Konoha Village
Evening. Sakura woke up with her entire body aching. She had left home early in the morning only to return and sleep, earning herself another round of nagging from her mother. Fortunately, Karin was there to explain things.
"Karin, have you mastered the Healing Jutsu?" Sakura asked, seeing Karin practicing the jutsu she had taught her that morning.
"I can use it, but I don't know how effective it is," Karin replied.
Sakura got out of bed and walked to the desk. She picked up a kunai and made a cut on her pale arm. Blood immediately welled up, and the pain made Sakura wince.
That's strange, Sakura thought, looking at the wound on her arm with some confusion. I didn't mean to cut so deep. Oh well, she'd use it to let Karin practice her healing.
"Come, try to heal this," Sakura said to Karin.
Karin used the Healing Jutsu, placing her hand over the wound on Sakura's arm. The effect wasn't very good. Ten minutes had passed, and Sakura's wound showed no signs of healing, it had simply stopped bleeding.
Sensing Karin's Healing Jutsu, Sakura couldn't help but feel a little disappointed. It seemed Karin still needed a lot of practice. Not everyone had exceptional chakra control skills. Besides the more advanced Mystical Palm Technique, the Healing Jutsu could be used with enough diligent practice; the difference lay in its effectiveness.
"Okay, that's enough for now. Just keep practicing, and you'll get better," Sakura said. She then covered the wound with her own Mystical Palm Technique. The wound healed in moments, leaving only newly formed, tender pink skin.
"I'm sorry, Sakura... I disappointed you," Karin said, feeling a little down after seeing such a huge difference.
"It's okay. Just keep practicing..." Sakura shook her head.
After dinner, Sakura left Karin at home to continue practicing the Healing Jutsu and went to the training grounds. Sakura felt like her strength had increased considerably. It was so obvious that she had accidentally snapped her chopsticks during dinner.
She had already found it strange when she cut herself. After accidentally breaking the chopsticks, Sakura was certain that her strength had increased.
After a series of physical tests at the training grounds, Sakura was surprised to find that her physical abilities had more than doubled, and her chakra had also increased slightly.
Sakura tried using the Lightning Release Chakra Mode. Sure enough, her body could withstand more lightning-natured chakra, and her speed and strength had also increased significantly.
Sakura had a guess as to why this was happening. It was probably because of the Creation Rebirth technique.
By constantly healing the damage caused by the lightning-natured chakra, her body gradually adapted. The adaptation to lightning release, which should have taken a long time of training, was accelerated due to the rapid cell regeneration.
The power of the lightning release also acted on the body. Under the training of the lightning-natured chakra, the cells gradually strengthened, leading to a significant increase in physical fitness.
Under the moonlight, the young woman's skin resembled white jade. Looking at her slender hands, Sakura was slightly dazed.
She had inadvertently found another path to training, one that could rapidly increase her strength. The cost, however, was a shortened lifespan.
But it was an equal exchange. The lifespan consumed was simply the time she would have spent training. Besides, there were ways to replenish life force in the ninja world.
She knew of at least one: Chiyo's One's Own Life Reincarnation technique from Sunagakure.
There were also Hashirama's cells, and the Yang power Naruto would later receive from the Sage of Six Paths.
Sakura was constantly conflicted. On one hand, there was the rapid acquisition of power; on the other, there was steady, gradual training.
Feeling the increase in her current strength, Sakura was a little lost. If it were Sasuke, he would probably choose to rapidly increase his strength... After all, Sasuke wouldn't refuse any kind of power, no matter the cost.
After much deliberation, Sakura ultimately abandoned this idea. Her chakra control talent was good; becoming obsessed with nin-body techniques would be going down the wrong path. Even if she did pursue that route, she wouldn't necessarily be stronger than the Raikage.
Limited by her body – she was a beautiful young girl now, after all – building a body full of muscles through nin-body techniques just felt…weird.
Having decided to give up on nin-body techniques, Sakura began to try developing new ninjutsu.
From a very early age, Sakura had continuously practiced chakra control techniques. This wasn't just to learn ninjutsu faster, but also to develop a bloodline limit.
Apart from bloodline limits based on bodily organs, bloodline limits formed by combining two chakra nature transformations could be cultivated after birth.
The benefits of a bloodline limit went far beyond gaining a new chakra nature. It could also increase one's chakra reserves.
Once a bloodline limit was formed, it would be recorded in the body, altering the genes and allowing it to be passed down to the next generation through blood relations.
Ninjas with bloodline limits in the ninja world never had to worry about their chakra reserves, because the new genes compensated for the body's deficiencies.
Those who could cultivate bloodline limits on their own were all exceptionally brilliant geniuses.
Sakura believed that super-high chakra control skills were the first step in combining two chakra nature transformations. That's why she had practiced chakra control diligently for over a decade.
Now was the time to test the results of her decade-long efforts. Sakura currently had three chakra natures: Earth, Water, and Lightning.
Leaving aside the Wood Release that combined Earth and Water, Sakura decided to cultivate Storm Release, which combined Lightning and Water.
This was because the Water Blade ninjutsu was the first ninjutsu she had developed. She had used it quite smoothly over the years, and it didn't consume much chakra. Adding lightning release would greatly increase the Water Blade's power.
As for Wood Release, Sakura felt that the First Hokage's Wood Release contained Yang Release. Even if Sakura synthesized Wood Release, she probably wouldn't be able to use it at the First Hokage's level. Moreover, Wood Release ninjutsu were all high-consumption techniques, which Sakura, who always used her chakra sparingly, disliked.
Storm Release, on the other hand, absorbed the characteristics of Water and Lightning. Lightning Release was difficult to control in terms of shape, but it was extremely powerful. Water Release had strong shaping capabilities, but its attack power was inferior to Lightning Release. Combining the two natures to complement each other's weaknesses perfectly addressed Sakura's current shortcomings.
Controlling Lightning Release with one hand and Water Release with the other, Sakura slowly brought her hands together.
Nothing happened. Sakura only felt her hand go numb from the electricity.
Dispelling the chakra, Sakura felt something was wrong. She experimented again, and the result was the same as the first time. Apart from her hand being numb from the electricity, there was no change.
She thought for a moment, then used the Water Blade with added lightning release with one hand, trying her best to control the lightning to merge with the Water Blade. But there was still no change.
Apart from increasing the Water Blade's penetrating power, there was still no manifestation of a new nature's characteristics.
When she had developed the Lightning Release Water Blade, Sakura had thought that by frequently using this technique, she would eventually master it, and it would be helpful when she truly synthesized a bloodline limit.
But now, it seemed that Water Release was still Water Release, and Lightning Release was still Lightning Release. What she was using was still a combination ninjutsu, not Storm Release.
How am I supposed to do this? Sakura sank into deep thought.
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