Chương 46: Is there a higher stage than Shikai?

As the team moved again through the dense forest path after dealing with the Iwa scout party, Shikaku looked at Shunsui and asked in a calm but curious voice, "Shikai, that you say is what the form of your swords is, if I am not wrong, it means first release. Are there more releases to your ability?" Choza looked surprised at that question. He scratched the back of his head and laughed loudly.

"Huh, I never thought about that. But that would be ridiculous if his ability had more stages. The ability is already reality-changing… literally." Choza laughed it off, imagining something even stronger than turning the ground into lava or making people bounce like rubber balls.

"What would come next? Turning the sky into candy or making everyone dance uncontrollably?!" But he stopped laughing as he saw Shunsui's small, mysterious smile. Choza's face slowly changed from amusement to worry.

"There are not… other stages, right, Shunsui?" Choza asked, his voice suddenly serious.

"Who knows, sensei," Shunsui replied with that same calm smile.

"Maybe the name is just to confuse my enemies. Maybe there is another stage. Let that be a mystery until I have no choice but to reveal whether I am bluffing or there really is another stage." Choza was now pretty sure there was another stage after seeing Shunsui's expression.

'How the hell can an ability have another stage after that?' he thought.

'What would such an ability do? Turn the entire battlefield into a children's playground where the loser gets erased from existence? This kid is going to give me a heart attack one day.' Shikaku, who had been listening quietly, spoke up again.

"Your ability is impressive. Too impressive. And that would bring you too much attention, both from outside the village and inside the village as well." He continued in a serious tone, "I advise you to pick a few games that you would use in the chunin exams and limit yourself to them. Too many games like the Floor is Lava, which can change the war front, would put a huge target on your back. Maybe a bounty higher than the Hokage himself."

"Higher… than the Hokage?" Choza asked, shocked. His eyes widened at the idea.

"Imagine him using the Floor is Lava game in the middle of the battlefield," Shikaku explained.

"People would not know when he activated the game and they would be swallowed by the lava. Genin, chunin, jonin, they would all be swallowed by lava. If the game is used in such a way that even a Kage does not have a safe place to go when the game is activated, even he could die." Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation. Shunsui laughed softly.

"I don't think that my ability is that busted as you call it, Shikaku-san."

'I should tell him some of the limitations of my abilities since he is just trying to be helpful and nice,' Shunsui thought. He decided to share a bit more.

"I have come to realize that the more players I add into the game, the more chakra it consumes. My shikai affects anyone close to me, that is true. But there is a limit to it." That was why whenever Shunsui in the bleach anime used his Shikai, not everyone was affected by it. Shunsui had fought Stark with others nearby but they did not seem to be affected by his ability.

"Why not limit the game to just you and the enemies?" Genma asked.

"Then we can be at an advantage as we could step on the floor without getting burned by lava but they cannot."

"No, it would not be possible," Shikaku explained logically.

"From what I imagine in his ability, the rules must be equal to all the participants. The rules must be fair after all. If he could exclude his allies completely, it would break the balance of the game. The ability seems to treat everyone in range as players unless I set very specific rules at the beginning. That is why I have to be careful with how I use it."

"And my shikai range is 30 meters, so anyone within that range would be affected." Shunsui continued.

"Also, as for killing a Kage, the stronger the person is, the more chakra it takes for me to bring them into the game. Even my high amount of chakra has a limit. Just like right now, I had exhausted more than 40 percent of my chakra in the two games. Along with the 12 Iwa shinobi, my two teammates and you three are very strong and thus took more chakra to add you into the game."

"So can someone just surround you with hundreds of shinobi and when you use shikai you would just get chakra exhausted?" Choza asked, worried about his student having a very lethal weakness.

"My ability would select me and just a few others in an acceptable limit of participants to play the game," Shunsui replied.

"There is a limit to the number of participants in each game. Some games can only be played with two people while some with four and some with many more. So you do not have to worry about the enemy just surrounding me to exhaust my chakra. But I can't also just use games like floor is lava to kill an entire company of soldiers."

'Though the same could not be said about my bankai,' Shunsui thought privately.

'It might pull the entire Konoha into a play when I activate it.' Shikaku nodded slowly.

"So you cannot use it on a large scale. Yes, but our enemies do not know that. They would either think that you could do it and thus look to eliminate you or they would think that you might be able to do it in future and eliminate you before you become too much of a threat. I want to limit the capabilities of your abilities and showcase them. I do not think that you would have much trouble even with just a couple of games in the Chunin exams."

"I will think about it," Shunsui said as they continued their journey to the Land of Claws. Shikaku mumbled with a sigh, "Ah, ignorance and stupidity of youth." Guy suddenly looked at him with bright eyes as if he had found a favored soul. His face lit up with pure joy.

"Shikaku-san! You understand! The ignorance and stupidity of youth! That is exactly what I fight against every day! My rival Kakashi is full of it, always acting cool and pretending he does not care! But deep down, he knows the burning power of youth is the only true path! You and I, we see the truth! We must spread this wisdom together!" Shikaku stared at Guy with a deadpan expression, clearly regretting his words. Choza tried to hide his laughter. Inoichi coughed to cover his smile.

The Nara genius let out a long sigh, realizing he had accidentally awakened something he could not put back to sleep.