Naruto: The Outsider's Resolve: CH_329

Even though the Third Hokage had advised Takuma that he should focus on 'advanced chakra training' before attempting to learn a B-rank jutsu, he wasted three days by overestimating himself by thinking that if a fresh-out-of-academy Naruto could learn the A-rank version in a couple of hours, he could learn the B-rank version in a few days.

Alas, Takuma wasn't the protagonist, nor did he have the talent.

It was his greed that made him deviate from the obvious path. Learning the Shadow Clone Jutsu was among the top priorities to increase his training throughput by employing the clones to train beside him and on his behalf when he was busy.

However, he failed. Fortunately, he only wasted three days, but they were enough to make him understand why he couldn't 'grind' his way to mastery. In the three days he had wasted, he dedicated all his personal time to learning the Shadow Clone Jutsu and failed 100% of the time. Those failures were expensive because the cost of the jutsu was exorbitant. Using the jutsu a decent number of times for training meant abandoning everything else due to the chakra requirement. He could not have that. Not only did he have the jutsu recommendations from Tapir, but he also had a few ninjutsu he wanted to learn. Dedicating all of his time to Shadow Clone Jutsu when he was starting work soon wasn't ideal.

He had to build his way up from the basics.

———
.

"I want to learn the Shadow Clone Jutsu as my first B-rank jutsu," Takuma said to Mikoto as their lesson ended. They resumed their once-a-week genjutsu training lessons. They would soon become irregular once he started working, but they planned to hold them whenever they had time.

He couldn't tell her he already had access to the jutsu, so he framed the conversation in the context of the future using a half-life as the Shadow Clone Jutsu was his first B-rank jutsu.

"You have the chakra for it," said Mikoto as she considered his choice, "but I suggest you go with a Water Release or Earth Release jutsu for your first one. You would have an easier time learning them because you have the background. Shadow clones have excellent utility on the field, but you should first sort out a strong offensive or defensive option before you learn this."

Takuma agreed with her. However, the training/experience exploit was too tantalising for him to wait until later. The advantage was compounding, meaning a year's difference would result in fewer results. The earlier the jutsu, the greater the benefits.

"I still have a year before I can learn a B-rank jutsu. Maybe I will change my mind, but until then, I'm thinking about advanced chakra training," said Takuma, bringing up the topic he wanted to discuss with her.

"Smart choice. Many make the mistake of going right into learning the ninjutsu," Mikoto smiled, impressed. "B-rank jutsu and beyond requires a deeper understanding of chakra to learn and use them, and for most people, their existing knowledge and skill isn't enough to cut it... You need to be worthy before you can wield the power."

Chakra was the basis of all jutsu. Even taijutsu relied on chakra as it strengthened the body, allowing a shinobi to move in ways ordinarily impossible. When a shinobi used a jutsu, they transformed and manipulated chakra to achieve the desired effect.

"What are the two advanced methods of manipulating chakra?" asked Mikoto.

"They are nature and shape transformation," Takuma replied, already having done his homework on the topic.

"Correct~!"

Nature transformation was an advanced form of chakra manipulation that entailed moulding and defining the chakra's nature, altering its properties and characteristics.

Chakra was the result of the mixing of two primal energies. Physical energy—collected from the body's cells. Spiritual energy—collected from the mind's consciousness. When mixed, they created chakra. The resulting chakra was in its natural, 'raw' state, which could be transformed into other themed natures.

Takuma transformed his raw chakra into water or earth nature chakra when using Water Release or Earth Release ninjutsu. Similarly, others could transform their chakra into the five basic natures—Fire, Water, Earth, Wind, and Lightning—depending on their ninjutsu release.

Shape transformation was another advanced form of chakra manipulation that involved controlling the form, movement, and potency of chakra and determining the size, range, and purpose of the jutsu.

Chakra didn't have a defined shape and could be moulded into any form desired by the user. The tentacles in Water Release: Eight Tentacle maintained their form due to shape manipulation holding the water together.

Takuma's chakra augmentation was a pure shape manipulation jutsu. The First Form started out as an application of chakra repulsion but slowly became something more. He created the Second Form when he became able to propel a concentrated package of chakra at high velocity.

Most jutsu worked via both methods of advanced manipulation working together. At D- and C-rank, the hand seals took all the burden of manipulation, allowing shinobi to use them without a deeper understanding of the mysteries of chakra. But at higher ranks, hand seals weren't enough; the shinobi needed to supplement their own advanced understanding and skill to bring jutsu to fruition.

Today, he wanted advice on nature transformation.

"The Shadow Clone Jutsu isn't part of any basic nature families. It's a jutsu from the Yin-Yang Release," said Takuma.

The Shadow Clone jutsu was classified as a Yin-Yang Release, meaning it used both cyclic natures. It was not to be confused with a combination nature as Yin and Yang worked separately and together to make the jutsu possible.

"How do I train Yin and Yang nature manipulation?"

There were more natures outside the five basics. Bloodline limits possessing shinobi had the gift to merge basic natures to create a combination nature. Other than that, there were the cyclic natures—Yin and Yang—not to be confused with physical and spiritual energies.

"Yin Release allows one to control imagination, creating form out of nothingness. Yang Release controls vitality, granting life to forms that have none," Takuma said with a frown. "I am familiar with how I'm supposed to train nature transformation for the basic five, but I must admit, I'm confused when it comes to Yin and Yang. Even my understanding of the cyclic natures is shoddy at best..."

He understood water because he drank it, used it for bathing, cleaned clothes and utensils with it. He was well-familiar with all of the basic five, even lightning to some extent—but yin and yang weren't things he experienced in his day-to-day life.

However, he did know that— "Genjutsu is Yin Release," said Takuma.

"It is," Mikoto snapped her finger.

Takuma clenched up when he met the gaze of the red sharingan spinning in her eyes. The day outside turned into night, and the cold weather turned arctic freezing in a second. It was Mikoto's genjutsu.

"This is my imagination, controlling your imagination and reality, creating a vision that doesn't exist... None of this exists, and yet, the cold bites your body; you feel it, don't you," said Mikoto as she sat before him.

Takuma was affixed inside the genjutsu the entire time, his unique constitution unable to pull him out—a testament to Mikoto's skill and potency of her genjutsu. She could keep him there for longer if she wished. If she, a retired shinobi, could overcome his resistance in such, he couldn't help but shiver at the thought that an active jōnin who specialised in genjutsu could do to him.

"What are you waiting for?" she asked with a pointed gaze.

Takuma felt something change, and he closed his eyes before sending three pulses of chakra through his body, shattering her control over him. When he opened his eyes, the day was back, and the cold weather suddenly felt warm compared to the arctic freeze. She had weakened the genjutsu to the point where she thought he could break it. Every demonstration was a test.

He remained silent in contemplation for a moment before nodding.

"I understand, but this can't be all there is to it," said Takuma. Taking water as an example, the usage of water in Eight Tentacles and Wild Water Wave was completely different from each other.

"Of course, there's much more to it. The Uchiha clan is aligned with Yin just as we are with Fire, but we have only explored the genjutsu side of it—but the Nara clan has done something quite different with their Yin affinity," said Mikoto as she pointed at their shadows cast from the sunlight outside. "Their clan's hiden jutsu allows them to manipulate shadows. Tell me, how is a shadow formed?"

"Shadow is the absence of light. When a body obstructs light from a source, it casts a shadow," answered Takuma.

"Well put. Shadow is the absence of light— it's nothing," Mikoto smiled.

Realisation struck Takuma. "Creating form out of nothingness," he muttered.

"Correct, it's nothing, and yet it exists. Not only that, you can alter shadows by altering the light or the obstructing body... which shows it can be manipulated. The Nara clan simply created another way to manipulate shadows and even give them a corporeal form by using the properties of Yin. It's a tremendous and fascinating example of jutsu craft."

Takuma felt his clarity and confusion increase simultaneously.

"Don't lose your head over it. If you want to train the Yin nature transformation, just train your genjutsu. It's only one aspect, but it would be enough for the Shadow Clone Jutsu," Mikoto interrupted when she saw him falling into his thoughts.

Takuma nodded before asking, "What about Yang?"

"Yang controls vitality, granting life to forms that have none," Mikoto repeated his words. "People often confuse 'granting life' with the creation of something living—in actuality, it means making something that's possible into reality... Hmm, do I know a Yang Release ninjutsu? Oh, I do! Here, look at this..."

She weaved a quick set of hand seals before showing him her fingertips. The beautifully manicured fingernails suddenly grew taller, sharper, harder, and menacing until they were suited to be called claws or talons.

"This is a Yang Release ninjutsu. It uses my chakra to transform my nails into claws... I don't want to ruin something here, so just believe when I say that I could slice your flesh to the bone with these nails right now," she said as she looked for something to cut but failed to find anything disposable. "My nails are capable of growing—that's the form that already exists—what Yang does is that it highjacks the process and temporarily recreates it rapidly... These nails you see right now are real in every sense, as if I had grown them naturally."

Takuma couldn't help but be surprised. "Real? But humans can't grow nails like that."

"We can't. You are right. However, chakra is an energy potent enough to overcome natural boundaries... If chakra can help us grow our bodies beyond its natural limits, then it mustn't be surprising that it could make nails grow stronger."

"You said they are real? Do you mean your nails will remain like that?" he asked, unable to accept that her nails were real.

"Not at all." She stopped the jutsu, and after a puff of smoke from each fingertip, her nails returned to normal.

"Then it's not real," he frowned.

"It was real, now it's not," she smiled.

Takuma only found himself getting more confused.

"Who says that something real has to last?" Mikoto pointed at the empty tea cups sitting between them. "You tasted the tea when you drank it, but the taste has disappeared now. Does that mean that the taste was not real?"

"But I can drink tea once more to taste again."

"And I can use the jutsu again to grow my nails." Mikoto shook her head when she saw him getting more confused. "It's okay if you don't understand; it's confusing because it's complex, and you must learn a lot to make sense of it. Even I don't understand much of it because it's not my affinity. But I will give you an example we both are familiar with... Iryōjutsu."

"Iryōjutsu is Yang Release," Takuma nodded. Ai was an iryo-nin, so he knew some things about iryōjutsu from conversations.

"If you boil it down to the simplest terms, iryōjutsu simply boosts the body's healing to an extraordinary limit. Your body is still the one doing the healing, but it's getting help from the iryōjutsu. Of course, it's infinitely more complicated than what I said, but that's the gist of it," Mikoto lazily waved her hand.

She continued, "There's a law associated with Yang. You can't create something out of nothing. I used my chakra to boost the growth of my nails. Iryōjutsu is no different. The iryo-nin uses their chakra to take the burden of accelerated healing away from their patient's body."

Injuries that would take several months or even years to heal were recovered from within days or weeks. It was a miraculous feat that transcended human limits, many times more impressive than something like breaking human speed limit.

"It works because chakra is a potent force that supports life itself."

"So, it's like equivalent exchange?" asked Takuma.

"Hmm, perhaps it is. I am not that knowledgeable," Mikoto shrugged.

"What about the Akmichi clan's hiden jutsu, Calorie Control? Isn't that also Yang Release? I understand iryōjutsu because the body possesses the ability to heal on its own, which can be considered the 'form'— but what about the Akimchi clan's ability to grow in size and turn into giants? Where's the form in that? Humans can't do that normally."

"That's even more difficult for me to answer," Mikoto sighed. "It's a hiden jutsu. I know next to nothing about it... If I had to take a guess, then the body itself is the form. They can grow their body parts to a tremendous size, but in the end, they're still human body parts, just blown up in size... I'm sure there is complexity to it all that the Akimichi clan has painstakingly solved over generations... But I can say with confidence that it's so complicated that they can't do it with chakra along."

"What do you mean?"

"Calorie Control, as the name suggests, burns the calories in an Akimichi's body to give them their power. It's Yang's law of exchange we talked about. I could grow the nails because they're relatively simple—but think about complex organs like the heart and lungs, ones strong enough to support their giant frames—you could do it with chakra alone, but it would require god-like knowledge and skill. This is not to say that the Akimichi clan is unskillful; I just don't believe anyone in this world is that skilful. So, they put in something more. They sacrifice a part of their own body to fuel the jutsu, which comes with its health risk—they first burn the carbohydrates, then they burn the fats, and if the situation is dire, they burn the protein in their muscle... Think about it. What if they don't control which muscle would be burned first? What if it's the heart? Do you understand what I mean?"

Takuma nodded. The Akimichi's jutsu could eat away at their hearts, leaving them weak—and a weak heart would beget a whole host of health complications, death being the worst of them. Iryōjutsu wasn't all-powerful; there were risks and limitations.

"Perhaps that's why they store so much in their body," said Takuma solemnly.

Mikoto silently nodded.

"You can't learn iryōjutsu. I will suggest a simple Yang Release jutsu. Buy and practice that for Yang nature transformation training," she said.

"Thank you," Takuma bowed his head, grateful for her guidance.

———

.

A/N: So, this chapter took a long time to write because, just like Takuma, I am not entirely sure about Yin and Yang. There's a lot to consider and balance itself is extremely important because I could write myself into a situation where I give too much power to Yin and Yang.

They are no doubt powerful, but I don't want to turn them into the ultimate power, like how many fics treat fuinjutsu as something entirely superior to all other forms of jutsu. Everything has its own advantages and disadvantages.

—

Flaws are more interesting.

If you remember, during Takuma's first mission to Frost with Iruka, where many of his teammates died, there was an Aburame who survived. Iruka had to hurry because the bugs inside the Aburame were eating away at his chakra even when he was injured—they didn't stop even though he was their host. I created that risk because it made the jutsu interesting.

I did the same here with the Akimichi Calorie Control—it also has its risks. Recklessly use it too much in one go, and the jutsu will eat away at your body until you're left with husk.

I have similar risks for the Nara clan's Shadow Manipulation and the Yamanaka clan's Mind-Body Manipulation. Maybe one day, I will write a fight from their perspective to show them receiving the backlash.