Naraka's Talent

At dawn, the horizon just began to pale as the sun slowly rose from the east.

Naraku walked into the courtyard wearing a black training suit, a scroll clutched in his hand.

"So this is the method for refining chakra," Naraku muttered to himself.

The scroll was given to him by Minato yesterday, along with other materials, though they were not things he could use at his current level.

If I had known it was like this, I would have come clean with him sooner, he thought to himself.

He then focused his attention on the scroll.

It contained information regarding chakra.

Chakra is a form of energy produced by fusing various energies within the human body. It is used to perform ninjutsu, genjutsu, and taijutsu, or to create threads to bind opponents, or to cut off the energy source of substances composed of chakra. Generally, it refers to the product of an equal mixture of spiritual energy and physical energy.

The physical energy produced by the one hundred and thirty trillion cells in the body, combined with the innate spiritual energy everyone possesses, forms chakra when these two energies are merged.

After a ninja extracts chakra within their body, they combine it with specific "hand seals" to form ninjutsu.

Following this logic, everyone has spiritual and physical energy within them; it is just that some people cannot combine the two, and such people are destined to never become ninjas.

Naraku noticed that at the end of the scroll, there was an attached diagram of the human body's chakra circulation.

Putting the scroll away, Naraku now had a preliminary understanding of chakra. He closed his eyes and began to carefully sense the physical and spiritual energy within his body.

After all, he was of the Uzumaki Clan; their naturally powerful chakra was no mere rumor. In just ten minutes, he sensed the physical energy hidden within his cells.

The subsequent spiritual energy proved to be even less difficult for him.

With his eyes closed, Naraku could clearly feel the two energies in his body. Suddenly, his brow furrowed; under his perception, he discovered that his spiritual energy was far more potent than his physical energy.

However, he soon understood why: he was a transmigrator. Although he was in a five-year-old body, he possessed the soul of an adult.

Spiritual energy must be closely linked to the soul, Naraku thought to himself.

It seems I am a genius after all.

Next was the task of fusing the spiritual and physical energy together.

"Hoo!"

Exhaling softly, Naraku focused his attention even more. Following the special guidance method, he first mobilized a certain amount of physical energy, then began to call upon an equivalent amount of spiritual energy. Once the ratio of the two energies was roughly equal, he began to manipulate them to fuse with one another.

Soon, after a successful fusion, a brand-new pale blue energy appeared on his hand.

Seeing this, a smile touched the corners of Naraku's mouth. He snapped his closed eyes open. "Looks like it worked."

However, just as he wanted to examine the blue energy on his hand more closely, the energy quickly dissipated.

"Uh."

Naraku gave an awkward smile. He knew this was because his chakra was too scarce; after all, the physical energy he had just fused was less than one percent, and as for the spiritual energy, it was less than one-thousandth.

Naraku was not discouraged. Since he had completed it once, the rest was merely a matter of time—like water dripping through a stone.

He closed his eyes and continued to refine chakra.

Creak!

It wasn't until Minato pushed the door open and walked into the courtyard that he opened his eyes, a flash of blue energy flickering across his body.

"Are you... refining chakra?" Even though it was only for an instant, Minato had noticed.

A look of surprise appeared on his face, but upon remembering that Naraku was of the Uzumaki Clan, known for their massive chakra reserves, he felt relieved.

As for Naraku's identity as a reincarnated soul, he automatically ignored it. There were too many unexplainable things involved, and Minato did not go digging. In his eyes, Naraku was still their little brother.

Otherwise, the fact that a reincarnated person wouldn't know how to refine chakra or use ninjutsu would be enough to warrant deep investigation.

"It seems our Naraku is a genius after all," Minato said with a smile.

"A genius? Of course he is, he's my, Kushina's, little brother!" Before Naraku could reply, Kushina's voice rang out.

Afterward, the three of them ate a hearty breakfast together, and Minato left with a Body Flicker technique, as he usually did.

Kakashi's figure also appeared in the courtyard right on time. His mission was to be responsible for Kushina's safety whenever Minato was away from home.

"Yo, Kai is here," because he had successfully refined chakra, Naraku was in a good mood today and teased Kakashi.

"Uh," Kakashi rolled his dead-fish eyes in helplessness.

He was truly baffled by the nickname "Kai," and although he really didn't want to accept it, Naraku had been calling him that for years, so he had slowly gotten used to it.

Perhaps because Kakashi frequently visited Minato's home, coupled with Naraku's intentional and unintentional interactions, his personality was now much better than in the original story. Although he remained silent most of the time, he would occasionally change his expression.

It could also be because Minato and Kushina were still alive.

On the other side, Minato did not go to the Hokage office as usual, but instead appeared outside Konoha Village, eyes closed, carefully sensing something.

Since he had received that information from Naraku, he naturally would not sit idly by. To protect his loved ones, he had to give it his all.

"As expected, I still can't sense it," a flash of disappointment crossed Minato's face, but a confident smile reappeared on his face the next moment.

He formed hand seals, and with a poof, a cloud of white smoke appeared, and his figure vanished from the spot.

It wasn't until the sky grew dark and the sun had completely set that his figure reappeared there once more.

"That should be about enough," he said with a gentle smile, followed by a ripple in the space around him as his figure vanished once more.

"Kai, you lost. Don't forget the ninjutsu you promised to teach me," Naraku said, looking at Kakashi before him with a grin.

"That's right, Kakashi, you lost!" Kushina added from the side, a happy smile on her face as well.

Only Kakashi stared at Naraku, whose body was covered in blue energy, his expression hidden beneath his mask one of pure shock.

At this moment, not only was Naraku cloaked in chakra, but he was also standing atop a pool filled with water; yes, he had already mastered water walking.

Is the Uzumaki Clan really this monstrous? Kakashi couldn't help but mutter to himself.

Although he had been able to achieve the same at that age, it had taken him several days of practice. Yet this guy had managed to complete both tree climbing and water walking in just a single day.

Though he was loath to admit it, Kakashi felt that Naraku's talent for cultivation might even surpass his own.

Accepting his defeat, he handed a scroll over to Naraku.