Coming last, the foreigner Matsumoto Hayao entered the room accompanied with the most powerful member of the young generation Haru had ever seen up until now.
His chakra was simply flamboyant, and majestic. His reserves were so exagerated that they could be compared with Naruto's in the early period of the canon.
The youth had an impressive long crimson mane, highlighting the milky shade of his eyes and his skin in a very esthetic manner. He was a head or two taller than Haru too, and most other folk in the room.
As the two of them made their way toward the fore ranked rows under the respectful gazes of everyone else, Haru asked.
"Who is he ?" He whispered, curious.
"What the hell man.." Cursed Isshin, incredulous at his new friend's ignorance. "Ōtsutsuki Ryūnosuke, age ten, first seat of the Junior rankings and first seat of Shirogakure Academy. This guy is so strong that even the strongest student of the Senior cycle bowed his head in battle last year. I get that you're new here and all that but how can you not know the strongest genius of the clan in the last thirty years ?"
Haru blushed slightly, embarrassed. "Well there's a first to everything…"
"Tch.. Well, anyway keep it quiet for now."
Nodding quietly, Haru kept observing Ryūnosuke. This guy had over two hundred gans of chakra, at the very least. That was ridiculous. His aura was so heavily tainted by yang and fire nature attributes that it was almost suffocating for his mind senses.
Shirogakure was truly a land filled with hidden dragons and crouching tigers. Compared to the comparatively weak and backwater mainland, the gap was insane.
Ryūnosuke was at the very least at the Elite Jounin level, possibly even on the weaker spectrum of the Kage tier already. If not, it was only a matter of months or a year at worst.
In Haru's perspective such a ten year old character has never appeared in the Shinobi world since the days of the Sage of Six Paths. Neither Itachi, Hashirama or even Hagoromo's children were as strong at his age.
But that sparked another questioning in Haru's mind : How did such a powerful Ōtsutsuki clan die out silently in the end ? There was enough firepower in the main family alone to go up against all five villages and the Akatsuki banding together.
It has been said in the movie The Last that a civil war broke out at some point and the main and branch families self slaughtered themselves to the last man, with only Toneri remaining.
But in Haru's perspective, there must be a lot more to the story that he didn't know because as things stood even if the branch was more numerous and its warriors were strong in their own right there was no way they could have beaten the main family.
The odds were simply that overwhelming. The self confidence the main family had about being invulnerable to a rebellion of the branch was not unwarranted. There were only four people ranking within the top twenty strongest warriors of Shirogakure coming from the branch.
Although Haru knew it was somewhat useless to speculate like this without further informations, it was something that was beginning to bugg him out. Something was wrong.
"Now that everybody is here and ready, we may begin." Spoke the elder figure, opening his eyes. His voice was deep and slow paced.
"Most of you should have some awareness of this by now, but to make sure that everyone can follow I'll freshen your knowledge about the chakra natures and their inner workings, and then I'll talk about our combined chakra nature releases."
"Chakra nature transformation… Is hard. Most students takes months in order to transform their chakra into elemental energy for the first time. It has somewhat recently come to our knowledge that they've developped a technique of hand signs in order to ease the the practice of ninshu in the world of the Sage of Six Paths, but we do not." Declared the elder firmly. "This is not the way of our Ōtsutsuki clan."
The brown haired ninshu expert explained in details the process of transforming the chakra natures of the five elements. Haru was especially sedulous as he listened to the Lightning, Earth and Water nature transformation methods, engraving them deep in his mind.
He was not really aware of what these processes looked like in the Shinobi World, but he was quite sure that they were somewhat different from what he just listened to.
For example, there were many methods to train the Lightning nature transformation, but according to the elder's teachings one would first need ionise positively the tip of one's finger with the help of a fuinshu seal. In his previous world, this would have been called an oxydation in chemistry.
The other hand's finger would then be ionised negatively through a similar process, which would have been called a reduction on Earth as well.
And as this ionised state was by no means stable and natural, when the practitioner channels chakra through the ionised areas the body would naturally convert it in electrical energy, using the difference in electric potential between the two finger tips to create a discharge that would return the ionised state of the flesh at the other hand to normal.
Haru didn't know if this world had a genuine understanding of the laws electromagnetism and the Coulomb's law, but this was mimicking the functioning of early batteries to some degree.
The truly important step was to get a feel of how chakra automatically transformed into electric energy, and try to do it manually later. It was clever, and Water and Earth nature transformation methods also looked quite fun so he had not yet decided which element he would train first.
"I hope you have all listened well, because I'll move on to the combined chakra natures now." Continued the lecturer, a wave of excitement flowing through the crowd of students. That was the real deal. "Keep in mind that the clan does not expect you to master any of them throughout your studies at the academy, the only reason why we are providing these informations early on to you is because there's a few among you who still manage to do so once in a while."
He concluded his sentence looking at Ryūnosuke, who said nothing and kept a straight face. This look did not escape Haru's eyes, who immediately understood what it meant.
Bloody hell… that is insane. What a freak.
"You may not be aware of it, but for most people who do not bear special blood mastering a combined chakra nature is complete fantasy." He revealed in a cold tone. "A combined chakra nature is an advanced fusion of the elements, which is possible to some individuals because their blood hold the specific ratio of chakra natures involved in the fusion. It is very natural for them to practice these elements."
"But the Ōtsutsuki people do not hold this kind of blood limit. We do need to learn how to mix the elements through practice." He continued. "What makes us different from normal people however, is that as the children of Sage Hamura our chakra and ability are superior ! With a little of efforts in your training, mastering a combined chakra nature such as Ice, or Lava release isn't very difficult."
His lecture continued for a long but rich hour. Not bored in the slightest, Haru's patience paid when the elder finally spoke about what he was waiting for.
Whilst some methods were the private intellectual property of some warriors and their disciples, many Kekkei Genkai level and a few Kekkei Tōta level chakra releases were available in the Ōtsutsuki clan.
Among them were Ice, Lava, Mud, Scorch, Storm, Blaze and Sound releases, for the Kekkei Genkai level. It was a fair bit, yet still far off from the twenty ish pairings of chakra natures theorically possible. Sadly, none of those that Haru was interested in were available apparently.
And there was a total of three Kekkei Tōta level nature releases were available as well. The Wood, Rust and Aether releases. It came as a huge surprised to Haru, who had never realised previously that Wood release was in fact a Kekkei Tōta chakra release, and the two last were unheard of.
Wood release was the combination of yang nature with Mud release, which was itself a combination of Earth and Water releases. This suddenly made a lot of sense for him because it was truly hard to justify the overwhelming power of Wood release had it just been a mere Kekkei Genkai level power, like Ice or Magnet release.
On the other, Rust release was like the other side of the coin. The combination of yin nature and Mud release. It bore the power of corrosion and rot.
Lastly, the Aether release was a different matter. It was by far the most offensive ninshu chakra nature within the Ōtsutsuki clan's arsenal. Sometimes called Plasma release, the Aether element was the combination of Fire, Wind and Lightning releases.
Some of the most powerful warrior of the clan were adept of this chakra nature, such as Aizen's mother, the matriarch. It's teaching was strictly restricted to the main family warriors however.
Sadly, it was clear that the Aether element was not in line with Haru's attributes.
As the lecture came to an end, many began to ask questions, and the room became a little noisy.
"It seems that I have no fate with these fancy things I suppose…" Haru heard Isshin sighing by his side.
"Oh ?" He was surprised. "Not even at the Kekkei Genkai level ?"
"Well I suppose I could potentially master Blaze release.." revealed Isshin with a somewhat depressed expression. "But… I'm not going to do that."
"What do you mean ?"
"Ninshu is way too overrated." He grinned.
Haru was dumbstruck for a while. Was that a joke ? It was the first time that he ever heard such a nonsensical statement.
"Are you a fool ?" Enquired Haru, feigning to be worried for his mental health.
"Listen kid…" Began Isshin, with a stupid looking grin in Haru's eyes. "Fuinshu is the true way of alpha males ! Check for yourself."
Before Haru could respond, Isshin hand flashes on his left shoulder, and in a blink of an eye Haru felt an elusive sensation traversing him for a second.
"You bastard." Haru cursed, annoyed. "What have you done ?"
Isshin laugh resounded, as he covered his face behind his wide sleeves. Although it could have been considered a well mannered gesture otherwise, for some reason it made Haru associate this stupid guy with another character, which was just as insufferable, that covered his laugh with a fan in another manga verse.
It was then that Haru noticed that he was no longer able to manipulate his chakra internally. Well, he could actually, but it flowed so slowly that it didn't make a difference either way.
"I've blocked your tenketsu, so don't push it or you may harm your meridians."
"It looks like someone's itching for a beating." He answered, a bit irritated.
"Don't be so serious, it's just a joke." Tempered Isshin, playful. "By the way, it seems like you're compatible with three advanced elements, and a among them Kekkei Tōta too. So ? Will you learn Storm or Mud release ? Whilst Storm is fanciest, Mud is the more helpful one if you're interested in Rust release."
"Release my chakra first, then I'll tell you."
"Hehe, fine."
Feeling his chakra flowing back to normal, Haru was relieved. Despite training in the Gentle Fist style, he has never had a tenketsu blocked in his life and the sensation wasn't pleasant in the slightest.
That said, Isshin's question sparked an internal questioning to Haru. Actually, none of the Kekkei level chakra nature they've been informed about were the primary focus of his interest. So Haru raised his hand and asked a question.
"Esteemed Elder, do you have any knowledge pertaining to the Crystal and Dark releases ?"