Mizuki hadn't expected Sakura to make that choice, but he couldn't help admiring how she'd come up with a clever way to work around her weaknesses.
Currently, the core techniques Sakura had mastered—[Breath-Sealing Art] and [Chakra Shield]—were both clearly influenced by Mizuki's personal style. They belonged to the category of techniques that were easy to learn but difficult to perfect.
[The Breath-Sealing Art] was fairly straightforward—its effectiveness mainly depended on how much chakra she could store and how precisely she could control it. [Chakra Shield], however, was far more complex. As its creator, Mizuki had already achieved great mastery over it. In normal states, it offered excellent defense. In Sage Mode, enhanced by Natural Energy, it became one of Mizuki's most reliable trump cards—it kept him completely unbreakable.
In reality, though, this technique's defensive power was deeply linked to chakra manipulation skills, making it extremely hard to master.
Ever since Sakura learned the Chakra Shield, during the Chunin Exams, she gained significant recognition when an early, basic version of the technique effectively blocked Dosu's soundwave attacks.
Yet even after so long since the exams, Sakura's Chakra Shield remained effective only against energy fluctuations. Against regular physical attacks, its defense was barely passable, and against stronger assaults, practically useless. Ultimately, this came down to the gap between her chakra control abilities and Mizuki's. Once reaching an advanced level, even the slightest improvement in chakra manipulation led to noticeable enhancements in the technique's power.
But such minor improvements were extremely difficult to achieve. It was like sprinting—any athlete with proper training could cut their time from thirteen to twelve seconds, but shaving another second off took serious discipline and raw talent. Every additional second shaved required even greater innate ability and exponentially more effort.
Very few shinobi ever made those crucial leaps forward. Most couldn't handle the poor return on effort and switched to other jutsu that let them grow faster.
So it came as a real surprise when Sakura, inspired by Mizuki, came up with a new approach—integrating chakra nature transformation to boost the weak defenses caused by her incomplete mastery of [Breath-Sealing Art] and [Chakra Shield]. Moreover, the improved [Chakra Shield], built upon the [Breath-Sealing Art], was even more flexible in operation. In Sakura's hands, it even produced combined offensive and defensive effects. Even at the very beginning stages of Earth nature transformation, the attack power generated was already quite considerable.
Watching Sakura carefully put away the Yin Healing Wound Destruction scroll handed to her by Mizuki, he reminded her, "You being able to reach this level by combining such rudimentary Earth chakra nature transformation with [Breath-Sealing Art] and [Chakra Shield] is already rare and admirable. But you have too many techniques to learn right now. I've told you before—don't try to bite off more than you can chew. Focus your efforts wisely."
"I understand," Sakura replied solemnly. "I only took this path to increase the defense of my Chakra Shield; this result was just an unexpected bonus."
While performing Chakra Nature Transformation to Earth can significantly enhance your defensive capabilities and greatly expand your offensive options, its weaknesses are also quite apparent. Make sure to watch out for Lightning Release users...
The elemental advantages and disadvantages between chakra natures were very clear. Sakura Haruno's new technique and fighting style were somewhat similar to Kakuzu's methods, but due to differences in taijutsu skill and experience, she was definitely no match for Kakuzu with his powerful Earth heart. Such an incredibly strong opponent as Kakuzu—who seemed unstoppable like a living tank, impervious to blades and attacks—was easily shattered by Kakashi Hatake's Lightning Cutter.
Sakura's Earth chakra shield greatly weakened her defense specifically against Lightning Release while considerably strengthening protection from other types of attacks. Compared to the standard chakra shields that Mizuki taught, her approach was strikingly distinct; even Mizuki himself, who leaned toward Fire Release, couldn't master it, watching helplessly as Sakura swung her iron fists powerfully.
[I guess I should work on developing my second attribute soon. With only Fire Release, I can't even teach my own disciples!]
Earth Release itself wasn't weak nor limited in development potential. Even without advanced Earth techniques to increase strength, one could still focus on chakra nature transformation and pursue a taijutsu-based path.
Sakura's second element—Water—was better suited for ninjutsu development. Both directions offered different paths without inherent superiority; ultimately, it came down to personal choice.
However, Sakura also needed to keep training in genjutsu and sealing techniques, and ideally shouldn't abandon medical ninjutsu either. This massive workload actually started to worry Mizuki. Although young people generally have strong learning abilities, would trying to develop so many skills simultaneously lead to mediocrity across the board?
Mizuki really needed to think carefully about how to guide this hard-working young girl and help her prioritize certain areas.
After answering some questions Sakura had during practice, Mizuki casually asked about Karin.
"She lives not far from Naruto?" Mizuki asked in slight surprise. "So does that mean they've met?"
"Yeah, but it seems like they don't get along very well."
"That they don't get along?" That was somewhat unexpected. According to the Mind's Eye of the Kagura—a sixth sense that helps avoid danger—Karin should naturally feel drawn toward Naruto.
"Naruto apparently really dislikes Karin. He even called her a four-eyes and an ugly girl!" Sakura clearly disapproved of Naruto's rudeness.
"Ugly?" Mizuki couldn't help but smile, somewhat concerned about Naruto's taste in appearance. In a ninja world where everyone styled themselves like rockstars and rebels, anyone relatively normal-looking was already quite impressive to Mizuki. Mizuki thought the quiet, shy Karin was actually pretty cute, all things considered.
"Naruto is just so terrible! I think Karin actually wants to be friends with him, but he's been too rough and scared her off."
"Is that right..." Mizuki didn't particularly care about childish squabbles, so he continued asking, "How about Sasuke? Has he met Karin yet? Are they getting along well?"
"Sasuke? She's seen him twice. He seems pretty average." Sakura wrinkled her brow, thinking it over but finding nothing particularly special between them.
"Then make sure you two get along well. Karin really needs support now that she's all alone in Konoha."
Lately, because of my Ninjutsu training, I've been seeing less and less of Karin. Other than taking lessons from Ebisu, Karin used most of her free time to hang out with Sakura. It's only natural that spending time with someone her own age matters more than attention from adults.
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