Extraordinary Chakra Control

I hadn't seen Naruto since our last meeting. Several more months passed, and I was still the leader of the kids around the neighborhood, playing ninja games with the little brats. It wasn't that I liked doing it. A five-year-old who shut herself up at home to train would only make people suspect there was something wrong with her. Besides, there wasn't much I could train in right now. I wasn't even allowed to refine more Chakra; I could only refine it once after each meal, and once I used it up, that was it. If I used it to practice Water Release or the Three Basic Techniques, it would be gone after a few tries. So what I practiced now was Chakra control-yes, the Tree Climbing and Water Walking mentioned in the original story.

For Tree Climbing, I first completed Wall Walking on my bed at home. A few weeks after that, I suddenly remembered Water Walking and practiced it in a bathtub full of water. The two exercises took me one afternoon and one bath, respectively. Of course, I had done some simpler control exercises beforehand (otherwise, did you think those were the only two training methods in all of Naruto?). Even so, being able to master Wall Walking and Water Walking so quickly at such a young age meant my talent for Chakra control was truly astonishing.

Later on, I became a little obsessed with practicing Chakra control. Perhaps "reaching the pinnacle" would have been more appropriate, since I had nothing else to practice when I was bored. I infused Chakra into water and controlled it to perform all kinds of movements. It sounded simple, but making it respond as naturally as my own limbs-for example, shaping water into a cat that could hop around—was no joke. Controlling Chakra in places I couldn't see was even harder; I could only go by feel.

At first, I even bought a water balloon to practice the Rasengan. Halfway through, I suddenly realized I didn't own the copyright to that move. If I really mastered it, how would I explain where it came from later? Would I say I-no, yours truly-had come up with it in a flash of inspiration? Besides, the move consumed a huge amount of Chakra. The Fourth could take down all kinds of opponents in an instant with the Body Flicker Technique and his little ball, while Naruto had so much Chakra that he didn't care about the cost. But what about me?

I used Chakra to accelerate the water and change its direction, bursting the balloon. Then I really did have a flash of inspiration: I thought of Gaara.

More precisely, I thought of Gaara getting beaten up at the beginning of Shippuden... and the scene of him flying through the air on a pile of sand.

Come to think of it, Chakra really was a miraculous thing. It was practically omnipotent. It could turn from energy into matter, such as water, fire, wind, and lightning; it could change a person's size and appearance, as with the Transformation Technique; it could let people travel through space, as with the Substitution Technique and the Flying Thunder God Technique; it could exert force on a person, such as making their feet stick to a tree when climbing it; it could mimic a person, creating a figure that not only looked like the original but even had thoughts of its own and could send its experiences back to the original after dispersing—that was the Shadow Clone; it could enhance the body's explosive power, speed, agility, strength, and resistance to blows; and it could manipulate objects, making them float or compressing them under pressure, as with Gaara's Sand Binding Coffin and flight.

Back then, I had thought Gaara's sand, which served as both offense and defense, was impossibly cool. Now that I thought about it, I could actually do the same thing! Gaara's sand seemed to respond so naturally to him because it contained his mother's spirit, but my control skills were probably a notch or even many notches better. Although I couldn't match his Chakra reserves, manipulating something without using an elemental technique didn't consume much Chakra, only mental energy.

I could even wrap myself in a film of water, allowing every movement to be enhanced by Chakra-controlled water, while the water would absorb some of any recoil or damage first. Aside from requiring monstrous Chakra control-yes, I had specifically asked Father about it. His answer was that it was a great idea, but who had that kind of monstrous control?

"I do!" I blurted out, earning myself a massive eye roll.

So, to achieve my goal and develop monstrous control, I began an arduous training regimen-playing with the little brats.

I was serious, okay? Quietly incorporating training into everyday life and even games and entertainment was the best way to train!

For example, when I played ninja games, climbed trees, or fought with other children, I practiced my idea whenever I needed to move.

Because I refined so little Chakra, I used water to assist only one part of my body with each movement rather than my whole body. When running, for example, I covered my joints and the soles of my feet with water to assist my movements and boost my explosive power. I discovered that the open-toed shoes ninjas wore were a poor fit for my style. Their ugliness was one thing, but more importantly, the water had to cling tightly to my body for me to control it with extreme precision using Chakra. Through shoes, my control was extremely crude. At first, I simply stopped covering my soles; there was no need to cover my whole body yet anyway. But that left a major flaw in my perfect plan. As I grew older, Father gradually loosened his restrictions on my Chakra, and once I had enough at my disposal, I made a terribly embarrassing decision: unless necessary, I wouldn't wear shoes! Though every time, I deceived myself by bringing them along and hanging them from my belt to show that it wasn't that I didn't wear shoes—I had merely taken them off "temporarily" to make it easier to move.

Please call me Haruno Wanwan!

Being barefoot made me feel as though I was deliberately flaunting myself. Although I had transmigrated more than five years ago, the way I thought was still strange sometimes. But in this world of ninjas, being a man or a woman wasn't the important question. Survival or death was what mattered, so there was no need to dwell too much on strange things.

Speaking of which, to grow stronger, never mind going without shoes, I would even go without clothes and underwear-wait, let me think about that one!

In any case, I spent my days easily training my Chakra (playing with kids). My control and the amount of Chakra I was allowed to refine both steadily improved. Before long, I had my sixth birthday, and soon afterward, I entered the Ninja Academy.

"Naruto, you fell asleep in class again! Come stand in the hallway and listen to the lesson!"

Iruka lost his temper with Naruto again. Naruto couldn't help falling asleep whenever he attended Iruka's class. It really wasn't because Iruka taught poorly; he simply taught academic subjects, which the students didn't like listening to, and the school didn't emphasize them on the graduation exam!

Of course, most people would give their teacher some face and wouldn't openly sleep or ignore the lesson. For example, little Hinata had her Byakugan activated and was secretly watching someone; little Kiba was cuddling with his dog; and Shikamaru, sitting to my left, was sitting upright and looking perfectly attentive. Huh? Shikamaru, when did you learn to sleep with your eyes open? I looked around. Every one of us bad kids in this group was doing our own thing, giving Iruka no face at all. No wonder he was angry. As for Naruto, it was his own fault for snoring out loud; he was immediately singled out. When my gaze swept over Sasuke, the kid seemed to sense something and turned to look at me with a defiant expression.

Ever since Sasuke sensed that I was capable of challenging him for first place, he had started finding fault with me in all sorts of ways. Having yet to experience the night of his clan's massacre, Sasuke at this point was, on the whole, just a somewhat awkward good boy. His greatest wish was to take first place and go home to a word of praise from his father. His overly outstanding older brother, Uchiha Itachi, actually put him under a great deal of pressure. With his brother's shining example before him, his own progress and achievements always seemed so insignificant. That made him crave his father's recognition all the more, even if it was only a single word.

So a challenger like me was bound to make him feel annoyed and uneasy. Compared with Sakura Haruno and Sasuke in the original story, the contrast was a little too great, wasn't it? As for Naruto, the other corner of the original love triangle, we got along quite well. But ever since I'd left a deep impression on him at our first meeting, he hadn't been able to shake his image of me as a violent girl. He probably wouldn't fall for a Sakura like this, would he? If things continued this way, the original love triangle would surely disappear without a trace. It seemed that I, the butterfly, had already stirred up one corner of the plot's collapse.

Come to think of it, the Ninja Academy's curriculum really wasn't difficult at all. In the original story, after six years of study, the exam only covered the Three Basic Techniques. Only someone with no talent for being a ninja at all could fail. Among the academic and practical subjects, Sasuke's greatest advantage lay in throwing ninja tools. The skills Itachi had personally trained him in really were impressive. He handled Kunai and Shuriken masterfully, and his variety of fancy throws was dazzling to watch. Probably only members of the Uchiha Clan threw ninja tools like that. Without exceptional eyesight, it was impossible to judge those overly complicated trajectories, let alone execute them. As I saw it, the technique was certainly deceptive enough, but it strayed from the proper path of ninja tool throwing. Especially after practicing it myself, I felt even more strongly that the technique of having a later projectile catch up to an earlier one deliberately slowed the first projectile down and completely sacrificed the essentials for the trivial. If it was too slow, it posed no threat, no matter how good the angle. Try throwing one like that on a battlefield! Yet the academy loved it, recognizing it as a high-level throwing technique and giving Sasuke more bonus points every time.

The Uchiha Clan arrogantly turned throwing into an art, one that only the Uchiha could master. As with other things, once something was deemed exclusive to the Uchiha, outsiders weren't allowed anywhere near it. The Uchiha neighborhood, Uchiha ninjas, the Uchiha weapon shop, and so on were all the same. As they protected their interests better and better, they also grew increasingly arrogant and increasingly detached from Konoha. The more the Uchiha treated Konoha as "their own interest," the closer they came to being cut out by Konoha...

The second lesson happened to be ninja tools class. After demonstrating a few throws, Iruka left us to practice on our own. Sure enough, that smug Sasuke Uchiha came trotting over to the spot beside mine. He glanced at me, then took eight Shuriken between his fingers. With a flick of his left hand, four Shuriken flew out in formation and struck the bull's-eye. Next, he transferred two from his right hand to his left and threw them one after another. After a series of subtle collisions, the last three Shuriken struck the bull's-eye, while the first curved around and lodged in the back of the target. The girls nearby let out a remarkably synchronized murmur of applause. Ino was among them.

After throwing, Sasuke gave me a somewhat smug look. Clearly, I couldn't throw the way he did. But I had no intention of paying attention to his provocation.

I untied my shoes from my belt and put them on, casually picked up a Shuriken, and withdrew the water film to my elbow. Then I hurled it with all my strength! A shriek sounded through the air, and in the blink of an eye, it was embedded in my target, half the Shuriken buried inside. Sasuke was startled by the sound at first, but when he saw that I did nothing else after the throw, he gave a contemptuous smile. Obviously, my throw had merely been a little fast. It had no angle to speak of and was nothing worth looking at!

Tsk! I sighed inwardly. My body was too immature. Although I had used all my muscular strength in that throw, the moment the Chakra-infused water wrapped around my arm exerted force, I felt that my bones could barely withstand it. With my current ability, using Chakra to manipulate water and unleash a force of one hundred thousand newtons wasn't difficult. But if I used that force to propel my body, I was afraid my bones would break or even shatter after a single use. In my previous life, I had seen Tsunade split mountains and crack the earth with casual movements in the manga, and I really didn't know how she did it. The greatest difficulty of the so-called superhuman strength technique was probably keeping the body uninjured after unleashing such terrifying power! That was probably related to Tsunade's unparalleled medical techniques and exquisite Chakra control!

According to the original plot, I would become her disciple, but the plot had already changed. Would she still take me as her disciple as she did in the original? Sigh, I can't figure it out! If she took disciples based on talent, though, I shouldn't need to worry. My talent was far greater than in the original!

Seeing that I was completely ignoring him and had stood there lost in thought, sighing after throwing just once, Sasuke asked with feigned concern, "Sakura Haruno, aren't you going to practice? You've only thrown one!"

What a busybody! With Sasuke interrupting my train of thought, I simply picked up seven Shuriken at once and filled the holes in their centers with Chakra-infused water. Fancy throwing? I couldn't do that! But cheating with Chakra was something I was very good at! Let me show you something!

I used the Chakra-infused water to suspend the Shuriken over my hand and spin them wildly. Then I launched all seven at once! They followed graceful arcs into the bull's-eye, three lodging in the front and four in the back! Just like the first one, every Shuriken was buried halfway into the target!

"Y-you cheated!" Sasuke stared at me in shock!

"Hmph, can you do it?" You're so naive, kid! As long as a Shuriken entered an enemy's body, it was a success. Did how it got there really matter?

In the pleasant mood that came from crushing a defeated dog's confidence, I passed another day.

That evening, at the Uchiha residence.

A small figure was still practicing throwing ninja tools. The Kunai and Shuriken scattered all around showed just how extraordinarily poor the practitioner's aim was!

"Sasuke! Are you practicing using Chakra to control thrown Shuriken?" The tall figure approaching slowly looked at the ninja tools covering the ground and the figure practicing, and immediately guessed correctly.

"Yes, Brother! Huff, huff—I wanted to see if I could do it using only Chakra, without my hands." Sasuke lowered his head and caught his breath.

"That won't work. You need a medium, something to connect the Chakra and the Shuriken. Your affinities are fire and lightning, and neither is suitable as a physical medium. Besides, even with a medium, this requires an extremely high level of control. You'd have to practice for a long time to manage it. So there's not much point. Stop practicing this! How about I teach you a new move? By the way, what made you suddenly think of practicing this?" A genius, Itachi saw at a glance how it was done and what its advantages and disadvantages were. Was someone deliberately leading Sasuke's training astray? Uchiha Itachi, the brother-con, asked with a touch of suspicion.

"A classmate used that move in ninja tools class this afternoon. She shot seven Shuriken into the front and back of the target all at once," Sasuke answered honestly.

"Really? This classmate of yours is pretty impressive! What's his name?" Itachi expressed a little admiration.

"Her name is Sakura Haruno. She's a girl."