Night settled over the village, and Fujimoto Tōma sat alone in his room, a pencil tapping lightly against paper. Training for the day was done; his body felt pleasantly heavy, his mind sharp. Now came the harder part—choosing what to pursue next.
His list covered almost the entire sheet.
Not because he lacked ambition, but because time was limited, and he refused to waste any of it.
Scientific research?Cut. He didn't have a decade to spare.
Creating his own jutsu?Marked pending.
He had the foundations for it now, thanks to mastering shape manipulation, and his memories from a past life made him more efficient than the average academy student.But creating new jutsu wasn't something achieved by "inspiration and vibes."There were too many unknowns—power, stability, practicality.
Better to learn proven techniques first.If, after the Fourth Shinobi War, he had free time and a long life ahead, then he could experiment.
Still, if inspiration struck along the way… he wasn't above testing an idea.
Sorting Through Existing Jutsu
Tōma went down the list of techniques he already knew.
The C-rank jutsu his father had left behind were all mastered.As for "refining" or "simplifying" them?There wasn't much point.
Vacuum Sphere and Vacuum Wave existed for a reason.Why spend months condensing a weak version when he could just learn the real thing later?
But one jutsu caught his eye—Gale Palm.
A C-rank wind technique that strengthened physical attacks by wrapping wind around the body.
Tōma circled it repeatedly.
Gale Palm reinforced the outside of the body, while his Lightning Release conditioning strengthened him from the inside.The two could complement each other beautifully.
If he could trim down the hand seals, speed up the activation…Yes, that one stayed.
Lightning Release: Running Lightning?He crossed it out immediately.
Low power.Questionable hit rate.Unreliable paralysis.Not worth investing time into.
Finally, his gaze settled on the crown jewel—
Rasengan.
A legendary technique.Beautifully efficient.Ridiculously practical.Iconic.
He had already formed the basic version—unrefined, no added nature transformation, but functional and strong.
But he wasn't here to copy Naruto's homework.
Tōma wanted to push further.
He tapped the paper where he'd written Wind-style Rasengan.
This one was a must learn.
Replacing chakra with elementary wind-natured chakra wasn't the same as full nature transformation.It was basic conversion—wind mimicking the rotation and flow of chakra.
That part should be simple enough.
Even this basic change would let the Rasengan retain its impact while boosting its cutting power.And the better Tōma's control became, the sharper that cutting edge would grow.
More importantly, mastering this step would pave the way toward true wind-style nature transformation later.
He placed a firm checkmark next to it.
The Lightning-style Question
Lightning-style Rasengan received…A hesitant question mark.
Wind was fluid and directional—easy to shape.Lightning was chaotic, branching in all directions, difficult to contain within a spiraling sphere.
Even if he succeeded, what would the payoff be?Damage inferior to wind.No enhanced speed—Rasengan wasn't a thrust technique like Chidori.At best, he'd add a reliable paralysis effect.
Was that worth the control difficulty?
"Nope."
He crossed out the question mark and wrote a large X.
Long-Range Techniques and Nature Transformation
His close-range options were good.Long-range ones? Passable at best.
For now, Wind Cutter would do.Later, he could find something better suited to his style.
Then came the hardest part of all—
Nature transformation itself.
Both wind and lightning were essential.Both were required.Both would be hard.
But how to begin?
Tōma leaned back, recalling bits of scientific concepts from his previous world—things that vaguely resembled wind manipulation.
Wind's defining nature was cutting.
He'd seen videos of industrial water-cutting tools—streams so thin and fast they sliced steel.Wind lacked mass, but made up for it with speed, pressure, and focus.
Compression and flow rate, he wrote.He needed to start by forcing wind-nature chakra into sharper, faster, tighter movement.
Lightning-style, on the other hand…
He frowned.
He understood the concepts—conduction, acceleration, paralytic voltage—but translating them into chakra training was another story.
Where do I even start…?
He tapped the pencil against the desk, thinking.
Lightning was going to be a problem for later.
Wind would come first.