Chapter 36 Experimenting With Yin Release

Later into the night, under a clearing in Mount Myōboku.

Riku exhaled slowly, his eyes closed, his hands weaving a sequence of seals with practiced precision.

The shadows around him writhed and bent unnaturally. From the darkness, a figure materialized - a perfect replica of himself, sitting in the same posture, with the same quiet determination in its face. Riku opened his eyes, studying his creation. He reached out, the tips of his fingers brushing the figure's arm. Solid. He nodded to himself.

"Functional, but basic," Riku muttered. "Not enough to fool someone like Itachi Uchiha. or Madara."

Those names lingered in his mind: Itachi Uchiha, the genius who could put a person under a genjutsu from which he could never escape with just one glance; Madara Uchiha, whose control over the concept of Yin Release was advanced to the point where he could materialize a forest out of absolutely nothing. And then, of course, Hagoromo Ōtsutsuki, the Sage of Six Paths, whose teachings revolved around the power of yin and yang.

Riku clenched his fist. "I can't afford to just imitate them. I need something. mine."

He dispelled the clone with a thought, the shadowy figure evaporating into the night. His brow furrowed as he stood, pacing the clearing. Ideas swirled in his mind, fragments of concepts yet to take form.

"Yin Release is rooted in imagination," he muttered. "It's not about power; it's about creativity. The mind shapes reality. Genjutsu is only the surface. What if I could."

He stopped, his hand going on his chin. What if he could develop some arts that went beyond that-conventional concept of an illusion? Of course, the world only was so caught up in this perception of genjutsu - how it deceived a person's senses. But Yin Release is more than just tricking anything. It was a creation. It was potential made real.

Riku suddenly looked at the ground, "Hmm… let's try this…" Riku then placed his hand on the ground.

The ground beneath his hand shimmered as chakra poured into it, forming a black, swirling portal. The edges of the portal glowed faintly, but within there was only shadow. Riku stepped back, watching as the gateway held. It wasn't tangible-no one could physically pass through it. But that wasn't the point.

"Hypnotic," he whispered, watching the way the portal seemed to pull at his senses. He stepped closer, letting his fingers drift toward its surface. The moment he touched it, the clearing around him shifted.

In the next instant, he was not at Mount Myōboku at all. He stood in a huge field of white lilies. A golden sun blazed above his head. The whole thing wasn't real. Yet his brain did a sorry job of knowing it. Every scent, every sound, every sensation-it was done just right.

"A spatially bound genjutsu?" he whispered, his voice carrying strangely in the fake meadow. "A place imagined into creation."

He released the technique, and the portal disappeared. The lilies and sun faded, and he was once more in the damp clearing under the moon. He swayed slightly, exhausted.

"Too much chakra," he muttered, falling heavily to sit. He wiped sweat from his brow and took a deep breath in through his nose to steady himself. It was a technique with potential, but not yet ready.

His mind began to wander to other masters of Yin Release: Kakashi Hatake's genjutsu, subtle and precise; the Nara Clan's Shadow Possession Jutsu, an application of Yin Release that turned thought into manipulation of the shadows. Even Tsunade's use of Yin-Yang Release in medical ninjutsu required a level of understanding he hadn't yet reached.

But they all worked within established limits, Riku thought. Shadows, illusions, manipulation of others.

"Shadows… Yin Release," he murmured, his voice barely above a whisper. "It shapes the intangible: thoughts, imagination, will. if it can shape illusions, why not something more functional? Something. immersive?"

His hands absently traced patterns in the dirt, the beginnings of a sequence of seals. His mind wandered back to the techniques of other Yin users: Nara Shikamaru and his mastery of shadow manipulation and various genjutsu users and techniques.

"But this isn't genjutsu," Riku muttered. "I don't want to trick someone into seeing shadows—I want to be in them."

It was an abstract thought that had come days ago but refused to be faded out. If shadows can be conduits for chakra, then why not a pathway? He could move through them, slipping between the places no light would touch. In simple form, the idea was nice and yet horribly complicated in execution.

He stood and brushed the dust from his hands, forming a series of hand seals slowly, deliberately.

"Yin Release: Shadow Submersion(?)." Riku didn't put much thought into the name, maybe he'd change it later on.

The chakra flowed into the ground beneath him, pooling in the shadow cast by his own body. The darkness rippled, its edges trembling as if alive. Riku stepped forward and tried to let himself sink into the shadow.

For a moment, it seemed to work. His foot dipped into the black surface, cold and fluid. But as he moved further, the shadow rejected him, flaring back into its original shape with a burst of force. Riku stumbled back, frustration blooming in his chest.

"Damn it," he hissed, brushing dirt from his knees. "Why isn't it holding?"

He sat down again, his mind racing. He knew the theory was sound. The chakra had taken to the shadow, and it had responded to his will—if only briefly. But something was missing, some fundamental piece of understanding.

He remembered the properties of shadows: they were no more than the absence of light. They did not have physical mass, did not have substance, yet they existed in every corner of the world. How could something so ethereal be made tangible enough to traverse?

Riku leaned his head back against the tree, staring upwards at the stars. Around and around in his head went the problem, a predator stalking its prey. Then, bit by bit, something crystallized.

"The shadow isn't a pathway," he said out loud, voice even. "It's a barrier."

It struck him like a gust of wind: the realization that shadows did not, by nature, want to be traveled through-they existed as voids, the absence of everything. He had to shift his perspective if he wanted to move within them. Instead of treating shadows as doorways, he had to treat them as an environment, a space to inhabit.

"It's not about breaking through the shadow," he whispered. "It's about becoming part of it."

With renewed resolve, Riku stood and reformed the seals. This time, as his chakra coursed into the ground, he perceived the shadow not as an obstruction but as water-a deep, endless ocean. He let his chakra saturate it, spreading through its intangible depths like ripples on a lake.

He stepped forward again. The shadow rippled, then softened, becoming fluid. When he pushed his foot down, it slid in easily, followed by his other foot. Riku took a deep breath, letting his body sink into the darkness.

And then the world changed.

He was submerged, floating in some cold, endless void. For a moment, he panicked, his senses smothered by the suffocating blackness. Then he opened his eyes, and the scene around him came into focus.

Above him were glowing white lights, scattered like constellations in the void. Each light pulsed faintly, tugging at his awareness. He instinctively understood-they were nearby shadows, connected by his chakra.

This is it," he whispered, though the words were swallowed by the void.

He kicked his legs experimentally, and the sensation was akin to swimming. The shadow resisted him at first, its density dragging him down. He pushed harder, reaching out with both arms, and began to move. Slowly, he swam toward the nearest light, his chakra guiding him like a compass.

But halfway there, the resistance became unbearable. His limbs felt like lead, his chakra reserves draining rapidly. He faltered, gasping for air that wasn't there, and was forced to pull himself out of the shadow prematurely.

He stumbled back into the clearing, collapsing onto the grass, drenched in sweat.

"Not. enough," he panted. "It's. still too slow."

Lying there, staring up at the stars, the answer came to him in a flash. He had been trying to force his way through the density of the shadow, instead of trying to naturally align his chakra with it and move with the flow of the shadows rather than against them.

Riku stood up shakily, forming the seals once more.

"Again."

This time, when he sank into the shadow, he didn't fight its pull. He let his chakra meld with the void, spreading evenly through its depths. The resistance lessened, and when he kicked forward, the movement was fluid and effortless.

He swam toward a white light, the motion smooth and controlled. As he reached it, he pushed his hand forward, willing himself through.

The world twisted, and he emerged from the shadow cast by a boulder a few meters away.

Riku exhaled hard; his heart was racing, hammering against his chest. He'd done it. It wasn't perfect yet-he would need to refine the technique, make it faster and less draining-but the core of the ability was there.

"Shadow Submersion," he murmured to himself, the name on his lips.

The shadows around him appeared to shudder in confirmation, and for the first time in weeks, Riku felt he was moving.

"Now then… let's try to break this technique." Riku grinned as the thoughts of making this technique absurdly overpowered flooded his mind.

He let out a confused breath.

The Shadow Submersion technique had worked. He could slip into the void between shadows, navigate it, and emerge elsewhere. But it wasn't enough. It was too slow, too unwieldy. Each moment spent submerged felt like an eternity - time he wouldn't have if an enemy was closing in.

His gaze flicked to the trees, their shadows dancing with the breeze. The silence felt heavy, like the world itself was holding its breath. Riku paced, his mind racing.

"Speed," he muttered to himself. "I need more speed."

The principle was simple: shadows were everywhere, connecting everything. If he could traverse them instantly, he'd have an advantage no one could counter. But the execution was proving to be anything but simple.

He crouched, his hand brushing the grass as he thought through the possibilities. Riku's mind drifted to the techniques of other shinobi. First came the Body Flicker Technique-a burst of chakra propelling the user forward in a blur. It was efficient but relied on physical terrain. Then there was the White Spark Chakra Mode, used by Raiden to reduce resistance and amplify attack power to an unimaginable degree, but it could also drastically increase speed. Riku abruptly rose, dark brows furrowed. "What if I combined them?" he wondered aloud.

The Body Flicker would give him the push, but the shadows themselves resisted movement.

The void felt thick-like trying to swim through syrup. White Spark Chakra Mode, on the other hand, was fluid. The white sparks coursed through Raiden's body, reducing drag and making every motion seamless and smooth. If Riku could coat himself in those same principles while submerged, he might be able to cut through the shadow's resistance like a blade through water. He stretched out his hand, forming the seals for Shadow Submersion. The shadow at his feet rippled and softened, and he stepped into it. Cold void enveloped him, weight of deep ocean pressing against his skin, while above him the faint glow of nearby shadows pulsed like distant stars. With this said, he focused chakra into his legs in preparation for Body Flicker. All his muscles tensed to push him forward, thus catapulting him towards the nearest source of light.

The effect of it all was chaos.

The shadows convulsed, as if alive; Riku catapulted forward with the force of a launched boulder, spinning out of control wildly. He slammed into another shadow's surface, the shock jolting, and was thrown backward into the clearing.

Riku landed hard on his side, groaning as he pushed himself up. "No. No, no, no," he muttered, brushing dirt from his clothes. The approach was all wrong. Speed alone wasn't enough-he needed control.

His mind turned back to Raiden: White Spark Chakra Mode wasn't about forcing movement but reducing resistance. The sparks didn't fight against the natural flow of the user's movements; they harmonized with them. If Riku could do the same within the shadows, he might be able to glide through the void instead of struggling against it.

A faint cracking of lightning marked his fingers as he stood once more, the frustration replaced by determination. This time, he let the chakra coat his body before he sank into the shadows. The effect was immediate: the cold drag of the void lessened, its grip on him loosening.

"Let's try this again," he said softly.

He pushed forward, focusing on fluidity rather than brute force. The shadows around him shifted and flowed, parting before him as the white sparks cut through their density. His body moved more easily now, the white lights above him zipping by like fireflies.

Riku grinned, exhilarated. It was working.

But as he approached the light marking the shadow's edge, he felt his chakra reserves draining rapidly. The technique demanded constant precision and power, and maintaining the white sparks over time was exhausting. By the time he emerged into the clearing, his legs trembled with fatigue.

Riku crouched, catching his breath as the night air cooled his face. The technique had potential, but it wasn't sustainable. The white sparks gave him the speed he needed, but it was too draining to be practical in a prolonged fight.

He sat on the grass, staring at the shadows that danced across the ground. He replayed the sequence of events in his mind, analyzing every movement. The problem wasn't just the energy cost-it was the lack of balance.

"I can't keep forcing it," he murmured. "I have to work with the shadows, not against them."

He closed his eyes, picturing the void once more-the endless blackness dotted by points of white light. If the shadows were an ocean, then the white sparks were his current. The trick was learning to ride the flow rather than create a flow of his own. He pictured Raiden in movement: smooth, fluid. Every movement calculated, every burst of power restrained.

He opened his eyes and stood again, his fingers already moving through the seals. The shadows rippled at his feet, waiting.

"One more time," he said, sinking into the void.

This time, Riku let the shadows guide him. He did not fight the drag or forced his way forward. Instead, he times each movement with the natural flow of the void. The white sparks amplify the smoothness of his motions, and the white lights pulsed around him, now closer, almost within reach.

With a final surge of chakra, he swam toward the nearest light and pushed through. The world twisted, and he emerged several meters away, landing in a crouch beneath the boughs of a towering tree.

Riku slowly rose to his feet, his chest heaving, a small, triumphant smile on his face. It wasn't perfect yet, but he had made progress. Each try got him closer to the technique, to making it his own.