Refining Chakra

Minato Namikaze was happy to see how excited Ye Wuji was. After all, if they simply left him to fend for himself, he might get caught up in the war and killed at any moment. If they could give him some ability to protect himself, then saving him in the first place would have been worthwhile.

But Minato soon wiped the smile from his face. Seeing Minato turn stern, Ye Wuji reined in his excitement, too.

Minato saw Ye Wuji's reaction and nodded in satisfaction. Not bad. He can compose himself quickly. That's important for a shinobi.

Then Minato said to Ye Wuji, "Since you want to become a shinobi, I'll teach you a few things first. Do you know what a shinobi is?"

"I don't," Ye Wuji replied. That was the truth. He really didn't know what a shinobi was. In his mind, a shinobi was, at most, just a kind of profession.

"A shinobi is someone who can endure. That's a basic requirement. If you want to become an outstanding shinobi, you need to be able to endure, whether it's dealing with people or with situations."

"Mm." Ye Wuji nodded.

Seeing Ye Wuji sitting there like a well-behaved child, listening obediently, Minato smiled. "All right, I'll skip the rest for now. You'll understand when you're older. First, let me explain what a shinobi is.

"A shinobi is someone who can use chakra skillfully. Chakra is the basic energy shinobi use to perform various jutsu. Ordinary people don't possess this energy, so they need to use special training methods to refine chakra. Do you understand so far?"

"I understand. It's a power called chakra, right?" Ye Wuji answered earnestly.

"Exactly." Minato looked pleased with how smart he was, then continued, "Chakra is the energy shinobi use when performing jutsu. It comes from two sources. First, there's the physical energy contained in every cell of the body. Second, there's spiritual energy, accumulated through training and experience. Chakra is made up of these two kinds of energy.

"To perform a jutsu, you draw these two kinds of energy from within your body and refine them into chakra. Then you perform Hand Seals to activate it."

Seeing Ye Wuji nod along as he listened, as though he understood everything, Minato felt a little curious. If I hadn't grown up in this kind of environment, I wouldn't have understood it so easily. This kid seems to have grasped it all on his first try.

"Did you understand all that?" Minato asked.

"Yeah. It's simple. But I don't think I have that power called chakra. You said it comes from the energy contained in the human body, right?" Ye Wuji knew this wasn't the time to play dumb. At most, he'd be taken for an average kid. If he wasted more time trying to refine chakra, he might not get the chance to learn anything else after Minato left. He had to learn as much as he could while he had the chance.

"You really understood? You're a pretty smart kid," Minato praised him. Then he thought, To understand this much on his first introduction, this kid might become a genius of the Shinobi World someday.

"You can't sense chakra because you haven't used the proper method to refine it. I'll teach you how now. Go sit over there first."

Ye Wuji followed Minato's instructions and sat cross-legged nearby. Minato told him to imagine a current of energy flowing through his body. Unfortunately, after trying for a long time, Ye Wuji couldn't feel a thing.

He finally gave up and looked at Minato imploringly. "Why isn't anything happening? I can't feel anything."

Minato wasn't surprised at all. He said sternly, "Refining chakra isn't that easy. You've never done anything like this before. You need to focus completely and not let your guard down. Did you think becoming a shinobi would be easy? All right, since you want to be a shinobi and I'm teaching you, do as I say. Keep your mind focused on what's happening inside your body. No slacking off. Understand?"

Looking at Minato's stern face, Ye Wuji thought, He can't be lying to me. Given the Fourth Hokage's character, if he didn't want to teach me, he'd say so outright. He wouldn't pull some childish trick like this. I'll do as he says. I refuse to believe I can't refine chakra.

With that thought, Ye Wuji focused as hard as he could, trying to find that faint sensation of energy inside his body. But no matter how many times he tried, he felt nothing. Soon, he was dizzy and still had no results.

Several times, Ye Wuji wanted to give up. But then he remembered that he was now in the world of shinobi. If he couldn't refine chakra, he'd be doomed to mediocrity. He had this chance to change his life, and he didn't want to throw it away. In his previous life, in that environment, he'd never had the chance to change his fate.

This time, Ye Wuji decided he would seize this opportunity, no matter what. Even if he died trying, so be it. In a world like this, he couldn't accept ending up as an ordinary civilian. He'd rather die than live to regret it.

Ye Wuji could only console himself by thinking that once he became a shinobi, he'd be able to stand alongside the people he'd envied so much in his previous life. Whether they were friends or enemies, wouldn't it be exciting to share the stage with them in this world? As time passed, Ye Wuji's face began to contort. After trying countless times without success, unease started to creep into his heart. Am I someone who can't refine chakra? Maybe I am. Even in the Five Great Shinobi Villages, there are plenty of civilians. Some might be afraid of being killed by shinobi and not want to become one, but with so many of them, surely some must want to. And yet they still don't become shinobi. This is in the Five Great Shinobi Villages, where ninjutsu is so advanced. No matter what world you're in, people's desire for power must be the same.

Am I one of those people? Am I going to become just another civilian in the Naruto World? I know the Fourth Hokage now, and if I keep trying, perhaps I could still live well as a civilian.

As the sky grew darker, Ye Wuji tried again and again. His body felt completely empty; he couldn't sense anything at all. His expression grew more and more troubled, his face almost contorted.

As Ye Wuji gradually began to feel that he couldn't do it, that he had to accept reality, he thought of himself in his previous life. He'd worked so hard, but he still hadn't changed anything—not even his simple wish to build a better house for the old director.

People really should learn to accept reality. Just as Ye Wuji was about to give up, he suddenly remembered something Naruto Uzumaki had said: "My ninja way is to charge ahead bravely! Complaining won't change anything. If you think this is fate, then I'll change that fate!" That was something Naruto had said during his first fight with Neji Hyuga. That was more or less what he'd meant.

When Ye Wuji watched Naruto, he sometimes thought that if Naruto hadn't been the Fourth Hokage's son, he might have died long ago. Naruto seemed so childish, and Ye Wuji figured it was only because the Fourth Hokage had protected him that he'd managed to grow up.

But Naruto's growth had truly changed a lot of people. Take the incredibly shy Hinata Hyuga, for instance. He'd changed her, too.

Ye Wuji sneered inwardly. Back then, I used to think that if I were in Naruto's place, things would have turned out differently. Now I realize how ridiculous that was. If someone like me really had been Naruto, I'd have become just another Nagato or Gaara of the Sand.

Ye Wuji sneered at his former self. If he'd been able to do what Naruto had done in his previous life, perhaps things might have turned out differently. Instead of hiding away to nurse his wounds when people mocked him, he could have stood up and spoken out. Maybe everything would have changed.

Ye Wuji thought of the mischievous Naruto Uzumaki, the aloof Sasuke Uchiha, the clever Shikamaru, and the handsome Itachi Uchiha. Most importantly, he hadn't even met a single beautiful woman from Naruto yet. Hinata's shyness, Temari's confidence, and Konan's angelic appearance—these people weren't just figures he could admire from afar in his previous life anymore. He could live in the same world as them, breathe the same air, and meet them as real people of flesh and blood, not cartoon characters.

And that wasn't all. The First Hokage, Obito Uchiha, Madara, the Sage of Six Paths, and even the legendary Kaguya Otsutsuki—how could he possibly settle for being an ordinary person in a world where they existed?

With a furious roar in his heart, Ye Wuji's whole body seemed to move as if blown by a wind. A powerful aura surged from him, and a flash of white light suddenly appeared around his body. Though it vanished in an instant, Ye Wuji finally sensed that faint, unusual energy within him.

I finally sensed it! Ye Wuji was overjoyed, then lost consciousness.

At that moment, the Fourth Hokage, Minato Namikaze, was resting nearby and training at the same time. The aura jolted him awake. Minato saw the white light rise from Ye Wuji's body, then watched as Ye Wuji suddenly stood up and toppled backward.

Just as Ye Wuji was about to hit the ground, Minato was already at his side, catching the little boy in his arms.

"He really did manage to refine chakra. That aura just now wasn't bad, either. Could he really become an extraordinary shinobi someday? But he seems to have pushed himself way too far. He only just recovered from his injuries, and now he's done this to himself again. Why did he have to try so hard? Chakra refinement isn't something you can rush. This is going to be a bit of a problem." Minato picked Ye Wuji up and slowly carried him into the room.

If Ye Wuji had heard what the Fourth Hokage, Minato Namikaze, said, he'd have wanted to fight him, no matter how huge the difference in their strength. Minato had left him agonizing and panicking for ages, making him think that if he couldn't refine chakra, he was doomed.

The Fourth Hokage, Minato Namikaze, was undoubtedly outstanding, but he was still only twelve years old. Children in Naruto were generally mature for their age, and Minato was serious and hardworking when it came to his own training. Unfortunately, he'd never been a teacher. He knew plenty about chakra, of course, but since everyone in Konoha learned about it, he'd neglected to explain a few things. As a result, Ye Wuji, a transmigrator, had nearly worked himself to death.