Hajime didn't want anyone watching yet.
It wasn't that chakra training was forbidden, this wasn't some tightly controlled Hidden Village where every jutsu was documented or licensed. No, in the Land of Waves, chakra was mysterious and rare, but not illegal. It was simply uncommon. Especially for children. Especially for orphans.
But Hajime wasn't ready to explain himself. He didn't want curious eyes on him, didn't want to answer questions about how he'd learned Earth Release when he had no teacher. Not until he had something worth showing.
So, every morning before the sun crested the hills, he slipped into the forest.
He walked beyond the rice paddies, beyond the last fishing nets and footpaths. Through thickets of bamboo and moss-covered rocks, into a half-hidden glade surrounded by crumbling stone ridges. It wasn't large, but it was private. The ground was flat, the trees tall, and no one ever came this far in.
This was his place.
His lab.
And today, he stood barefoot in its center, breathing steadily, hands poised in a half-seal.
He formed the sign of the Tiger, then the Ox, and pushed chakra downward through his soles.
"Earth Release: Earth Wall!"
The ground shuddered. With a rumble, a thick slab of compacted dirt burst upward before him, forming a jagged, waist-high wall of hardened earth. It settled into place with a rough crunch, bits of dirt tumbling from the edges.
Hajime exhaled slowly.
It worked. Just like it had yesterday. Just like the scroll taught him.
But it wasn't enough.
The Earth Wall was solid, dependable, but entirely defensive. A shield, nothing more. And even that shield cost a massive amount of chakra. For someone his age, with barely a few months of refinement behind him, casting it twice left him dizzy.
He stared at the wall, expression flat. "A wall that protects... but can't fight back."
The scroll his father had left behind taught him the technique by rote, hand signs, timing, chakra shaping. But there was no explanation of the fundamentals. No theory. No philosophy. Just step-by-step instructions.
Hajime crouched beside the base of the wall, placing his palm on its rough surface. It was warm from his chakra. Solid. But why did the earth rise in this way? What caused it to shape upward like that? How did it harden so quickly?
It wasn't magic, it was chakra engineering. A system. And as a modern mind, he wanted to break it open, see the gears turning underneath.
If the wall could rise like this, then…
He backed away ten paces, formed the signs again, and focused. But this time, he didn't imagine a flat wall.
He imagined bars. Iron-hard pillars. Curved forward like the ribs of a beast.
"Earth Release: Rising Iron Fence!"
The ground cracked, and from it, several vertical spikes shot up in a wide arc. They curved inward, tall and jagged, some splitting into smaller tips like spearheads. The formation resembled a bear trap made of stone.
Hajime grinned.
Offense. Containment. Danger. All born from a purely defensive jutsu.
But then he dropped to one knee, panting.
That technique had drained almost as much chakra as the original Earth Wall, maybe even more. If he used that in a real fight, he'd only get two, maybe three shots before he collapsed.
He sat back against a tree, breathing hard.
"Too much chakra," he muttered. "Too big. Too greedy."
He had to think smaller.
That was the problem. Earth users in this world always thought in bulk: walls, domes, mountains. But Hajime had grown up reading comics, studying engineering, playing games full of traps and micro-strategies.
Big wasn't always better.
Smart was better.
He stood up again and cleared a spot of earth.
This time, he imagined a narrow spike. Not a wall. Not a fence. Just a single point, sharp and sudden, bursting from beneath an enemy's foot.
"Earth Release: Buried Spire Formation!"
A narrow spike of hardened dirt erupted from the earth, fast, focused, and dangerously sharp.
Hajime nodded. That could kill. But again… it consumed too much chakra. Not as much as the wall, but still too much for what it did.
"Low cost, high return…" he muttered, rubbing his temples.
Then, inspiration struck.
Why bother impaling an enemy if you could just immobilize them first?
What if the jutsu didn't build something, what if it simply altered the ground?
He moved to a different patch, kneeling in the dirt.
"Loosen the earth. Just a little," he whispered. "Then harden it again, tight, like a vise."
He stood, formed a simple seal, and willed his chakra into the ground.
"Earth Release: Foot-Grip Bind."
The earth shimmered for half a second, almost imperceptibly.
Hajime stepped onto the patch.
His feet sank slightly, and then froze.
The ground locked around his ankles like stone cuffs. Not tight enough to hurt, but enough to hold him completely still.
He grinned wide.
"That's it."
Minimal chakra. Hidden activation. Maximum control. Perfect for a setup, use it, then throw a kunai. Or let a teammate hit them while they're frozen. It was dirty, subtle... and lethal in the right hands.
But he wasn't done.
He refined the idea again, what if the enemy was moving? Could he make them slip, not freeze?
He softened a stretch of earth just enough to be treacherous. Then he ran at it.
As he stepped onto the patch, his footing gave, and he stumbled forward with a grunt.
"Earth Release: Earthen Blade Slip."
Simple. Disruptive. Low cost.
If a sword user lunged and their front foot slipped at the last second, they were done.
He chuckled to himself, brushing off his hands.
His final test for the day was an assassination trick. A piercing spike, just one. No wider than a finger. Fast. Unpredictable.
He imagined it under the arch of an enemy's foot.
Formed a single sign.
"Earth Release: Piercing Toe Spike!"
A thin spike erupted with a sharp snap. Not huge. But fast. Enough to rupture muscle, tear through a tendon.
He exhaled. He felt drained, but not dangerously so. The chakra cost of that last one was acceptable.
He sat on a stump and looked around.
The forest clearing was now a mess,cracked earth, impaling spikes, trampled dirt hardened into traps. Not natural. Not safe.
Hajime stood slowly and scanned the broken terrain, thoughtful.
If someone wandered in and saw this, they'd know something strange was going on.
"This place can't hold my growth for long."
He needed somewhere to experiment freely. A place where no one could see or stumble upon his traps.
A base. A true hideout.
Not a hut. Not a borrowed shack.
He'd make it underground. Concealed. Secure.
And one day, maybe even armed.
He looked down at his hand, dirt still clinging to his fingers.
A boy with no clan. No teacher. No special blood.
And yet, with only imagination, chakra, and resolve, he had created what others hadn't.
His smirk returned.
"I'm not just learning jutsu."
"I'm inventing them."
And the forest trembled with what that meant.