The excitement brought by that successful attempt lasted less than a second before it was replaced by extreme fatigue and a sharp clarity.
Roy did not allow himself to indulge in the joy.
He struggled to his feet immediately, carefully swept the small pile of black powder on the table into his palm with his sleeve, then walked to the drain in the corner, turned on the faucet, and used a thin stream of water to completely wash away the evidence, leaving no trace behind.
Only after doing all this did he slide down against the wall, drained of strength.
The meridians in his right arm still ached from the burning sensation, and the excessive consumption of his mental energy made his head spin in waves.
He closed his eyes to check his body; there were several minor injuries in his meridians, which would take at least a night to recover.
The cost was heavy.
He savored the feeling of his fingertip touching the wooden chopstick from earlier.
That wasn't a change in chakra's form, nor a change in its nature.
Shuriken Shadow Clone was shaping, the Rasengan was the ultimate form manipulation, and the Chidori was the ultimate nature manipulation.
The essence of those jutsu was simply playing around within the existing rules to maximize chakra's power.
What he had done just now was to introduce a variable that didn't belong to this world.
Armament Haki was a power brought by his soul, inherently superior to chakra.
It was unreasonable, didn't adhere to the energy laws here, was pure, self-willed, and domineering.
Under normal circumstances, this power would have directly destroyed his meridians.
But he had successfully used the flowing nature of chakra to temporarily create a dynamic conduit, a cage, briefly locking this beast inside and guiding it out of his body.
When this cage made contact with an external object, the imprisoned beast instantly unleashed its most primitive annihilating characteristic.
Chakra was the conductor; Armament Haki was the core.
This wasn'nt a ninjutsu.
This was something entirely new.
He needed to give it a name. The source of the power was the Thunder Dragon; the effect it displayed was annihilation.
Thunder Annihilation.
The word surfaced in his mind.
Very direct, very fitting.
He was well aware that the current Thunder Annihilation was just a very rough prototype.
It lasted less than a second, consumed an enormous amount of energy, and was extremely unstable.
If his mental focus had wavered just a little earlier, that cage would have collapsed, and what got erased wouldn't have been the chopstick, but his own finger.
But this was undoubtedly the right path.
A path belonging solely to him, leading to becoming the strongest.
This was the starting point for all his future power.
It was the cornerstone.
...
No words were exchanged that night.
The next day, Roy appeared at the Ninja Academy as usual.
His complexion was a bit pale, but he perfectly covered it up with the excuse of not having slept well the night before.
No one noticed anything amiss. His act was as flawless as ever.
The morning class was on Ninja Tool Theory.
The chunin instructor stood at the podium, tirelessly explaining kunai throwing techniques, grip methods, angles, and how to maintain weapons.
"A kunai is a ninja's most fundamental partner; its reliability directly affects whether you live or die.
Infusing it with chakra is a skill every genin must master…"
Most of the students below the podium had already started dozing off.
Roy listened very attentively.
Or rather, he appeared to listen very attentively.
His mind had long since wandered elsewhere.
Infusing chakra into a kunai could increase its sharpness and destructive power.
So, what if he infused Thunder Annihilation onto it?
The moment this thought emerged, it could no longer be suppressed.
His gaze casually swept across the first row of the classroom.
Kakashi Hatake was sitting there, propping up his chin with one hand, his eyes平淡地 looking out the window, as if everything in the class had nothing to do with him.
The people in the classroom, including the teacher, all regarded Kakashi as an unattainable prodigy benchmark.
But Roy knew that what they saw was merely the tip of the iceberg floating on the surface.
He himself was a deep sea that no one knew about.
Kakashi was in the open, attracting all the light and hostility.
And he was in the shadows, quietly forging the power capable of overturning everything.
The school dismissal bell rang.
Roy didn't go home immediately, nor did he head to the orphanage.
He carried his bag, turned into a secluded path, and walked toward the edge of the village.
The rear mountains of Konoha connected to the vast area known as the Forest of Death.
It was the venue for the Chunin Exams, usually devoid of people, filled with poisonous insects and ferocious beasts, designated as a restricted area by the village.
But for Roy, it was the perfect natural laboratory.
Familiar with the route, he bypassed the regular patrol routes, flashed a few times between the trees, and vanished deep into the dense forest.
Along the way, he also checked several simple traps he had set with animal hair and tree sap, confirming they hadn't been disturbed.
After penetrating about three kilometers, he arrived at a hidden clearing surrounded by huge rocks.
It was a secret base that had taken him half a year to find.
He put down his bag and took out a kunai from inside.
It was a practice tool distributed in class today.
Gripping this most ordinary piece of iron, he walked to the center of the clearing, facing a block of granite about half a man's height.
He took a deep breath, clearing his mind of all distractions.
The tearing pain from last night was still fresh in his memory, but he didn't hesitate for a moment.
His mental focus reached its peak, and the Mind's Eye quietly unfolded, covering a hundred meters around him, alert to any potential intruders.
Immediately after, he began constructing that chakra circulation within his body.
The gentle energy river took shape, flowing steadily.
Then, he reached for the first lever to pry open the cornerstone.
A faint wisp of Armament Haki was awakened from its slumber.
He guided the chakra river, actively meeting it and enveloping it.
The familiar sensation of resistance and the sting returned, transmitted through his meridians.
Roy's body trembled slightly, but he stubbornly maintained the stability of his mental focus, not allowing the dynamic cage to show the slightest sign of collapse.
Success.
A force far heavier and more condensed than ordinary chakra was painfully guided to his right hand, the one holding the kunai.
He could feel the iron implement in his hand whimpering silently.
The foundation of a ninja…
Roy raised his hand, aiming the tip of the kunai at the granite before him.
Let you bear witness to this initial qualitative change.
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