His rapid development continuing, Shiki's successes with Elemental and Medical Ninjutsu finally led to a breakthrough in his attempts to revamp Nirvana Heart: Dragon Heart.
The boy decided to split the bothersome technique into two parts, one that focused on its rapid healing and recovery aspect and another to focus on pure self enhancement.
Shiki decided to base the latter on Iron Body, a pure physical, taijutsu technique that heavily increased toughness while in use.
He would then add the elemental infusion that he excluded from Nirvana art: Elemental on top of it, a passive five element enhancement meant to be kept active at all times.
The jutsu selected as the basis for this development were the following:
-Wind Release: Gale Palm, a jutsu with two main uses, one was basically a blast of air, either a directional one from the palm or an omnidirectional one by clapping. The second way of use was the useful one, it allowed one to shroud themselves in wind, increasing speed and agility;
-Water Release: Water Armor, originally a jutsu unique to Takigakure, it was obtained by Konoha as part of alliance negotiations. Like its name implies, it covers the user in a surprisingly tough armor made up of water.
-Earth Release: Earth Spear, the signature jutsu of Dogan, Shiki's first Jonin kill and was taken directly from his corpse. It hardened the user's body, turning it dark brown and greatly increased their strength and durability.
-Fire Release: Flame Attack, a jutsu originally from the Sarutobi clan who specialize in fire jutsu, its most direct explanation is "Fire Bending". Regular users can only enhance their taijutsu with fire but it is possible to launch the fire with taijutsu motions, hence "Fire Bending".
-Lightning Release: Activation, stolen from Zee's shinobi pouch when Shiki knocked her out, it was the prerequisite for Lightning Chakra Mode, training one's body through electric stimulation and greatly boosting reflexes and raw speed compared to the more agility focused Gale Palm.
For now, he was still far from reaching any state of completion but he had found his path. The jutsu name was already decided as well, Nirvana Art: Dragon Aspect.
As for the separate recovery portion of the original Dragon Heart, Shiki made the decision to specialize it in out-of-combat recovery.
There were plenty of regeneration abilities he could study or incorporate into himself in the future but they were unreachable for the time being.
Considering he could stay active with deadly injuries for quite a while, the boy decided that an extreme regeneration and recovery ability that made him immobile and unaware but would quickly heal him up after he ended combat was the best for the current him.
'I can not only survive but function without multiple organs, barely any blood, cracked bones and torn muscles, however, I have no way to recover after that other than the imperfect but highly effective recovery mode of Dragon Heart.' Shiki thought.
'So a technique purposefully developed for just that is precisely what I need. Since it will basically be a sort of healing coma, I'll call it . . . Nirvana Art: Dragon Slumber.'
*
The tremendous effectiveness of shadow clone training was mouth watering for Shiki, leaving him hungry for more results.
However, not only was time of the essence, he had already burned a significant amount of his life force, even considering his resilience and long lived nature, the boy was undoubtedly starting to push it.
'I need greater chakra, the effectiveness of this training is the answer to all my problems.' Shiki thought with greed for knowledge, power and progress.
The last bit of results the training achieved, just as he finally ended it, only reinforced his mentality.
Before ending the training, Shiki Yin Release practice just resulted in the learning of a few basic genjutsu he had memorized but never practiced, more in preparation to develop his own than for the sake of actually using them.
A refinement of his skill rather than an actual improvement of his strength and combat effectiveness.
But right after the final batch of shadow clones for the last training session was dispelling, the boy's study of Yin and Yang Releases consolidated to give him a sudden flash of inspiration.
A way for him to extend his ability to stay in battle, something most important as many of his moves were not only chakra intensive, but also self damaging.
Sure, Shiki was actively trying to fix those two problems but until then, a temporary way to alleviate the issue would do wonders.
The boy named the jutsu born of this inspired rush of development, Nirvana Art: Yin-Yang Surge.
In a certain way, it could be considered Yin-Yang Release but in truth, it was merely a combination of Yin Release and Yang Release and there was a whole world of difference between those two things.
Its effect was to trigger a surge of energy using the connection between physical and spiritual energies, expending a bit of chakra to activate one's physical body and spirit which would then trigger each other in a positive feedback loop.
As a result, Physical and spiritual energies would temporarily surge, suppressing injuries and exhaustion while instantly regenerating a portion of the user's total chakra reserves.
This however, merely delayed the effects of injury and exhaustion. When the feedback loop inevitably collapsed since it could only continue for a short period, all damage and exhaustion would explode with double the intensity.
Unlike Shiki's other double edged moves, this was truly an emergency button, only to be used if he was about to lose a battle he could not afford to and was unable to retreat.
And like this, all training efforts ceased, except for Hand Seal practice by the main body.
The boy felt that burning more life force for chakra would begin affecting his physical condition despite his resilience so he had to put an end to this frenzied training period.
Though, despite not physically growing, it was still years worth of training experience condensed into a few days.
While Shiki spread out his learning, the things he trained in with his clones were still mastered to an impressive degree of completion.
*
Two more days after training ended and the caravan folk were beginning to get impatient. Their time spent in Roran had already exceeded the plan by not an insignificant amount.
But their attitude was starting to get on Shiki's nerves.
'If they could survive without our protection it would be one thing but while the Kumo matter can be considered our problem they were dragged into, the Land of Iron matter that would get most of them killed without us certainly wasn't.' The boy thought to himself.
'In fact, the moment we started facing jonin level opponents this mission could have been freely abandoned since it was only a B rank commission which does not cover protection from threats at that level.'
'The fact that we not only kept the mission up and are even getting reinforcements is far more than they deserve and still they complain . . .' Shiki was getting truly annoyed.
Even Inori, far more rule minded and diplomatic, was starting to outwardly show her displeasure and that did immediately decrease the number of complaints.
Apparently most of the complainers were still smart enough to know their attitude was dangerous in the face of shinobi that only had to keep up their guard mission if they so wished.
The dumber ones however, could not keep their mouths shut . . .
+++++
Hey, Author here!
To promote the novel I will be releasing BONUS CHAPTERS on SUNDAYS based on the previous week's power stone count.
100 Power Stones = 1 Bonus Chapter
500 Power Stones = 2 Bonus Chapters
1000 Power Stones = 3 Bonus Chapters
Every earned BONUS CHAPTER on Webnovel will also be posted on Scribble.
Just a reminder that you can read up to a FULL MONTH ahead of this site on pa-treon.
I'm trying to become a full time Author now and I'm not going to be starting any new novels just so I can make sure this one is properly completed.
Find those sweet advanced chapters on pa-treon.com/lusoba without the -