Konoha's Hextech Ninja

A thought flashed through Yagami Yoruichi's mind.

So far, aside from the 'Emperor Rui' template given in the newbie gift pack when the system was first activated, the only other time I chose Hextech was when I enrolled in the Ninja Academy.

The system message at the time was 'Job Promotion'.

In other words, the next opportunity to choose Hextech should be when you graduate from the Ninja Academy and officially become a Genin?

Should I apply for early graduation?

The thought only flashed through Yoruichi Yagami's mind for a moment before he extinguished it.

The ninja world is not safe at this time; even genin have to go to the battlefield.

As a "late-stage" character, the best course of action is to stay safely in the ninja academy and wait for development before fully maturing.

Graduating early might accelerate development, but the risks also increase exponentially, making it not cost-effective.

After all, the real world isn't like a game where you can revive from the fountain after you die.

If we are killed by the enemy, then we are truly dead.

"Let's not think about that anymore, let's train first. My chakra control and water-attribute transformation have improved a lot. Today is the weekend, so I have enough time to study the Water Chaos Wave ninjutsu."

Yoruichi Yagami quickly packed her things and headed out the door to the Konoha training ground.

Chapter 21 The Legendary Otsutsuki Ichiraku?

Chen-Chou-Mao.

"Water Release: Water Chaos Wave!"

A high-pressure jet of water shot out from Yagami Yoru's mouth, heading towards the jungle in front of him.

Dozens of large trees were covered by the water flow, but only two trees directly in front of them were knocked down. The rest only swayed a few times and had some bark peeled off, without suffering more serious impact.

"No."

Yoruichi Yagami shook her head slightly: "Spitting water out of the mouth is too restrictive."

"What if I release my chakra outside my body to form a stream of water instead of spitting it out of my mouth?" A thought popped into Yagami Yoruichi's mind.

Most ninjas prefer to release ninjutsu through their mouths because it is the easiest way to transform ninjutsu through the throat and mouth.

But this step is not actually necessary.

If one has a high enough grasp of chakra control and attribute transformation, one can certainly use it through other parts of the body.

For example, the ninjutsu 'Water Release: Water Wall' involves creating a large amount of water around the body for defense.

The Water Barrier, improved by the Second Hokage Tobirama Senju, creates whirlpools in the water flow, providing comprehensive defense against attacks from all directions.

"By the way, the water barrier of Tobirama Senju, that seal..."

Yoruichi Yagami suddenly recalled the strange hand seals used by Tobirama Senju when he used Water Release: Water Wall in the original story.

The standard Water Escape - Water Formation Wall requires five hand seals in the following order: Yin - Si - Zi - Si - Yin.

Tobirama Senju's Water Release: Water Formation Wall only has two hand seals, and the way these two seals are formed is completely different from the twelve standard hand seals.

"What are these two seals again?" Yagami Yoruichi recalled the scene from the story and tried to form two special hand seals of Senju Tobirama.

However, because one only knows the hand seal movements but does not understand how chakra is generated during the hand seals, such hand seals are merely empty shells and will not have any substantial effect.

"I'll ask the teacher next week." Yagami Yoruichi kept this in mind.

The hand seals created by Tobirama Senju might not be known to the ninja academy teachers, but if it's just a minor hand seal, the ninja academy wouldn't normally teach it, but senior ninjas might know about it.

In the ninja world, the twelve basic hand seals are the most common, but in addition to these, there are a number of other hand seals.

For example, many secret techniques passed down by esoteric families use hand seals that differ from conventional hand seals.

"Yo, Yoruichi-san~!"

A voice came from inside.

Yagami Yoruichi looked over in surprise, only to see Umino Ikkaku walking towards him.

“I knew you’d be here.” Umino Ikkaku looked at the mess around him, battered by the water, and a look of surprise appeared on his face.

"Ikkaku-senpai." Yagami Yoichi looked at Umino Ikkaku and asked with a smile, "Your mission is finished, senpai? Did it go smoothly?"

"It went very smoothly. I just got back to the village yesterday. I was thinking you'd be training here this weekend, so I came to check on you. You're really working hard."

Umino Ikkaku asked with a smile, "Are you practicing ninjutsu?"

"Yes, my teacher taught me Water Release: Water Chaos Wave." Yagami Yoruichi nodded, making no attempt to hide anything.

“Water Release, huh? That happens to be something I’m not good at. My wife, on the other hand, is quite skilled in it.” Umino Ikkaku chuckled, changing the subject and asking, “How’s your training going lately? Is there any problem with the training plan I gave you?”

“I have been following the training plan set out by my senior.” Yagami Yoruichi nodded and said with a smile, “Although it’s been a bit tough, the results are really good. I can feel that my body is growing much faster.”

After two months of natural physical development and training, Yagami Yoruichi estimated that her 'physique' attribute was around five or six points.

It's insignificant compared to system bonuses, but for an ordinary ninja academy student, this rate of improvement is already very fast.

After all, Yagami Yoruichi is only six years old and hasn't reached the stage of rapid development yet.

When they reach their teens, their physical growth enters a period of rapid increase, and the growth rate becomes astonishing.

According to the theories of the ninja world, the better the physical foundation before puberty, the faster the body will grow during the rapid development period of puberty.

“When I made the plan, I didn’t consider that you would also be learning ninjutsu. Since you will also be distracted by ninjutsu training, you should reduce the time spent on taijutsu training to avoid excessive physical exertion and affecting your physical development.”

Umino Ikkaku offered a reminder, then changed the subject, asking, "You're going to be doing high-intensity training now, which will require a lot of extra expenses. Is the village's subsidy enough to cover your costs?"

Yagami Yoruichi nodded in agreement.

High-intensity training is certainly very beneficial for physical growth, but the costs are also staggering.

Putting everything else aside, just maintaining the body's nutritional needs would require several times more in terms of food expenses.

If you want to ensure that no hidden injuries are left, you also need to regularly buy medicinal herbs to nourish your body, which will increase the expenses even more.

Even the former alone has already put Yagami Yoruichi's finances in a precarious situation.

As for tonic herbs, Yagami Yoruichi had absolutely no money to buy them.

“My neighbor, Tetsu, is planning to open a ramen shop.” Umino Ikkaku stated the purpose of his visit directly: “I’ve talked to him. If you’re willing, you can help him buy ingredients and deliver them to the shop every morning and evening. He will pay you according to the standard of one D-rank mission per week.”

D-level missions offer rewards ranging from 500 to 10,000 taels of silver.

It's just a small matter like delivering goods, so naturally it couldn't be fixed, and it probably wouldn't exceed a thousand taels.

However, even if it's only a thousand taels a week, it adds up to more than four thousand taels a month, which is not a small amount of money for Yagami Yoruichi.

Buying ingredients twice a day and having them delivered to the store doesn't take much time, so this 'part-time job' is quite worthwhile for Yagami Yoruichi.

However, Yagami Yoruichi's attention was not on the work itself, but on the neighbor's name that Umino Ikkaku had mentioned.

Typed by hand?

Could that ramen shop be the legendary Ichiraku Ramen?

In the original work, Konoha was destroyed several times, but Ichiraku Ramen remained unscathed, which can be described as a miracle.

Many Naruto fans even joked that the owner of Ichiraku Ramen is "Otsutsuki Ichiraku," which is why Ichiraku Ramen is the safest place in Konoha.

Of course, this is just a joke.

However, Yagami Yoruichi is still very interested in Ichiraku Ramen.

Thinking about it carefully, it seems that Ichiraku Ramen opened around this time.

“Ikkaku-senpai, I’m willing to accept this job,” Yagami Yoruichi said without hesitation.

It wasn't out of curiosity about Ichiraku Ramen.

He just wanted to make money.

After all, money is absolutely essential to maintain the high intensity of cultivation.

“I’ve already spoken to him. Go to this place and find someone called ‘Teuchi Ichiraku.’ Just say I recommended him.” Umino Ikkaku handed Yagami Yoruichi a slip of paper with an address written on it. “Since you’re not a formal ninja yet, this is considered part-time work, not a mission-based job, so it won’t be recorded in your mission resume. Well, that shouldn’t be a problem for you, right?”

Chapter 22 Nine-Syllable Mantra Seal

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 purchasing expenses were naturally reimbursed by Tōda Ichiraku, and the reward 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 is definitely considered a high-income group for ordinary people.

Of course, this only applies to ordinary people.

For ninjas with huge expenses, this amount of money is barely enough to get by.

In any case, getting this job at least greatly alleviated Yagami Yoruichi's tight financial situation.

With most of her worries resolved, Yoruichi Yagami was able to focus even more intently on her jutsu training and the improvements to her Water Release: Water Chaos Wave.

The weekend passed quickly, and the taijutsu training continued to progress steadily, but there was not much progress on the improvement of the Water Release: Water Chaos Wave.

At the start of 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 hand gestures."

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 and clenching the other fingers together, while the right hand wraps around the left, resembling a "thumbs up" gesture.

The second mudra is formed by crossing your fingers across your chest.

"Teacher, what are these two hand seals? They're completely different from the twelve earthly branch hand seals we learned in 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've never seen the second seal before. As for the first one, it seems to be one of the seals in 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. He 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 Mudra' on the scroll is very brief. Apart from the hand gesture diagram, there is only a simple sentence.

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

Yoruichi Yagami seemed to understand it but not quite. It appeared to have some connection with Buddhism, yet it also felt somewhat obscure and difficult to understand.

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

"I don't know about that." Nobuyuki Imai 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 will 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 Seal, 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 Seals.

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

If you just want to learn ninjutsu, there's no need to study 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 study the essence of ninjutsu from the side.

Remembering the Hokage's instructions, Nobuyuki Imai did not forbid Yoruichi Yagami from doing something that was clearly unbecoming of 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.

……