Arthur finished his work by using his bare hands to dig a hole and discard both her and all the tools he used. Afterwards, he left the clearing behind.
Elsewhere, beneath the forest canopy, he would attempt the unthinkable: the transference of Yukimi's Kekkei Genkai.
He laid out his tools and rehearsed the basic principles: introduce Yukimi's genetic material into his own system and hope that his body would accept it. If he failed, he would attempt to heal himself before any repercussions occurred.
This wasn't a sterile operating room, but he didn't have the patience to consider such things.
This was going to be a delicate procedure.
The first step involved creating a viable vector for the transfer. So he retrieved a syringe and drew the essence from the vial and poured it into the syringe. Then he located a vein in the crook of his arm.
Introducing foreign genetic material directly into the bloodstream could trigger a violent immune response. So much so that the body may reject these alien cells. To bypass this hurdle, he was going to trick his body by using the healing technique and suppress the rejection during the transplant.
It was a long shot, but it was all he had.
He centered his chakra and channeled it through the syringe and into the vial. The cells inside circulated violently before providing a visual confirmation of his success.
Now came the decisive moment.
Without hesitating, he plunged the needle into his vein. The sensation burned, but he pushed the modified genetic cocktail into his system while saying a silent prayer: "Thus saith the Lord, the Lord's grace is sufficient for me: for the Lord's strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me."
Suddenly, his vision swam, his muscles spasmed, and the pain spread through his whole body. He then collapsed onto the forest floor before convulsing.
Trying to heal himself and maintain the cellular transfer at the same time was not within his control.
Every ounce of his will forced his chakra to flow and suppress the rising tide of rejection. The pain was excruciating, to say the least.
Minutes felt like they were stretched into agonizing hours as he fought for control.
Finally, as abruptly as it began, the pain slowly subsided.
He lay gasping on the forest floor. Sweat drenched his clothes, and his body trembled with exhaustion. He could now feel the essence circulating perfectly into his bone marrow and merging with new red blood cells.
He flexed his hand and felt a residual chakra pulsing within him. This was Yukimi's chakra pool, and it was now inside him.
With more time, it should integrate until his body could fully utilize her Kekkei Genkai.
There was nothing more for him to do other than rest now. So that's just what he did.
When he arose, he felt fine.
With each passing hour, his body had fully accumulated all the foreign cells. For certain, he knew he could try to perform her smoke technique, but using it here with no one to help verify if it truly worked wouldn't amount to much.
This particular Kekkei Genkai was shown to deceive a ninja's senses. Such as when Kakashi, a user of the Sharingan, fought Yukimi's clanmates and couldn't differentiate them from real smoke.
Other Kekkei Genkai could form hardened crystals, absorb chakra, explode objects on contact, and even generate their own magnetic force. But out of those Kekkei Genkai, one surpassed them all: the Rinnegan.
Arthur didn't want to think further about that ocular technique; he would work on what he had currently.
As such, he approached the town he'd previously avoided, keeping a safe distance.
Citizens could be heard bustling about. He couldn't help but feel the bitter taste of their normalcy. Regardless, he closed his eyes and focused on his chakra. Channeling it, his body became weightless until it dissolved entirely.
He was smoke, a formless cloud drifting in the breeze. The last thing he did was let the excitement get to him.
Instead, he drifted through the air and swirled around buildings to test the limits of his control. It wasn't perfect; tendrils of smoke occasionally strayed from the main body, but with each passing moment, his control steadily grew.
Passing over rooftops and peering into windows, he monitored the unsuspecting townspeople. They were average citizens, oblivious to his presence. He saw families gathered around dinner tables, couples walking along the street, and children making their beds.
What he was looking for was some information on where he was in the Fire Country.
Reforming himself inside an unsuspecting house, he eventually found a map sprawled across a table. Next to it was a worn leather satchel overflowing with weapons. Undoubtedly, this house belonged to either a mercenary, a rogue, or a ninja.
Arthur focused on the map and saw that it depicted the surrounding area with a surprising level of detail. Shifting his attention to the satchel, he accessed its contents and found scrolls, throwing knives, shuriken, and an assortment of other weapons inside hidden compartments.
Quite the find, so he gathered everything he could and made his way to the kitchen.
The smell of leftover meals permeated his nostrils. It had been days since he had any real food. Finding fruits and vegetables, he ate them with caution, aware that the residents could return home at any moment.
The food tasted good.
Arthur stored some in his satchel and reformed into smoke. A truly advantageous Kekkei Genkai for allowing him to turn whatever object is on his person also into smoke.
Leaving the town behind, he materialized back in the forest. He then unfurled the map and traced the lines with a finger. On the front, the map focused on the five major countries: Land of Fire, Land of Wind, Land of Lightning, Land of Earth, and Land of Mist.
Like Arthur remembered, they were named after their dominant chakra nature, each housing a powerful Hidden Village led by a Kage.
Despite past rivalries, these countries were said to have come together to form the Shinobi Union after the Fourth War.
What interested Arthur, however, was the Land of Fire and its Hidden Village, the Leaf Village. It wasn't on the map exactly, but he knew where it would be located thanks to foreknowledge.
Regarding the town he came from, it wasn't anything special. It surrounded other towns with pedestrians and merchants like any other town in this country.
The road ahead was going to be long, so he set off on the nearest trail.
After some time of traveling on foot, stopped by the nearest body of water. The march through the woods had left him coated in grime and sweat, so he felt like washing off. The water was cold and shocked his system, but it was also refreshing.
He submerged himself, letting the current wash away the grime and the lingering scent of blood.
Exiting, he scrubbed his tunic against a smooth rock and rinsed it thoroughly before draping it across a branch to dry. He only had his undergarments on, but any sense of shamefulness was quickly eclipsed by a desire to keep moving forward.
He knew he wouldn't survive long relying solely on his smoke Kekkei Genkai, and one thing he wasn't able to train while in prison was his weapon skills.
Ninjas could throw various arsenals of tools with deadly precision, so he had to be ready.
Rummaging through the satchel, he pulled out a selection of throwing knives and shuriken. They felt surprisingly light in his hands thanks to how much he had already trained.
Finding a large, flat rock nestled amongst the trees, he designated it as his target.
Throwing an object required using his entire body, not just his arm. The first few attempts were disastrous, with the blades clattering to the ground at the rock's foot. He was hitting his target, but that wasn't his goal. What he needed to do was learn how to lodge the knife into the rock.
With each throw, a sense of muscle memory kicked in. He adjusted his grip, shifted his weight, and focused on a precise throw.
The next knife flew true, embedding itself with a satisfying "thunk" into the center of the rock. Satisfying, but still not perfect. So he continued practicing.
His throws became more consistent, and the blades found their mark with increasing accuracy. When he became sore from all the constant throwing, he used the healing jutsu to start again.
And because he had integrated Yukimi's cells into him, it had also increased his chakra pool. Not by much, but enough to last longer in his training sessions.
Eventually, some of the kunai began to grow dull. That prompted him to move onto using shuriken.
Shuriken were ninja stars, demanding a slightly different throwing technique.
It took him several more tries than training with kunai to get the right throw down. When he finally learned it, the sun began to set. Still, he continued throwing them, driven by a relentless need to improve.
Night finally came, so he moved on to chakra control. The process was simple, taking no more than a few minutes.
Once he finished that, he trained channeling his chakra externally. Known as "chakra flow," a user can circulate their chakra through an object or their body to enhance its capabilities. When directed through weapons, chakra can increase their sharpness or durability or add elemental effects like fire or lightning.
If strictly flowing chakra through the body, it could improve physical attributes like speed and defense or even create a protective shield. That's how Arthur was able to withstand that harsh environment in prison.
Now, he closed his eyes, focusing inward, and felt the chakra within him. Training something like this came naturally to him.
When he finished, he picked up another kunai and concentrated his chakra on the metal. Then, with a tight grip, he threw it with all his might.
Chunk!
It met a weathered tree trunk and stuck harmlessly. A good throw, but not at all what he was expecting.
He closed his eyes again, this time focusing the chakra as a muscle rather than a flowing current. It took several hours before a breakthrough. And when he finished that exercise, he could tell that his chakra was trying to expand outwardly rather than inwardly now.
So he grabbed another kunai and threw it. This time, the weapon shot out of his hand and met the tree trunk with a resounding clang. The results left only the handle protruding.
He had succeeded.
Exhaustion finally settled upon him. But he couldn't just sleep now. There was still more training to finish.
So he pushed himself through one last routine: a punishing series of push-ups and lunges designed to test his endurance. His muscles burned, and his breath rasped in his throat, but he pushed on, fueled to get stronger.
Finally, collapsing onto the forest floor, he allowed himself a moment of respite.
The cool night air carried the scent of damp earth and pine needles. It felt oddly comforting compared to his time in prison. Yet not enough to make him feel any sense of happiness.
With a grunt, he rose and made his way back to the river.
Cold water once again washed away the grime and sweat on his body. He donned his tunic, now dried, and settled himself comfortably beneath a large oak tree.
The canopy of leaves provided a shield against the moon's light. He was far from home, far from the life he once knew, but he was no longer afraid.
Sleep came easily this time.
When he awoke, he saw the first rays of dawn. Hunger pounded his stomach, so he reached into his satchel and retrieved some rice cake and dried fruit that he had taken from that unsuspecting house.
They were cold and held little appeal, but they were sustenance nonetheless.
As he ate, he considered what crucial skill he had to perfect next. His current techniques consisted of the smoke jutsu, the healing jutsu, and the substitution jutsu. There was also his innate chakra control.
Solid for a starting shinobi, but not impressive in the slightest.
Ninjas around his age, some younger, had a list of jutsu in their arsenal. Like Itachi Uchiha, Sasuke's older brother, he could create authentic clones and manipulate fire as if it were his dance partner.
Or Kakashi Hatake, who could conduct lightning to his palm. That character graduated from the Leaf Village's ninja academy at the age of five. Last Arthur checked, children from earth were still learning how to count at that age.
What Arthur found paramount was to enhance his strength, create impenetrable defenses, and achieve lightning-fast reflexes. And the only way to do that was to train as hard as he could.
So he found a safe spot to do just that. The chakra within him had fully recovered, giving him just enough energy to do as he pleased this morning.
Today, he was going to learn how to enhance his muscle with chakra.
The first few attempts were met with frustration. Nothing seemed to change. He felt no increase in strength. With each failed attempt, he learned, adjusting his focus and refining his technique.
Finally, after some hours, there was a change. A subtle shift, almost imperceptible at first, but there was something buzzing in his muscle cells. He flexed his arm and quickly felt a different sense of control over his own body.
Cocking his hand back, he punched the air and saw a small gust of wind blow by. Then he found a rock and decided to squeeze it.
Crack!
The rock burst into smaller pieces.
Before he could feel content, his chakra dissipated, and his strength faded. It was short-lived, but it was a start. And based on what he felt, he knew he could make it last longer if he practiced more.
This technique was known as "chakra-enhanced strength." It's listed as a taijutsu skill, but it implements chakra into one's arms or feet, releasing it with precise timing to achieve super strength.
Notable characters like Sakura Haruno, Tsunade, and Hashirama were capable of this feat. Theirs, however, was incomparable to Arthur's. While they could throw boulders three times their size hundreds of meters out, he still needed proper refinement to reach those limits.
How he even learned it in just one day was because it was also classified as a support technique.
With a "humph," he picked up another rock and began training more.