The Charm of Ninjutsu

For the first time, he touched a supernatural power like Chakra. Kaede was immersed in the joy of gradually accumulating and growing his strength, unable to tear himself away, until dinner time when he slowly came to.

He drew a bucket of water from the small well by the courtyard, washed his slightly oily handsome face, then strolled back to his room to eat.

He had no idea how much Chakra he had refined that day, or whether it was more or less compared to other ninja—after all, he had no benchmark, and he hadn't learned any jutsu yet.

If he knew even one of the Three Basic Techniques right now, he could roughly estimate his Chakra reserves.

"Too bad a genius like me knows absolutely nothing."

Over the four years of growing up, learning ninjutsu or taijutsu from his overly protective parents was out of the question, so he had to fumble around and practice in secret.

Ninjutsu was impossible—without Chakra, all effort was futile. As for ninjutsu, all he'd managed so far was to memorize the twelve Hand Seals.

Only taijutsu, that easy-to-learn but hard-to-master skill, could he train with his own knowledge.

But it still yielded little results.

The common trait of powerful taijutsu specialists wasn't just a strong physique; they also needed Chakra talent and relentless effort to achieve anything.

Someone like Might Guy, who ran around the village and school doing thousands of frog jumps and laps every day—without a robust body and decent Chakra constitution as a foundation, it was absolutely impossible.

Guy's Chakra was weak, but that was only compared to ninjutsu-type ninja. Among taijutsu users, Chakra's role was more about protecting the body.

Of course, all of the above was just the random musings of someone who couldn't stick with it himself.

"Taijutsu really isn't something just anyone can train."

With his small frame, before he even had Chakra, running ten laps around the courtyard left him seeing stars and gasping for breath.

"Looks like I'll have to focus on ninjutsu. Making any big moves in taijutsu is just... inhuman."

He remembered Lee's "declaration of the hardworking genius"—back then, it was pure adrenaline rush, right? But in the end, he found out... he was just ordinary.

The peak of taijutsu was probably when Guy, the King, angrily opened the Eight Gates' Gate of Death, releasing red steam, and with the ultimate taijutsu Night Guy, came within a hair's breadth of kicking the series finale—but at the cost of death, the last blaze of his youth.

The peak of taijutsu was nothing more than that.

So...

Eyes were way better!

"Kaede, what are you dawdling for? Come eat."

"Coming."

He caught the wrong note in his mother's tone just now, like she was holding back anger.

"Oh ho..."

"Dear Father, have you been lectured already?"

A little figure with demon horns in his heart cackled darkly.

Acting as if nothing was wrong, Kaede sat down formally according to etiquette, kneeling at the small wooden table, eyes straight ahead as he began to eat. But he couldn't help sneaking a glance at his father at the head of the table.

"Ah... what's that... My handsome father, why is there a red handprint on your face? Heh heh..."

The cackling echoed in his heart again.

Mingye noticed Kaede sneaking a look at his face and glared at him with feigned anger.

Kaede's mouth twitched, barely holding back a laugh.

Throughout the meal, no one in the family spoke a word, yet the atmosphere was filled with joy.

Until the very end.

"Good child, since you've chosen to become a ninja, Mother won't stop you anymore. But you must promise me one thing. If you become a ninja, become a strong one like the Previous Clan Leader and the First Hokage—then Mother will be at ease."

Xiang rubbed Kaede's tender cheek, her eyes red, tears welling up. Her husband was a ninja; every mission, every time he went to the battlefield, she worried—worried he wouldn't come back, worried he'd return as a corpse, or that only news of his death would arrive.

And now, her son was about to walk the same path as her husband. As a mother who deeply loved her child, her heart felt like it was being stabbed over and over by a thousand senbon.

"Mother, Kaede will never let you down."

Bowing solemnly before his mother, Kaede's small face was full of seriousness. He understood why she set Uchiha Madara and Hashirama Senju as his goal—in her eyes, strong ninja like that at least wouldn't lose their lives on the battlefield.

"Pfft—"

Xiang broke into a smile through her tears, amused by her son's goofy expression.

"Hmph! You two always team up to trick me. If you keep this up, no dinner tomorrow. No! No dinner ever again."

"Xiang, it won't happen again. I promise."

Mingye quickly straightened up his attitude.

Kaede silently watched his parents flirt and bicker—this was the warm family he had always had.

"The God of Shinobi, huh? Doesn't seem like such an unattainable goal. If I'm going to do it, I'll become the true god of this ninja world."

For once, he had a goal in his heart.

A life with cheats needed no explanation.

In his view, only by becoming a true god could he have the power to end the endless wars of the ninja world and bring peace. And then, he would never have to worry about his parents, family, friends, or even his future lover and children being dragged into the raging ninja wars and dying violent deaths.

The next day, still groggy and asleep, Kaede was yanked up by Mingye.

"From today onward, you must hold yourself to the ninja code, with the lifelong goal of becoming a powerful ninja. Before you enter the ninja academy at age six, aim to become a genin first. Work hard, my son.

Your wise and mighty father will be here to spur you on."

Blinking in confusion at his somewhat fired-up father, he scratched his head and picked his nose. Glancing down at his feet, he noticed he wasn't wearing shoes—a bit cold. Looking up, at least his pants were still on.

Smack

Thud

Kaede was flattened onto the wooden floor of the porch by Mingye, whose face had darkened.

"Snap out of it, will you? Show some drive."

"Ah, ah, don't make a fuss. Mom's gonna scold you again later."

Stretching and yawning, Kaede finally came to his senses.

"Hey, Dad, I've got a question for you! How do I know if my chakra reserves are big or small?"

Seeing Kaede start asking about ninja matters, Mingye let him off the hook and prepared to teach him.

Kaede's lazy personality was something they'd spoiled into him since childhood.

"There's no clear-cut division for chakra reserves. Usually, it's distinguished by strength—for example, a jonin surpasses a genin in both ability and chakra reserves.

A ninja's chakra reserves aren't fixed. They're inherently tied to your body and soul—the two determine the upper limit of your chakra.

Generally speaking, from the first time a ninja refines chakra, the amount increases with each refinement, reaching its peak at age thirty. After that, a ninja's chakra won't grow any more.

In fact, many ninja hit their limit before thirty. Refining chakra no longer yields noticeable results, so they shift their focus to studying jutsu."

Mingye patiently explained the basics of being a ninja to Kaede—knowledge that was actually taught at the ninja academy.

"But that still doesn't let me figure out whether my current chakra is a lot or a little."

Even though he understood everything his father said... it still didn't solve his goal of determining his chakra reserves.

"To determine your chakra reserves, you can use the number of times you can perform a jutsu. Standard jutsu consume the same amount of chakra. Take Fire Style: Fireball—an average genin's chakra reserves would be depleted after about ten consecutive uses."

"But do I look like I can use Fire Style: Fireball right now?"

Wasn't his affinity lightning? Using fire style under those circumstances would be heavily discounted, and the chakra consumed would increase accordingly. On top of that, the most important thing was that he didn't know the technique...

"That's why I prepared Lightning Release: Ground Run for you. Like Fire Style: Fireball, it can be used to test your chakra reserves."

Poof

A puff of white smoke appeared and dissipated.

From a sealing scroll, Mingye pulled out a scroll about a hand's length and tossed it to Kaede.

"This is the jutsu scroll for Lightning Release: Ground Run. Take a look at it yourself first, and come to me if there's anything you don't understand."