Lesson Two: A Brand New Dimensional Theory (Part 2)

"Energy is not energy, space is not space. This answer, which took me seventeen years to obtain after arriving in this world, is so plain and unadorned."

"Upon arriving in this world, I complained, I wept, I harbored resentment. It took a full seventeen years before I finally found my own cheat. This time was far too long, grinding away my spirit."

"It was only then that I could finally calm my heart to observe this world and accept the emotions of others."

"All things observed in stillness yield their own insights; the joys of the four seasons are shared by all. Haha, to think I still remember that."

Hui looked at this memory, feeling a heavy ache in his heart. Was his father's past truly so arduous?

Chuanhe pointed his finger at the "paper" on the ground and said, "Dust Release is the key I used to unlock all of this."

One could see that the "paper" on the ground, as just demonstrated, was missing a square-shaped piece. And this missing part was now slowly rising from the "paper" in front of Hui, eventually stopping in mid-air, parallel to the "paper" below.

"If we compare the paper below to our three-dimensional world, Dust Release strips away a portion of it, and this portion has departed from our three-dimensional world."

"With this, I finally discovered that chakra itself is not a substance of this three-dimensional world. Hahahaha. Dimensions, dimensions—the ultimate goal of chakra is to ascend in dimensions, so why couldn't I think of it sooner?"

"I should have realized it earlier; the existence of things like space-time rings was already hinting that this world is at least four-dimensional."

"Oh, right, Hui, the fourth dimension I speak of is not time, but a fourth dimension of spatial orientation."

Hui's inspiration exploded like a bomb; all the previous answers seemed to have been resolved. Even the obscure and difficult sealing techniques—at this moment, he felt he understood most of them.

Before Hui could continue to ponder, the memories emitted by Chuanhe rushed urgently into his mind.

"Hui, for you right now, it doesn't matter whether chakra is a three-dimensional or four-dimensional substance. What you need to understand is that ninjas can perceive chakra—a substance not of this three-dimensional world—and can even manipulate it. This fact itself is extremely important."

"This means that all creatures capable of manipulating chakra actually possess the innate potential to become four-dimensional beings. Those Otsutsuki have taken the wrong path. Quantitative change leading to qualitative change is indeed one path, but it is the most foolish method."

"The more massive the chakra, the more it obscures the reality of four-dimensional perception."

"Hmm, how should I explain this phenomenon to you?"

"Got it. It's like listening to music in a noisy environment. The more focused you are on listening, the less you can hear of anything else, until only the music remains."

"This is analogous to chakra; the stronger your perception and control of chakra, the weaker your perception and control of other substances. Things are always relative."

"Come, Hui. Now I will let you experience what true four-dimensional perception is like."

His father before him reached out his hand toward him once again.

Slowly, Hui could see nothing. He could not see himself, nor could he see his father. The chakra he had been able to sense just moments ago vanished without a trace. The entire "dark" world seemed to have developed an anomaly.

Outside the "genjutsu world," Hui's once bright and piercing eyes began to lose focus. His brain trembled, his heart beat violently, his blood boiled, sweat poured from his body like rain, and his breathing was no longer under his own control.

Countless negative sensations seemed to be tearing Hui's body apart. Suddenly, Hui felt a familiar sensation. It was his back! The tattoo on his back.

The appearance of the tattoo was like a drop of water falling into a calm lake. From this tattoo, "color" began to spread. He "saw" a strange-looking "himself?", and he "saw" points moving in countless bizarre ways drifting in the air.

The "color" continued to spread until he "saw" his familiar father. His father was still that same father. The expression he couldn't see clearly before, he now "saw" with perfect clarity. A faint smile played on his face, and he looked at him with a gaze full of love. His right hand was still resting on his "head?".

"How does it feel?" Chuanhe asked with a smile.

"Zhi, ga, ji, si..." Hui emitted meaningless noises.

Sound? So that was it; was this the four-dimensional world? Was this sound also four-dimensional?

"Try it out. This is no longer the world you are familiar with; you must learn how to speak, how to wave, how to walk, and so on, all over again, just like an infant."

"We still have time; let's start from babbling."

Meaningless sounds continued to emerge from Hui's "mouth?". Was the time in this world the same as before? Hui did not know, for he had lost the sense of the passage of time. Aside from being able to "see," he had no other sensations.

So that was it; could he actually manipulate all the substances in this world? What an incredible feeling. Come to think of it, since they are all substances, why shouldn't he be able to manipulate others besides chakra? It was just that the difficulty of manipulation was vastly different; the difference in difficulty between E-rank and S-rank ninjutsu was nothing compared to this.

Manipulating matter to produce precise sounds was truly too difficult for Hui right now. He could only express that he understood his father's meaning by "writing."

"I understand." Hui condensed these characters in front of him. They were extremely abstract, but Chuanhe understood.

"Not bad, not bad, keep working hard. It took you a full seven months to learn how to walk back then. Even like that, you were already quite talented among the children nearby," Chuanhe teased.

Hui gave up; condensing those few characters had already exhausted his life force, and now he just wanted to have a good sleep. He felt his "head?" was about to explode.

"Oh, almost forgot, I still need to tell you what the Otsutsuki are. Looking at you like this, I'd better block your four-dimensional perception first. The initial contact is indeed very uncomfortable." Chuanhe's voice became intermittent, eventually fading into memory.

The kaleidoscopic world slowly returned to the familiar darkness. Hui, who was panting heavily, suddenly felt that this darkness was so intimate. This time, he discovered that he could actually move.

Was this four-dimensional perception? Although his head was splitting with pain, Hui felt more inspiration bursting forth from his heart.

He now had complete inspiration for developing the Rasengan, Rotation, and Water Mirror Technique, which he had been unable to use before. The desire for research continued to swell; he felt incredibly restless now.

"Feeling better, Hui?"

"For a first performance, you have already far surpassed me."

"I am still so ordinary. Haha, but seeing you grow, Father is very gratified."

"The so-called Otsutsuki are a group of extraterrestrial lifeforms who possess extremely massive amounts of chakra. They are the group I told you about earlier, those who possess high-level chakra."

"That's right, this planet has also been invaded by them. Everyone who possesses chakra now is their descendant."

"This is the most terrifying enemy we will face in the future."

"Even at my current level, your father cannot guarantee a complete victory over all of them."

"We still have time, but not a great deal of it. Before you come of age at eighteen, we will have to face our first challenge. Of course, this challenge is for you."

"Haha, Hui, get ready to experience the feeling of challenging your own ancestors."

Hui swallowed the memory whole, his mind now too exhausted to process it any further.

"Alright, alright, that's enough for today. Any more and your old man won't be able to hold on."

The darkness gradually receded, and Hui returned once more to the familiar world. Still dazed, he slowly regained sensation in his limbs.

Sweat had soaked through Hui's clothes, clinging to him as if he had just been pulled from the water.

His heartbeat slowly began to steady, his body feeling light as if hollowed out, yet filled with an overwhelming sense of fatigue.

Although his brain still throbbed with a stinging pain, Hui's focus was no longer on himself.

Chuanhe was slumped on the floor, his right hand gripping the ground tightly for support. His left hand covered his mouth, and he was coughing violently. Fresh blood seeped continuously through his fingers.

"Fa... Father? Wh... what happened? Don't scare me, please, don't scare me. Right, a doctor... where can I find a doctor? Right, Chiyuki-nee. Father, I'll go find Chiyuki-nee right now."

Hui limped over to Chuanhe, using his thin, small shoulder to prop up his father's body. He leaned him against the wall, then scrambled to his feet, rushing out of the room in a clumsy, desperate gait.

"Wai... wait, Hui, come back. Your old man is tough as nails; I'm not dying that easily. I used to be a medical ninja, remember?" Chuanhe gasped, shouting after him.

Hui, having just opened the door, scrambled back inside. He didn't even realize that he had involuntarily activated his Sharingan, the tomoe spinning rapidly. One tomoe slowly morphed into two, with a clear trend toward a third.

"The ninja tool pouch, where did you put the ninja tool pouch? Right, the workshop, it must be in the workshop!" Hui helped Chuanhe up again, asking urgently.

"Cough, cough." Chuanhe coughed up another mouthful of blood.

"It's... it's not that complicated. Put... put my right hand on my ch... chest," Chuanhe said, struggling for breath.

Hui hurriedly complied. A faint green glow emanated from Chuanhe's right hand.

"Meow, it's the middle of the night, what are you two making a ruckus about? Meow! Lord Chuanhe, Lord Chuanhe, what happened to you?"

Amber emerged, rubbing her eyes with her right paw. As she opened them, she suddenly saw Chuanhe covered in blood. Her sleepy expression vanished instantly. The cat's aura shifted abruptly, becoming terrifyingly fierce. The air itself seemed to fill with the scent of her bloodlust.

"Cough, cough, don't worry, Amber. It's just because I used that genjutsu. You know what to do, go," Chuanhe said, half-reclining in Hui's small arms while treating himself with the Mystical Palm Technique.

Upon hearing Chuanhe's reply, Amber reverted to her familiar self.

"Is that so? Alright, meow, I'm going."

Amber then vanished into thin air, without the smoke typically associated with summoning jutsu.

Seeing Amber like this, Hui felt slightly relieved. At that moment, he had no mind to dwell on Amber's abnormality.

Half an hour later.

"Hui, didn't I tell you? Your old man is tough; I'm not going to die that easily." Chuanhe's tone was calm.

Hui suddenly hugged Chuanhe tightly from the front, burying his head in his father's chest. He cried, "I... I thought I was going to lose you. Don't do that again, okay? If I have to, I'll stop practicing; I'll just go back to learning regular ninjutsu."

Chuanhe stroked Hui's head, a faint smile on his face.

"This wasn't because of 'that' issue, but because of the genjutsu. I'll tell you about it next time. Hui, I didn't expect you to have awakened the three-tomoe Sharingan already. It's a good thing I made sufficient preparations, otherwise, you might have contracted the bloodline disease this time."

Under the intense stimulation from earlier, the barrier of the two-tomoe Sharingan had been shattered by the surge of emotion.

Hui started in surprise, subconsciously wanting to cover his eyes. Then, his hand paused, and he lowered it.

He said with a tearful voice, "I... I just didn't want you to worry. I didn't... didn't mean to hide it from you."

"The Sharingan is a cursed eye, but I don't believe that. Because only sincere love can truly evolve it. Hui, Father accepts your heart. I'm not blaming you. Father is still perfectly fine now, isn't he?" Chuanhe looked at Hui's three-tomoe Sharingan and said.

"Look, what beautiful eyes. I see no hatred in them, only concern for me."

"It's getting late; it's already two in the morning. You have to wake up for school in five hours. Go to sleep now; your old man needs to get some rest, too."

"Really? Are you really okay?" Hui lifted his head, his voice still choked with tears, his face stained with dried tracks.

"When has your old man ever lied to you? Alright, alright, go to sleep. If you don't, you'll be skipping class tomorrow."

Chuanhe kept nudging Hui until he reached his room, then thoughtfully closed the door behind him.

Afterward, he returned to his workshop, where he spat out another mouthful of blood. He muttered to himself, "This damn thing, it's great in every way, but as long as it exists alongside chakra, it wreaks havoc on the body. No matter how extravagant the resources, they can't keep up with this kind of wear and tear."

Amber appeared out of thin air, now the size of a tiger. In her mouth, she carried a black cloth bag that vaguely resembled the shape of a human.

"Meow, Lord Chuanhe! You don't have many of the clones you made last time left. Remember to replenish them," the giant Amber said, her voice at odds with her massive form.

The standing Chuanhe seemed to lose consciousness and collapsed to the floor. From the black bag, a naked Chuanhe unzipped the seal and crawled out.

He took a deep breath and said, "That guy Orochimaru said a month last time. Calculating the time, there should be about 20 days left. At my rate of consumption, as long as I don't use this thing, I could last for hundreds of years."

Chuanhe placed his collapsed self into the black bag and zipped it back up.

He patted the head of the now-enormous Amber and said, "It's up to you, Amber."

"Alright, meow, Lord Chuanhe. I want to eat grilled fish. And the sauce!"

"Ha, you little glutton, always craving that. Fine, I promise you this time," Chuanhe laughed.

He patted Amber's head, signaling that she could leave.

Amber then took the black bag in her mouth and vanished into thin air.

Chuanhe stretched his body and muttered to himself, "Well, the most 'destructive' theory has been passed on to you. Hui, what kind of new jutsu will you be able to develop? I am looking forward to it."