Chapter 126: Reaching the limit.
In a dimly lit cave tucked away in the remote mountains, Homura could be found immersed in his intense training regimen once again.
The cave walls were adorned with flickering torches, casting eerie shadows that danced around him as he focused on honing his ninjutsu skills.
Dressed in his traditional shinobi attire, formerly green tights that he had dyed blue for some odd reason, Homura stood in the center of the cave's spacious chamber, surrounded by rugged stone formations.
The air inside was heavy with the scent of damp earth and the faint echoes of dripping water. The only sounds that resonated were the rhythmic dripping and Homura's deep, controlled breaths.
With determination etched on his face, Homura began his training routine. He swiftly moved through a series of hand seals, his fingers weaving intricate patterns near his chest area,
The seals were executed with precision and grace, reflecting his countless hours of practice.
- Futon toppa! Inhale
Homura tried to gather as much wind as he could inside of his lungs and then proceeded to exhale all of it at once.
The rope attached to some makeshift plates, with the numbers written on them a few meters away from him barely swung.
Only two out of the 20 items even moved a little.
The plate 1 and 2 moved a little.
It was an easy way to tell if there was any progress in his training regiment.
The more plates moved, meant the wider the scale and range of his attack since wind, being colorless, is hard to track.
So at least with a visual cue in front of him, Homura was able to more or less tell his own progress without having to rely on his supercomputing skill.
And since the air inside the cave was quite heavy there was no doubt about his current performance had still a long way to go.
Making Homura slightly angry at his pathetic display.
- darn it!
But instead of making a hissy fit, Homura calmed down, joined his hands together, and closed his eyes.
Concentrating and trying to gather as much chakra as he could by rotating the energies inside his body faster.
It was an annoying process but it was overall necessary, for students in particular to gather their chakra faster than the act of resting or taking a nap.
Although he should be happy to somehow be able to use two nature releases, even though it was to a very limited extent Homura was not.
He was in a hurry.
The time for celebration was long over.
Homura had lost too much time and put too much effort to find the cave he was looking for in order to conduct his training regiment.
Nonetheless, there were too many problems to count with the location itself.
One of them was the location itself.
Hidden deep within the dense woods, near the site of his old orphanage, Homura stumbled upon a secluded cave.
Its discovery had taken him almost a full month, as he had to explore and search tirelessly for a suitable training ground.
The days were slipping away rapidly, and he only had a few left before he had to return to the academy.
With only a few days remaining before he had to return to the academy, frustration welled up within Homura.
He wanted more time so that he could fully dedicate himself to this specific training, the academy had a series of pointless classes and other matters that Homura considered overall useless.
Not only that but each year was different from the last, he could only imagine what this year had in store ahead for him.
The distance between the cave and the academy would prevent him from training there every day.
He had to carefully select the days that offered him the best opportunity for focused practice.
This limitation, coupled with his new responsibilities, left him with little time for his ninjutsu training.
Adding to his busy schedule was a new job he had taken under Shinji, a skilled craftsman and shop owner; though extremely lazy and careless with everything else.
It was no wonder no one ever became his apprentice, and Homura was not even a full-time apprentice of Shinji's but more as freelance help.
Shinji's store was an unconventional workplace.
Though the work did not come with monetary compensation, Homura found value in the knowledge Shinji imparted and the discarded mechanical and technological parts he received.
The collection of items Homura found himself having a hand on was massive, he could borrow them and try his luck in developing new things.
While it was a valuable opportunity to learn, the job demanded more than just assisting in the store.
Homura had become a delivery boy and cleaning personnel, only earning a wage when he assisted in making plushies.
Initially, the venture proved profitable, with the demand for plushies skyrocketing during the first week.
But as the craze subsided, the income stabilized, often matching or slightly surpassing his previous odd jobs.
The necessity for those odd jobs ceased, and Homura bid them farewell, having achieved his goal of acquiring various types of knowledge.
He had copied enough techniques and absorbed the knowledge from enough carpenters and cooks to never truly become homeless or hungry.
It was time to step into some other fields, it took more or less 2 years but it was enough, now he needed more engineering.
And Shinji was the closest thing to an engineer he had in this world.
Because puppets in this world were not simply puppets, they were some sort of primitive form of technology, ones seen in the distant past of Homura's former world, but also carried in them technologies beyond anything he had seen.
It was a form of 2 different forms of science being combined together.
Although, Shinji's puppets were not made for fighting but recreating highly detailed movement recreations.
Shinji not being a shinobi seemed to make some as body doubles or mannequins for training, it was vastly different from Sunagakure and seemed closer to a dying art form rather than weapons designs for war.
Sadly, not exactly what Homura was looking for but the fundamentals were still there, and Shinji was used to repairing other machines which allowed Homura to carefully watch as he helped the man.
It was overall a lot of work, as of now it started at noon, till 8 or 9 pm.
Homura would then leave for his base and continue his other training.
With the upcoming academy term and his commitment to Shinji, his time would be fully occupied.
2 weeks ago marked the conclusion of his last fulfilled requests, and everything seemed to be falling into place.
However, the progress in ninjutsu training troubled him.
While he had managed to use fire release, creating flames after almost a month of practice, the wind-style ninjutsu he currently pursued presented a different challenge.
It took him ten days to produce air that did not simply come from his exhaled breath.
This realization confirmed Homura's inclination towards wind-style ninjutsu over fire-style, leading him to temporarily abandon the latter.
Familiarizing himself with wind-style techniques became his priority, as alternating between both styles would be burdensome and require additional effort.
With determination burning within him, Homura knew that he had to make the most of the limited time he had left before the academy beckoned him back.
Some kind of breakthrough.
However, as always it was far from being that simple.
Although Homura had an affinity for wind release it wasn't a normal type of affinity the same as most ninjas had.
He had a similar affinity for lightning release after all.
It could be explained that his true affinity was exactly wind or lightning but swift release.
His chakra was predisposed to be molded to have that aspect naturally be formed.
In the same situation as users of kekkei genkais are naturally predisposed to use certain types of chakra that allow them to use those abilities either by instinct or by awakening them.
Once it is awakened it is difficult to not remember the feeling.
Though it depends on the kekkei genkais since it heavily depends on which kind of kekkei genkai the user has.
Fortunately, there are 3 main types of categorizations of kekkei genkai that all those strange abilities fall under.
The rarest and least found is the doujutsu or simply put eye techniques.
The doujutsu, are techniques or rather special abilities usually passed down in a clan or in a group of individuals down their bloodlines, though in extremely rare cases a person can be born with them without having the need of being part of a special bloodline or anything to do with specific ancestor or group of ancestors.
It seems that mutations of such a magnitude, although rare, can make changes in a random person that can make their eyes evolve and be categorized as one; the same as the other type of kekkei genkais.
Most doujutsus are different but they do in the end, have all more or less something to do with the owner's vision, they enhance it in some type of way or allow for something completely different that has nothing to do with the owner's visual prowess.
The second type of kekkei genkai are body modification kekkei genkai. When some unnatural change occurs in the state of one's body that is ingrained in their DNA, allowing for all sorts of body alterations to different effects.
Although all shinobi are capable of more or less altering their body and mass, via a technique such as the transformation technique and similar techniques that alter one's body mass and composition; the difference that body-related kekkei provide are usually far superior.
This is due because they are hardwired to the body of their users, sometimes it may even be activated since birth, giving the user an ability that is innate and natural to their body structure.
Which may allow them to have a vast array of abilities no ninja can easily take or duplicate since they are hardwired to the genome of the individual, unlike a doujutsu that can simply be transplanted to another's eye socket.
Those born with this type of kekkei genkai can have access to abilities that differ from simple body alteration but also process certain types of energy better or increase or alter certain components in their body at will or it is part of their natural body function.
The last one and more common form of kekkei genkais, is the nature transformation kekkei genkai.
Those types of kekkei genkai just like the others are heavily tied to one's genetic makeup, although it is also tied to their chakra as well.
Although most people have an affinity to a special chakra nature in general, it is often or at least particularly difficult for a shinobi to mix 2 nature affinities together.
Members of a certain clan, family, or even an entire country may be predisposed to be able to mix together the two most prevalent types of kekkei genkai in that area of the world or, individuals are born randomly with the ability to mix two separate nature together without much fuss.
Though it is rare, for members of a certain family or clan to be born with the disposition of a specific nature release kekkei genkai.
As of now, most are clueless as to the specific reason why nature-release kekkei genkais are so spread out throughout so many countries all over the world.
However, given that one's nature affinity can depend on genetics as well as the individual themselves, any attempts at trying to find the correct reason would ultimately be hard to understand.
Why are certain individuals simply born with the genetic markers that allow for such an odd phenomenon to happen?
It is hard to say.
From available materials Homura had in his memories, it was pretty much up in the air.
Since nature releases kekkei genkai are so heavily tied up to the inner workings of chakra as a whole, and tail beasts with nature kekkei genkai grant the same power to their jinchurikis; it ultimately came down to one's own abilities granted to them by their body and overall chakra they were born with.
Now which came first was anyone's guess.
The two concepts were unequivocally linked.
- Futon toppa!
Homura exhaled with much more strength than before after performing a series of seals together.
However, the results were the same as before.
Even though Homura tried to exert himself much more than the last time he performed the technique.
*Ding*
Suddenly Homura's head was buzzing…
- *huff* *huff*…What is it C?
Said Homura with an eye closed as he tried to remain standing.
- ….That's *huff*(That's new, you never informed me of this before…)
Homura was unable to even talk as he had literally reached his limits, over the last month he had exerted himself much more than ever before.
He had even begun sleeping only 4 to 5 hours a day.
The stress caused by it all seemed to have caught up with him, and his body finally was unable to keep himself standing and he finally collapsed.
Even before he had time to hear C's answer.
-(...I see.)
Even though C's voice resonated inside his mind, Homura was unable to fully hear everything, as his consciousness was drifting in between being fully awake and being asleep.
However certain keywords started to resonate with Homura as he was processing what he had heard from C's voice.
-(…Energy…cells…decreased…)
Homura's thoughts began to wonder as he fell asleep but his consciousness began to experience several memories.
About everything he had learned for the last few years, there was so much to remember but everything was both simple and convoluted at the same time.
Chakra was a mixture of physical and mental energies.
This incredible power was less literal than one might believe.
But it was technically born from yin-yang release, the ability to give physical shape to one's imagination.
Sadly, it was far easier said than done.
The reason as to why ninjutsu and hand seals even existed was because humans and most other sentient creatures were unable to use that raw power to create anything they wished for, the process of bringing imagination to corporal form was only a power fit for gods.
It is unlikely humans could ever match especially due to how much power was needed to even visualize something of the magnitude creating something out of 2 dubious power sources that humans cannot readily see or understand.
Even with the sharingan Homura was unable to understand exactly as to what the energy called chakra truly was, his vision simply became red, and see fluctuations of energy that he could instinctively replicate or sometimes not.
That's mostly how he managed to learn the transformation jutsu or keep up with his classmates in performing those types of jutsus.
Otherwise, he would be nowhere near close to the top, in his class.
However, no matter how well he copied other's versions of the jutsu it didn't mean that he was able to pull a perfect transformation of his desired target, the same as the person he copied it from.
It could be explained as his sharingan not being fully evolved, thus not allowing for the perfect replication of ninjutsu he tried to copy, although there was some truth to that statement.
However, this particular problem was in part created by Homura in two subtle ways.
One was due to Homura kept altering his body's functions as he kept injecting himself with the DNA of others, making it harder to mold his chakra together since molding the chakra of two different people requires a lot of training, something he isn't even aware that he had to do.
Since although physical energy is a type of energy that exists in the body, it is not a monolith. Each cell individually produces a certain amount of physical energy, when cells that aren't originally his are added to the mix, his physical energy became hard to mix with Homura's men
Forcing him to try to use more chakra than he normally needs in order to achieve similar results to other children in his class.
The problem is that as a child and his chakra reserves not being particularly exceptionally larger than most of his classmates, Homura has to put much more effort into trying to catch up to the others.
Leaving him with less chakra to use for training.
And unfortunately for Homura, another problem that ended up hindering his growth was due to his specific mindset that started to unconsciously develop as he began using the sharingan more and more.
A mindset that made him believe that any problem could be solved by himself one way or another.
He either could steal another's innate abilities either by taking their DNA or copying their skills with the sharingan, he used it to more easily copy Sasuke's, Hinata's, and any other student's moves that showed as much of an inkling of potential or were able to surprise him.
This mentality of using others' innate talent to build himself up may have been the smartest to achieve results quickly as he had been able to.
However, it had left a part of himself that never truly pushed himself further or believed in his own capabilities.
Because deep underneath it all Homura did consider himself a failure.
Never good enough to accomplish anything of value, that's why he tried so hard to project an image of superiority or tried to know as much as possible.
Whether those were aspects of his, from his previous incarnation or growing up as an orphan in this world which made him try to distinguish himself harder was unclear, even if Homura himself were to acknowledge them fully.
But such a heavy weight imposed on himself did come with many side effects that he himself wasn't fully aware of the impact it had on his psyche and further limited his personal growth.
A person's chakra did not only grow stronger due to one's body getting stronger with arduous training, it certainly was an important aspect of it, but one's strength of mind also increased and allow one
Knowing failure and hardship was not enough; it was just as important to accept reality or fight with all one had available to move past it, as it was to try and learn as much as possible to expand one's willpower and knowledge.
That is why some ninjas could perform so much better than they were normally capable of by using a burst of emotions to empower them through difficult situations or to perform better under pressure.
It wasn't exactly a common situation for ninjas to find themselves in a lot, the more experienced a ninja is the more composed they are in any kind of situation, but examples of such a thing happening had been seen throughout the entire show.
Such as a boy deemed a failure by everyone around him that could never perform a single clone technique was able to create 1000 clones when finally someone said that they believe in him.
A prodigy who had lost everything and was fueled for years by desires of hatred and revenge was nonetheless able to shed tears of blood after learning that the person he happened to hate throughout most of his life; turned out to have sacrificed everything in his life and become an irredeemable sinner all so that his little brother whom he loved more than anything in the world, could grow up safely.
Or in Homura's case, a young orphan that never truly believed that he would one day awaken the power that made the clan he shared half of his DNA with so feared because he never truly believed that he could one day hate or love someone enough in order to awaken that special power.
The turmoil inside his heart and mind were so immense that the impossible happened, at a younger age than most. He even avoided passing out due to chakra exhaustion and used more chakra from his reserves than he thought possible.
One's imagination and mental fortitude were integral for jutsu and one's chakra to become more potent since the stronger one's chakra is and the more likely one is able to perform very complex jutsus or make them much stronger than the same ninjutsu performed by an inexperienced ninja or a ninja with a lower chakra pool and quality.
It was a part of the current problem he was facing that Homura ignored.
- …Kuh! …My head…
As Homura slowly regained consciousness, he found himself enveloped in darkness, the air thick and musty.
His eyelids felt heavy as he blinked, attempting to adjust his vision to the dim light filtering through the cave's entrance. A throbbing pain pulsed through his skull, intensifying with each beat of his heart.
A disoriented groan escaped his parched lips as he gingerly propped himself up from the cold, rocky floor.
The memories began to flood back to him, the relentless battle that had drained him of both chakra and sleep. The weight of his exhaustion bore down upon him like a leaden cloak, pressing him deeper into the cavernous confines.
With a wince, Homura massaged his temples, attempting to alleviate the piercing headache that seemed to radiate from within.
-…I remember now I fell asleep.
Homura looked around him once more and happened to look at the time on the clock and realized that he was going to be late.
Which made him internally groan.
His mind felt foggy, his thoughts fragmented, as if the fatigue had woven a tangled web through his every synapse.
As he struggled to regain his footing, his body protested with aches and tremors. The remnants of chakra depletion left him weak and vulnerable. Each movement was a battle against his own weary limbs, as if he were wading through thick mud.
It was the first time he felt this way.
He had felt tired from physical training before, but never had he felt this tired.
It seemed that chakra depletion was certainly no joke he felt truly drained of energy to a level he never thought was possible.
In the dim illumination of the cave, Homura's gaze fell upon the remnants of his training: scattered tools, fragments of expended scrolls, and a tattered cloak that bore witness to the intensity of his struggles.
The weight of the responsibility he bore settled upon him once again, mingling with the throbbing pain in his head.
Taking a deep breath, Homura mustered his resolve, refusing to succumb to the physical and mental fatigue that threatened to consume him. With slow, deliberate steps, he began to make his way out of the cave, guided by a glimmer of daylight that offered a flicker of hope amidst the darkness.
-(C, before I fell asleep…did you say something about energy inside my cells decreasing?)
Homura told C in his mind as he tried to piece together his thoughts and steadily tread his way out of the treacherous path leading outside of the cave.
-
-(…I see… but you cannot sense chakra, right?)
-
Hearing C's statement made Homura left eyebrow twitch slightly, at the statement he had just heard.
He believed that C was somehow connected with him in a sort of astral plane, but the statement made it clear that he might have understood things slightly wrong.
-(Does that mean, that you can sense my chakra network?)
Homura asked to know
-
-(I get it…)
Homura couldn't help but feel strange about such a realization and slightly stupid as well.
He himself didn't understand how that was exactly possible.
What exactly was that skill?
All the other wishes he was granted prior to reincarnation were ultimately just abilities granted to him by the genetics that resided within the body he was born with.
However, that skill did not fit in any of the categories.
Much less the laws that governed this world, at least for all he knew.
It only awoke when he was a certain age due to him having enough energy to awaken it. Did that mean chakra or was it because his mind was able to start forming an identity for himself, was that also some form of energy; or did he interpret it the wrong way.
Whatever the case, asking C anymore proved to be useless.
C was not exactly an all knowing system, nor did it understand specificities. It needed Homura's help for most things.
So all Homura knew now was walk.
Though the headache persisted, Homura's determination burned brightly within him. He knew that rest and recuperation awaited him, along with the lessons learned from pushing himself to the brink. As he emerged into the outside world, he vowed to come back stronger, using this experience as fuel to forge a path toward his ultimate goals.
-C, can you locate the direction from where the blood I left inside the case is?
-
Homura at hearing C's answer to his question, let out a devious smile, making his expression appear slightly somewhat sinister; as he looked at the arrow being projected inside his mind towards the cave he just exited.
-…Good. I can use that.
Chapter end