Seeing the test results, Kakashi felt a headache coming on again.
He claimed to possess all seven attributes: Fire, Wind, Lightning, Earth, Water, Yin, and Yang. While he indeed had all seven Chakra natures, some were stronger than others.
Undoubtedly, Kakashi's Lightning Release was his strongest. His self-created Chidori was recognized as an S-Rank Ninjutsu, making him absolutely Kage-level in Lightning Release. His Water Release could match Zabuza, and his Earth Release was also extremely impressive, both roughly Jonin-level. His Fire Release was weaker, only allowing him to use the Great Fireball Technique. As for Wind Release, Kakashi had never used a Wind Release Ninjutsu in his life; he merely possessed the Chakra nature.
When Naruto was practicing Wind Release: Rasenshuriken in the original timeline, Kakashi told him to consult Asuma instead of teaching him himself, precisely because Kakashi's Wind Release was simply not presentable.
If quantified using Ino's system, Kakashi would be Lightning Lv5, Water and Earth Lv4, Fire Lv2, and Wind Lv1.
Kakashi first sent Sakura away with a D-rank Genjutsu, Hell Viewing Technique. Sakura's hand sign proficiency was first-rate, but her Ninjutsu comprehension and total Chakra were barely third-rate. After many days of learning, she still hadn't mastered the Water Prison Technique, so Kakashi decided to have her try the Genjutsu field.
Sasuke was also easy to handle. The two had interacted before during the Sharingan awakening period, and their personalities were quite compatible. Kakashi was confident in Sasuke's training. He now gave him a scroll for Lightning Release Chakra nature transformation and told him to go practice.
Naruto, however, was a headache. Kakashi's Wind Release was truly inadequate.
Helpless, he could only ask Asuma for help, hoping to teach the basics himself and then have Asuma provide some assistance.
Hearing that they were practicing Wind Release, Ino, the king of internal competition, also came to observe.
She happened to have Danzo's Wind Release Chakra nature transformation learning scroll. She hadn't had time to practice it before, and there was no one to teach her. Now was the perfect time to learn alongside them.
Although Kakashi's Wind Release was only at an introductory level, he was definitely an expert in the field of Chakra nature transformation development.
Leaving aside Yin Release and Yang Release, there are five basic Chakra natures: Fire, Wind, Lightning, Earth, and Water.
For a Ninja, the first Chakra nature is the easiest to develop. This is the Chakra nature with the highest personal affinity, and with intelligence and hard work, almost any Ninja can develop it.
Why 'almost'? Because some people just can't develop it, no matter what, such as Rock Lee, or Might Guy's father, Might Duy, who kicked the Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist into a mess.
These two simply had too low Ninjutsu talent and were naturally incompatible with Chakra natures, possessing none of the seven attributes. There was absolutely nothing that could be done.
They had Chakra, but no Chakra nature. According to traditional views, such people could not become Ninja.
It was due to the Third Hokage's special permission that Might Duy entered the Ninja Academy, which later led to the appearance of Rock Lee.
These two are exceptions; most Ninja can develop their first Chakra nature.
If the difficulty of developing the first Chakra nature is 1, then the last attribute, due to the mutual restraint between attributes, might have a difficulty of 10 or even higher.
Jiraiya lacked Lightning, Tsunade lacked Wind, and the Third Tsuchikage lacked Water. It's not that they had low aptitude or poor comprehension, but rather that spending a lot of time and effort developing new attributes was unnecessary and not worth it. Wouldn't it be better to spend that time peeping or gambling?
Ino now had Water and Earth attributes, which were her highly affinity attributes, considered innate. Learning Wind now was a bit strenuous. Fortunately, Wind Release could counter Lightning Release but was countered by Fire Release. It had no direct countering relationship with her existing Water and Earth attributes. Coupled with her high 'Ninjutsu' stat of 9, her learning progress was extremely fast.
Danzo's development method, Asuma's guidance, Kakashi's experience, and Ino's own high attributes led her to temporarily abandon practicing Water Severing Wave. Nine Shadow Clones gathered together, practicing day and night. After three days, she finally completed the Wind Release Chakra nature transformation.
This was reflected on her panel by the appearance of a white mist next to Water and Earth, and then two more white mists forming at the ends of 'Water-Wind' and 'Earth-Wind'.
The Water-Wind combination is the Ice Release used by Haku, while the Earth-Wind combination is the Magnet Release from the Hidden Sand Village.
The two white mists were indistinct, and their interiors were not clearly visible. Ino didn't have the key items, but from their appearance, just like the previous white mist that was suspected to be Wood Release, the conditions were still insufficient.
She had long prepared for this and was not surprised.
Ino learned how to use 'Earth Release: Earth Flow Wall' from Kakashi. Yes, it was the Earth Flow Wall with dog heads.
Kakashi's explanation for the dog heads was that when he worked in Anbu, during missions, he added the four dog heads specifically so his teammates would know that this Earth Flow Wall was set up by their side.
Ino didn't believe him at all. Blaming teammates? Who are you trying to fool? I saw through your repressed nature at a glance!
After learning Earth Flow Wall, she split her Shadow Clones into two teams, like playing soccer. At her command, the left side used Water Severing Wave, the right side used Earth Flow Wall. After 45 minutes, the left side used Earth Flow Wall, and the right side used Water Severing Wave.
While the Genin were training against the clock, the Jonin took one of Ino's Shadow Clones to search for Zabuza.
The three members of Team 7 experienced Team 10's internal competition firsthand, and all three felt immense pressure.
Sasuke transformed pressure into motivation, also taking three days to develop his own Lightning Release Chakra nature transformation. Kakashi truly admired this child. After a moment of thought, he taught Sasuke his unique technique from his youth, Chidori.
Lightning Release: Chidori is an improved version of Chidori, but they are not the same Ninjutsu. The former is an S-Rank Ninjutsu, the latter an A-Rank Ninjutsu. Lightning Release: Chidori is more condensed, while Chidori is more dispersed. Just like the Water Dragon Bullet and Water Formation Wall improved by the Second Hokage, Lightning Release: Chidori only requires three hand signs, while Chidori requires five.
Sasuke was incredibly excited. An A-Rank Ninjutsu! How many Ninja in the Ninja World knew an A-Rank Ninjutsu?
Ino had put immense pressure on him. He began to practice day and night, getting injured all over, but still gritting his teeth and enduring.
This technique was too difficult, and his Lightning Release foundation was also weak. Ino's progress was gradual, from D-rank to C-rank to B-rank, moving up step by step. Sasuke, on the other hand, was like learning Arabic numerals and then, without learning addition, subtraction, multiplication, or division, directly jumping to quadratic equations. How could he possibly handle that?
Kakashi had never taken on disciples before and realized this problem after teaching Chidori. He wanted to teach Sasuke a simpler Lightning Release Ninjutsu as a transition, but Sasuke refused to learn it, stubbornly sticking to Chidori!
---------------------------------
If you'd like to read the next 40 chapters in advance, you can support me on Patreon.
I regularly post chapter previews there, so you'll always be up-to-date and won't have to wait too long.
patreon.com/SolyuraMT
And if you enjoy the story, don't forget to give me a Power Stone. Your support really motivates me to continue translating!
