Naruto: The King Behind the Curtain

Seiki remained noncommittal regarding Inoichi Yamanaka's evaluation.

If jonin were regarded as the pillars of strength in the ninja world, then tokubetsu jonin weren't that impressive by comparison.

Even Asuma couldn't help but scoff, "There's no way a tokubetsu jonin's genjutsu could compare to Seiki's skill!"

Kurenai also nodded, "Right, even Kakashi Hatake is considered by many to possess tokubetsu jonin-level capability."

Seeing this, Inoichi Yamanaka exclaimed somewhat frantically, "Tokubetsu jonin are still powerful, you know!"

When did even a genin start looking down on tokubetsu jonin?

Still, recalling Seiki's earlier performance, he quickly calmed down.

Geniuses were one thing, but true monsters like Seiki were in a league of their own.

"Cough cough," Inoichi began solemnly. "Let me analyze that previous fight now. First off, Asuma and Kurenai, your performance truly lived up to your genius labels. However…" He warned gravely.

"You both relied too much on complex, high-level jutsu. Though they're powerful, they also suffer from slow hand seals and massive chakra consumption. Just like during that fight—since you were a team of two, you should've leveraged numerical advantage and frequency more effectively. Using techniques with shorter seal sequences would have forced Seiki into constant reaction."

Asuma looked unconvinced, "Inoichi-sensei, maybe you don't understand—Seiki's medical ninjutsu is incredibly strong! Weaker techniques simply had no effect on him at all!"

"That's *exactly* why teamwork is so important!" Inoichi said earnestly before turning to ask, "Seiki, was your medical technique Yin Healing Wound Destruction?"

"It's actually just a weaker version," Seiki readily admitted his secret without hesitation. "Yin Healing Wound Destruction works by predicting an enemy's attack location and covering that area with Yang Release chakra beforehand. But anticipating attacks during combat proved too dangerous, so instead, I simply directed which areas would get injured."

Asuma stared at Seiki, suddenly understanding, "So that's why you always pushed aggressive offense—you wanted complete control over the battlefield!"

"Do you see?" Inoichi continued sternly. "Ultimately, you lost because you couldn't control the situation properly! If you'd predicted Seiki's movements, you could have hit him hard with the simplest techniques."

Asuma thought for a moment before pushing back, "What if Seiki anticipated my anticipation?"

Inoichi twitched slightly while making an offhand reply, "Then anticipate that he'll anticipate your anticipation!"

"What if Seiki anticipates me anticipating his anticipation of my anticipation…"

Inoichi's eyebrow twitched again, deciding not to respond further. "As for Seiki, whether it's ninjutsu application or timing judgment, you performed excellently—but that doesn't mean you're without weaknesses."

Softly, Seiki responded, "It's about area attacks, isn't it?"

Inoichi felt genuinely surprised. Seeing others' flaws came easily, but self-awareness remained difficult—especially for young prodigies who achieved early fame.

Yet such concerns seemed completely unnecessary where Seiki was concerned.

"Your primary area attacks are group genjutsu, right? But as demonstrated in the previous exercise, if some enemies have strong resistance to genjutsu, your group attacks will have limited effectiveness."

Seiki gave a slight nod. The characteristic of genjutsu being able to be disrupted by allies disturbing chakra flow indeed had significant limitations in group combat situations.

"Furthermore, you lack sufficient countermeasures against enemy attacks. For example, when Asuma used Fire Release earlier — an average ninja can defend with Earth Release, repel the flames with Wind Release, or douse them with Water Release, but all you could do was keep dodging."

Yamanaka Inoichi continued, "Although this situation arose because we restricted your use of the Flying Thunder God Technique, that Ultimate Art also consumes massive amounts of chakra. If you can achieve the same effects through basic elemental techniques, there's no need to waste your chakra needlessly."

Seiki caught on and asked, "So you're saying I should train in Elemental Techniques?"

"If you were an ordinary ninja, I wouldn't advise investing effort in studying Elemental Techniques, but you're different. You've successfully mastered the Flying Thunder God Technique — an extremely difficult space-time ninjutsu — while still maintaining your genjutsu and medical ninjutsu skills..." Inoichi couldn't help but show admiration in his eyes. "With such talent, mastering the basics of Elemental Techniques shouldn't even take much time — at least not the advanced ones!"

Seiki smiled. "Actually, even without your suggestion, I was already planning to start training in Elemental Techniques."

Indeed worthy of my recognition… Inoichi nodded appreciatively before adding, "However, make sure this training doesn't interfere with your main ninjutsu focus."

Smiling, Seiki replied, "Regarding this concern, actually you don't need to worry, Inoichi-sensei."

"As long as you understand that…" Inoichi paused, somewhat doubtfully touching his ear. "Wait, what did you just say?"

Kurenai winked teasingly. "What Seiki means is he's already learned all Tsunade-sama's medical ninjutsu and my father's genjutsu!"

Seeing Inoichi's bewildered look, Kurenai felt some comfort for her father, who had been drained dry far too early.

According to her father's own words,

Seiki had greater natural talent in genjutsu than in medical ninjutsu, and since her father's abilities and foundation couldn't match Tsunade's,

this meant Seiki had been independently exploring genjutsu on his own for the past two years.

Inoichi's breathing suddenly quickened. This isn't human, right? This is absolutely not human!

One learned from the greatest medical ninja in shinobi history — and the other from Konoha's most skilled genjutsu master. Mastering both would be like stripping Konoha bare of its entire legacy in Medical Ninjutsu and Genjutsu!

So what stands before me is actually an emotionless learning machine, right… Inoichi forcibly suppressed his inner urge to complain and barely managed a smile. "Ha… hah… Then I guess I've got nothing to worry about after all."

After saying this, Inoichi's gaze instinctively shifted to Asuma.

Asuma, feeling a bit puzzled by the stare, asked, "Professor Yamanaka, is something wrong?"

"Heh heh, nothing at all." Having regained his usual confidence after being inspired by someone, Inoichi Yamanaka said, "[Five Elemental Techniques] cannot be practiced without shape transformation and nature transformation. Although you may already know this, as your mentor, I'll still go through the basics once again."

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