Chapter 84: The Third Attribute
Upon arriving at the border outpost, Ishiro explained the situation to the outpost commander and began training at a nearby practice field.
Ishiro first released all the Water-nature chakra in his body using a B-rank jutsu. He cast more than ten Water Release: Violent Water Wave techniques before finally depleting his chakra, and in the process, he also gained additional practice with that jutsu.
Then Ishiro started drawing out new chakra, but this time the effect wasn't as pronounced as before. Previously, his body had contained a large amount of Water-nature chakra, which greatly increased its activity level. But now that this Water Release chakra had left his body, its activity was rapidly declining.
Still, there was some effect: the new chakra Ishiro extracted contained clearly less Water-nature energy.
This time, instead of converting the freshly extracted chakra into water, Ishiro turned it into Earth-nature chakra.
Once that was done, he extracted new chakra again. At this point, he was overexerting himself, but he decided that the minor damage caused by doing so was manageable for now.
He used a sensory ninjutsu to determine which attribute was dominant in this new chakra.
This time, Ishiro had a vague sense that Earth and Water still accounted for the majority of it, but he also faintly perceived a new attribute. Wait… were there two new ones?
Ishiro was taken aback.
Having two emerging attributes could be both good and bad news.
Good news: in the future, developing a fourth element would be easier.
Bad news: it meant his third attribute was not the primary force among the remaining three, so bringing it out would be more difficult.
After scrutinizing it further, Ishiro finally identified the one that was somewhat stronger: Fire? He felt a bit disappointed—it would have been better if it were Wind, since Jun could have helped him more.
As for the fourth attribute, Ishiro couldn't pinpoint it at the moment.
Still, he at least knew the third was Fire. His next step would be to develop Fire Release ninjutsu.
In the ANBU archives, Ishiro had two Fire Release techniques stored away. One was a B-rank Fire Release jutsu, Phoenix Sage Fire Technique, which originated from a Sand ninja Anbu who had planned to infiltrate the Earth Country. That Sand ninja used it as a bribe for an Iwa spy.
The other was the C-rank Great Fireball Technique that Ishiro had acquired at a Konoha outpost.
However, the scrolls describing these jutsu only outlined how to apply them. Before learning the techniques themselves, a ninja first had to convert their chakra to the relevant nature—a process that required personal insight.
Thus, Ishiro now had another training focus: grasping the Fire-nature transformation. He momentarily considered returning to the village, since it had plenty of reference materials from past masters' experiences that he could exchange with his contribution points, and he could also consult chūnin or jōnin for guidance.
But out here on the border, there was very little he could do except rely on himself. Ishiro felt less than confident, recalling how he had relied on the village's resources for his Earth Release insight, and how his early attempts at Water Release hadn't gone smoothly either.
There isn't much "scientific" basis for how a ninja perceives and shapes chakra nature; in this field, practice far outweighs theory. Naruto in the original story was a prime example of that.
However, if Ishiro wanted to practice, he still needed the right foundational chakra attribute. In other words, he had to deplete his existing chakra completely and then use the newly generated chakra for training. Otherwise, there would be no effect. Under normal circumstances, the chakra Ishiro extracted didn't contain Fire-nature energy, so he couldn't shape it to fire if it wasn't there in the first place.
Because of this, Ishiro still couldn't leave the outpost for the time being.
With no mentor available, Ishiro could only rely on his modern perspective to find ways to experiment with Fire Release. He lit a small fire in front of him and tried to send his newly extracted chakra into the flames to see if that would heighten or extinguish the flame.
It didn't have any clear effect. When Ishiro channeled chakra over the small fire, it only flickered a bit—nothing stronger or weaker.
Next, he took a piece of wood that still had some embers but wasn't aflame and channeled chakra into it. The result was awkward: perhaps the chakra blocked airflow, because the embers slowly died out.
Ishiro was at a loss.
Yet he didn't give up easily. He tried various methods, determined to exhaust the possibilities.
By noon on the third day, Ishiro suddenly had a new idea: Instead of sending chakra into an existing flame, he took a piece of dry wood and thought things over.
Ninja using Fire Release produce flames directly, without needing an external source of fire. Therefore, his previous approach of using an existing flame might have been misguided. He should be trying to ignite an unlit object—that's the core principle behind Fire-nature chakra transformation.
So Ishiro started channeling chakra into the dry wood while using sensory ninjutsu to carefully observe any changes.
He did see a small effect, but he also realized a tricky issue: most of his chakra was still Water-nature, with only a tiny portion being Fire-nature. Trying to ignite wood with just a trace of Fire energy was nearly impossible.
Noticing the difficulty, Ishiro switched from wood to dry grass, and finally to matches.
After using up an untold number of matches, Ishiro finally made a breakthrough. He channeled chakra into the red phosphorus on a match head and examined it closely. Previously, his chakra flowed too quickly, and there was too little Fire-nature in it for any effect.
This time, by holding his chakra in the red phosphorus, he actually managed to generate a spark that spread across the match head. Once it began to burn, the flame continued to travel outward.
Though it took a moment to catch, once it did, it flared quickly. Ishiro didn't manage to capture that initial spark long enough to study the deeper meaning, but having a lead was enough to stir great enthusiasm in him.
He promptly purchased all the matches available at the outpost and kept practicing.
Finally, Ishiro managed to grasp the unique sensation he experienced in those fleeting moments—when the chakra first ignited the match head and the flame began to spread.
He was so immersed in that indescribable feeling that he repeated it over and over. Only when he had used up all the matches did he come out of that state.
"Whew…" Ishiro exhaled and looked around. At that moment, he felt as though the world had changed around him—and that he himself had changed too.
Though it still wasn't a complete success, Ishiro knew he'd gotten through the initial barrier. The hardest step in comprehending Fire-nature chakra was behind him. With more practice, he could master Fire Release.
Sensing he still had some chakra left, Ishiro took a handful of dry grass and channeled chakra into it following his newly acquired insight. After a short while, the grass ignited.
He hurriedly tossed away the burning grass, feeling quite excited. He had finally awakened his third attribute.
"Captain, did you succeed?" came Fu's voice. Naturally, his three subordinates all knew what Ishiro had been working on. Seeing him suddenly conjure flame out of thin air, they hurried over to ask.
Ishiro nodded, then shook his head. "I've gotten started. I understand what Fire-nature means now. But calling it 'success' is too early. Most of my chakra is still Water-nature. I have to deplete it all and then draw fresh chakra to get even a small portion of Fire-nature. And even then, I've only just begun. I'm still a long way from truly mastering it."
He was being honest. Right now, he could ignite dry grass, but not wood. As for creating a jutsu-based fire from nothing, that was far off.
However, the moment he sensed Fire-nature in his chakra, it meant he had pried open the internal balance restricting his attributes. Fire Release had officially begun to emerge.
Moreover, this sliver of Fire-nature would steadily become a fixed part of his chakra. The more he honed it, the more it would grow.
At present, however, that sliver was too small. Ishiro guessed that if he used chakra paper, it might not even react. So for the time being, if he wanted to continue practicing Fire Release, he'd still have to deplete all his existing chakra each time to draw out the new Fire-nature chakra.
Ishiro stayed at the outpost for several more days. When the time came to fulfill the agreement he'd made with old man Hirosho, he led Squad 7 back to the nearby town.
At that point, the small teams Hirosho had sent out earlier were also returning one after another. Some had made it back the day before.
Because this was the first run, Hirosho had received specific instructions from Inoue beforehand: apart from everyone's wages, all profits from the trip would be used to purchase supplies.
Looking at the goods, which had doubled in quantity from before, Ishiro was stunned. He asked, "Grandpa Hirosho, does that mean the profit from this run doubled compared to last time?"
Hirosho laughed. "Ishiro, you can't look at it that way. Even though the goods have doubled, there's also the cost of the merchandise, the wear and tear on carts, our time, risk factors, and so on. We didn't actually earn that much."
Ishiro thought it over and agreed. This trip had gone smoothly and brought in decent profit, but accidents were always possible—like sickness. If someone in the caravan had fallen ill, they wouldn't just leave them behind. Factoring in all those variables, having double the goods in one lucky journey wasn't such a tremendous profit margin. After all, doing business in the ninja world carried a significant risk to life and limb.
Dropping that line of thought, Ishiro and the others waited a few more hours for the remaining separated teams to regroup. To Ishiro's surprise, the final returning team had brought along two other merchant caravans. These two caravans weren't large—each about a quarter the size of Hirosho's.
Ishiro inspected their goods and found they were also carrying the same kind of regional specialties as Hirosho's group.
Out of curiosity, Ishiro asked what their intentions were.
It turned out these two caravans weren't entirely convinced Ishiro's trade route would last; they'd just heard that the caravan would depart again, assumed there would be a second trip, and decided to tag along and see how profitable it might be.
Essentially, both caravans were just testing the waters. Ishiro felt that if the second trip also yielded good results, the scale of the next endeavor would be much larger.
This was precisely what Ishiro had hoped for. Having imitators was part of his plan. He wanted the scale to keep expanding so that eventually the entire Rain and Earth Countries could enjoy mutual growth.
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