Uchiha Kuroha watched Shisui's silhouette vanish into the dusk.Once the thrill of the fight faded, the training grounds felt empty again.
"Tch… nothing else to see. I should get back to refining Yunrin," he muttered, brushing dust from his clothes. "If this thing actually works, it'll count as a real technique. My first original jutsu."
If he wanted even the slightest chance of standing against Itachi or the masked traitor who would one day try to burn the clan down, he needed power. Not ideals, not speeches — raw, unambiguous strength.
He headed home.
Senju Akari was already waiting at the bottom of the stairs, hands still warm from cooking."Kuroha, training must've been exhausting today. I made something good. Eat while it's hot."
Her voice never failed to disarm him.Even when she tried to hide her worry, he saw every crease in her brows.
"Smells great, Mother. What's for dinner?"He smiled without thinking. Her love was simple, sincere — the kind of thing he refused to lose again in this lifetime.
If Itachi ever tried to lay a hand on his family, he'd tear the night apart before letting it happen.
Dinner was peaceful, though Akari clearly wanted to say something and swallowed the words at the last second.Kuroha let it go. She deserved her quiet moments.
Later that night, he shut himself in his room and settled on the bed, legs folded, breath steady.Chakra pulsed through every cell — the result of his crude, unstable refinement method. He drew out a fragment, forced it into a sphere above his palm… and watched it bleed into the air, leaking from his control.
Not enough.Still too loose.Still too fragile.
"Lock it down first… compress… then release," he whispered."If each cell becomes a self-contained reservoir… then all of them together…"
A body of living storage.A thousand tiny chakra wells.
He ran the sequence again.And again.
Hours blurred. He didn't stop.
At dawn, his eyes snapped open — bright with the eerie focus of his double-pupiled gaze.
"Now."
Chakra surged.Cells opened like tiny gates.Lines of energy linked one to another—
Smoke burst across the room.
When it cleared, two small forms sat beside him, identical down to the shifting of their eyes.
Both clones blinked.
"Morning, Original," one said."Nice work," the other added, smirking.
Kuroha's breath trembled with a grin.
"…It worked."
He had created clones without forming a single seal.Direct chakra extraction from the cells.A functioning technique, crude but real.
Shadow Clone was only the start.If he perfected this, even complex jutsu could be executed seal-less — faster than anyone could react.
He dispersed the clones with a flick of his fingers.
"Time to name it…"He paced, mumbling to himself like a tiny mad scientist.
"Yunrin… Grand Chakra Engine? Awful.""Yunrin… Infinite Reservoir? Too pretentious.""…Yunrin — Thousandfold World?"
He paused.
Not perfect. Not final.But it would do until something better came.
"Alright. For now… Ninpō: Yunrin — Thousandfold World."
He washed up, grabbed his running gear, and cracked the door open.
"Kuroha."
Senju Akari stood waiting.
He blinked. "Mother?"
Her fingers twisted the edge of her sleeve."Maybe… maybe you don't have to train so hard. Your father and I can provide for you. You're still only three. You don't need to force yourself."
Her concern cut deeper than any blade.
He stepped forward, hugging her around the waist."I'll be fine. Really. And Guy-san says I might surpass him one day."
"He said that?" she whispered.
"Mm. So don't worry. Let me try. I want to get stronger."
Because a weak man can't protect anything.And this time, no one in his home would die just because someone else declared it "necessary."
He pulled away with a smile."See you tonight, Mother."
Then he ran out into the morning light.
He would build his strength cell by cell until even fate itself had to look away.