Naruto: Kage of Kages

Yes indeed.

It was time for jutsu development.

There was an enormous library of clan knowledge stored within Shiki’s mind, prime resources for him to develop countless jutsu he previously lacked the foundation to create and move beyond to new ones conjured in his less than sane mind.

His first move was to complete the evolution of his Nirvana Art: Kukyo.

While Shiki was previously unaware of it, this partly accidentally developed art was deeply intertwined with his inner void as a Ryumon Hollow.

As such, along with his awakening, it experienced quite a few changes, the foremost being its permanent state of activation due to being a reflection of his spirit.

Initially, it merely served the purpose of perfectly regulating his mental state while granting perfect control over one’s body and chakra but after the awakening began, even before it was complete, its capabilities began to change.

In terms of regulating his mental state, it now truly made him an emotionless machine with unprecedented efficiency and effectiveness in achieving predetermined goals but the most important change was in the previously quite limited physical aspect.

Instead of merely assisting in the control of the physical body, it now completely unlocked its potential by permanently releasing the first two of the Eight Inner Gates.

The Gate of Opening which limited muscular strength in order not to damage the body and the Gate of Rest which limited energy expenditure, forcing people to slow down and even pass out so that they could not easily exhaust themselves to death.

But right now, those limiters no longer applied to Shiki and he could precisely control how much strength and energy he used through Kukyo.

Finally, there was also the integration of sensory abilities.

The Ryumon had powerful sensory abilities that relied on their connection to nature energy, something which also granted them a supernatural instinct. The latter became obvious as Shiki walked into the trap set for his team in the previous mission.

The more he approached the danger, the sharper this instinct became and now, with his new “Void Chakra”, as he began calling it, he began to wonder if he could fuse these abilities with the standard shinobi sensory jutsu he new as well as the ones he learned from Inori.

Quite pleasantly, the process was incredibly smooth.

The initial integration of the Ryumon methods with chakra truly seemed to solve most if not all compatibility issues but there was a little surprise, a very pleasant one.

Starting with the more standard stuff, the Ryumon nature sense combined perfectly with the Inori taught, Ninja Art: Sixth Sense which was in itself an upgraded version of the standard sensory jutsu used by most shinobi, leading to an expanded range and precision.

More interesting was the integration of Inori’s signature Five Senses Sensory Jutsu with Shiki’s already sharp and incredibly precise physical senses as a Ryumon descendant.

The ability to see chakra as color.

The ability to smell chakra at very long distances though strong chakras could hide weaker ones and things like numbers and strength became nearly impossible to discern without getting closer.

At mid range, Shiki gained the ability to “hear chakra”, accurately sensing positioning and even the condition of other individuals.

Another thing the boy became able to do was to “taste” remnants of chakra, obtaining accurate information about a target so long as enough chakra remained at a scene, even better if said target was directly in front of him.

But even more exciting, as far he was concerned, was the new ability to sense the vibrations of chakra through the skin.

This ability synergized with the nature connection particularly well and took on aspects of Chakra Scanning, allowing the boy to perfectly grasp the area around him, even more accurately than a Byakugan user, though with far less range.

The real surprise however, came from his Ryumon instinct which resonated with the cosmic awareness of his Trikaya trait’s True Body and gave Shiki an abnormally powerful intuition.

He unfortunately could not actively use it, it was a passive ability that would trigger at key moments like the Ryumon Instinct would work, at least the boy assumed it would work that way, though some field testing was required to prove that theory.

And with these two main tasks done, it was time to figure out what kind of new jutsu to develop, more accurately, what Shiki felt the need to prioritize.

‘Hmm . . . Maybe I should go for some sparring, test out how I’m doing right now and use that info to decide the most suitable development path for my immediate future.’ The boy thought to himself.

As per usual, when an idea he thought good came to Shiki’s head, he swiftly turned into action.

‘Mito-sama might even have some good advice on what to focus on right now, and she is probably still waiting for me to tell her more details about my changes . . .’

*

The next day, in the early hours of morning, three people stood in the training field Shiki and Mito regularly used in their spars.

“Alright Shiki, we’ll be doing a stress test first.” Mito began.

“You’ll throw everything you got at me first and familiarize yourself with your new limits. After that, Tsunade here will serve as a more realistic opponent for you.” She declared and the boy nodded in agreement.

The Senju princess was already fantasizing about teaching a lesson to the disagreeable brat which her grandmother usually protected.

‘I’m only helping train according to obaa-sama’s wishes, that’s all.’ She thought with a disturbingly kind and cheerful smile plastered on her face.

Whether things would go as she expected or not was a different matter entirely however . . .

Back to the action, the Uzumaki matriarch gave the signal and Shiki readied himself, firming his stance.

‘First, let’s try enhancing the Ryumon clan’s Dragon Gate Style taijutsu and its physical techniques with my Flicker Flash jutsu.’ The boy decided.

With a burst of chakra, he activated flicker flash while using the Shukuchi footwork of the Ryumon clan.

Before anyone could even react, Shiki was already upon Mito, shoulder checking his mistress, using his entire body as a projectile.

The enormous force sent the Uzumaki matriarch flying back at speed, shocking both her and Tsunade watching from the side.

But having long surpassed her previous limits and acquiring a monstrous body through the forbidden inheritance of the Uzumaki, Mito was completely undamaged.

The redhead gracefully flipped mid-air and landed on the ground with elegance, sliding a few steps backwards as she dissipated the last bit of force from Shiki’s attack.

Even more than the two ladies, Shiki was shocked at the speed and power he had just generated though it made sense.

His improved physique made his baseline speed faster while also allowing him to ramp up the output of Flicker Flash which in and of itself was enhanced due to the large increase in the boy’s chakra potency.

Combine that with expert footwork that could, by itself, create the illusion of teleportation with its speed, and the result should have been all but expected.

After their initial exchange, both Shiki and Mito stopped for a moment to contemplate before they each firmed their stance.

With a better idea of what his body could now accomplish, Shiki was eager to try and get one up on his mistress for the first time in a long while . . .

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Hey, Author here!

Just a reminder that you can read up to a FULL MONTH ahead of this site on pa-treon.

I’m trying to become a full time Author now and I’m not going to be starting any new novels just so I can make sure this one is properly completed.

Find those sweet advanced chapters on pa-treon.com/lusoba without the -