Chapter 57: Try It and Die.
"High-speed rotating and compressed cursed energy..."
Tatsuro looked at his right hand, a feeling of "I can do it too if I try" sprouting in his heart. He now had enough cursed energy to squander, unlike before when he was a weakling who would be drained by casually releasing a single ninjutsu.
The four large words "Create Cursed Technique" surfaced in his mind.
"Although I don't know if it's feasible, let's try it first. Shura, stand there and wait a moment, I'm going to test something."
"Woo~ (What is Master up to now?)"
Shura, who had been walking ahead, sat down on the spot and turned to look curiously at its master.
Tatsuro lowered his head, staring at his right hand. As his Sharingan appeared, his right hand was enveloped in crimson cursed energy.
Looking at the flame-like cursed energy dancing on his hand, Tatsuro took a deep breath and slowly closed his eyes. He needed to achieve a state of mind as calm as still water; cursed techniques couldn't be developed through mere passion.
Theoretically, he should be able to use this ninjutsu now, without the system.
As his agitated heart gradually calmed, Tatsuro slowly opened his eyes, exhaling the breath held in his chest. His crimson pupils focused on the palm of his hand, lost in thought.
Cursed energy began to gather in his palm, and Tatsuro only stopped when it reached the size of a basketball.
Looking at the water-droplet-like sphere of cursed energy in his hand, Tatsuro knew it was time for the next step: to shape this initial form of cursed energy into what he desired.
"Make the cursed energy sphere rotate rapidly and compress towards the center."
After silently reciting this, the cursed energy sphere in his hand began to rotate to the right. Initially, the rotation proceeded without any mishap, thanks to the Sharingan's micro-control.
But as the cursed energy sphere in his hand spun faster and faster, the originally complete sphere transformed into fine threads of cursed energy, expanding to at least twice its original basketball size.
Although it looked harmless, it already bore a close resemblance to the Rasengan he remembered, except his was red.
Seeing that the rotation speed of the cursed energy sphere had not yet reached its peak, Tatsuro took a deep breath and muttered to himself, "Time to speed up and compress."
The cursed energy sphere in his hand spun increasingly faster, and its size began to shrink under Tatsuro's deliberate compression and control. Perhaps due to over-compression, several nearby threads of cursed energy merged, eventually transforming into sharp cursed energy blades.
Tatsuro didn't stop this transformation; he just watched, observing the change and committing it to memory, much like a clinical trial.
Perhaps what he ultimately created would be a cursed technique completely different from Rasengan, but for now, he was just accumulating experience.
With this thought, Tatsuro continued to accelerate and compress the "Rasengan" in his hand. The small cursed energy blades weren't merging at this point but were instead emitting "clang, clang, clang" sounds upon collision.
Tatsuro then realized something was amiss. The tomoe in his crimson pupils were spinning rapidly. Some of the colliding cursed energy blades inside were directly repelled, one slashing a cut across his face. Perhaps because the cut was too small, it didn't bleed.
"This is not good. I need to adjust the spacing of these cursed energy blades, or if it explodes, I'm done for."
Though he was吐槽ing calmly in his mind, Tatsuro had no solution at the moment. This data test seemed to have gone awry. He knew that panicking was useless and might even lead to a loss of control.
If this thing in his hand were to explode outwards, in an instant, everything within a ten-meter radius would be devastated. He certainly wasn't fast enough to escape, and as for retrieving the cursed energy...
That was no longer possible. The cursed energy blades had now solidified and, coupled with the accelerating high-speed rotation, could not be retrieved. Slowing it down? He'd probably be riddled like a hornet's nest before it even slowed.
Honestly, it already felt like a "Storm of Pear Blossom Needles." And his version was even more formidable: 360-degree, no-blind-spot projection, ten-meter range, and it could even kill its master if controlled improperly.
"Hoo~"
His lips parted slightly as he exhaled a turbid breath. Tatsuro looked at the "thorn ball" in his hand, capable of killing him at any moment, his gaze gradually turning cold. He now had to treat the "thorn ball" in his hand as a patient.
Calmness and stability were what a doctor needed most.
His left hand was enveloped in cursed energy. With both hands supporting the "thorn ball," he began to make adjustments under the micro-control of his Sharingan. Cursed energy blades whose trajectories had been altered by collisions were gently shifted to other positions by Tatsuro.
The "thorn ball" in his hand was now only the size of a shot put, but it contained thousands of densely packed cursed energy blades. What Tatsuro needed to do now was to find an orbit for these thousands of cursed energy blades that had no fixed paths.
Amidst the chaotic clashing sounds, a few cursed energy blades would occasionally be flung out by chance. Some stabbed directly into the ground, while the hands supporting the "thorn ball" were pierced through.
Perhaps because the piercing speed was too fast, Tatsuro didn't feel much, only sensing that the cursed energy covering his hands was forcibly breached by something.
He knew these were cursed energy blades ejected by collisions.
Tatsuro swallowed hard, cold sweat beading on his forehead, his mind urging him to hurry.
His pierced palms began to bleed, red blood dripping onto the ground. Shura, sitting and waiting nearby, saw its master's hands bleeding. Its pupils constricted violently, thinking its master had been ambushed. Its eyes turned fierce, and it had just started to get up.
Tatsuro barked sharply, "Stupid dog, stay there and don't move!"
This sharp reprimand made Shura sit back down, lying on the ground with a wronged expression.
As seconds ticked by, Tatsuro's arms, fingers, chest, cheeks, and even his neck sustained varying degrees of injuries. His Sharingan also began to overload, and warm liquid flowed from the corners of his eyes, streaking down his cheeks.
"I wonder if my eyes will go blind..." Tatsuro muttered under his breath, as if reminding himself that it wasn't the time to feel tired yet. Though his vision was already blurry, his tone of voice remained light:
"If they go blind, they go blind. It's not necessarily a bad thing."
"Hmm..., not necessarily a bad thing..."
Towards the end, even Tatsuro himself didn't know what nonsense he was spouting; the words were spoken subconsciously.
A moment later.
Tatsuro closed his eyes, feeling the now stable "thorn ball" in his hands. He sighed and said, "That was exhausting. I almost lost control. My eyes have bled too much; I don't know if I'll be able to open them later. But... what should I name this technique?"
Tatsuro played with the ball in his hand. The cursed energy blades inside had already been arranged into orbits by him. Unless an external force intervened, this thing was quite safe.
Although the process was perilous, at least the outcome was good. It just had some drawbacks. What if he was interrupted by some lurker right after forming it?
Mutual destruction?
To be safe, it felt like he should add a protective cursed energy membrane to the outside of this thing, lest he accidentally make an extreme one-for-one trade with an enemy. Of course, this membrane was just to guard against external cursed technique attacks.
As for naming it... he'd think about that after making improvements.
Tatsuro plopped down on the ground, complaining weakly:
"Ah, so tired. I'm never doing this crap again."