Chapter 19: The Trial of Transformation

Ryūsei sat cross-legged in the secluded training ground, his mind swirling with the sheer depth of what he was trying to accomplish. Moonlight bathed the clearing in a silver glow, shadows stretching and shifting like living things. He was on the precipice of something great, but the path forward was unclear.

The Yamato no Orochi technique was a foundation, but an incomplete one. It was originally designed as a means of survival, an obsession-driven transformation. But obsession was a weakness, a flaw that tethered it to desperation rather than evolution. Ryūsei sought something more—a technique that would not only ensure survival but elevate him to the being he was meant to be.

He took a slow breath, forming unfamiliar hand seals, ones reconstructed from the remnants of the Yamato no Orochi but altered for his purpose. Chakra pulsed through his body, shifting, changing. He felt his form begin to flicker, his essence unraveling into something more fluid, more formless.

But something was wrong.

A sharp, burning sensation spread through his body. His chakra trembled, becoming unstable. His vision blurred, his thoughts fragmented into countless pieces, each slipping away like grains of sand. His body was dissolving—no, dispersing. The technique was breaking him apart.

Then, a voice cut through the chaos.

"Ryūsei!"

Mito's chakra surged, steady and unwavering, crashing into his storm of instability like an anchor. He seized onto it, forcing his chakra to obey, to return to its natural form. Slowly, the flickering ceased, his body solidified, and he collapsed forward, gasping for breath.

Mito knelt beside him, her eyes sharp with concern. "What were you trying to do?"

He took a shaky breath before answering. "I tried to refine the Yamato no Orochi, to make it something more than just a survival technique. I was attempting to transform into pure information, to store myself within my chakra and restructure myself at will… but it wasn't stable. My chakra couldn't hold my existence together."

Mito's gaze softened, though her tone remained firm. "Because you're missing the foundation."

Ryūsei frowned. "The foundation?"

Mito exhaled, her expression thoughtful. "You're trying to turn yourself into pure information, but information alone can't hold form. The Ōtsutsuki use the Karma seal as a vessel to store and reconstruct themselves, but you don't have Karma. You need something else to serve that purpose—something entirely your own."

She placed a hand over her heart. "The answer is chakra. You need to create a chakra seed—a core that belongs to you alone, one that can contain and restructure the information that makes up your very being."

Ryūsei's breath caught. A chakra seed.

The concept made sense. Right now, his existence was still bound to his body, to the form he was born with. But if he could create a core within himself—one that recorded every part of his being in pure chakra—then even if his body was destroyed, he could reconstruct himself. Not by parasitizing another like the Karma mark, but by using his own chakra as the foundation of his existence.

"But how do I create a chakra seed?" he asked, his mind already racing with possibilities.

Mito smiled knowingly. "The answer lies in chakra nature transformation. You've already started refining your understanding of information, but that's only one piece of the puzzle. If you want to create something truly stable, you need to master all seven chakra nature changes—not just use them, but transform them into pure information. By merging the nature transformations as information and refining them into a singular form, you will forge your own chakra seed—one that is uniquely yours."

Ryūsei's heart pounded. This was it.

Mastering all seven chakra nature transformations was no simple task, but if he succeeded…

He wouldn't just be modifying the Yamato no Orochi technique.

He would be creating a new foundation entirely—one that would allow him to fully step into what he was meant to be. A being that didn't just wield bloodlines but could analyze, integrate, and perfect them through chakra-based information processing.

This was the first step toward truly becoming an Ōtsutsuki.

He met Mito's gaze, determination burning in his golden Byakugan. "Then that's what I'll do. I'll master all seven chakra natures, transform them into information, and forge my own chakra seed."

Mito gave him a proud smile. "Then your true path begins now."

Ryūsei clenched his fists, feeling the weight of this revelation settle within him. His journey had only just begun, but he had found his direction.

He would no longer just refine existing techniques.

He would create his own.

And when he succeeded, he would stand at the pinnacle of chakra itself.