Chapter 163: I Didn’t Choose Taijutsu. It Jumped Me In The Alley.

Chapter 163 - I Didn’t Choose Taijutsu. It Jumped Me In The Alley. As the timer faded, Ren's body relaxed automatically, it was like a subconscious release of pressure. The clarity he had grown used to over the past few minutes was gone, and he could feel the difference immediately. Thoughts that had snapped together now took more effort. Pathways that had been obvious a second ago became layered, foggy and uncertain. But despite the mental slowdown, the knowledge he had gained during the boost didn't just vanish, it remained stored and embedded within him. He took a few steady breaths and slowly ran his hands over his arms, his legs, pressing lightly. There were no physical signs of hardening left. The internal chakra armor had fully dispersed. There was no pain or any residual stiffness. It was as if nothing had happened, yet the memory of each movement, each layer of chakra control, remained etched into his nervous system. Ren didn't move for a while. He just laid down on the basement floor, arms wide, mentally retracing the steps he'd just taken. Not every part of the technique had been perfectly smooth. The ratios he found worked for now, but that didn't mean they were optimal in every situation. A higher amount of Earth chakra provided more defense but reduced speed. The Yang chakra was necessary for biological binding and movement, but it consumed more stamina if overused. That kind of balancing would need refinement depending on the battle situation, defensive stance, aggressive rush down, high-speed combat, long-duration brawls. All of them would need slightly different chakra flows. But still, he did actually create a technique, a watered down version of Kekkei Genkai, but even that was a huge deal. He had created a method to layer chakra under his skin, reinforcing both muscle and dermal tissue, using internal chakra control rather than relying on outward jutsu or armor and that was important. Hardening didn't rely on casting anything external. It was part of his body now, pure internal chakra structuring. That alone made it suitable for stealth combat and fast deployment. There were no hand signs and no visible chakra build-up. It was much more efficient and dangerous since even seal-less jutsu had a chakra build up which would be easily sensed by high level shinobi, but with the hardening, the chakra movement was so subtle that he had to use his Perfected Hyperfocus to keep track of it. Hardening would be a great boost, especially in combination with his Taijutsu. He'd already reached a level where few could match him in raw hand-to-hand combat. With this, his durability and striking power were going to rise sharply. A single punch from him at full strength while in a hardened state wouldn't just break bone, it might shatter reinforced weapons, crush defenses, or even bypass elemental barriers with enough momentum. He moved his right arm slightly and imagined forming the loop again. Even without the Intelligence boost, he could still recall the path of the chakra, the way it circulated around the elbow and locked into the muscle fibers with a slight tension at each rotation. That meant the configuration was locked in and he could easily use it again after retracing the loops. The next thing to consider was the chakra cost and maintenance. He tapped his chest lightly and considered chakra cost again. It hadn't been too bad. For full-body hardening, with high chakra control, he was burning through chakra at a relatively slow rate. He could easily keep it active passively for a long time, since by the time Hardening consumed his chakra by a large margin he would have already recovered most of it, so there was no issue with that, however the advanced stages he had planned would likely take much more chakra. There was room for efficiency improvements, like maybe localizing the technique, for example Hardening just the forearms for blocking. Or just the torso for defensive Taijutsu counters. If he could isolate regions with pre-formed loops and activate them separately, he could preserve chakra and extend duration. He mentally filed that under "next steps." He thought through a few more things, then glanced at his system panel, and there were a few changes. As expected, his Intelligence had broken through the 80-point mark and was now sitting at 81. It was likely to rise further once all the thoughts from the Intelligence boost had fully settled in. That was the residual effect of 99 intelligence, the clarity faded, but the structural impact lingered. The next change was in his Earth Release and Yang Release masteries, both now at 89%, just one step away from the master level. Again, expected. What he had just attempted required an extremely high degree of control and precision with both these chakra types, so the increase made sense. Unfortunately, both his advanced and master-level mastery points were now gone. Zero. But he couldn't complain as he did receive a substantial benefit from using them. Still, it was a little painful as Mastery points were rare. The last time he'd received some was when he learned his first S-rank jutsu, and after that, he couldn't recall gaining any. That was something he'd need to address soon maybe there was a way to generate or earn them beyond just learning high-level techniques. Another change he noticed was that his Taijutsu stat had increased from 81 to 84, pushing it solidly into S-rank territory. There was a clear reason for that. 'It's said that the jump from jonin level to S-rank is only achieved when the shinobi has something that distinguishes them, a unique ability entirely their own,' he thought. 'Then could this be my unique ability?' Hardening, even in its base form, gave him a platform to elevate his physical capability far beyond the norm and if he developed more advanced forms of it later, it could easily become something dangerous on a completely different level. Right now, there were three things supporting the claim that his Taijutsu had reached S-rank. The modified Eight Gates, up to the Fourth Gate. Since his base physical stats were already at the peak of jonin-level, activating the Fourth Gate pushed them cleanly into the S-rank zone. Chakra Enhanced Strength, which was another enormous boost to raw Taijutsu output and now, Hardening, a permanent passive reinforcement that increased his defense and offensive impact with every strike. These were all things that worked because his base stats were already so high. If he had tried them with average jonin stats, they wouldn't have pushed him this far. He exhaled lightly. 'When I started out, I thought I'd become an elemental S-ranker but somehow, I turned into a Taijutsu S-ranker instead,' he thought. 'Though I can't complain about power, I'll definitely push my elemental power to S-rank level too. Just, later. For now, I can finally relax a bit.' It had been a long stretch of stress. Ever since his encounter with Obito after becoming a Genin, he had been training without rest, convinced that his current strength was never enough. That meeting shattered whatever confidence he'd had and forced him back into a brutal training loop. But now, finally, he had power that could be considered S-rank. Not complete, but close enough that he could allow himself to breathe again. Then, another memory came to the surface. The Uchiha massacre. That event was still to come, and it would definitely shake the shinobi world, even more so because there would be definite changes. He already had plans in place to deal with Danzo when that time came. But Danzo wasn't the main issue, he was just a cockroach which could live multiple times. The real problems were Obito and possibly Zetsu. Those two would definitely be involved in some way, and Ren knew they were still beyond him. Even with Flying Thunder God, in its current form, he couldn't deal with Obito. His version of FTG was still rudimentary, it was more theory than field weapon. He gritted his teeth. 'That bastard. When I have enough power, I'll finish him inside his Kamui dimension,' he thought bitterly. 'That way, he'll understand he shouldn't go around giving people PTSD.' Ren exhaled again, forcing himself to calm down. There was still over a year left before that time. If his pace of improvement continued, he would likely have a significantly stronger base by then, strong enough that even a Kamui-level threat wouldn't be untouchable. Once his thoughts were settled, he checked his chakra levels. They were almost fully recovered. Without hesitation, he created a clone with 95% of his total chakra. This had become much easier now that both his Shadow Clone Jutsu and Chakra Control had crossed into master-level (above 90%). The clone he just made could now last for up to three months, assuming it didn't get dispelled due to reasons and the reason he chose to make the clone now, and with that much chakra, was because of something he had figured out in the last three months. The restoration skill that his clones possessed did not allow them to increase their chakra beyond the amount they were created with. In simpler terms, if a clone was made with 95% chakra, then for that clone, that 95% was its 100%. Even with the ability to regenerate chakra, it could never exceed the limit it started with and there had been another problem, one that his clones had figured out on their own. Initially, Ren's clones would make another clone with 99% of their chakra to transfer newly gained mastery and then dispel. But that created waste, the 1% of chakra not used was effectively lost each time. Over time, this would add up. As each clone repeated the process, they would steadily decrease in available chakra, eventually reaching a point where the original clone would just collapse from lack of chakra. Fortunately, the clones were also smart since they were his clones. They changed the approach. Now, instead of creating clones with 99%, they used just 1% of their chakra to make a temporary transfer clone. That mini-clone would then dispel, transferring mastery to Ren. Since the original clone was still active, it would receive the chakra back just like recovering chakra after using a jutsu. This way, the chakra loop remained efficient, and the clone never lost its reserve. Here's how it worked. Ren makes a clone with 95 chakra units. That clone sees 95 units as its 100%. It makes a transfer clone with 1 unit. After the transfer, that 1 unit returns to the original clone, minus a negligible chakra cost, this was because the clones only returned chakra back to the ones who made them. The result was that the clone keeps its full chakra over time, avoiding degradation. Ren planned to keep making such clones during his stay here. Not only would they passively train his mastery, they would also become his emergency chakra reservoirs. If he were ever in danger and burned through his own chakra, he could simply dispel one of these high-capacity clones and restore his chakra instantly. Usually what happens is that, if Ren made a clone and his own chakra recovered before the clone dispelled, then the chakra with which the clone was made from would be released in the world, there was no way of stacking the chakra twice.But if Ren still had room in his reserves, then the dispelled clone's chakra would return to him, fully intact. It was a methodical, loophole-free system that existed to prevent chakra abuse. But Ren had found a legitimate way to use it in his favor, since there would be so many of his clones with almost as much chakra as him then doesn't that mean he would have near inexhaustible amount of chakra. That way, in the future if he ever encountered a truly dangerous enemy who forced his chakra level to dangerously low level he would just dispel one of his clone and poof, chakra recovered. Not many could do this since the clones didn't have a long life but that wasn't a problem for Ren, he had clones that lived for 3 months which means no shortage of chakra for 3 months. He grinned. 'If I have ten such clones at all times, then I practically have an inexhaustible chakra supply. Just pop one when I'm low.' He remembered something Yugao had once said. 'Pig, tiger something?" Right. 'Pig eating the tiger.' He frowned. 'No. I'm not a pig. I'm cute. I can't be a pig.' He thought about it again, then nodded. 'Let's go with sheep. Sure, they're herbivores but I can be the exception.' He pointed to himself and declared internally, 'From now on, I'll be the sheep that eats a tiger.' With his plan set, and his clone system in place, Ren left the basement. He hadn't eaten a proper meal since he returned and now, he was starving. ~~~~~ {I originally wanted to go ahead with the Jonin promotion in this Chapter, but decided to clarify the Shadow Clones too since many people had confusion about it, now we are really don't have any more info dumps left and would just breeze through the rest.} {If you want, you can support me on pat-reon} {Thanks Irakli, satyendra, Daniel, Voks17, Ahmed and NinjaShinobi124 for supporting me on Pat-reon} { h t t p s : / / w w w . p a t r e o n . c o m / Z e e n o n } {You know what else} {280 Stones = Extra Chapter} {STONES!!!!}