Chapter 105: Cultivation
In Yuna’s previous life, there were a lot of different opinions on what the most important thing for a cultivator to have is. A powerful will. A strong heart. Good morals. Bad morals. Not showing any emotions. A powerful bloodline… People were coming up with all kinds of reasons why some people would reach far and some won’t.
Yuna, however, had a different opinion from most. For her, it was all about balance. Spent a lot of time training? Go out and have fun with a bunch of women. Just had an exciting fight? Spent some time meditating. Just had a breakthrough? Get drunk.
Most people laughed at her for her rampant lifestyle, thinking that she could never amount to anything. These people were proven wrong rather quickly when Yuna surpassed every single one of them at a rapid pace, though.
A lot of people would never acknowledge that they were wrong or that other methods could work as well, so this started rumors that her rapid advancements were due to a treasure she was hiding from everyone. From there, things escalated more and more and a few years later she was holding the head of that planet’s strongest cultivator in her hand while a massive amount of people were kowtowing in front of her and begging for mercy.
Anyway, Yuna won’t claim that balance is the only factor that allows someone to reach a high level in cultivation, but she taught a lot of people in her previous life and came to the conclusion that it is at least a very important and maybe even the most important factor.
That is the reason why Yuna hasn’t started cultivating yet. Since birth, she had a massive amount of corrupted chakra in the form of a giant fox inside her. At the start it was even completely aligned to the Yin nature, making it even worse. Although the problem with the Yin-Yang balance was already fixed, Kurama and her were still working on refining the corrupted chakra out, and it will still take quite a while before they finish the process. The same was true for Naruto, as well.
Hinata and Anko didn’t have a problem like that but instead had a problem on the psychological level. They could have, of course, still cultivated, but that would have decreased their future potential. Now, that both of them have reached the optimal state of mind, Yuna could finally teach them how to cultivate.
Hinata and Anko, meanwhile couldn’t help but be surprised. Not in a hundred years did they expect that Yuna would give something she thought up such a simple and normal name. It would take Yuna quite a while to realize that she instinctively used the term from her last life and that she could have actually come up with a name for it herself.
Despite their surprise, Hinata and Anko still nodded their heads in agreement when Yuna asked them whether they are interested in learning it or not, and a few minutes later they stood inside one of Konoha’s many forests. All kinds of seals were spread around a small space of a few square meters and as soon as Hinata and Anko entered that space they felt incredibly relaxed and content.
Yuna had spent quite a bit of time getting her seals to interact with natural energy but she only had middling success. She managed to create a seal that increased the density of natural energy in a small area, but that was all she got so far.
“Sit down and relax for now. The first step to cultivation is being able to sense qi…*cough* natural energy. You probably noticed the shift in the atmosphere when you entered my sealing array. This shift is caused by an overabundance of natural energy. Try to get a feel for it and, after 30 minutes, exit this array to really feel the difference between the outside and the inside. From then on you will swap between meditating inside the array and outside of it every 30 minutes.”
Hinata and Anko nodded their heads and sat down to meditate. Yuna has taught Hinata how to meditate a long time ago and she has gotten rather used to it by now. Anko, on the other hand, has only started recently, so it took her a while longer to get in the right state of mind. At first, she thought that Yuna was playing a prank on her, but when she saw Hinata and Naruto doing it diligently she gave it a try as well. She was truly surprised when she noticed how the proper pose and breathing methods could clear her thoughts of distraction and make her mind move much faster.
Yuna also sat down, but instead of cultivating, she focused on forming her next chain with an excited smile on her face. Her instincts were telling her that the finals of the chunin exam were going to be a lot of fun.
Meanwhile, Sasuke was greedily looking at the jutsu Kakashi just performed. At first, he regretted that he allowed Kakashi to seal away the curse seal he received from Orochimaru, but it was a worthwhile trade-off if he got his hands on such a powerful jutsu instead.
Kakashi on the other hand could only shake his head at Sasuke’s power-hungry gaze. Did he fear that Sasuke would use his Chidori against an ally? No. He hoped Sasuke would do so. Or to be more precise, Kakashi hoped that he would use it against Yuna.
Although Sasuke went through a few setbacks since he became a shinobi, most of them were things that Sasuke could easily make up excuses for. Haku was older than him and had a bloodline as well. Orochimaru was much older and Lee surprised him by only using Taijutsu. Kakashi knew that this was how Sasuke justified his losses to preserve his pride.
Now, however, none of that would work. Yuna and Sasuke were the same age and Sasuke was fully aware of her capabilities. If Sasuke gets crushed by her, despite using something as powerful as the Chidori his arrogance should finally break.
There was, actually, something else he wanted to do, but wasn’t sure whether it was a good idea or not. During Yuna’s fight with Lee, Sasuke saw her “red” chakra and wanted to know where it came from. Kakashi considered telling Sasuke about the Kyuubi. If he did, Sasuke would probably try to provoke Yuna into not using any of its power, which would make his defeat even more crushing for him, since that would mean he actually got defeated by someone his age who was holding back.
The problem with that was that Yuna would, very likely, see through it and Kakashi wasn’t sure how she would react to it. Would she play along or flip the table and knock Sasuke out instantly? Kakashi had no idea but thought that it was at least worth a try.