Chapter 23: Special Training

Chapter 23: Special Training

Although Sakura had many wild ideas, very few of them were actually successful.

For example, there was one time Sakura asked Kakashi if soaking her hands in vinegar to soften the bones could increase her hand seal speed. As a result, she got a harsh scolding from Kakashi, who said her idea was wrong from start to finish and far below her usual standard!

First, soaking hands in vinegar cannot soften bones because vinegar cannot penetrate the body. Taking it a million steps back, even if it did penetrate, the body would neutralize it to maintain its acid-base balance, making it impossible for it to reach the bones. Finally, if by some miracle there was enough vinegar to actually soften your bones, then you could also check yourself into a hospital!

Second, softening bones does not increase hand seal speed. The function of bones is to support the body. What truly affects hand speed are ligaments and muscles. Decreasing bone strength would actually hinder the formation of seals!

Finally, the essence of what determines the speed of a ninjutsu is chakra, not hand seals! Hand seals are merely an aid to mobilize chakra. After becoming proficient with many ninjutsu, complete hand seals are not needed at all because your body has already memorized how that ninjutsu mobilizes chakra. For example, Naruto's Multi-Shadow Clone Jutsu requires about ten seals in its complete form, but after only a few months of practice, Naruto could complete the ninjutsu with just one seal! And for an elite ninja like Kakashi, commonly used low-level ninjutsu can basically be cast with no seals or a single seal!

In other words, things like "the fastest hand speed in the ninja world, six seals per second," are all just boasts for people who don't know any better. Please, even a person from Earth could do six seals per second! Moreover, hand seal speed is almost innate. After practicing seals to a certain extent—usually reaching the limit after two years—further training provides limited improvement.

In short, Sakura received a thorough lecture from Kakashi that time!

Besides this kind of completely ridiculous idea, there were also some wild ideas that were ineffective for various reasons.

For example, the Shadow Clone training cheat. This method was ineffective for Sakura, at least until her chakra reached a certain level. What was speechless was that Sakura told Kakashi about this method, wanting to give Naruto a cheat, only to find that Naruto couldn't really use this method either!

The reason was as follows.

After a shadow clone is dispelled, the clone's memories will return to the main body. Through experiments, Sakura discovered that this so-called "memory" only included recollections from the cerebral cortex, not muscle memory, or more accurately, motor memory—and this part is stored in the cerebellum. This is because the shadow clone does not completely simulate the human body; it only reproduces the main functions of the human body, omitting the details. Unless you could project the brain tissue and nerves within the human body into the shadow clone, only then would the corresponding memories be projected into the main body's nervous system after the shadow clone is dispelled.

We know that taijutsu training, firstly, trains the muscles, and secondly, through countless repetitions, it engraves the method of exerting force when punching or kicking into the body. This kind of memory is the most profound and has the fastest reaction time. But this memory does not pass through the cerebral cortex; it only travels through the body's neural circuits and is stored by the cerebellum!

Therefore, using shadow clones to train taijutsu is ineffective! It can neither train the muscles nor collect muscle memory!

Shadow clones can only be used to train specific ninjutsu, such as comprehending chakra nature transformation, because these things are accomplished by the brain!

So, the question is, does Naruto like to practice ninjutsu like this every day?

This lord... no, this lady, went through hell just to persuade Naruto to learn a few ninjutsu, okay! Sakura roared inwardly! Naruto is really wasting all my good intentions!

There were also some things like internal energy cultivation manuals that Sakura had once fantasized could be used to train chakra. Kakashi was noncommittal about this, even thinking the idea was not bad, but: "This is something no one has ever tried before. If you mess yourself up practicing it, don't come crying to me!"

Sakura immediately chickened out.

Come to think of it, the Earth she came from before she transmigrated was a materialistic world that couldn't be more normal. These things like internal energy were all fabricated fakes. How could Sakura expect something fabricated to become real in another world? Besides, Sakura didn't remember any internal energy cultivation methods!

The entire contents of the Yijin Jing are publicly available online, but how many people would actually memorize it?

Of course, setting aside specific internal energy methods, some of the philosophical speculation within them was still quite meaningful. After all, the Naruto world was full of strategists, conspirators, and politicians. People like thinkers and philosophers were a luxury for the ninja world, which had too little time for peace. Kakashi felt that after the efforts of a dozen generations, it might be possible to create an effective method of chakra training, rather than the current methods that rely on squeezing the body's potential and have ridiculously large, counterproductive side effects.

The Eight Gates Forbidden Technique, it was said, originated from a chakra training method that extremely squeezed the body's potential. Of course, the chakra expanded by this forbidden technique was only temporary, thereby minimizing the permanent damage to the body as much as possible.

The rest of the journey was without incident.

The next day, Sakura and the others arrived at their destination: the Land of Waves, Tazuna's home.

After resting for a night, the next morning.

"Zabuza is very likely to attack again... In order to protect Tazuna's family, we have to be prepared," Kakashi said, leading Sakura and the other two into a forest. "I've arranged a special training session for you!"

"But, Zabuza could come again at any time. How are we supposed to train under these circumstances?" Sasuke asked.

"Don't worry. The injuries Sakura inflicted on him will take at least a week to heal!" Kakashi held up a finger. "During this time, it's enough for you to complete your special training and have the strength to resist when more potential enemies attack. During this period, the task of protecting them can be handled by me!"

"Before we train, let me briefly tell you about chakra—"

"Chakra—? What's that? I feel like I've heard of it, but also like I haven't." Naruto looked confused.

"You idiot!! Where did all the explanations about chakra I've given you so many times go?! Why don't you get it into your head!" Sakura rolled her eyes helplessly, then mercilessly gave Naruto a bonk on the head!

Kakashi had a bit of a headache. As a ninja, not even knowing what chakra is, this is just too dumb!

Kakashi sighed wearily. "Alright, alright, then I'll have to trouble Sakura to explain it in detail!"

"Listen up! Chakra is a form of energy produced by the perfect fusion of spiritual energy and physical energy. It is the energy necessary to use ninjutsu. The so-called physical energy is the physical energy extracted from the 130 trillion cells of the human body, one cell at a time. And the other energy is the spiritual energy trained through much cultivation and accumulated experience."

Naruto wore an expression as if he were listening to a celestial scripture. "It seems very complicated, but even if I don't know this, as long as my body remembers it, it should be fine, right!"

"That's right. You can still use ninjutsu even if you don't know this!" Sasuke also expressed his indifference.

Kakashi shook his head and said, "You're wrong! Just that is not enough to completely control chakra! To truly control chakra perfectly, you should be like Sakura! In this aspect, Sakura has already done better than me!"

Sakura picked up the conversation. "So, you finally understand that the chakra control exercises I usually do are not just playing around, right!"

After much explanation, Kakashi and Sakura finally explained the importance of chakra control ability to the two of them.

However, it seemed that both of them were still in a state of half-understanding.

Sakura, who understood the two of them very well, knew that although Naruto looked silly and seemed to understand nothing, Sasuke, despite his cool expression, was actually not much better than Naruto. His scores at the academy were very high, but he was clueless about things the school didn't teach!

For these two, showing was more effective than telling.

"You just need to follow my practice. Watch carefully!" Sakura said solemnly, forming a hand seal. This was the seal for gathering chakra; many ninjutsu, when simplified to a single seal, only had this one left. "Like this, gather the chakra at the soles of your feet and let the chakra produce an adhesive force..."

Sakura lightly stepped onto the tree, as if gravity had changed direction, and walked straight up using only her feet. Finally, she stood upside down on a horizontal branch.

"The key is to maintain it evenly. You must concentrate when you practice!"

"Hmm, that's about it. Did you see that clearly? You can also give it a try!"

Below the tree, Naruto and Sasuke were dumbfounded. So you can do it like that! Then, the two of them each chose a tree, gathered their chakra, and charged forward.

Bang! Naruto hadn't even taken two steps before he used too much chakra, broke the tree trunk, and fell to the ground.

Sasuke's chakra control was a bit better than Naruto's, but only by a limited amount. Sakura had reminded them of the importance of chakra control before, but they didn't see the use in this basic training and had never practiced it seriously. Now, they were suffering the consequences.

Kakashi created a clone to guide the two in their training, then turned to Sakura.

"Alright then, as for your training, Sakura, let's go over there and talk."