Chapter 161: Last-Minute Effort

"Freak!"

Honglian couldn't help but mutter as she looked at the figure in the distant forest.

She had no idea how strong a person could become.

But now, she completely understood how freakishly talented someone could be.

Just a few hours ago, she thought Sasuke's last-minute effort was utterly childish.

But now, her face was written with shock.

Witnessing it firsthand!

In just a few fleeting moments, Sasuke Uchiha not only learned sealing techniques but also mastered them to an extraordinary level.

And this was sealing techniques!

The Uzumaki clan, who once excelled in sealing techniques, and the destruction of the Land of Whirlpools, were rooted in the very nature of these techniques.

While not necessarily a direct combat skill, mastering sealing techniques required an extremely high level of talent. The Uzumaki clan of the Land of Whirlpools were naturally endowed with vast chakra reserves and unrivaled sealing techniques in the ninja world.

This sparked fear among the major ninja villages, ultimately leading to the clan's downfall.

Sealing techniques hold immense significance, but every ninja in the world knows that mastering them is no simple task.

Yet, these incredibly difficult techniques seemed ordinary in front of Sasuke.

They posed no challenge at all. Previously, Honglian didn't believe there were geniuses as remarkable as legends suggested.

She thought they were merely slightly better than the average person.

But today, Sasuke shattered her beliefs.

"There really is a gap between people!"

At this moment, Sasuke in the distance stopped moving.

He breathed lightly.

Looking at the system interface, Sasuke revealed a satisfied smile.

[Congratulations, host, for successfully upgrading sealing techniques.]

[Sealing Techniques: Five-Element Seal (Mastery), Eight Trigrams Seal (Mastery), Four Symbols Seal (Mastery)]

These three selected sealing techniques, meant for sealing tailed beasts, were now fully mastered by Sasuke.

He had even reached the level of mastery, more than sufficient for sealing tailed beasts.

This time, Sasuke planned to use a triple-layer seal to help Kimimaro become a perfect jinchūriki.

This would significantly reduce the difficulty for Kimimaro in controlling the tailed beast's chakra.

After mastering the sealing techniques, Sasuke gained new insights into them.

So this is what sealing techniques are truly about.

If ninjutsu is a method of using chakra, then sealing techniques are like tracks.

You could say they are more specific than ninjutsu.

They are so specific that they strictly limit how chakra can be used.

It's like the difference between a road and a railway track.

On a road, you can still adjust your route to some extent according to your will.

But on a track, once you start moving, you can only follow the predetermined path.

Not an inch more, not an inch less.

Having reached the mastery stage, Sasuke decided not to continue.

After all, progressing further to the next stage—small success—would require significantly more time and energy.

With that time, Sasuke would rather train in curse marks.

[Special Status: Cursed Seal of Heaven (Lifted: 67% → 71%)]

Through several uses of the Cursed Seal of Heaven's power, Sasuke had already lifted it to 71%.

A little more effort, and he would soon achieve an injury-free activation of the second state of the curse mark.

This battle with a tailed beast also gave Sasuke many new insights into the chakra of curse marks.

Ultimately, the chakra of tailed beasts is just another form of natural energy.

It is merely a type of chakra nurtured by the God Tree after absorbing it.

The tailed beasts all originated from the God Tree. Ultimately, they are a new form of chakra brewed by the God Tree through absorbing natural energy and combining it with the power of the Ōtsutsuki clan.

In theory, this chakra should be a more advanced state compared to natural energy.

Similarly, the chakra from the cursed seal is also a type of senjutsu chakra, although it might be slightly inferior to standard senjutsu chakra.

Learning sealing techniques took Sasuke half a day.

And there was still over a day left until Kabuto's arrival.

To prepare for sealing the tailed beast later, Sasuke needed to enhance his chakra as much as possible.

However, refining chakra alone yields minimal increases.

At this point, it was better to focus on training in the cursed seal mode.

The chakra increase from cursed seal mode was far more significant.

Emerging from the forest, Sasuke noticed Honglian standing nearby with a peculiar expression.

"What's wrong with you?"

Hearing Sasuke's voice, Honglian shook her head. "Nothing!"

She was now deeply questioning her own existence.

Her confidence in her ninja talent was utterly shaken.

Sasuke shrugged, clueless about what was bothering her.

Returning to the cave where Kimimaro was staying, Sasuke found the Three-Tails immobilized by his lightning release technique. It was further restrained by the kekkei genkai abilities of Honglian and Haku.

Moreover, the Three-Tails had not yet regained consciousness, so there was no immediate danger.

Haku continued to monitor the Three-Tails while tending to Kimimaro.

"Sasuke-sama!"

Sasuke nodded slightly. "Any issues?"

"No, the Three-Tails remains completely inactive and doesn't seem likely to awaken anytime soon."

In that case, there was no need to worry for now.

"I'll be training here. Notify me immediately if there's any movement from the Three-Tails."

"Understood, Sasuke-sama!"

With that, Sasuke moved to a corner of the cave, sat cross-legged, and began training in the Cursed Seal of Heaven.

Sasuke's training regimen had grown increasingly demanding, covering ninjutsu, chakra, the cursed seal, Mangekyou Sharingan, wood release, nature transformation, taijutsu, and basic physical abilities.

Each of these required an immense amount of time.

Sasuke suddenly felt like he didn't have enough hours in the day.

It had been a while since he last trained in the Cursed Seal of Heaven. However, Sasuke was surprised to discover that his progress this time was astonishingly fast.

By forcefully combining his chakra with absorbed natural energy through the cursed seal, the formation of cursed seal chakra was occurring at a pace far exceeding his previous experiences.

He was also gaining a much deeper mastery over the cursed seal state.

This rapid progress was so exhilarating that Sasuke became entirely engrossed in his training.

Just as Honglian managed to calm herself down and walked back into the cave, she was immediately hit by the overwhelming chakra surging throughout the cave.

The chakra swirled like tidal waves, crashing through the air.

Honglian froze in shock once again.

Her eyes were fixed intently on Sasuke.

'This kid… is he a training maniac?'

'He's… at it… again!'

'And this energy… it's just… too intense!'

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