In the open wilderness, jagged rocks were scattered everywhere.
Boom!
An extremely dull, thunderous roar suddenly exploded.
Dust billowed upward. A massive, solid boulder as tall as two people shattered violently, breaking apart into countless fragments of varying sizes that clattered down in a cascading collapse.
As the dust gradually dispersed, it revealed the figure responsible—
Higashino Shinichi.
He maintained the posture of having thrown a punch, then slowly withdrew his arm. There was no visible halo of chakra leaking from his fist, nor any obvious redness or swelling. Only the sleeve of his clothing swayed slightly from the motion just now.
That destructive power had been perfectly restrained before the moment of release, erupting only at the instant of contact.
"Mm, not bad."
Not far away, Tsunade reclined leisurely atop a flat boulder. With one hand she picked up a piece of spicy dried meat and tossed it into her mouth, chewing with crisp cracking sounds.
She glanced at the pile of shattered stones and spoke casually: "The speed of your chakra condensation and your control over the detonation point—you've grasped the basics. You can barely manage to confine the force within the surface of the fist now, so you're not wasting too much power. But compared to when I first started practicing back then, you're still lacking a bit of polish. Your power release isn't crisp enough, and the withdrawal of force is still slightly sluggish."
Although her tone sounded casual as she delivered the evaluation, deep within those bright brown eyes flashed an astonishment she could hardly conceal.
'This brat! Isn't his rate of mastery a little too fast?!'
The core of the Monster Strength lies in compressing and refining an enormous and violent mass of chakra to an extreme degree, precisely channeling it into a single point of the body, and unleashing it completely at the instant of impact. This demands chakra control from the user that is precise to an almost absurd level.
For an ordinary shinobi, merely understanding the cycle of "compression—restraint—instantaneous eruption" might take several months, or even longer. That was without mentioning the countless failed attempts during practice—chakra instability caused by poor control, muscle strain, or even backlash injuries.
A few days ago, on a whim she had given him a few pointers. She had originally assumed that even with this brat's talent, it would take at least a month of gradual practice before he could begin to grasp the power-release technique of the Monster Strength.
But how many days had it been?
And yet this brat could already deliver a proper Monster Strength attack, stably compressing chakra into his fist and shattering a giant rock while suffering almost no recoil himself.
This rate of comprehension when it came to power and control could no longer be described as mere genius. It was almost as if... there had long already been an underlying framework within his body suited to operating this kind of power, and now it had merely been activated and adapted to a new technique.
Shinichi flexed his wrist slightly, sensing the subtle rhythm in how his muscles and chakra had worked in coordination during that strike just now, and accepted Tsunade's evaluation calmly.
"Yes, Tsunade-sensei. You're right. It really does still need more practice and refinement."
Shinichi knew that Tsunade was not being entirely sincere. His progress was actually abnormally fast, after all, because he had the foundation of highly efficient learning and application ability provided by Entries such as [Genius], [Taijutsu Proficiency], and [Chūnin].
He also had the powerful physical recovery provided by [Unceasing Vitality] and [Gourmet], allowing him to endure high-intensity training.
It was also inseparable from his long-term physical conditioning, his meticulous control over his own strength, and his deep understanding of chakra shape transformation and nature transformation gained while developing Dark Brush.
Some of the principles behind the Monster Strength attack and the path of Fire Release taijutsu he was currently exploring actually shared a similar ingenuity at the level of precise control and force condensation.
"As long as you know your shortcomings, that's fine." Tsunade sat up from the giant rock, brushed the food crumbs from her hands, and jumped down.
At this moment, aside from teaching Shinichi Monster Strength, she had also split off two shadow clones. One was some distance away, guiding Shizune in more delicate medical chakra control and trauma-treatment techniques.
The other was with Kurenai, putting her through special training focused on the fine chakra control required for genjutsu casting, as well as the coordination between chakra and muscles when exerting force in swordsmanship. For Kurenai, whose main focus was genjutsu and swordsmanship, this kind of top-tier chakra control guidance was exceptionally valuable.
Tsunade walked in front of Shinichi, folded her arms, and sized him up from head to toe. In the end, she still could not hold back a snort.
"But, brat, it's not like you did so badly. At least my spit wasn't wasted on you."
"It's because Tsunade-sensei taught well." Shinichi smiled.
"Oh, right." As if suddenly remembering something, Tsunade raised her brows. "I heard the old man mention before that you were tinkering with some kind of Fire Release taijutsu? Not bad, brat. Your ambitions really aren't small."
"Yes, Tsunade-sensei." Shinichi nodded. "Speaking of that, after I initially grasped the force application technique of the Monster Strength attack that you taught me, I came up with some new ideas about that direction."
"More new ideas? How is it that you're full of ideas all day long, brat? Do they never end?" Tsunade's eyes widened slightly, and the disdain in her tone became more obvious, but inwardly she was even more astonished.
'Isn't this brat's talent and creativity a bit too outrageous?'
Mastering the Monster Strength punch at such an astonishing speed would already have been impressive enough. Yet having only just grasped the basics, he could already connect it to his own existing development project and even produce new ideas?
This kind of ability to infer from one example and apply it broadly, to integrate different concepts seamlessly—and that seemingly inexhaustible creativity that allowed knowledge from different fields to collide and spark new insights—was simply alarming.
"Let's hear it."
Tsunade suppressed the ripples in her heart, folded her arms, and assumed a posture of attentive listening.
After thinking for a moment, Shinichi spoke: "The core goal of the Fire Release nin-taijutsu I've been trying to develop is to achieve a stable, efficient, and seamless integration between Fire-attribute chakra and taijutsu movements. My initial direction was to create flame shuriken like Dark Brush—stable, easy to shape, and able to leave the body—and then try attaching them to the limbs during attacks, forming techniques like flame punches and flame kicks."
He raised his right hand. A small cluster of highly condensed, stable crimson flame quietly appeared, burning calmly.
"But before this, I had always been troubled by how to rapidly and stably condense chakra—especially a violent energy like Fire-attribute chakra—into the force-generating parts of the body, such as the arms and thighs, while ensuring that it could erupt with maximum power during an attack without harming myself."
Shinichi's gaze fell on the flame in his palm as he spoke in a focused tone.
"After learning your Monster Strength, Tsunade-sensei, I seem to have found a new line of thought."
"The essence of the Monster Strength punch lies in compressing a massive amount of chakra to the extreme, concentrating it at a single point, and releasing it at the instant of contact. That made me wonder whether the concept of extreme compression—perfect restraint—instantaneous eruption could be combined with the flame punches and flame kicks I envision."
As he spoke, he demonstrated.
His hand suddenly clenched.
The stable crimson flame in his palm vanished instantly, as if it had been drawn into his body.
Immediately afterward, beneath the skin of his entire right arm—from the shoulder blade to the fingertips—a scorching crimson streak flashed through in an instant, like molten lava surging through blood vessels for a brief moment. Then the glow rapidly converged and disappeared, and his arm returned to normal, as though the strange phenomenon just now had been nothing but an illusion.
Tsunade's eyes instantly sharpened.
She clearly sensed that in that brief moment, Shinichi had used the technique of the Monster Strength punch—yet what he had employed was not ordinary chakra, but highly active and violent Fire-attribute chakra.
He had forcibly restrained and compressed it within the force-generating chakra pathways and muscle groups of his arm, without the slightest leakage.
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