Chapter 148: Kekkei Genkai
After successfully completing his Kekkei Genkai training, the first thing Ishiro did wasn't testing his new power—he simply took a full day and night to sleep soundly.
Although his body had undergone a drastic transformation and was in top condition, his mind was on the verge of collapse after enduring a month of torture.
A day later, Ishiro woke up from his deep slumber. Physically and mentally, he had recovered well, yet the psychological trauma still lingered. Despite his restored strength and chakra reserves, he still appeared listless.
But as a seasoned jōnin, Ishiro's willpower had long surpassed that of ordinary shinobi. After half a day of readjustment, he finally shook off the lingering shadows.
Taking a stroll around the camp and savoring the simple joy of being alive, Ishiro made his way to Kitsuchi's office to express his gratitude to both Kitsuchi and Shiden.
Had it not been for the two of them constantly trying to distract him during that harrowing month, Ishiro wasn't sure how he would've made it through.
Shiden, ever blunt, didn't respond to the thanks. Instead, he said, "Go test out your new powers."
Ishiro chuckled. He was just as curious to see whether the pain he endured had truly paid off.
The three of them headed to the training ground. Quickly, a crowd of onlookers formed around them. Ishiro had stirred up quite a commotion during his Kekkei Genkai development—everyone knew about it. Now, they wanted to see just how powerful his new bloodline limit was.
Having fully transformed, Ishiro could now freely manipulate his chakra to fuse elements within his body.
With a thought, he formed hand seals and unleashed Porcelain Release (瓷遁) at Shiden. From his hands, massive waves of mud surged toward his opponent.
By instinct, Shiden drew his blade and slashed at the incoming mud, scattering it in every direction.
But something remarkable happened—despite being scattered, the mud didn't dissipate. Under Ishiro's control, the chunks of mud reformed and continued closing in on Shiden from all directions.
Frowning, Shiden didn't dodge. Instead, he imbued his blade with chakra and slashed again. This time, the mud lost its porcelain chakra infusion upon direct hits, hardened into stone, and dropped to the ground.
Still, these losses were negligible in the larger scheme of things.
Ishiro wasn't using his full power during this initial test. He merely re-gathered the dispersed mud and watched how Shiden would respond next.
Seeing that physical strikes weren't effective, Shiden unleashed blade waves in all directions. His blade technique was far more refined than Ishiro's. Each wave easily sliced through the mud.
But since Ishiro's technique was offensive and not defensive, being pierced didn't hinder the mud's forward momentum.
Despite some mud being destroyed, Ishiro managed to encircle Shiden. At that point, the spar ended.
Round one: Ishiro's mud overwhelmed Shiden, which was expected. As a ranged ninjutsu-type shinobi, Ishiro could always overpower a stationary taijutsu user—even before unlocking his Porcelain Release.
Round two began. This time, Shiden moved at full speed, dodging the mud from the start. Ishiro changed his strategy, dispersing his mud over a wide area and using it to corner and trap Shiden.
This tactic reminded Ishiro of how several Kazekage in the original story fought using sand. Of course, his scale of mud control was still far inferior to theirs.
But Shiden wasn't an opponent at kage-level either. Against a full-coverage, omnidirectional ninjutsu like this, neither his body flicker nor swordsmanship could hold up.
Eventually, his movement space shrank so much that he had no choice but to concede.
"Whew…" Ishiro let out a long breath. Controlling such a wide area was still unfamiliar to him, but his chakra reserves had increased dramatically after his transformation.
Over the past month, his chakra had grown seven or eightfold, reaching a staggering 240A.
Ishiro had once asked Ōnoki about a Kage's chakra level. The answer? Even the weakest Kage had over a thousand times the chakra of a typical jōnin.
According to Ishiro's conversion scale, 1S (Shadow-level) chakra = 1000A. So despite his huge boost, Ishiro was still far from reaching Kage-level.
That said, he could feel his body continuing to grow. 240A likely wasn't his limit.
Beyond chakra, all his physical attributes—strength, speed, flexibility, reaction time—had also noticeably improved.
Even his hand seal speed had increased: now reaching 5.5 to 6.0 seals per second.
There were other gains too numerous to mention.
Only one thing left him disappointed—he had hoped this transformation would push him into the Kage class. But after all that pain, there wasn't even a hint of breakthrough.
Upon reflection, Ishiro came to terms with it. Reaching Kage level was a spiritual evolution driven by willpower and mental transformation, which in turn brought physical changes.
But his Kekkei Genkai development had reversed the process—starting from the body, boosting the mind through physical change.
In essence, a Kage-level breakthrough was a spiritual qualitative change leading to physical growth, while this transformation was a physical qualitative change driving mental growth.
So while his spiritual strength had grown, it hadn't reached the threshold for qualitative change.
Still, Ishiro wasn't greedy. Though disappointed, the feeling quickly passed. Adapting to his new powers was now the priority.
More importantly, Porcelain Release proved far more useful than he'd imagined—he'd need to build entire strategies around it, maybe even change his whole combat style.
He used to think Gaara's combat style was too one-dimensional. But now, he understood—if one technique works universally, why change it?
Previously, facing an elite close-range jōnin required combining multiple ninjutsu and using Body Flicker to maintain distance. Now? He could pin an enemy down without even moving.
With time, who wouldn't abandon the old ways? This was the true power of a Kekkei Genkai.
Later, after some rest, Ishiro also sparred with Kitsuchi—but this time, things weren't so easy.
It wasn't that Kitsuchi was much stronger than Shiden, but that Kitsuchi also specialized in wide-range ninjutsu. Porcelain Release had plasticity advantages over Earth Release.
But Kitsuchi's massive-scale techniques easily overwhelmed Ishiro's mud.
Against him, Porcelain Release had no room to shine.
Overall, Ishiro was now stronger than Kitsuchi. But in a direct ninjutsu clash, he still lost. Kitsuchi's chakra was clearly far beyond even Ishiro's new levels.
In other words, even though Ishiro had made up for his chakra shortcomings through effort, he still wasn't on par with someone like Kitsuchi, who naturally emphasized and excelled in chakra-heavy techniques.
To be outmatched in chakra by Earth Release when Porcelain Release was supposed to surpass it left Ishiro feeling frustrated. Clearly, he couldn't blindly copy Gaara's battle methods.
This spar was a wake-up call—Porcelain Release was only the first step. He couldn't neglect his main affinity: Water Release.
Porcelain Release was only the first mainline goal. It was a step, not the end.
If not for its proven utility during the match with Shiden, Ishiro would've halted its research here.
Now that he had undergone his first evolution, Ishiro wasn't about to settle. Even if he wouldn't rush into it, it was time to plan the next step.
Step Two: Dual Kekkei Genkai.
Since he still had no clue how to develop Yin Release, he had to rely on combining two basic elements again.
The reason Porcelain Release had come so quickly was because Water and Earth were both his main attributes.
But if he wanted to develop a second Kekkei Genkai, he'd have to choose an element beyond those two. Unfortunately, neither Fire nor Lightning came easily to him.
This meant the next transformation would take much longer.
"Sigh… How greedy can I be…"
"Which one should I choose?"
Under the influence of the original story, Ishiro had always preferred Lightning Release over Fire Release. Characters like Kakashi, Sasuke, and the Fourth Raikage showed its full potential.
By contrast, Fire Release had a bad reputation—Great Fireball Technique was practically a meme for missing its target.
Plus, Lightning Release had excellent support functions, as shown during the Chūnin Exams with Sasuke.
Fire Release? Outside of offense, it had little else to offer. Ishiro already had high-level offensive jutsu and Porcelain Release.
So if both were equally viable, Ishiro would have picked Lightning Release without hesitation.
But reality hit hard.
He had learned a B-rank Fire technique early on. Lightning? He barely scraped through a C-rank Guided Lightning jutsu.
His talent for both wasn't great, but comparatively, Fire Release was more developed.
So, in the end, Ishiro had to bow to reality and chose Fire Release.
As for whether he would pair it with Earth or Water, he would decide that later.
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