Chakra Was Like a Bowl of Hot Soup

The faint footprint Itachi had left behind still lingered in Che's mind. Even before basic control class, he was still thinking about how to plant his feet firmly on the ground called reality.

Uchiha Che compared chakra to hot soup before basic control class began.

At the time, Kiyo sat beside him with both hands pressed to his stomach, his expression as solemn as if he were about to take part in some momentous ritual. Saori sat on his other side, her stuffed doll resting beside her knees. Her fingers lay against her abdomen, but her eyes were fixed on the bowl of water on the lectern.

Uchiha Mione was teaching the class.

More than a dozen shallow bowls sat in the middle of the old warehouse, each holding half a bowl of clear water. The surface was perfectly still, reflecting fragmented light filtering through the paper windows. Mione did not begin with theory. Instead, she had the children sit in a circle around the bowls.

"Today, we're practicing basic control," she said. "Not extracting more chakra, and not ninjutsu. You only need to learn how to make a tiny bit of chakra stay where it's supposed to stay."

Kiyo quietly asked Che, "Stay where?"

Che quietly replied, "Like hot soup in a bowl, I guess. You carry it without spilling it."

Kiyo lowered his gaze to the bowl of water. "What if it spills?"

"It burns your hands."

Kiyo immediately took his hands off his stomach.

Saori looked at Che. "Chakra isn't soup."

"I know," Che said. "But neither of them likes to listen."

Mione's voice came from the front. "Uchiha Che."

Che sat up straight. "Here."

"Since you've finished talking, explain that analogy to everyone."

Several children in the warehouse turned to look at him.

Uchiha Che fell silent for a breath.

Oh no.

Getting caught whispering in class by the teacher was unavoidable in any world.

He stood up, doing his best not to look like he was about to deliver some profound theory.

"I just think chakra is like a bowl of hot soup," he said. "If you carry it steadily, you can drink it. If you don't, it spills, and then it burns you. So don't think about throwing the soup around yet. First, don't burn your hands."

Several children listened very seriously.

Kiyo even nodded.

Mione looked at him. "Crude, but usable. Sit down."

Uchiha Che sat back down and made a mental note: whisper more quietly in class from now on—or better yet, not at all.

Mione began her demonstration.

She held her hand above a bowl of water without touching the surface. Pale chakra seeped from her palm. It carried neither the clear restorative intent of medical ninjutsu nor the scorching effect of a fire-nature demonstration that would char test paper. It simply hovered steadily above the bowl, and a tiny ring of ripples spread across the water.

"Did you see that?" Mione asked.

The children nodded.

"I didn't force chakra into the water. I only made it stop between my palm and the water's surface. Control isn't about releasing power. It's about making power obediently stop."

Uchiha Che stared at that ring of ripples.

This time, the analysis was quiet.

Perhaps because Mione's movements were too steady. There was no intense change in nature, nor was there an enticing structure like the Great Fireball. Chakra was like a thin film clinging to the air, gently pressing against the water's surface. The challenge was not complexity, but stability.

Stability looked like the least exciting thing, yet it was the hardest thing to fake.

Mione had the children begin their attempts.

The older children could bring their chakra close to the water's surface. The younger ones only needed to gather chakra in their palms; they were not required to make the water react. Uchiha Che was assigned to the younger group. Although a bowl sat before him, Mione specifically reminded him, "You will only practice holding it in your palm. Don't touch the water."

"Sensei, do I look like I'd boil the water?"

"You look like you'd ask whether you could touch the water."

"...Accurate assessment."

Kiyo snorted with laughter, and some of his tension eased.

The practice began.

Uchiha Che placed the wooden token Nao had given him beside his knees, with the word "Stop" facing upward. He first asked himself three questions.

Why was he practicing? Stability, not techniques.

Where should he stop? The moment his palm warmed for three breaths, or the water reacted, stop immediately.

How would he cover it up if something went wrong? Say his shoulder injury had flared up, lower his hand, and call for Mione-sensei.

Only after thinking it through did he hold his hand near the bowl, without placing it above the water.

Chakra rose from his abdomen and traveled along his arm to his palm. The warmth flowed more smoothly than before, but it also wanted more strongly to spill outward. He restrained it, keeping it from producing any obvious fluctuations, allowing only that warmth to stop beneath his skin.

One breath.

Two breaths.

The third breath had barely arrived when he stopped.

The water did not move.

Good.

Not moving was the most satisfactory result.

Beside him, Kiyo was sweating profusely as he tried. His chakra flickered in and out. His palm was hot one moment and cold the next, yet the water did not react at all. His face turned red with anxiety.

"Che, do I not have chakra?"

"You were still coughing yesterday. It just doesn't feel like working today."

Kiyo frowned. "Chakra has to work too?"

"It does. It might just hate morning shifts."

Kiyo seemed comforted by that and closed his eyes again.

On the other side, Saori's water suddenly stirred.

A tiny ring of ripples spread from the side of the bowl. She froze too, then immediately pulled back her hand. Her stuffed doll nearly slipped from her knees.

Mione walked over.

"Try again."

Saori pressed her lips together and held her hand above the bowl again. This time, there was no reaction. Her expression dimmed slightly.

Mione said, "That first time wasn't a mistake. Pulling your hand back wasn't a mistake either. Remember how it happened. Don't rush to repeat it."

Saori nodded.

Uchiha Che watched her.

Saori's chakra was fine, but concentrated. She was not the explosive type. She was more like someone who could twist her attention into a single thread. That kind of temperament suited control training, and it would also suit certain delicate ninjutsu in the future.

He kept that assessment to himself and said nothing.

During the second round of practice, Mione had the children write down how they felt.

Uchiha Che wrote:

"Palm warm, stopped after three breaths."

"Water didn't move."

"Good thing."

When Mione came over and saw the last two words, her brow twitched.

"Why is the water not moving a good thing?"

Che looked up. "Because you said I wasn't allowed to touch the water."

"And?"

"So if the water didn't move, it means I listened."

Mione looked at him, then nodded after a moment. "That explanation is reasonable this time."

After she walked away, Kiyo leaned over to look at his paper.

"You wrote 'good thing.'"

"Yeah."

"Can I write 'bad thing'?"

"What bad thing happened to you?"

"My chakra hates morning shifts."

Uchiha Che held it in, but failed to stop himself from laughing.

Kiyo seriously wrote on his paper:

"Chakra hates morning shifts."

When Mione returned to inspect their work and saw that sentence, she fell silent for a long time.

"Uchiha Kiyo."

"Here!"

"Who taught you that sentence?"

Kiyo pointed at Che.

Uchiha Che looked up at the ceiling.

The old warehouse had no sky.

Mione looked at him. "Uchiha Che."

"Here."

"After class, write 'Chakra is not a person and does not go to work' five times."

"Sensei, I think that point is very clear."

"Ten times."

"I suddenly think five times is great."

The children laughed. Even Saori lowered her head and curved her lips slightly. Mione did not stop the laughter. Only after it died down did she continue explaining the key points of control.

Once the laughter passed, the atmosphere in the warehouse became much lighter. The children no longer treated chakra as a task they had to succeed at immediately. Instead, it became something unruly inside their bodies that they were gradually getting to know.

During the third round, Kiyo finally felt his palm grow warm for a moment. He got so excited that he nearly jumped up, and that little bit of warmth immediately scattered.

"It ran away!"

Uchiha Che said, "That means it got off work."

Mione's gaze swept over him.

Che immediately added, "I mean, it dispersed for the moment."

Mione looked away.

Saori made ripples appear on the water for the second time. They were steadier than before, though still brief. She did not show her happiness too openly. She merely lowered her head and wrote two words on her paper: "Moved again."

By the time Uchiha Che completed the third round, the chakra in his palm could remain stable for three and a half breaths.

Better than the past few days.

But he only wrote three breaths in his notes.

It was not to deceive himself. It was to make the progress on paper look slower. He kept his real progress in his heart, while the progress he showed others went on paper. The two could not differ too greatly, or they would fail to match up later; but they could not be exactly the same either, or all his hidden cards would be on the page.

This was the second layer of hiding his abilities that he was learning.

It was not enough to hide it in his actions.

He had to hide it in his records too.

After class, he really did copy "Chakra is not a person and does not go to work" five times. Mione glanced at it and did not increase the punishment.

Kiyo looked deeply guilty beside him. "Sorry."

Che folded the paper. "It's fine. That sentence is pretty educational."

Saori said, "I'll remember it too."

"Will you remember that chakra doesn't work, or that you shouldn't teach Kiyo random things?"

"Both."

Uchiha Che nodded. "Very good. Today's knowledge spread successfully."

After returning to his room, he wrote his true training impressions on another small sheet of paper and tucked it beneath the bottom of his wooden box.

"Palm stable for three and a half breaths."

"Water did not move."

"Body wanted to continue, but could stop."

"Saori has fine control. Kiyo's sensing is slow, but his emotions affect him greatly."

After writing the last sentence, he stopped.

When had he started recording other people?

It was not a bad thing. Observing companions was also a basic ninja skill. But Che did not want to turn Kiyo and Saori into cold, impersonal entries. So he added two more lines.

"Kiyo needs encouragement. Don't scare him."

"Saori looks calm, but she cares deeply about her stuffed doll and about succeeding."

That was better.

Records were not meant to control others.

At least for now, he hoped they were not.

That evening, Nao saw the line he had copied—"Chakra is not a person and does not go to work"—and was silent even longer than Mione had been.

"What is this now?"

"Homework."

"What did you say in class this time?"

"I helped Kiyo understand chakra."

"By using work?"

"It worked pretty well."

Nao pressed a hand to her forehead. "If you become a teacher someday, your students will be hard to manage."

"Or maybe they'll be very happy."

"Don't torment students yet. Learn to manage yourself first."

Che put away the paper and smiled.

That night, he placed Nao's wooden tag beside his pillow.

Today, the word "stop" had not reminded him to stop training, but to stop turning everything into calculations. Kiyo was not data, and neither was Saori. Itachi was not merely the future clan exterminator, Nao was not simply a guardian, Mine was not a teaching tool, and Jian was not a training resource.

They were all living people.

Living people would remind him, misunderstand him, see through him—and laugh because of a line like "Chakra hates the morning shift."

Uchiha Che closed his eyes, feeling that this day had become a little lighter than he had imagined.

Not because there was less danger.

But because amid the danger, he had found a voice that let him catch his breath.