Of all the theoretical ways to grow stronger, whether near at hand or distant, Ryusei placed almost no hope in the so-called Wood Release.
He had plenty of reasons.
For one, in the entire history of the Senju clan, not a single shinobi besides Hashirama, and possibly the ancestor Ashura, had ever awakened it. Was that a coincidence? No, it told its own story.
To Ryusei, the conclusion was obvious: Wood Release had little to do with the ordinary Senju bloodline, and perhaps not even with Ashura himself.
In his theory, Ashura's soul reincarnating into Hashirama carried with it a trace of the God Tree's atavism mutation of some strange sort.
That alone explained why both of them could wield such an absurd power, and why it behaved so differently from normal elemental combinations, able to bind Tailed Beasts and handle their chakra as if it were nothing.
That also explained why Hashirama could defeat Madara twice, despite the Uchiha being the more "top-heavy" clan on paper genetically, and despite Madara even resorting to the Nine-Tails.
Ryusei framed it like this: ordinary earth + water release = mud.
Add Yang Release on top of that, thanks to Hashirama's cells, and you might get a bastardized imitation of Hashirama's Wood Release, timber release used by Yamato, or one of the incomplete forms shown by Danzo, Obito, or the Zetsu.
But those versions were weak, unstable, and often destructive to the user's body.
Ryusei had no interest in crippling experiments when he already had safer and more promising paths to strength.
And in the end, it wasn't even Wood Release that made Hashirama truly powerful.
Even if it had been a genuine Senju ability, his real strength lay in his bottomless chakra reserves, enough to fuel endless forests and unstoppable assaults.
So Ryusei had no interest in running dangerous experiments on himself.
Even if he ever wanted to dabble in cellular-type experiments or test the "science" of this world, trying to use Hashirama's cells to awaken Wood Release had already been proven, time and again, to be a dangerous failure.
He already saw how Danzo turned into some kind of "tree monster", and half of his body was gone just like that.
This was likely why Orochimaru never implanted those cells into himself, even though he had access to them.
He had watched firsthand how most of those experiments ended: failure, deformity, or death.
Unlike Danzo, he wasn't desperate enough to gamble his own body as a test subject.
In fact, Danzo had probably played the guinea pig for him more than once.
Between the two, it was obvious who carried the sharper mind.
From both a risk and reward standpoint, it was a fool's gamble, one Ryusei had no intention of taking.
Madara Uchiha? He didn't just implant Hashirama's cells; later, he fused himself with the God Tree itself, too, for a very long time.
That's likely why his Wood Release seemed closer to perfection, which perfectly backs Ryusei's hypothesis: Wood Release isn't a natural Senju ability, but a power tied to the God Tree.
But even if Ryusei somehow tracked down Hashirama's cells, how could he ever reach something like the God Tree?
And Madara's case was even more unique; he directly implanted still-vital cells from Hashirama's body into his own wounds right after the Valley of the End.
That timing, that freshness, probably played a huge role.
So the question becomes: even if Ryusei wanted to replicate that, where would he find cells that fresh, from a man so long dead?
Another week passed, and Ryusei's injuries were mostly healed.
He had stayed inside the whole time, meditating, working on his internal perception, and refining his coils.
His focus was on his two natural affinities, lightning and fire, but he also tried to push the other three natures, also experimenting with yin and yang molding whenever possible.
That was when he noticed something strange.
Lightning and fire, the body's original affinities, seemed to flow a lot better together inside his coils and brain when he tried to attempt multiple natures experimentation.
Meanwhile, the other three elements, wind, water, and earth, also began moving as if they belonged to their own group, linking more smoothly with each other than before.
Day by day, the separation became clearer: two on one side, three on the other, both groups improving in harmony.
Ryusei opened his eyes sharply, confirming it again, and a chill ran down his spine. At first, he wasn't happy at all - he was terrified.
"Did something go wrong with the soul fusion? Or with the body adapting to the new joint soul? What the hell is this?"
He jumped off the bed and started pacing, mind racing. "What could this mean…?"
Originally, he had hoped for gradual progress.
A little improvement with the weaker three elements over months, maybe true synergy years down the line.
That was his realistic plan. But this, this was too fast.
His three "unfavored" elements were surging ahead, while all five were splitting cleanly into two sub-groups that kept growing stronger together.
It felt unnatural. Not bad, but uncanny.
Ryusei's real worry wasn't the strength - it was the loss of control.
What if this wasn't just training results?
What if it was some side effect of the fusion, or of the body reshaping itself around his soul?
What if the next "development" blindsided him and tore him apart?
"Well… no use panicking now," he muttered, forcing himself back onto the bed. "For now, I'll keep training all five elements evenly, but also test their new synergies in those two groups. If it ends here, then this change is nothing but good for me."
A thought crept in as he steadied his breath.
Perhaps the reason was simple, maybe his Earth-born soul really had carried affinities for earth, water, and wind, ones the original soul and body lacked.
If so, the fusion of the two souls was just… manifesting as this split. Old and new. Body and intruder.
"Damn… what a crazy coincidence," he thought, a grin tugging at his lips despite himself.
"If this really has no side effects, and that's still a big if, then I've struck gold. A jackpot. Who would've thought…? Or is this my long-delayed 'golden finger' from Earth finally kicking in? About time, damn it."
Yet, he knew that the pace was still painfully slow, as it had to be.
Trying to use multiple releases at once felt like trying to speak several languages simultaneously in his past life.
Structurally, it was a nightmare.
The coils might just start shaping themselves for wind chakra, yet in the next moment, he had to force them into the earth.
To attempt both at the same time was like trying to hold two different conversations in different tongues with one mouth - the whole system wanted to tear itself apart.
Still, Ryusei knew that creating a new elemental kekkei genkai from scratch wasn't impossible.
Every elemental clan in existence had to start from someone.
And Mu had done it with three releases, not just two.
The problem was that the process was so absurdly difficult, weird, and time-consuming that even after centuries, the result was at most a single clan per element.
Often, they remained obscure and small.
Even now, two possible elemental combinations were still missing from the shinobi world entirely, which only proved how rare and hard this kind of fusion truly was.
In Ryusei's eyes, Mu had been an outlier, extremely talented, born with exactly the three affinities needed for Dust Release, blessed with keen internal perception thanks to his more sensory skillset, incredible chakra control, and maybe even some innate spatial awareness in his brain.
With that, he'd become the first shinobi in history to fuse three natures.
Afterward, he probably spent decades searching for someone remotely similar, and even then, he'd only barely managed to pass it on.
Onoki only learned Dust Release much later in life, long after Mu had first discovered it.
Ryusei weighed the structure of bloodlines in this world.
At the top were the distant offshoots of the Otsutsuki, carrying alien-level 'Godly' genetic traces, like Senju and Uchiha.
Then came the elemental kekkei genkai clans, born when a single genius founder had the talent, diligence, and sheer luck to push through the impossible.
Below them were the hidden jutsu families like the Nara, Yamanaka, and Akimichi - less about natural mutations, more about accumulated heritage, theoretical breakthroughs, and gradual epigenetic adaptation.
At the bottom, of course, were ordinary civilians, with nothing but grit and training to carry them forward.
Since today marked the start of his more active training, Ryusei stepped straight into the small courtyard.
He created five more clones, carefully balancing the chakra so it wouldn't cut into his physical performance.
One clone stayed to spar with him, while the other four went to 'spar' off on their own. Today's focus was taijutsu.
Shadow Clones were perfect for this. Once dispelled, they returned every scrap of experience, making them the ultimate tool for accelerating growth, provided the user had the chakra to sustain them.
Ryusei had that advantage, so he intended to squeeze every drop of value from it.
Clone arts were as old as the shinobi themselves. Tobirama's Shadow Clone was simply the most refined version, one that split chakra perfectly.
Originally meant to strengthen Konoha, he'd even given the technique away freely to all major clans, the only ones basically capable to learn and using it, the only time such a thing had ever happened in history.
That generosity meant Ryusei had no problem acquiring and displaying it.
After experimenting more with the Shadow Clone technique than the body's previous owner ever had, Ryusei realized he could probably summon far more than just five clones, thanks to his chakra reserves, stemming from his bloodline, maybe even twenty.
But the more he created, the weaker each one became. If he used all of them for taijutsu sparring, their feedback would be worthless, since their chakra levels would be too far off from his own baseline.
For high-level taijutsu training, where chakra enhancement techniques were always involved to some degree, only clones close to his real strength could provide useful insight.
Five clones meant each carried only twenty percent of his chakra, and that was already stretching it. Still, they were enough to run through some medium sequences today.
But twenty clones, each with just five percent, wouldn't even hold form long enough to start a proper routine before evaporating.
Worse, that kind of drain flirted dangerously close to chakra exhaustion, something Ryusei wasn't about to risk.
Over the next days, he'd have to cut back, sparring with fewer and fewer clones until only one remained, because the more advanced sequences demanded heavier chakra output.
The courtyard was filled with the sound of strikes and impacts.
Ryusei frowned as he moved. The original owner's taijutsu was shallow, sloppy even, for the level of his talent and background.
That fool had clearly looked down on hand-to-hand combat and neglected it. Now Ryusei had to clean up the mess.
The predecessor probably never realized that taijutsu was actually one of the most optimal and superior paths to growth available for him.
Like most shinobi, he saw it only at face value, never grasping how terrifying the Eight Inner Gates truly were.
Ryusei couldn't really blame him.
It would take more than twenty years before one bowl-cut man would soar into the sky and force even Madara to acknowledge taijutsu. Only then did the Eight Gates explode into the mainstream.
In truth, everyone had the Eight Gates and could theoretically open them.
From Kisame and Madara's comments, it was clear that plenty of taijutsu specialists had touched that path before. Even Kakashi casually opened the First Gate once in the original story.
To Ryusei, after transmigration here and some observation, it was obvious that many jōnin and elite jōnin could open one or two gates on their own. It wasn't some hidden secret, just a brutal road most weren't willing to walk.
The problem was that most bodies simply couldn't endure that flood of power.
Lifelong training was the only way to build the durability and control needed, which was why Duy, Guy, and Lee, who had little talent anywhere else, still managed to succeed, because it only left them with that domain to build upon.
Stronger bodies and more flexible coils were the foundation. And who had both by nature?
The Senju. With their baseline strength, speed, regeneration, endurance, durability, and dense chakra networks, the clan could have reached twice the results with half the effort if they had truly pursued it.
So why didn't they? Because few Senju ever wanted to grind their bodies raw for decades when they already had talent in ninjutsu and other 'flashier' and more accessible avenues.
That was why, throughout history, while many Senju had dabbled in the Eight Gates, almost none went beyond the sixth.
The truth was that there was no secret scroll or forbidden formula, only the strength of one's body and the discipline to forge an unbreakable connection between mind and those gates through relentless training.
If you were meant for it, the gates would open in time.
Duy, Guy, and Lee proved that the true talent for the Eight Gates wasn't genius, but grit, the will to endure years of brutal training, and the madness of surviving the moment when the unleashed power tore through your body, breaking it from the inside out.
Ryusei admitted he didn't have that kind of iron will, nor decades to waste. But he had other advantages.
His Senju body gave him a foundation stronger than most.
His fused soul meant double the spiritual force, which would inevitably sharpen his will.
His desperation for survival and power, born from two lives of weakness, was a motivation no ordinary shinobi could match.
And above all, he had insight. As a transmigrator, he could see the Eight Gates not just from the ground, but from above, from the broad view that even Guy himself probably never considered.
In the future, if he could acquire the Byakugan to observe his chakra coils, tenketsu, and even those gates 'up close', that would push his training even further.
But even without it, his sensory-driven internal perception, for example, also gave him a slight, unique edge, something the trio never had. Anyways, he was not without hope.