Chapter 10: Expedition

"You're...out?"

"Yep." The shopkeeper chuckled, "We're not going to restock on that metal until the end of this month."

"That long?" Boruto frowned.

"Well it's not the most common material to get your hands on. Otherwise we'd have entire armories made of the stuff."

"Ugh." Boruto winced, "I was thinking of redesigning my Kote too..."

"Well...tell you what. If you can go find some raw material for me to work with, I'll prepare it for you."

"Raw material?" Boruto blinked, "You mean...naturally occurring deposits?"

"Yep."

"So...they grow naturally?" Boruto mused, "If that's the case."

"I can see that look in your eyes and I'll tell you now. The base material for the metal isn't nearly as potent as the refined product that I sell. Bring it back and I'll give the entirety of it back to you ready to go."

"...Can't you just teach me the refining process?"

"No way. Way too complex and dangerous for a kid."

Boruto frowned.

"I know, I know, you don't like being treated like a kid but you should learn to enjoy your childhood. You'll become an adult before you know it and from there it just goes downhill."

"..."

"In fact, I've got a story that I could tell you about my childhood. It all started with the Ninja Prom and-"

"Just tell me where the deposit is."

"First a refining process and now the raw material forms near the top of mountains?" Boruto scowled as he slowly made his way through the forest. The mountain that the shopkeeper had introduced to him begun to loom over him as Boruto approached its' base.

"Man...I bet Mitsuki would have no problem climbing this." Boruto sighed as he stared up the mountain slope, "...Well, it's just me now so I'll just have to deal with it."

Boruto stepped forward again, determined to push through the last part of the forest before he stopped as a bear crossed his path. A rather large bear…

"Oh...I remember you." Boruto winced as the bear snarled at him, "We had to capture you before Himawari's graduation didn't we?"

Boruto backed away as the bear approached him.

"Look, I have nothing against you personally. You're completely fine out here, no need to bother you. No need to fight either so-"

The bear roared as it stood on it's hind legs and swung at Boruto.

"Wind Release: Scaleforce Palm!"

The bear stumbled back as a sudden torrent of air pushed forward from Boruto's palm.

"Easy there big guy. You don't want to do this."

The bear growled as it stood on its four legs again and cautiously growled at Boruto as he began to circle him.

"...Don't say I didn't warn you." Boruto frowned as he reached into his bag and pulled out his kote. Attaching it to his arm, he pointed his arm upward.

"Fire Release: Fireball Jutsu!"

Fire spewed forth from the kote and into the air, creating a startling sphere of fire in the air before extinguishing. The bear backed away quickly as the fire caught his attention but he did not run away, turning his sights back on Boruto again.

"What do you want, a cookie?"

The bear roared and charged towards Boruto again.

"Okay, I don't have time for this." Boruto sighed as he raised his arm with the kote underneath it.

"Rasengan!"

Chakra spewed out of the kote and wrapped itself in the form of a sphere in front of Boruto, wildly spinning out of control.

"Oh no."

Boruto grasped his arm as he tried to control the chakra but it spun wildly in the shape of a rasengan and suddenly shot forth, knocking Boruto off his feet as it flew forward and ducked beneath the bear's jaws and arched upward. The bear cried out in terror and pain as the rasengan pushed the animal up and up before exploding into air and leaving the bear stranded in the middle of the air.

"Oh goddamit." Boruto scowled as he brought his hands together, "Shadow Clone Jutsu!"

Five clones appeared at his side and leaped into the air as the bear began to plummet. Together they managed to catch the bear but they only continued to plummet as they bore the bear's weight and gravity.

"Calm down." Boruto bit his lip, "Remember the hypothesis. Chakra that's been given a function can still be controlled. Form and function can be stripped away. That is the basis for Chakra Shift: Base."

Boruto's clones began to fade and meld into each other as they began to pool under the bear as pure chakra.

"From this base, new forms and functions can be written. I can preform a new jutsu with the remaining chakra. Water Release: Teardrop Flood!"

The chakra of his clones turned into water as it surrounded the bear in the shape of a tear. The water and the bear crashed into the ground, sending water flooding everywhere. Boruto ran up to where the bear fell and was relieved to see the gasping and terrified moans of a traumatized but otherwise alive bear.

"That was close." Boruto laughed nervously as he wiped away his sweat, "That was the first time I tried changing the nature release of my chakra during chakra shift. Good thing that worked huh buddy?"

The bear let out a pitiful moan.

"You'll be fine right? I'm going to leave you alone now. See ya."

Boruto turned and ran off, equal parts desperate to leave the bear alone before it tried attacking him again and desperate to leave before he could be caught endangering an animal.

"Looks like the kote is having problems storing and executing jutsus with five different jutsus programmed into it." Boruto scowled as he studied the inner workings of his Zenshin Kakumei, "The execution program is crossing into the instructional data of the other jutsus, mixing up the instructions for the one that I want with the other ones in storage."

Boruto pulled out the black box underneath his kote.

"And now the chakra tank is empty. Geez, just one jutsu and it went all crazy."

Boruto placed the empty chakra tank into his pouch and pulled out a new one, slotting it into the kote.

"There. It might be best if I didn't use you for now though. I'll erase some more jutsus from it's memory until there's a functional equilibrium. ...Though that's far from optimal..."

…

Boruto sighed as he stood up again, "One thing at a time, Boruto. Just get the metal. You're not far now."

Boruto felt deep shame and regret as he climbed the mountain. He knew he had been kinda neglecting his taijutsu training but he didn't think he had suffered his badly. The air had only barely begun to thin as he reached the summit and he was already panting as if he had run a triathlon.

I figured I was in better shape since I began to learn Rotating Heavens. Boruto thought to himself. Maybe I should get Himawari to train me more often…

With a scowl, Boruto reached into his pouch and pulled out two kunais, stabbing them into the face of the mountain. Patiently, he moved forward until he could easily rest his feet on the kunais and give himself a break as he laid flat across the face of the mountain.

"Heeeyyy…."

Boruto turned as he watched one of his tired clones inching his way up to him.

"I found the cave."

"That's great. Give me a moment and I'll head towards it."

"You can barely hold my form together."

"Well I can't just quit now can I?"

"Well you're not going to make it at this rate. The cave is like on the other side of this mountain."

"Goddamit." Boruto scowled, "...Think I can make a tunnel to it through this mountain?"

"First of all, it's still slightly askew from your position so you wouldn't find it if you went straight across. Second, digging an entire tunnel through the mountain has got to be violating some nature preservation rules. Third, even if you have the energy and chakra to do that, how are you going to do it without blowing yourself off the mountain?"

"I'll blow you off the mountain." Boruto muttered.

"I know what you said." His clone scowled, "And instead of being a pain on the side of a mountain, how about you try to focus?"

"How do you expect me to focus?"

"I don't know, how do you always foc-"

Boruto jolted as a shadow suddenly descended on them and his clone was plucked off the face of the mountain by a giant talon. Barely able to crane his neck around to see his clone, Boruto could only watch as his clone was taken away in the talons of a giant bird.

"Today is just not my day..." Boruto's clone sighed, "Hey! Bird!"

As the bird turned to face him, the clone held up two fingers and disappeared, surprising the bird as it suddenly was left with nothing in its grasp. Annoyed, it turned towards the real Boruto on the cliff who fired off a rasengan, nearly clipping the bird's wings but was still enough to send it spiraling out of balance in the air. The bird quickly regained it's flight and began to circle Boruto, more cautious than before.

"Okay, time to get moving." Boruto said as he desperately began to crawl across the face of the mountain, "Don't mind the bird and fatigue, just make sure you don't fall off the mountain."

Even as panic fueled his body, Boruto could hear the flapping of the bird's wings and it's eyes on his back as he crawled ever so slowly. He needed to move faster. He needed to focus.

I don't know, how do you always foc-

I don't know, I just read. Boruto thought to himself. Reading and crawling across a mountain are two different things! I can focus on my research, but I can't focus on something like this!

…

Okay, so what was he researching on? Boruto thought desperately to himself. Umm...uh...I can't really work on the kote optimization for now so...just...reiterate what you already researched. T-There was...Chakra Shifting...

Okay so...Chakra forms the basis of all ninja techniques. The release of a technique is defined by two factors. Shape Transformation and Nature Transformation. Shape defines the movement and form of the chakra and Nature fills the jutsu with defined physical traits based on the elemental release. Some jutsus don't require a nature release or need very little nature release. The shadow clone is one example. For lingering jutsus like the shadow clones, the clones are nothing more than a mass of chakra defined in your shape by Shape transformation. Underneath the physical appearance is pure chakra, not unlike the chakra running throughout veins.

Since shadow clones are not only made of your chakra but react to dramatic shifts in your chakra control, that means you still retain control over the chakra that forms the clones even as they act independently. Using that same chakra control it should, in principle, allow you to change the Shape transformation of your chakra, dissolving the clone back into chakra. From there, you can continue using chakra control to reshape the chakra and create new techniques. There are multiple flaws in this technique however as the chakra, when returned to base, naturally begins to drift and disperse, meaning that if you don't refill the chakra pool, the power and complexity of the techniques you can shift to begin to drop immensely and quickly. The second being that while it is possible to reverse Shape transformation, it has yet to be proven that one can reverse nature release. As such ninjutus that require a nature release cannot by shifted back to base and while you can change the nature of based chakra to an elemental release, you cannot change the nature release again this way even if you retain shape transformation control. Also-OH MY GOD I can see the cave entrance and oh god there's the bird! Get inside, get inside. GET. INSI-

Boruto cried out in terror as the threw himself into the cave, narrowly avoiding the bird's beak as it poked through the entrance of the cave, filling the small entrance with it's beak alone. The mountain shuddered as the bird pecked again and again to try and get at Boruto but to no avail and it soon took flight again. Free from danger and fatigue, Boruto laid on the ground as he caught his breath. As soon as he was ready, he pushed himself up and looked around. He found a black material sticking out of the cave wall. Without a doubt, this was what he needed. Carefully, he tapped at the rocks surrounding the material with a kunai, chipping them away and freeing the metal that he needed. It was a bit large for him to carry so for now he dragged it towards the entrance.

"Now all I got to do is figure out how to get down."

A shadow passed over the entrance of the cave as the bird from before was still circling the mountain side, eying the cave entrance hungrily.

"...Screw it." Boruto smiled, "Let's just fly down."

The bird's eyes widened as he recognized the sphere that Boruto was forming between his hands.

"Rasengan!"