Naruto: The Strongest Suiton User

Chapter 8: New Ninjutsu (Part 2)

The Third Hokage.

To encourage the children to study hard, the academy decided to give a small reward to the student who placed first in the final exams. It could be a specially crafted ninja tool, some guidance from a Jonin, or something similar. The opportunity was rare, so Sakura unhesitatingly went all out to defeat Sasuke and take first place—normally, when Sakura didn't use her chakra-infused water to assist with her taijutsu and tool throwing, she couldn't beat Sasuke.

No one expected that Lord Hokage would, on a whim, come to personally present the award to the academy student.

No, it wasn't a whim. Her being from a commoner family yet possessing extremely high talent in ninjutsu and chakra control, her close relationships with Naruto and Sasuke, and the fact that she was developing an S-rank Water Style jutsu—any one of these reasons was enough for the Third Hokage to place his attention on Sakura. Whether it was to monitor her influence on the Nine-Tails Jinchuriki and the Uchiha survivor, or to see if she could grow into a Kage-level ninja, it was all very important for the current Konoha.

Since the death of the Fourth Hokage, Konoha had been in a generational slump for too long. The Third Hokage was eager to see more potential children emerge from the next generation, especially students from ordinary ninja families who were naturally aligned with the Hokage's faction on the political spectrum. The talented young Sakura undoubtedly appealed to the Third Hokage in every aspect. Only her future potential required further observation.

Hearing that Sakura wanted to develop an S-rank ninjutsu, the Third Hokage saw it as an excellent opportunity to observe her and personally came to meet her despite his busy schedule.

"...I heard you want to develop a new Water Style jutsu that requires creating immense water pressure?" After a round of official conversation, the Third Hokage got to the point.

Without his hat, the Third Hokage showed none of the majesty of his position; instead, he looked like a kind old man. The deep, carved wrinkles on his face indicated that this man, hailed as a Shinobi God, was approaching his twilight years. It was hard to imagine that his small, thin frame contained such astonishing power. Meeting a Kage-level powerhouse for the first time, Sakura keenly sensed the astonishing chakra hidden beneath his calm exterior, like a peaceful ocean. Even without waves, it was breathtaking. Although he was old and no longer in his prime, the Third Hokage was still an indisputable powerhouse.

With a pipe in his mouth, the Third Hokage watched Sakura with a smile. His very approachable grin greatly eased the nerves of Sakura, who was a little tense from her first personal encounter with a Kage-level figure.

"Yes, Lord Hokage! By utilizing immense water pressure to shoot water out like a water jet," Sakura briefly introduced the concept of her new jutsu, and then, as expected, found that the Third Hokage didn't understand the principle behind it either.

"Is that so..." The Third Hokage habitually exhaled a puff of smoke, tapped his pipe, and began to think. His expression was hazy and unclear, hidden behind the smoke, with only his sharp eyes flashing.

The principle of the ninjutsu Sakura designed wasn't complicated, yet the Third Hokage found that he couldn't understand it. Sarutobi Hiruzen, known as the Professor of Ninjutsu, had likely seen thousands of jutsu in his lifetime. No matter how strange or bizarre a ninjutsu was, he could usually say a thing or two about it after seeing it once. Offensive ninjutsu mostly caused damage through shape transformation and nature transformation. But in the new jutsu Sakura envisioned, the Third Hokage couldn't see where its offensive power lay, let alone S-rank offensive power.

Water shot out by high pressure? The Third Hokage had seen water guns before, but they posed no threat to a ninja. Was the secret of the Second Hokage's Water Severing Wave really just high pressure? The Third Hokage was skeptical.

Before coming to the Ninja Academy, the Third Hokage had thought he might meet a genius like Orochimaru. After meeting Sakura, he found that she was indeed quite similar to Orochimaru: the same keen sense for ninjutsu and chakra, exquisite chakra control, and the dissatisfaction with existing ninjutsu, always thinking of developing new ones. But the two were also polar opposites. Setting aside their personalities—one gloomy and cold, the other sunny and bright—the jutsu Orochimaru developed, while imaginative, always had a traceable logic. The Third Hokage felt he was qualified to guide him.

But the jutsu Sakura wanted to develop, including another one she mentioned that used so-called "water of extreme purity," both gave the Third Hokage a bit of a headache. An eccentric genius who is difficult to understand?

In a way, not having to worry about raising a second Orochimaru was a good thing.

Unable to figure out the significance of this jutsu for the moment, the Third Hokage sighed inwardly. Forget it, I'll just treat it as nurturing the youth.

"There are, in fact, ninjutsu that specialize in creating heavy pressure. Many of the Sand Style's moves cause damage through heavy pressure. For example, this move, Sand Coffin—"

Lord Hokage slowly formed the hand seals, demonstrating for Sakura. An iron rod, used as a prop, was surrounded by sand. As the Third Hokage infused his chakra, the iron rod was actually squeezed by the sand until it deformed, emitting a chilling creaking sound.

"For further heavy pressure, such as Sand Waterfall Imperial Funeral, the seals are more complex, and the chakra mobilization is more troublesome, but it shouldn't be a problem for you."

He demonstrated the seals for Sand Waterfall Imperial Funeral again. This time, the iron rod was crushed by the sand as if it were modeling clay. If a person had been inside, they would probably have been reduced to nothing but minced meat. "How much did you understand?" The Third Hokage looked at Sakura with expectant eyes.

"Um... I think I got the gist of it. The repeating part in both jutsu is the combination of seals that creates the pressure, right?" Sakura said as she formed the seals for the Hokage to see. The sand, which had already dispersed, began to re-compress the lump of iron, which was now an unrecognizable shape. Under Sakura's adjustments, the iron lump became an iron ball. This was the benefit of strong chakra control; for most ninjutsu, as long as you understood it, you could master it quickly.

The Third Hokage nodded with satisfaction and continued to prompt Sakura, "Try applying them to a Water Style jutsu."

Sakura silently reviewed her concept in her mind. All she needed to do was add the pressure-creating seals into the blank spots in her original sequence.

Composing herself, this was the first time Sakura had tried to create a new ninjutsu. She started to get a little excited.

"Tiger—" The first seal was for water, the opening for any single-element ninjutsu to transform chakra into water. Next were the seals for shape control. "Ox—Monkey—Rabbit—Rat—Boar—" Sakura only formed the first two, "Ox—Monkey—" because this time she didn't need overly complex control; a simple sphere would do. Finally, came the pressure-creating seals. "Rooster—Ox—Horse—Dog—" It worked!

Chakra-infused water emerged from Sakura's right hand, gathering into a round water sphere. As Sakura poured her chakra into it, although it was not visible from the outside, the water sphere itself was already under immense pressure.

An idea sparked in Sakura's mind. She manipulated her chakra to open a small hole in the water sphere. The enormous internal pressure shot the water out from the small opening, forming a thin stream of water. It hit the concrete floor, and with a smack, it immediately created a small pit. Sakura increased her chakra output, enhancing the water pressure. The water stream became faster and more rapid, and the small hole quickly deepened. Just as it was about to drill through the floor, the Third Hokage directly reached out and blocked the water jet, and only then did Sakura stop.

The Third Hokage's palm felt a slight pain, but his heart was filled with shock. He was already a bit surprised when he saw the water jet damage the concrete. When his chakra-enhanced hand blocked the move, it actually stung.

After pondering for a moment, the Third Hokage said, "So that's what it is. With a bit more pressure, it might really be able to pose a threat."

That's right. Once the water pressure reached 10 megapascals, it became very difficult to compress the water further. This meant that the moment a high-pressure, high-speed water jet hit an object's surface, the nearly incompressible water would instantly become harder than steel! When the pressure reached over a hundred megapascals, a water jet could cut steel as easily as cutting tofu! More importantly, a water jet could be shot out at a speed of one thousand meters per second. Within a ten-meter range, it would only take 0.01 seconds for the water jet to be fired and hit the enemy!

Sakura silently estimated that the pressure she was creating now was probably around ten or twenty megapascals. If she increased her chakra, the most she could manage was just under thirty megapascals. It was fine for cutting concrete slabs, but cutting steel plates would be difficult. She would have to switch to the seals for Sand Waterfall Imperial Funeral, but a strong opponent who enhanced their body with chakra would be even tougher than a steel plate against a pure, non-chakra-infused cutting force. To achieve a dominating level of cutting power, Sakura would have to create even higher pressure. Otherwise, she could only rely on the element of surprise or use it to bully weaker opponents.

"The heavy pressure of the Sand Waterfall Imperial Funeral is achieved through layered pressure. If you study it further, you should be able to strengthen it more," the Third Hokage advised.

The Third Hokage himself had no idea to what extent this ninjutsu could be strengthened. Sand Waterfall Imperial Funeral was already the highest-pressure ninjutsu he had ever seen, and that level was more than enough to deal with flesh and blood. No one had ever thought that a ninjutsu would require even higher pressure.

The Third Hokage originally had little confidence in this ninjutsu, but after personally experiencing its power, he was suddenly filled with anticipation.

An S-rank or even higher-level ninjutsu? The ninja world was not short of geniuses who could master S-rank jutsu at this age. But, was there anyone who had developed an S-rank jutsu at this age?

Looking at the confident Sakura, a feeling of the new generation surpassing the old welled up in the Third Hokage's heart.

"If you need any guidance, you can come find me through Iruka-sensei!" Patting Sakura's shoulder, the Third Hokage said with gratification.

"Yes, Lord Hokage!"