Chapter 10 - The Demonic Shit

"... huff... huff."

I put my hand on my knees while I attempted to regulate my shallow and rapid breathing. The view of the lake in front of me is becoming hazy.

I'm starting to feel dizzy.

But it's meager, not the type of dizziness that pulls out your lunch through your throat or makes you pass out in midstep, which means I can go on still.

I closed my eyes, breathed deeply, and straightened my back. The earlier events of today flashed through. I had expected more excitement on my first day at the academy, due to this body's influence and my own inner child, but everything has gone as well as possible.

I should be thankful for that, I know, but still, my childish self hoped for more. Yet whether it's this world or that world, school is, well, school. I won't say boring, but repetitive could be a better choice.

It isn't all bad either; while the academy is made to train Shinobis, its true purpose, sadly, is to rashly train quantity over quality — another reason why schools in both words are similar.

That is why I didn't have much expectation for the academy in terms of skill training; the library, however, is different.

Something I retained from my past life is that if you want to learn something, don't wait for anyone to teach you — a rule that was later shortened into: don't expect anything from anyone. And thanks to that, I acquired a valuable skill — learning how to learn.

... and I just have to apply it here as I always did. Isn't this how I went from being nearly homeless to having a two-story house?

The library, while it may seem open to anyone, is not and has a high level of restrictions. Books and scrolls were categorized according to their values and put under strict restriction so that only authorized Shinobi with the proper authorization could access them.

And the restrictions are no joke.

Kyouka unintentionally let slip that most of the library personnel are undercover police officers, or, per her words, slimy Anbu baggers.

Generally, the authorization needed to access restricted knowledge was one's own Shinobi rank, and each Shinobi could access the knowledge of their respective rank. While academy students are not full-fledged Shinobis, they are allowed to access way more restricted areas of the library than the general public does, or, in other words, any knowledge below Genin rank. Mostly low-risk E-rank Jutsus and basic Shinobi knowledge.

And that's what I'm interested in: basic Shinobi knowledge.

While I'm certainly eager to learn more Jutsus, the basic knowledge—more precisely, the chakra—is what I believe is way more important. Since chakra is literally the essence of any living being, let alone all the wizardry that comes with it. ... but I have to hurry and get this over with.

I shook my head, dissipating both the thoughts and the dizziness. I need to focus. Straightening up, I readied myself.

I brought my hands together, interlinking, then bending my finger and making the first hand sign — Snake. Immediately, an illusory sound similar to a rock skipping on frozen waters sounded in my head, and I felt the cold, strange energy in my body move in a distinct way.

... to the lunges, to the lunges.

Next, I rearranged my left hand above the right, with each hand's index and middle finger up — Ram. Then, as soon as the imaginary sound indicated that the folded handseal had been well executed, I moved on to the next seal.

The Ram was slowly followed by the Monkey, then the Boar, the Horse, and finally the Tiger. And at this point, the cold minty feeling of the chakra was molded into a warm prickling sensation brushing in and around my lunges.

Maintaining the Tiger handseal in front of my chest, I opened my mouth wide and greedily inhaled. Back curved inward, chest puffed up, both feet firmly planted on the ground. I closed my mouth once my lunges couldn't take any more air. I felt the cold air warming up gradually. It's odd but not unpleasant. Next, I pulled my head back before rapidly bringing it forward, and then... I blew.

[Katon • Gokakyu no Jutsu] (Great Fireball)

The exhaled air ignited into a stream of fire as soon as it left my lips, growing rapidly into a huge cone of flames, boiling the lake's water in its wake, and casting a flickering, orange glow on the surroundings.

Ignoring the heat sent to my face, I focused, reaching for the intangible connection that had formed with the Jutsu. Shapeless and formless. I tried to mold it, stretch it, or simply graze it, but to no avail. All of the attempts failed. My concentrated hold passed through it, frustratingly, as if the connection was only made to be felt but not affected.

But I didn't give up. Strangely and instinctively, I knew I could gasp it; I just needed to find out how. So I tried again and again until all the chakra-infused air was expelled from my lungs and the jutsu ultimately concluded, thus severing the ethereal connection.

My head feels light for a moment due to the lack of oxygen before dizziness hits once more. I gasped for air aggressively as I evaluated my performance of the Jutsu.

... larger than the third, smaller than the fifth, and it lasted over eight seconds.

I don't have a watch or any device to count time, so my estimations aren't pinpoint accurate, but eight seconds, more or less, is how long I can maintain the Jutsu active.

It's not much. But it's understandable since the lungs are those of a six-year-old, and the duration of this version of the Jutsu strongly correlates to the amount of chakra-infused air. In other words, larger lungs hold more air, and thus the fire Jutsu's span is greater.

It's not the case, however, or at least not entirely, for the other version of the Jutsu. To be more specific, it doesn't have any duration.

[Great Fireball] is a C-rank Ninjutsu created by the Uchiha clan and used as some sort of rite of passage into adulthood. As far as I know, the jutsu has two versions.

The first one is, as its name suggests, a large detached sphere of fire that would project straight ahead, while the second version is a cone-shaped flame.

While both versions of the fire Ninjutsu operate using the same sequence of hand seals, their method of application of the breath differs. For instance, to activate the first version, you simply have to exhale your breath all at once, which would result in it condensing into a sphere of fire.

I prefer the second version, however.

The ethereal connection aside — which won't be felt using the first version — the exhilarating rush that comes from breathing fire is intoxicating, borderline addictive even. And I freaking like it. It felt like being a fairy beast with enough might to bend the world's laws.

Fascinating, fabulous, but also...

"I don't fucking get it."

Frustrating.

Despite the slow handseals enactment and transition, the Jutsu execution was passable from my standpoint. Granted, it still breaks if I fail to maintain the handseal, but I estimate that and other small details are something I could fix with enough training.

The frustrating issue, however, is albeit the concentration I applied being about the same every time, the results differ each time. Not by much, but enough to drive me up the wall.

Why aren't the results consistent? What is altering it? Why is it larger at times and longer at others?

Also, now that we are at it, aren't hand seals supposed to be the cheat codes of this universe? Putting random successions of hand gestures together and, if you are lucky, you get a new shiny Ninjutsu, or, if you are in a bad luck period, you get deported into a black hole, something like that?

I'm keenly aware those questions themselves aren't what's irking me; it's the foul misinterpretations I had from a show I watched more than a decade ago.

And the biggest misinterpretation of them all was that the bigger the chakra reserves one had, the more powerful the Jutsu would be.

Apparently, it's not.

It doesn't matter if your sedan has a ten-fold larger gas tank than your neighbor's Maserati. Your car would still be slower.

To my great chagrin, the same logic applies to this case as well. My chakra reserves are more than twice as large as Kyouka's, yet the fire issued by her [Great Fireball] Jutsu is way larger and more stable than mine.

Haah, I need more training... and more knowledge.

I stretched my back and then resumed my task: emptying my chakra reserves to a ridiculously dangerous degree and, as a side task, pushing to influence the intangible connection.

I just hope I won't faint again.

I'm well aware that the outcome of fully emptying the chakra reserves is a foolish death, and what I'm doing, dancing around that line, is extremely risky; sadly, I can do nothing about it, per the doctor's orders.

Twenty-eight more [Great Fireball] later, and my gut started protesting. I managed three more before eventually deciding to leave the vomiting for the next step.

With a vertiginous head, I reached into my pants pocket and took out a dark green pill, wrapped in a white paper. I winced as the smells of this demonic shit violated my nose. The dark green pill is spherical, the size of a donkey's dung, and tastes as such... probably.

Steeling my resolve, I took a deep breath, closed my eyes, and threw the pill in my mouth. Unfortunately, with its size, I can't directly swallow it, so I fucking had to bite on it.

I tried to grind it as fast as possible before swallowing it. This demonic shit has had a strong taste of a rotten onion damp in piss for years. If I didn't want to throw up before, I definitely want to now. Sadly, I didn't. This is my only route if I don't want to end up crippled. And spilling it out would make things harsher than they already are.

An explosion burned my stomach as soon as I, with great resolve, swallowed that thing. The heat propagated, at an astonishing rate, to every cell in my body. The dizziness subsided, giving way to a sweltering heat that threatened to erupt. Reducing me to either a human torch or a human jigsaw puzzle right out of the box.

I didn't waste any time. Turning around, I sprinted, at full speed, a speed that I agonizingly had to maintain until the pill effect receded. The aforementioned threats may be exaggerated a bit, but they are definitely not false.

I just hope it will not last long; I want to hit the library today if possible.