"Also, to be clear, chakra control for nature releases and ninjutsu isn't the same as what you've been doing for taijutsu or plain bodily enhancement. There's a difference between using chakra internally and keeping it bound to your body for taijutsu, versus shaping and ejecting it outward for ninjutsu or genjutsu. So, show me what you've practiced so far. And while you are at it, next try externally sensing your surroundings with your chakra as well."
Kimimaro obeyed, focusing calmly as he gathered chakra into his legs and arms, the same way he did during his endless drills for speed and movement, before activating his current beginner sensory mode.
Ashina gave a small nod, his voice carrying a note of approval. "That's impressive. To reach this level alone… most would need guidance. Your bloodline clearly sharpened your senses early, giving you this instinct."
Kimimaro accepted the praise silently, but inside, he already understood the logic.
Sensing was tied directly to chakra reserves, so it was obvious why the Sage Body clans would simply naturally be better at it.
The larger your reserves, the more "sensory particles" of chakra you could scatter outward, whether deliberately, in a full "sensory mode," or unconsciously.
And the more you scattered, the sharper your readings became, in distance, clarity, and detail.
That was why clans like Senju and Uzumaki stood at the peak of sensory ability.
Tobirama, for instance, could canonically sense chakra across multiple smaller countries, distinguishing signatures hundreds of kilometers away.
At high enough levels, sensing wasn't just detecting presence.
It was reading emotion, temperament, even subtle states of the body, whether someone was under genjutsu, whether they carried a certain bloodline, or, as Ashina had demonstrated, even ancestry.
It could also turn inward, used for internal perception, checking if one's chakra pathway system was under distortion or if genjutsu threads had taken root.
Almost like a Byakugan, essentially, except different: wider in range, weaker in detail.
Sensing 'felt', while Byakugan always 'saw'.
At the peak, sensing could stretch for hundreds of kilometers, while the Byakugan's maximum clarity stretched only tens.
Two sides of the same coin.
Kimimaro smirked faintly at the thought.
He knew that "Kagura's Mind Eye," often spoken of as an Uzumaki specialty, was simply their clan's name for highly advanced sensory refinement.
In essence, no different from what the Senju had once practiced.
"For ninjutsu, boy, chakra control is about precision at the point of release. Taijutsu and enhancement, you keep it locked inside, shaping it along your coils and limbs. For ninjutsu, you force it out. Every tenketsu becomes a nozzle, every seal a lens. The difference between a stable jutsu and wasted chakra is how finely you compress, balance, and eject it. Too loose, and it fizzles. Too tight, and you choke the flow and rupture your own pathways."
Kimimaro listened quietly, eyes narrowing with focus. Ashina continued.
"As for sensing… what you're doing now is the crude form. Extending your presence like a hand groping in the dark. Uzumaki method is sharper. You don't just scatter chakra outward, you lace it with rhythm."
"You pulse it in waves, steady and controlled, like a heartbeat. The world answers back differently when you feed it a pattern. Static leaks get ignored, but a trained pulse draws clearer echoes. That is how you separate one chakra from another, how you measure distance, how you cut through noise."
Ashina paused, then gave him a dry chuckle.
"You've already got the foundation, your reserves are strong, your instincts sharp. All you need now is discipline. Run it as an exercise. Sit still, send out pulses every breath, every heartbeat. Then refine the intervals. Shorter, longer, sharper. Train until you can do it while walking, fighting, even sleeping."
Kimimaro tilted his head slightly, filing every word away.
His mind already piecing together how to turn these abstractions into drills, into progress.
Ashina, meanwhile, continued with another kind of exercise.
"Before you throw fireballs or raise walls, you must understand the element itself. That is what we called immersion training. Not a jutsu, but a practice. You sit with the element until your body, your coils, your very breath learn its rhythm."
Kimimaro raised an eyebrow. "Sit with dirt and puddles until they whisper back?"
Ashina let out something between a grunt and a laugh. "Crude, but not wrong. For earth, it is weight, stillness, the slow pulse of stone beneath you. For water, it is flow, adaptability, the way currents move around resistance instead of breaking against it. You absorb their essence, not with your eyes, but with your coils. Your brain patterns, the centers that shape the chakra, begin to mimic that vibration."
Kimimaro's gaze sharpened. "And once they mimic it?"
"Then every jutsu becomes easier," Ashina replied firmly. "The chakra will already resonate with the element before you mold it. You won't fight against your own body to shape mud or stone or water. You will guide what is already vibrating in your coils. That is why true immersion at the start saves you years of grinding later."
He paused, then added in a lower tone, "Most shinobi skip this. They rush to hand seals and memorized patterns. They waste ten times the effort and never reach mastery. That's why only a handful in every generation stand above as true elemental masters. They are the ones who did not skip the essence."
Kimimaro crossed his arms, silent for a long breath. His mind was already dissecting how to apply this. "Weight and flow," he muttered finally. "Stone and stream. I see."
Kimimaro nodded without hesitation.
"Fine. I'll make all of it routine. Every day. And I'll come to you to see if it's working."
But his eyes narrowed slightly, already moving on. "Now, tell me about taijutsu and genjutsu. The differences. The mechanics. What really separates them from ninjutsu?"
Ashina chuckled. "Straight to the marrow. Good. Listen, then. Taijutsu, ninjutsu, genjutsu, they are all chakra, but the emphasis differs. Ninjutsu is manipulating chakra and ejecting it. You force it outward, shape it into elements and techniques. Taijutsu, on the other hand, is chakra locked inward, never leaving your body or essence. You grind the body until it hardens, then use chakra to reinforce it. Stronger muscles, denser coils, sharper recovery. The more you train, the more your body adapts to hold and channel, so better performance."
Kimimaro gave a small, knowing grunt.
He'd already lived that to some extent, pushing his body in isolation, but the logic lined up.
Ashina's tone shifted. "Genjutsu, though… that is different. You could call it a cousin of sensing. With sensing, you scatter your chakra outward, reading. With genjutsu, you slip chakra in, twisting. Instead of overpowering your enemy with force, you slide subtlety into their brain's tenketsu, the chakra nodes of thought and perception. Most of the time, you lay those twists as traps in their surroundings. That is, unless you are a Uchiha, with a dojutsu so saturated in Yin Release it spills into every glance."
"But even without Uchiha eyes, if your Yin Release is strong enough, you can create illusions from nothing and program falsehoods straight into their mind. Hallucinations, paralysis, fear, silence, whatever your will wants to weave. The real challenge isn't the illusion itself; it's getting them to step into your trap and letting your chakra slip into their brain, which is essentially the body's window to the soul, by the way.
"So, unless you have real Yin talent, the kind that lets a single thread of chakra ignite powerful illusions inside an enemy, mastering it is a waste of years. It seldom turns the tide unless you're built for it. Which is why I didn't bother going far."
Kimimaro tilted his head, listening closely. Ashina noticed, and his voice grew more precise.
"But, I'll give you exercises for both. For Yin: begin by creating something from nothing. Hold an image in your mind until it feels real, down to the sound, the scent, the weight. That will sharpen the spiritual edge needed for genjutsu. For taijutsu, it is simpler. Push your body until it tears. Chakra will heal it. Push again. Over and over again, there is no limit, really. Each tear rebuilt makes you denser. Endurance, speed, and strength are forged by reps, not tricks..."
Kimimaro stayed silent, eyes lowered, already filing away the drill ideas, already planning.
He knew that so-called suicidal training regimens of Duy, Guy, and Lee would have been nothing short of a death sentence in his old world.
Overwork, overtraining, injuries, collapse.
Back there, it was the body that set the ceiling.
But here? Here, the very fabric of life carried a failsafe. Chakra.
The mystical energy of this world stitched flesh, soothed strain, replenished stamina.
Sleep, food, and rest still mattered, but chakra bent the rules.
It meant the body could be pushed far past what should have been possible.
That was why Kimimaro thought coldly: in this world, the only limiter was willpower.
Technically, anyone could walk the same road as Duy, Guy, and Lee. They were civilians.
They could not even eject chakra outward for ninjutsu or genjutsu.
And yet, through nothing but endless grind, they had climbed to the Eight Gates.
To Kage level and beyond.
No kekkei genkai, no clans, no inherited genius, just fists, sweat, and refusal to quit.
So why wasn't the world overflowing with Eight Gates monsters?
Because willpower itself was the rarest resource of all.
Most shinobi talked of discipline but bowed to comfort, or politics, or fear.
They all wanted the results, but few were willing to hollow themselves out, to bleed, to grind to the edge of collapse for years without stopping.
That was what separated those three from everyone else.
Their supposed "lack" of ninjutsu talent had been nothing but a blessing in disguise.
With no distraction, no fallback, they had poured their entire existence into the one path everyone else sneered at.
A "foolish" road.
Uncharted, underappreciated.
And precisely because of that, they reached heights almost no one else could.
Kimimaro's lips curved faintly.
In this world, talent was real, bloodlines were real. But so was sheer, ruthless willpower.