Chapter 577: Training
The outside world was turbulent, but Haruno Sakura's original body hid deep in the Shikkotsu Forest, recovering from her injuries free from all interference.
She spent most of her time each day enveloped within Katsuyu the Slug Sage's body, relying on the Sage's powerful healing abilities to recover from internal injuries.
In that battle, having briefly faced the power of a nuclear bomb head-on, Haruno Sakura's injuries had actually thoroughly affected her foundation.
Fortunately, she herself was a master proficient in medical ninjutsu and Yang Release chakra. As for Katsuyu the Slug Sage, its true body was a giant beast that had lived for over a thousand years; just relying on that invincible chakra alone was enough to make it an unparalleled medical saint. With its powerful abilities, even if Haruno Sakura were injured to the point of only having a brain and a heart left, it had a way to save her!
So what if her foundation was injured?
Katsuyu the Slug Sage could even help Haruno Sakura repair and nourish every single cell, reshaping her foundation!
Incidentally, it could also help Haruno Sakura heal those deeply hidden injuries left behind from multiple life-and-death battles.
However, as a result, the treatment period was inevitably prolonged significantly.
During the long treatment process, Haruno Sakura, fused within the Sage's body and unable to move, stared wide-eyed with nothing to do, and simply began to rethink her path of training.
This was also an excellent opportunity for Haruno Sakura, who was always busy with various training and missions, to take a break, properly organize her chakra system, review her growth, summarize, sort out, and think about problems that required a long time to contemplate.
She should have done this long ago.
Unexpected yet entirely reasonable, Haruno Sakura did not actively train, yet she gained more than she would from ordinary training.
Water.
Flowing, endless and unceasing.
A long time ago, Haruno Sakura believed that the nature transformation of Water Release was "flow," rather than the "pressure" that the mainstream view believed.
Even if the one saying this was the famous Jiraiya of the Sannin, and she, at that time, had not yet risen to fame and was just an unknown rookie. (Chapter 59)
How proud of a person was Haruno Sakura?
Even as a rookie, she had ten thousand percent confidence in her own answer, deeply believing that her insights from immersing herself in Water Release for years could not be shaken in the slightest even by Jiraiya's refutation!
At that time, she could be considered an expert in Water Release, full of sharp spirit.
But later, with the increase of age and the growth of combat and training experience, she also gradually realized that the mainstream view was not entirely unreasonable. Attributing the nature transformation of Water Release to "pressure" or even more obscure understandings like "impermanence" and "accommodation" was also acceptable. In battle, one could use "flow" to shape and guide power, and also use "pressure" to increase power. Other methods also had their own wonderful uses; it was nothing more than adapting to the situation, and there was no need to rigidly stick to one.
It wasn't denying her own answer, nor was it discarding her pride, but acknowledging and learning from the merits of others, growing from egocentric pride to the inclusiveness of the ocean accepting hundreds of rivers.
This was yet another level of realm.
At this point, Haruno Sakura's Water Release no longer had any flaws, and her training could be called complete. She had walked to the end of the path laid by her predecessors and could be called a grandmaster of Water Release.
She originally thought she had reached the absolute peak and could progress no further.
But after the battle with Pain, Sakura seemed to have gained new insights.
Inside Katsuyu's body, during the long and boring recovery phase, she thought extremely deeply.
The nature transformation of Water Release—on the surface, everyone had their own understanding, all had their own logic, and could all be expressed in Water Release ninjutsu. But in reality, the myriad of changes did not depart from their origin; all phenomena were actually extended from the same core. Just like blind men touching an elephant, everyone genuinely touched the existence of the "elephant," but each person had different insights. These insights couldn't be called wrong, but they absolutely couldn't be called the complete truth either.
Flow.
Returning to the original purity and simplicity, everything originates from "flow."
It was not the "flowing" of water, not as superficial as understood in the first level of realm, but borrowing the flow of water to metaphorically represent a way of movement for chakra energy.
This was an indescribable understanding, impossible to describe or narrate. If one insisted on putting it into words, it would require the Hokage world to develop like her previous life, and then pass a few hundred years until mathematics and physics developed to an extremely high level, gathering the wisdom of several generations, to use a massive amount of esoteric formulas to describe the characteristics of this chakra operation. [Note, see chapter comments]
For Haruno Sakura, there was no need to go to such trouble. If she comprehended it, she comprehended it. Just as a person riding a bicycle doesn't need to first learn force analysis and moment of inertia; as long as they ride the bike and at a certain moment understand what balance is, they will never forget the feeling of riding a bike for the rest of their lives. [Note, see chapter comments]
And all the nature transformations of Water Release, seemingly flashy, are actually obtained through the extension and variation of this chakra operation method that miraculously resembles the flow of water.
When the Sage of the Six Paths passed down Ninshu and divided the Five Elements Ninjutsu, using "Water" to name Water Release naturally had its profound meaning.
Extending this, the so-called Five Elements Ninjutsu are actually five ways of utilizing chakra energy.
Shape transformation needs no further explanation. Nature transformation is actually nothing more than the ninjutsu characteristics caused by five different energy movement methods. For example, the true nature transformation of Wind Release must be a chakra operation mode metaphorically represented by the Sage using the "blowing and shearing of wind," which can generate a sharp shearing force. Earth Release, Fire Release, and Lightning Release can also be deduced by analogy. As for Kekkei Genkai like Ice Release, they are nothing more than a composite operation mode formed by combining two single energy operation modes.
The myriad of changes ultimately tests only a ninja's ability to manipulate energy—that is, chakra.
The instant she figured this out, a surge of heartfelt joy naturally arose from the bottom of the girl's heart.
She knew she had crossed another boundary. Although her combat power had not increased on the surface, her upper limit for growth had actually been raised by an unknown amount!
The elevation through these three realms could be described as the progressive stages of "seeing a mountain as a mountain, seeing a mountain not as a mountain, and seeing a mountain as a mountain again."
In contrast, most ninja couldn't even be said to have any "realm." They didn't have a deep understanding of chakra and ninjutsu, hadn't mastered nature transformation, and didn't even know what the "mountain" was.
And the majority of the rest might stay at the first realm for their entire lives, meaning they had some of their own understandings of the properties of commonly used ninjutsu, but the understanding was not deep, roughly just echoing what others said.
Those who reached the level of "geniuses" mostly hovered before the door of the second realm. They had a deep understanding of the ninjutsu they excelled at, and could even invent some powerful ninjutsu, but most clung to their own pride, using themselves as barriers, confining themselves, and found it difficult to move forward. But once they made a breakthrough, they could often rapidly grow to the realm of a grandmaster, reaching the limits an ordinary person could imagine, such as the Second Hokage.
Uchiha Sasuke's Lightning Release, limited by his short training time, was currently somewhere between "seeing a mountain as a mountain" and "seeing a mountain not as a mountain."
The realm Haruno Sakura had reached in Water Release was a level that only geniuses of the Six Paths level could achieve, a level that touched the truth hidden beneath the superficial appearance of things. Traversing the entire river of time, probably only the founding Sage of the Six Paths himself, and Haruno Sakura—an anomaly who possessed a profound understanding of ninjutsu and the backing of the wisdom of six billion people from her previous world, combining the strengths of two worlds—could reach such a level!
As Haruno Sakura's clone, Sakura Uchiha naturally also inherited her original body's training insights.
Although this spar restricted the application of the Monstrous Strength jutsu, she had her own clever plans to achieve effects similar to Monstrous Strength!
However, the fully confident girl surprisingly found that Sasuke was not surprised by her moves, and even dealt with them with ease, to the point that—
Bang!
A punch that Sakura Uchiha was determined to land was agilely dodged by Sasuke. The residual force of the punch shattered a wooden target into pieces. The instant they brushed past each other, the boy smiled faintly, advancing close like a swimming fish, the kunai in his hand thrusting out like a venomous snake!
Checkmate!
The instant the cold edge of the kunai pressed close, Sasuke flipped his wrist, twirling the kunai in his hand into a blade flower, turning the ring forward, and accurately slamming it between his opponent's third and fourth ribs, the position of the heart!
The outcome was decided.
"I win."
Sasuke put away the kunai, looking at the girl with a beaming smile.
Sakura Uchiha cried out in pain, retreated a few steps to stand firm, and glared at Sasuke with puffed cheeks while rubbing her chest: "Damn it! Sasuke, why do you seem so familiar with this move?"
Sasuke chuckled.
"Would Sakura-kun not be able to think of the moves you can think of?" he smiled. Sakura Uchiha's techniques were used by Haruno Sakura years ago. It was nothing more than relying on Sakura-kun's masterful grasp of the "flowing" nature transformation of Water Release to operate and gather the strength of every muscle into the same direction when exerting physical force. Throwing a single punch relied not just on the arm, but the muscles of the calves, thighs, waist, abdomen, and back all exerting force simultaneously!
Controlling the flow of power is also a high-end application of Water Release's nature transformation.
One must know that relying solely on arm strength, an ordinary person could at most strike with one or two hundred kilograms of force. But if all the muscles in the body exerted force in the same direction, one could easily unleash tens of tons of power!
Brilliant boxing techniques actually also emphasize gathering the strength of the entire body. The saying that power generates from the roots, twisting the waist, rotating the hips, and sending the shoulder, is also about gathering the power of the main torso into the fist. Profound taijutsu and profound ninjutsu, on this point, reach the same destination through different routes.
"Hmph~!"
Sakura Uchiha puffed her small cheeks, looking at Sasuke indignantly.
"Then why did I lose? Even if you've seen this move before, but when it comes down to it, I should be the one with the advantage in strength!"
Sasuke became slightly more serious.
"Taijutsu isn't that simple," he said sternly. "I'll just say it straight. Your problem doesn't lie in whether there is an issue with the abilities you inherited from Sakura-kun, but in the fact that you are you, and she is she."
"Although you are very similar, you are ultimately not Haruno Sakura, whether in body or in soul."
"Everything of hers cannot perfectly suit you."
"And this tiny discrepancy decides the outcome of a taijutsu battle."
The girl furrowed her delicate eyebrows, bit her lip, and pondered silently.
This appearance of her thinking seriously actually captured a bit of the original's charm.
In fact, when it comes down to it, the biggest difference between the original and Sakura Uchiha is the body. The former had undergone long-term training; every inch of skin, every muscle, every bone, and even every cell had been trained, saturated, and strengthened by chakra repeatedly and at high intensity over the years. It was the true physique of a top-tier powerhouse. Conversely, Sakura Uchiha, as a clone, was essentially a newborn, and her physical strength was completely incomparable.
If the original had made the move, when that punch was thrown just now, Sasuke would have had absolutely no room to dodge. But when Sakura Uchiha threw that punch, the force and momentum fell just a bit short, and then Sasuke seized the opportunity to win with a single move.
With a slight reminder from Sasuke about the subtle difference within, Sakura Uchiha immediately realized it.
No wonder she never uses me for hand-to-hand combat...
"Then if she were the one sparring with you, would you still win?" the girl suddenly asked.
"Hehe," Sasuke smiled faintly. "That would depend on what the restrictive conditions are."
The boy put on an expression of "although she is very strong, I am not weak either, and I somewhat have a chance of winning."
But in reality, the only spar Sasuke dared to say he was confident in was a pure hand-to-hand combat battle where any trace of chakra was strictly forbidden from being used...
Yeah, just winning based on the fact that a girl's initial muscle strength is lower than a boy's.