After a night of deep sleep.
Kazama Kaguya had never slept so well.
Back in Kirigakure, he'd been afraid of being assassinated in his sleep, and often spent entire nights unable to sleep. Even the slightest noise in the night would jolt him awake.
Back then, he'd spent most of his time meditating to restore his energy, and his sleep had been light.
But last night had been different.
Kisame Hoshigaki's grueling training had drained every last bit of his energy.
The overwhelming exhaustion had sent him into a deep sleep, even shutting down the body clock he'd developed over the years.
He didn't know how long he'd slept. He only knew that, before long, he'd started dreaming.
He dreamed that he rose into the air and drifted above the Celestial River, resting his head among the stars and floating with the current. It was blissful.
But he felt himself sinking uncontrollably. The cold waters of the Celestial River covered his mouth and nose, and a sensation of suffocation washed over him.
Instinctively, he activated the Otsutsuki ability to breathe underwater, and fresh oxygen flowed into his nostrils once more.
He continued to bask in his dream beneath the starry river, unwilling to wake.
Outside, Kisame Hoshigaki's Water Clone froze.
"???"
He stared at Kazama Kaguya, who was still snoring inside the Water Prison Technique, his face covered in question marks. "You've gotta be kidding me. You can keep sleeping even inside the Water Prison Technique? And you're snoring? Why do you look even more like a fish than I do?"
As he listened to Kazama Kaguya's snores, his expression grew darker and darker.
"Damn brat. If that won't wake you, let's see if a shark biting your ass will."
"Summoning Jutsu: One-Tail Shark."
He formed Hand Seals and summoned a shark about as long as his arm. It swished its tail, swam into the Water Prison, and bit Kazama Kaguya on the butt.
"Ah..."
A sharp pain struck, and Kazama Kaguya's eyes flew open. He leaped up with a scream.
He smacked the shark away and cursed, still grumpy from being woken. "What the hell? Who's the asshole letting fish bite people?"
Then he saw Kisame Hoshigaki outside the water sphere, his expression grim.
His heart gave a jolt. He swallowed and said, "Um, Teacher Kisame, sorry. I was too tired yesterday and overslept."
Kisame said irritably, "You slept well, huh, brat? But you're late. I'm guessing my real self has already come up with a punishment. Hope you enjoy your day."
With that, he grinned and formed Hand Seals, dispelling his clone.
Kazama Kaguya watched as a puddle of water fell to the ground. His heart started pounding uncontrollably. "I'm in trouble!"
He didn't even have time to wash up. He shot into the air and flew toward the waterfall.
Just as the Water Clone had predicted, the moment he landed, he heard Kisame Hoshigaki's cold voice.
"Kazama Kaguya, slacking off on only your second day? If you can't be punctual, you might as well hang your brain up and let it keep count on its own."
He looked at Kazama Kaguya, exuding an aura that warned everyone to keep their distance, and said coldly:
"Since you're already late at the start of training, you'll carry an extra 50 kg from now on. I'm sure 250 kg will help you get a better sense of yourself."
Kazama Kaguya didn't dare talk back, afraid Kisame would make another sarcastic remark.
The tightly packed training schedule looked brutal, and it was every bit as inhumane as it seemed.
Still, thanks to his Otsutsuki physique and chakra reserves, Kazama Kaguya could just about handle it.
What really wore him down, though, was Kisame's caustic mockery.
He'd never realized that the cold, tough guy could be so sharp-tongued.
Did I bring this out of him?
Ugh, I wanted him to give it his all. And I was the one who asked for this. What a mess...
He sighed, hoisted a large and a small slab of bluestone weighing 250 kg in total, and began training with a great deal of effort.
The sun rose and set, and another "wonderful" day passed.
The third day went the same way.
It wasn't until the fourth day that Kazama Kaguya finally noticed a change.
The Evolution Obelisk on his chest trembled, and then a line of information appeared across his retina.
[Congratulations, Evolver. Kekkei Genkai: Storm Release has successfully evolved.]
"Storm Release has evolved?" Kazama Kaguya froze, then quickly opened the information.
Three Kekkei Genkai appeared side by side on the interface.
[Kekkei Genkai: Shikotsumyaku, Byakugan, Storm Release.]
At the same time, he felt the Water and Lightning Release chakra natures he'd been born with begin to fuse inside him, becoming a blue-silver energy.
Storm Release chakra combined the strengths of both.
It wasn't as volatile and hard to control as lightning, nor as soft and lacking in offensive power as water.
"Storm Release: guided lasers. Electrified water? Soft lightning? A Kekkei Genkai suited to ninjutsu—just what I need."
Delighted, Kazama Kaguya immediately began testing Storm Release's abilities.
It was past midnight, and after the third day, Kisame Hoshigaki had stopped sending clones to look after him.
Kazama Kaguya crawled out of his tent. Without forming Hand Seals, he simply raised his right hand.
As he channeled Storm Release chakra with a thought, a dazzling light appeared in his palm.
The light was blue-silver and intensely bright, almost blinding.
But it didn't crackle and flash like lightning. It shone steadily, like a high-powered light bulb.
Kazama Kaguya didn't know any Storm Release techniques, so he used the simplest form of ninjutsu projection.
With a thought, the light shot out like a laser cannon, flying straight toward a distant mountain.
Just as it was about to hit its target, he willed the laser cannon to turn around and fly back into his hand.
The whole thing was effortless.
"Storm Release lasers are this easy to control?"
The surprise came so suddenly that he could hardly believe it.
There was one obvious drawback, though: the chakra cost doubled.
Storm Release chakra required fusing Water and Lightning Release chakra, so using it consumed twice as much chakra.
For Kazama Kaguya, with 30 cards of chakra, that was negligible. But for an ordinary ninja, it was a serious drain.
Kakashi Hatake, a standard Jonin, was the standard unit for measuring chakra.
If he used Storm Release, even setting aside its attack power, his stamina would be cut in half in no time.
For a Jonin, that was a fatal drawback.
"No wonder Darui, the Storm Release ninja from Hidden Cloud Village, only knows one technique, 'Storm Release: Laser Circus.' It's not that he doesn't want to use more—it's that he can't afford to."
As Kazama Kaguya lamented the limits of ordinary ninjas, he grew more and more excited.
"I have 30 cards of chakra. I don't need to worry about the cost. And Storm Release is so powerful. Darui can't use it, but I can!"
Kazama Kaguya's lips curled into a smile as all sorts of crazy ways to use Storm Release started forming in his mind.
A guided laser was incredibly fast, its attack power beyond question, and it could change direction at will. That meant a guaranteed hit.
Unless the target had a passive, 360-degree defense like Gaara's, almost any other defensive measure could be ignored.
And with the Byakugan's targeting, even Orochimaru's strongest defensive technique, Triple Rashomon, wouldn't be enough to stop it.
"Byakugan plus Storm Release. Want to dodge? Not a chance!"
"Once I develop a few techniques, I'll be a walking ninjutsu turret! A lock-on turret, haha..."
Kazama Kaguya was thrilled. During ninjutsu instruction that day, he planned to ask Kisame Hoshigaki for advice on developing techniques.
He would demonstrate Storm Release openly and had no intention of hiding it.
He would acquire more and more Kekkei Genkai in the future. Storm Release was just an appetizer, so letting Kisame get used to the pace first would be a good idea.
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