You flip through the Second Tsuchikage's manuscript once again and discover that "Dustless Bewildering Cover" isn't merely an Earth Release technique. Strictly speaking, it's a compound secret art that fuses Water and Earth Release!
By coating your body with a mixture of water droplets and dust particles, you create countless nano-scale lenses with special structures. These lenses distort both light and chakra, resulting in dual invisibility—visual and sensory.
To even begin practicing this technique, it's not enough to simply know Water and Earth Release. Both nature transformations must be mastered to the point where they can merge into a Kekkei Genkai!
No wonder this technique was never passed down.
In your memory, only someone like Hashirama Senju could meet such conditions!
It's entirely expected that even Ōnoki couldn't pull it off.
You even start to feel that the Second Tsuchikage was a monstrous genius on par with Tobirama Senju.
—So what if he didn't have a Kekkei Genkai?
He mastered Wind, Fire, Water, and Earth Release to their absolute limits, created a learnable Kekkei Tōta on his own, and even developed a secret technique that can hide from Sage Mode perception!
You check your own arrogance. Even after improving your aptitude through bloodline absorption, you're still a long way off from those once-in-a-generation, peerless geniuses.
But you're not the type to charge headfirst into a wall without turning back.
You're determined to learn "Dustless Bewildering Cover," but not by blindly practicing. First, you'll deepen your understanding of Earth Release. Once you reach the same level of mastery as you have with Fire Release, then you'll revisit this technique.
So, you pore over the Second Tsuchikage's notes and come to understand the uniqueness of this mountain. Pushing these variously sized spherical boulders doesn't just build a ninja's Strength, help refine chakra, and train willpower—it also directly enhances one's understanding of Earth Release.
This isn't poetic exaggeration or metaphor. It's a factual description. This is why Iwagakure was built in this location.
You begin pushing the stones to grasp the will of earth. With your already formidable physical endurance, your body grows even stronger.
On top of that, you continue to use meditation to awaken your Uchiha bloodline during your breaks. Before long, you're pushing the largest-sized boulder available.
And even then, it still doesn't feel like enough pressure. Your insights aren't coming fast enough, and your Endurance still isn't improving quickly enough.
Ultra-Added-Weight Rock Technique!
The boulder's weight instantly doubles.
Now this is more like it. The rate of progress finally feels satisfying.
"I'm sensing a familiar pulse, nya!"
Right at that moment, the black cat boss guarding nearby speaks in a strange tone.
"You mean… the moment I used the Ultra-Added-Weight Rock Technique, you started sensing natural energy?"
You and the black cat boss run some careful tests.
Turns out that pushing these stones and comprehending the will of the earth is actually a way of drawing out earth-aligned natural energy.
And the Ultra-Added-Weight Rock Technique draws out even more of it. No wonder it helps deepen Earth Release mastery.
Realizing this, you suddenly develop an interest in training Sage Arts.
However, while the ninja cat clan does possess Sage techniques, much of their legacy has been lost over the years.
What remains now can continuously and automatically absorb natural energy—but cannot store it. What you absorb, you immediately use. And its only effects are concealing chakra and enhancing perception and reaction speed.
Fortunately, the technique has a low learning threshold. Nearly all ninja cats can use it, and failures don't carry any real consequences. This is why their clan can perfectly mask their chakra signatures...
Since you can't master a high-tier secret technique like "Dustless Bewildering Cover" in the short term, learning a Sage technique that perfectly hides your chakra as a substitute seems like a pretty solid move.
At the very least, it's far superior to using the Flame of the Infested to suppress your aura.
So, after choking down a dead rat brought by the black cat boss—while doing your best not to vomit—you activate the Ultra-Added-Weight Rock Technique to stir up natural energy while beginning your absorption training.
Thanks to the trace amount of Indra's bloodline in your body and your fully-refined Three Tomoe Sharingan, you're able to quickly spot a faint, pale yellow wisp of energy in the air under the stimulation of the dead rat. That is earth-natured natural energy!
As the earth-natured energy gradually spreads across your body's surface and eventually merges with your chakra, connecting with your heart, the ninja cat clan's Sage technique is successfully mastered.
You open your eyes and immediately notice your reflexes feel slightly sharper. You can now also visually detect natural energy and possess a degree of sensory ability similar to the Uzumaki Clan...
But the greatest gain by far is your newfound ability to perfectly mask your chakra signature.
And it lays a solid foundation for learning true Sage Arts in the future—perhaps in one of the Three Great Sage Lands.
According to the black cat boss, the ninja cat clan's Sage technique has one defining trait: it can continuously absorb natural energy to enhance physical stats.
However, likely due to your already exceptional body, you haven't noticed any major improvement for now.
Still, the automatic absorption of natural energy is accelerating your comprehension of Earth Release at an astonishing pace.
Before long, using "Earth Release: Rock Clone" as a base, you develop a combined Earth-Fire technique:
Clay Figurine Clone!
These clones can vary in size and even be used as disposable Susanoo substitutes.
Unlike Shadow Clones, which break apart with a single hit, the Clay Figurine Clones are incredibly tough—durable enough to keep fighting even after being decapitated or losing half their body.
Most importantly, they're hollow inside. That means you can hide a Shadow Clone within one to compensate for the fact that the figurines themselves can't use ninjutsu and rely solely on physical combat!
Or you could use one as outer armor, massively boosting your own durability—nearly to the level of a full-body Susanoo.
...
[Month 6]
Deidara brings you back to his secluded mountain retreat after another clay-gathering expedition.
You withdraw the Shadow Clone that had been standing in for you and learn that nothing major happened during your absence.
You equip the new Shadow Clone with your newly-invented Clay Figurine Clone as armor—both as a stand-in and as a field test for your latest technique.
Although Deidara still hasn't found any new types of clay, he's been inspired by the Flame of the Infested you gave him. He tried fusing it into his explosive clay.
The results weren't great—while it did boost the blast's power somewhat, the chakra consumption increased exponentially.
Deidara asks for your advice, and you explain that the properties of explosion and the Flame of the Infested don't mix well. He'd be better off just using regular Fire Release.
Besides, combining Earth Release with Fire Release yields Lava Release.
Since Deidara already achieves his results with pure Earth-based secret arts, adding Lava Release could take things even further—perhaps even breaking free of the clay medium entirely.
It might also help eliminate his weakness to Lightning Release.
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Pls Drop some Power Stones
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