A scroll lay spread across the table.
Shinsei formed hand seals, spread the fingers of his right hand, and pressed them onto the scroll. Black markings flowed across it.
A speck of blue-black chakra seeped out of the scroll. Shinsei hurriedly caught it in his hand. The black chakra pulsed in his palm, cutting his fingers and drawing a little blood.
He closed his eyes, carefully sensing the chakra in his hand and committing it to memory.
After a long while, Shinsei opened his eyes.
There isn't much Storm Release chakra left. Enough for another ten or so uses. His grandfather had risked his life to obtain this scroll, just to give Shinsei a reference for developing Storm Release in the future.
Storm Release combined Water Release and Lightning Release. Although Shinsei had yet to learn many Water Release techniques, his mastery of Water Release was considerable. He had attained a deep understanding of its chakra nature early on. Though he had no concrete comparisons to go by, there was probably no one in Konoha whose mastery of Water Release surpassed his. But that was only an estimate. Perhaps some elderly member of a ninja clan was more accomplished. In any case, he had already surpassed his grandfather in Water Release mastery last year.
Like Tobirama Senju, he could perform Water Release: Water Dragon Bullet Technique with just three seals. If his chakra control improved further, he might be able to perform it with a single Ox seal.
In Shinsei's conception, the ideal was to perform all sorts of Water Release techniques with a single seal. As for seal-less Water Release, he saw no hope of that for now. After all, the very first seal determined the chakra nature.
He still hadn't made much progress with Lightning Release, lacking advanced ninjutsu for reference. Only his mastery of its chakra nature had improved rapidly. He could now form a single seal and fill his right hand with Lightning Release chakra. Although its heat, piercing power, and numbing properties had all improved greatly, he couldn't achieve explosive damage like the Chidori's. At most, he could combine nature transformation and shape transformation to produce an incomplete, seal-less Lightning Release Rasengan.
Developing Lightning Release without sufficient knowledge of it was too difficult.
"Shinsei, come down and eat! Don't you have your graduation exam today?" Riya poked her head out by the stairs and called.
"Coming!"
He quickly washed his face and brushed his teeth.
When he arrived at school, almost everyone was already in the classroom, gathered in a chattering group.
"Know what they're testing?" Shinsei walked over to Shikamaru and leaned against a desk.
Shikamaru had a toothpick dangling from his mouth and looked half asleep.
"The Clone Technique, probably."
"Huh? The Clone Technique?" Naruto looked dejected. His Clone Technique was pretty much the worst in the class. If that was the test, he was guaranteed to be dead last.
With so many people in the class, unless they tested the Transformation Technique, Naruto wouldn't have ended up dead last, no matter how things went. His Transformation Technique, in particular, was outstanding.
The bell rang, and everyone hurried back to their seats.
Iruka entered the classroom holding a sheet of paper.
"Today's the graduation exam. When I call your name, come to the classroom next door. The subject of this exam is the Clone Technique. Anyone who passes today gets a ninja forehead protector."
Naruto practically collapsed. Sure enough, they were testing the Clone Technique.
"What a drag. Naruto, this is all your fault!" Shikamaru looked annoyed.
They had already taken an exam two days earlier. Naruto had messed around, transforming into a naked young woman and forcing everyone to retake it.
Shinsei didn't mind taking it again. They hadn't even handed out forehead protectors last time, so that clearly hadn't been the final exam.
"Shinsei, Sasuke, Naruto."
Shinsei stood and followed Iruka out. Naruto trailed after them, utterly listless.
Inside the classroom, Iruka and Mizuki sat at the front.
"Shinsei, you certainly won't have any problems, but show us anyway." Iruka was very pleased with this top student.
Shinsei formed seals. A puff of smoke rose, and another Shinsei appeared in the classroom. It was a Shadow Clone.
Iruka nodded in satisfaction and picked up a Konoha ninja forehead protector.
"Congratulations. You've graduated."
"Thank you for teaching me." Shinsei accepted the forehead protector and bowed to Iruka and Mizuki in thanks.
"No need to thank us. You did well yourself. Tell Naruto to come in, and don't forget the team assignment briefing the day after tomorrow."
Naruto entered the classroom as though he were heading to his execution.
"Naruto, perform the Clone Technique." Iruka looked stern.
Here goes everything. Naruto formed seals, his enormous chakra almost tangible.
Some ninjutsu couldn't be performed simply by having a great deal of chakra. The scene before them was an example.
A limp Naruto clone appeared beside him. What an enormous amount of chakra. Shinsei was a little envious. Despite being a Senju, training hard, and practicing meditation, his chakra reserves were probably only a twentieth of Naruto's own by now-about five Kakashis' worth. That was already very good. Although Kakashi's reserves were low for a jonin, he was still a jonin, after all. His chakra wasn't much lower than an ordinary jonin's, which meant Shinsei ranked among jonin with relatively large chakra reserves.
(In the original, Kakashi said Naruto had to suppress the Nine-Tails chakra, so he had four times Kakashi's chakra, or a hundred times without that suppression. Here, Naruto's own chakra is counted as a hundred times Kakashi's. If the Nine-Tails were included, considering how many people Naruto replenished with chakra during the Fourth Shinobi World War, it would have to be more than a hundred times.)
"Fail!" Iruka was angry at his failure to improve.
"Well," Mizuki said with a smile, "we could count that as a pass. Naruto's taijutsu and Transformation Technique are pretty good, and he did make one clone."
"No. Look at that clone-it would only get in the way. I can't possibly pass him."
Naruto walked out of the classroom, utterly dispirited.
"Naruto, don't be sad. At worst, you'll repeat a year. The Clone Technique is pretty simple." Shinsei formed a seal, and another Shinsei appeared, then vanished again with a pop. "Maybe you'll learn it next year."
"Damn you, Shinsei!" Naruto was so angry he wanted to bite him.
Shinsei rested a hand on Naruto's shoulder. A tiny spider quietly crawled out of his palm. He casually patted Naruto's hair, successfully leaving the spider in Naruto's spiky blond hair.
"It's fine. Maybe you'll pass next time."
"Huh? There's a next time?" Naruto wasn't quite convinced.
"Who knows?" Shinsei gave no definite answer. "Wasn't this a retest?"
Oh, right. Sure enough, Naruto believed him.
Shinsei had always felt ninja forehead protectors couldn't protect anything. They were just pieces of iron with little defensive capability. With chakra reinforcement, a ninja's own defenses were far stronger. More absurdly, even missing-nin dutifully wore them on their foreheads, cutting a slash through the middle to announce their defection. They really were hardheaded.
Despite those thoughts, Shinsei dutifully put his on his forehead. When in Rome, do as the Romans do. As for when he could stop wearing it, he would set a modest goal: first, attain Kage-level strength.
There were no classes that afternoon, so Shinjō decided to visit his grandfather.
Pushing open the gate to his grandfather's courtyard, he found the old man sweeping, his back hunched.
Ever since his earlier injury, his grandfather's health had deteriorated by the day. The old man was stubborn, too, refusing to live with Shinsei's family no matter what. Nobita and Riya could do nothing about him.
"Let me." Shinsei tried to take the broom, but the old man gripped it tightly and refused to let go.
Helpless, Shinsei could only help the old man split firewood.
He took a log and stood it upright on the ground, then extended his right hand, forming sword fingers. Blue, water-natured chakra formed a humming, meter-long water sword along his fingers.
Chakra sliced back and forth along the blade at high speed, forming a continuous cycle.
Shinsei swept his right hand lightly, easily splitting the log from top to bottom. The tremendous impact sent both halves flying to the wall.
The Water Sword had plenty of power. Having to keep fetching the wood was just troublesome.
This was a seal-less Water Release ninjutsu Shinsei had developed.
Water Release: Water Sword.
It was powerful and quick to activate. Currently, it could extend up to ten meters. Any farther, and his chakra control became unstable, drastically reducing its power.
There were currently three versions of the Water Sword, differing only in the direction of chakra flow. In the first version, the chakra rotated in one direction. That original Water Sword was better described as a water club. Its power was average, and its cutting ability was rather poor, because the rotating chakra carried debris from the cut along with it, blocking its path. Shinsei couldn't tolerate that kind of flaw.
The second version was the current one. Chakra moved back and forth, shooting outward along the Water Sword's edge before returning along the tip. This version had strong cutting power, but its weakness was that its effectiveness dropped sharply when the target was too thick.
As for why he didn't simply shoot the chakra out like the water cutters from his previous life-this was chakra. He couldn't waste it like that. This ninjutsu was meant to counter taijutsu and had to last through a prolonged fight.
The third version was still in development. He already had an idea of how it would work, but he needed to practice his chakra control until it became muscle memory. In this version, the chakra would split into two parts, forming a W. One part would travel clockwise to the tip, then return to the spine of the blade, forming a triangle. The other would form a triangle counterclockwise.
In other words, two long, narrow triangles would fit together into one triangle.
This direction of chakra flow would push apart anything it touched, giving it the absolute ability to sever things in a single stroke.
But although the idea was good, it required terrifying chakra control. Splitting his attention while still producing sufficient power wasn't that simple.