A hold on life

Naruto: Tales of Ashihara

Kakumei – Arc 3: Naruto Next Generation

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Chapter 79 – A hold on life

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The first round of the third part of the International Chunin Selection Exam is close to its end. Following Kawaki's match, the two next days went on really fast with no issue so far.

On the third day, Teru Uchiha with his Sharingan defeated Yome Horikawa, the Suna-nin who sat next to Yukai in the first part. She uses a Dojutsu unique to her family called the Tomegan, which allows her to zoom in and out in her field of view. This unique power, however, could not rival the famed red eye of the Uchiha clan.

After that, Namonaki used a brand new chakra sealing jutsu for the first time against Kaori, the Bakuton user of Kiri. Despite having succeeded in sealing away two of her blasts, he was no match for the genetic clone of Bakuton no Gari.

Then, Kaori's teammate Yukiko fought and eliminated Hibitsuna Katagiri, a kunoichi from Amegakure. After she efficiently stood up and showed a remarkable resistance to Yukiko's Shakuton for a fairly long battle, the Ame-nin eventually forfeited.

Fourth and last battle of this day is Mira Fuhatsu, teammate of Shinki, against Tarui, student of Minaa Nii. Both used Hair based Ninjutsu to control their long blond hair. Even though Tarui proved herself superior in the use of these jutsus, it is still Mira who won thanks to her Taiton Kekkei Genkai and advanced hearing.

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The next day, another student of Minaa, Yurui, used his Kekkei Genkai ability, which is the rubber variant of Yoton, to win against Abachi Shintaro, one of the two twins of Iwa. Right after this, the two other members of Abachi's squad won their fights.

Kaza Kamizuru, as one of the last traditional members of her clan, used bees and honey-based jutsus to take down Ru, 3rd member of Aoki and Yukai's squad. And Genki Shintaro, twin brother of Abachi, defeated Haruna Wazuka, a young girl of Amegakure.

Right now, Rebekka Tabiki is face to face with Toroi, last student of Minaa from Kumo. The audience, which got more and more empty as the matches went, now only has Minaa, Yurui, Tarui, and Yukai, who came to all their fellow Kumo-nin's battles, to support Toroi. On the Kage's balcony, only the Raikage and Hokage are left. Rebekka, who came to see every single match, has no one to support her. No friends, no family. Only her sensei, Anko Mitarashi, is here.

Rebekka acts unbothered, and hides her disappointment. She's still glad that her sensei showed up, but she'd have liked other people to be here. Kiba Inuzuka doesn't wait any longer to let the two fighters begin.

No one could say if it was out of actual despise for over-sized people, but Rebekka kept the whole fight joking about her opponent's weight and size before sending him to the ground. Using only Katon and Taijutsu, she made it clear to Toroi that his electricity and shuriken won't make a difference.

Once done, sitting on the belly of her defeated opponent, she looks up and only now notices Boruto Hyuga who joined the audience to see her, but not alone. Inoue Yamanaka is here too, and Izuna followed her. But most noticeably, Boruto managed to bring Hanaka, the woman who was their teacher at the academy and who had Rebekka as a student for 9 years.

The purple haired young woman looks up to see her former teacher proudly looking at the one she once thought was hopeless, and gladly smiles. Boruto, out of self-satisfaction for getting Hanaka to come, crosses his arms and smiles at his sissie. Inoue, excited out of empathy, grabs Izuna's arm and shakes.

Rebekka happily comes closer and jumps up to lean on the railing in front of the audience, to greet the spectators. Not speaking her feelings, as usual, she breaks the ice with a joke.

"Hope next battles will be more challenging." she says, which grates on the nerves of Yurui and Tarui.

Minaa, however, stays calm and lightly laughs. Hanaka goes down to speak to her former student with Boruto.

"You sure came a long way didn't you…" she says. "You're far from the girl who put me naked on the desk."

"What?" says Izuna, who just reaches them to join Boruto's side with Inoue.

"Right, I did that a while ago…" Rebekka says, scratching the back of her head.

"I remember that, don't you Izuna?" Boruto comments. "When we were in our first year, Rebekka had failed twice already. One day, she used Henge no jutsu to turn into Hanaka-sensei, but clothes off, and laid down on her desk."

"I have no memory of that." Inoue and Izuna speak together.

"Well, maybe your brain just deleted this memory out of trauma, who knows?" Boruto adds, to mock them.

"Traumatized by Sensei's bare ass." Rebekka kids, before getting hit on the head by Hanaka, as a punishment. "Sorry…" she adds after preventing herself from falling off the railing. "… That thing was the first time you and the Hokage got serious on me… First time I felt like I had parental figures."

"Don't say things like that!" Hanaka exclaims, cringed by the thought of the Hokage and her raising a child together.

Naruto looks at the scene from the Kage balcony, and is suddenly hit by a pleasant feeling of nostalgia. He wasn't Hokage back then but was already acting as such to his fellow villagers. He makes eye contact with Anko who stands aside, and shares a thought. Just like Anko identified herself in Naruto when she first saw him, she and the Hokage now feel similar to Rebekka. Embarrassed by the memories of himself using Oiroke no Jutsu the same way Rebekka did, Naruto sighs.

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And so ended the first round of the Chunin Exam Tournament. A week later, the remaining participants will fight in the same order. First day, Izuna will go against Yukai, Boruto against Iwabe, Inoue against Aoki and Kawaki against Shinki. Second day will oppose Teru to Kaori, Yukiko to Mira, Yurui to Kaza, and Genki to Rebekka.

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A day before the beginning of this second round, in Shin no Kuni, the lands of Heart, on the devastated east side of this continent, Oshio Uchiha roams alone. The young sovereign walks around, trying to get his worries off his mind. As the leader of Hikari, he inevitably has to finally meet the Kage council tomorrow at the tournament.

Brought to the duty of handling the relations of his territory, he first feels the pressure of being so influential yet so young. Since Lady Toshima, head of the Tomoe clan and Ketsugakure, refused to help him, he's all alone with the responsibility of bringing his plans and ambitions to the ears of the Kage. These ninja leaders are not his enemies, at least not for now, but he doubts that the vision of change of Kakumei will go well with them.

Oshio stops wandering around and lies back on the ground on the dirty soil. He looks up to see the night sky and thinks of something else. As he closes his eyes, his mind brings him years back to before Kakumei, before he was even brought to this land. He sees himself, 10 years old then, running on the beach, hurrying home, with no problems to worry him, just the free mind of a child.

"Mom! Mom!" he shouted as he ran to his home where he found a motherly figure lovingly cooking in the kitchen.

Oshio now hears this woman speaking, remembering what she said that day.

"It's almost night time. Don't stay out this late next time, honey." she said in a caring voice. "What are you so excited about, tell me?"

"I just saw men flying in the sky." Oshio answered.

At this moment, he frowns and trembles, still back on the mud, as he knows what happened after that. Trying to change his train of thought again, he focuses to get these memories off his mind, but it's no use. He still recalls the screams, the chaos, the dust in the air, and the blood on his hands. In the middle of this, a pale closed hand reached for him and opened, revealing an orange eye in its palm. He hears a haunting voice interrupt the rowdiness and speak to him.

"Take my present, Uchiha child, and sell your soul to me." it says. The voice of Momoshiki Otsutsuki.

Oshio blenches and abruptly sits up. Hardly breathing, terrified by these images from the past, he stands up, looks around and sees the devastated land. He starts feeling sick, as if he could still sense the presence of Momoshiki in this place. As he struggles to redirect his thoughts toward something else, he circles and gets back to his responsibilities and imminent meeting with the 7th Hokage.

Feeling trapped, crushed between the obligations of the present and the trauma of the past, Oshio abandons himself to his most intrusive thoughts for a brief moment. Leaving the power of his left eye out, he lifts the pieces of the shattered ground up from under the mud around him and, with no hesitation, widely opens his Rinnegan.

Bansho Ten'in

All the stones and debris are pulled toward him at incredible speed, swiftly enough to completely erase anything on their way. Leaving his reason aside, Oshio lets himself go as the pieces come to collide and crash together with him in the middle… But, unknowingly, uncontrollably, he stops it. All the debris promptly immobilize themselves just a few centimeters away from him. Coming back to his senses, he looks around as everything falls to the ground, having survived.

"I can't do it…" he says to himself. "Something is preventing it… A hold on my life I can't control…"

His solitude is interrupted by Kawaki's voice in his mind who speaks through the white bar that he's sealed in his tattoo.

"Oshio, we're already running late." says the young man. "We have to be at Konoha's gates in 10 hours."

The young Uchiha eases himself, calmly breathes and focuses to hide his emotions away.

"I'm on my way." he simply says, acting as if nothing was wrong.

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The next day, The Kage, ninjas and civilians from all around the nations come together in Konohagakure, to the arena where the battles of the tournament will take place. Families of the participants, important figures of the countries, and other people all take place in the audience. All around the fighting ground, above the audience, 10 special balconies of which 7 are occupied by the leaders of the participating nations with the rest of the jury of their villages.

Naruto, on his balcony with Shikamaru, Moegi and Kakashi, looks to the other Kages and then to the leader of Amegakure. He sees Buto Isshin sitting with a muscular young woman standing behind him. She has short light brown hair, still long enough to hide half of her face. He then looks at the balcony of the Hikari leader and, to his pleasant surprise, sees him.

A young man with black eyes, a mask covering his lower face, and a hood over his head, wearing an outfit somehow very similar to what Momoshiki was wearing. Judging by his silhouette, Naruto can indeed see that this man seems very young. Maybe just a bit older than his son Boruto. Behind this young man stands Kawaki who seems to have a rather important place in their society, despite still not having the rank of Chunin.

"So it's him." says Kakashi, also looking toward the balcony of Hikari's leader. "The boy from your premonition and his mysterious ruler."

"He's hiding his face." Shikamaru remarks. "It doesn't really inspire trust… Is there anything you can sense or see that we can't, Naruto?"

"Calm down. I'll go to speak with him from ruler to ruler later." confidently says Naruto, already noticing something special in just the little feeling he gets from Oshio's masked chakra.

The leader of Hikari is using a Genjutsu to disguise himself, but knows very well that this trickery won't work on a being such as the Hokage. Just by getting close enough, Naruto Uzumaki will easily figure out his real appearance as well as his true abilities. He intends to honestly reveal himself later, as he won't have a choice, but peacefully.

"Are you good?" asks Kawaki to Oshio, worried about this situation.

"Yes…" simply says the sovereign before quickly bringing up a different topic as he looks to Shinki who stands in the audience. "This one is who you'll fight against…"

Staring at him, he uses his right eye's unique ability, Futsunushi, to read all his abilities.

"He uses Jiton to control this iron cloak he wears, but it can also manipulate sand or metal weapons if he infuses his chakra inside. He is also skilled in Kugutsu and can use puppets to apply seals on targets. A calm and confident individual, who is however betrayed by his poor Taijutsu skills and his chakra reserve that is only slightly above average. He seems to be the weakest of all this generation's so-called prodigies. Actually, not even all of those young heroes are on par with any of Kakumei's members."

"… I wasn't worried about him…" Kawaki answers, feeling like Oshio just spoiled his match for him. "Even the Hokage's son, Boruto Hyuga, or your brother, don't really intrigue me. If one got my attention… It's Yukai."

"That Kumo-nin?" Oshio asks, surprised by this remark.

"I know someone with the same name…" Kawaki replies. "And it might actually be him…"

Oshio looks around to find the ninja in question in the crowd, but doesn't, since he's currently waiting to get in the arena. Instead, the Uchiha sees Boruto Hyuga leaving the stands to go and prepare for his coming match that will be the second of the day. He uses his eye power again on him and quietly analyzes his quite special chakra.

"Hm… The Hokage's son is very special. But he seems not to be aware of it." he says.

Kawaki squints his eyes, intrigued by this remark and by Oshio's remarkable ability. He raises his hand and points at the Hokage's balcony.

"What about him?" he asks. "Can you use Futsunushi to read his chakra paths?"

"He is different." Oshio says, while doing as Kawaki asked. "I couldn't even list all those powers. And I can't easily understand this chakra. Besides, it hurts my head just to see it."

Kawaki keeps looking at the Hokage, even more intrigued by him now that he knows his presence affects Oshio the same way as it affects him. It probably is so for anyone who isn't used to him. Oshio looks down to the arena where the referee just stepped in, as the first match, between Izuna and Yukai, will soon begin.

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On his way to the fighting ground, Izuna Uchiha slowly approaches the light at the end of the corridor and finds someone who came to speak with him before the battle begins. There, he sees Takeshi Minamoto, whom he had not seen since his mission in the land of Waves.

"Hello friend." says the Kiri-nin. "How do you feel about this?"

"Takeshi?" asks the Uchiha, pleasantly surprised by his presence. "What are you doing here?"

"I'm off duty." answers the Minamoto. "I came with Kokoro-sensei to see Kaori and Yukiko's fights, but I thought I might as well say hi to you."

"Ok… Just make sure you don't cross paths with Boruto."

"You didn't answer my question. How do you feel about this?"

"Good I guess. I'm not sure of winning, but I'm sure that I'll prove myself. I heard this guy uses Koton."

"Yeah, Yukiko told me. I better see this guy in action, just to make sure he won't be better than me at it."

"I thought your tengu wouldn't let you use it."

"He won't. I'm talking about the future."

Izuna just lightly smiles and steps forward to give a fist bump to Takeshi, not having much time to go on with this conversation. He leaves and steps in the arena. Just two seconds later, Takeshi is sitting next to Kokoro in the audience. Rebekka is sitting with Boruto's mom and sister just under Naruto's balcony. Inoue is sitting with her family next to Sakura and Sarada. She stands up and gets to the railing when Izuna walks in.

As she simply looks at him passionately, she's startled by her sensei's voice just next to her ear.

"It's taking a while, isn't it?" says a clone of Naruto.

"Sensei, don't sneak on me like that!" she says. "What do you mean?"

"You love him, don't you?"

"Don't say it out loud!" she whispers.

"Why not? What's the point of loving him if you keep it a secret forever?" Naruto tells. "I told you already. The best way for you two to feel good about your feelings is to speak them out to each other?"

"Us two? Our feelings? What do you mean?" she says, confused, not aware that Naruto already knows of the reciprocity of her love for Izuna.

"Today is a great day for the two of you. Both of you don't care about winning or losing. Both of you know that you'll make a great performance at least. BUT… Both of you are confused and bothered by your heart conflicts. Only one way to get rid of those."

"But… What if he rejects me?"

"Do you think he will?"

"I don't know…"

"In that case. I have a little advice. If you're not sure and are afraid, ask him who he thinks his best friend is."

"Why would I do that?"

"Think of it. You two are way too complicit and close to each other for him to not think of you first. So if he doesn't say you're his best friend, it means he sees you as more than this. And what's a girl you want as more than a best friend?"

To this suggestion, Inoue doesn't answer. She stays quiet and thinks of how clever it actually sounds. She didn't expect the Hokage to actually give valuable love advice.

"Don't make the same mistake as my wife or Izuna's dad." Naruto insists. "It took them nearly ten years to finally express themselves. In the end, it really felt like wasted time. The longer you wait, the harder it will get. Don't you think it's time to get these worries off your mind?"

Inoue looks at her mother and Sakura sitting behind the Hokage, then back at her sensei, and finally at Izuna in the arena who also gazes at her but quickly looks away to avoid eye contact. She sees him slowly turning red, and makes her decision.

"You're right, Hokage-sensei." she says, using Izuna's vocabulary. "Once we're both done with our fights. I'll shoot my shot. Better now than never. I'm sure he'll be thankful for it."

Naruto just smiles and dismisses his clone to leave Inoue alone just when her younger brother Inojin comes to pull on her dress, to call her back to the seats.

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On the ground, Yukai arrives and places himself in front of Izuna. Both now wait for the signal of Wakasa Lee, referee of this day.

"Good game." Yukai says before it begins.

"Hajime!" Wakasa shouts before leaping away to let the battle start.

Yukai dashes forward and immediately engages in a Taijutsu combat. Izuna trained these skills with Sakura who spent the first 10 years following the war studying martial arts to support her physical strength. Having been well taught, he easily keeps up to the Kumo-nin's violent and swift style.

They both move nimbly and smoothly as the Uchiha only blocks the hits of an opponent who won't let him time to counter attack. Fortunately, he blocks one of Yukai's kicks with his forearm, rapidly pulls him closer and delivers one first strong hit to his shoulder, already sending the blond boy fluttering away and crashing on the ground. This ninja from Kumo sure is fast, but seems to be very bad at anticipating the enemy's moves.

Quickly after landing, Yukai hurries to stand up just slightly hurt, which surprises Naruto. Yukai is just naturally very tough. He has liveliness on par with the Uzumaki clan, and a muscle durability similar to that of the Raikages. A punch like this one could have sent most people their age to the ground, but it isn't that much to Yukai, though it still hurt him.

Up and ready to get back at it, Yukai decides to get an advantage to compensate for his apparent inferiority in strength. He concentrates Koton in his body and surrounds himself with a light blue aura before jumping back in action. This time, Izuna gets hit many times but stays aware. His opponent has increased his speed enough for him to be unable to follow him.

Feeling overwhelmed, and knowing of the stakes of this fight, the Uchiha stops holding back. He activates his Dojutsu and now easily counters the offensive of Yukai. The Kumo-nin, aware of this boy's last name, takes a while but understands that he is using his Sharingan. Remembering the eyes' power from his encounter with Teru, he avoids eye contact and jumps back.

In the audience, Kaori and Yukiko look at Takeshi and wait to hear his reaction to seeing another ninja use a jutsu that he still can't access. The Minamoto stays indifferent.

"This is far from being on par with what Tentoki's Shunshin can do." he comments. "It doesn't even get him to surpass my current speed."

"You could at least admit he's pretty close." says Kokoro, sensei of the team.

"Yeah. And his thing is blue." Kaori says. "I'm sure you told us it was white."

"Well… It's not exactly the same." Takeshi answers. "But I hope he got more tricks up his pocket than just that. If I were to use Koton, even a Sharingan wouldn't see me move."

On the battle ground, Yukai looks to Izuna and performs a quick series of hand signs that the Sharingan user reproduces in sync before realizing that he won't be able to mimic this jutsu.

"I'm not gonna let these eyes trick me again" he says before blowing chakra out of his mouth.

Koton – Kobaku

He expels a light orb that he sends flying toward Izuna, unable to copy a Kekkei Genkai. Still, the Uchiha leaps away from the ball's trajectory and leaves it to fly away in his back. But he didn't plan the real use of this orb. Yukai does the dragon hand seal and detonates the orb that explodes in a flash of light, sending ray beams in almost all directions in a range of 10 meters around it.

Not able to dodge these light speed projectiles, Izuna gets hit by half a dozen of them that pass through his body like radioactive light rays that kiln his skin and flesh. But he doesn't stay down, he simply prepares to keep going. Yukai stays agape, seeing the willful stand of his adversary, and decides to go on as well. He sends 5 of these orbs at once to Izuna who counters it this time.

Katon – Hosenka

He shoots a round of small fireballs that collide with the blue lights and destroy them before they can be activated. While Yukai is still blinded by his own blowing lights, Izuna hurries to get to him and forces a new hand-to-hand exchange, in which he knows he'll have the upper hand.

Startled by this decision, Yukai trembles and barely manages to receive it. Determined to show the same will as his opponent, he lets out his best weapon to use.

Kuroi Kaminari

The Kumo-nin leaves black lightning to leak from his shoulder and gather around him, making it dangerous for Izuna to touch him. Just standing next to it, the Uchiha feels the remarkable power in this electricity and uses his Sharingan at best to avoid being hit. While busied by this, he looks up to Yukai's face in an attempt to activate a Genjutsu, but surprisingly makes eye contact with an opponent who confidently lets it happen, unaffected and protected by the nature of his black lightning.

Seeing an opening, Yukai tried to strike Izuna with a kick, but left an obvious margin for the Uchiha to simply step back and out of range, which he did. As soon as away, Izuna gathers chakra in his hand and violently punches the ground, shattering it and repelling Yukai away. The inheritor of the black lightning however manages to land safely on his feet and performs a new series of hand signs, ending with the dragon seal again.

"We're both all out, so let me show you my best move now." he says as he gathers the power of his right shoulder's tattoo in his hands.

Raiton – Black Dragon

By pushing his two hands forward, he creates a black thunder dragon, about 8 meters long, that gets momentum by spinning around its caster and flies head first toward its target. People in the audience gasp, stand up or make shocked faces when seeing this over the top elite jutsu performed by a 13 year old, while the Raikage proudly smiles from his balcony.

Izuna sees the dragon approach, and decides to pull out his best move against it. He had his Sharingan on for a while now and was pushed to use it at its best. Added to the jutsus he's performed so far, he's starting to worry about his saved chakra. He hopes to end this fight quickly after that. He gathers chakra in his fist and lights it on strong fire.

Enken

When the dragon reaches him, he punches it right in the nose with all his strength and succeeds in blowing it up with his fire fist. Yukai stares in shock at this excessive demonstration of power and, not seeing it coming, is pushed against the wall behind him by the burning shock wave resulting from this burning punch.

Everyone in the audience stands still, waiting to know if Izuna won with this. Wakasa steps down and joins the ground to see the Kumo-nin' condition, but stops before reaching him. Izuna widely opens his eyes out of astonishment as he sees Yukai get back on his knees, and then on his feet. He looks very tired, but refuses to give up.

The Uchiha shrugs in embarrassment and thinks of ending it with one last punch or a fireball. But he leaves enough time for Yukai to make his move first. He gets perplexed as he sees him perform the exact same hand signs as earlier. The Kumo-nin once again gathers his black lightning, and throws his hands up in the air, creating another thunder dragon but bigger this time.

Izuna, like everyone, is shocked. He thought that such a powerful and elaborated move would be a single shot attack, but here he is, seeing it being used with even more power a second time. Everybody looks at the black creature flying up to the sky and accumulating speed, preparing to fall and crash down on Izuna from the sky.

The Uchiha clenches his fist and gathers fire in it again, also ready to throw his best move a second time, but changes his mind. He turns off the flames, stops concentrating chakra in his hands and stands up straight, calmly looking at Yukai, not paying attention to the dragon anymore.

"I give up." he says, to everyone's surprise.

"You what?" Yukai asks, with a nearly breathless voice.

"I think it's enough. I give up." Izuna repeats. "Winning against you is not my priority. You seem very powerful, and I don't think pushing further would pay off, or be worth it."

Wakasa now steps forward and comes closer to Izuna. "Can you confirm your choice, Izuna Uchiha?"

"Yes. I give up." he makes clear to everyone as he turns off his Dojutsu.

Yukai gets at ease and dismisses the black dragon in the sky. Carried away by the action, he's kind of sad that it ends so abruptly. But he also feels a particular respect for Izuna's choice. In the audience, Ino and Inoue Yamanaka, who were deeply involved in the battle's temper, complain about this decision.

"Why? Why give up?" Ino exclaims. "He could clearly win if he kept going. What's up with him?"

"No. He's right." Sakura says, with a proud smile on her face. "Izuna is still saving most of his chakra for the Byakugo seal. For him, as a Sharingan user, it's particularly complicated to do this properly. By giving up now, he shows that he knows his priorities. It's a very responsible choice of him."

Inoue looks at Sakura's delighted face and thinks. She didn't see Izuna's mom talking about him since they were kids, and so she was used to her being angry about his childish behavior. To see the different look his mother has on him now reminds Inoue of the reason she fell in love with Izuna. She smiles proudly, like Sakura, and looks at her teammate leaving the arena with no remorse.

"You should get prepared for your turn soon, Inoue." Sai says to his daughter, bringing her back to reality. "You're right after the next one."

"Uh? Yeah, right!" she says confusingly before standing up to leave.

Under the Mizukage's balcony, Takeshi stays focused on Yukai. He expected this kind of outcome coming from Izuna, and is now more curious about his opponent's fighting style.

"Tentoki, what do you say?" he asks to the tengu inside him. "How would you rate his use of Koton."

"… Well… It's classic." the tengu says, with an unimpressed voice. "This boy's use of it is unlike mine. It is efficient for sure, but clearly not versatile enough."

"What do you mean?" asks Takeshi.

"Let's say it is a ninja's classic mistake to think an element should be used as a projectile." Tentoki starts to tell. "An average Katon user would throw fireballs, while a good Katon user would use the element to his advantage. Kobo Uchiha, for instance, used to coat his swords in flames or even just make fire blades. He also used it in defensive jutsus, or on his own body. These were clever uses of fire. It is hot and powerful. It can make a blade cut deeper and easier, it can burn down projectiles, it can melt a body… This is what I mean by versatile. Using the element in all the ways your fighting style allows."

"So? About this guy?" Takeshi questions, requesting a simpler answer.

"So this Yukai knows how to use light but he doesn't know how to use it well. Light projectiles and body augmentation is the simplest you could do with it. My former yamabushi, Shibata, kind of had the same problem. He lost his fighting style to the most basic uses of my power…. This kid right here showed way more efficient skills with the black lightning however."

"I see… So a good use of Koton would be yours or Sojobo's." Takeshi suggests. "Koton – Shunshin which works by leaving your body to be pushed by the photons in movements is a good example then."

Takeshi stops talking and just tries to think of what clever use he'll be able to make out of it, other than Shunshin.

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Still in the arena, the audience stands still waiting for the next match, opposing Boruto Hyuga to Iwabe Yogu, to begin. On Hikarigakure's balcony, Kawaki leaves and goes to prepare in advance for his fight. Oshio follows him, wanting to leave the sight of people and find a place where he'll be more free to act naturally.

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End of Chapter 79 – Next Chapter: Lost brothers