After wrapping up the morning's training sessions, the rest of the day passed uneventfully. That evening, back at the orphanage, Hikaru consumed all of his newly synthesized Chakra Fruits in one go.
Current result:His chakra pool now equaled what he could have achieved with 1 year and 7 months of pure chakra cultivation.
Not bad.
Still, it wasn't enough to push him into Chūnin-class territory. Why?
Because—he understood now—the true benchmark of strength wasn't raw chakra quantity, but quality.
"Chakra's like water in a jug," Hikaru mused."A genin and a jōnin might both use 1 unit of chakra… but the jōnin's version is ten times as dense, potent—and lethal."
His body still had room to hold more chakra—maybe about half full, by his estimation.
Which meant: he still had time to grow… and more room to absorb Chakra Fruits.
One Month Later…
In the time since, several things had happened.
Uzumaki Kushina: He trained with her daily, slowly milking useful materials from her with each sparring match.
Wave of inspiration: Watching her and Minato train had given him… ideas.
Like what?
"Why wait ten years for Minato to invent the Rasengan… when I can just make it first?"
Yep.
Hikaru had set his sights on creating the Rasengan before the Fourth Hokage did.
And why not?
It had no elemental affinity.
It required no hand seals.
It was a pure shape transformation jutsu—a perfect project for a chakra control specialist.
Sure, he didn't invent it originally.
But if he pulled it off first… history would say otherwise.
And the bonus?
The Rasengan was officially an A-Rank jutsu.
If he developed it now, it'd count as a blue-grade material—and serve as fuel for powerful future fusions. Combine it with Fire, Wind, or Lightning materials? Boom—maybe even S-rank or purple-grade weapons and techniques.
The only problem?
"God, this is hard…"
He didn't have the luxury of shadow clone hacks like Naruto.
No extra limbs. No dual-handed focus groups.
Just him—and whatever chakra control he could muster.
Despite having the necessary theory down, executing the Rasengan was like balancing a marble on a stick during an earthquake. It spun out of control every single time.
"One second I almost have it…""Then—pop. Gone."
His chakra levels were just enough to attempt it maybe five or six times a day before exhaustion set in.
"If only I had more chakra... or a clone…"
Which meant: he needed two things. Urgently.
1. Sage Body (仙人体): To boost his base chakra pool severalfold.
2. Shadow Clone Jutsu: To practice exponentially faster and coordinate chakra control.
Current Material Inventory:
Sage Body (Blue) × 9(Just one more to hit the 10 required for guaranteed synthesis)
Flying Thunder God Kunai Fragment × 1
Nine-Tails Chakra Fragment × 6
Kagura Mind's Eye (Blue) × 4
Uzumaki Bloodline (Blue) × 3
Chakra (White) × dozens
Every day, he continued scraping materials from Kushina.
But the specific ones he needed?
Still slow going.
"Tch… getting that last Sage Body fragment is a pain."
But he wasn't giving up.
Because once that 10th one dropped?
He'd evolve—big time.
And once he had more chakra… the Rasengan would be his.
Then?
Well, maybe it'd be time to start experimenting with Wind Release fusions...
Author's Note:Rasengan arc underway! If you're enjoying the power creep and future hijinks, toss a vote, drop a comment, and let Hikaru steal more canon techniques! 😄