Chapter 111: Water Release: Water Severing Wave
The mission to investigate Sakumo Hatake and his followers ultimately fell to the newly promoted Special Jonin Fox.
Yoru’s heart itched, wanting very much to go learn Water Style: Water Severing Wave right away, but for the mission he had to follow Sakumo Hatake from afar.
Sakumo Hatake walked slowly on Konoha’s streets, his steps heavy.
About to take on the role of Deputy Commander, it put great pressure on him.
Gathering courage to make his plea to the Hokage brought even greater pressure.
Sakumo Hatake naturally knew that one of the cornerstones of the Hokage’s power was the ninja rank recommendation system.
But many of his friends were delayed in promotion because of the recommendation system, enduring hardship in missions.
Who has recommendation authority is decided by the Hokage.
It was impossible for just any ninja to walk into the Hokage’s Office and recommend someone for promotion to Special Jonin.
The recommendation results were also decided by the Hokage.
From Genin promotion to Chunin onward, the recommendation system influenced every ninja’s fate.
Whether qualified to take the Chunin Exam was recommended by the Captain in charge.
The Chunin Exam selected not the strongest Genin in strength.
The Hokage would assess the overall abilities of participating Genin and decide who could promote to Chunin.
The first place in the Chunin Exam wouldn’t necessarily become Chunin; a lower-ranked Genin might instead become Chunin.
Ask and it’s because the high-ranking officials thought he had special talents.
In the original story’s Chunin Exam, Shikamaru forfeited in the third round and promoted to Chunin.
If the Chunin Exam wasn’t interrupted, even if Sasuke took first, he wouldn’t necessarily become Chunin.
This was Konoha Village’s “double-slit interference.”
Whether a ninja promotes depends on whether observed by the Hokage and advisors, like a particle’s wave-particle duality, depending on whether there’s an observer.
The Hokage firmly controlled ninja promotions through the recommendation system.
Once it turned into an audit system, Konoha Village’s promotion system would undergo fundamental change.
Whether Genin participate in Chunin Exam decided by mission volume.
Whether Chunin Exam passed decided by ranking.
Whether Chunin can promote to Special Jonin, whether Special Jonin can promote to Jonin, completely decided by mission record.
Ninjutsu granting also decided by mission performance.
Konoha’s fairness would greatly improve.
Sakumo Hatake placed extreme importance on companions; he keenly discovered what his companions— that is, the civilian ninjas around him— most urgently needed.
Fairness, fairness, or fairness.
But besides civilian ninjas, who wants fairness?
My ninja clan’s three generations of accumulation, why should it lose to your ten years of hardship cultivation?
Yoru hid in the tree canopy by the roadside, only using peripheral vision to watch Sakumo Hatake on the street.
There were quite a few Anbu in Konoha Village, hiding in street corner woods.
Jonin who discovered Anbu wouldn’t say much, just assuming it was the Hokage’s routine intelligence gathering or executing some secret mission they didn’t know about.
About five years until Sakumo Hatake’s death; Yoru pondered in his heart, how exactly should he walk his future path?
Could he just keep being a black glove in Anbu?
He looked at Sakumo Hatake’s back, eyes flickering.
In the original story, Sakumo Hatake seemed like a trustworthy person?
Yoru saw Sakumo Hatake return home.
The babysitter came out holding an infant, handed the infant to Sakumo Hatake, then left the Hatake home.
That infant should be Kakashi.
Not long after, three people entered Sakumo Hatake’s home.
Yoru carefully memorized the three people’s appearances, preparing to check the Konoha ninja roster back at Anbu to confirm their identities.
That night, over twenty people came to find Sakumo Hatake one after another.
Not only did Sakumo Hatake propose the audit system, he also formed a small group; no wonder Hiruzen Sarutobi didn’t like him.
Recklessly discussing politics, forming cliques for private gain— Sakumo Hatake was just strong, otherwise he’d have long found a way to die.
A person like Sakumo Hatake wouldn’t survive two episodes in a historical drama.
You’re so naive, I can’t help you rashly; need to plan long-term.
Back at Anbu, Yoru checked the ninja roster, confirmed the over twenty people’s names, and handed them to the Kiiroinu Captain.
“Well done, Fox.”
The Kiiroinu Captain was a workaholic, working in Anbu even late at night. He immediately had his assistant collect intelligence on these over twenty people.
Yoru saw it was late, planned to learn Water Severing Wave tomorrow, and headed to Tsuruzuki Izakaya first.
Qiao Yi was already used to Yoru suddenly disappearing for a while, then suddenly appearing.
Her boudoir in the backyard was always open for Yoru.
After the frenzy, Yoru felt refreshed, while Qiao Yi lay limp on the bed.
Qiao Yi whined, “Miqu, go hang the closed sign out front; I won’t be able to get out of bed tomorrow.”
Yoru patted Qiao Yi’s round buttocks: “Qiao Yi, even if not doing ninja work, for me you can’t neglect body training.”
Qiao Yi gave Yoru a white-eyed glare, feeling infinitely aggrieved inside.
He actually disliked her body being weak; clearly it was Miqu who had become too strong.
Didn’t know what Miqu had gone through, for his strength growth to be so rapid.
The next day he came to the north side of Death Forest, where there was a small lake.
Taking out the ninjutsu scroll, Yoru began studying Water Style: Water Severing Wave.
Mastering ninjutsu himself was really troublesome, still had to figure it out, still had to learn.
The system was much better in this regard; ding, and you’d learned the ninjutsu.
Water Style: Water Severing Wave, five hand seals.
First seal uses chakra to create water in the mouth, next three seals pressurize the water, last seal sprays the pressurized water from the mouth, forming a high-speed water gun.
Once learned, the high-speed water gun could cut tree trunks or even mountains, with astonishing power.
Yoru formed the first seal, and a large amount of water appeared in his mouth.
Too much water, cheeks bulging like a toad’s.
Formed the second to fourth seals, forming high pressure in the mouth.
The high pressure nearly burst Yoru’s cheeks; he hurriedly spat out the water in his mouth.
The water in his mouth shot out, breaking the bark of a tree.
First practice, failure.
Yoru rubbed his uncomfortably swollen cheeks, suddenly recalling a knowledge point from his previous life.
The incompressibility of liquids.
No matter how much pressure given to a liquid, the liquid’s volume barely changes.
That is, the water in the mouth shouldn’t be too much, or the cheeks would bear the force and couldn’t withstand it.
Should be continuously creating water, continuously using chakra to high-pressurize the water, continuously spraying water.
Yoru looked at the scroll written by Hiruzen Sarutobi; it didn’t write learning insights, only the five hand seals and chakra flow method.
The scroll was written too roughly.
Yoru once again gathered some water in his mouth.
Slowly forming seals, carefully feeling the chakra flow; when forming the third seal, Yoru discovered the water in his mouth began to rotate.
Last time too much water stuffed in his mouth, he hadn’t noticed that from the third seal, the water started rotating.
As the water rotated, the water pressure grew greater and greater.
So the water pressure wasn’t from pressure given by the mouth, but from pressure produced after water rotation.
This… wasn’t this the principle of a centrifugal pump?
A centrifugal pump relies on blades rotating at high speed to provide water pressure.
When pressure reached its peak, the water sprayed out from the mouth all at once.
The thin water line shot straight at the tree trunk in front, piercing through the tree trunk.
Not bad, slightly got the knack.
The key to Water Severing Wave was providing stronger, greater water pressure to the water beam.
The greater the water pressure, the stronger the water beam’s power in Water Severing Wave.
After continuous several practices, Yoru’s Water Severing Wave slowly cut open the five-meter-thick big tree in front.
Yoru’s expectation for Water Severing Wave was for it to become one of his trump card ninjutsu; this power wasn’t enough.
Practicing hard until late at night, Yoru then returned to the izakaya. Qiao Yi leaned on a pair of heavy white pears trembling, left one clockwise, right one counterclockwise, fanning out wind.
Wind?
Yoru suddenly had a stroke of genius; for Water Severing Wave practice, he had a brilliant idea.
When using Water Severing Wave, the water formed a vortex in the mouth, and the provided pressure was a bit lacking.
Why not find a way to create two vortexes in the mouth, one clockwise rotating, one counterclockwise rotating, like a gear pump— not only rotating to provide water pressure, but the two vortexes jointly squeezing the water in the middle, wouldn’t that provide even greater water pressure?
After Qiao Yi fell into a daze, Yoru deeply kissed Qiao Yi: “I love you to death, thank you for the hint you gave me!”
Yoru pulled on his pants and straight to the hidden small lake north of Death Forest.
Qiao Yi wanted to grab Miqu, but found Miqu’s movements too fast.
What hint had she given? She didn’t know anything about it herself.
Monthly votes rising nicely, thanks to all book friends who voted; adding an extra chapter. Expected to go premium on July 1, next Tuesday. 260k words free— you can say my writing is average, but you can’t say I’m stingy.
