"Maybe… I really could try it."
Shūyū Hikaru stroked his chin, deep in thought as a wild idea began to take root.
"Sexy Jutsu shouldn't be a problem. It's low-difficulty—I could probably recreate it myself in a few days. But Shadow Clone Jutsu? That's a different story."
His gaze sharpened as the next step formed in his mind.
"Guess I'll have to see what the director's got up his sleeve."
The old man running the orphanage—Yakuin Tenzō—had once been a Jōnin. That meant he'd likely learned more than a few versatile jutsu in his time. And if Shadow Clone Jutsu was among them…
Then maybe—just maybe—Hikaru could snag it.
Once a technique appeared on his status screen, he could materialize it into a usable item or fusion material. That was the system's greatest cheat.
Of course, this plan had its limitations.
High-level jutsu weren't easy to learn in the first place. Even Naruto, for all his chaotic genius, had needed both Shadow Clones and the durability of the Uzumaki bloodline just to brute-force Rasengan into existence.
And Hikaru?
He didn't have a legendary dad.
He wasn't part of some grand shinobi clan.
The odds of someone handing him a high-level jutsu on a silver plate were laughable. By the time he was powerful enough to need those kinds of jutsu, he'd already be strong enough to farm NPCs for materials instead.
In short—why waste time learning, when you could just loot?
He was still in the slow buildup phase.
But once he broke past that threshold, it would all snowball.
Faster, stronger, more exponential with every level.
Like compounding interest—except with chakra and explosions.
By the river, Kushina stood on the water's surface, lazily casting her fishing rod.
She looked bored out of her mind.
Maybe the repetitive days were finally getting to her, but she still came along every time. Maybe because Hikaru was her only real friend in this world. Maybe just because she didn't want to be alone.
Whatever the reason, she stayed near him—often pretending to train while actually slacking off.
Meanwhile, Hikaru hadn't stopped moving.
He was already seated cross-legged beneath a tree, his palms raised and glowing faintly with spiraling chakra.
He was training Rasengan again.
Rasengan development was traditionally broken into four stages:
Condensing chakra into the palm.
Spinning the chakra in random directions inside a water balloon until it bursts.
Repeating the process with a tougher rubber ball, pushing for chakra solidity.
Combining all previous steps to stabilize a swirling mass of compressed chakra in the palm—thus forming Rasengan.
It was a structured path.
A proven path.
So, naturally, Hikaru skipped steps two and three entirely.
Why?
Because he was broke.
Painfully broke.
Like, "can't-afford-a-damn-balloon" broke.
As an orphan, his food and housing came courtesy of the academy and the orphanage.
Spending money? Allowance? Tools?
Forget about it.
Yakuin Tenzō barely kept the orphanage running as-is. No way could he spare coin for training props.
So Hikaru had no choice but to brute-force his way through Rasengan without props.
No water balloons.
No rubber balls.
Just pure, raw chakra control.
The sheer difficulty was insane.
WHIRRR!
Chakra condensed in his hand again, swirling faster—and then flickered out of control, erupting in a gust of wind that bent the nearby grass like a tidal wave had rolled through.
It was another failure.
But not a wasted one.
Each time, his control grew sharper.
His sense of rotation more refined.
He was close.
Close.
If he kept at it, he might succeed in a few weeks—or a few months.
The Rasengan was a monster of a technique. But once mastered, it would become one of his most lethal trump cards.
After all, Naruto had spammed that thing all the way to the final battle.
Hikaru closed his eyes and resumed his attempts.
He had more chakra to spend now—thanks to the [Sage Body] upgrade. Five times his old capacity. It gave him room to fail again and again.
And that was enough.
A few hours later, the day's training came to an end.
The two of them made their way home.
Back at the orphanage, Hikaru finally got to what he'd been putting off.
It was time to combine the materials he'd harvested during the earlier brawls with the other three classes.
Why wait until now?
Simple.
With Kushina around, there was always the chance an ANBU was watching nearby—assigned to secretly protect the village's Jinchūriki.
To anyone else, watching him "combine materials" would look like he was sitting there, eyes unfocused, not blinking. That kind of behavior might just get him marked as possessed or unstable.
Better to play it safe.
Only once he was alone in the orphanage—behind closed doors—did he finally open his system menu and prepare to fuse.
Tomorrow would bring new challenges.
But tonight?
Tonight was all about the loot.