Chapter 138: One-Handed Hand Seals

If you were to ask what the difference is between Total Concentration Breathing and normal breathing in Shisui's training, it's that normal breathing is like eating bite by bite to gain sustained strength, while Total Concentration Breathing is like suddenly taking a huge gulp in the middle of eating to gain a short burst of explosive power.

The difference is that practicing Total Concentration Breathing is much harder than taking a big bite of food; taking a big bite only requires opening your mouth wide and controlling the muscles in your mouth, but Total Concentration Breathing isn't just about opening your mouth wide and taking a big breath of air.

Practicing Total Concentration Breathing is a bit like sprint training—you gradually build explosive power through small increments.

When Shisui first learned it on Friday, he couldn't feel any difference from usual; he tried hard to concentrate his breathing more and more, but there wasn't much change.

This situation didn't change until the fifth day.

"Flame Breathing: Total Concentration Breathing—Phoenix Flower Claw Crimson!"

Shisui held four kunai in his right hand, chakra gathering in his palm; in an instant, all four kunai were engulfed in flames, then swiftly thrown by Shisui.

Boom! Boom!

The kunai, covered in fierce flames, were like small fireballs; upon hitting the ground, they exploded, leaving small craters.

"No-hand-sign release? Shisui, how did you do that?" Obito, standing beside him, couldn't help asking curiously.

Obito had once condensed flames in his palm to attack Might Guy during a practical exam; if defined strictly in terms of ninjutsu, that could barely count as a hand-signless technique, because it also involved manipulating chakra's nature transformation.

But in reality, Obito's was just a basic nature transformation technique—the flames were ordinary flames with no additional effects, and he couldn't increase their power by adding more chakra because it would risk burning himself.

If rated by the ninja world's learning grade standards, Obito's technique would at best be D-rank, nowhere near the same level as the hand-signless Phoenix Flower Claw Crimson Shisui had just demonstrated.

"It's not true hand-signless release; I just took advantage of Total Concentration Breathing," Shisui replied.

"Generally speaking, condensing chakra in the throat to release a Fire Release is safer and easier to concentrate, while using the hands is more dangerous and slower..."

The human body in the ninja world has a chakra pathway system throughout the body and three hundred sixty-one chakra points, but the difficulty of condensing chakra for nature transformation varies in different body parts.

The reason so many Fire Release techniques are spat from the mouth is because using hands and feet is not only inefficient but also easy to injure oneself.

Different nature transformations also vary—for example, Lightning Release and Fire Release are different; many Lightning Release techniques condense chakra in the hands or arms before release.

"Flame Breathing can solve the problem of nature transformation speed; in addition, reducing the number of shuriken lowers the total demand for flames. Actually, I did use one hand seal," Shisui showed his left hand to Obito—he had just made a single-handed seal.

The essence of hand seals is to guide ninjutsu. By weakening the technique and bolstering it with Flame Breathing, he barely managed a single-handed seal to release Phoenix Flower Claw Crimson.

"You can even make hand seals with one hand?" Obito was stunned.

*Smack! *

Muyue pressed two fingers together and gave Obito a tap.

"Looks like you've completely forgotten what I taught you before," Muyue said, ruffling Obito's hair.

"The essence of hand seals is to guide the release of ninjutsu. If you understand the technique well enough, you can not only use one-handed seals but also reduce the number of seals or even release it hand-signlessly," Muyue reminded him.

Muyue's words brought back some relevant memories for Obito.

Muyue had once mentioned that one could use one-handed seals and simplify them; he had even demonstrated a complete seal sequence for Great Fire Dragon and a version with only one seal.

That day, after listening, Obito excitedly went to try it, only to find that one-handed seals were not only slower but also caused the technique to fail.

After a few days with no progress, Obito gave up trying, thinking it was better to just train normally—after all, he had never heard of any strong ninja making a name for themselves through one-handed seals.

"Hehe, actually I just wanted to test whether Shisui remembered what you taught, Muyue-sensei," Obito said putting on a front.

Shisui: …

"Your idea is pretty good. Although the power and attack range are smaller than a normal Phoenix Flower Claw Crimson, the release speed is faster. At close range, it might have an unexpected effect," Muyue said.

If someone charged at Shisui with a blade thinking he wouldn't have time to release a jutsu, and Shisui suddenly whipped out a single-handed-seal Fire Release, it would probably be hard to dodge.

"Muyue-sensei, teach me how to do one-handed seals again," Obito said, looking at Muyue with eager anticipation. He kind of wanted to be like Shisui and release Phoenix Flower Claw Crimson with a single-handed seal.

Obito felt it would definitely look cool in a real fight.

In battle, he would calmly pull out four kunai, and before the enemy could react, instantly make a single-handed seal and toss out four flaming kunai. The enemy would be pierced by the flaming kunai and blown to pieces, while he would turn around with his hands in his pockets right after throwing them.

"Seeing such a cool scene, Rin would definitely look at me with admiration and say, 'Obito, you're amazing,'" Obito imagined in his mind.

"Actually, I've already explained everything I need to. Today I'll go over it again, but in the end, you have to practice and get familiar with the technique on your own. Just listening won't make you learn it," Muyue said.

One-handed seals—how should I put it? It's like asking a right-handed person to practice calligraphy with their left hand or to write with both hands. A teacher can't just possess their body to teach them.

Still, one-handed seals do have considerable practical value in combat. If you're wearing a long robe, you can completely hide the hand forming the seal and secretly cast a technique.

It sounds a bit indecent, but in actual combat it's extremely practical. If the enemy can't see your hand seals, even if they are sensitive enough to detect that you might be about to use ninjutsu, they won't know which ninjutsu you're using.

Experienced strong individuals can tell what type of ninjutsu it is just by observing the hand seals, because hand seals for different elemental ninjutsu also have corresponding characteristics. For example, Fire Release typically ends with the Tiger seal.

"Mm-hmm, I'll practice more." Obito nodded quickly, like a chick pecking at rice.

"Shisui, can you share your results and experience with me?" Obito then looked at Shisui.

"No successful experience, because I forgot what Teacher Muyue said." Shisui replied.

"Huh?" Obito showed a surprised expression, then remembered what he himself had just said.

"Haha, it's me who forgot. How could you possibly forget, Shisui? You just used it a moment ago." Obito quickly admitted his mistake.

Shisui was just joking. Since his comrade looked so expectant, of course he wouldn't refuse.

"To make a breakthrough in hand seals, practicing ninjutsu is essential. Additionally, at your current level, you need the aid of breathing techniques, so try to practice both simultaneously." Muyue began to teach.

Then Obito began his journey of one-handed hand seals.

The first attempt was a bit awkward. Obito completed the hand seals with one hand, but even after throwing the shuriken, no fire came out.

Obito and Shisui asked about advanced experience.

Looking at the scattered shuriken on the ground, Shisui was a bit silent. He had encountered a knowledge gap; he had never seen this situation before.

At that moment, he was thinking: why would someone use Phoenix Flower Claw Crimson and throw the shuriken before the fire came out? Normally, you spit fire first and then throw the shuriken.

Shisui thought for a long time but couldn't figure out how one could make a mistake at this step, so he said:

"How about you, Obito, first get familiar with two-handed hand seals before practicing with one hand?"

"Good idea!" Obito thought it was a good method.

With two-handed hand seals, he naturally and smoothly completed the ninjutsu. More than a dozen flaming shuriken all slammed into the ground.

In his mind, Obito recalled the memory of the two-handed hand seals just now, trying to complete the hand seals with one hand.

The second time he used one-handed hand seals to perform ninjutsu, this time the fire came out—fire shot from his hand, almost burning Obito himself.

"Haha, I was just thinking about how you use your hand, Shisui, and forgot the steps." Obito explained with a laugh.

Shisui seemed to have discovered the reason why Obito couldn't do one-handed hand seals.

"One-handed hand seals are more difficult than two-handed. You need to concentrate even more and not let your mind wander." Muyue reminded.

Doing with one hand what is normally done with both hands naturally increases the difficulty.

After two hours, Obito became more skilled at gathering chakra in his palm, but he still hadn't succeeded with one-handed hand seals.

After training ended, everyone went home separately. However, in reality, only Shisui went home. The others returned home and then gathered again in the Southern Border Forest.

Changing shoes at the entrance and walking into the house, Shisui poured himself a glass of water.

He didn't have the habit of announcing "I'm home" because no one would respond. He lived alone in his house.

Shisui glanced at the calendar on the wall and realized that it was already October 18th.

His birthday was October 19th, which was tomorrow.

However, Shisui didn't plan to celebrate his birthday. The only person who knew his birthday was his uncle, who had gone on a mission not long ago and didn't have time to come celebrate with him.

He also didn't want to proactively tell Muyue and the others about his birthday. He believed that if Muyue knew, he would help him celebrate, but Shisui didn't want to trouble Muyue over such a trivial matter.

Muyue was already very busy, teaching Class 1 of Year 1 at the Ninja Academy all day, sparing time in the mornings and afternoons to teach them, going to the Southern Border Forest right after school ended, and recently injuring himself at night while forging ninja tools.

Seeing how busy Muyue was, how could Shisui be so brazen as to trouble Muyue with something as trivial as a birthday? Passing a birthday wouldn't increase his strength, and it wouldn't benefit either him or Muyue.

"It just means I'm a year older." Shisui sat in the courtyard, looking at the bright moon in the sky, and said.

After thinking about random things, Shisui ultimately chose to practice ninjutsu.

Perhaps because his mind was scattered, this time, out of Shisui's four shuriken, two surprisingly didn't have flame attached.

"So that's how it is..." Shisui somewhat understood the reason for Obito's failure earlier in the day.

On the other side, Muyue gathered the disciples except Shisui.

"Do you know what day tomorrow is?" Muyue asked.