Chapter 179: Ice Style 101
The nature transformation of Ice Style... its simplest application is to use low temperatures to condense water into ice, and then use shape transformation to mold it into weapons or other shapes.
This was probably the limit of what the fake Ice Style used by that group of Snow Ninja from the Land of Snow could achieve.
True Ice Style, of course, would not stop at such a trick.
"The nature transformation of Ice Style... let's first talk about the strength of ice without involving chakra."
Haruno Sakura condensed a pair of glasses on her face, brandished an ice pointer, and put on the appearance of a Ninja Academy teacher.
The long-lost Team 7 class time... had begun again.
"Ahem..." Clearing her throat, Sakura began to formally teach the student who was all ears. "Generally speaking, the lower the temperature, the higher the hardness of the ice..."
The hardness of ice, between minus 5 and 50 degrees Celsius, is linearly related to the temperature.
After minus 50 degrees Celsius, the Mohs hardness of ice is 6, which already exceeds the hardness of the steel used for standard-issue kunai and is close to high-strength alloy steel and glass. After further cooling, it can even reach a Mohs hardness of 8 or more, harder than the hardest granite!
For comparison, the hardest substance, diamond, is in a class of its own with a Mohs hardness of 10. Below that, Mohs hardness 9 belongs to chromium (and only the chrome plating on the surface of metal), cemented carbide, and corundum. Ice frozen to the extreme follows closely behind, while the bones used by Kimimaro, without any added chakra, only have a Mohs hardness of 5.
This level of hardness, even without attaching chakra to enhance its performance, just relying on its own physical properties, is already harder than most materials in the ninja world!
"That sounds amazing," Sasuke said, feeling that he had listened to a lot but still didn't understand much. All he knew was that ice would become very, very hard after being cooled. "But in actual combat, you still have to consider the effects after attaching chakra."
"Don't be impatient, let me finish," Sakura said, pushing up her glasses and continuing.
Indeed, in the world of ninja, to talk about anything without mentioning the influence of chakra is just being disingenuous.
"Speaking of the power of chakra, Ice Style chakra, as a Kekkei Genkai, is naturally far superior to ordinary jutsu chakra. You don't deny this, do you?"
"Of course," Sasuke said, also a possessor of a Kekkei Genkai. He understood the power of a Kekkei Genkai very well. A composite affinity being stronger than a single affinity was common sense among ninja.
So after adding Ice Style chakra, not only was the hardness of the ice strengthened, but its greatest weakness, toughness, was also improved by leaps and bounds. If an Ice Style ninjutsu pushed its nature transformation to the extreme, it would become insanely strong in this aspect—even stronger than the Shikotsumyaku at full power.
Of course, it still couldn't compare to a Shikotsumyaku that had unleashed several thousand percent of its power.
To this, Haruno Sakura could only say that when you compete with him in ninjutsu, he competes with you in chakra amount. Using ten or a hundred times the amount of chakra to crush you—that is true foul play.
And Sakura's little "cheat," Uzumaki Naruto, was just such a person who played foul every day!
She had thought that after obtaining the Yin Seal, she would also be ranked among the members of the "foul play" world. She had thought that after Naruto left the village, it would be rare for her to meet such an enemy who loved to play foul. Who would have thought that the very first time she activated the Yin Seal in a real battle, her opponent would be a death-seeker who had opened his death gate to amplify his strength, and his chakra amount was much more than even her Yin Seal provided...
—Haruno Sakura had always held a grudge that Kimimaro had not been defeated by her, but had almost given her a surprise at the moment of his death before cutting off his own life force.
It was just like when Sasuke was fighting the ice clone; he didn't like to win by dragging it out until her chakra was exhausted.
Sakura always felt that such an ending had not been able to fully prove that her ninjutsu was stronger than Kimimaro's bloodline.
Her Ice Style was clearly stronger than the Shikotsumyaku.
Ref, someone's using a forced cheat to change the score!
Although, the certain someone who had simultaneously activated Sakura Rush, the Yin Seal, and the Monstrous Strength Technique seemed to be the one with more cheats...
Of course, it was also undeniable that Haruno Sakura had only been in contact with Ice Style for less than a year. Her development and familiarity with Ice Style was not as good as Kimimaro's control over the Shikotsumyaku. This was only natural.
She still did not have a clear enough understanding of the nature and shape transformations of Ice Style.
Shape transformation was fine. This was just shaping the Ice Style chakra. With ice as the medium, shaping was not difficult. Ice could be transformed into thousands of shapes. In fact, the various wild ideas in her mind were already stirring restlessly...
But nature transformation... as mentioned before, was still stuck at the level of creating low temperatures.
However, just the aspect of low temperature was already enough for her to let her thoughts diverge and give play to her imagination.
Using the ice nature transformation to lower the temperature, to turn water into extremely hard ice, was just the most preliminary application.
Even so, this basic application was already quite attractive and could be extended to many powerful Ice Style ninjutsu.
For example, Swallow Snowstorm, Cold Frost Ice Funeral, and so on.
However, the more exciting part was yet to come.
The low-temperature world had completely different rules from the normal-temperature world.
"Sasuke, you may not have heard the term 'cold brittleness'... but you should know that most objects will lose their toughness and become very brittle at low temperatures."
Haruno Sakura said, taking a kunai from Sasuke's ninja tool pouch.
The various steel weapons used by ninja were mostly made of ordinary low-alloy, high-strength steel that had not been designed for use in low-temperature conditions.
She had checked the data. Kunai were usually made of 16MnCu hot-rolled steel. The brittle transition temperature of this steel—that is, the temperature at which its toughness begins to decrease—was about minus 10 degrees Celsius. If it was frozen a little by her bloodline ninjutsu, it would become extremely brittle.
That metal becomes brittle at low temperatures is common sense.
Sasuke of course knew this point, so he also nodded without hesitation. "Indeed."
It was just that, as for how brittle it would become, Sasuke had no idea.
Then again, even if it became brittle, it could be compensated for by enhancing it with chakra, right?
He watched as the pink-haired girl circulated her Ice Style chakra. The refined ice nature transformation quickly lowered the kunai's temperature to an extreme low. A thin layer of white frost quickly formed on the metallic, lustrous surface of the steel.
"Now the temperature of the kunai is about minus eighty or ninety degrees. Want to try hitting it?" Sakura said with a smile, having seen through Sasuke's thoughts.
Sasuke was somewhat dismissive and casually struck at it.
The normal kunai in the black-haired youth's hand collided with the frozen kunai in Sakura's hand. Unexpectedly, the latter had become as fragile as a glass rod. So much so that with just a casual blow from Sasuke, the kunai directly shattered into several pieces!
"Hn... the effect is not bad!" Sasuke raised an eyebrow slightly and said with some surprise. Although he knew the kunai would become brittle, this was the first time he had discovered that it could become this brittle. The climate in the Land of Fire was mild. Even in winter, it was extremely rare to have days of heavy snow, let alone temperatures of minus eighty or ninety degrees. So this was the first time Sasuke had seen such a wonderful use of Ice Style.
"Hmph, hmph," Sakura smiled smugly. This was just the appetizer. "Try cutting this again."
This time, she condensed an extremely cold, high-hardness ice blade.
Sasuke frowned slightly. The highly condensed Ice Style chakra on the ice blade made him a little wary.
But he still listened to her and swung his kunai to clash with Sakura's ice blade.
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