Chapter 1: Taijutsu Cannot Save the Shinobi World

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Chapter 1: Taijutsu Alone Cannot Save the Shinobi World

“Young man, believe in yourself! Even if you can’t use ninjutsu, you can still become an extraordinary ninja!”

“Come on, let’s keep pushing our limits. If you can’t finish, how about doing fifty laps on your hands?”

“……”

Chiba squinted as he looked at Guy, who was brimming with enthusiasm, and couldn’t help but sigh inwardly.

He knew Guy meant well.

However—

As a transmigrator, he was well aware of the ceiling of pure taijutsu. It was strong, but only up to a point. The Eight Gates were the peak, right? But that brilliance was fleeting, like smoke—gone in an instant in the ninja world. Chiba had no desire to become smoke. Besides, he was the same age as Lee; even if he focused solely on taijutsu, no matter how hard he trained, he’d only reach Lee’s level at most.

And what was Lee’s level? He could open six gates in the final battle, but aside from adding excitement and applause, he couldn’t do much more; he could only watch helplessly as his teacher fought for his life, standing powerless on the sidelines.

He believed that, in that moment, Lee must have been utterly devastated.

Chiba didn’t want to go through that.

So, he understood perfectly well that dedicating himself solely to taijutsu had no future.

But he had no choice.

Two years ago, he transmigrated into the world of Naruto and discovered a glowing orb in his consciousness.

Then he realized he lacked the innate talent for nature transformation and genjutsu; he couldn’t even master the simplest transformation techniques.

However—

After some experimentation, Chiba found the benefits of the glowing orb.

First, his chakra control was exceptional.

Second, he had a high aptitude for taijutsu.

His bodily and muscular control was also outstanding. According to his teachers and Guy, even many jonin might not match him in this regard.

As for the third benefit…

He learned things extremely quickly.

He suspected all this was related to the mysterious orb. Over the past two years, he noticed that the orb seemed to grow stronger as he studied and experimented.

Therefore, he had to come up with some new ideas.

Sorry, Guy-sensei!

“Chiba, you lack talent in ninjutsu and genjutsu. Are you going to give up on taijutsu as well?”

Guy looked at Chiba, disappointment written across his face.

He’d taken Chiba and Lee under his wing and trained with them because both were hardworking and didn’t care about others’ opinions.

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But—

After two years of persistence, was he really going to give up now? Was his resolve truly that weak?

“Guy-sensei, I’m not giving up. I’m just considering other paths. Lee and I simply can’t complete nature transformation, but we both have chakra. My control is strong—I can develop techniques that don’t require nature transformation.”

Chiba stood up and continued running, panting as he explained his thoughts to Guy and Lee. “No hand seals, no nature transformation—if I condense chakra, it should still have powerful destructive force.”

“But…”

“Like this.”

As Chiba spoke, he extended his right hand, forming a condensed sphere of chakra in his palm.

It wasn’t the Rasengan, but a ball of chakra compressed to the point of being destructive.

Guy glanced at it, then his face filled with astonishment.

Was this…

The Rasengan?

No, not yet—it was just a simple compressed chakra sphere.

“We often run by the river, and these past few days I’ve been wondering: if, after condensing chakra, I kept it spinning like a vortex, wouldn’t its destructive power be even greater?”

Chiba continued.

That’s right.

From the moment he transmigrated two years ago, he’d tried to replicate the method from the manga to train the Rasengan.

To make it reasonable to reveal, Chiba hadn’t used the manga’s “balloon training method” outright, but instead, using the same principles, had practiced in secret for two years, gradually mastering the technique.

After explaining, he began rotating the chakra.

The spinning chakra made the interior of the sphere swirl like a tornado, but the exterior remained perfectly intact.

Guy was silent for several seconds before saying, “Have you ever thought of adding more directions to the rotation?”

“Hm? That’s right! Why didn’t I think of that?”

Chiba acted as if he’d just had an epiphany and immediately tried, but the chakra sphere soon dissipated.

He wasn’t discouraged and was ready to try again.

But Guy, voice heavy, said, “Child, this technique already exists. It’s an A-rank ninjutsu known as the Rasengan.”

“What? It already exists?”

Chiba feigned shock.

“That’s right. Your technique is the same as the Fourth Hokage’s Rasengan,” Guy nodded.

Lee stood by in silence. Judging from his expression, he didn’t fully understand, but he was clearly deeply impressed.

“This…”

“Don’t worry. Sometimes, it’s normal for people to independently develop similar ideas or techniques. If you had better talent in nature transformation and genjutsu, you might have become an extraordinary ninja.”

Guy sighed.

Even without innate talent for ninjutsu, this child hadn’t given up, but instead thought to use non-elemental chakra to develop jutsu. This kind of thinking and intelligence…

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It was truly a pity.

“It doesn’t matter, Guy-sensei. When the Sage of Six Paths closed one door for me, he opened a window. I should be grateful. Besides, I believe that even without nature transformation, one can still become strong!”

Chiba’s voice was firm.

At this point, Lee finally spoke, envious and excited: “Even though Chiba can’t use ninjutsu either, the fact that he can develop such a technique on his own is incredible!”

“We should study taijutsu, and also learn ninjutsu that doesn’t require nature transformation, combining the two.”

Chiba continued.

“That’s called Ninja Body Techniques,” Guy reminded him.

After some thought, a slight smile appeared on his face. “Come on, no matter what, taijutsu is still the foundation. Let’s keep training!”

“Yes!”

The three continued their arduous training, but each harbored their own thoughts. As a result, even though they trained just as hard as before, the atmosphere was more subdued.

Only at dusk did the three go their separate ways.

Chiba returned to the village housing that had been assigned to him, replaying the day’s events in his mind.

Of course, his plans went far beyond Ninja Body Techniques, but as a civilian, the knowledge he could reasonably access was limited.

If he started talking about superhuman strength, natural energy, or sage arts, it wouldn’t just draw the attention of the higher-ups, but also of the Anbu and Danzo. He might even find himself “invited” to Root for a little chat.

“Sorry, Guy-sensei, but I really have no other options.”

He was twelve this year, with only a few months left before graduation. In a few more years, the Fourth Great Ninja War would break out.

Time was running out!

Of course—

He hadn’t neglected his ninjutsu training either.

Back home, Chiba began condensing chakra, shaping and compressing it outside his body.

At present, he could already form chakra threads and use them to manipulate kunai, shuriken, and the like, but that wasn’t the result he was aiming for.

When his chakra was nearly depleted, he took out his notebook.

“Not strong enough—can’t pierce objects yet. I need to find a way to further refine and compress.”

“So far, the Rasengan is still the most effective.”

“I can’t integrate nature transformation into the Rasengan, but there’s still room for improvement.”

With that, he drew two lines after the Rasengan in his notebook.

One was labeled Release Speed.

The other was Compression/Amplification.

Next, he had to figure out how to better integrate it into his own combat system. He couldn’t just hold the Rasengan and charge in foolishly like Naruto did in the early days.

(End of Chapter)