Cultivation on the Island

Unfortunately, he could not use any of these ninjutsu yet. Even the lowest-level ninjutsu among them were not something someone who had only just learned to extract chakra could casually master.

Setting aside freaks like Itachi, Sasuke—someone others called a genius and one of Naruto's protagonists—had practiced for a long time before his Great Fireball Jutsu reached the power it was supposed to have.

Although Sasuke had been very young at the time, under his clan's training, the amount of chakra in his body had likely been many times greater than Gato's current reserves.

However, the issue of fire that had troubled Gato for so long had been neatly resolved. That tree had only displayed its mystical traits because of the God Tree Fruit; the flames in its canopy had long since vanished.

Besides, Gato had never expected those heatless flames to be of any help to him.

Starting a fire was no longer a challenge for him.

Fire-nature chakra was the perfect flint. He did not need ninjutsu—even a crude release could set certain things ablaze, though the results were naturally far inferior to actual ninjutsu.

For now, that was enough.

At last, Gato was qualified to think about things beyond mere survival.

In the blink of an eye, Gato had lived on the island for over thirty days. He had not begun idling away his time just because he had escaped the immediate threat of death. Instead, he had been cultivating his first S-rank ninjutsu: Lightning Release—Roaring Thunder Armor.

As its name suggested, Roaring Thunder Armor served a similar purpose to the Lightning Armor passed down through the Raikage lineage. That technique had once been hailed as the Third Raikage's "strongest shield."

The awkward part was that it had been broken by a technique called the strongest spear, which also belonged to the Third Raikage—Hell Stab.

But there was no questioning the power of Lightning Armor. After all, it had rendered even Naruto's S-rank Rasenshuriken incapable of so much as slightly breaking through its defense.

Lightning Release—Roaring Thunder Armor could be seen as an improved version of that technique. It possessed every effect Lightning Armor should have, while also allowing its user to launch attacks outward at others. It was a ninjutsu that combined offense and defense.

Lightning Armor was an S-rank ninjutsu, so Roaring Thunder Armor was naturally no worse. Both techniques possessed S-rank difficulty and power. Gato estimated that it would take him several more years of training before he could truly master Roaring Thunder Armor.

This was not Gato aiming too high. In truth, Roaring Thunder Armor included a series of prerequisite exercises, such as practicing chakra control and using lightning-nature chakra to temper the body.

Lightning-nature chakra was the most violent type of chakra. Without perfect control over it, it would be impossible to create a suit of wild lightning around one's body without it dispersing.

And ninjutsu had no such thing as friendly-fire immunity. During the final stages of Lightning Armor's development, one even had to use natural lightning to temper the body, lest casting Lightning Armor result in the embarrassing situation of electrocuting oneself unconscious first.

One prerequisite for Lightning Armor was a technique that used lightning-nature chakra to temper the body. It was also essentially the foundation of all the Raikage's signature ninja body techniques.

Roaring Thunder Armor had a similar prerequisite ninjutsu—Lightning Living Body Technique. Its effects were gentler, and its efficiency was higher.

If the world of Naruto were viewed as a cultivation world, then Roaring Thunder Armor would be a top-tier cultivation method. It carried one from building a solid foundation all the way to becoming one of the world's strongest—a complete package.

That was why Gato had not chosen Fire Release, which would have been more convenient for survival, nor Wind Release, which possessed formidable offensive power.

But even Roaring Thunder Armor's prerequisite—Lightning Living Body Technique—was more difficult than Gato had expected.

The fundamental requirement of this Living Body Technique was the ability to precisely control chakra. Lightning Release chakra was simply too violent; if handled improperly, it might fail to achieve the intended tempering effect and injure him instead.

There was only one clumsy way to train chakra control: tree climbing and water walking. There was no need to elaborate on those two exercises. In any case, Gato had not found these basic Shinobi World training methods easy when he experienced them firsthand.

His chakra reserves were too low. Beginners practicing tree climbing generally had to worry about the amount of chakra they used—too little, and they could not adhere to the tree; too much, and they would crush the trunk and lose their balance.

What about him? Even when he poured out chakra at full force, he could only barely hang upside down from a branch. How was he supposed to train his chakra control like that?

So for the first ten days, he honestly practiced extracting chakra. Only when he felt he had nearly reached the necessary level did he begin the exercises. It took him another twenty days or so to complete the tree-climbing and water-walking training.

Naruto, the protagonist of Naruto, had completed both exercises in just a few days combined.

Still, that did not mean Gato was especially stupid. After all, he had started from nothing and had received no ninja education beforehand. Being able to catch up to Naruto's foundation at the time in twenty days was already quite impressive.

"Finally, I can use the Living Body Technique. Once I begin training with it, this little food I eat every day will be nowhere near enough."

The Living Body Technique could stimulate cellular growth and increase cellular activity and strength. That required consuming large quantities of high-energy food, and Gato needed enough meat.

"It's time to expand my range of activity. At my current level, killing an Earth tiger barehanded probably wouldn't be much of a problem."

Even without using ninjutsu, the destruction Gato could cause was terrifying. During his tree-climbing practice, he had also encountered the problem of crushing the surface of the trees whenever he used even a little too much chakra.

After finishing his training, he had tested himself. A full-force blow could punch through a tree trunk roughly fifty or sixty centimeters in diameter, and he could crack a fist-sized cobblestone with one punch.

"Haha, looks like I'll finally get to have a proper barbecue feast in this world."

Gato had happened across some unlucky animals while training, and without exception, they had become his rations. To him, they had only been small snacks.

What he longed for was a leg bone with joints as big as his fist, covered in golden-brown roasted meat, fat constantly dripping from it. When the droplets fell into the fire, they would make the flames dance, and in the instant they vaporized, release an explosive burst of meaty fragrance.

Not long after venturing deeper into the island and expanding his search, he made a promising discovery.

An animal carcass gnawed down to nothing but its head and part of its internal organs silently displayed the predator's brutality.

Gato had never seen this animal before, but judging from its remains, it had not been small when alive. Its body had probably been about half his height.

"Looks like I can't let my guard down. A predator capable of hunting prey like this must hold a fairly high position in this jungle."

The moment he finished speaking, he felt a chill run down his neck, and every hair on his body stood on end.

Something seemed to be watching him. He had likely entered the territory of that unknown predator.

"Haha, I'm not prey you can provoke as you please. If you want to eat me, you'd better be ready to pay the price!"