…
Later that evening, as the sun set, I finally found myself alone.
My room was quiet as I leaned back against the wall and closed my eyes.
The moment I did, I felt the familiar disturbance within my mindscape.
Another clone had dispelled.
Normally, that would have been enough to leave me with a headache.
Months ago, every Shadow Clone had returned its experiences directly to me. The memories, sensations, pain, exhaustion, everything came rushing back at once.
It had been one of the most unpleasant aspects of the technique.
Thankfully, that was no longer a problem.
The returning chakra never reached my consciousness directly anymore.
The threads I'd woven into the Shadow Clone intercepted it first, converting the returning chakra into spiritual energy and giving it form within my mindscape.
A mental clone appeared.
It carried everything the Shadow Clone had experienced, but I no longer had to experience those things as though they had happened to me.
I could see what it had seen, understand what it had felt and know where it had been injured or exhausted, but the pain itself remained with the mental clone.
That alone had made Shadow Clone training considerably more manageable.
I opened my eyes.
There was still a faint ache in my temple.
I rubbed it absently.
The process wasn't perfect. Converting the returning chakra and maintaining the mental clone still placed some strain on my mind, especially when several clones returned their experiences close together.
Still, compared to what I'd endured before, it was hardly worth complaining about.
The anime had certainly made Shadow Clones look much simpler.
I took a slow breath and returned to my mindscape. Two techniques stood out clear as day and burned into my mind.
Earth Release: Earth Flow Spears.
I stood within my mindscape and formed the technique again.
There was no need for hand seals.
The moment I understood the flow of chakra required, the sequence had become something my body could reproduce without conscious effort.
My chakra spread through the ground.
I guided it through the earth, shaped it, and felt the terrain respond.
Then the ground erupted.
Hardened earth spears shot upward in a wide formation, tearing through the ground with enough force to impale anything caught above them.
I watched them rise before dispersing the technique.
The principle was simple enough.
The real value was its area of effect.
As long as my chakra could reach the surrounding earth, I could use that ground as part of the technique. The farther my chakra could spread, the wider the area I could threaten.
Combined with my chakra threads, that opened up even more possibilities.
I could lay threads across the ground, conceal traps among them, then use Earth Flow Spears to force an opponent exactly where I wanted them.
Not bad.
I performed the technique again and the technique responded almost as naturally as breathing.
If this technique had a grade of accomplishment, I'd wager it was at "Great Success" short of perfection.
I dispersed it and moved on to the second technique.
Wind Release: Vacuum Great Sphere.
I gathered chakra and transformed it into wind nature, shaping the chakra into a dense sphere as the threads guided its formation.
Once the sphere stabilized, I released it.
It shot forward.
Fast.
Much faster than the Earth Release technique.
The sphere crossed the mindscape before striking its target and expanding violently. The resulting blast tore through the surrounding space before the technique finally dispersed.
I watched the remnants fade and had only one word to describe it. Powerful.
I formed another sphere.
This time, I kept it roughly the size of my fist.
The process was almost instantaneous.
Chakra gathered, wind nature spread through it, the threads shaped and compressed it into a tight sphere the size of a rasengan before I released it.
The sphere shot forward and struck the target.
The resulting explosion was considerably smaller than the previous one, but the sphere itself was faster to form and required far less chakra.
I dispersed the remaining chakra and tried again.
This time, I increased its size to roughly that of my head.
The amount of chakra required increased with it and so did the destructive force.
The sphere struck the target with enough force to tear through the surrounding area before dispersing.
I continued increasing the size.
Larger.
Then larger still.
Each time, I compared the result.
The increase in destructive power was obvious, but so was the increase in chakra consumption.
At a certain point, making the sphere larger offered diminishing returns.
A smaller sphere could still carry considerable destructive force if enough chakra was compressed into it.
That was the interesting part of the technique, so I reduced the size again and increased the density instead.
The sphere formed tightly between my hands before the threads released it.
It tore across the mindscape and struck the target with considerably more force than its size suggested.
I continued testing.
Fist-sized.
Head-sized.
Larger.
Then back down again.
The differences became increasingly clear.
The technique gave me considerable freedom over its size, but size alone did not determine its destructive power.
Chakra quantity and compression mattered just as much.
For larger spheres, the chakra cost rose quickly.
For smaller ones, greater density could compensate for their reduced size.
The threads made every adjustment almost effortless.
They gathered the chakra, carried out the necessary wind transformation, shaped and compressed it, stabilized each sphere, and released them the moment I willed it.
I decided to test how many I could maintain simultaneously.
I started with two fist-sized spheres.
They formed almost instantly.
I released them, and both struck their targets with considerable force.
Four came next.
The control remained easy, though each sphere was slightly weaker as my chakra was divided between them.
I increased it to six and the difference was noticeable.
The spheres still formed smoothly, but maintaining their density and directing them independently required more concentration. Their destructive power had also dropped.
Eight.
I held them in place for a moment but this was different.
My threads could maintain the formations, but the chakra required to keep eight dense spheres stable was beginning to strain my reserves. The individual spheres were also noticeably weaker than when I had created only two.
I released them.
The barrage was impressive, but the destruction wasn't worth the additional chakra.
I dispersed the remaining chakra and reduced the number.
Four.
The spheres immediately became denser.
I launched them.
The resulting destruction was considerably greater, while the control remained effortless.
I nodded.
Four was enough.
If I needed greater destruction, I could increase their size. If I needed wider coverage, I could increase the number.
There was no reason to waste chakra simply to prove I could create more.
The results were enough.
Both techniques had reached the same point.
I no longer needed to consciously work through their individual principles. I understood them well enough that my chakra followed those principles naturally through the threads.
Now I simply needed to determine how far I could push them.
Earth Release: Earth Flow Spears.
Wind Release: Vacuum Great Sphere.
Both were now at Great Success.
I opened my eyes.
The techniques were no longer something I'd merely learned from scrolls, they were mine.
…
After dinner that night, I stepped into my study, sat down and pulled out a scroll filled with necessary steps to take to remain ahead of the curve.
It was basically my To-do list.
"Bukijutsu training," I read aloud.
Having mastered the three B-rank techniques I received from Hiruzen, it was time I moved on to the next important thing.
Honestly, I'd been dodging it, leaning entirely on Bo-jutsu, maybe it was time to go deeper?
Study swords, polearms, whips, chains, even oddball stuff like tonfa.
But then again, every weapon demanded a different kind of understanding and I had only begun to develop mine on the staff.
My gaze drifted to the far wall, where my broken staff laid.
I liked the staff because it gave me reach, which is something that became necessary only when I meet someone physically stronger than I am.
With my body and true combat technique, I didn't fear close combat, but I wasn't conceited enough to think there weren't others physically stronger than I am.
And physical strength aside, there are also ninjutsu that use chakra to enhance physical strength.
Upon meeting someone like that, the staff would give me an advantage of reach.
I looked at the broken remnant quietly and circled back to one idea I had when I had first picked up the staff.
Yeoui.
Not the one from myth, but my version; a staff that could grow, shrink, and change its weight at will.
I unrolled the parchment scrolls I had been working on. Ink markings and layers of seal formulas covered half the parchment, with notes filling the spaces between them.
My fingers were already stained with ink before I realized I had picked up the brush.
"Alright... extendable shaft. Done."
I traced the markings along the inner portion of the staff.
"Chakra conduction is stable, reinforcement seals are holding."
My brush moved to the next section.
"Now... weight adjustment."
I stopped at the markings beneath it.
The seventh attempt had been crossed out so heavily that the ink had nearly torn through the parchment.
"It still collapses when I push it past five times its normal weight," I muttered. "Wonderful."
The previous attempt had cracked the floor and come dangerously close to taking my toes with it.
Weight adjustment was proving more troublesome than I had expected.
Too little, and the staff became little more than a stick, too much, and I created something too heavy to wield properly.
The difficulty wasn't simply changing the weight. The seal had to distribute the altered weight throughout the staff without disrupting the flow of chakra or compromising its structure.
And the faster the change occurred, the more strain it placed on the formation. That needed to be worked on.
I moved to the next section of the parchment.
There was another idea I had been considering. "Form alteration."
I began drawing a new set of drawings. The staff didn't always need to look like a staff.
A brush would be better.
Or perhaps something ordinary enough that no one would think twice about carrying it through a gate or checkpoint.
I smiled faintly.
The transformation would have to be done through fūinjutsu rather than ninjutsu. I wanted the staff itself to change form, reducing its size and altering its appearance without requiring me to apply ninjutsu on it.
I added another layer of markings to the diagram.
The seal would guide the chakra through the staff, allowing its shape to change while keeping the internal reinforcement intact.
It was complicated, but that was the interesting part.
I leaned back and looked over the parchment, the staff still had a long way to go, the weight adjustment wasn't reliable, the transformation seal was still only a theory and I hadn't even begun considering how much the finished weapon could endure.
Not any casual material could handle the strain of all these seals on it without breaking.
Such a weapon would be at the level of the seven ninja swords of the Mist is not more valuable.
I leaned back and studied the parchment.
The staff still had a long way to go. The weight adjustment wasn't reliable, the transformation seal remained only a theory, and I hadn't even begun considering how much punishment the finished weapon would have to endure.
That last part could become a problem.
No ordinary material would withstand the strain created by repeatedly altering the staff's weight, reinforcing its structure, and forcing it through different forms.
The weapon itself would need to be exceptional.
And the transformation had another advantage.
If I could make the seal reliable enough, Yeoui wouldn't be limited to becoming a brush or a fan.
I could change its form during battle, a staff could become a sword, a sword could become a spear and a spear could become something else entirely.
That would make adapting to different weapons far simpler. Instead of carrying an entire arsenal, I could carry one weapon and learn how to use each form as needed.
If I succeeded, Yeoui wouldn't simply be another shinobi weapon.
A weapon capable of everything I had planned would be comparable to the Seven Ninja Swords of the Mist, perhaps even more valuable depending on how far I managed to take its abilities.
I picked up my brush again. There was no point worrying about how much work remained, I simply had to take it one step at a time.
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