Chakra Amplification

The next morning, Higashino Makoto woke up right on time.

Last night, he'd gone through several more rounds of chakra extraction and, in his spiritual form, lured Natural Energy while resisting its decomposition force—a pretty eventful night by any measure.

He'd been wondering if he'd feel mentally drained today.

But to his surprise, upon waking, not only was his body light and agile, but his mind felt clearer than usual.

Refreshed and sharp.

So, did that filtered white mist-like Natural Energy have a nourishing effect on both body and mind?

He'd need to observe and analyze that more carefully before drawing conclusions, but from the looks of it, it didn't seem bad.

His parents, who'd drunk too much alcohol last night, were still asleep. Higashino Makoto didn't disturb them. As usual, he heated up some boiled eggs, bread, and milk from the fridge, ate a nutritious breakfast, and headed straight to the Training Ground.

He didn't know if the sun was out in Los Angeles at four in the morning.

But at five in Konohagakure, it definitely wasn't.

He'd stayed up a bit late last night and hadn't gotten his usual eight hours of sleep, yet he felt no drowsiness or fatigue at all.

Good. Plenty of energy.

It seemed that with the nourishment of Natural Energy, he wouldn't have to worry about sleep deprivation affecting his body anymore. That meant more time for training and study each day.

Back in his Previous Life, this would've made him a natural-born workhorse.

No, wait. I'm training in Supernatural Power now—why the hell would I be anyone's workhorse?

I don't eat beef!

Soon, Higashino Makoto began his daily physical training. But unlike before, he was now a quasi-Ninja capable of extracting and using chakra.

He sat still, formed the Unfinished Seal with both Hands, and smoothly combined Mental Energy with Body Energy to create chakra, which flowed into his Meridians.

When he stood up again, he felt like he was in a whole new world.

His body felt much lighter, his Dynamic Vision had sharpened, and the leaves falling from the Big Tree seemed to drift down a little slower.

Higashino Makoto shot out a hand like lightning, catching a leaf that happened to float right in front of him. He stared at it, lost in thought.

The veins on the leaf were clearly visible, the entire image imprinting itself in his mind. His eyesight and instant memory had both improved.

After a few seconds of contemplation, he walked up to the Big Tree, raised his leg, and kicked it straight on. The tree didn't break—proof that he hadn't reached the level of snapping a tree with one kick. He was just a Newbie who'd barely learned to use chakra.

But his strength had definitely increased. The tree shook violently, and leaves fluttered down like snowflakes.

Higashino Makoto's Hands shot out repeatedly, quickly grabbing two handfuls of leaves. His reaction speed had also improved.

After experiencing the full-body boost chakra provided, Higashino Makoto was ecstatic. He immediately started running laps. In an instant, his body shot forward like an arrow from a bow, racing across the Training Ground much faster than before.

As he ran, he felt like his light body was about to lift off the ground—but that was just an illusion. Planet Earth's gravity would remind him that flying was out of the question.

Can't fly, but he could jump. What Ninja ever walked normally? Didn't they all leap around from high places?

Mid-run, Higashino Makoto looked up and spotted the branches of a Big Tree ahead.

He bent his legs, pushed off with force, and launched himself into the air. His target landing spot rapidly closed in as he flew.

"Huh? No, too much force. I'm gonna die, I'm gonna die! Ah!"

He overshot the chosen branch and, with a yelp, slammed straight into another tree further ahead, sticking to it like a poster.

Then he fell to the ground, lying on the grass with dazed eyes, staring up at the Tree Crown above.

That crash and fall took him a good while to recover from. When he stood up, he rubbed his face with one hand and his back with the other, wincing in pain.

First big jump, and he'd misjudged the force and distance—straight into a tree.

He looked around at the sprawling branches of the trees in the Training Ground, thought for a moment, then jumped in place a dozen times in different directions, feeling out the relationship between the force he used and the height he reached.

After getting a rough sense of it, he carefully hopped onto a nearby branch, eyed his next landing spot, estimated the distance, and pushed off with his legs to leap over.

He miscalculated—not enough force—but this time he didn't hit a tree. Higashino Makoto quickly grabbed the branch with both Hands, swung himself up to stand on it, and continued jumping to the next point.

In the gaps between the trees, his small figure moved like a langur just learning to navigate the forest, slowly shifting positions among the branches. It seemed like every jump required him to calculate the distance and the force needed in his head.

As time passed, his movements through the trees grew faster, and the distances he covered grew longer.

When his extracted chakra was depleted, he immediately sat cross-legged on a branch and extracted more.

But the amount he got the second time was far less than the first.

The sky grew bright, and the sun rose above the horizon.

Finally, during another leap, Higashino Makoto felt his body go limp. His foot slipped, and he plummeted straight down like he'd lost all power.

"Thump!"

He didn't hit the grass—he landed in someone's arms.

Higashino Makoto glanced up. It was his father. He didn't know when the man had arrived at this Training Ground.

Seeing his son gasping for air, Higashino Jiro carried him out of the woods and set him down in the open space of the Training Ground.

Watching this precocious Kid, who was always confident and never messed up, now sporting a bruised and swollen face, his heart was filled with joy. After all, this finally made him look like a child who'd just gotten a new toy.

He couldn't help but tease: "You hit a tree?"

Higashino Makoto felt the faint warmth of the spring morning light but didn't admit it. Instead, he asked, "Mr. Higashino, did you bump into things when you were little too?"

"Cough, cough!" Higashino Jiro likewise refused to own up and shifted the question to another angle. "Is it that you feel your chakra has decreased? Last night you could extract it several times in a row, but today you can't even manage twice before running dry?"

It seemed he'd been lurking nearby and watching for a while.

Higashino Makoto knew why. "The chakra I extracted last night all dispersed back into my body, which let me train multiple times. Today, the chakra I extracted was used up. That's how it is, right, Father?"

"You've grasped the basic knowledge well. That's exactly it. Though in my eyes, you truly are a genius, starting with a decent chakra amount, you're only four years old. That amount is only relative to others your age or those two or three years older.

Overall, it's still small. Don't mess around like this anymore. Over-extraction will affect your health. For now, your focus should be on growing and developing. Understand?"

"I understand, Father. Thanks for the reminder!" Higashino Makoto had indeed gotten a bit carried away today.

"Good that you know. I'll take you back."

Piggybacking on Higashino Jiro, he left the small forest and stepped onto the street.

The shops on both sides had already opened. Steam billowed from the food stalls. Pedestrians wandered in twos and threes—some commoners, some ninjas. Some ate breakfast, others shopped for groceries. It was a bustling scene of mortal life.

All of this made Higashino Makoto feel like a world away, recalling his previous life as a child, when his father had carried him on his back to the market.

Just like now, they both had broad backs.

When they got home, Higashino Megumi had already made breakfast. As if she knew what had happened today, she'd prepared much more than usual.

After washing up, Higashino Makoto didn't bother changing his dirty clothes and immediately started wolfing down the food.

He was truly starving.

Higashino Megumi smiled and placed her hand on her son's face. A faint green glow appeared.

After a while, she began treating the bruises on his back.

Medical ninjutsu—a miraculous and efficient healing method in the Naruto World.

The benefits of being reincarnated into the Shinobi World with both parents alive, one of them a medical ninja, were clear. Someone taught him things, and when he got hurt, he didn't even need to go to the hospital.

Plus, it came with a happiness buff—far more useful than a boundless-power buff.

After the treatment, Higashino Megumi looked at her son seriously. "Injury and pain are the best teachers. They let you know that becoming a powerful ninja isn't easy. Even if you're a genius, you can't be willful or arrogant. You have to take it step by step."

"They really are good teachers. Don't worry, I'll be more careful from now on, Mother."

Higashino Jiro smiled and ate his breakfast in silence.

Every ninja went through this. Sometimes, lecturing alone wasn't enough. Only by tasting the pain would the lesson stick.

No matter how miraculous chakra was, it couldn't be mastered overnight. It took enough time to control and use it.