Watching his parents leave, Higashino Makoto sat silently on the bed, feeling the Chakra he had extracted slowly dissipate.
Chakra wasn't Internal Force or magic; it couldn't be stored up. If he didn't use it after extracting it, it would slowly return to his body.
Unless he used a special method to accumulate it, like Tsunade's Yin Seal Technique.
Once all the Chakra had dissipated, Higashino Makoto immediately formed the Unfinished Seal with both hands and continued extracting Chakra. That was how Chakra training worked.
Since Chakra was energy that had to be extracted right before use, Ninjas extracted it before each battle so they could use it during the fight.
But the problem was, your enemy wouldn't stand there and wait while you slowly extracted it.
Ninjas weren't chivalrous heroes. They didn't care about honor, and they certainly wouldn't wait for you to get ready before settling things.
Being a Ninja was all about efficiency. Completing the mission was the top priority, and any means were acceptable: ambushes, poison, threatening your friends and family—those were all basic tactics.
So if you took the time to extract Chakra right in front of your enemy, you could bet they'd come over and send you to your grave.
A Ninja could strike so quickly that even the tiniest delay gave them time to kill you in nine different ways.
For a Ninja to be combat-ready, extracting Chakra had to become second nature.
That meant being able to adjust the ratio of Body Energy to Mental Energy without thinking, and not needing to form Hand Seals. The moment they willed it, Chakra would be extracted inside their body.
At the highest level, the body would even synthesize some Chakra on its own during everyday life.
The Yin Seal's function was to collect and compress the Chakra that the body synthesized on its own and naturally shed, so it could be unleashed in battle.
It was like having a huge extra mana bar out of nowhere—a massive advantage. It could even keep you young forever.
That was supposedly what Tsunade did. She was already in her fifties, yet she still spent her days acting young, her apparent age wavering somewhere between ten and thirty.
Extracting Chakra again, Higashino Makoto found that the second time was easier after his first successful attempt. He no longer had to painstakingly adjust the ratio of the two kinds of energy.
His body seemed to have developed a memory, gradually ingraining the process of synthesizing Chakra. The process had sped up a little, though he still needed the Unfinished Seal to help.
Good. This would be his nightly training from now on,
until extracting Chakra became second nature.
Once the Chakra naturally dissipated, Higashino Makoto began extracting it a third time.
After repeating the process several times, Higashino Makoto checked his alarm clock and ended his training for the night. It was almost time for bed.
Since being reborn in the Shinobi World, he had become extremely disciplined about his routine. He went to sleep on time every day, giving his body plenty of time to recover. He never let his fatigue carry over to the next day.
He also got up on time the next morning to exercise, never letting himself entertain the thought of slacking off or sleeping in.
When he went to the living room, he saw that his parents had already gone to bed. Several empty liquor bottles sat on the dining table.
His parents were both in their twenties. Since newlyweds were especially eager to be together after a short separation, they would normally have spent the evening enjoying some intimate exercise. But now, the master bedroom was completely quiet.
It seemed that seeing their son turn out to be a genius had made the couple too happy. They had accidentally drunk a few too many bottles and were now fast asleep.
Ninja work required constant vigilance, which was why alcohol was one of the Three Prohibitions. If they could let themselves go like this for once, it was because they were happy—and because home was a haven where they could feel safe.
Humans were an intelligent species prone to extremes. Ninjas, with their tremendous power, were even more so.
The masterminds behind the scenes had either lost too many little brothers, lost the woman they loved, or lost their best friend. One after another, they all went insane.
A happy family was the cure for all that.
Unfortunately, it was exactly what many Ninjas lacked.
Higashino Makoto quietly cleared away the empty liquor bottles and snacks from the table, tidied up a little, then got ready to wash up and go to bed.
Back in his room, he saw that he still had some time, so he sat silently by the bed and practiced his Hand Seal speed.
At the moment, he still hadn't decided what kind of fighting style he'd use.
He didn't yet know whether Ninjutsu, Taijutsu, or Genjutsu would suit him best, but no matter what, improving his Hand Seal speed first was the right choice.
When his set bedtime arrived, Higashino Makoto extracted Chakra one last time that day. Once he sensed that his cells were growing tired even as his body brimmed with energy, he flopped onto the bed and fell asleep, letting the Chakra dissipate naturally.
Years of routine had made him fall asleep as soon as his head touched the pillow. He soon drifted off.
But something went wrong tonight. Before long, he realized he was still wide awake—unnaturally alert, with his senses seeming far sharper than usual.
That shouldn't be happening!
In this second life, he had a happy, complete family and filled his days with meaningful things. He wasn't mentally exhausted, so there was no way he'd developed insomnia.
Was he too excited about successfully extracting Chakra for the first time? Or was it the Chakra still dissipating inside his body?
Since he couldn't sleep, Higashino Makoto decided to go to the study and look through some books on Chakra Theory. Maybe he could find an answer there.
But he soon discovered he couldn't move at all. It was as if his body had been pinned to the bed.
The sensation seemed familiar. It didn't take long for him to remember experiencing something similar in his previous life, before the college entrance exams.
It had happened several nights back then. He could see clearly, but his field of vision was fixed, his body completely motionless, and fear spread through him uncontrollably.
It had terrified him at the time. Only later did he learn it was Sleep Paralysis caused by excessive stress, commonly known as being pinned down by a ghost. It was brought on by the pressures of adolescence.
Since he'd experienced it before and knew what was happening, there was nothing to fear.
Higashino Makoto even watched the familiar ceiling of his bedroom with interest from this state.
Then he realized he was wrong.
This damn thing had nothing to do with the sleep paralysis he'd experienced in his previous life.
His body really was fixed in place; he couldn't move at all, and his eyes wouldn't turn.
But his field of vision could move. He could look wherever he wanted, however he wanted, like a fixed camera whose angle could be freely adjusted.
Then he "saw" his body sleeping soundly on the bed.
At that moment, he seemed to be floating above it.
What was this? His Soul Out of Body?
Stay calm!
Higashino Makoto carefully analyzed the situation.
This was the Naruto World, not his previous life. Souls really existed here and could be seen. He knew of several examples.
There were the dead lying in the Pure Land, who could be pulled out with Impure World Reincarnation. Among the living, Orochimaru would probably start experimenting on his own soul in a few years, and Dan Katō had liked letting his soul drift out so he could attack people.
Shadow Clones could even split one's consciousness.
But all of them could move freely, unlike him. He could only watch; he couldn't move.
After thinking over the information he knew, he found that none of it matched his situation. So Higashino Makoto began observing the world from this perspective, trying to figure out what was happening.
Then he noticed that the world looked different from this perspective.
The world was still the same world, and the surroundings were still the same.
But apart from that, an incredibly faint mist seemed to permeate the space all around him.
He hadn't seen or sensed it from the perspective of his physical body.
From this strange perspective, the mist flowed in bands, like rivers running freely between heaven and earth. It was faintly white, red, green, purple, blue, and other colors.
What was it?
Higashino Makoto tried to manipulate it with his mind and found he could nudge some of it slightly.
He tried luring over the red mist, which was the most abundant. As soon as a wisp of red entered his consciousness, an incredibly violent presence began invading him.
Danger! Danger!
He instinctively cut off their connection at once and expelled the wisp of red mist.
So he could expel it on his own? Then there was nothing to fear.
He tried the other colors. They were all dangerous, but unlike the red one, which invaded him, the others seemed to be trying to assimilate him.
Only the white mist was different. It seemed to be trying to break him down, but it was too weak to do so quickly. The process was slow enough to endure.
Higashino Makoto noticed that after mingling and intertwining with his consciousness, the white mist flowed toward the body sleeping on the bed.
He watched calmly and saw that his body wasn't showing any unusual signs. The consciousness floating above it seemed to have become a filter, fighting against the white mist's power to break things down and sending the filtered mist to his physical body.
As he filtered the mist, Higashino Makoto also thought.
What exactly was this mist?
He thought through everything he knew about the Shinobi World. Only one answer remained: Natural Energy.
But could there really be so many kinds of Natural Energy? The original story had never mentioned that. Could this be his Golden Finger?
Of course, as someone who'd been reborn, how could Higashino Makoto not want a cheat? After all, cheats were perfectly legal in this world. You wouldn't get banned for using one.
There was no need to even mention the little bloodline cheats. In the later stages, the administrator, the Six Paths Old Man, personally showed up to give his reincarnated descendants cheats.
He gave them bloodlines, then the Chakra of his own sons' reincarnations, then instant resurrection, and finally the Six Paths Yin-Yang Power.
There was nothing left to give after that.
He had no shame. None at all.
Reborn, Higashino Makoto was just an ordinary civilian. He wasn't a descendant of the Six Paths, didn't have a Sage's Eye or a Sage Body, and didn't have a pet stuffed in his belly to act as a living hot-water bottle.
For a while back then, he'd even called out to System-kun, Panel-kun, and Deep Blue-kun before bed. But nothing had happened.
So he'd thrown himself into disciplined study and training, hoping to grow stronger through his own efforts.
He'd even already decided that if he turned out to have no talent, he'd ask Might Duy to adopt him as his godson and train in the Eight Inner Gates, consuming his own life.
He hadn't considered going to Orochimaru. That guy was too twisted for an ordinary person to handle, and it was easy to end up as a disposable test subject.
He hadn't expected his Golden Finger to arrive today. Did that mean he wouldn't have to work himself to the bone anymore?
If I worked hard before getting my Golden Finger, and I keep working hard after getting it, then what was the point of having one?
No. Higashino Makoto actually felt that from now on, he needed to work even harder.
Just then, Higashino Makoto suddenly felt that his consciousness could no longer hold out. If this continued, he would disappear and become part of the white mist. He immediately severed their connection on his own, like a bastard who vanished after sleeping with a girl.
His consciousness felt exhausted. With a thought, he returned to the body on the bed and fell into a deep sleep.
It seemed this cheat wasn't easy to use. One careless mistake, and he could end up a vegetable.
Natural Energy was great, but he couldn't overindulge. Take in too much, and he'd ascend to the heavens!
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