Naruto: The Shattered Eyes

[This bonus chapter was once again sponsored by the honorable Godphaze. This is the great fifth sponsorship! The support is overwhelming.]

'Rasengan!'

Chakra swiftly coalesced into a rapidly spinning sphere in Suguru's outstretched palm.

Looking at the rotating chakra, he let out a sigh of exasperation.

'Right,'

The answer to his desires for plasma had been there all along, hidden within the intricacies of a densely spiraling chakra sphere. All he had to do was succeed in applying Nature Transformation to an already difficult jutsu.

And although he had minor successes in the past, those were merely derivatives of the Rasengan's greatness — an interpretation of its techniques.

Now, Suguru wanted to complete it as Naruto had done in the original.

—Fwhiff!

The chakra dissipated from his palm. The slight breeze that caressed his face confirmed his suspicions. Furthermore, his clones were busy documenting their observations at the side.

"Help me. Focus on applying Nature Transformation while I spin and condense my chakra."

The clone with the most chakra in the room nodded and stood beside the original. Glancing at each other, their eyes flashed.

"Let's begin."

'Sharingan!'

Their eyes shattered and reformed into the Uchiha's Kekkei Genkai. Then, Suguru poured his chakra into his hand, compressing and rotating it at great velocities and in multiple directions. Meanwhile, his clone transformed each speck of chakra into blazing flames.

A dense ball of energy had thus formed. A Fire Release: Rasengan had successfully been created...

However, it wasn't enough.

Now that the flames had been formed, Suguru could compress it further. The Fire Release: Rasengan shrunk at an excruciatingly slow pace. However, it grew hotter and hotter as Suguru simultaneously fed it with more flaming chakra while compressing it to its maximum.

Until—

—VWHOOOOM!

The heat began melting Suguru's skin. Highly condensed, rotating flames — a combination of high pressure and high temperature.

Ingredients for the formation of plasma.

"Crazy,"

Suguru's eyes shone in astonishment, uncaring of the searing pain on his skin. The small, but white-hot ball of plasma was a miniature star. 

A star that he could hold in his own hand.

"I've somehow succeeded." Shocked by his own achievement.

The Plasma Rasengan had finally been formed. It was a bonafide S-Rank Fire Release jutsu.

And the very first offensive S-Rank Ninjutsu he had access to.

Now, he had to figure out how to reduce the side effects.

'Ah... Well, that should be simple.'

Suguru formed a single seal.

[Tiger].

In reply, every tenketsu point in his body roared and burst into flames, nullifying the sheer magnitude of the plasma in his hand. It was a perfect combination.

A grin had long spread across Suguru's lips.

He looked into the distance. Eyes gazing at the deep lake in the Valley of the End. Holding out his hand, he poured more chakra into his palm, wrapping the spinning ball of plasma in a layer of protective coating.

Then, he lobbed the Plasma Rasengan into the distance.

—Fwhish!

It was like throwing a ball.

However...

As the ball drew a parabolic arc, Suguru's instincts began to scream. A cold sweat poured down his back, and alarm bells rang in his mind.

"Oh no..."

In the blink of an eye, his body vanished. Flickering in a hurried retreat, he distanced himself from the splash zone of his own jutsu.

The ball had begun to fall.

However, Suguru still felt unsafe. Something was telling him that even looking at his own jutsu was dangerous.

Left with no choice, he flickered once again and covered his eyes.

It was then.

A spark.

A sudden engulfing light. The embrace of brightness. 

This was no Plasma Rasengan.

No...

It was a ball-shaped bomb.

—BWOOOOOOOOOOOOM!

A searing light burned through his skin. He could see the veins on his hand and eyelids. The shadows that were left behind by his own bones.

The sheer brightness was terrifying. Had his eyes been open, blindness would have engulfed him in an instant.

"Crazy!"

He truly meant it.

Once he had the chakra reserves of a Tailed Beast... This little Plasma Rasengan would become a spherical nuke. If he could create such a devastating phenomenon with just that amount of chakra...

A shiver spread through him.

The possibilities were terrifying.

However...

A slash of disappointment consumed him just then.

"Have I failed... again...?"

Fire Release never yielded any single-target jutsus. It was truly unfortunate.

Perhaps Suguru had to face that reality now. There was no hope in creating a lethal jutsu out of flames. Unless he could form laser beams out of flames...

"Oh,"

Suguru blanked.

"...I could just do that."

***

A few hours later, Suguru successfully conjured something that could indeed call itself a lethal fire-based jutsu. However, its rank still needed a lot of work.

It was a simple jutsu. One he called [Fire Release: Spinning Flame Saw].

With terrifying cutting power, Suguru believed that he finally had something sharp with his flames. That was, until...

He threw the Spinning Flame Saw into the distance.

Watching as the fiery disk sliced through the air, a satisfied smirk played on his lips.

But then, the disk hit its maximum range.

—BOOOM!

A spinning flame wheel burst out from the impact, sending a wave of hot air into Suguru's face.

"..."

The mad researcher was thus left speechless.

Another explosion.

Another failure.

Suguru massaged the bridge of his nose. His eyes had gone dry from all of his attempts. It was indeed a fire-based jutsu's fate to explode in the end. Either that or it would always make itself known.

With this revelation, he finally accepted reality.

Suguru was a failure.

"Sigh,"

It was time to return to his lab for the day. The sun was setting. He had obsessed way too much with creating an assassination-friendly fire jutsu. 

It was time for the hyperfixation to end.

He walked back to his lab, lost in thought.

Despite his failures, Suguru still felt conflictingly satisfied with his progress these past few days. From succeeding with his Plasma Rasengan to the various applications of Fire Release he had figured out, his fighting style had undergone overhauls in certain aspects.

Now, he had better control over his Blaze Battle Body. Like a puppetmaster governing flames, he could make his own fireballs dance after releasing them into the distance.

A sentient projectile would be quite the menace on the battlefield.

'Furthermore, with a little more practice, I can also apply these techniques to Hellfire Artillery.'

Failure was indeed the stepping stone to success.

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