vncnus Chapter 94 Specialization
Chapter 94 Specialization
Chapter 94 Specialization
In the middle of the training ground, Taichi and Kakashi stood facing each other, forming opposing hand seals, and the competition began.
Taiichi launched the first attack, stepping forward and immediately unleashing a straight slash. Compared to the Hatake swordsmanship, which focuses on surprise attacks and assassinations, Taiichi's current swordsmanship is more majestic and domineering.
Because of the different scenarios in which they are used, Hatake swordsmanship is more adept at hit-and-run tactics and assassinations. This is because Sakumo-senpai frequently carried out such missions, and the circumstances prompted him to develop his swordsmanship primarily in this direction.
Taiyi's swordsmanship is often used in direct combat, so he is more adept at this.
However, this does not mean that there is nothing Taiichi can learn from the Hatake swordsmanship. On the contrary, there is a lot he can learn, since his swordsmanship foundation is based on the Hatake swordsmanship.
Facing Taiichi's straight slash, Kakashi met it head-on, his short sword skillfully meeting the tip of Taiichi's blade and deflecting the attack. Using the momentum, he slashed at Taiichi's neck with his short sword.
Feeling the subtle force from the blade and seeing the slashing edge coming towards him, Taichi remained calm. He sheathed his sword and blocked Kakashi's attack, then, taking advantage of the moment when the two passed each other, he slashed at Kakashi's ribs.
The move was fast and urgent, forcing Kakashi to retreat repeatedly. Taichi naturally wouldn't let this opportunity pass, turning around and stepping forward to follow up, slashing and thrusting with his short sword, forcing Kakashi to retreat and defend continuously.
It wasn't until Taichi launched dozens of attacks that Kakashi managed to stabilize the situation, at which point it was Kakashi's turn to counterattack.
Kakashi moved swiftly around Taiichi, his short sword flashing out like a venomous snake, always striking at Taiichi's weak points. This was the sharpness of the Hatake sword technique.
Taichi and Kakashi's short swords clashed occasionally, as they learned various exquisite sword techniques from the Hatake swordsmanship. After all, how could one person's self-exploration compare to the guidance of a master?
Meanwhile, Kakashi was increasingly alarmed as the fight progressed. Although the two were evenly matched, Kakashi could clearly sense that Taichi was still holding back, while he himself had already given his all.
Kakashi never expected Taichi to improve so much, which made him wonder if he had been slacking off lately.
"Kakashi, you're distracted!" With these words, Kakashi felt a sharp pain in his wrist, and the short sword in his hand fell to the ground. Then he saw the blade already pressed against his neck.
"I lost." Kakashi was quite frank about it. He had initially thought that his father's evaluation of Taiichi was an exaggeration, but this match showed him just the tip of the iceberg of Taiichi's strength.
After the contest ended, Taiyi sheathed his sword and returned home.
"Kakashi, you're really strong. I learned a lot from sparring with you."
This is no polite remark; the panel's prompts clearly state this.
[Sparring with swords, skill advancement: swordsmanship experience +100]
"Taiyi, don't say that. Compared to you, I feel like I've wasted a lot of time."
"Haha, maybe it's because I'm a year older than you, so I'm a bit stronger and faster," Taiichi laughed. "Besides, my swordsmanship is now more suited to head-on combat."
Kakashi nodded thoughtfully, it was unclear whether he agreed with Taichi's statement.
The two then trained together until evening before returning home. During this time, they had several friendly sparring sessions, all of which ended in Kakashi's defeat. However, this did not defeat Kakashi's confidence; instead, it gave him even greater motivation.
At that moment, Taichi seemed to see Guy's shadow appear behind Kakashi, giving him a thumbs up, showing his big white teeth, and laughing loudly.
Back at home, Taiichi pondered his next training plan. He didn't need to worry about taijutsu, but he still needed to carefully plan his ninjutsu.
Among the five elemental ninjutsu, fire, wind, and water are his strengths, but none are particularly outstanding. Taiyi is now considering whether he should specialize in one of them first and improve the power of that one ninjutsu.
After all, the same ninjutsu can be used in different ways by different people. Some people's Great Fireball is only one meter in size, but Madara Uchiha's Great Fireball can be as big as a house; ordinary people's Wind Release can only cut down a big tree, but Danzo's Vacuum Wave can cut through Susanoo.
All of this boils down to a ninja's proficiency in ninjutsu and their understanding of chakra nature transformation.
Taiichi doesn't need to worry about his proficiency in ninjutsu; for him, it's just a matter of practicing more.
On the contrary, his chakra nature transformation is something that has become very difficult to improve through practice alone. Although he has already reached level 8 in the nature transformation of wind, fire, and water, it is extremely difficult to advance further.
This forced Taiyi to focus his energy on improving one of his attributes first, in order to achieve a rapid increase in strength. After all, war was just around the corner, and he didn't have much time left to steadily improve his strength.
After careful consideration, Taiichi made a decision: to first improve his Fire Release nature transformation. After all, Konoha had the most ninjas skilled in Fire Release ninjutsu, and the records and information about Fire Release were also the most detailed, which could provide Taiichi with a lot of reference and guidance.
Many ninjas know Fire Release, and their understanding of Fire Attribute Nature Change varies. However, in Taiichi's view, the most important manifestation of Fire Attribute Nature Change is high temperature, and everything else is trivial.
Extreme high temperatures, temperatures that can instantly incinerate everything, are Taiyi's pursuit of fire-attribute transformations, and are also one of his goals.
Of course, to achieve this, Taiichi needs to learn more Fire Release ninjutsu, refer to their strengths and weaknesses, and also consult more people. Otherwise, even with the support of his stats, the speed of learning in isolation will be very slow.
When Taichi thought about learning more ninjutsu, he immediately thought of his master, Tsunade. Last time, he was tricked by Jiraiya into using his mission record to exchange for ninjutsu. Looking back, he was really stupid. Jiraiya had a teacher, not an ordinary ninja who could only rely on himself.
Thinking of this, Taiyi immediately got up, picked up paper and pen, and began to write a letter.
First came a string of mushy greetings, then an explanation of his recent situation, and finally, a request: that his master could provide him with some Fire Release ninjutsu, not asking for high quality, just plenty of it.
After blowing away the ink and reading it carefully again, Taiyi found no problems and the emotions expressed were sincere. He nodded in satisfaction and then used a spirit summoning technique to summon a small slug.
"I'm sorry to trouble you again, slug!"
"Yes, Taiichi."
After doing all this, Taiyi thought about his short-term goals and, finding nothing missing, arranged the next training plan.
After finishing his thoughts, Taiyi completed all his training for the day, lay comfortably on his bed, and fell into a deep sleep.
The training continued for four days. Taiichi put aside all his affairs and appeared at the hospital again. Today was the day that Yohei and Saori were to be discharged from the hospital, and Taiichi wanted to come and welcome them back to the team after their recovery.
Taiyi, who had just entered the ward, thought he would see the two of them's families, but to his surprise, there were only the two of them in the huge ward.
Sora Tsukikage and Rei Nakamura, who sustained less severe injuries, had already been discharged from the hospital, and Sakumo-senpai left the hospital the very next day.
As for their families, needless to say, aside from coming to take care of them for a day on the day of their admission, Yangping's father left a message later.
"You've become a fully-fledged ninja."
She left the hospital without looking back. Saori's father followed her, leaving the two of them alone in the hospital to recuperate.
"Haha, your father is really funny, just leaving you two in the hospital like that."
"They only saw that we had external injuries and would be fine after a couple of days, so they left with peace of mind," Yangping added, defending his father.
"Alright, let's not talk about this anymore. Have you packed all your things? We need to get ready to be discharged." Taiyi confirmed with the two of them again.
"Alright, alright, it's all packed up already. I never want to stay in this hospital again. I can't do this, I can't do that, I'm going crazy!"
"Haha, Yangping, if you hadn't been chatting with that nurse over there, the head nurse wouldn't have been so strict with you." Saori chuckled as she exposed Yangping's secret.
"I was just bored!" Yangping muttered to himself.
"Oh, is that so? That explains why people were giving me strange looks when I came here. Turns out it was because of you!" Taiichi joked.
The group chatted and laughed as they completed the formalities and left the hospital.
"Come on, let's go to my house. On your first day out of the hospital, I'll personally cook you a nice meal. I guarantee it will be delicious and suitable for your recovery."
"Really? Taiichi, I don't even remember the last time I ate a meal cooked by you?" Yangping exclaimed dramatically, his eyes wide.
Saori, standing next to her, was also filled with surprise and excitement, clearly looking forward to it as well.
The three chatted about all sorts of things on their way to Taiyi's house. Taiyi did not disappoint them and prepared a medicinal meal that was very suitable for people recovering from serious injuries. It was not only delicious, but also helped the two recover.
Yangping and Saori clearly felt Tai's concern for them. Without saying much, they turned their gratitude into appetite and devoured all the food on the table.
After the meal, the three of them lay back on the tatami mats to quietly digest their food.
"What do you think is the situation at Cheng's family right now?" Yangping suddenly asked, voicing his thoughts.
Everyone fell silent for a long time.
"This is what it means to be a ninja. From the moment you become a ninja, you must understand that you need to be vigilant at all times, because the slightest carelessness can lead to your death," Taiichi remarked.
Yangping sat up and looked at Taiyi with a solemn expression.
"Taiyi, if there were no conflicts in this world, would there still be these struggles between people?"
Hearing Yangping's question, Taiichi looked at Yangping with a face full of surprise, and even Saori next to him sat up straight. No one expected that Yangping would ask such a question.
"No conflict? That's much harder than world peace!" Taiyi looked up at the ceiling, his gaze seemingly looking through the room to the distant sky.
"Do you know the Sage of Six Paths?" Taiyi asked.
"Yes, there are records of this in the clan. Legend has it that the Ninja Clan was founded, and the chakra was passed down by the Sage of Six Paths."
Taiyi turned his gaze back to Yangping. He was surprised that Yangping, who was usually so carefree, even knew about such an ethereal legend. He truly deserved to be a ninja from a great clan.
"Legend has it that the Sage of Six Paths originally spread chakra to eliminate all kinds of conflicts in the world, so that people could connect with each other, understand each other, and thus eliminate conflicts and create a better world together."
"That's great, so why did it fail later?" Yang Ping asked, looking puzzled, clearly not understanding the key point.
"Yangping, do you have a secret?" Taiyi stared into Yangping's eyes.
"Yes, who doesn't have secrets?" Yang Ping replied matter-of-factly.
At this moment, Saori had figured everything out and revealed a knowing expression.
Seeing Saori's expression, Taiichi smiled. "Look, even Saori has figured it out, but you still can't," Taiichi gave Yohei a disdainful look, instantly dispelling the previous sorrowful atmosphere.
"Let Saori tell you!" Taichi winked at Saori.
Yangping scratched his head and looked at Saori with a thirst for knowledge.
Saori felt a little embarrassed at this moment, but she still mustered up her courage and, imitating Taiichi's approach, asked Yohei, "Would you be willing to tell us all your secrets? Remember, all of them!"
"Uh~ Of course not, there are many things I can't tell others!" Yangping said embarrassedly, as if he had done something shameful.
"Even you are unwilling to share all your secrets with us, let alone those in high positions of power, and those who hate each other!" Saori hit the nail on the head, pointing out the key point.
Yangping fell silent, carefully considering Saori's words. The more he thought about it, the more he felt that what she said made a lot of sense, and the less he had to say anything.
"Human hearts are inherently selfish!" Taiyi said at this moment. "Rather than hoping for a world without conflict, it is better to look forward to a more promising world peace."
"After all, if the world were truly at peace, then the biggest conflicts would disappear, and the world's struggles would be greatly reduced."
"Will the world really be at peace?" Saori asked, voicing the question that had been both on her mind and on Yohei's mind.
"Ah~ Haha, you shouldn't be asking me that, you should be asking the Hokage." Taiichi looked at the two waiting for his answer. "I'm younger than you two, how could I know the answer to such a question?"
"But I believe that day will come. If another ninja stronger than the First Hokage could appear, then at least the world should be at peace while he is alive." Taichi said, expressing his thoughts and resolving to become such a ninja.
"I really hope that day will come soon!" Yangping exclaimed sincerely.
"Then we have to work hard. Maybe we'll be the ones who achieve this greatness?" Taiyi encouraged the two of them.
The three looked at each other and smiled.
"Whether or not we can become that kind of person, we definitely need to work harder now," Yangping sighed.
"Yes, this mission was really dangerous. I don't realize it usually, but now that I'm actually in trouble, I realize how weak I am." Saori said softly, her voice trembling.
"So what are your plans?"
"My father asked me to go back for some special training. I have now awakened the three-tomoe Sharingan, and there are many Sharingan usage techniques that I need to learn." As he spoke, Yangping opened his scarlet Sharingan, the three tomoe slowly rotating in his eyes.
"Me too. My father is going to give me special training when I get back, especially my sealing techniques, which haven't been very effective in missions." Saori looked apologetic. She felt pressured because she had always played such a small role in missions.
"It's great that you all have your own plans, but individual training is important, and you can't forget teamwork," Tai-ti reminded everyone.
"Well then, since we have a long enough break this time, how about we get together once a week for a day of training to help the team gel and see how everyone is doing?"
Yangping and Saori both readily agreed, since they were a team and understanding each other's abilities was a necessary step.
Having finalized everything, Taiyi saw off his two teammates and then resumed his training.
As evening fell, Taiichi, who was practicing his taijutsu, suddenly felt a summons. Carefully sensing the frequency of the summons, Taiichi knew, according to his previous agreement with the slug, that it must be a reply from Tsunade.
Thinking of the contents of the letter he had sent to Tsunade, Taichi felt a surge of joy and couldn't wait to begin forming hand seals for the summoning jutsu.