Lesson One: Chakra

Miya hurried to the school entrance with a schoolbag and lunchbox in hand, only to be stopped by a middle-aged female teacher wearing glasses.

"Parent, class assignments have already started. You can't go in."

"But my son is still inside."

"Your son?" The teacher pushed up her glasses and flipped through the roster in her hand. "What's his name?"

"Shin Nohara."

The teacher glanced down at the roster, then looked up at Miya. "He's already been assigned to Class A. You can head back now."

"But his lunch..."

"The school provides lunch," the teacher interrupted. "Come back at four this afternoon to pick him up. Goodbye."

The gate slowly closed.

Miya stood at the entrance, holding the little schoolbag, utterly bewildered.

"So I came all this way for nothing?"

Meanwhile, someone in the classroom had no idea his mother was going crazy outside.

In the Class A classroom, a dozen or so five-year-old children sat properly on little chairs.

A young male teacher stood at the front of the classroom. He looked to be in his early twenties and wore round glasses, giving him the air of an academic ninja who stayed up all night reading.

His name was Ibuki Toru. He was a Chunin who had temporarily left the front lines due to an injury and been assigned to teach.

"All right, quiet down." Teacher Ibuki clapped his hands. "Let's start by getting to know one another. When I call your name, stand up and introduce yourself."

He picked up the roster.

"Kakashi Hatake."

A silver-haired little boy stood up. His face was covered by a mask. "Kakashi Hatake."

Then he sat down.

The classroom fell silent for two seconds.

Teacher Ibuki blinked. "That's it?"

Kakashi nodded.

"Okay, then." The teacher drew a check mark on the roster. "Next, Obito Uchiha."

A little boy with spiky black hair sprang to his feet and announced loudly, "My name is Obito Uchiha. I'm going to become Hokage someday. Nice to meet you!"

Then he bowed so hard he bumped into the desk in front of him.

"Very energetic." Teacher Ibuki rubbed his brow. "Next, Shin Nohara."

Shin-chan slowly stood up. "My name is Shin Nohara. I'm five years old, I live in an apartment behind the hot springs in Konoha, and I'm unmarried."

Someone snorted with laughter.

The corner of Teacher Ibuki's mouth twitched. "Go on."

"My favorite thing is Chocolate Stick. I don't like green peppers or carrots." Shin tilted his head and thought for a moment. "Also, my mom said she'd bring me lunch, but she seems to have gotten lost. Teacher, could you share some of your food with me at noon?"

Another burst of laughter rang through the classroom.

After the introductions, Teacher Ibuki's face was covered in black lines. He turned around and wrote three large characters on the blackboard.

"All right, today we'll be learning the first lesson, and the most important one: Chakra."

He turned back around and pushed up his glasses. "Has anyone heard this word before?"

Obito immediately raised his hand. "I know! Hokage-sama has a lot of Chakra."

"Good." Teacher Ibuki nodded. "Chakra is the source of the energy Ninja use to perform Ninjutsu. It consists of two parts."

He wrote on the blackboard:

Body Energy

Mental Energy

"Mix these two kinds of energy inside your body and refine them, and you'll produce Chakra." Teacher Ibuki clenched his fist. "This is the foundation of all Ninjutsu."

Shin-chan lay across his desk, staring at the blackboard with his mind completely blank.

Body Energy... Mental Energy... extract... mix...

He blinked and turned to look at Uchiha Toru beside him.

"Xiao Che," he whispered.

Uchiha Toru was diligently taking notes without looking up. "What is it?"

"Is Chakra something like the filling inside a Chocolate Stick?"

Uchiha Toru's pen stopped. He turned around, wearing an expression that said, "What are you talking about?"

"No."

"Then is it like the strings in natto?"

"No."

"Then is it like the fire that comes out of my mom's head when she gets mad?"

Uchiha Toru fell silent for two seconds, then said quietly, "Try sensing your own body. Do you feel a warm kind of power inside you?"

Shin-chan closed his eyes and concentrated for two seconds.

"No."

Uchiha Toru: "..."

"Then how did you sense it?" Shin-chan asked.

Uchiha Toru froze. "I don't know either. I can just feel it."

Shin-chan nodded thoughtfully. "Oh, so you can only feel it, and can't explain it with logic?"

Uchiha Toru thought about it. That did seem to be the case, though he wasn't sure. "I guess so."

"Then why did the teacher explain so much?" Shin-chan pointed at the two lines on the blackboard. "Couldn't he just say, 'Try sensing it'?"

Uchiha Toru opened his mouth, but realized he had no answer.

At the front of the classroom, Teacher Ibuki tapped the blackboard. "All right, that's enough theory. Now, everyone, close your eyes and try to sense the energy inside your body."

"Start with Body Energy—that's the feeling of being tired after exercising. Then there's Mental Energy, which is the feeling you get when you concentrate. Mix the two together and refine them."

The classroom fell quiet.

A dozen or so children closed their eyes and tried their best to sense it.

Shin-chan closed his eyes too.

Sense Body Energy—that meant the tired feeling after exercising. He'd run all the way here that morning, and his legs were still a little sore. Did that count?

Sense Mental Energy—that meant concentrating. He tried thinking about Chocolate Stick, but ended up thinking about what he was going to do about lunch.

Then he tried to mix the two together.

The soreness in his legs, combined with his craving for Chocolate Stick...

Huh?

Something seemed to be rising from his stomach. It felt warm.

Shin-chan couldn't help opening his eyes and looking down at his palm.

There was nothing there.

But he really had felt it. Something was moving inside his body, like a tiny river.

"Teacher." Shin-chan raised his hand.

Teacher Ibuki was making the rounds. He walked over to him. "What is it?"

"I think I got it."

Teacher Ibuki froze. "Got what?"

"That Chakra thing." Shin tilted his head. "It's warm, and it's going around in my stomach."

Teacher Ibuki's eyes widened behind his glasses.

He crouched down and gently placed a hand on Shin-chan. It was the simplest way to sense Chakra.

The next second, his expression changed.

"You refined it?"

Shin-chan blinked. "Is it hard?"

Teacher Ibuki fell silent for two seconds.

Normally, for a five-year-old experiencing Chakra for the first time, being able to sense it was already very good. Refining it so quickly was enough to call him a genius.

"How did you do it?" Teacher Ibuki couldn't help asking.

Shin-chan thought for a moment, then answered seriously, "First I thought about my sore legs, then I thought about Chocolate Stick, and then I mixed them together. That did it."

Teacher Ibuki: "..."

Sore legs? Chocolate Stick?

What kind of ridiculous refining method was that?!

He suddenly remembered that when he was a child, it had taken him a full three days to refine Chakra for the first time.

And this child had done it with sore legs and Chocolate Stick.