During the Third Shinobi World War, somewhere in a forest within the Land of Grass, on the front line between Konoha and Iwa—inside one of two hunter's cabins.
"Haah..."
With a sigh, on the second day after waking up—his eleventh day after ten days of unconsciousness—Chiba's attempt to produce Chakra failed.
He tried to extract Chakra from his cells, but although the food and rest had seemingly restored their vitality, he could not extract even a trace of physical energy from them.
Without physical energy, he naturally could not produce Chakra.
"How could this be? The cells are so full of vitality—they should feel brimming with energy. Why can't I extract even a little physical energy... And why do I feel like my control over my cells has... weakened?"
Almost the instant he opened his eyes, Chiba frowned, unable to suppress a startled cry.
This situation was far too strange!
If he were still as weak as yesterday, then being unable to extract Chakra from his cells due to that weakness would have made sense. In fact, ordinary Chakra exhaustion among shinobi was generally caused by depleted physical energy, leaving them unable to refine Chakra. Chakra exhaustion caused by excessive mental energy expenditure was relatively rare. It usually happened only when using genjutsu or other shinobi powers that leaned toward mental energy, or after being caught in a powerful genjutsu. Normally, physical energy was simply exhausted, making Chakra refinement impossible.
If things were like yesterday, that would have been normal enough.
But now, his cells were brimming with vitality. He felt completely restored, as if he were at his peak. Logically, not only should he have been able to extract physical energy, but even entering Gate of Pain Mode: Critical State should not have been a problem.
Yet he could