Thunder Roar

After watching his father's demonstration, he excitedly imitated the process, closing his eyes and eagerly waiting to draw Chakra from within his body. But even after a long while, nothing happened.

He opened his eyes in confusion and looked at his father, as if asking, "Are you sure you're not pulling my leg?"

"I told you that extracting Chakra for the first time can be a little tricky. You need to calm your mind and focus, sense your body and soul, and catch a glimpse of the physical and spiritual energy within you. Only then can you begin extracting Chakra."

Though Chakra extraction was a basic skill for ninjas, not everyone could manage it. What's more, the amount of Chakra each person could extract varied, which ruled out another group.

Chakra alone was enough to disqualify many boys who dreamed of becoming ninjas. Only those who could successfully extract Chakra and had enough potential to perform Ninjutsu had any chance of becoming ninjas.

As for how many children would ultimately succeed, the number of Genin graduating from the Ninja Academy each year spoke for itself.

But!

His son was bound to have the talent to become a ninja. He believed that without a doubt.

After calming his excitement, Kaede sat steadily on the ground and emptied his mind, focusing on his body. Somehow, it felt as though a playful current of air had brushed past his eyes.

Like a drop of water falling onto a still lake, it sent out a long ripple.

"That's it."

He formed Hand Seals at once and began extracting Chakra.

This time, it went smoothly. A wisp of physical energy drawn from his body merged with a wisp of spiritual energy from his soul, and Kaede extracted his first trace of Chakra.

"Hmm... This is..."

Mingye saw a layer of Lightning Armor suddenly cover Kaede's body. The highly destructive Lightning Release Chakra coursed across the ground.

"This is a sign that a Kekkei Genkai has awakened. But that can't be right. Doesn't Kaede have the Sharingan Bloodline?"

This sort of strange phenomenon, which sometimes appeared when young ninjas extracted Chakra for the first time, was a sign that some kind of Kekkei Genkai had awakened. But he was utterly confused. This... really was his son!

When Kaede extracted his first trace of Chakra, he grinned with excitement. He was about to brag to his father that he'd done it so quickly. That made him a genius, right?

But in the darkness of his Inner World, where there had been only the pale blue glow of Chakra, countless pale bolts of lightning suddenly erupted from nothing. A colossal White Bear, armored and red-eyed, stood before his soul, wrapped in thunder that made his spirit tremble.

"Mortal, feel the power of the God of Thunder!"

The bear raised its enormous paw and strode toward him, as tiny as a mote of dust by comparison. It opened its great jaws to speak, its voice so immense it seemed capable of tearing his soul apart.

"Roar—"

It turned into a streak of white lightning, circled him, then plunged straight into his soul.

"Don't come any closer..."

Kaede weakly waved his hands to ward it off. Yes, weakly—for no matter how wildly he flailed, he couldn't stop the white lightning from entering his soul.

"This feels awful! It's like I'm being inflated!"

He groaned in pain.

The tiny consciousness in his Inner World began to swell. It changed with every passing moment, soon expanding to half the size of the Giant Bear.

Cracks appeared across his soul. It was on the verge of collapse.

Only then did his soul stop growing and stabilize. At that moment, it was round as an inflated balloon.

"Phew..."

He let out a breath of relief. Just now, he'd thought he was about to explode. It had scared him half to death.

"But what was that just now? That bear seemed kind of familiar."

"Huh! What's this? Did I get messed up or something? Have I got a brain stone..."

He saw five diamond-shaped, crystal-like stones floating in the mind of his soul. Golden lines traced exquisite patterns across them, and they gave off a mysterious, crystalline glow.

The Giant Bear must have left these behind. He just didn't know whether they were dangerous. After hesitating for a while, he decided to test them.

After all, they were lying in his soul. If they were harmful... they'd be like time bombs.

Well... even if they were dangerous, it wasn't as though he had any way to deal with them.

A wisp of his consciousness touched one of the crystals. Faint ripples spread from it, and a mysterious feeling flowed through his mind. He understood what the crystal meant.

He touched the other four crystals with his consciousness in turn, and each responded.

"So that's what this is."

These five crystals were, more precisely, five Runes.

They were the source of the half-god Thunder Roar, Volibear's power, and represented the power of Runeterra: Runes. They were the prototypes of the Divine Body Rune, Divine Soul Rune, Thunder Rune, War Will Rune, and Nature Spirit Rune.

He'd already learned what the Divine Body Rune, Divine Soul Rune, and Thunder Rune did. The War Will Rune and Nature Spirit Rune were too obscure to understand, as though he wasn't yet qualified to know their purpose. They seemed to be resisting him.

As for why a certain bear had shared the prototypes of his own sources of power with him, granting him the talent of a Nature Deity, that was a story about a certain bad-tempered bear who'd gone out to fight, hit the wrong person, and was then forced by some powerful beings to pay compensation.

"So I'm a god now? Heh, I'm grinning with pride... grinning with pride..."

Even if he merely had the talent to become a Nature Deity and still needed time to grow, that was already more than enough, wasn't it?

Looking at the entire Naruto world, the only ones who could truly be called deities were the family of three headed by Kaguya Otsutsuki, right?

"What are you grinning about? Let me see what's going on with you."

Mingye slapped the back of Kaede's head while he was grinning foolishly. His face was dark, his expression unreadable.

The Uchiha Clan had only ever had the Sharingan Bloodline. Now his son had suddenly awakened some strange Kekkei Genkai. If he hadn't known the boy was his own, he'd have filled the brat's body with Kunai.

Suppressing his resentment, he carefully guided his Chakra into Kaede's body, hoping to find out what kind of Kekkei Genkai he had.

Chakra carried spiritual energy, allowing Mingye to tell clearly whether some strange Kekkei Genkai had awakened in Kaede's body. But after a long while, he still found nothing.

"Maybe I'm overthinking it. This kid's just naturally gifted, not awakened to a Kekkei Genkai."

Muttering to himself, he gazed at Kaede with a distant look.

If Kaede was simply naturally gifted, then the powerful lightning he'd wielded after only just extracting Chakra meant he must have an extraordinary talent for Lightning Release Ninjutsu.

It seemed to surpass his own talent by, well, a whole lot.

Hmm... Maybe... probably... just a tiny bit.

"Let's test your nature."

Mingye handed Kaede the Chakra Paper and watched quietly. He already knew what Kaede's nature would be.

"Send your Chakra into this Chakra Paper. It can test your nature.

"If you have a Fire nature, the paper will burn.

"If you have a Wind nature, the paper will be cut.

"If you have a Lightning nature, the paper will wrinkle.

"If you have an Earth nature, the paper will crumble.

"If you have a Water nature, the paper will get wet."

"Whoosh."

The Chakra Paper in Kaede's hand instantly wrinkled and did nothing else, showing that he had only one nature: Lightning Release Chakra.

"Mm! That's enough for today. Try extracting Chakra on your own. I'm going to rest."

He watched his father leave, then sat down cross-legged again and resumed extracting Chakra.

Like a child who'd just gotten a favorite new toy, he couldn't put it down. He'd already forgotten his father's warning not to overdo it.