Orochimaru’s Magic Lamp

Just like how Might Guy defies logic through sheer physical power, Naruto's approach to battle is equally unorthodox and extreme.

Even after reaching the pseudo-Six Paths level, Naruto still relied on the same handful of techniques—mainly variants of the Rasengan. His combat style never strayed far from the combo of shadow clones + Rasengan + Sexy Jutsu.

Unlike Naruto, however, most ordinary ninjas don't have a near-infinite chakra pool to burn through, and certainly can't rely on that same reckless strategy. Instead, they typically combine taijutsu, projectile weapons, and one of the five basic chakra nature transformations to fight effectively.

Setting aside the physical aspects, ninjutsu relies heavily on two fundamentals: chakra shape transformation and chakra nature transformation.

Shape transformation is relatively straightforward—it's all about how a ninja molds chakra into different forms. Whether it's a sphere, a blade, or a wave, the goal is stable chakra release.

Nature transformation, on the other hand, is about mentally guiding neutral chakra into one of the five elemental affinities: Earth, Fire, Wind, Water, or Lightning.

Unless you have a unique bloodline ability, most ninjas test their elemental affinity early in their career using chakra paper. Once they identify their primary nature, they specialize in corresponding jutsu.

Later, once their progress hits a ceiling with just one element, they begin learning new nature transformations to broaden their arsenal. Some even develop their own jutsu—for example, Kakashi's Chidori and Raikiri.

But among the group present at Orochimaru's training ground, only a few are capable of reaching that level of creativity and talent.

Take Asuma Sarutobi, for example—talented, but not particularly skilled at inventing new techniques. Others, like the Third Hokage—dubbed the "Professor of Ninjutsu"—focused more on mastering existing jutsu to conserve energy and time.

Orochimaru had no issue with the traditional approach, but he believed that much more could be done with improved precision.

Whoosh!

Dozens of white cylindrical rods shot out from Orochimaru's summoning scroll and flew into the hands of the surrounding ninjas.

"You've all used chakra paper to test your elemental affinity before," he began.

"These rods function similarly, but with an additional feature—they can also assess your aptitude in each of the five basic chakra natures."

The crowd exchanged confused glances.

Everyone was familiar with chakra paper—it's made from a special tree that reacts to chakra input. If you channel wind chakra into it, the paper tears; with fire, it burns; with water, it dampens, and so on.

It's a simple tool used to determine your elemental leaning in your early ninja days. But this… this sounded far more advanced.

If these rods could accurately measure aptitude, not just affinity, the implications were huge.

After all, everyone present—at the very least Chunin—had trained hard. But they'd often struggled, not knowing whether they were making real progress or wasting time on an element that wasn't suited to them.

Orochimaru then summoned a stack of forms and writing tools, handing them to Anko to distribute.

"Begin the test. There's a numbered scale on each rod. Write down your name and results—you'll be doing a few more tests after this."

He then turned his gaze toward the Yin-Yang Release group and added,

"You should test yourselves too. Sometimes, what suits you best isn't your inherited family technique."

Ninjas from clans like Nara and Yamanaka glanced at each other, surprised. Still, they followed suit and activated the rods.

In an instant, flickers of colored light—red, yellow, blue, green, and violet—lit up across the training field.

Orochimaru leaned back on the stone chair placed at the center stage, fingers steepled in thought.

To outsiders, these rods might look miraculous. But in truth, they weren't that different from chakra paper.

In the natural world, there's no such thing as a chakra-reactive tree. The original version was created using the First Hokage's cells. Someone had later processed them into paper by accident, and discovered their chakra-reactive properties.

So making these rods using a mix of First Hokage cells and stabilized white Zetsu cells had been simple enough.

The real challenge wasn't the creation—it was defining the standards.

What counted as excellent aptitude? What was considered poor?

If the rod's scale ranged from 1 to 100, should a score of 79 indicate the user could eventually learn B-rank jutsu? Was 80+ required for A-rank?

Orochimaru had to gather and cross-reference a lot of data to calibrate the rods accurately.

Luckily, with help from the Djinn, he had access to reference values. Otherwise, it might not have been worth the time investment.

---

"Only seventy-five in Fire Release?"

Asuma glanced at his rod, then looked over to Kakashi's results—his Lightning Release score was a staggering eighty-six.

Unwilling to be outdone, Asuma retested using Wind Release.

"Eighty-two—not bad," he muttered, slightly appeased.

Kakashi, ever calm, silently went through all five elements.

His Lightning aptitude was the highest, followed by Earth and Water. Fire and Wind were his weakest, but even those scored over seventy—still excellent.

"Impressive as always, Kakashi," said Kurenai, who had been watching quietly.

Unlike him, her five-element scores weren't great—none above 60. Her real strength lay in genjutsu, specifically Yin Release, which hadn't been tested here.

The same applied to the Nara and Yamanaka clan members. Out of ten of them, only one had decent aptitude in Wind Release. The rest relied on inherited techniques that didn't match the basic five natures.

Even Anko wasn't pleased with her results. Her Fire Release score barely scraped into the 70s—no better than Kakashi's weakest.

Around the training ground, voices rose in a mix of excitement, confusion, and frustration. Some redid their tests, others tried to hide their disappointment.

But one thing was clear—these rods had opened a door none of them had seen before.

Orochimaru raised his hand, silencing the crowd with ease.

"These results are based on the first version of the rods. Their accuracy still needs refinement, so don't be too quick to draw conclusions."

"You're all Chunin or stronger. You should understand that 'aptitude' only defines your lower limit. True ability only shows with persistent effort."

"This test is for self-awareness. If you use it to limit yourselves, you're fools."

The initial buzz faded, and a quiet sense of focus settled in. These were battlefield-hardened shinobi. Orochimaru's blunt wisdom had landed.

Satisfied, he moved on to the next stage of testing—chakra control.

Since it couldn't be measured mechanically, Orochimaru decided to use a classic method: tree-walking.

Everyone here had mastered it long ago, of course. So to increase the difficulty, Orochimaru used Inorganic Reincarnation to continuously shift their body weights—making them heavier or lighter at intervals—to test their ability to adjust chakra output on the fly.

It was a clever, simple way to assess control under changing conditions. And for what came next, control would be just as important as raw power.

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