Konoha's Hextech Ninja

Yagami Yoruichi immediately went to the address on the note and met the legendary 'Otsutsuki Ichiraku'.

The other party's ramen shop is still in the preparation stage and will not open for another half month, so Yagami Yoruichi does not need to start work immediately.

Once the ramen shop officially opens, Yagami Yoruichi will have to start working.

As agreed by both parties, Yagami Yoruichi was required to purchase designated ingredients twice a day, once in the morning and once in the evening, from the shops that had agreed to supply them with Teuchi Ichiraku, and deliver them to the ramen shop.

The procurement costs were naturally reimbursed by Tateichiraku, and the payment was settled weekly, amounting to 1,200 ryo, which was higher than Yagami Yoruichi had expected.

Based on this calculation, Yagami Yoruichi could earn close to 13,000 ryo per month, which would definitely be considered a high-income group for ordinary people.

Of course, this only applies to ordinary people.

For ninjas with enormous expenses, this amount of money was barely enough to cover their costs.

Regardless, getting this job at least alleviated Yagami Yoruichi's tight financial situation considerably.

With most of her worries resolved, Yoruichi Yagami was able to focus more intently on taijutsu training and improving her Water Release: Water Chaos Wave technique.

The weekend passed quickly, and physical training continued to progress steadily, but there was not much progress on improving Water Release: Water Chaos Wave.

Upon arriving at school for the new week, Yagami Yoruichi immediately approached Imai Nobuyuki to inquire about the 'special handprint' that had been on her mind all weekend.

"Teacher, I saw someone using two very strange handprints."

Yagami Yoruichi imitated Tobirama Senju's movements from the original work, forming two strange hand seals.

The first hand gesture involves raising the left thumb while clenching the other fingers, and wrapping the right hand around the left, resembling a "thumbs up" gesture.

The second mudra is formed by crossing the ten fingers horizontally across the chest.

"Teacher, what are these two seals? They're completely different from the twelve earthly branch seals we learned in the seal-making class," Yagami Yoruichi asked in confusion.

"These two seals?" Imai Shinichi was taken aback. After thinking for a long time, he said somewhat uncertainly, "I haven't seen the second seal either. As for the first one, it seems to be one of the seals of the Nine Syllable Mantra."

"Wait a moment." Nobuyuki Imai got up, went to the bookshelf in his office, rummaged around for a while, took out a scroll, opened it and examined it, then nodded and said, "Found it, it is indeed the 'front' character seal from the Nine Syllable Mantra Seal, which means 'My mind is Zen, all transformations are in harmony.'"

With that, Nobuyuki Imai handed the scroll to Yoruichi Yagami.

The description of the 'Nine Syllable Mantra Seal' on the scroll is very brief, consisting of only a simple sentence and a diagram of the hand gestures.

Beneath the character "前" (before), there is only one sentence: "My mind is Zen, all transformations merge in the darkness—the fundamental body attains enlightenment."

Yoruichi Yagami seemed to understand it but not quite. It seemed to have some connection with Buddhism, but it also had a mysterious and difficult-to-understand feel to it.

"What exactly does this mean?" Yagami Yoruichi couldn't help but ask, "Besides the hand seals, shouldn't there also be a way to circulate chakra?"

“I don’t know about that.” Imai Nobuyuki shook his head and said, “The Nine Syllable Mantra Seal is something that ordinary ninjas don’t need to use at all, so there’s no need to deliberately try to understand it.”

“But…” Yagami Yoruichi scratched her head. Yagami Yoruichi wanted to learn Tobirama Senju’s version of Water Release and develop her own Water Release based on Tobirama Senju’s version.

To achieve this, one must master the Nine Syllable Mantra Mudra, or at least the 'front' syllable mudra.

Nobuyuki Imai saw through Yoruichi Yagami's thoughts and didn't press the matter. He simply said, "Don't worry, I'll try to find someone to ask for you, but it will take some time."

"Then I'll trouble you, teacher! There's another seal." Yagami Yoruichi made a gesture of interlacing her fingers.

“I’ll keep an eye on it.” Imai Nobuyuki nodded, pointed to the scroll in Yagami Yoruichi’s hand, and said, “Take this scroll and look at it first. You can make a copy and return it to me tomorrow. However, if you want to study the Nine Syllable Mantra Seals, I suggest you should master the Twelve Earthly Branch Seals completely.”

Yagami Yoruichi understood Imai Nobuyuki's meaning.

Simply knowing how to use them does not mean you have fully mastered the twelve standard hand seals.

The so-called mastery refers to a complete understanding of the essence and principles of the Twelve Earthly Branches.

This is something that many ninjas, even some Jonin, might not be able to do.

If the goal is simply to learn ninjutsu, there's no need to delve into hand seals to this extent.

Unless one is like the Second Hokage, Tobirama Senju, who wants to improve or even create his own ninjutsu, it is not necessary to delve into the essence of hand seals in order to indirectly study the essence of ninjutsu.

Remembering the Hokage's instructions, Nobuyuki Imai did not forbid Yoruichi Yagami from doing something that was clearly inconsistent with her status as a 'Ninja Academy student'; he merely gave her a few words of advice.

Even if he thought that Yagami Yoruichi was a genius, it was still unrealistic for her to start studying the essence of hand seals and ninjutsu right now.

But since the Hokage instructed him not to interfere too much with Yoruichi Yagami, he would naturally comply.

……

When Yagami Yoruichi returned to the classroom, Imai Nobuyuki had already arrived at the Hokage's office and recounted what had happened earlier.

"Lord Hokage, this is how it is," Nobuyuki Imai reported. "I have given the book on the 'Nine Syllable Mantra Seal' to Yoruichi Yagami. Whether or not to give him more knowledge in this area is a decision for you, Lord Hokage."

"These two hand seals..." The Third Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi, looked puzzled, muttering to himself, "It's definitely my teacher's technique. But where did he see those two hand seals?"

As a disciple of the Second Hokage, Tobirama Senju, Hiruzen Sarutobi, while not reaching Tobirama's level in Water Release techniques, would never mistake his teacher's signature ninjutsu.

The Water Release: Water Wall technique is known to many in the ninja world.

However, the Water Formation Wall with only two seals is Tobirama Senju's unique signature move, which even Hiruzen Sarutobi couldn't learn and could only obediently use the Water Formation Wall with five seals.

Logically speaking, after Tobirama Senju's death, no one in the ninja world should know the Water Formation Wall with two hand seals.

Where did Yagami Yoruichi learn about this hand seal method?

“Wait a minute…” Hiruzen Sarutobi suddenly remembered that he had an ‘old classmate’.

If anyone inherited the Water Release ninjutsu of the Second Hokage, Tobirama Senju, there was an incredibly low-key 'eternal genin' who was the only one to achieve this.

"Kosuke, is that you?"

A thought popped into Hiruzen Sarutobi's mind.

"Nobuyuki, since that child has talent and ambition, let's give him a chance." Hiruzen Sarutobi called out, "Haru!"

An undercover agent suddenly appeared, seemingly out of nowhere, in the office.

"Qing, take Xinzhi to copy down some information about the 'Qian' seal and the 'Ren' seal. Xinzhi should then give it to Yagami Yoruichi." Hiruzen Sarutobi ordered, "Xinzhi, I'm giving you a task. Keep an eye on Yagami Yoruichi's progress in learning these two seals. Once you've made any progress, report back to me immediately. I need to confirm whether this child has enough talent in seal formation."

Imai Nobuyuki immediately stood up straight and shouted, "Yes, Hokage-sama!"

Chapter 23 Water Chaos Part Two

"So it was the 'Ren' seal."

When Yagami Yoruichi received the scroll copied by Imai Nobuyuki, she immediately understood the meaning of the gesture of crossing her ten fingers when Senju Tobirama used the Water Formation Wall.

Simply put, the 'Ren' seal has no specific requirements; any hand gesture can be made, and theoretically, it can replace any hand seal.

But having no requirements is actually the most demanding requirement.

This requires a complete understanding of a ninjutsu and the essence of all the hand seals that make up that ninjutsu, in order to replace the other hand seals with a simple 'Rin' seal.

The Water Release: Water Formation Wall version by Tobirama Senju simplifies the five seals 'Tiger-Snake-Rat-Snake-Tiger' into two seals 'Front-Ren'.

As for the specific principles behind it, since Yagami Yoruichi did not master the Water Release: Water Wall ninjutsu, it is impossible to make a clear judgment.

However, based on the description of the 'Ren' seal, it is likely that Tobirama Senju used a single 'Ren' seal to directly replace the five seals 'Yin-Si-Zi-Si-Yin'.

As for the function of the 'pre-' imprint, it is actually the 'superego', used to allow oneself to enter a special 'state'.

It may seem mysterious, but in the simplest terms, it means to release and convert chakra at an extremely high efficiency in an instant, while also having a high degree of control over the ninjutsu released.

The reason why Tobirama Senju's Water Release: Water Formation Wall has a scale far exceeding that of ordinary people, and its special 'rotating vortex' structure, is due to the effect of this seal.

However, while understanding them is one thing, truly mastering these two seals is still very difficult.

The Nine-Character Mantra Seal has a much higher entry barrier than the Twelve Earthly Branches Seal.

"But this 'forward' seal can maximize the efficiency of chakra release and conversion, which should be of great help in increasing the scale of ninjutsu."

A scene flashed through Yagami Yoruichi's mind: she formed the 'forward' hand seal and instantly poured a large amount of chakra into a ninjutsu, causing the ninjutsu's scale to increase tenfold or a hundredfold.

For a ninja like Yoruichi Yagami with a massive amount of chakra, mastering the 'Forward' seal would have an immediate and significant boost to her combat power.

Especially in the later stages, this hand seal became increasingly helpful to Yoruichi Yagami.

As for the seal with the character '壬', although it is also important, its priority is lower than that of the seal with the character '前'.

However, mastering the seal of the character '前' is not an easy task.

Yoruichi Yagami asked Nobuyuki Imai to find her a lot of information about basic hand seals. She combined this information to study the principles of hand seals in depth and tried to master the 'front' hand seal.

But by the end of the semester, there had been virtually no progress.

However, through continuous training, Yagami Yoruichi's taijutsu and proficiency in Water Release: Water Chaos Ninjutsu have both improved considerably.

Especially the latter, Yagami Yoruichi has already begun to break free from the limitation of using mouth 'spit' ninjutsu, and can directly generate water flow outside her body to create high-pressure water jets to shoot at the enemy.

The speed at which the water turbulence is released has also been reduced to about one second, which is a significant improvement.

In physical combat, it's difficult to find a two-second opening, but a one-second opening is much easier.

This means that Yagami Yoruichi's Water Release: Water Chaos Wave has transformed from a ranged technique that could only be used in specific situations into a powerful weapon that can also be used to find opportunities to kill enemies in close combat.

At close range, it is naturally more difficult to dodge or block ninjutsu, and the threat to the enemy is also greater!

……

At the Konoha training ground.

After parrying Kakashi Hatake's slash, Yagami Yoruichi threw the kunai in his hand, aiming it at Kakashi Hatake's chest.

At the same time, he quickly formed hand seals.

"Water Release: Water Chaos Wave!"

Three high-pressure water jets formed directly beside Yoruichi Yagami and surged toward Kakashi Hatake.

Bang~!

Kakashi Hatake's body was hit by the water and instantly turned into a piece of wood, clearly indicating that he had used the Substitution Jutsu to change his position.

"No matter how strong your ninjutsu is, it's meaningless if you can't hit!"

Kakashi Hatake's voice rang out from behind Yoruichi Yagami, who had somehow already circled around behind Yoruichi and launched a surprise attack.

He leaped down from the treetops, using the force of his fall to slash at Yagami Yoruichi's shoulder with his wooden dagger.

Even an unsharpened wooden sword would definitely cause injury if it were struck like that.

However, for the two of them, this level of competition is already commonplace.

"I knew you were good at using doubles and clones, so how could I not be on guard?"

Yagami Yoruichi's lips curled slightly, and his hand gesture changed. He raised two fingers and formed the "Mitsu" hand seal with one hand, mobilizing the chakra that had already spread out of his body.