Seeing Feng Zheng's disappointed expression, Nakatani Michi comforted him.
“But you don’t have to worry, these are all very high-level concepts that you’ll have a chance to learn later. For now, I’ll demonstrate all the basic knowledge to you first.”
Feng Zheng nodded at him, thinking to himself.
“Sigh, my expectations were a bit too high. This guy doesn’t really owe me anything. I guess having such a helpful homeroom teacher raised my expectations a lot.”
He thought for a while longer and finally came to a conclusion.
“Alright, if Hiruzen doesn’t give me Chakra weapons, I can ask him to arrange someone to guide me in Ninja swordsmanship. Although Nakatani Michi said those techniques are secret, it’s impossible that no one in Konoha Village knows them. Besides, since Nakatani Michi already mentioned them, I do have a reason to explain how I came to know about them.”
After the discussion, Nakatani Michi began teaching the three students basic knowledge.
Later that day, Feng Zheng bought himself a small sword.
Although this sword was ordinary, its quality was better than a regular kunai.
After some bargaining, he bought it for 22,500 Ryo.
He bought it because he couldn't practice Chakra flow with the sparring swords at the school.
---
That year passed just like that.
Nakatani Michi indeed instilled a lot of basic knowledge into Feng Zheng, and Feng Zheng absorbed it like a sponge.
As for the five basic elemental Ninjutsu, Feng Zheng was too lazy to learn them for now.
Starting from the second week, Feng Zheng began leaving two Shadow Clones at home to study Sealing Jutsu, which doubled his learning speed for Sealing Jutsu.
However, to avoid disturbing his mind, both Shadow Clones practiced the same symbols or Sealing Jutsu.
A month and a half after the fourth year began, Feng Zheng completed the basic Sealing Jutsu.
During this period, he also discovered that since both his Shadow Clones were practicing the same Sealing Jutsu, it didn't actually double his learning speed.
After dispelling them both, he gained the perspective of the Shadow Clones. Therefore, it only made the foundation formed more solid, but this came at the cost of learning speed.
All in all, Feng Zheng believed his learning speed increased by about 60%.
He performed more analysis and concluded, thinking to himself.
“The best way to use Shadow Clones is to have each clone learn different things. However, when I do that, it gives me a terrible headache. So, while this isn’t the optimal use of Shadow Clones, it’s the most suitable use for me. I think having a more solid foundation is more important than learning speed.”
After learning the basic Sealing Jutsu, he decided to learn more advanced Sealing Jutsu from the next volume in Section D of the Library.
The Sealing Jutsu in this book could store elements. For example, fire could be sealed within it.
This made him wonder, was the Sealing Jutsu Jiraiya used to store Amaterasu really this simple?
Stored elements could be created with the help of Ninjutsu, but this wasn't mandatory.
Elements could also be acquired from the surroundings, just like water; even water from a river could be stored in the Sealing Jutsu.
As he read the Sealing Jutsu in the book, he realized.
“It seems the Sealing Jutsu Shikamaru used on Kakuzu is in this scroll. However, it seems he didn’t use ordinary water, but water that conducts electricity more easily. He must have put a lot of salt in the water, or perhaps something else to increase its conductivity. However, these aren't very useful in battle. Effectively using them requires very high creativity.”
He then began to learn these new Sealing Jutsu.
Three months after the fourth year began, Feng Zheng could successfully perform the Great Breakthrough Technique without any Hand Seals.
Over the next month, he successfully did the same with the Rock Shield Technique. However, he still needed to slam both hands on the ground to complete the action.
He thought to himself.
“I should learn to perform the Rock Shield Technique by stomping with only one foot. So I must learn how to transmit Earth Release Chakra underground through my foot.”
He pondered for a while longer and came to a conclusion.
This was indeed difficult. The Hand Seals for the Rock Shield Technique would gather Earth Release Chakra into the hands and then release it underground.
To do this by stomping would require manipulating Chakra to be released from his foot.
But if Feng Zheng could learn this, it would be an extremely annoying form of defense.
He thought to himself.
“When I run backward, each step could form a shield. I think this is worth spending time to learn, so this can be added to the training list, while also trying to create a wind blast through my foot.”
Another month passed, and Feng Zheng decided to start training with two swords simultaneously.
He asked Nakatani Michi to train him in the same basic knowledge. He also deliberately let many people see him training with two swords.
His previous sword had worn out significantly over these five months, so he bought two new ones.
He continued to practice for another month but did not succeed in nullifying the Hand Seals for the Earth Army Movement Technique.
With only four months left until the final exams, he decided to stop training in Earth Release Ninjutsu and start learning Genjutsu.
He visited the Library and began searching for Genjutsu scrolls.
He found several scrolls in Section 0, some of which were just basic Genjutsu knowledge already introduced in class, some were about how to counter Genjutsu, and one was about how to learn Genjutsu.
He began reading the one that explained how to learn Genjutsu. However, the first sentence startled him.
His first thought was.
“This is too simple!”
The scroll began by stating.
“Genjutsu requires extremely precise Chakra control and very high intelligence; if you lack one, don’t bother.”
However, he quickly grew suspicious.
“Does it really require high intelligence? After all, Kurenai Yuhi once used Genjutsu on Itachi!”
He continued reading, analyzing.
“So that’s it, Ninja extend Chakra flow into the opponent’s brain nervous system, controlling the opponent’s mental Chakra, thereby affecting the opponent’s five senses, and Genjutsu is produced. In this way, non-existent illusions can be fed to the opponent.”
Genjutsu itself can be divided into two categories.
The first category is creating an entirely new environment with Genjutsu. Here, the opponent can easily tell that Genjutsu is being used. Itachi’s Tsukuyomi, or Yuhi’s Genjutsu used on Itachi and Kisame, can be included in this category.
The second category is making a small change, i.e., implanting a small hypnosis in the opponent. This is harder to detect but not as strong as the first. However, if used at the right moment, it can also be very deadly.
The scroll also talked a lot about how to extend Chakra through the opponent’s nervous system and techniques for doing so subtly. It also had many diagrams of the brain’s nervous system.
Then he went to Sections D and E of the Library to see if he could find any basic Genjutsu to learn.
Soon, he encountered a big surprise.
Just these two sections alone contained hundreds of Genjutsu! He was astonished, thinking to himself.
“Did they put everything from the Uchiha and Kurama here?”
He sighed; the hundreds of Genjutsu that needed to be read and analyzed put immense pressure on him.
To avoid wasting too much time, he opened the scrolls on the spot, reading them one by one and then putting them back.
It still took him over 4 hours to go through all of them.