Chapter 45: 45. Shadow Weave
"Yuji, how are you doing?"
"Are you feeling well?"
"Have you recovered?"
"Want some rice cakes?"
Minato and the group surround him in the hospital.
"Everyone…"
Yuji silently stares at his friends. He notices the genuine worry and care in their eyes.
'They are my friends!'
Yuji closes his eyes to calm himself.
"Yes, Tsunade Nee-san said I can be discharged after another week. I have made a complete recovery." He raises his right hand in an awkward victory pose.
Pfft… Haha…
The rest of the group burst out in laughter.
"Why are you doing by copying Nawaki?"
"You found out!" He acknowledges.
"Of course, only Nawaki does edgy stuff like that."
"Hey, don't slander me like that. It's not edgy, it's cool… COOL!" Nawaki retorts.
"Onii-chan!" Hana hugs him tightly.
"Hana was worried when onii-chan didn't wake up even after Hana called onii-chan's name." She sobs into his embrace.
"Hana!"
Yuji silently ruffles her hair while seeking methods to calm her down.
"Onni-chan, promise me!" Hana raises her head, wipes her tear, and stares into Yuji's eyes.
"Onii-chan! Promise me that you will listen to me when I call your name."
"Of course I will!" Yuji nods at her.
"No! Make a pinky promise." Hana raises her small pinky finger.
"Pinky promise!" Yuji tangles his pinky finger with her and promises her.
"Yay, onii-chan!" Hana hugs him tightly. She stays like that for a few seconds and eventually falls asleep in his embrace.
"This girl… she didn't have a wink of proper sleep these past few days. She would occasionally wake up at midnight and stare in the hospital's direction and mutter your name." Kushina shakes her head.
"I… I will take care of myself better to not make her worry." Yuji could only reply with these words.
"Alright, kids! Time's up. Let the patient rest." Keiko enters the room with medical instruments to perform a checkup.
"See you later, Yuji!" They wave him goodbye and leave the room.
Keiko stares at the kids with a smile.
"It's good to have friends, right?" She turns to Yuji.
"Uh! I am not sure. They can be a bother sometimes, but they care for me." Yuji answers her honestly.
"It's rare to have friends. You should cherish your friends as much as you could." Keiko replies to him with a disheartened tone.
"You don't have friends, Keiko-san?" Yuji asks her.
"I did! But… all of them died during their missions. I am the only one left alive since I was a medic." Keiko answers him while measuring his blood pressure and heart rate.
Silence spreads in the room as Yuji is at a loss for words.
'So, this is one of the dark sides of this world. It's not that different from the previous world. Though the only difference is that in the previous world, it was done in shadows whereas in this world it's in the open.
The elders, the Hokage, all paint a glorious image of shinobi and present the world with rose-colored glasses during early academy days. However, this illusion shatters when the kid takes his first step as a genin in the outside world. When he starts his first mission outside the village and encounters danger for the first time. Some of them can break past this shell and accept the reality, while others either fail to embrace it or die with regrets. In the end, shinobi is just a fancy word for a killer.'
"Alright, everything is done!" Keiko completes her measurements and leaves the room.
Sigh…
Yuji sighs and looks around.
"Alright, there is no one around and I am finally alone!"
He takes a deep breath and calms his mind. He raises both his hands.
"If I recall the hand signs correctly, then this should be it!"
Swish… swish…
Yuji closes his eyes and makes the hand signs from his memories.
"Ne> Tora> Tori> Saru> Ne> Tatsu> Mi> I> Inu> Tora> U> Hitsuji> Tatsu> Uma> Ushi> Mi…"
[Rat> Tiger> Bird> Monkey> Rat> Dragon> Snake> Boar> Dog> Tiger> Hare> Ram> Dragon> Horse> Ox> Snake…]
He makes a couple of hand signs and stretches his right arm.
Swoosh…
A cluster of black chakra gathers in his palm.
"This is chakra!" Yuji senses the weight on his arm.
"Heavy!"
He inspects the chakra cluster in his hand. The chakra cluster is slowly decreasing in size as the chakra slowly dissipates into its surroundings.
"Now then, I have to shape this into a blade before it dissipates completely."
Yuji closes his eyes and concentrates on the chakra present in his hand. The chakra cluster in his hand wobbles as Yuji attempts to reshape it using his spirit.
"It's so hard!" He had barely shaped the mass of chakra into a cylinder before he felt exhausted. The cylinder of chakra in his hand loses the support of his spiritual energy. It shakes violently and explodes into a mist of chakra. Smoke rises from his arm as a result of the backlash.
"I was able to do it relatively easily in my mindscape, so why is it so difficult here?" He ponders.
"To shape the chakra, I have to spend my spirit. In the mindscape, this wasn't a problem since it was happening in my mind and as a result, I was able to easily exert my will on the surroundings. But this isn't possible in the real world since I can't influence the laws of the real world with my thoughts alone. Chakra is an energy that allows a shinobi to alter or create a phenomenon in the real world by manipulating the laws of the world by expanding their will. If either of these things is lacking, then the attempt fails."
Yuji makes a mental note. He closes his eyes and rests to regain the lost spirit.
'Hmm… perhaps the reason behind my failure is that I was attempting to manipulate a large amount of chakra at the same time. Even if my chakra was there, my will wasn't strong enough to shape it into the desired object. Perhaps I should start with a lesser amount of chakra and search my current limit. Once I achieve that, I will slowly train my spirit and slowly surpass my limit.'
He makes up his mind.
"Alright, here I go!"
He closes his eyes, recalls the hand signs, and performs them.
Fwoosh…
A relatively smaller cluster of chakra gathers in his palm.
"Alright! Next is to shape it into a tanto blade."
After a few seconds, a small storm of chakra spreads throughout the room. The curtain around the windows sways from the pressure.
"Once again!"
Fwoosh…
Whoosh…
"Once again!"
Fwoosh… Whoosh…
Yuji continues his practice till night. He only takes a break in between to either recover his chakra or spirit and also to eat his dinner, which Keiko brought him.
Hmm…
Keiko looks around the room.
"Why does the atmosphere in the room feel so heavy?"
She walks towards the window and opens it.
A few seconds later,
"It feels much better now. Perhaps there was a lack of fresh air." She nods and exits the room.
Sigh…
Yuji heaves a sigh of relief.
"Keiko isn't a sensor, so she wasn't able to sense the dense amalgamation of chakra in the room. Also, I was too busy with my practice to notice it. Also, just like a dog or a human can't sense his own smell, a sensor can't sense his own chakra. I must be careful next time."
He continues his practice in shape transformation.
"It's a lot harder than I thought it would be."
Yuji stares at his trembling hands. The backlash from the explosion of the chakra has paralyzed the nerves and chakra nodes around his hand. Initially, he was planning to create a sword. After a few attempts, he lowered his goal to a short sword, then a cutlass, then a tanto before finally moving to a small dagger. And yet despite all his efforts, he failed every single time.
'Perhaps I am being too greedy with ambitions. Any tool is a lethal weapon as long as it completes the job of killing.'
He takes another deep breath and gathers a very small cluster of chakra in his palm.
'A dagger or blade is too much! I should try something simpler.'
He slowly morphs the chakra cluster into a cylinder. Next, he slowly elongates the cylinder even further and sharpens its tip. A small senbon appears in his palm.
"It's a success!"
He flips and spins the needle in his palm.
"Looks like I have to settle with a senbon for now."
He pinches the needle between his finger and aims it toward a flower vase in the distance.
Whoosh…
The needle shoots toward the vase. But before it could reach the vase, it dissipates into nothingness.
"What a pity?"
Yuji shakes his head. Halfway through his attack, he lost control of his spirit coating the chakra.
"Looks like I have to train a lot harder to master this technique! For now, I will name this technique 'Shadow Weave'."
Weekly Power Status
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