Chapter 8: Seal Practice

After studying chakra without much gain, Uchiha Kiyoshi felt frustrated. It seemed that things were not as simple as he had imagined. Since he had crossed over to this world, it was indeed a real world, and he couldn't treat others as fools. Many ninjas must have already tried what he thought of, so how could he expect to find something unique?

Uchiha Kiyoshi adjusted his mindset and pondered his own path. He had previously thought that many things were easy, but when he actually tried them, he realized they were truly difficult, or even impossible to succeed. He reflected on his past mistakes, "I was too presumptuous. This is a real world, and not everything revolves around me. Many things require step-by-step efforts to succeed, and it's best to avoid unrealistic ideas."

He revised his plan accordingly. In the real world, unexpected events could happen at any time, and not everything would go according to his expectations. He could only strive to keep the general direction unchanged and adapt to unforeseen circumstances when dealing with minor matters.

Continuously reflecting, Uchiha Kiyoshi formulated a new plan: to gradually become stronger overall. As for short-term goals, during the remaining years at the Ninja Academy, he aimed to reach the level of a Chunin, ensuring his safety.

"Kakashi became a Chunin at the age of six, so it shouldn't be too much for me to become one at ten," Uchiha Kiyoshi set a goal for himself, determined not to waste any more time.

...

In the ninja world, ninjutsu was the guarantee of a ninja's strength. Only by mastering powerful ninjutsu could one truly unleash their potential. Otherwise, like Naruto in the early stages, possessing chakra alone would not be enough to fully demonstrate their abilities.

The two most crucial aspects of ninjutsu release were having sufficient chakra and performing the correct hand seals. Of course, some special ninjutsu could be performed without hand seals.

In Uchiha Kiyoshi's understanding, not using hand seals didn't mean that nothing needed to be done. It relied on proficiency or exceptional chakra control to skip the process of hand seals. Hand seals, in simple terms, were the process of manipulating chakra as a ninja.

Hmm... these were things Uchiha Kiyoshi had read in the information room. As for chakra, he had no way to accelerate its accumulation. All he could do was thoroughly understand the process of hand seals.

Perhaps due to receiving the most scientific education in his previous life, progressing step by step from the basics to advanced levels made learning many things easier. Therefore, when he arrived in the ninja world, Uchiha Kiyoshi couldn't help but want to explore the essence of many things.

Or rather, he didn't necessarily have to explore everything himself. As long as he could propose a relatively basic theory and then learn based on that, the efficiency would greatly increase.

Take ninjutsu, for example. For now, he didn't need to delve into the principles of releasing ninjutsu. What Uchiha Kiyoshi needed at the moment was to learn ninjutsu quickly. To release ninjutsu, a ninja only needed to perform the correct hand seals and have sufficient chakra. However, how could one determine what constituted the correct hand seals?

Therefore, in the past four years, Uchiha Kiyoshi focused on studying theoretical knowledge about ninjutsu, excluding medical ninjutsu and sealing techniques. He learned about the purpose of hand seals, the techniques involved, and so on.

From this, he learned that different ninjas required different hand seals to perform different ninjutsu. With enough proficiency and chakra control, some hand seals could be omitted!

This was precisely what Uchiha Kiyoshi needed to explore—how to omit hand seals and why it was possible.

"Anyway, I'm only six years old now, so it's not time to learn ninjutsu yet. I still have time to study on my own. Uchiha Kiyoshi is not afraid of failure. Even if I fail, perhaps this research process will be useful for my future studies.

At this moment, I still have limited knowledge, so I can only continue accumulating knowledge. Only through a solid foundation can I truly establish the theoretical system I desire.

Yes, building a system. Uchiha Kiyoshi wants to establish his own theoretical system to explain his understanding of many things and make it easier for him to create his own ninjutsu in the future.

Of course, for now, I'll put the research aside and focus on more important things.

"First, practicing the hand seals."

Uchiha Kiyoshi doesn't even know how to perform the hand seals yet, so how can he conduct research, right? Ninja hand seals are divided into twelve: Rat, Bird, Boar, Hare, Monkey, Snake, Horse, Ram, Monkey, Bird, Dog, and Boar. Uchiha Kiyoshi practices them one by one in order.

Starting from the initial awkwardness, gradually becoming more proficient, after an afternoon's time, Uchiha Kiyoshi's speed in performing the hand seals has reached... one seal every two seconds...

Uchiha Kiyoshi is also frustrated, but there's no other way. He can only practice the hand seals more, allowing his fingers to become proficient in the movements of each seal. As a beginner in practicing hand seals, he should focus on proficiency and let his fingers adapt to each movement. Blindly pursuing speed would only result in subpar performance.

Therefore, in the next few days, Uchiha Kiyoshi didn't pay too much attention to the speed of the hand seals but instead randomly performed the twelve seals, allowing his fingers to become proficient in various seal forms and enabling him to quickly respond and perform the corresponding seals as intended.

During this process, although Uchiha Kiyoshi didn't pursue speed, he still maintained each seal for around two seconds. For Uchiha Kiyoshi, who was gradually becoming proficient, the pressure wasn't too great.

This way, there was another benefit: less strain on his fingers and longer practice sessions.

However, even so, daily practice still caused Uchiha Kiyoshi's fingers to ache and swell.

Fortunately, as a member of the Uchiha clan, many things were well-established, including specialized medications for treating and relieving finger fatigue. These were specifically prepared for ninjas practicing hand seals, and after generations of improvements, the effects were excellent.

Moreover, if clan members bought them, they could enjoy an 80% discount.

Compared to medicinal baths, these medications were much cheaper, and a month's supply only cost ten thousand. Uchiha Kiyoshi could barely afford it.

With the medication, Uchiha Kiyoshi's fingers received timely treatment, and his progress was not slow.

In just five days, Uchiha Kiyoshi had already surpassed the beginner stage. He could now quickly react and perform the seals he wanted.

Uchiha Kiyoshi also secretly tried using his full power, and his speed in performing the hand seals had reached one seal per second!

Five days, a twofold increase in speed was already quite fast. Uchiha Kiyoshi could also feel that with his daily practice, he could continue to improve even further.

"The practice of hand seals has reached a preliminary stage. From now on, I just need to practice every day. The next step is to explore the principles of hand seals."

Uchiha Kiyoshi had seen some explanations about hand seals in the library.

Chakra is formed by the fusion of physical and spiritual energy within the body, so besides using one's control abilities to directly manipulate chakra, the body's movements can also induce the circulation of chakra. Among them, the most precise part of the human body, the hand, naturally became the focus.

Different hand seals would cause different reactions in the circulation of chakra within the body.

Previously, Uchiha Kiyoshi only knew about this explanation, but he didn't understand the underlying reasons and what those different reactions meant.

"Today, let me experience what these different reactions are all about."

Uchiha Kiyoshi focused his mind, paying attention to the chakra within his body, and started performing the hand seals.

As he performed the seals, Uchiha Kiyoshi could feel the chakra within his body showing a tendency to circulate. However, because his attention was focused here, the chakra was still under Uchiha Kiyoshi's control and hadn't started circulating on its own. As long as he didn't hinder it, the chakra should circulate along with the hand seals.

Then, Uchiha Kiyoshi released his control and even actively pushed the chakra to complete the corresponding circulation. He continued his research.

"So that's how it works. Different seals correspond to different changes in chakra. The combination of seals also signifies a connection in the circulation of chakra. For example, the Rat seal can cause chakra to circulate to the right arm, and the Boar seal can allow the circulating chakra to continue to the hand. So by performing the Rat seal followed by the Boar seal, chakra will directly circulate from the lower abdomen to the right arm and then continue to the hand.

Among them, one should pay attention to the connections between different seals. Only by controlling the timing well can this process be successfully completed. Otherwise, if the chakra hasn't circulated to the arm yet and the Boar seal is performed, the process cannot be completed.

Moreover, there are multiple such connections. The Rat seal combined with the Boar seal, in addition to this process, can also cause chakra to circulate to the left leg and then continue to the left foot. There are other processes as well, and some of them require the same amount of connection time.

In that case, the release of ninjutsu should involve specific chakra circulation processes, and what the ninja needs to do is to complete the correct circulation?"

Uchiha Kiyoshi felt that he had found the correct way to learn ninjutsu.

Overjoyed, Uchiha Kiyoshi continued his research, wanting to see the approximate combinations between different seals.

"Isn't this just permutation and combination from high school mathematics? I understand this!"

With full confidence, Uchiha Kiyoshi began his continuous attempts, trying to find all the chakra reactions corresponding to each hand seal and then combining them.

However, just when Uchiha Kiyoshi was mentally prepared to continue his research, the soreness in his fingers awakened him.

"Ah! I was so focused on my research that I didn't consider the capacity of my fingers. I miscalculated. I can only wait for my fingers to recover before continuing."

Uchiha Kiyoshi sighed helplessly and had to pause his research.

Now, upon careful reflection, Uchiha Kiyoshi was taken aback by the various chakra changes corresponding to different hand seals.

"Just for a single hand seal, there are over twenty different chakra movements?"

Thinking of this, Uchiha Kiyoshi realized that he had acted impulsively, starting to try them one by one. He should have known that this was a problem of permutation and combination. It seemed he wasn't calm enough.

Now that his hands couldn't move, Uchiha Kiyoshi could only rely on imagination and recall his previous sensations, trying out various combinations and summarizing his recent experiences.

As Uchiha Kiyoshi categorized them, he discovered that hand seals had a significant impact on chakra, likely more than he could research on his own.

Why did he say that? When Uchiha Kiyoshi categorized them, he found that the chakra reactions caused by hand seals were not directly linked to the previous seal. Some reactions only indicated a chakra trend without fully controlling its flow. The ninja needed to subjectively control it and "push" it when performing the hand seals.

This meant that there were likely many trends he hadn't perceived.

Moreover, under normal circumstances, a ninja's chakra was stored in their lower abdomen, not dispersed throughout the body.

In other words, the changes caused directly by the hand seals only affected the chakra in the lower abdomen! If there was chakra in places where there wasn't any before, what kind of changes would it cause?

"This project is too vast, isn't it? No wonder creating ninjutsu is so difficult. So, this is how it is?

Is this method unique to me, or do many others know about it?"

Uchiha Kiyoshi analyzed continuously, feeling uncertain and amazed, but he eventually calmed down.

"It shouldn't be the case. Otherwise, there would have been some records about it.

Many ninjas probably rely on others' guidance, remembering the required chakra flow routes and accumulating them over time.

Only I would be so bored as to try to experience and summarize them one by one, right?"

Actually, Uchiha Kiyoshi guessed wrong. How could it be possible that no one in the entire ninja world had thought of doing this? It was just that such people were rare, and usually, these ideas were attempted by beginners in their early stages of training. However, their chakra control abilities were not as exceptional as Uchiha Kiyoshi's, making it difficult to discover anything significant.

"Other ninjas should have made similar conclusions, at least summarizing the reactions related to chakra. They mainly focused on the routes within the ninjutsu they had already learned, combined with their own explorations and compilations.

On the contrary, I haven't even trained in ninjutsu yet, and out of boredom, I'm trying to summarize them step by step?"

Uchiha Kiyoshi shook his head, no longer thinking about these things.

It seemed that he had once again thought about the enormous number of different chakra reactions, which gave him a headache. After thinking about it, he made a decision.

"Let's start by recording the most apparent chakra reactions directly triggered by hand seals in the lower abdomen. Then, I'll gradually study the reactions in other parts of the body. As for the issues of combination, perhaps I should separate them and study them independently."

With his thoughts organized, Uchiha Kiyoshi had a direction. In the following time, he would slowly compile and summarize according to this approach.

However, there were other matters at hand.

Uchiha Kiyoshi applied ointment to his hands and bandaged them before leaving the room.

After leaving, Uchiha Kiyoshi headed straight to the library.

These past few days, in addition to practicing hand seals, Uchiha Kiyoshi had been persistently searching for various materials in the library, hoping to find a solution to the problem of chakra not nourishing the body.

Uchiha Kiyoshi couldn't accept it. How could such a refined training system not contribute to longevity?

Even in various martial arts novels from his previous life, if there was no life-extending effect or hidden injuries, at the very least, it led to a long life of a hundred years, right?

In the ninja world, not only did chakra not increase lifespan, but it also seemed to shorten it. It truly felt like encountering something inexplicable.