Planning

At night, in Ayato's room.

Ayato had finished his training for the day and sat at his desk, continuously sketching on paper with a pencil in hand.

He was making plans for what to study next—not just study plans, but also deciding what he had to give up. After all, he did not have much time left to grow.

He could basically skip scientific research; he did not have the time for it. As for creating his own Ninjutsu, Ayato marked it as pending.

After all, creating Ninjutsu was no easy task. Although finishing his study of shape transformation had given Ayato the prerequisites to create his own techniques, there were still several issues.

Even with the memories of his previous life, making it relatively easier for him than others, that did not mean he could accomplish it overnight. More importantly, the power of any technique he created would remain an unknown.

Rather than develop Ninjutsu with uncertain power, he might as well first learn the ones with guaranteed results. If the Fourth Shinobi World War ended perfectly and Ayato had free time afterward, he could slowly work on creating his own techniques.

For now, he would focus on established Ninjutsu. If inspiration struck—during a moment of enlightenment, perhaps—he could give it a try. Otherwise, he would forget it.

Next came the learning plan for his existing techniques. The few C-Rank Ninjutsu Ayato's father had left him were not difficult for him; he had already learned them all. As for streamlining them, he decided to forget Great Breakthrough. Even if he condensed it to the limit, it would probably only become an Air Cannon. He would be better off learning Vacuum Sphere later. By the same logic, Wind Cutter Technique could be replaced with Vacuum Wave.

Gale Palm, however... Ayato kept circling the words for Gale Palm. Though this Ninjutsu was only C-Rank, it actually belonged to the Nintaijutsu category. Unlike his Lightning Reinforcement, which strengthened his body from within, Wind Style: Gale Palm worked from the outside.

When used, it wrapped the entire body in wind to increase the power of taijutsu. It was quite practical for now, and it could also work in tandem with Lightning Reinforcement. He could try streamlining its hand seals.

As for Lightning Style: Earth Corridor, forget it. Ayato basically ignored this Ninjutsu. Its power was lacking, it only had an extra paralysis effect with a poor hit rate, and even that paralysis was not guaranteed to take hold. In any case, Ayato merely knew how to use it; he could not even be considered proficient.

Then there was the Rasengan, the immensely famous Ninjutsu from the original story. It could be said to run from the beginning to the end of the tale, remaining an exceptionally practical technique throughout.

However, the Rasengan Naruto used was generally a Rasengan without any attribute.

Ayato could also use the same Rasengan Naruto used, but that alone was not enough.

Ayato planned to replace the Chakra with Wind Style Chakra. Of course, this was not some profound Chakra Nature Transformation, since he had not learned that yet. It was merely the most basic nature conversion, turning Chakra into wind.

That should not be difficult. Wind's fluidity could directly imitate the flow of Chakra, so the replacement should not be too hard.

And what would a Wind Style Rasengan do after that replacement? Ayato felt that even with only the most basic nature conversion, the inherent properties of wind would still exist. He simply would not be bringing those properties to their fullest potential.

Therefore, while retaining the Rasengan's power, a Wind Style Rasengan would also increase its cutting ability upon impact. Furthermore, the better Ayato's control became and the faster the Wind Style Chakra flowed, the stronger that cutting force would become.

More importantly, once he learned the Wind Style Rasengan, it would also help him incorporate Wind Style Chakra Nature Transformation in the future, making it much easier.

Thus, Ayato quickly placed a checkmark after Wind Style Rasengan. This was a must-learn.

As for the Lightning Style Rasengan, Ayato put a question mark beside it.

Unlike wind, electricity dispersed in every direction through the air without a fixed direction. If he wanted to force it into the Rasengan's method of use, the difficulty of controlling it would be considerable.

In Ayato's mind, wind and water, both possessing fluidity, were the most suitable for this. But he did not have a water attribute, and the properties water itself carried probably would not add much power. It would be far inferior to the offensively focused Wind Style.

And even if a Lightning Style Rasengan succeeded, what would it be like? Ayato considered that as well. Its power definitely could not compare to a Wind Style Rasengan.

It should be said that only Fire Style could directly rival Wind Style in terms of power. Fire Style explosions were no weaker, either.

After thinking it over, Ayato concluded that it would probably just add paralysis, and the chance of applying it should not be low. But it did not seem particularly useful. Lightning Release's conductive properties would go unused, and most importantly, its acceleration effect would be completely lost. (PS: The protagonist setting is that he has not read Boruto, and I probably will not write as far as Boruto either.)

After all, the Rasengan was condensed outside the body before attacking, so Lightning Release's acceleration properties would be completely useless. Unless he threw it out—but the foundation of the Rasengan was maintaining the power of constant rotation. Could it still maintain that if thrown? Even if he could throw it, its power would inevitably dissipate considerably upon impact. Even if its speed was fast, it would probably be difficult to preserve the power it should originally have had.

It was unlike Lightning Release: Lightning Blade, whose acceleration effect was based on the body itself, making it so fast that ordinary eyes could not see it or react in time.

If it were easy to learn, then the paralysis effect would be worth trying. But adding Lightning Release would certainly not be easy, and it had nothing in common with learning Lightning Release: Lightning Blade. In the end, Ayato crossed out the question mark and added an X.

With that, his close-range Ninjutsu was more or less sufficient. As for long-range techniques, he would make do with Wind Cutter Technique for now and see later whether there were any suitable Ninjutsu.

That was about it for Ninjutsu. Lastly came Chakra Nature Transformation. Needless to say, both of those were must-learn items.

But how to learn them was what Ayato needed to think about now. Practicing without a direction would simply be extremely inefficient; that only suited someone like Naruto, who could cheat with Shadow Clones.

Ayato did not have that cheat, so he could only find the right direction himself first.

First was the nature of Wind Style Chakra. Ayato was fairly familiar with this, since it was Naruto's attribute and had comparatively more explanations. Its primary property was cutting.

Ayato recalled his memories from his previous life. He had never seen an air blade, but he had watched videos of something similar: a Water Jet Cutter, something that became as sharp as a blade at extreme speeds.

But water was water, a tangible substance. It was extremely difficult to make it reach such speeds. What about Wind Style, then? It could move even faster, and that should not be all. Sufficient pressure was also necessary. Just as the sharper a blade was, the thinner its edge, a blade might not necessarily be durable, but Wind Style was not like a blade that could break. The greater the pressure, the stronger its cutting force.

Therefore, to learn Wind Style Chakra Nature Transformation, he needed to begin with the compression and flow speed of Wind Style Chakra.

Lightning Release, on the other hand, gave Ayato a headache. Although he knew it possessed conductive and acceleration properties, along with the added effect of paralysis, he did not know where to begin practicing it.