Sarutobi Hiruzen truly lived up to the title of "Professor of Ninjutsu."
His teaching was simple and easy to digest.
Using the similarity between Water and Earth Release, he had already clearly explained the nature transformation of Earth and the basic logic behind earth beating water.
"Training Earth Release is essentially like stacking building blocks."
"Building blocks?"
Seeing Konome's confused expression, Hiruzen controlled his chakra and broke it down further.
"In your mind, you first imagine a three dimensional framework as the base of everything.
"Then you use countless tiny chakra particles to construct slightly larger 'condensed chakra blocks.'
"Finally, you connect and combine those blocks, linking them together like building blocks into a single mass. That mass is Earth Release chakra."
"The power of an Earth Style technique is directly tied to how stable the structure you imagine is. The tighter the structure, the sturdier the Earth Release you create.
"Of course there are looser Earth techniques, such as Earth Flow River and other support jutsu, but those variations are still far off for you.
"Once you can shape solid, orderly earth, I will teach you the fancy applications."
As he spoke, Hiruzen concentrated Wind Release chakra in his index finger and traced several diagrams on the dirt wall.
From simple to complex, there were five structures in total.
Completing the first meant truly entering the door of Earth Release nature transformation.
Being able to cast the last structure in an instant was Hiruzen's current realm, more or less the limit of what Earth Release nature transformation could reach.
Konome's thoughts spun rapidly.
Violet chakra ignited in her palms as she tried to imitate the diagrams on the wall.
Spatial structures were not like simple words; they were harder to memorize.
Fortunately, the Byakugan's capability for shaping and visualizing structures was absurdly strong, and Earth Release nature transformation was essentially a microscopic form of shape transformation.
After devouring the Nine Tails' chakra, her ocular power had grown. That manifested as even more delicate control over chakra.
With ready made models drawn in front of her to copy, the difficulty of training Earth Release had dropped to rock bottom.
"Sarutobi sensei, I have a question."
Konome swept through the diagrams and noticed that these structures all seemed to do only one thing: make earth harder.
Yet in the original timeline, Earth Style jutsu had all sorts of strange effects.
Light and Heavy Rock Technique, which adjusted gravity, had tanked Uchiha Madara's Tengai Shinsei.
There were also techniques that could absorb chakra or form mechanisms to revive the dead.
How were you supposed to achieve those abilities with only these neat geometric frameworks?
"I have seen an Earth Style that can absorb chakra. These structures alone should not be able to do that, right?"
She did not dare directly bring up Onoki's technique by name.
Back still turned, Hiruzen continued drawing while answering.
"Earth Release nature transformation is broadly divided into two concepts. One is hardness. The other is capacity.
"A stable spatial structure means Earth Release can easily carry forces and effects that do not originally belong to it.
"After a thousand years of development, ninjutsu has long stopped being pure.
"Because of Earth's excellent capacity, it has become the biggest dumping ground of extra properties.
"The chakra absorbing effect you mention is most likely the result of adding certain Yin or Yang transformations into Earth Release.
"That belongs to advanced fields where secret Yin and Yang techniques are fused into regular ninjutsu.
"You must not touch those forbidden powers lightly. They are extremely dangerous."
The wording sounded a bit familiar.
Konome suddenly looked up.
Seeing that the emotional bubbles over Hiruzen's head were still normal, she finally relaxed.
The ability to absorb chakra probably belonged to Yang Release.
Strange mechanics like manipulating gravity should be Earth Release with a layer of Yin Release added on top.
Konome rubbed her temples.
Pure Yin Yang nature transformations were secret arts.
When a single element nature and shape transformation combined, you got the standard five elemental ninjutsu.
Those elemental jutsu with their own unique "mechanisms" were, in truth, the fusion of Yin Yang secret arts and elemental ninjutsu.
Yin and Yang Release were already infinitely complex on their own.
Once fused with other elements, no wonder ninjutsu in the shinobi world seemed endlessly varied and impossible to fully grasp.
So this was the root.
"I will leave the Earth Release diagrams here. If you forget, just come back and look."
Hiruzen finished the last drawing and turned around to face Konome, then froze on the spot.
Konome sat calmly on the ground, palm facing up.
Violet light gathered in her hand, constantly sketching squares and rectangles in the air.
In the blink of an eye, the framework for the first Earth Release structure had been constructed.
Hiruzen would swear he had never seen nature transformation learned at this kind of speed.
The fine details that took ordinary shinobi three days just to memorize were being assembled by Konome's chakra as easily as breathing.
If he let his mind wander even a little, a faint yellow stone would already be forming at the center of the chakra.
It had been too long.
Hiruzen no longer remembered exactly how long his own nature transformation training had taken, but it had definitely not been as easy as eating and drinking like this.
And back in the Second Hokage's eyes, he had already been a prodigy with natural talent for elemental ninjutsu.
"Stop for a moment."
Konome was almost finished assembling the structure. She looked up, puzzled, at his sudden instruction.
Hiruzen's gaze was complicated. Emotional motes hovered and popped over his head.
"Have you… trained Earth Release before?"
Such a familiar question.
Digging through her memory, Konome realized that this expression on Hiruzen's face almost overlapped with her old teacher Kazama's.
"I learned how to draw when I was little. Maybe that gave me a good sense of spatial structure."
Konome, ever considerate, did not have the heart to crush her teachers too badly.
As her Shikotsumyaku evolved toward Tomogoroshi no Haikotsu, the Byakugan's power grew stronger and stronger.
With half of Kaguya's gifts baked into her soul since birth, it would not be surprising if one day she woke up with horns.
There was truly no need to strike down the ordinary people who had climbed to the top of the shinobi world through sheer effort.
"I see."
Hiruzen narrowed his eyes and reluctantly accepted her explanation.
Clack.
The condensed stone slipped from Konome's palm and rolled away across the ground.
Watching this absurd sight, the muscles at the corner of Hiruzen's mouth twitched.
She was chatting with him and practicing Earth nature transformation at the same time.
Was she really human?
If painting gave people this level of control, the Academy would probably have to add an art class to the required curriculum.
"Our time is limited. Since you have this 'artist' talent, you can practice Earth Release on your own later.
"For now, the priority is to finish the rest of the lesson."
Konome nodded and dispersed the half built second structure gathering in her hand.
After Hiruzen's detailed explanation of Earth Release, she was even more interested in the two most offensive elements among the five: Lightning and Fire.
"Kakashi, can you even keep going?"
Right as master and disciple were about to continue class, Might Guy's booming voice rang in from the courtyard entrance.
Both of them turned toward the sound.
Carrying the heavy Seishikishou crystal on his back, Guy shuffled forward on legs that looked ready to collapse, his clothes soaked through with sweat.
Kakashi trudged after him, white hair drooping, arms hanging at his sides like a half dead dog.
"Huff… you are not any better."
Dragging his weary body, Kakashi's voice was hoarse from exhaustion.
Every day he pushed himself through massive amounts of basic training: pushups, handstand laps around the village, weighted runs, and more.
The overall intensity had far surpassed a normal human's limit.
The Sharingan placed a brutal burden on him. Even with his hitai-ate covering the eye, its passive drain still ate more than half his chakra every day.
Stacking Guy's inhuman training plan on top of that was like spending the whole night lifting weights at the gym.
The natural result was a healthy corpse.
As for why they had to train with such intensity in the first place…
"If we do not keep training, Konome is going to leave us in the dust."
Guy's devilish whisper still echoed in Kakashi's ears.
"If she pulls ahead, then she does. She is not even a normal human being anyway."
Kakashi muttered under his breath as he glanced at the small figure in the middle of the training field.
"So we continue with the plan tomorrow?"
"Ugh."
Kakashi let out a long, helpless sigh.
He was a man. Pride would not let him accept being casually outpaced by a kid who was only a few years old.
As Konoha's former number one prodigy, it stung.
"You two, keep your voices down."
"Yes."
"Yes."
After Hiruzen's shout, the two exhausted problem children hurried off.
Once they were gone, he turned back to his non human student with a kindly smile.
"Shall we continue?"
"Uh… sure."
Watching Guy and Kakashi limp away like they were being chased, Konome shook her head and refocused on the lesson.
Chidori like blue Lightning Release chakra gathered at her fingertips, letting out a piercing birdsong.
"Lightning Release has the strongest penetrating power among the five elements."
Hiruzen spoke and immediately jabbed at the solid Earth Flow Wall.
Puff.
He barely seemed to exert any force, but the lightning wrapped finger slid into the wall bit by bit.
Having already trained Earth, Water and Wind Release, Konome did not need him to break the basics down again.
She narrowed her eyes and magnified the Lightning chakra with the Byakugan.
Sizzle, sizzle.
Rows of chakra particles lined up in formation, charging through Hiruzen's pathways toward his fingertip like a disciplined army.
Thunder light exploded at his finger.
High speed Lightning chakra continuously jetted out and punched through the three dimensional Earth structure.
"There is a saying about water dripping through stone.
"It means that as long as you persist without giving up, even soft water can pierce hard rock.
"Lightning Release gets its penetrating power from the same logic."
Hiruzen withdrew his finger, revealing a deep hole in the Earth Flow Wall.
"The key to Lightning Release nature transformation is high pressure and extreme speed.
"You first store energy to create high pressure. Under that pressure, chakra particles accelerate to extreme speeds and erupt, forcing a high velocity chakra stream that keeps attacking the same small point.
"Object surfaces may look tightly bound, but even the strongest Earth Release still has invisible gaps.
"Lightning chakra moves so fast and the energy particles are much smaller than any physical object that they can stab into those gaps and pierce even the toughest defense."
Listening to the explanation, Konome understood instantly.
Is this not just the same principle as my high pressure water cannon?
The water cannon technique she developed had never been very practical.
The charge up time was too slow and the effective range too short.
Lightning Release worked on the same idea, except chakra particles moved far faster than water, and the attack point was much finer.
So there was really no need to perfect that Water Release.
All she had to do was learn Lightning Release properly.
As if hearing her thoughts, Hiruzen continued in an easy tone.
"Because Earth Release counters Water Release too strongly, the Second Hokage once used Lightning Release principles to create a very powerful offensive technique, compensating perfectly for Water's lack of killing power."
He glanced regretfully in the direction Guy and Kakashi had gone.
"To become a top tier powerhouse, you must have a trump card that crushes other shinobi and also cover your own weaknesses.
"Kakashi has no glaring weak points, but no overwhelming strength either.
"Guy's strength is terrifying enough to crush enemies, but his weaknesses are more obvious than anyone else's.
"The day they overcome all of that will be the day they can stand on their own."
Konome's mental notebook flew across the page.
The amount of real knowledge Hiruzen had casually dropped today was insane.
The information density of this one lesson was maxed out, right down to the key to stepping into Kage level.
If she wanted to reach that realm, first her taijutsu had to be able to crush most other shinobi.
In other words, her "long board" had to be long enough.
Then she needed to make up for the shortcomings of a taijutsu focused style and the agility issues caused by her heavy body.
With Shikotsumyaku, Byakugan, and Lightning Release armor, her future taijutsu would absolutely steamroll ninety nine percent of the shinobi world.
Lightning armor would fix her lack of agility, and multiple elemental transformations would cover the issue of single track combat.
She was already laying the groundwork for entering Kage level in advance.
"That is enough of the side topics."
Hiruzen pulled his gaze back and faced Konome again.
"Lightning Release training is not difficult. You simply follow the principle we just discussed and drive your chakra out at high speed.
"The only problem is that Lightning Release is hard to control. For a 'little artist' like you, that should not be an issue."
Konome pressed her lips together and chose not to rise to the teasing.
Hiruzen only smiled wider.
He was not senile yet.
He could clearly see how abnormal Konome's chakra control was.
Seeing that she did not respond, he was not offended.
"Once you understand how Lightning works, the logic behind wind countering lightning becomes very simple.
"Lightning's strength lies in the tip of its chakra stream.
"Its weakness is the path along which the chakra particles flow.
"When Wind Release counters Lightning, it must avoid clashing head on with the tip and instead use wind's agility and flexibility to slice through the current itself."
Crackle.
Hiruzen raised two fingers. Lightning arced and buzzed between them.
He did not need to demonstrate further.
Konome pursed her lips and gently blew out a wisp of Wind Release chakra.
Whoosh.
The loose, lively wind easily slipped past the sharp point where the lightning erupted and precisely cut across the middle of the stream.
Crack.
The seemingly powerful lightning current was severed instantly by a single thread of wind.
With its piercing point gone, the Lightning chakra dissipated on the spot.
"Lightning is like needle and thread.
"Wind is the scissors.
"That is how wind beats lightning."
Crackle, crackle, crackle.
Shrill arcs burst into being again.
Konome grabbed her right wrist with her left hand as violet chakra shifted in an instant to blinding blue white Lightning Release.
"Good, good."
Hiruzen smiled, dispelled his gathered Wind chakra, and let orange Fire chakra flare to life instead.
"We only have a little time left, so I will talk briefly about Fire Release.
"There actually is not much to say.
"Rapidly vibrating chakra particles produce high temperatures and explosive force. Chakra is a form of energy. Once the temperature passes a threshold, it ignites on its own.
"Among the nature transformations, fire is the simplest.
"People say fire counters wind. In truth, Fire Release is simply the intense combustion of chakra.
"The more you slice it with wind, the more violent the combustion becomes.
"Wind Release is too agile. Against Fire Release, it is like a stray cat trying to swat a hedgehog. There is nowhere safe to put your paws.
"On top of that, the high temperature flame will ignite Wind chakra along with it, which is equivalent to pouring fuel on the fire.
"As for water countering fire, that is because water absorbs heat.
"Once the temperature drops, the flame must keep vibrating and generating heat to reach chakra's ignition point again.
"That process burns through energy very quickly.
"In a clash of pure burst damage, water cannot match fire.
"But as long as water keeps coming, it can slowly wear fire down."
"So the essence of water countering fire is simply bullying with numbers?" Konome asked.
"That is exactly right."
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