Jiraiya's Idea

Before long, Nagato brought Chiba to meet Jiraiya.

"Chiba, you're here."

Jiraiya set down the scroll in his hands and nodded to Chiba. "A few days ago, something Nagato said gave me an idea. I thought of a plan that might work and should be able to help you."

"What plan?"

Chiba's face was full of surprise. He really couldn't imagine what else Jiraiya could do to help him.

Seeing Chiba's astonished expression, Jiraiya laughed. "A few days ago, Nagato came to me for help and asked if there was a way to share chakra with you. At first, I had no ideas, but then I suddenly realized it might not be impossible."

"Share chakra?"

Chiba's eyes widened as he asked in confusion, "Can chakra be shared?"

As he spoke, Chiba suddenly remembered something. There really were people in Naruto who could share chakra.

One of them was the protagonist, Naruto. During the Ninja World War, Naruto had shared Nine-Tails Chakra with hundreds of people, turning them all into little Nine-Tails brimming with chakra and greatly boosting their combat strength. It was practically cheating.

But that probably wouldn't be possible for Nagato. Naruto's ability came from combining Senjutsu with Nine-Tails Chakra and who knew what else. Given his age and abilities, Nagato couldn't do that right now.

Besides him, there was Karin.

As Sasuke's follower, Karin had always been a sort of chakra reserve for Sasuke. She could heal other people's injuries and replenish their chakra through her blood. Whenever Sasuke ran low on chakra, he would bite Karin's arm without hesitation, suck out some blood, and recover instantly.

Come to think of it, Nagato was also an Uzumaki, just like Karin. Could this be the method Jiraiya had found?

At the thought of Nagato having to charge him up with his blood, Chiba couldn't accept it. In battle, he would do it to survive, of course, but there was no way he could bring himself to do it during ordinary training.

Besides, Karin's ability probably came from combining her innate healing skills with her bloodline. Nagato shouldn't have that kind of ability yet.

Seeing Chiba's bewildered expression, Jiraiya began to explain.

"Actually, there are many examples in the Ninja World of people borrowing chakra. The most common is the relationship between Jinchuriki and Tailed Beasts."

Jiraiya then gave the two of them a brief explanation of what a Jinchuriki was.

Chiba had already known a fair bit about Jinchuriki, but there was no doubt that Jiraiya's explanation had given him a much clearer understanding of what they were.

"Borrowing Tailed Beast Chakra like this is actually very dangerous."

"You have to understand that everyone's chakra is completely different. The body's attributes, the precise ratio of mental and physical energy, even the chakra's quality—all of it varies from person to person."

"If foreign chakra doesn't match your own, it will inevitably clash with the chakra in your body. The two may even treat each other as enemies and fight inside you, especially since Tailed Beast Chakra is so violent."

"So, Jinchuriki are usually chosen from children whose chakra attributes haven't yet developed. Their bodies are allowed to adapt to that power from a young age, so by the time they grow up, they won't reject it and can draw on its power."

"Of course, this method has a very high fatality rate. Newborn babies can hardly withstand such an enormous power, so some villages choose children who are a little older and whose attributes match the Tailed Beast. But then the rejection is too severe, and they're just as likely to die. That's why figuring out how to create Jinchuriki remains a difficult problem for every major village."

Chiba took a moment to sort through everything Jiraiya had said, then asked in confusion, "What does all that have to do with me, Jiraiya-sensei?"

"Well, the method I came up with borrows a little from the Jinchuriki approach. I got the idea from some of Konoha's research over the years into how to use Jinchuriki chakra."

As he spoke, Jiraiya turned his gaze toward Nagato.

"If people can borrow the violent chakra of a Tailed Beast, then there's no reason they can't borrow another person's chakra. Nagato has more chakra than he can use, so he can share some with you. With his chakra, you can practice a large number of jutsu and develop your attributes as quickly as possible."

"In my estimation, if it works, you'll develop your chakra attributes at least ten times faster than you do now."

"Share it with me?"

Chiba stared at Jiraiya, astonished.

"Will that really work? Didn't you say everyone's chakra is different and would cause a rejection?"

Jiraiya nodded. "It'll certainly be tricky, but it's not impossible. Tailed Beast Chakra is much more violent than human chakra, yet Jinchuriki can still use it."

"Besides Jinchuriki, there are plenty of ways to share chakra. You can use ninja tools, for example. As far as I know, Kirigakure has a weapon called Samehada that can devour other people's chakra. After consuming its chakra attributes, it converts them into the purest chakra and gives it back to its master."

"There are also many ways to obtain chakra through strange objects, ley lines, and the like. Some clans' bloodline abilities, as well as secret techniques used by certain twins, can also share chakra. For a ninja, figuring out how to use chakra usually isn't difficult. The hardest part is finding a sufficient amount of chakra from an outside source."

Before, Chiba hadn't given it much thought, but after listening to Jiraiya, he realized there really were a lot of examples in the Ninja World of people using chakra from outside sources. Especially since he knew what happened later in the story: there were countless major and minor villains who gained chakra from stars, strange creatures, ley lines, weapons, and all sorts of other things. Some villains even captured people directly to extract their chakra.

Could it be that every villain was after more chakra?

So, using someone else's chakra to train was possible?

Thinking it over, Chiba realized it wasn't as sophisticated as he'd imagined. He clearly remembered that, during the Chunin Ninja Exams, Sasuke had once had his chakra drained by a Genin. It was probably some kind of bloodline ability or secret technique, but no one had seemed to think much of it.

As Chiba wondered about it, Jiraiya laid out his specific plan.

"Based on what I've learned, there are usually several ways to borrow chakra from an outside source."