14 Teaching Tools?
Just ten minutes before Kushina started to do her test passionately, Natsuhiko went back to his seat, and took out teaching materials to prepare for the next day's class.
In the quiet office, the only sound was the rustling of pens on paper. After a few minutes, the rustling became intermittent. As time passed, the intervals between the sounds grew longer until they eventually ceased altogether.
Natsuhiko looked up and observed Kushina. At this point, she was leaning back in her chair, hands hanging down, staring blankly at the ceiling. She seemed to have lost all colour, as if she had burned her life essence.
It appeared she had reached her limit.
"Have you finished?" Natsuhiko asked, while walking towards her after putting down his book.
"Wait a moment! I'm about to figure out how many chickens and rabbits there are."
Natsuhiko's words startled Kushina, who quickly leaned towards the test paper as if afraid Natsuhiko would snatch it away.
It seemed she was stuck on the chicken and rabbit problem.
Natsuhiko was somewhat speechless. "Uh, that... this question requires you to design your own rune technique formula to solve it. Just calculating the answer won't be of any use."
"Oh, right..."
Kushina suddenly remembered that this test was about Sealing Jutsu, not mathematics!
Realizing this fact, she felt a mix of despair and frustration, holding her head and exclaiming, "Then what was I calculating for so long just now?"
...
After struggling for a moment, Kushina eventually chose to give up. She handed the test paper to Natsuhiko and collapsed on the table like a deflated rubber ball.
Natsuhiko smiled slightly and began to roughly review the entire test paper. He realized there was no need to check the specific answers; he could gather plenty of information from Kushina's handwriting.
As the difficulty of the questions increased, Kushina's confident strokes turned into hesitant ones, finally ending up almost inconceivable.
After scrutinizing for a while, Natsuhiko discerned the words from the scribbles on the second half of the paper: "不会!" (I don't know!)
At this point, he had a good understanding of Kushina's actual proficiency. In simple terms, her foundational skills were solid, memorizing various basic technique formulas thoroughly after putting in some hard work. However, she rarely ventured into designing technique formulas on her own. When faced with a problem that required her to create a rune technique formula, she was at a loss.
For example, the chicken and rabbit problem was essentially a system of linear equations, something commonly used in Sealing Jutsu. If Kushina were given problems related to that, she could solve them easily. However, when Natsuhiko presented the problem in a different context, she struggled.
Feeling somewhat familiar, Kushina thought, "Wait, isn't this metaphor something I've heard before?"
In any case, the test results aligned with Natsuhiko's earlier speculation. It was clear that Kushina lacked enthusiasm for Sealing Jutsu, learning only because of the obligation as the future Jinchuriki.
Natsuhiko could almost envision young Kushina, burdened by forceful learning of various rune technique formulas under Mito-sama's supervision.
"Did I perform poorly?" Kushina asked hesitantly.
Natsuhiko stared at the paper for a long time, making her somewhat uneasy. Finally, he recovered and said with a slight smile, "Considering your age, you've done exceptionally well. Your grasp of basic knowledge is on point, and you didn't fall for the little traps I set."
Although he himself had set a big trap earlier when Kushina first entered the office.
Hearing Natsuhiko's praise, Kushina felt relieved. She touched her head, somewhat apologetic manner. However, she quickly realised something.
"Wait, Natsuhiko Amou, aren't we about the same age? If I'm considered exceptional at this age, doesn't that mean you're extraordinary?"
Natsuhiko-sensei, are you subtly praising yourself?
Moreover...
"I won't be able to handle the later questions," Kushina said with a bit of frustration.
"That's normal because the later questions are already outside the scope of normal Sealing Jutsu," Natsuhiko explained. "They're more in line with my personal style. I believe runes shouldn't be limited to Sealing Jutsu. They should be applied to solve a variety of problems, whether in combat or daily life."
"So that's how it is..."
Kushina nodded in understanding, though in her mind, she wondered what kind of life problems involved counting chickens and rabbits in a cage.
Unaware of Kushina's thoughts, Natsuhiko suggested, "Perfect timing. I need to prepare teaching tools for the next class. If you help me make them, you might understand my point of view a bit better."
"Teaching tools?" Kushina's eyes lit up, instantly becoming more spirited. "Is it related to the projection jutsu you used in the first class?"
Since arriving at the Academy today, she had heard everyone discussing the legendary first class, and she was curious about the projection jutsu.
Her role as an assistant was created because Natsuhiko's classes had become unexpectedly popular.
Natsuhiko nodded in response to Kushina's question.
"Indeed, the use of these teaching tools involves the principles of projection jutsu. However, even though both are used to ignite everyone's interest, the focus is slightly different from the images I projected during class," Natsuhiko explained while taking out a storage card and placing it on the table..
Accompanied by a burst of white smoke, a box filled with small pieces of paper and two peculiar-looking machines appeared.
Natsuhiko first took out a stack of paper from the box and handed it to Kushina.
Kushina took a look around them and found that these cards were somewhat similar to the storage cards Natsuhiko had used before. However, the material of Natsuhiko's previous cards looked valuable at first glance.
These cards were made by sticking two sheets of paper together, with one side being regular cardboard and the other side being a poor quality yellowed paper, reminding her of something similar.
"Is this... the talisman paper used for practicing rune drawing?" Kushina asked with some hesitation.
"Exactly," Natsuhiko nodded, while not being surprised about Kushina guessing it.
The materials used for making talismans and scrolls, to conduct and bear chakra, required special materials in their production. The more powerful the jutsu one wanted to cast with talismans and scrolls, the more precious materials were needed, and consequently, the higher the price.
For beginners learning Sealing Jutsu, even if they had a source of income, it was impossible to practice with ordinary talisman paper every time. One could not check if chakra was infused properly when constructing rune technique formulas on an ordinary paper.
As a solution, predecessors invented a type of talisman paper to use for practising. The main material used was a low-quality substance that could conduct chakra but couldn't bear too much of it.
The distinctive feature of this talisman paper was that it could depict rune technique formulas, but it was useless in practicality. Excessive chakra during the formation stage would destroy the entire rune, leading to the failure of the jutsu.
While it had no use in actual combat, it was perfect for practicing rune drawing, and most importantly, it was inexpensive.
Natsuhiko explained while holding up one card, "This side is made from a special grass wick from the Land of Grass, used as the main material for the talisman."
"Compared to ordinary practice talisman paper, this grass wick paper is more durable. I bought quite a bit, and it just happened to be useful this time."
Kushina, curious, picked up one card to inspect it. She found that the side with the talisman had some inscriptions.
The majority of the paper was occupied by a square box, inside which a basic rune technique formula was drawn, though it was incomplete, missing one or two crucial runes.
Thinking about the previous test questions, Kushina easily concluded that this was a kind of fill-in-the-blank question.
Perhaps completing the runes triggered some functionality.
That's what Kushina couldn't help but think.
At the bottom of the paper, inside a rectangular box, there were some regular words. However, the more Kushina looked, the more confused she became.
Because she recognized every word individually, but when strung together, she couldn't understand.
It read:
[First Hokage · Senju Hashirama]
[Cost: 7, Attack: 7, Health: 10]
[Forest Descent: When summoned, change the field to "Forest," deal 1 damage to all opponent units at the beginning of the turn]
[Wood Clone: Cost 4 health points, summon two Wood Clones (7/4/1) to the field]
[Introduction: Leader of the Senju Clan, pacified turbulent times with Wood-Style Secret Jutsu. Co-founder of the Konoha Hidden Village with Uchiha Madara and became the First Hokage. Equally distributed Tailed Beasts to the Five Great Countries in the first Five Kage Summit and briefly achieved peace in the Ninja World. Defeated Uchiha Madara in the Valley of the End and passed away years later, revered as the God of Shinobi by the world.]
(End of this chapter)
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