"Ice Shield!"
"Snow Shock!"
"Ice Shuriken!"
"Ice Melt!"
Shigure unleashed a flurry of techniques, manipulating ice and snow in various forms.
The Ice Shield instantly condensed into an extremely hard structure—either a massive wall of ice or a dome that completely enveloped Shigure, forming a sturdy defense.
Snow Shock condensed the surrounding frost and snow into a mini blizzard, bombarding the target with an intense impact. The storm was filled with jagged, ice crystal-infused snowflakes—razor-sharp and deadly, perfect for slicing through defenses.
As for Ice Shuriken, it was exactly what it sounded like—shurikens made of pure, condensed ice, sharp and fast.
But Shigure wasn't limited to just shuriken. With refined chakra control, he could reshape his ice techniques into virtually any form.
Ice Melt, despite the misleading name, didn't dissolve anything. Instead, it functioned similarly to Byakuya Kuchiki's Senbonzakura—countless snowflakes, each a tiny blade, surged toward the enemy like a blizzard of death. The main weapon, however, wasn't the snowflakes—it was the overwhelming cold.
The freezing air severely weakened enemies, their cells rapidly dying from necrosis as structural integrity broke down from within. Against such temperatures, even steel would grow brittle.
Naturally, if the opponent protected themselves with chakra, they could resist for a time. But doing so came at a steep cost—continuous chakra expenditure.
In a battle of stamina and attrition, within Shigure's frozen domain, he had the absolute upper hand.
After all, he expended no chakra, while the enemy bled energy just to stay alive.
Once the Frozen Domain was activated, it didn't directly attack—it simply dropped the temperature to extreme lows across a wide area, allowing Shigure to use his Ice Release techniques with greater ease.
When activating the Frozen Moment technique independently, he could concentrate the cold into a focused burst, freezing everything within a localized radius. However, if the initial freeze failed, the attack transitioned into a sustained freezing field—extremely cold, but no longer offensive on its own.
That was the current state of Shigure's Ice Release.
"It's already very good," he muttered to himself, genuinely satisfied.
From his perspective, with just these two techniques—Frozen Domain and Frozen Moment—as long as the battlefield was under his control, a one-on-one victory was only a matter of time.
Once the enemy entered his domain, they'd be forced to continuously expend physical energy and chakra just to resist freezing. Simultaneously, they'd have to endure his relentless snowstorms and ice crystal barrages.
Definitely not easy.
"With the Skill Bar, these two techniques will only become more terrifying!"
"In the future, when the area and freezing intensity improve, it might even rival Wood Release!"
He couldn't help but look forward to it.
Once he had moved both skills into the Passive Slot, Shigure turned his attention to a newly acquired attribute—Lightning Release.
He'd always liked Lightning-style ninjutsu. It was powerful, sharp, and effective.
But compared to his developed elemental releases, Lightning was still far behind.
It would take a long time just to bring it up to par—never mind specializing in it.
Unless absolutely necessary, he wasn't planning to go all-in on other elements just yet.
Still, Lightning Release had synergy.
It could combine with Ice Release to form Compound Ninjutsu, amplifying power beyond the sum of their parts.
That alone made it worth keeping in his toolbox.
Then, a thought struck him.
"Great Sage, can you analyze the Sharingan?"
[Great Sage: Unable to analyze. Not because it's impossible—but because it cannot currently be parsed.]
Shigure blinked. "Isn't that the same thing?"
"Why can't you parse it?"
[Great Sage: The Sharingan's dojutsu abilities are not merely chakra-based. They are rooted in bloodline power. Without first understanding the secrets of blood inheritance, analysis is impossible.]
"I see... so I can't rely on you to obtain a kekkei genkai like the Sharingan for now, huh."
He let out a disappointed sigh.
[Great Sage: If Active Skill 1 is repaired, the host can obtain the Sharingan bloodline. Even the Ōtsutsuki bloodline would become accessible.]
Active Skill 1?
"What's Active Skill 1?"
[Great Sage: Active Skill 1 – Gluttony.]
Shigure smiled. He should've known.
He had seen that word before—but hadn't really paid attention to it.
[Great Sage: Gluttony allows the host to consume any object, assimilate it, and analyze it. Through this, you can acquire any bloodline trait.]
"Excellent," Shigure muttered, eyes lighting up. Gluttony opened up the possibility of infinite evolution.
"Wait—hold on. Great Sage, you aren't fully repaired yet. When can I activate Gluttony?"
[Great Sage: …Time of activation is currently incalculable.]
Knew it.
He sighed again. "Then when will you be fully repaired?"
[Great Sage: Also incalculable.]
Seriously?
"Can't you at least give me a rough estimate?!"
[Great Sage: As the host continues to develop and analyze various abilities, it also accelerates my recovery indirectly.]
[If you analyze one or two more kekkei genkai, my computational capacity may improve by another 10%.]
"Huh, so you're saying I can help fix you by figuring out more bloodline limits?"
Interesting.
"Based on your current recovery rate, I probably need to develop seven or eight kekkei genkai before you're fully operational."
[Great Sage: Estimated minimum—ten.]
Tch. More than I expected.
"Ten bloodlines…"
Actually, that's not too bad.
Two or three months at most. That's still acceptable.
"Alright then! Ten it is! It's just bloodline development—we've done worse!"
Shigure clapped his hands together, a small smile forming on his face.
Now that he had all five chakra natures, developing kekkei genkai was no longer a distant dream—it was well within reach.
But before diving into that, there was something he wanted to explore first: Lightning Release.
"Hey, Great Sage. If developing a bloodline limit helps with your recovery… what about ninjutsu development?"
[Great Sage: That is also effective.]
"Perfect!"
"Then based on my current chakra attributes and existing techniques, calculate a low-level Lightning Release jutsu for me. Doesn't need to be flashy—just functional."
[Calculation in progress…]
[20%… 40%… 60%…]
The process was quick—far quicker than when analyzing bloodlines.
It seemed that for the Great Sage, creating new ninjutsu was no longer a challenge, at least when it came to basic elemental techniques that didn't involve complex chakra manipulation.
[Calculation complete.]
[Congratulations. The host has obtained a new skill: Lightning Release – Lightning Strike.]
[Lightning Release – Lightning Strike: Releases a bolt of lightning to attack the target.]
Short, simple, and to the point.
But that was fine.
For now, even a basic jutsu like this would serve its purpose.
With Lightning Release in hand, Shigure had something else in mind—something far more interesting.
Compound Ninjutsu.
Could he merge two jutsu into a combined elemental technique?
Time to find out.
He raised both hands.
Hand seals—begin.
His left hand began forming the signs for the Water Release: Water Dragon Bullet Technique.
His right hand moved simultaneously, forming the seals for Lightning Release: Lightning Strike.
As both techniques neared completion, he pressed his right hand onto his left arm, channeling lightning into the forming water dragon.
In that instant—crackling energy surged across his body.
Electricity danced along his arms.
A storm was about to be born.
...
TN:
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