Konohamaru had the Third looking after him, needing no worry from her; Moegi had Wood Release to rely on, and would definitely be highly valued by the village, saving her the trouble; even Udon had genjutsu suitable for his own use and in-depth cultivation. Although a suitable master couldn't be found for the moment, he didn't need to rush, and Haruno Sakura didn't need to worry too much for the time being.
So all Haruno Sakura could do was guide their ninjutsu cultivation a bit.
And while the Konoha ninja were sweating on the bright and sunny training ground, on the other side of the ninja world, there was a place gloomy and dark, without a trace of sunlight.
Land of Water.
On the ocean.
The Chojuro brothers were leading a group of Mist Ninja Anbu standing on the sea surface.
Where they stood, the sun was still bright and the sea calm; but a thousand meters away, it was a scene of dense dark clouds and raging winds. Looking up, one could only see thick and oppressive clouds blotting out the sky, firmly shielding the sunlight, rendering the sea surface amidst wind and rain even more solemn.
Under the dark clouds, it was a torrential storm as dense as a water curtain, with terrifying waves surging repeatedly.
Chojuro carried the Hiramekarei twin swords on his back, standing at the very front of the team.
"It's been a full fifteen days. This strange storm still hasn't stopped, and can even be said to be getting more and more intense!" He looked at the scene before him and said in a deep voice.
"Generally speaking, after entering October, there wouldn't be a storm of such a large scale and long duration on the sea surface... unless, the Three-Tails is inside the storm!" He frowned and said slowly.
"Then, where exactly is it?" An Anbu asked.
"If this is a typhoon or a tropical cyclone, it should have a storm center or the eye of a typhoon. The Three-Tails is very likely inside there," Chojuro said resolutely.
"Brother, a tropical cyclone needs sunlight to heat the sea surface, evaporating seawater into the sky to form a low-pressure center." Choujuurou stepped forward and whispered, "The sunlight and temperature in winter cannot satisfy this condition! So, this cannot be a typhoon."
Chojuro just shook his head.
"My foolish brother... according to experience, winter storms wouldn't last this long and behave like this either. So this indicates that something caused an anomaly violating experience! Using common sense to measure an anomalous existence is meaningless!" He said slowly.
He waved his hand, signaling the Anbu to follow.
"Let's go, we're going in!"
"From the periphery to the storm center, we must conduct a dragnet search... Everyone must cheer up and definitely find the Three-Tails before Akatsuki! Although the mission to capture the Three-Tails has been entrusted to Konoha ninja for help, we must also show the ambition of the Mist Ninja!"
Chojuro's steady voice came from the front.
The Mist Ninja, wearing raincoats, ran across the sea surface, filing into that dark storm area.
In the howling gale, the rain fell harder and harder.
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