After explaining the training plan to the two of them and setting a time to check on their progress, Ronin left their side.
He needed to train too.
After unlocking A-rank ninjutsu access, Ronin found a technique that was perfect for supporting his cultivation:
Earth Style: Added-Weight Rock Jutsu.
A jutsu that creates earth to suppress a target and inflict severe damage.
In the publicly recorded description, it clearly stated that the weight increase could reach 20 to 50 times the base weight, with a maximum area of effect covering a ten-meter diameter. The duration was positively correlated with the caster's chakra—meaning the more chakra you poured in, the longer the heavy-weight effect would last.
Ronin's idea was simple: have a shadow clone cast Added-Weight Rock on him, creating an extreme training environment.
Then, inside that environment, he would train using the same method as Kurapika and Neon.
The most important step was achieving perfect control—so the jutsu wouldn't harm him, yet would still push him to the goal of training.
And the casting process itself was also the perfect chance for Ronin to refine his fine control over energy.
One move, multiple benefits.
The first step was reducing chakra output during casting.
He formed seals and activated the jutsu. The ground in front of him immediately sank under the Added-Weight Rock effect.
He maintained the seals and lowered chakra output, and the effect weakened accordingly.
Everything went even smoother than Ronin expected.
After getting used to the feel, he had his shadow clone cast the jutsu. Once the output stabilized, he slowly shifted the effect onto his main body.
Earth formed from chakra nature began to cover Ronin, like an impossibly heavy suit of armor.
Ronin didn't enter Sharingan state—he stayed in Ken.
At his current level, Ronin could maintain Ken for over forty minutes.
Part of that was because his aura control had become more refined; part of it was because his aura capacity had increased.
But after creating a shadow clone, he could only maintain this intensity for about twenty minutes.
The extreme weight from Added-Weight Rock made even Ken feel heavy. Ronin struggled to lift his arms and pick up the shovel. Nen flowed over the shovel, and with one swing, rock split like tofu.
Ten minutes later, Ronin was drenched in sweat.
But he kept going. The shadow clone stayed behind him, not needing to stand too close.
Twenty minutes was Ronin's limit—but he kept pushing, until the last trace of aura in his body was spent. Only then did he sit, panting, inside the tunnel he'd dug into the mountain.
Sweat soaked him, yet he felt an indescribable exhilaration.
Ronin finally had some ideas for his Hatsu.
Enhancement was the Nen category most suited to combat—but Ronin had always been thinking of using Enhancement as support.
That was, in a way, putting the cart before the horse.
A key reason for that was that he had "ninja" abilities—especially the Sharingan-based "ninja" abilities.
But throwing away Enhancement's natural strengths and turning it into nothing but a backdrop for his Sharingan mode still left him unwilling.
Because this was the world of Hunter x Hunter, not Naruto.
And Enhancement's ceiling wasn't low. If trained to the extreme, the power it could unleash might not be weaker than ninjutsu.
After all, whether it was Nen or ninjutsu, Ronin was the one using it, and the total energy in his body didn't magically increase.
What changed was how much chakra he could output for a jutsu, and how much aura he could burst for a Nen technique—and those two quantities determined how strong his ninjutsu and Nen actually were.
Right now, Ronin's ninjutsu mostly operated within the five basic chakra natures: wind, lightning, water, fire, and earth.
And those five elements, in Nen terms, corresponded mostly to Transmutation.
Ronin's Sharingan mode was a Specialist ability—so by Nen rules, a Specialist couldn't perfectly bring out Transmutation at full efficiency.
In other words, if Ronin released the same amount of energy, his Enhancement-based punch should be at least 20% stronger than the Transmutation-like output he produced through his Specialist Sharingan mode.
Ronin's reasoning wasn't wrong—this came from information Morena gave in the manga.
Specialists didn't have a hard barrier preventing them from learning other types. That was why many people, before realizing they were Specialists, would max out other categories first—only to regret it after discovering their true type.
Ronin was certain his Sharingan mode was Specialist. And the ninjutsu he produced in that state was essentially a high-difficulty skill that could only be discovered and used after mastering multiple "systems."
Much like Morena's Contagion—With Etude of Love, a power jointly built from five highly mastered systems.
Ronin's ability also needed to evolve step by step.
But regardless, when Ronin used chakra, the ninjutsu power he produced—even with equal energy—would not exceed the raw power of an Enhancer punch.
Sometimes it only looked different, making the comparison harder.
If you compared two moves that were both "punch-based," it became clearer: an Enhancer punch versus chakra-boosted Cherry Blossom Impact. With the same energy spent, Ronin's Enhancer punch would hit harder.
There were exceptions, of course—the intermediate state where his two powers fused and produced something stronger.
But setting that aside, the conclusion remained:
Ronin's Enhancement didn't have to be "support." It could become one of his trump cards.
Dark Gon's charged Jajanken could one-shot Neferpitou, one of the Ant King's Royal Guards.
Uvogin's goal was to make his Big Bang Impact explode with the power of a nuclear bomb.
Netero was a bit different—what he reinforced to the extreme was speed, not raw power.
The speed of 100-Type Guanyin was absurd, and compared to that, its raw destructive output looked slightly weaker—at least in terms of spectacle.
Even Netero's final move, Zero Hand, wasn't pure Enhancement taken to its peak, but rather an Emission-like release of energy.
Ronin's goal aligned more with Uvogin and Gon: he wanted to push attack to an extreme.
While Manipulators, Conjurers, and Specialists played mind games and calculated rules, Ronin wanted to grab them—and end the fight with a single decisive blow.
That, to Ronin, was what Enhancement should look like.
And in that process, reinforcing himself was also reinforcing his aura capacity and physique.
Enhancement training was, in a word: brutally straightforward.
As for the "aura capacity problem" he'd worried about before, after thinking it through, Ronin decided he'd still leave that to the S-rank sealing technique Strength of a Hundred Seal to solve.
~~~
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