Chakra, My Mirrored World

As evening approached.

"Naruto, don't rush. Everyone's Chakra is unstable when they first learn to extract it. You've already grasped the relevant knowledge about Chakra. Just cultivate step by step from now on. After all, you've only just begun to understand Chakra and ninjutsu training."

When the Third Hokage saw Naruto repeatedly attempting to extract Chakra, only to suddenly freeze after finally forming the Tiger hand seal to perform the Transformation Jutsu, he assumed Naruto had been discouraged by repeated failures as a beginner and spoke to comfort him.

"I understand, Lord Hokage. Thank you for your patient guidance!"

After lowering his head and thinking for a moment, Naruto dispelled the Transformation Jutsu he had been preparing and solemnly bowed to the Third Hokage.

"Hehe! Little Naruto, remember what you said earlier. Work hard, all right? I'll come see you whenever I have time."

The Third Hokage once again revealed a kindly smile.

"Of course. I'll definitely work hard!" Naruto knew that the Third Hokage's visit was ending for the day.

The Third Hokage left.

The moment he went downstairs and stepped outside, a trace of guilt flashed through the Third Hokage's eyes. Naruto's every word and action lacked anything a child should have had. At first, he had wanted to place Naruto in the Orphanage.

But the Orphanage was in Root's hands.

And Root would never hand over control of the Orphanage, because it was the foundation from which they recruited members. Even as Hokage, he had no right to interfere. Konoha's political structure was not a one-man rule under the Hokage.

Then who was Root's leader?

Shimura Danzō!

His childhood friend had now completely stepped into darkness, becoming increasingly unscrupulous in his methods. Though his own indulgence had played a part in it, the Jinchuriki absolutely could not fall under Danzō's control.

The Nine-Tails had to remain in his hands as Hokage. This concerned not only peace in the Shinobi World, but also Konoha's safety!

At that thought, the Third Hokage's gaze became resolute again. He reached down, took the Hokage hat from his waist, and gently put it on. There was still much official business waiting for him in the office, and he had already delayed too much today.

Naruto stood at the upstairs window. He saw an Anbu not far from the entrance swiftly step forward and shut the downstairs door after seeing the Hokage come out.

It made him somewhat unhappy, because it resembled scenes from costume dramas he had watched in his previous life where people visited prisoners.

In those scenes, as soon as the visitor stepped out of the cell, the jailer outside would impatiently lock the gates, terrified that the prisoner inside might seize the chance to escape.

But he had obtained a way to extract Chakra today, officially opening the door to cultivation. That was an excellent thing!

A moment later, a sharp glint flashed through Naruto's eyes. He gently shut the window, slowly walked into the bedroom, and sat on the bed, beginning to extract Chakra again according to the method he had learned earlier.

"Minimum energy consumption requirement met! Activate the Mirrored World?"

As he attempted to extract Chakra and felt a surge of energy emerge from his body, Naruto immediately heard a notification in his mind!

"So it wasn't an illusion! This invitation is still here!"

He had heard this voice earlier, when he had successfully extracted Chakra for the first time and was about to perform the Transformation Jutsu. At the time, he had frozen completely.

Even when the Third Hokage assumed he had failed to extract Chakra and spoke to comfort him, the voice in his head continued reminding him once every ten seconds. That was when he realized only he could hear it.

Since he had no idea what would happen if he activated this so-called Mirrored World according to the prompt, he was afraid of revealing something in his haste. When he lowered his head to bow to the Third Hokage, he silently chose to decline, and the voice disappeared.

As soon as the Third Hokage went downstairs, he tried to summon the invitation again in his mind, but received no response at all. After confirming it was safe, he felt that the invitation was related to Chakra.

Sure enough, once he had extracted a certain amount of Chakra, the invitation appeared again.

"Activate the Mirrored World?"

After thinking for several seconds, Naruto directly chose to activate it.

A pop-up box suddenly appeared, line after line of text scrolling across it as a mechanical notification slowly sounded in his mind.

"Mirrored World activation beginning."

"Usage instructions transmission beginning."

"Transmission complete! Current bound individual: Uzumaki Naruto; current authority: Level 1 World Lord!"

"Beginning collection of data from the current world. Current data completeness—1%. Please complete the data as soon as possible."

"Activation complete. Welcome to the Mirrored World!"

The instant all the voices ended, Naruto's thoughts stirred. Without any preparation whatsoever, he found himself in another space.

His eyes narrowed as he discovered that he was standing at the entrance to Konoha's gates.

Izumo Kamizuki and Kotetsu Hagane stood on either side of the gates. They looked no different from real people, yet there was not a trace of life on either of their faces.

From the usage instructions, Naruto knew they were merely puppets materialized from copied character data from this world. The Konoha before him was only a replicated scene.

However, as long as he challenged these puppets within the scene, he would receive corresponding ratings and rewards regardless of victory or defeat. For example, he could gain the puppets' cultivation experience and ninjutsu. If his rating was good enough, there would be even greater rewards.

Of course, the challenges he could initiate were subject to rules and restrictions.

Only a projection of his soul consciousness had entered this place, and it required a corresponding amount of Chakra to sustain it. Because the data completeness was too low, every entry currently consumed a certain amount of Chakra, and once his Chakra was exhausted, he would be forcibly removed.

Of course, as long as he wanted to leave, he could also choose to withdraw his consciousness at any time.

The injuries he suffered while fighting in this world would not affect his body in the real world, but they would consume his mental energy. Moreover, the flow of time here differed from the real world outside.

He actually possessed a world like this. This counted as having a cheat, didn't it?

He had lived in fear ever since arriving in this world and surviving to the age of four. Now, he finally had something to rely on as he built a life and became strong.

Naruto excitedly walked up to Kotetsu Hagane, and a pop-up box immediately appeared.

"Initiate challenge?"

Naruto directly chose yes.

A completely emotionless voice suddenly sounded.

"Please note! In your current projected state, your Chakra provides 10 minutes of challenge time!"

The moment the voice fell, Naruto felt his vision blur. He and Kotetsu Hagane had already arrived in a special arena for combat.

As for Kotetsu Hagane across from him, he seemed to have completely come alive. Just as Naruto was about to marvel at how realistic this space was, he saw Kotetsu take a deep breath and swiftly form a hand seal.

"Fire Release! Great Fireball Jutsu!"

"I—"

A herd of alpacas stampeded through his mind. Naruto only managed to spit out one word before a fireball roughly one meter in diameter shot straight at him.

He was stunned!

And just like that, his first battle ended.

Then he discovered that he and Kotetsu Hagane had returned to Konoha's gates, where the challenge had begun. The entire process had taken only three seconds.

"I really got one-shotted."

After muttering to himself in self-mockery, Naruto began to recall the Naruto anime. He had watched it all the way to the end. Kotetsu Hagane and Izumo Kamizuki were both Chunin-level ninja, so it was perfectly normal that he could not defeat them after only learning to extract Chakra today.

But hadn't the usage instructions said there would be rewards regardless of victory or defeat? Why had he received nothing just now?

Could it be because he had lost too miserably?

After thinking for nearly two minutes, Naruto decided to try again. There was still some time left, after all.

The scene shifted, and the two appeared in the arena again. This time, Naruto was prepared. Before Kotetsu Hagane could move, Naruto first put a great distance between them, then began running around the entire arena.

"No matter what, I have to struggle this time. I can't get one-shotted again!"

With that thought flashing through his mind, Naruto ran while his gleaming azure eyes reflected Kotetsu Hagane's figure, ready at any moment to dodge another sudden attack like before.

Kotetsu Hagane on the field seemed to possess intelligence as his gaze followed Naruto while he ran. At the instant Naruto's steps slowed, he vanished from where he stood.

When he appeared again, Naruto saw that Kotetsu Hagane was already in front of him and rapidly closing the distance between them.

"Damn! That should be the Body Flicker Technique!"

He had just turned in another direction and had no time to change direction again.

With a jolt in his heart, he saw Kotetsu Hagane leap high into the air.

"Water Release! Water Candy Capture!"

Kotetsu Hagane spat this time.

But the saliva he spat out expanded upon meeting the wind, instantly forming a huge puddle on the ground that flowed toward Naruto. Unable to stop in time, Naruto tragically stepped into it.

The puddle stuck Naruto to the ground like glue.

Without any suspense, the battle ended once again.

Under Naruto's resentful gaze, Kotetsu Hagane once again ended the battle with a Great Fireball Jutsu.

But this time, Naruto delightedly heard that emotionless notification.

"Congratulations, you have gained Kotetsu Hagane's Great Fireball Jutsu training experience!"