As Homura pushed himself to move faster, his mind was filled with a mixture of frustration and determination. He couldn't shake off the feeling of being cursed, as if fate itself conspired to keep Naruto out of his grasp.

Perhaps it was due to Homura being quite hard-headed or the fact that every time he activated his Sharingan to see further ahead, his worst tendencies seemed to intensify, but he refused to succumb to despair.

He had to find Naruto, no matter the obstacles.

Both a mixture of several kinds of worries and the lack of time allocated for completing the task ahead made him quite stressed and determined to achieve his goals.

Homura, for the first time in his young life, had truly experienced a desire to not fail.

He had to be on time to ensure things didn't go awry.

He couldn't afford to be late.

The memory of the one time he was late when it truly mattered still haunted him. He couldn't let history repeat itself.

“If only things had occurred differently.” Was a question Homura could not help asking himself…many times over.

However…This time…This time, he had to ensure that things didn't end the same way.

His reliance on C, his AI companion, proved to be a valuable asset in this pursuit. C's ability to scan the surrounding life forms to some limited degree, provided some reassurance, even if it required narrowing down the results to creatures moving at human-relevant speeds. The number of potential targets was reduced to eight, bringing a glimmer of hope to Homura's eyes.

However, his hopes were quickly dashed when C confirmed that among the few beings they managed to locate, none of his potential targets were clearly moving together. The three beings he was looking for could not be among any of them since none of them were moving together. The realization hit him hard, fueling his determination to delve deeper into the forest. He knew he had to cover more ground and push himself to his limits.

The minutes ticked away, and Homura could feel the urgency mounting.

“This is getting me nowhere…” thought Homura as he leaped from the uncountable tree branch in his search that was increasingly seeming more pointless.

Even though in the grand scheme of things, it had not been that long, however, the backhills were immense and seemed endless; if he went too far he would be definitely meeting with one of Konoha’s patrol units.

Something he wanted to avoid, above all else.

He wasn’t exactly recognizable as a cadet at the moment but more of a potential threat. If he reverted back to his normal form he would have to do some explaining, especially since he wasn’t at the academy at the moment.

Though everything could be avoided if he managed to find Naruto soon.

Naruto had gained a significant head start, and every passing moment brought them further apart. Time was not on his side, but he couldn't afford to slow down or doubt himself. He had to trust his instincts and continue the search.

Suddenly, C's voice broke through the silence, conveying a sense of urgency. "Alert: detected three beings moving at high speeds, and they're moving together," C informed him. Homura's heart skipped a beat, a surge of adrenaline coursing through his veins.

“R-really?!“ asked Homura as he stopped on a rock that he landed on top of with a surprised expression, though due to him wearing a mask, the only hint that showed that he was surprised was the lower part of his mask who had a gap to show his lips.

Though Homura soon recovered from his surprise and stated in his mind “Which direction!“ to the AI linked to it.

“Answer: West, 1368 meters. “ As C stated such important information an arrow appeared in side Homura’s mind; indicating to him where to go as the distance also present on top o the arrow kept increasing.

“…..“Homura said nothing and activated his sharingan, his vision soon dyed in an unnatural color and his vision became more enhanced.

The details in the surrounding area and the range of his vision have expanded.

Giving Homura a boost in his brain processing power that he was able to think of the better and safest path to take as he moved around at an increased pace.

“It’s truly happening… even with all my training I can’t probably contend with any of them but if the worse comes to happen I may be able to escape,” Homura thought to himself of the people he might have to face appeared inside his mind.

The faces of 3 kunoichis from seemingly Iwagakure or perhaps Takigakure and their abilities were all Homura could think about.

Homura was not entirely sure if the 3 people were the exact same as in his memories, but if they were then that would confirm a fear that he had for quite a long time now.

The world he found himself in was closer to the depiction of the anime than the manga version.

That would certainly explain as to why the Kurama clan existed.

It would bring untold possibilities and beings with powers that Homura could only dream of.

If he played his cards right, then there was a clear way for him to get stronger and make plans to achieve the strength he needed to survive.

It was much safer than facing the enemies shown in the manga who were among the strongest beings on the planet, but he would need to have a level of jonin and that could take a long time.

Homura had confirmed with his sharingan that he had more chakra than most of his classmates.

Though he fell slightly short of Choji who was an Akimichi who tend to have more chakra than most and Sasuke who was from the Uchiha clan a born genius.

He had even more chakra than Hinata, which was not the case at the end of the first year they spent training at the academy.

But overall it wasn’t too big of a gap between him and most of his classmates and even though in recent years Homura’s chakra level had skyrocketed, so much so that he was not fully aware of why that change happened.

It could be due to the number of new cells inside his body that made him stronger due to obtaining the DNA of several of his classmates transplanted inside his body or it could be due to him growing up. He had yet to reach 10 years of age but his figure was far more developed than when he first started.

A growth spur and the training they went on for several years, made all the students become better and have more chakra available to them; at least it was how Homura perceived it.

His sharingan was not yet fully matured but he could more or less gauge how much chakra people had, especially after helping Naruto train last year.

That was because… Naruto had too much chakra.

The Sharingan could tell how much chakra one had.

An incomplete sharingan could do it in a much less proficient way.

It was even difficult for Homura to tell since he was not taught those small details, none of the scrolls he had obtained in the Uchiha clan even mentioned that he was able to gauge chakra levels. It was not very surprising, the Sharingan being a kekkei genkai, a lot of the information available pertaining to it was intentionally kept secret and suppressed, even the scrolls that detailed how to use sharingan genjutsu were encrypted in a way that it was hard to decrypt as far as Homura knew. It was probably because a lot of information was passed down orally or taught to avoid more people knowing its secrets. Secrecy has always been a core value to shinobi culture but as he watched Naruto waste so much chakra during his training.

Homura started to realize that he could not just see chakra but tell more or less how much someone had available to them.

Though gauging it was harder to tell.

So he spied on some other younger ninjas’ train and he was able to truly deduce that it was in fact the case.

It then became unquestionable that Homura could more or less tell how much chakra people had after witnessing Naruto’s training and comparing it to theirs.

As someone that was not yet trained in chakra control, Naruto wasted a lot more chakra than those whom he spied on.

Since the people that Homura spied on were all genins, Homura was sure they knew how to control their chakra to some extent.

A lot of genins tried to control their chakra by performing the walking on water training.

Something that every genin had to eventually learn since fighting while standing on a river or large bodies of water was something all ninjas had to be able to do.

Not that Homura did not try to see if he could copy the ability, but the answer was ultimately no.

He was not able to able to do the leaf exercise for more than 2 minutes, when he tried it on his own, it seemed just like the chakra natures that Homura does not have a certain degree of mastery and the body is capable to perform some of the taijutsu moves he had seen in the past; it was impossible for the sharingan to copy.

The same unfortunately applied to chakra control.

Not that it could not be copied but the copying process had too many holes.

That required too much from his current self.

It seemed that the sharingan was not as powerful as Homura had thought.

His plans to copy the techniques of others during their time training were a bust.

It was no wonder that he had failed to be able to copy any ninjutsu after obtaining the sharingan in the past, he had thought it was due to him not being able to keep it activated for longer periods of time, but it was far from the truth.

Especially since Homura was now able to keep it activated for 20 minutes, 15, if he uses his chakra rapidly, and much less if he uses it while performing intense ninjutsu as well.

Something like the transformation jutsu that he was currently using, is more or less a problem with stamina, and maintaining the jutsu at all times is the true problem of the matter.

Cadets, due to having poor chakra control often fail to perform the jutsu, either for too long or properly.

It was not surprising, due to the transformation jutsu being one of the first ninjutsus every cadet has to learn. Though, transforming into an object or a much taller or bigger person/creature with more pronounced mass and weight is an entirely different matter, from just trying to imitate the appearance of a person without taking into consideration many other details and the overall feel. That last section requires a lot of practice.

One of the reasons that explain as to why even after all the years of training, students still were tested on the jutsu just before graduating from the academy in order to pass the curriculum and final exam.

Since most jutsus take more practice even if one can already somewhat perform them. It takes months or years for even a trained shinobi to truly master a jutsu and be able to expand and experiment with the jutsus they’ve learned.

Practice truly was at the core foundation of being a ninja.

That much was something that all who trained to become a ninja understood, even if they were genius or not.

Improvements could always be made since no jutsu is perfect.

Since practice did not make it perfect, then the only way was to evolve or improve a jutsu to cover as many shortcomings as possible.

Regardless, it was a process that took too long and a lot of effort, nonetheless, it was practice time that Homura could dedicate a lot of his time to, at least when compared to his more dedicated classmates.

Not only that but his stamina could not allow him to.

He was for the first time truly envious of Naruto.

Naruto being an Uzumaki made him a cut above the rest.

A vitality that allowed him to train and use chakra for hours on end without passing out from exhaustion or falling unconscious for several days.

Due to him having loads of chakra, that would no doubt increase even more in the next few years.

Though that kind of advantage was impossible for Homura to match, he noticed something strange as Choji was also one of the few people that came to train with them alongside Shikamaru and Kiba.

After Homura had no longer a need to keep Choji sedated, he quickly realized that besides Naruto, Choji was the second person to recover chakra the fastest among his classmates and even himself.

After Homura asked Choji as to why he ate so much even though he was training since it was ultimately better just to drink water, mold chakra, or overall rest than eating, and after recovering enough chakra to once again train; he got an answer.

An answer that he did not expect to hear, after having Choji explain that he needed energy to recover easily.

Explaining why he needed to gain muscle “fat“ in order to recover faster.

It turned out that the Akamichi clan was not only among the few known clans that were able to use Yang release. A chakra nature release that was quite rare among all ninjas, only a few ninjas were able to use yang release since it was a nature outside the 5 basic nature transformation releases which made it quite rare.

But the Akamichi clan possessed another peculiarity in their DNA that made them able to convert calories into chakra.

The realization of that factor, made Homura understand as to why Choji was the only classmate that was allowed to eat sometimes during training.

Every other student was not allowed to do the same.

Homura initially thought that most instructors just gave up on having him stop eating during class, but it seemed that he was also one of the students that were being accommodated due to special circumstances.

The same as Aburame being allowed to use bugs in his fighting arsenal, or Kiba being allowed to use Akamaru in class and most of the other classes.

It finally clicked inside Homura’s head, as to why Choji had gained so much as of late.

He initially thought because Choji kept getting fatter he had a lot of chakra, but turns out that the boy’s clan was just built that way and had large chakra reserves.

It made sense since the butterfly wings that were made of chakra that the Akimichi clan were able to exhibit, was only a jutsu they could perform in Homura’s memory database.

He concluded that it was because they had large chakra pools, but chakra large chakra reserves alone could not explain the phenomenon, due to it seemingly appearing a bit different from a normal ninjutsu.

Since chakra unless with the help of a doujutsu or being molded into an element, shape, or form is mainly invisible.

To be made to be seen by all it would need a large concentration of it, in a single area and even more to remain it for a long time.

However, if body mass in some shape or form is being converted into chakra then it would make sense that it was being done via some genetic trait or through a special technique passed only between the clan.

Which he found out it was the former.

It was a genetic trait that he possessed it.

After including the DNA of Choji into his own.

Homura then tried to use the same techniques as Choji employed in order to regenerate chakra faster but it was sadly a failure on his part.

Perhaps, it was due to him only having Choji’s DNA inside himself in less than a year or Homura not having enough body fat.

Though, he wasn’t exactly able to test it.

Whatever the truth may have been it was overall a failure.

He wasn’t much of an eater and Choji’s DNA did not seem to have a big impact on his physiology to change his eating habits. Nor was he going to gain weight to test a theory that Choji had only probably grazed the bare minimum that he was allowed to say.

But the thought alone that he may one day develop or be able to gain such an ability was enticing even if it could be useless to him, but if Akamichi DNA did boost his chakra reserves higher than he would have been, it was overall a win his hand.

Reminding Homura that the information he had on all the things available to him was not entirely complete.

It was a happy accident that Choji’s DNA was not more complicated or harmful as he had thought, there few slight strands of DNA that were abnormal, but that was overall normal.

Every living being had mutations, most of them harmless and overall difficult to tell besides their direct impact on the body, but those mutations caused by kekkei genkais usually go beyond that and are often hard to tell if it was even derived from human DNA as far as it was for those belonging to the Uchiha clan.

Though it was far from surprising.

The direct ancestor of the Uchiha clan was a being that inherited a mutated power that came down from an alien goddess who obtained that said power by eating a chakra fruit, from a semi-sentient tree, that was absorbing the life force and all DNA collected from the planet due to being fed the lower half of thousands of year old interdimensional alien.

Such a convoluted origin and chain reaction of events that allowed for it to happen were far from easy to understand or put into perspective.

Even Homura himself was unaware that as someone with the Uchiha bloodline, his genes, and overall DNA had more perks than just being able to awaken the sharingan.

The Uchiha clan inherited the odd quirk from their ancestor, Indra Otsutsuki, to have more potent chakra than those of normal individuals.

Indra inherited the strong chakra from his father but not the absurd reserves that his father had, and that his brother did.

Nonetheless, having strong chakra potency allowed for reduced usage of chakra when using ninjutsu and made it overall more powerful than the chakra belonging to an average person.

So even if two people use the same ninjutsu, the one with much more potent chakra is likely to prevail in the end, although other factors such as chakra control or chakra reserves may become a key factor on the matter at hand.

That was part of the overall reason as to why Homura who was not even a genin, was able to use elemental ninjutsu to some degree despite his own age and chakra reserves and chakra control issues.

In fact, the likelihood that his chakra control was so bad, to begin with, was due to him making use of the genetic quirk that allowed him to implant the DNA tissues and elements from other beings without rejection and incorporate it as his own.

If it wasn’t for that fact, he was going to have likely more chakra-related issues than just harder chakra control or wasting too much chakra.

Trying to use or acquire other people’s DNA to change one’s chakra came with a bag of a variety of issues ranging from minimal to death.

However, the naturally more potent chakra that more likely allowed him to learn ninjutsu at a faster rate was one of the few reasons Homura did not experience more severe side effects.

Due to a stroke of luck and an immature thought process, Homura had somehow both a body resilient body and a powerful chakra.

One that most ninjas would kill to have even if they were unaware that he also possessed the ability to use a few kekkei genkais.

Unfortunately, Homura was unaware of the full extent of his overall aptitudes, all he could mostly see were the problems lying on the surface.

This is because details on such a level that pertained to chakra or certain clans’ biology of its members were not well-known in-universe but could be seen more as the knowledge that only a reader or someone with a quasi-omniscient point of view would know.

And Homura for as much as he had seen the Naruto anime and read forum information about it, he did not know all that was part of the Naruto franchise. So even his supercomputing skill was unable to provide the information during Homura’s research.

Worse, some of the information he had was clearly fake and wrong.

So he had become more dependent on the common knowledge available to him in this new world or the headcanon he had formed throughout the years.

In fact, no Uchiha alive or that lived for several centuries prior even knew of Kaguya Otsutsuki, or that their powers and abilities mostly derived from her, and much less of her origins from being an alien from outer space.

Even her son, the sage of six paths, Haguromo Otsutsuki, was nothing more than an old myth to most who even were aware of that name and his legend.

If we were to put it in more archaic and simpler terms, Hagoromo Otsutsuki and anything related to that time were more of a “Deep cut“. Information from that far-off was scarce and much less in demand or properly preserved by those who knew about it.

The world had changed since that time. Many wars had been fought and much had been lost or fallen into obscurity.

History had not been preserved and misinformation also existed and was widespread.

Some of Homura’s books, books that he had bought in reputable libraries, even went so far as to say that human beings always had chakra available within them, and such information was the consensus or accepted by almost all people.

Information or rather a lot of misinformation had become accepted facts.

Though that last part might have been due to Kaguya potentially having brainwashed all, if not most of humanity at some point in time; in order to keep them docile and obedient to her rule.

So for Homura to even come up with the idea or understanding that Choji had a set of genes that allowed him to inherit some type of physiology that allowed for the conversion of body calories into chakra to occur was close to impossible without prior knowledge.

Or at least a deeper understanding of the Akimichi clan.

The only reason he believed that was the truth was due to context and the things he observed with his sharingan that did not contradict any of it.

Otherwise, the method itself was shaky at best, since being able to gauge someone’s chakra level on Homura’s current level, only applies mostly to volume and not potency or other factors that may influence one’s reading.

Still, it did somewhat work.

Reinforcing to him once more that knowledge was power.

And fortunately, Homura knew a lot of things, and if he wanted to profit from them he could not share what he knew above all else. Otherwise, his only advantage towards getting stronger at a faster rate than what was normal would be doomed to fail.

No matter how much he wanted.

Only he was the key to making things not as bleak as they were in the manga.

At least that is the mindset he came to believe in.

The more people knew of the information he was aware of, the more likely things would just take a drastic turn for the worst.

The current state of the world was fragile. The state of most ninja villages as they are now was far from the ones seen in the future and even then tension was always brewing in the background.

So although he wanted to avoid the events that would occur in the future, uniting the world under one banner to stop the Ootsutsuki threat was ultimately more important in the long run.

However, as Homura was recalling several things as he was giving chase, C, soon interfered with Homura’s thoughts. “Warning: A separation between the targets has just occurred, a trap may have been set into motion. probability 55 percent.“

“Tch! So they found out huh?“ A displeased Homura stopped as he heard the news, but his voice had no intent of surprise, he was aware of the possibility of being found out after tailing the targets for a while now. “C, did they all go in different directions?” asked Homura in a calm voice. He had previously put a lot of distance between them in order to not be so easily found out.

“Answer: Incorrect. 2 are moving together while one is moving further east alone.“ The AI responded by creating a second arrow towards the East of Homura’s position.

“East….that’s certainly going to take them a while to regroup if they continue going that way, “ Thought Homura as he looked at the number below of the arrow going east getting bigger ”Is one of them a sensor ninja?” is the first thing that came to his mind after he came asked his question.

Though this one could not be answered by C easily, the probability was nonetheless quite high.

From what Homura remembered and had inquired before, that information was not available to him, and more than that the unit in the original anime was a unit of only females and they used combination jutsu.

Combination jutsus or konbijutsus, are ninjutsus that take more 2 or more people or 2 different types of jutsus to create a more powerful effect.

Some are just two or more completely different jutsu being combined at once to increase an effect. Such as when ninjas sometimes try to use fire and wind release in conjunction to increase the destructive power of the flames; since the flames get amplified by the wind release.

However, some konbijutsus are just the same jutsu that have to be used by several people at the same time, in conjunction with one another.

Nonetheless, them separating, even for a short while was a huge risk, but also an opportunity that Homura never thought he would have.

He never planned to interfere in the whole affair unless he needed it, but rather he wanted to catch sight of a true shinobi battle in order to know how high he should more or less aim for now and ensured that events and all the parties involved were the same as the data he had in his memories.

Unfortunately, now that a division had occurred it meant that he would have to make a decision.

“C, can you inform me if any of the other 2 tries to come towards me or gets closer to my location?“ Homura asked as he was trying to evaluate the pros and cons.

“Answer: Feasible. Although the movement speed of individuals known as “Shinobi“ has been observed to increase drastically. Data on the location may become irrelevant after a few seconds, and close the distance faster than the data suggest.” C, mentioned in his robotic voice but seemed rather unsure of the words it conveyed to Homura, though the latter only paid attention to the fact that he was not the only fast-moving person in the world.

It was true Homura could use swift release to move very fast for a short instant, but the shunshin jutsu or teleportation jutsu was a jutsu that all shinobi should know.

And that allowed them to cover an even larger distance at a high speed that swift release was unable to.

Homura deep in thought looked at the number on the arrow that was definitely increasing at a fast speed, in fact the overall speed of movement between both arrows was pretty much the same, making it clear that Homura was not their main priority; otherwise, they would have turned back as soon as they had the chance and come towards Homura to get rid of him.

A fact that did not escape Homura’s current thought process.

“Hm…I’ve come this far to not go home empty-handed…but I don’t want to die either…I have no idea what’s going on but the current shift in events is definitely my fault…things may turn to the worst…but Kakashi is likely to get involved as well…I should be able to buy myself at least 2 minutes, in order to get myself out of a terrible predicament.”

Soon Homura started once again moving at high speed, trying his best to catch up to the rogue figure rather than keeping the same pace as them.

“What am I doing? Since when have I been such a coward!? Even Naruto is more who is currently weaker than me isn’t such a coward…If I can’t even do some minor reconnaissance work, I might as well give up on trying to become a shinobi.” Homura landed on a rock as he thought that and use both his legs to once again propel himself with greater strength “I am no longer weak as I was back then…not anymore.”

Either due to the effectiveness of his training at the academy or the painful memories resurfacing, Homura once again steeled his heart as he began to move faster than before.

Homura's determination intensified as he pushed himself further into the forest, chasing after the three beings that C had identified. He couldn't afford to lose them now, not when they could potentially pose a threat to Naruto and others.

As he leaped from one branch to another, his agile movements accompanied by the rustling of leaves, Homura's mind raced with various scenarios. He knew he had to approach this situation with caution and be prepared for any unexpected turns.

Suddenly, he caught a glimpse of movement up ahead. The figures were getting closer. Homura's heart raced, and he clenched his fists, ready for whatever awaited him.

As he closed in on their location, Homura called out to C, his voice filled with urgency. "C, keep monitoring their movements. Let me know if there are any changes or if you pick up anything suspicious."

C's response came through the earpiece, its voice calm and collected. "Affirmative. Real-time updates will be provided. "

An alarm was put into effect inside Homura’s mind that was meant to signify him of any danger, seeing it Homura was once again convinced of his chances so he drew both of his short swords, ready for direct combat.

“This time…This time…it will be different," said Homura with a rather ominous tone.

Chapter end

 

 

Author notes

 

Hey guys, thanks for all the support and I am feeling much better. The slowed down pace definitely helped tough still over worked. Lately I am feeling that writers are overall cursed. My health has been going down since I a started writing...that and that cursed pandemic that refuses to overall end.

*sigh*On a brighter note was able to take some time off, get a friend to do some sorting of the next few chapters and have a better idea of things, so it will be possible that some chapters will be released faster since there's not much editing needed, but sadly those are in the latter half. Still better than nothing I guess.

 

On another note, was also able to do some more research on Naruto. The Uchiha, the sharingan and overall chakra are even more busted than I thought.  Truly fascinating how they work...but there's a lot of misinformation or head canon going around, making difficult to. Kishimoto truly left a lot of things up to interpretation and open ended...that's why I had to write this chapter with this much exposition, to course correct a few things and to give an idea of how far Homura's progress is truly going, and what he can really do, since hinting over and over again may not be the best way to give exposition. 

This is a hard series to write about, but can't stop now. Not at least I reach the main story or early shippudden.