24 Chakra Nature

Time passed swiftly, and before I could blink it was already the end of the year.

Waking up, I began my routine once again. Working out, jutsu training, and a little bit of genjutsu training as well.

Now that I was learning Genjutsu, I was trying to use it whenever I could. In the anime, I would put Itachi at the peak of Genjutsu utilization. Before his opponent even realized, they would be caught in his Genjutsu. His Genjutsu constructs were also so powerful that even if the opponent knew they were in one, they couldn't break out.

At one point, I remember he was able to put Naruto in a Genjutsu, a powerful psychological one, simply by pointing a finger at him. That was crazy! I couldn't even begin to figure out how to counter that! Naruto, the chakra monster, wasn't even able to break out after overloading his body with chakra.

That was why I placed Itachi Uchiha at the top of the Genjutsu scale in this world. I'm sure Madara and Kaguya had more insane feats, such as the Infinite Tsukuyomi, but those were fueled by their insane powers. As for Itachi, except for the Mangekyo Sharingan, what did he have to accomplish such feats?

I had Itachi as my goal, even though I knew that was a little far-fetched. I didn't have the Sharingan after all.

However, there was no point in knocking it down before I tried. That was why I practiced Genjutsu the most often. You could do it pretty easily, to anyone. It wasn't flashy, I didn't need to use too much chakra, and the Genjutsu didn't have to be obvious.

For example, right now I was using Genjutsu on my cat so that she believes she heard a knock on the door. Simple, but it helped me gain better control and mastery over my techniques.

Genjutsu was interesting in that it was so underutilized in the series. It is said that you could use the five senses to control the opponent, but everyone only uses sight and some hearing. Touch, taste, and smell were largely ignored.

If I could create some techniques in that aspect, I would be pretty revolutionary. Especially when because, eventually, I would be able to cast a Genjutsu on someone using Taijutsu. I didn't need to slow down or change my fighting style, just touching them would allow me to put them under a Genjutsu.

Speaking of Madara and Kaguya, I recently found a problem during my meditations. Even though I was training so hard, and I was sure to reach the Kage level in the future, I couldn't see a way to reach the level of Kaguya.

Kaguya was an Otsutsuki, she had powers I couldn't see myself reaching in my lifetime. Even Hashirama Senju, the man touted as the God of Shinobi and the strongest shinobi to ever live, was nothing more than fodder in front of Kaguya.

Sasuke and Naruto, in the end, were able to seal her while using the powers of the Sage of Six Paths, meaning that even they were not as powerful as her individually. In Boruto, when Naruto and Sasuke had reached adulthood, they could probably seal Kaguya much easier, though they were still individually weaker.

My point was, how could I keep up with them when even they were struggling to keep up with the Otsutsuki?

The answer to that was unique to me. I was not from this world. This world, while so rich and full of life, came from the imagination of a single person. Just the plotholes showed how no one can imagine a complete world without being a God.

But now I live in this world. It's not the imagination of a single person, I could kill Naruto, kill Sasuke, and do anything I wanted. No pen and paper were controlling my actions, I was free.

Though this didn't exactly help me, I was not bound by anything. My power would grow as long as I could take it, there was no need to think about plot restrictions.

Another point that comes from me not being born here, is that I knew other worlds. Because I was living and breathing in the Naruto world, other literature could be worlds as well.

That meant I had their knowledge and wisdom. I wasn't someone who watched and read literature and anime all the time, but during my free time, I usually did participate in these activities.

To reach the top of this world, I needed methods from others. I couldn't conform to the shinobi world's system of power, where everyone is below the Otsutsuki. I needed to be able to rise to that level as well.

How exactly I would go about doing that was still an area I needed to think about. What knowledge could I draw? How could I borrow the powers of other worlds, when they didn't exist here?

I needed time to think about how to do that. Seeing as how I had no solution yet, I ended my training and got ready for school. After picking Naruto up, we headed to school.

Surprisingly, Naruto had started occasionally training with Lee. It wasn't often, but I see some progress in his strength. Different from before, when he relied on his innate advantages from being born an Uzumaki and Jinchuriki, he was putting these advantages to work now.

It wasn't an insane level of training, but still, training with Lee was more than he was doing beforehand.

His chakra reserves were growing steadily, and he had already reached high Chunin levels. If his chakra kept growing at this rate, he might even reach Kage level of chakra before graduating from the academy.

Seeing how someone like this couldn't even reach the peak of the power scale, further pushed my thoughts on needing other powers.

We reached our classroom and entered. Joining Shikamaru and Choji, we spent some time chatting before Iruka-sensei and Mizuki arrived. Everyone in the class had gotten over my scars, but they kept their distance from me.

The door slid open, and Iruka-sensei entered.

"All right, everyone, get to your seats!"

We did, and the lessons started shortly after. The lecture lasted only a short while before we began shuriken practice and hand-to-hand combat.

Sasuke's skills with the shuriken continued to be the best, while I followed. Naruto continued to have the worst performance, though, at this point, I was sure that it must have been because of Mizuki's interference. Naruto must have been confused by his performance, considering that he did better when he used Lee's shuriken.

Hand-to-hand combat began, and this time, I was the one battling Sasuke. Smirking, Sasuke approached the sparring circle, as did I. After completing the Seal of Confrontation, Iruka-sensei told us to begin, and we both dashed toward each other. After becoming training partners, Sasuke and I were very familiar with each other's strengths and weaknesses.

Sasuke punched me, while I ducked and swept under his legs.

He jumped to dodge my attack while I rolled on my back to avoid his stomp. Propelling forward with my arms, I kicked him in the chest while he blocked with his arms.

I tried continuing the attack, but he grabbed my legs and threw me. Landing on my feet, I dashed towards him instantly, not wanting him to get an advantage.

Brandishing our kunai, we began another level of assault. Both of us had bonafide-Genin strength at this point, and our battle reflected that.

Deflecting each other kunai, I swept his legs again, as he fell to the ground. I tried hitting him, but he spun on his head and got back on his feet.

Before I could continue the assault, he shot his kunai at me, before stepping away and weaving hand signs. After deflecting the kunai, I put chakra into my foot and dashed toward him in hopes of stopping it. He wasn't an idiot, though, and he quickly dashed away too. Before he could finish his hand signs though, I stomped on the ground and with my chakra-enhanced foot and put him under a Genjutsu.

The Genjutsu was non-lethal since I wasn't on the level of doing that without hand signs yet. The Genjutsu just let him hear Iruka-sensei shout the word stop. Hearing that, Sasuke stopped his hand signs while I dashed toward him. Before he could react, I punched him in the face and sent him rolling out of the circle.

He looked at Iruka-sensei, probably to complain, but saw him standing with his hands down and his lips closed.

He looked back at me, fuming. I gave him a smirk as Iruka-sensei declared me the winner.

Though I successfully won the battle, if he had completed the seals for the fireball jutsu, I would have likely lost. I didn't know any jutsu yet, or any defensive jutsu, all I could have done was dash away from the circle and admit my defeat.

Sasuke re-entered the circle and completed the Seal of Reconciliation with me. We both started walking out, and I could hear him whispering,

"I'll remember this."

I rolled my eyes and joined back together with my group.

Iruka-sensei called Naruto shortly after, and he fought against Kiba. This time though, Naruto put up a fight and got a few hits in. It was too bad that Kiba was still the better Taijutsu fighter and eventually won.

Naruto came back grinning,

"Heh. Did you see that guys!? Wasn't I awesome! I was like, 'Wham!' and Kiba was like, 'Ugh no more, please!'"

"Naruto, we all saw you just get beat up by Kiba. Stop being such a drag."

"I don't know what you're talking about, Shikamaru! I won!"

The two continued arguing until Shikamaru got called into a spar with Shino. As soon as the fight started, Shikamaru resigned and walked out of the circle. Iruka-sensei could only shake his head in frustration because resignations were allowed.

After all the spars concluded, Iruka-sensei started telling us what we needed to improve.

For Naruto, it was technique and patience.

For Shikamaru, it was his will to fight.

For Choji, it was his resolve to win.

For Sasuke, it was his attention to detail.

As for me, Iruka-sensei said I needed to improve my Ninjutsu.

All these assessments made sense, and it was no wonder that Iruka-sensei was viewed as such a good teacher. After concluding everyone's weaknesses, he told us to begin shuriken practice.

I, however, approached him and asked him for help,

"Iruka-sensei, you said that my weakness was Ninjutsu?"

"Yes. If Sasuke didn't fall for that Genjutsu, then it would have been your loss."

"Yes, I recognize that as well, sensei. That's why I wanted to ask you what I could do. I don't have anyone or anything to learn from."

"Well, if you needed some scrolls, you could go buy them from a scroll or weapon shop. Usually, ninjas just acquire scrolls from completing missions and such, but since you can't do that, then you can only go and buy a scroll. All the techniques they sell are usually known to most ninjas, and they can only sell E, D, and C-rank jutsu. C-rank jutsu is very expensive, however, so I recommend you just buy a normal D-rank jutsu."

"Thank you sensei!"

After that, I started shuriken practice until it was time for Genjutsu class. Walking over there with Sasuke, he still seemed to be mad about his loss.

"Don't be such a sore loser, Sasuke."

"Nn. (Shut up). I'm not a sore loser. I just lost because of a cheap trick, after all."

"Yeah yeah. Remember that any jutsu is useful if it helps you survive and win. You shouldn't be so judgemental of that 'cheap trick', you know."

After that remark, Sasuke fell silent, and the conversation died out. We arrived at our room, still dilapidated, and proceeded to take our seats. We waited for Akame-sensei to come, but he never did. After a few minutes, we started getting suspicious, until finally Sasuke had a change in his expression and said

"Kai!"

Hearing that, I did the same, and as soon as I stopped the flow of my chakra and flooded it with a stronger chakra flow, I saw Akame-sensei appear before me

"Tsk, two minutes and twenty-six seconds. You guys have a long way to go. Especially you, Aizen."

"Yes, sensei."

"Since these classes are about to end, I'm going to teach you a new Genjutsu. Usually, I would never teach students a technique as high as this, but you guys possess the capabilities. Today, you will learn the B-rank Genjutsu, Demonic Illusion: Tree Binding Death!"

A B-rank Genjutsu! I did not think he would teach us a Genjutsu as high as that. I looked at Sasuke and saw that he seemed relatively less shocked than I, though he was still startled.

"The hand seals are dog, snake, monkey, ox, and tiger. The illusion shows the enemy being bound by a tree, thus binding them in real life. During this time, you could swiftly kill them with a kunai or a shuriken, which makes the technique B-rank. However, there is a time lag between when you cast it and when it takes effect, which can be shortened by how familiar you are with the technique."

Demonic Illusion: Tree Binding Death, huh? If I remember correctly, Kurenai used that technique against Itachi when he first appeared. She ended up suffering from a Genjtusu reversal and was played around with by Itachi.

After learning about the seals, I cast the illusion onto Amake-sensei since I already knew what it looked like and what it needed to do. Akame-sensei quickly released the Genjutsu and said

"Good job, Aizen. Though the illusion was choppy, it even allowed me to move my arms, but with some practice, you'll become very proficient with it."

"Thank you, sensei."

Sasuke shortly cast the technique afterward, and Akame-sensei similarly critqued it, though his Genjutsu was more stable than mine.

After class ended, Sasuke and I headed out of the academy and bid farewell to each other.

Remembering Iruka-sensei's advice, I quickly headed to Higurashi's and inquired if he had any scrolls.

"Sorry, kid, I only sell weapons in here. You can go to another shop and find it somewhere else."

Disappointed, I thanked him and started going around the village, looking for a scrolls shop.

Scroll shops were not as in demand as weapons shops, especially since by completing a mission, you can ask for a scroll for compensation instead of money.

That created an incentive for shinobi to complete more missions. They can grow in power while assisting the village in their jobs. It was a clever idea, and even I was excited for the time that I became a shinobi and was able to access more Ninjutsu.

After searching for a while, I came across a shop called "Hiroyuki's Scrolls" and entered.

"Welcome, dear customer!"

Greeting me was a tall, lanky man with black hair and eyes. He was wearing a white t-shirt with green cargo pants, and currently, he was smiling directly at me.

"Hello, sir. Do you have any D or C-rank Ninjutsu that I could purchase?"

"Well, I sure do! That's what we sell here. But it will cost you a pretty penny."

After harvesting and selling snake venom for the past months, I had a wallet stacked with money. I had about 100,000 Ryo, the same amount as my Tanto and other weapons, which I bought from Higurashi.

"Don't worry about the money."

"Hoho, all right then, what type of jutsu are you looking for."

I didn't even think of that, but thinking about my needs, I answered

"Offensive and defensive, please."

"And what element?"

Element? I didn't think of that. The man could probably tell from the dumb look on my face and asked,

"Do you know your chakra nature, son?"

"...No"

"All right, do you want to buy a chakra paper and test it out?"

"Yes, please"

"All right, that will be 5,000 Ryo."

After paying the man, he handed me a small chakra paper, and I promptly injected some chakra into it.

The paper proceeded to have three different reactions. One part of the paper wrinkled, another part of the part turned to dirt, and the last part of the paper turned moist.

"Woah! Three chakra natures, I've never seen it before! You've got an affinity for lightning, water, and earth!"

Three different chakra natures. That was excellent. That meant I would have a much easier path treading different jutsu than others. And the three natures all complimented each other. I could use lightning as my primary attack method, water for both attack and defense, and earth as my main defense.

After getting over his shock, the man continued to question me,

"All right, now that you know your chakra natures, what type of elements are you looking for?"

"Please show me the jutsu from all three first."

After I said that, he pulled out an inventory booklist and showed me the part pertaining to D-rank and C-rank lightning, earth, and water jutsu.

Curiously, I asked him if he sold B-rank Jutsu, but he said he was only allowed to sell those to Chunin-rank ninjas or higher. It made sense, those who were Chunin or higher had essentially proved their loyalty to the village, and they could simply complete a B-rank mission themselves and ask for the Jutsu.

After looking through all the options, I decided to buy two techniques, the C rank jutsu, Water Release: Gunshot, and the D rank jutsu, Hiding in Mist Technique.

Though the latter jutsu belonged to the Village Hidden in the Mist, I guess a Konoha shinobi acquired it over the years.

I chose these two techniques because they were the most useful ones for the moment. Both of them were counters to Sasuke and the Sharingan. The Gunshot Jutsu would counter the Fireball Jutsu, and the Hiding in Mist Technique Jutsu would counter the Sharingan.

After making the purchase, my funds were down to 15,000 Ryo. I made my way to the Forest of Death and started practicing the Hiding in Mist Technique near a small pond.

"Ox, snake, ram, Hiding in Mist Technique!"

I spewed a sizeable amount of fog from my mouth, and my surroundings became shrouded in chakra-filled fog. The more chakra you used for the technique, the larger the range and interference for Dojutsu abilities like the Sharingan. It does not affect the Byakugyan, however, or sensors.

Since it was my first time using the technique, the fog spread out in a relatively small area, and the chakra wasn't dense enough to block any Dojutsu. I kept practicing the technique, only stopping when my chakra reserves reached the halfway mark. By that time, the fog had spread out in a 3-meter area. Not the greatest range, but it was still decent.

That largely came from the fact that I had a water source next to me and I also had a sizeable amount of chakra. Furthermore, the Jutsu was only a D-rank, meaning the amount of chakra it needed to activate was relatively minimal.

After taking a short rest, I started practicing the Gunshot Jutsu. The good thing about this Jutsu was that a water source wasn't needed, since the user was forming the water in their body using chakra.

Performing the Tiger seal, I ejected a small, finger-sized bullet from my mouth. The Jutsu hit a tree, piercing it for a bit before stopping. The Jutsu was relatively weak since I didn't put much chakra in it.

I feared that if I didn't take my time to gain proficiency in the Jutsu, then I would blow my throat up. So, I was going to take my time and slowly put more chakra into the Jutsu.

About an hour later, I started running out of chakra, only having 10% left. Doing one final shot, I put as much chakra as I could into it, and watched as a head-sized water bullet was ejected from my mouth and propelled forward. The attack finally landed on a thick tree about 5 meters away, and it shattered most of the bark before dissipating. Satisfied with the progress I made with the two techniques, I stopped to rest for a bit.

Lying down on the grass, I rested my eyes while paying attention to the sounds. After sitting still for about 5 minutes, I heard a crack and opened my eyes, only to spot a tiger leaping toward me.

I quickly rolled on the grass and dodged, getting my tanto from my storage seal, I prepared myself for battle. Though my chakra was low, I didn't need any to fight a Genin-level animal.

The tiger leaped towards me again, uncaring about how I could dodge it the first time. The moment its claws were about to cut me, I dodged to the side and slashed its arm with my tanto. The tiger received a deep flesh cut and limped away while keeping an eye on me. Deciding this was a good time to test out my jutsu, I weaved the Tiger seal, and screamed,

"Water Release: Gunshot!"

A fist-sized water bullet spewed from my mouth, hitting the tiger straight in the head. The Jutsu fractured its skull, and it shrieked in pain.

The Oak tree had its bark almost shattered, while the attack only fractured the tiger's skull. I imbued both with chakra, but it seemed that chakra bolstered the tiger's physical aspects more.

The tiger, sensing the battle going astray, started running in the opposite direction. I simply watched as it left, and went to a different side of the forest to start taijutsu training.

There was no point in killing the tiger, and I was already low on chakra. The tiger served well to test the destructive ability of my new Jutsu, and I was satisfied with the results. The jutsu seemed to be lethal, especially the more chakra I imbue in it.

Though, if I were to use it on a ninja, the effects would be drastically different. First of all, they could understand the danger of the technique and dodge. And ninjas could actively bolster their physiques with chakra, meaning the damage would be even less.

They could also counter the technique with one of their own, meaning that I could only consider the technique lethal as a surprise attack that hits an unsuspecting shinobi, not in a battle.

After completing my Taijutsu training, I went home and ate dinner. My chakra was back to full capacity since it was regenerating during my Taijutsu training and after I ate.

Training my sensory technique once again, my range had increased to more than 200 meters now. I was able to sense the entirety of the building I was in, and a bit further. If there was any sensor ninja nearby, they would be able to sense the chakra hitting them and reflecting, but since there wasn't then I could practice the technique freely.

By the time Naruto came back from his training with Jiraiya, I would likely have over a kilometer of range, maybe even more.

After training my ability, I noticed I wasn't making much progress in the technique anymore. I was making some minimal advancements, but they weren't much. After it had reached 200 meters of range, my chakra simply wasn't large enough to sense further. I either needed to increase my chakra reserves or increase my chakra control.

The choice between the two was apparent. I was already growing my chakra reserves as much as I can, so I could only train my chakra control. Deciding to take up chakra control training again, I decided to do so when summer vacation started. I didn't have that much free time now, after all.

Satisfied with my decision, I moved on to the last item on the agenda, meditation.

As I meditated, I started thinking about the previous question I had brought up, how I would keep up with Naruto and Sasuke. The power boosts they received were simply too monstrous, I would need an equally strong power boost to keep up with them.

There were a lot of options I planned on pursuing, such as sage mode. Sage mode would boost me a lot in ability since Naruto went from Low Kage to High Kage.

But it wasn't enough, I needed more. Deciding to take my previous thoughts further, I needed an application unique to me. The closest power system to this world, that I could think of, was Bleach.

Bleach used reiryoku, or spiritual energy. They would use this spiritual energy to do inhumane feats and mainly use their souls to fight.

Chakra in this world had both spiritual energy and physical energy. I didn't know how it worked, but chakra contained reiryoku.

That meant I could copy some feats they accomplished in the Bleach universe, such as Reiatsu.

Reiatsu was the application of spiritual energy, and it allowed for feats such as physical/soul pressure. This increased the pressure a person was feeling by many folds, scaling to the difference in spiritual power.

Reaitsu also had some other applications that I could copy, such as dealing physical damage through that pressure. Aizen was able to decompose normal humans just by walking next to them. I couldn't reach that level of power, since my spirtual energy was far lower than his, but inflicting some damage onto spirits of shinobi would potentially be possible. All of these accomplishments weren't going to boost my power to unimaginable levels, but I could use them to gain crucial advantages.

After finding out that I had both water and earth affinity, I could also work towards gaining a Kekkei Genkai. A Kekkei Genkai is a strictly genetically passed ability, meaning I had no hope of gaining one of those.

However, there was another classification of Kekkei Genkai, nature transformation Kekkei Genkai.

These were advanced uses of two nature transformations at the same time. This was only possible through extreme chakra control and mastery of both natures, meaning that it was almost impossible for one person to have both.

If I formed a nature transformation Kekkei Genkai out of earth and water, then I would come to possess the Wood Release, one of the most powerful Kekkei Genkai of the series. This was an advantage I could not let up.

I didn't know the exact parameters, but to have Wood Release, a person at least needed stellar chakra control, a deep understanding of both earth and water natures, and monstrous levels of chakra. Since Wood Release was capable of suppressing and absorbing chakra, then I assumed that the user needed to have monstrous amounts of chakra so that they could manipulate all that chakra themselves.

I could also form a nature transformation Kekkei Genkai with my lightning element, but I didn't know what that would form, and asking for two nature transformation Kekkei Genkai was too much. Thus, I decided to focus my full efforts on gaining the Wood Release, then I could worry about getting another Release.

After finishing my meditations, I realized how busy I would be in the future: Taijutsu, Ninjutsu, Genjutsu, Kenjutsu, chakra control, sage mode, Bleach techniques, and attempting to gain Wood Release. I would need to divide my attention into a lot of fields, but this was the only way I would be able to become a powerhouse in the shinobi world. I needed the ambition to dream as high as I could.

I also didn't need to focus my attention on all these things simultaneously, for example, I wouldn't need to focus on sage mode, Bleach techniques, or Wood Release until far in the future when I had gained the necessary prerequisites. Sage mode needed monstrous levels of chakra, as did Wood Release, and the Bleach techniques required me to have monstrous levels of yin energy and control of that energy to project it outwards as a weapon.

Lying down on my bed, I let the chirping crickets outside and the soothing purr of Puma lull me into sleep.