To be recognized as a "powerhouse" in the ninja world, one must possess certain qualities—abilities that grant an unshakable foothold amidst the chaos of the shinobi realm.
For Hane Genma, neither the three abilities he gained from White Zetsu by chance nor his current proficiency in Water Release and Fire Release were enough to secure such a foundation.
As his enemy had just pointed out, without a certain level of innate strength, auxiliary techniques like the Mayfly Jutsu were little more than parlor tricks.
As for Genma's Water Release and Fire Release, their applications were rather limited. Could his mastery of these two natures truly surpass that of other shinobi?
The answer was simple. With his utterly ordinary chakra reserves, it was impossible.
Could he wield Water Release on the level of Senju Tobirama? Or Fire Release on par with Uchiha Madara? Absolutely not.
In truth, it wasn't that Tobirama's Water Release or Madara's Fire Release were inherently superior. It was because Tobirama bore the Senju name that his Water Release dominated the ninja world. It was because Madara was an Uchiha that his Fire Release towered above others.
Without the right physical foundation or the inherited bloodline, chasing extraordinary jutsu power with mediocre chakra was a fool's errand.
In short, for Genma to find an ability that would let him stand firm in the tumultuous ninja world, a chakra-blending kekkei genkai was practically his only option.
What about sage techniques?
To be blunt, for a shinobi of Genma's caliber, pursuing sage techniques was like chasing a goddess—far too ethereal and unrealistic, bordering on fantasy.
Setting aside the issue of finding a teacher to guide him… the gates of Mount Myoboku weren't exactly open to all. The very foundation of learning sage techniques required a shinobi to possess immense chakra reserves.
That fundamental requirement alone was enough to disqualify Genma.
Even if, by some miracle, he got the chance to study sage techniques, the outcome was predictable. The ninja world would lose a principled shinobi, and some hidden realm would gain a cold, lifeless toad statue.
So, it was better to stay realistic and grounded.
Having mastered the chakra nature transformations of fire and water, Genma naturally turned to the idea of "blending" these two chakra types to create a kekkei genkai.
But the problem was, blending wasn't simple.
If it were as easy as physically mixing two different chakra natures to produce a special technique far greater than the sum of its parts, the ninja world would be overflowing with kekkei genkai users.
Even chakra-based kekkei genkai were the result of countless predecessors painstakingly experimenting, accumulating knowledge, and achieving breakthroughs under rare, serendipitous circumstances.
To a large extent, such developmental experience was irreproducible. It was encoded in a ninja's DNA, passed down through bloodlines across history.
That was the essence of the term "kekkei genkai."
Genma tried time and again to fuse his water and fire chakra natures, but the process of pursuing a kekkei genkai was excruciatingly difficult. His experiments yielded no results. Water and fire chakra were inherently opposing forces—how could blindly mixing them lead to anything good?
Forging his own path might theoretically offer a slim chance of stumbling onto the right method, but that was purely theoretical.
Unable to achieve chakra fusion with his own body, Genma even tried a desperate approach: turning half his body into White Zetsu's form while keeping the other half human, channeling water chakra on one side and fire chakra on the other.
Not only did this fail, but the clash of the two natures nearly caused him severe injury.
Now, at this moment of life and death, by some twist of fate, Genma suddenly experienced an "epiphany."
Well, not quite an epiphany—more like a blind cat stumbling upon a dead mouse.
Genma had never realized that, compared to his naturally frail and unremarkable body, the White Zetsu form, while lacking in raw strength, was an exceptionally versatile "base material."
Humans processed by the God Tree were, at the very least, akin to "ginseng"—a rare and extraordinary "ingredient."
With much of Genma's body now heavily injured, he pushed his White Zetsu transformation to its limits, using maximum chakra to accelerate the process in an attempt to heal his wounds. As a result, the White Zetsu cells in his body exhibited unprecedented vitality.
Under a confluence of chance factors, certain latent properties within those transformed cells were awakened.
It was as if the White Zetsu body had pre-existing "channels" embedded within it. When the transformation reached an extreme level of activity, these channels were triggered, becoming visible.
When Genma channeled his water and fire chakra natures again, they suddenly flowed naturally along these channels, merging together.
To be honest, if you asked Genma how he managed to fuse the two chakra natures, he still wouldn't have an answer.
The fusion process was a "black box" to him. It just so happened that this black box was embedded in his body, allowing him to wield it.
But regardless, by leveraging the hidden traits of the White Zetsu body, Genma, who had been pushed to the brink, underwent a sudden transformation.
Steam rose around his half-dead body on the ground, causing Jigo Yurei, his opponent, to grow wary.
But he wasn't wary enough.
Boom!
With a deafening roar, the floor of the castle's highest tower instantly cracked, spiderweb-like fractures spreading outward. The immense force reverberated through the lower floors and into the foundation, shaking the entire fortress.
Jigo Yurei narrowed his eyes, his face contorted in shock.
He had kept his gaze fixed on Genma, yet the man's figure had vanished in an instant.
Moving at unimaginable speed, Genma stirred the surrounding air currents. Jigo Yurei's eyes instinctively followed the direction of the violently swirling steam…
Another thunderous crash echoed as Genma's feet slammed into the wall on one side of the room.
He looked even more battered and pitiful than before. One arm dangled uselessly, swinging uncontrollably, and his crouched stance on the wall was anything but graceful—almost like he was squatting in a latrine.
But Jigo Yurei had no time to care about Genma's awkward posture. His eyes were locked on Genma's other arm.
That right arm was embedded in the wall.
Looking closer, Genma's fingers, held like a blade, had pierced straight through a pale mask.
Beneath that mask was a still-beating heart. The foreign object impaling it caused it to pulse faster and faster, until it could no longer muster the strength for another beat.
A surge of chakra flowed from the heart into Genma's arm, flooding his body. Part of it went toward repairing his injuries, while the rest fueled his new technique.
The kekkei genkai born from combining water and fire chakra was likely Boil Release.
Boil Release could elevate a user's chakra to a boiling state, granting explosive power beyond imagination. Right now, Genma was like a pressure cooker—as long as he had chakra to sustain it, he could unleash monstrous strength.
In a way, Genma had fulfilled his wish…
This was the "ordinary" technique he'd been chasing—a "basic attack interspersed with normal strikes."
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