Controlling two different directions of a single chakra nature transformation simultaneously was far simpler than trying to control two entirely different chakra natures at once. To Akira, it was akin to drawing similar shapes with each eye—different directions, but within the same discipline.
Even a skilled shinobi could achieve this through extensive practice, but for Akira, whose consciousness spanned two brains, it was second nature.
With focused intent, Akira extended his left hand and summoned a familiar Fire Release. As usual, he concentrated on amplifying the combustion—his habitual method. Simultaneously, his right hand began channeling the same Fire Release, but this time, he aimed to intensify its heat.
It was like cultivating a brand-new chakra transformation.
Unconsciously, the chakra in both hands began to align, as if one was influencing the other. Old habits were hard to shake.
Thankfully, ever since he'd started operating through two bodies—his own and Yakushi Kabuto's clone—Akira had learned the art of mental compartmentalization. He could isolate one set of perceptions from another, and now he applied that same skill to isolate two streams of chakra nature transformation within himself.
After a period of disciplined repetition and the support of dozens of shadow clones, Akira began to make visible progress. The fire blooming from his right hand began to shift. It glowed with increasing brightness, the flames growing hotter, tighter, more refined. The once orange-gold hue was shifting—first to a bright golden-orange, then to gold, and finally toward an intense yellow.
At its peak, the flame's temperature exceeded 1300 degrees Celsius. Akira stopped there. He hadn't set out to create the hottest fire; his true goal was mastery over fire's constituent properties. And he was already beginning to understand the distinctions between combustion and heat.
He turned his attention to his left hand again. There, he reduced the flame's temperature while maximizing its combustion efficiency. As the flame darkened from bright orange to red, then crimson, and finally a deep, near-black maroon, it burned cooler but far more efficiently.
Days passed in rigorous, obsessive training.
And then, one day, Akira unleashed a small but dense Fireball Jutsu with this new dark flame. The fireball struck a tree in the training ground. Unlike typical fire release techniques that flash hot and then die out, this blackened flame clung to the bark and slowly consumed it, smoldering with persistent, heatless intensity.
Even with minimal chakra input, the dark fire continued to devour the wood for over a minute.
It wasn't Amaterasu—far from it. That legendary Mangekyou Sharingan flame burned with Yin Release, divine hatred, and annihilation. Akira's flame was quiet, deliberate, tireless. A child's shadow to the god of fire, but nonetheless his own creation.
It was a small success, but a meaningful one.
He had isolated and magnified one characteristic of Fire Release—its persistence. And now, emboldened by progress, Akira turned to Lightning Release.
Lightning chakra had two essential qualities: the amount of current (its raw destructive force), and the speed of current propagation (its responsiveness and delivery).
Thanks to his development of the Speed Force, Akira was already adept at manipulating the second.
He replicated the same method. In one hand, he maintained his standard form. In the other, he cultivated pure speed.
In less time than it had taken with fire, Akira began to shape a new lightning—pale, white, quick as thought. He tested it on the same tree.
With the seals for Lightning Release: Earth Current, a sharp pulse of white lightning surged across the ground and struck the tree before the jutsu had fully completed.
It hit so fast, it was nearly imperceptible.
But its destructive power was negligible. It wasn't meant to destroy. It was meant to think.
Akira began refining it for another purpose: neural acceleration. When he channeled the white lightning along his own nervous system, he found his perceptions quickening, his world slowing.
The wind-blown leaves above him seemed to drift in molasses. The rustling of grass sounded distant. It wasn't true time-stopping, like The Flash in the movies of his previous life, but it was close enough for a human.
He had created a moment of supreme clarity—more time to think, to react, to plan.
The black fire and white lightning he had developed weren't equivalent to the legendary Black Lightning of Darui or the refined Purple Electricity of Kakashi.
Where theirs strengthened certain aspects while maintaining the whole, Akira had taken a different route. He had completely abandoned what he didn't need in order to elevate one trait to its purest form.
It was an extreme specialization—less versatility, but potentially devastating in the right hands.
And now, at last, Akira was ready.
He would attempt fusion.
Theoretically, with his mastery over these two distinct characteristics—pure combustion and high-speed propagation—he could weave them together.
Fusion required complete synchrony of two chakra natures. Normally, even elite jonin struggled to do this. But Akira had an advantage: Yakushi Kabuto's brain.
He turned his attention to the Shadow Clone in the orphanage. Kabuto sat quietly on a wooden bench, watching children play in the yard, a soft smile on his lips—faintly detached, faintly wistful.
There was nothing urgent demanding his attention.
Akira exhaled deeply. The time had come.
He would attempt to release a combined technique, layering his black flame with the white lightning—melding persistence with speed.
Something new. Something original.
Something only he, Akira, could create.
He stepped into the center of the training field, the sun hanging low on the horizon, casting long shadows across the ground. The wind rustled through the leaves like whispers of anticipation.
He raised his hands and began forming seals.
The experiment began.
It was still that same tree—a poor, scorched monument to Akira's relentless pursuit of mastery. Once again, it bore witness to a new experiment, this time involving the full attention of both of Akira's synchronized minds.
He stood focused, the fingers of both hands crackling with anticipation. Channeling chakra through his dual brains, Akira combined the two new elemental characteristics he'd extracted through tireless training: the scorching intensity of heat and the velocity of lightning. Fire Release and Lightning Release, separated and refined into pure traits, were now prepared for fusion.
The familiar hand seals formed seamlessly: Lightning Release: Earth Walk. But this time, it was different. The jutsu burst forth, rippling across the ground at blinding speed. It moved like lightning, yet within its arcane dance, flames burned with unnatural persistence.
The strange hybrid chakra engulfed the tree, curling around it like a serpent of living fire and lightning. For a moment, time felt still, the tree shrouded in an eerie phenomenon of elemental brilliance. It was unlike anything found in nature.
Akira frowned. Even though the fusion had succeeded on his first try, the result was... disappointing.
There was no destructive power.
He clenched his fist, the embers still flickering across his fingertips. The attack had struck its mark swiftly and lingered, but without tangible damage, it was ultimately ineffective. What good was a jutsu that couldn't harm?
Determined, Akira tried again.
This time, he kept the White Lightning as a base but substituted the pure heat-based Fire Release with the standard Fire Release he knew so well. As the chakra flared again, Earth Walk surged forward and struck the battle-worn tree.
The results were immediate and astonishing.
The tree ignited with fierce, golden-orange flames. The blaze consumed its bark and leaves, licking skyward with a renewed vengeance. Within seconds, the once-defiant tree blackened, swaying as its structure weakened.
A smile crept across Akira's face. Finally—power.
He had been wrong to think that only perfectly separated, purified traits could produce a Bloodline Limit. The combination of a sharpened speed trait and the raw power of Fire Release had already yielded something far greater than ordinary combination ninjutsu.
Where traditional Lightning Release required conductors and suffered great chakra waste, this fusion needed none. Fire Release, added to the fast-moving lightning, anchored and controlled it. The result was a jutsu that struck swiftly and burned deeply. Fire now rode lightning as its chariot, delivering heat with unparalleled precision.
Akira saw a future in this.
He cast it again, now abandoning the combustion quality of Fire Release entirely, focusing solely on heat. The result was less dramatic, but still impactful.
Surprisingly, the jutsu retained much of its potency. Akira realized that combustion, while useful, wasn't strictly necessary for this fusion. The real damage lay in the heat transferred instantly through the medium of lightning.
Thus was born the Scorch Release.
This technique he named: Scorch Release: Electrified Ignition.
But Akira wasn't finished.
He pondered the reverse—using Fire Release as the carrier to channel the destructive force of Lightning Release. He formed new seals, this time for the Phoenix Sage Fire Technique, and infused it with his black flame trait and standard Lightning Release.
The result was breathtaking.
From his mouth, Akira expelled clusters of radiant sparks, no longer fireballs. Each spark exploded, fragmented, and reformed, repeating in a chaotic yet elegant cycle of self-renewing destruction. The air filled with the staccato rhythm of firecracker-like detonations, each one sizzling with dancing currents of energy.
The tree, already on its last legs, succumbed entirely.
A storm of sparks engulfed it, reducing the once-proud trunk to nothing but smoldering ash.
Akira marveled at the spectacle. The lightning, no longer reliant on speed, became potent and compact when carried by fire. Meanwhile, the black flames allowed the technique to linger in the air, dealing continuous damage long after the initial strike.
He named this technique: Scorch Release: Electric Spark.
Each fusion had strengths. Electrified Ignition brought searing heat at blinding speed, perfect for piercing enemy defenses. Electric Spark, by contrast, provided lasting battlefield control, ideal for wearing down opponents and supporting allies.
These two jutsu were only the beginning.
The potential of Scorch Release extended far beyond them. Like his mastery over singular nature transformations, Akira saw the opportunity to adjust the proportions of each trait in the fusion—more heat, less speed; more fire, less lightning. The possibilities were infinite.
This was his edge.
Where traditional Bloodline Limits were bound by genetics, Akira was free. His power came not from blood, but from understanding, discipline, and vision.
He could mold characteristics to suit his needs. As he cultivated deeper into Fire and Lightning Releases, unlocking their full spectrum, he could develop more fusion releases at will.
He remembered all the unique Bloodline Limits he had read about: Magnet Release, Lava Release, Storm Release, Crystal Release. To others, these were rare and inherited. To Akira, they were challenges—puzzles to solve.
Though he couldn't yet manipulate every element, the path ahead was clear. Collecting and experimenting with new chakra traits was a passion, a compulsion even. It was like discovering rare, exotic tools and imagining the wonders they could create.
But for now, the goal was to further refine Scorch Release.
By mastering both speed and power, heat and energy, Akira would create something truly formidable.
In the days that followed, he pushed further, learning to manipulate heat and current simultaneously with increasing efficiency. His Fire and Lightning nature transformations began to reach elite Jonin level mastery.
Akira no longer needed the Sharingan to compete with Konoha's top shinobi. His progress was his own, earned through sweat, repetition, and brilliance.
But while Akira trained alone in quiet intensity, far from the village, something stirred in the outside world.
Someone connected not to Akira directly, but to his clone—Yakushi Kabuto.
A new force was drawing close to Konoha.