Konoha Light

The healing speed of medical ninjutsu is not particularly fast. Even for high-level techniques like the "Mystical Palm Technique," treating large wounds such as scratches still takes at least five minutes (for a regular medical ninja).

During this waiting time, Morikawa continued explaining,

"Medical ninjutsu activates the body's energy within Chakra through hand seals, then directs and releases the activated Chakra in a specific way."

Shimizu thought for a moment and then shared his understanding:

"So, you could say that Chakra is the known variable, ninjutsu is the formula, and hand seals are the tools that help solve the equation. The more complex the technique, the more intricate the formula, which requires more hand seals as an auxiliary solving tool. The final result is the ninjutsu we perform."

Morikawa was surprised by this novel explanation. She subconsciously felt that it made sense, but since the basic education of ninja training never emphasized this perspective, she was slightly doubtful.

"Why do you think that way?"

Shimizu replied seriously,

"Today at the library, I read Introduction to Chakra, Comprehensive Ninjutsu Studies, Concise Ninja Laws, and several other books. They all stated that performing ninjutsu relies on three key factors: having enough Chakra, making the correct hand seals, and completing the full ninjutsu formula."

The three other girls nearby looked puzzled.

"Isn't that just common knowledge?"

"But I heard that the First Hokage of Konoha could perform healing techniques without using hand seals," Shimizu added.

"In other words, the process of making hand seals can be skipped?"

To Shimizu, if hand seals were like a computing device, then the First Hokage was a mental arithmetic grandmaster who could bypass the cumbersome middle steps entirely.

"It seems like you've realized the impact of hand seals on medical ninjutsu!" Morikawa sighed in admiration.

"Every second we take to make hand seals could mean life or death for an injured person. That's why every medical ninja must dedicate a lot of time to mastering faster hand seals."

"But don't think too much about performing jutsu without hand seals. Even the medical department head can't do that. Focus on improving your hand seal speed instead."

Shimizu nodded firmly.

"I will."

His vision was far-reaching, but he never underestimated small foundational skills. He understood that without accumulation, there could be no breakthroughs. Those who blindly pursued advanced techniques without mastering the basics often strayed from the path.

Seeing that Shimizu was not blindly arrogant, Morikawa felt relieved and continued explaining,

"The difficulty of medical ninjutsu is much higher than that of regular ninjutsu or genjutsu. The key difference lies in Chakra control. Regular ninjutsu only requires redirecting Chakra within the body using hand seals, but medical ninjutsu requires precise manipulation of Chakra to form specific types of life energy."

one of the girls, raised her small hand and asked,

"Senior Morikawa, why don't we directly extract life energy when using medical ninjutsu?"

Morikawa frowned and replied with mild irritation,

"You're a ninja, and you've forgotten even the most basic knowledge? Life energy and spiritual energy are abstract concepts. Only after the two fuse into Chakra does it become something tangible. The only way to directly extract pure life energy would be if someone's vitality was so strong that it could materialize… But how is that possible?"

The girl shrank back in embarrassment, realizing she had spoken without thinking.

Shimizu, on the other hand, held his chin in deep thought.

"Regular people have non-elemental Chakra and add nature transformations to use elemental jutsu. Senjutsu (Sage Techniques) are powerful because they alter the very essence of Chakra. The First Hokage's strength… Could it be related to a fundamental change in his Chakra's nature?"

That night, inside a small wooden house…

Shimizu sat at a table, picked up a knife, and carefully made a small cut on the back of his left hand.

His hands formed a series of quick seals, and then he placed his glowing, light-green right hand over the wound.

"It itches a little… and there's some pain. This should be due to the accelerated growth of granulation tissue. But the nerve endings are recovering slowly…" He muttered to himself, carefully analyzing the sensations.

"One minute? Even for such a tiny wound, one minute is still my limit."

He quietly recorded his body's feedback.

This wasn't self-harm, nor was he catching small creatures to experiment on. He did this because only his own body could provide the most accurate feedback.

If healing with medical ninjutsu alone gave 1 unit of experience, experimenting on external subjects might yield 3 units of experience. But using himself as the subject provided a full 10 units of experience!

Given his limited daily Chakra capacity, this was the best way to improve his skills efficiently.

Moreover, he needed to fully understand his own pain tolerance and the precise timing of recovery when using medical ninjutsu.

As a medical ninja, he had to ensure that he maintained absolute control over his own physical condition at all times.

"Only by doing this will I be able to control my injuries… during the fight in half a month."

Time passed quickly.

During the day, Shimizu attended classes diligently. At noon, he buried himself in the library. After school, he used Asuma's "free labor." In the evenings, he practiced independently at home, and on weekends, he trained at the hospital.

Although there were occasional moments of youthful romance, Shimizu easily brushed them aside and devoted all his energy to his intense study routine.

Before he knew it, half a month had passed.

Ding—

The end-of-school bell rang on time. Cheers erupted in the classroom, and then, almost as if rehearsed, everyone turned to look at the two main figures of the day.

Because they had privately agreed to "settle things," Shimizu had chosen to conduct the match after school to avoid wasting class time.

"Shimizu, you have to win!"

"Class rep, we're counting on you!"

"Asuma… no, wait, I said the wrong name."

The crowd was cheering for the "two fighters."

Asuma, who normally didn't care much for others' opinions, couldn't help but feel a little bitter upon hearing this.

At that moment—

"Asuma, you got this!"

Hearing a sudden supportive voice, Asuma felt a surge of motivation. Did he finally have some supporters?

He turned toward the source of the voice, only to find the female students in the class had formed a unified front, yelling at him:

"If you dare to win against Shimizu, we won't forgive you!"

"You can't say that. If Shimizu-sama gets upset, that's even worse. But if you dare to hurt him… hmph hmph!"

"Aiya, don't say that! If you keep talking, Asuma's going to cry!"

They didn't actually hold any deep resentment toward Asuma. Since he and Shimizu had become "friends," they had started seeing him in a better light—after all, someone who could befriend Shimizu-sama couldn't be all that bad.

That being said, their warning was very real.