Chapter 9: The Difficulty of Developing the Perfect Transformation Technique
To avoid drawing attention from the sensory ninja stationed at barrier points, only truly natural creatures—like real birds—could pass through undetected.
Birds in nature had no chakra in their bodies.
So, sensory-type ninja monitoring the barrier would conclude that such a bird was neither transformed by a shinobi nor under a shinobi's control—and thus, ignore it.
Because if a bird were transformed from a shinobi, or controlled by one, there would definitely be traces of chakra present.
And once chakra was detected, it would immediately be sensed by the barrier.
That's how terrifyingly powerful the chakra sensitivity of the five great villages' barrier systems was.
Almost no enemy ninja could sneak past them undetected.
But with the Perfect Transformation Technique, everything changed.
A bird produced by the Perfect Transformation Technique would be indistinguishable from a real one, devoid of even the slightest trace of chakra.
It could enter or exit any of the five great ninja villages freely without being flagged as an enemy by the barrier's sensory ninja.
Thus, Kimura Takuya, if he mastered this jutsu, could directly infiltrate any village to gather intelligence.
What's more, transforming into a bird would allow him to get close to enemy shinobi without arousing suspicion, making information-gathering far easier.
In addition, birds could fly—meaning, if he perfected this technique, Kimura Takuya would become a shinobi capable of flight.
In the world of Naruto, very few shinobi had the ability to fly—you could count them on one hand.
And in life-or-death situations, flight could mean survival.
In that sense, flying ninja had an innate advantage.
After all, when in doubt—fly away. The enemy could only watch helplessly.
If he fled to the ocean, he could transform into a fish and swim in the deep sea to avoid pursuit.
The pressure of the deep sea would automatically ward off most pursuers.
And again, whether transformed into a fish or bird, without chakra present, sensory-type ninja couldn't track him.
Once out of visual range, almost no one could catch him—a perfect escape tool.
It was also a deadly asset for assassination missions. Without chakra, enemies wouldn't sense any threat and thus lower their guard.
In short, the Perfect Transformation Technique wasn't only excellent for infiltration and espionage, but also ideal for assassination and evasion.
And that perfectly aligned with the duties of ANBU shinobi.
The technique was practically designed for ANBU.
"No wonder Kimura Takuya wanted to develop this jutsu. It really is tailor-made for ANBU operatives."
Li Yao sighed with admiration.
"Such a perfect jutsu… it would be a shame to let it die here."
A spark lit in Li Yao's eyes. He had made up his mind—he would continue Kimura Takuya's research and complete the Perfect Transformation Technique.
The current timeline was between the First and Second Shinobi World Wars.
And it was likely the Second War was fast approaching.
Li Yao didn't know if he would be drafted to the battlefield.
But if he could complete the Perfect Transformation Technique before then—
Whether or not he went to war, he'd have a reliable escape method when cornered.
If he mastered this jutsu, his chances of survival would drastically improve.
"But a jutsu this powerful… it surely won't be easy to create."
Li Yao frowned slightly and anxiously continued flipping through the notebook.
And sure enough, his intuition was correct: while the concept of the Perfect Transformation Technique was solid, realizing it was extremely difficult.
To evolve the Transformation Technique from a simple visual trick to actual material transmutation involved countless obstacles.
Kimura Takuya first began his research with the Substitution Technique as the initial step toward material conversion.
As was widely known, the Substitution Technique was essentially a form of clone jutsu—similar to Water Clones or Sand Clones—not a true space-time ninjutsu that actually swapped positions with objects like wood.
Otherwise, Sasuke's Rinnegan ability "Amenotejikara" would be far too cheap.
In truth, the Substitution Technique simply involved releasing a clone at the right moment during battle to draw attention while the real body escaped. It was more of a tactical shinobi technique than a true ninjutsu.
Kimura Takuya's real focus was understanding the principles behind the wood-based version of the Substitution Technique.
The Clone Jutsu within the Three Basic Techniques and the wood-based Substitution Clone were different—entirely different levels of jutsu.
The standard Clone Jutsu was just a phantom image of the user. In a way, it was a form of Transformation Technique—just that the illusion was of oneself.
Because it was purely made of chakra, it had no weight and no offensive power.
In fact, it couldn't move vigorously and could only perform simple motions in place. A single strong impact would cause it to crumble like a sandcastle.
So, how could a clone move like a normal person and have realistic weight and impact?
The answer was to use wood as the core and cast Transformation over it—anchoring the phantom image to the wood. This made the illusion more stable and less prone to shattering.
Moreover, the connection to chakra gave it the weight of the wood, making its collisions during combat seem real and believable.
In essence, the illusion gained substance and impact—more than enough to fool someone during battle.
Kimura Takuya's research into wood clones was focused on figuring out how chakra could transfer the wood's "weight" to the illusion—and how that connection functioned.
According to his notes, after some time studying, he had cracked the principle of wood clones:
Chakra wasn't just energy—it could serve as a conduit for certain material properties, like weight, and transmit them to the phantom clone, thereby giving it substance.
While this didn't involve actual material transformation, it was the first sign that it might be possible.
"Chakra can carry and transmit certain physical attributes of matter."
Following that logic, Kimura Takuya replaced wood with a living bird—casting the Transformation Technique with the bird at the center.
If he could transfer the bird's weight to the illusion—
Then theoretically, the next step would be to transfer the bird's physical cellular information as well, allowing the illusion to become a real, living creature.
Was that possible?
The answer: possibly.
But even the first step failed.
Kimura tried using living birds—and even dead ones—but couldn't transfer the bird's weight to the illusion. Unlike wood, birds, whether alive or dead, wouldn't allow chakra to stabilize a weight transfer.
And without achieving this step, material transformation was impossible.
But this step… was incredibly difficult.
Most of the notebook was filled with logs of experiments focused on this problem.
Even after reading to the end, Li Yao didn't find any indication that Kimura had overcome this critical hurdle.
But it wasn't a complete dead end.
Kimura had developed a plausible hypothesis from his studies:
The reason chakra couldn't transmit the bird's weight was because—like humans—birds also possessed physical and spiritual energy within them.
Since chakra was formed by combining physical and spiritual energy, then when his chakra entered the bird's body, it would be influenced by those energies.
It couldn't deliver the same kind of stable weight transfer as with wood.
Kimura theorized that the bird's internal energy would have to remain perfectly stable for the chakra to carry the weight correctly.
But that was impossible.
Physical and spiritual energy were constantly in flux—like the water in a waterfall. Though it appeared still, the water at one moment was never the same as the next. It was always moving and changing.
So, stabilizing the bird's internal energies wasn't achievable.
If it wasn't possible to stabilize them—
Then the only theoretical workaround would be to make one's chakra synchronize with the bird's physical and spiritual energies in real time. That way, the weight transfer could succeed.
But again, this was next to impossible.
Not only was it beyond Kimura Takuya's ability—most shinobi wouldn't be able to do it either.
People couldn't even perceive their own energy fluctuations precisely, let alone those of a bird.
"So hard…"
Li Yao shook his head involuntarily. Putting himself in Kimura's shoes, he knew he couldn't do it either.
He could precisely sense his own energy fluctuations, but not those inside a bird's body.
He continued reading.
Though Kimura had failed in this step, he hadn't given up. He was already considering a different approach.
(END CHAPTER)