Chapter 50.4- One Thousand Hands

We practically crawled through the treeline, taking a much slower pace to account for the injured, the weary, and the bereaved. These people were family in some cases and so any losses hit harder than it would have in any traditional squad. Most Cpatains would not have tolerated the delay, but considering we’d completed the mission faster than anyone could have reasonably expected, I felt it was fine. It did endear me to them even more. If I ever needed to depose Hiruzen, I would need the support of the rank and file if I didn’t want it to devolve into some sort of Civil War, and this was how something like that could start up.

I deactivated my byakugan as we entered an even more relaxed pace. A pace relaxed enough that I could afford to retreat into my head, and consider the half tail of Kokuo’s chakra I had within me. It was stored within Kurama’s seal and since the seal was open, I could access it just about as readily as I could access his own chakra. I didn’t take it for the power it had. Kurama’s power was miles away from being comparable to it. I took it for the nature release it had— steam release.

Where did I get the idea? Naruto, of course. Lava Release: Rasenshuriken, Steam Release: Rasenshuriken, and Magnet Release: Rasengan, were jutsu that he had only been able to use after having the chakra of those tailed beasts within him. Since now I had Kokuo’s chakra, I just had to train my chakra to replicate the feeling of Kokuo’s chakra and use the Kekkei Genkai as if it was my own. My natural affinities didn’t include fire, half of the component of boil release but since I’d gotten my control of fire natured chakra to basic mastery then that should be less of an issue. Affinities were an interesting thing, even. You could learn all the natures with enough discipline and chakra control, but the limits of your skill were basically inbuilt. I could use wind release: armour, but I’d struggle to do the same with lightning release even if I had trained to mastery with it. I just didn’t have the natural talent for it— my ceiling was lower with the elements I lacked affinities for.

And not just that even. When it came to affinities, there were primary, secondary, and tertiary affinities in my case. Not all three elements were equally open to me. From what I had been able to find, my primary affinity was wind, my secondary was earth, and my tertiary was water. It was why even with all of Granduncle’s training, I couldn’t summon tsunamis from thin air like he could. I would—

My thoughts were cut off then as Kurama screamed for me to move. I braced against the tree I’d landed against and pushed myself backwards with all my strength. Kurama’s chakra bubbled from the seal without me even asking and encased me in a cloak. That was the only thing that allowed me survive the explosion that spread from the tree I’d just landed on.