Chapter 100: The Principle of the Sheathed Cut
"How should I accumulate my energy?"
After perfecting Wind Breathing, Sasuke continued practicing the secret of the Sheathed Cut from Konoha-Ryū: Yanagi. The central idea was to kill with a single blow, using an instant, swift cut. And the key to this was accumulating energy.
Sasuke placed his right hand on the hilt of his knife, closed his eyes, and constantly recalled the violent cutting technique Maru had taught him, searching for that mysterious sensation. But he always felt something was missing.
With a metallic sound, a cold light appeared. He drew the knife and easily cut a giant tree in front of him.
"What's missing?" he wondered, his doubts growing deeper. Although his swordsmanship was improving, it was difficult for him to make a qualitative leap. He couldn't find the key to "charge and burst."
Then, he understood. 'Could it be that what I need to practice now isn't swordsmanship, but my mental state?' He realized that this continuous cutting process wasn't about sharpening the sword, but the mind. Just like forging iron, the impurities of the heart had to be tempered until the cut became extremely pure. Purity was power.
He exhaled slowly and stopped thinking about it. He continued practicing the draw without distractions.
Soon after, he felt an itch on his feet. They were ants from an anthill he had destroyed earlier. And upon seeing them, suddenly, he understood.
His eyes, previously vacant, gleamed.
'Isn't the fastest creature on the planet the Dracula ant?' he recalled from his previous life. That ant's jaws had the fastest ejection speed, reaching 132 meters per second, with an acceleration of over a million meters per second squared.
He remembered the physics formula: a=v2/(2s). An acceleration of over 170,000 Gs. It was an almost unimaginable force.
The reason the ant's jaw could achieve such terrifying acceleration was not only due to its strength, but to the conversion of friction and, most importantly, the principle of instantaneous release of mechanical energy. Mechanical energy included kinetic energy and potential energy.
"In physics, they taught us that kinetic and potential energy can transform," he whispered. His heart trembled.
Then, he had his final epiphany when he recalled the fastest human movement: a finger snap. The speed of a snap comes from the accumulation of force between the thumb and middle finger, like a compressed spring, accumulating a large amount of potential energy that is instantly released, converting it into kinetic energy.
"So, the so-called accumulation of force doesn't lie in the knife, but in the person!" he exclaimed to himself, as if he had awakened from a dream.
To increase the speed of drawing, the key was not the knife, but the body: the heel, the spine, the arm, the entire spring system of the human body. The "accumulation" was the potential energy stored in the muscles. When that energy accumulated, the body was like a spring ready to explode.
"Ugh..." he took a deep breath. He slowly closed his eyes, placed his right hand on his knife, and began to accumulate energy again, imagining his entire body as a human-shaped spring, compressing and accumulating power. He crouched slightly, his heels barely lifted, like a tiger ready to hunt.
Suddenly, a sound, almost like a finger snap, broke the silence.
Clang!
The cold light of the sword flashed like a fleeting meteor. The rock in front of him split in two, the cut surface so smooth and polished that it shone like a mirror.