They even had letters from the Daimyo sanctioning their “tolls” so long as a portion of it got sent to them as “taxes”. It was dirty business but this world had never been clean so I was hardly surprised. We left the bandits behind and thanks to my senses took a more scenic route as I led us to hotsprings that I detected hidden nearby. At one of these hotsprings I even got lucky enough to encounter a chakra beast. A small grey furred monkey that reminded me of a Capuchin to a degree. Whether it was size or body shape the similarities were clear. –
Unlike many of my own beasts when I found them this one was already a full blown chakra beast with an ability and everything. It’s ability was also ironically one I had recently gotten for myself, boil release. I wasn’t particularly surprised by this as it wasn’t unheard of for chakra beasts to have abilities that reflected their surroundings. This monkey lived here at this hotspring that held heavy fire and water nature in equal parts so it having the resulting kekkai genkai of the two as it’s ability wasn’t hard to believe.-
That didn’t mean that the monkey wasn’t as good at using the kekkai genkai as a shinobi either as that was very untrue. A good example of this was that the thing actually knew how to render it’s ability harmless steam rather than the ridiculously corrosive stuff that usually showed up, a feat even I hadn’t done yet. It could also form shapes out of it’s steam and even use the kekkai genkai to augment it’s stealth abilities. It did this in a similar manner to the [hiding in the mist] jutsu of the Kirigakure in that it created a cloud of steam that was impossible to see through.-
Like most monkeys this one proved cautious towards humans such as Karin until it learned that she was harmless to it. Due to my nature I had no such issue as the thing warmed up to me instantly like nearly every other beast I had ever met that wasn’t diseased. Like my own beasts the monkey was especially eager for the special pills I made that enhanced it’s power as a chakra beast. That along with the traditional baptism of my sage chakra that all my beasts obtained led the monkey to having power not much below elite Chunin.-
Underneath that cute exterior was enough power to make most shinobi nervous if they were aware of it. Still this was how we ended up with a monkey hitching a ride on our shoulders as we toured the land of hotsprings. More than a few people thought the thing was adorable when we passed through towns and offered it fruit or vegetables that it was more than happy to stuff it’s face with. We ran into some less than friendly sorts three times over the next week and each time I let my new beast handle the situation.-
“That ability is so disturbing to watch. People, plants, rocks it doesn’t matter as it all melts in front of it.” Karin said as we watched the monkey reduce a bandit to a pile of sludge.
I nodded “Theres a reason it’s considered one of the more dangerous kekkai genkais after all. It’s a double edged sword though as it’s quite easy to suffer friendly fire if faced with a wind user.” I said casually.
“Wouldn’t it be even more useful if it was mixed with wind release jutsu then?” she asked and I made a “so so” motion with my hand.
“It would be more focused and controlled that way sure but at the same time the wind nature chakra would likely cause it to weaken at the same time.” I explained calmly.
“What if you were to mix wind nature chakra with the mixed chakra?” she asked curiously.
I thought about it for a moment before answering “I can’t say for certain as that is kekkai tota territory and I haven’t reached it yet but I assume it would create Zero release like what Shiro has. Zero release is a mix of water, fire and wind chakras after all though the exact ratio is unclear to me. My theory is that once I recreate Ice release from water and wind chakras mixing I’ll be close to understanding the exact ratio of Zero release.” I said honestly.
“So if you were to teach the monkey how to use wind release it might eventually learn Zero release as well?” she asked and I frowned.
“I don’t know. Kekkai tota’s aren’t hereditary or the third Tsuchikage’s children and grandchildren would have it but they don’t, they have Lava release instead. Shiro is unique in this and I am unsure if teaching the monkey wind release would give it this eventually or just more tricks up it’s sleeve.” I said honestly.
The conversation ended there but I kept the idea in my head as once I reached the proficiency to begin attempting kekkai tota I’ll be able to test this myself. Speaking of genetic inheritance of Kekkai genkai my recreation of them had done wonders for understanding why they could be inherited. See I had taken blood before and after each Kekkai genkai I recreated and using that my sensei and I was able to discover the differences.-
It was extremely subtle but when you used a Kekkai genkai the unique chakra alters your genetics slightly with the more intense use increasing the potency of this alteration. We theorized that if the alteration reached a certain level from multiple repeated usages of the Kekkai genkai it would be enough to cause ones offspring to have bodily chakra natures perfectly aligned to create that Kekkai genkai thus explaining how it could be “awakened” through training or stress even if the person wasn’t born able to use it.-
I planned to test this myself after successfully recreating a Kekkai tota to see why it didn’t seem to work for it the same way. I had some ideas of course but without that sample to compare from before and after recreating the Kekkai tota I couldn’t say for certain. My theory though was that the mutation created by Kekkai genkai chakra use was left unbalanced by the creation of Kekkai tota. Specifically the ratio of chakra natures being mixed was unbalanced and thus prevented the mutation for that creation from taking hold.