📖 Chapter 16 – Shadow of Ki, Trace of Strength
The wind in the Land of Tea blew differently from Konoha's.It wasn't just the salty air from the sea or the warm breeze weaving through the tea bushes.It was a feeling Rei couldn't fully explain—something inside him felt lighter… yet more alert.
The trip with his mother, Sayuri, had been as diplomatic as her business allowed.She used him as a minor envoy—a curious, youthful face that sparked sympathy among officials and merchants.But for him, that whole parade was nothing but a façade.What truly mattered was what he had felt the night before, falling asleep with his mind still restless from Shuri's words:
"The ninja I was… still lives within me, Rei. But you are already beyond that."
Those words echoed in his chest as he drifted into the void of sleep, once again descending to the heart of his inner world.
This time, the door wasn't waiting for him in silence.It was ajar, as if the energy guarding it had been weakened by his recent surge of emotions.The seal on his chest burned for a moment—not with pain, but like a key recognizing a lock.
When he crossed over, there were no ruins or endless corridors like in his first dungeons.What lay before him was a barren plain, under a violet sky, with floating mountains in the distance.The gravity felt… different.The atmosphere, dense.
"Dragon Ball?" he muttered, instantly recognizing the scenery.
A crackling aura emerged in front of him.It wasn't an enemy.It was a figure wrapped in energy, with vague features, as if the dungeon refused to show its complete image.Only a presence remained—discipline, power, serenity, battle.
The figure nodded.Training was about to begin.
The days that followed—within that dimension—stretched into what felt like weeks.Rei felt no hunger or sleep, only an ever-deepening exhaustion, not physical but spiritual.The "trainer" never spoke.It only pointed out movements, stances, impossible exercises.
Running with weights that made the air itself groan.Striking stones until his skin burned.Feeling the ki he didn't truly possess, but that the world was trying to teach him to understand through his chakra.
The goal was clear: to grasp and use the principle of Shunkan Idō—Instant Transmission.
But it wasn't just about speed.It was awareness.Pure intention.
He failed countless times, reappearing disoriented and lost.The desert offered no mercy.Neither did the figure.
On the seventh attempt—or perhaps the twentieth, he no longer knew—Rei closed his eyes, centered his breathing, and focused on a single point of existence: his seal.The one that pulsed like a second heart.He felt the flow of his chakra… then the void… and then the compression of his body folding in on itself, as if space itself bent.
And in a flash—
He reappeared behind the figure.
He dropped to his knees, exhausted.He had moved less than a meter.
But he had done it.
For the first time, the figure smiled.
When he opened his eyes in his hotel bed in the Land of Tea, Sayuri was still asleep beside him.The tea leaves rustled in the wind.The seal on his chest glowed faintly.
He hadn't learned a jutsu—not yet.But he had touched the essence of a technique that broke distance and ignored time.
And for the first time, Rei understood a small part of the future he wanted to create.
Not to run faster.But to reach the impossible.