Chapter 290: Stuffed to the Gills
Haruno Sakura slowly formed her hand seals, mobilizing the chakra stored in the Yin Seal on the hearts, and drew it to her forehead through the slender blue rods.
This feeling was very strange.
The amount of chakra pouring in was like a tide, almost making her feel as if she were choking.
She clearly wasn't extracting her own chakra, nor was she releasing the reserves in her own Yin Seal, yet external chakra was pouring in—and yet, it was completely her own chakra.
The massive amount of chakra quickly filled her meridians and body, almost to the point of overflowing and dissipating into the air.
The surging energy stirred up a whirlwind in the laboratory, blowing her hair in all directions. The clattering sound of equipment colliding rang out incessantly.
"Ugh... I'm stuffed..."
The first second the chakra flowed back into her body, her body was filled to the brim with the surging energy!
It was too much!
Haruno Sakura hurriedly activated the Yin Seal on her forehead to absorb this energy. With her level of chakra control, she was still in a bit of a panic. The speed at which the Yin Seal stored energy couldn't even keep up with the speed at which the chakra was flowing back into her body!
During this process, Sakura felt as if she was being forced to continue eating even though she was already full, being force-fed until her body was completely filled.
The blissful feeling of being filled with energy was mixed with the anxiety of worrying that her belly would burst. Her mood was extremely complicated and hard to describe.
This strange feeling of fullness lasted until the chakra stored in the Yin Seals on the hearts was completely extracted by her.
"Phew, it's finally stopped."
After lasting for about a minute, the energy transfer finally ended.
If it hadn't stopped, she would have rolled her eyes and fainted!
However, even if she had been hit hard, it was a blissful kind of hardship. The chakra created in this one experiment was enough for her to fight two rounds with Sasori!
I can finally live a life with abundant chakra again...
The girl was in tears.
In the future, when she used ninjutsu, she could use half and throw half away... without feeling the pinch!
"Ahem." She calmed down from her excitement, cleared her throat, and only when she had calmed down did she discover that the laboratory had been left in a mess by that fierce wind just now.
Instruments, microscopes, glass beakers, petri dishes, and crucibles, etc., had all been blown to the ground in a mess. She hurriedly picked up the microscope—fortunately, the most important part had not been hit. She immediately breathed a sigh of relief.
The other miscellaneous things were not very valuable and could be bought anywhere. Since the experiment was already completed, she simply waved her hand and threw them all away as trash!
Speaking of which, after that raid on the bounty station, she had also made a small fortune. There was no need to be concerned about these small matters. After tidying up this place, Sakura left without any lingering attachment.
Finally, there were still those twenty hearts... As the last trace of chakra was extracted, the last trace of vitality in those hearts also finally disappeared, and they shriveled into a ball of ugly, dead meat.
SakDra picked up a piece of the meat and looked at it, pouting. "Tsk, tsk, dregs..." She casually threw it away.
When she left, she also took the opportunity to destroy the entire base with her Monstrous Strength, burying all traces of her presence in the earth.
All the missions on the list that Tsunade had given her had also been completed.
Haruno Sakura did not stay any longer and immediately rushed in the direction of Konoha.
When she returned to Konoha, Tsunade looked at the high-spirited Haruno Sakura, who had been on the road for the better part of a day, with a meaningful gaze. She had probably already guessed what she had been doing during this time she had been out of the village on a mission—or rather, this was something she had tacitly allowed.
The development concept for the second phase of the Yin Seal, many of the things had been guided by her!
"When others come back from a mission, they're covered in dust, their faces full of fatigue," Tsunade teased. "But you're glowing and full of energy!"
Sakura gave a dry laugh, not speaking. She couldn't respond to that!
"Alright, no matter what you've been doing, as long as the mission is completed, it's fine," Tsunade said with a laugh, taking the mission completion certificate that Sakura handed her. Her expression turned serious. "Well then, the number and quality of your missions have met the standard. Next is the Jonin combat power assessment. Get ready. The time and place are next Monday morning, at the Anbu's First Training Ground."
"Yes, Master."
"So... what did you gain from this trip? Or any questions about your training?" Tsunade asked routinely, propping her chin on her hand.
Recently, Haruno Sakura had rarely asked her any in-depth questions.
It was mainly the problem with the cloning. Tsunade couldn't give her a clear answer. After all, it was a taboo.
So she hadn't expected that Sakura would suddenly ask such a big question!
"Master, do you know what Yin Release is?" Haruno Sakura asked seriously. A blue rod extended from her hand.
When she heard her question, Tsunade had just frowned slightly, sitting up straight, a little surprised. When she saw the blue rod in Sakura's hand, the Fifth Hokage suddenly stood up.
"This is...!" she couldn't help but raise her voice!
After looking at it carefully for two seconds, Tsunade came back to her senses. "No, it's not that."
"Master, are you talking about that black chakra rod that can only be used by someone with the Rinnegan?"
Tsunade looked at Haruno Sakura with a complicated gaze. "Yes. I can't believe you know about this too... Did you see the Uchiha's secret archives at the ninja cats' place?"
She walked out from behind her desk, went up to Sakura, and sized it up carefully before saying with certainty, "It's indeed not that kind of black rod... I almost thought you had also inherited the Sage's power!"
"Hehe..." Sakura laughed self-deprecatingly. "If I had the Sage's Rinnegan, I wouldn't have to rack my brains to develop new ninjutsu now!"
Tsunade broke off the slender rod, placed it in her hand, and sized it up carefully, and also nodded.
"It's just a crude application of Yin Release. However, to be able to form this shape, it shows that your spiritual power is very strong in both quality and quantity. Even with such a crude Yin Release nature transformation, you can still condense it into a shape!" she teased.
This sentence from Tsunade, Sakura didn't know if it was a compliment or a slight, and she didn't know whether to laugh or cry.
"Master, stop teasing me. You'd better tell me, how can I continue my training in Yin-Yang Release?"
Tsunade shook her head. "In this regard, I really can't teach you much more. As for Yang Release, medical ninjutsu itself is a ninjutsu that relies on Yang Release nature transformation to function. My grandfather, Hashirama Senju, was a master of Yang Release, but since him, no one has been able to bring the power of Yang Release to its extreme. This kind of ninjutsu probably requires sufficient talent to learn."
"As for Yin Release, it's the same."
"There isn't much information on this. I'll go back and see if there are any materials left by my grandfather! You should just stop worrying about this aspect for now. The hope is not high, especially since you're just a child of an ordinary commoner..."
Haruno Sakura shrugged her shoulders nonchalantly. If it were anyone else, seeing a smooth and broad path being closed in front of them, they might be extremely disappointed. But Sakura's interest in this so-called Yin-Yang Release was mainly because she had a quirk of wanting to thoroughly study anything she encountered.
However, she was well aware that her time was limited, and there was no need to completely understand everything. The most important thing was to move forward at her own pace... Otherwise, Haruno Sakura had also recently learned a little Earth Style—for burrowing and building houses—and Fire Style—for starting fires in the wild. Did that mean she had to study Earth Style and Fire Style in depth as well?
Yin-Yang Release was indeed very powerful. If she could learn it, that would be for the best. If the conditions were not right, Sakura would not force it.
She had to know how to make trade-offs.
Especially for someone like her, who had no cheats or innate bloodline, and could only rely on herself for everything.
"Alright," Sakura said freely. "I was just a little curious. The biggest use of Yin-Yang Release for me is to speed up research."
"Hn... then let's leave it at that for now," Tsunade said, patting her on the shoulder. Because Sakura was already taller than her, this gesture looked a little awkward. "Go back and rest. Prepare for the assessment!"
"Although for you, it's just a formality."
Five days passed peacefully.
On the side of Yin-Yang Release, as expected, she did not find any useful materials. The scroll left by the First Hokage was also vague.
Haruno Sakura seriously suspected that the cultural level of the ninja of that generation was extremely low.
—They had to go to the battlefield to kill at the age of 6. Where would they find the time to learn cultural knowledge?!
To write down a simple matter in simple words was a problem of elementary school difficulty. To write down a complicated matter in simple words, some people might never be able to master this ability in their entire lives.
Yin-Yang Release was an extremely complicated problem. And Hashirama Senju's cultural level was probably at the elementary school level. So reading the notes left by this generation was simply a torment—Sakura had already suffered once with Madara's notes.
If she wanted to understand Yin-Yang Release, she would have to reanimate them... But her master would probably not agree to teach her the Reanimation Jutsu for this.
So in the end, under Tsunade's knowing gaze, she announced her surrender. Rather than looking at the First's notes, it was better to spend some time practicing medical ninjutsu—this should have been her strong point. But Sakura's fighting style meant that she was rarely injured, so her medical ninjutsu had never had a chance to be used.
Spending her time in this kind of training, the days passed very quickly.
On Monday morning, in the Anbu's exclusive First Training Ground.
A few tables and stools were simply placed at the edge of the field—this was for the several elderly advisors and the civilian staff who needed to write. Tsunade and a group of Jonin who were there to observe the ceremony stood on the side. She stood in the middle, talking to the ninja beside her without any airs.
There were five people participating in this Jonin combat power assessment. Sakura was the youngest and had the least seniority among them.
Her old acquaintance, Yūichi, led them onto the field and briefly introduced the content of today's Jonin combat power assessment.
Ninja liked to be concise and efficient, so this assessment did not have the long and tedious process of the Hokage giving a speech, the former Hokage giving a speech... and so on, until the Jonin Squad Leader also came up to say a few words.
On the contrary...
Tsunade, seeing the five of them standing in line on the field, waved her hand sharply, and announced the start of the assessment.
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