A Little Questioning of Life

"Maybe I'm just exceptionally talented."

After pondering it carefully for a moment, Naruto rubbed his chin and reached that conclusion.

After all, Chakra was refined from a combination of physical and spiritual energy. His physical constitution was excellent, as evidenced by the fact that he could buy whatever he wanted from the Shopping Street without any difficulty.

Besides, if his physique had not been strong enough, he would not have been able to serve as a cage for the Big Fox inside him.

As for spiritual energy, it reflected one's intellect and experience.

Reading broadened the mind.

Though he was still young, Naruto was already more mature than other children his age. He also possessed a greater store of knowledge than they did. Looking at it that way, it was perfectly normal for his Chakra to grow so quickly.

With that realization, Naruto gained a little more confidence that he could become an outstanding ninja in the future.

Then, in his good mood, Naruto washed up and cooked himself a large bowl of Braised Beef Noodles, along with two extra fried eggs.

After eating his fill, Naruto moved around a little to aid digestion. Then he pulled out one of the books the Anbu had delivered yesterday, Three Body Technique, and began reading.

First, it explained the purpose of the Three Body Technique.

The Three Body Technique consisted of the Clone Technique, Transformation Technique, and Substitution Technique. They were the foundation of becoming a ninja, and several ninjutsu that were extremely useful in ninja combat.

The Substitution Technique in particular could still be useful in battle even after one became a high-level ninja.

After explaining the significance of the Three Body Technique, the book described the twelve basic hand seals used by ninja. Only after that did it cover the specific training methods for the Three Body Technique, detailing what seals were needed and how Chakra needed to flow in coordination with them.

As Naruto read through the book, noon arrived before he knew it.

For lunch, Naruto had Mapo Tofu with Vegetable Topping Rice.

Although he loved noodles and would have had no problem eating them three times a day, Naruto ultimately considered nutritional balance. He chose Mapo Tofu stir-fried with minced meat and vegetables, a combination of meat, vegetables, and soy products.

After eating and cleaning up, Naruto began trying to practice the Three Body Technique.

He started with the simplest one, the Transformation Technique. Naruto carefully controlled his Chakra, formed the seals with unfamiliar hand movements, then imitated the children downstairs playing ninja games and shouted loudly.

"Transformation Technique!"

A cloud of smoke flashed.

Nothing happened...

He tried the Clone Technique and Substitution Technique as well, but the results were naturally no different from before.

Having failed three ninjutsu in a row, Naruto did not lose heart.

Although Naruto believed himself exceptionally talented, he was still a beginner. Failing a few times was no big deal.

After all, failure was the mother of success.

Casting aside distracting thoughts, Naruto decided to focus on practicing the simplest Transformation Technique first. Once he mastered it, he would move on to the Clone Technique and Substitution Technique.

Form seals, coordinate the flow of Chakra, and cast the Transformation Technique.

Fail. Compare it against the textbook, summarize the reason for failure, try to improve, then cast the next ninjutsu.

Every attempt, whether successful or not, consumed some Chakra, but Naruto did not care much.

After all, the tiny amount of Chakra he used up could not even keep up with how quickly he recovered it.

Before he could even feel the consumption, it had already been erased by his growing Chakra.

After practicing for another three hours, Naruto reviewed the lessons from his previous failure. He felt that the coordination between his hand seals and Chakra flow had reached a perfect level this time.

Filled with confidence, Naruto believed that this attempt would definitely succeed. He would transform into the person he respected most: the Third Hokage, Sarutobi Hiruzen.

"Transformation Technique."

Naruto shouted, and smoke billowed around him.

He glanced at his clothes and saw that he had indeed transformed into the Third Hokage's God Garment Robe.

Did it work?

Just as joy began to rise within him, Naruto saw the Third Hokage Sarutobi Hiruzen's crooked eyes and twisted mouth in the nearby mirror.

"Everything was exactly as the textbook described. Why did it still fail?" Naruto asked in confusion.

He thought for a while but could not find an answer.

Naruto decided to try again. This time, he would be extremely careful. He had to cast the ninjutsu successfully.

Following the steps, Naruto once again executed the Transformation Technique as perfectly as the textbook instructed.

Then, full of hope, Naruto saw the Third Hokage in the mirror with sausage lips and no hair, looking at him with a strange smile as though mocking him for being an idiot.

"Again!"

He used the Transformation Technique more than ten times with methods as perfect as the textbook, but every single attempt failed. At that moment, Naruto began to question his life a little.

Could it be that I'm not actually exceptionally talented? That I don't even have talent for practicing ninjutsu?

Is that why I can't even use a simple Transformation Technique?

Without realizing it, a dejected feeling rose in Naruto's heart.

However, he did not stay discouraged for long. Naruto quickly pulled himself together. He could learn those complicated math problems and Chinese characters, and he had made rapid progress on his very first day of refining Chakra. There was no reason he could not learn a simple Transformation Technique.

With that thought in mind, Naruto became more focused than ever and used the Transformation Technique once again.

Naturally, there was no surprise in the result. He failed again.

"I found the culprit."

Canceling the Transformation Technique, Naruto gritted his teeth slightly.

This time, because he had been extremely focused, he could sense that as he successfully cast the technique, another stream of Chakra that did not belong to him had interfered with it from within his body.

Although that Chakra was not strong, ninjutsu was a precise thing. Even a tiny disturbance in Chakra, especially from within the body, could cause a technique to fail.

That explained why his Transformation Technique had turned him into such bizarre forms.

Although Naruto was confident that he could overcome such interference after sufficient practice, training ninjutsu under those conditions was undoubtedly half the result for twice the effort.

Under normal circumstances, Naruto would have only assumed that his talent was poor and that he could not fully control his Chakra, which was why his ninjutsu failed. But just last night, he had happened to see the Big Fox living inside his body.

"Damn fox."

Naruto sat back down in his chair with an imposing manner, then closed his eyes and focused his mind to sense the Sealing Space within his body.

Not long after, Naruto found himself standing before that iron gate.

He saw the Big Fox lying there, seemingly asleep.

Its expression was peaceful at the moment. It was not baring its fangs or snarling, making it look far cuter.

But Naruto did not care whether the Big Fox was cute or not. He demanded angrily, "Big Fox, why are you interfering with my ninjutsu training? It's bad enough that I'm not charging you rent for living in my body, and now you're causing me trouble too!"