Chakra Refinement Technique

More than a month after enrollment, the children of the Hidden Sand Village Ninja Academy finally reached the first true threshold of their ninja careers—the study of the Chakra Refinement Technique.

The atmosphere in the stone-cavern classroom was more solemn than ever. Standing on the podium were not only Chunin Arai, but also two Special Jonin with grave expressions. Their sharp gazes swept over every child below like hawks, and the invisible pressure made even the most mischievous Hushan shrink his neck and dare not act up.

"Today, I will teach you the foundation of everything a ninja does—the Chakra Refinement Technique!" Teacher Arai's voice was exceptionally stern, even carrying a hint of warning. "Listen carefully! Chakra is a form of life energy created through the perfect fusion of mental energy and physical energy! It is not limitless. Excessive refinement will seriously damage your physical foundation and may even endanger your lives!"

He paused, his gaze turning colder. "Therefore, the village has decreed that until you have fully mastered it and can control it freely, no one is permitted to refine chakra privately without the supervision of an instructor or a ninja guardian from your family! Do you understand?! This is not a joke. Violators will be severely punished!"

The classroom was silent. The children only half understood, but they were all intimidated by their teacher's unprecedentedly serious attitude.

Shaye sat quietly in the corner, understanding inwardly. This rule seemed harsh and rigid, but it was actually necessary protection. For children who had only just begun walking the ninja path and possessed extremely weak bodily awareness and control, blindly refining chakra without supervision was no different from playing with fire and getting burned. At the same time, he clearly sensed the gap hidden behind this rule—children with ninja parents could naturally practice more at home under their parents' watch, while children from civilian families could only cling tightly to this limited classroom time. Their starting points were already different.

He could not help thinking of his father, Shaliu. His father had never allowed him to come into contact with anything related to ninjutsu at home, especially chakra refinement. He had once thought his father was simply overprotective, but now he understood that his father knew his physical foundation was too weak. Contacting this kind of energy extraction too early would do him more harm than good.

"Now, everyone, sit cross-legged! Close your eyes and clear your minds!" Another Special Jonin began instructing them. His voice was comparatively gentle as he guided the children into the proper state. "Feel every cell in your bodies. That is where physical energy lies; focus your minds, for that is the power of your thoughts... Try to carefully guide these two forces out, then let them slowly, slowly approach and merge around your abdomen..."

Shaye followed the instructions. To him, "focusing his mind" and "clearing away distractions" were practically instinctive. The immense mental energy carried by his soul from another world, like a silent deep sea, was immediately stirred into motion—solid and pure.

However, when he tried to sense the so-called physical energy, he encountered an enormous obstacle.

This prematurely born body had an incomplete foundation. Its cellular vitality was far below that of ordinary people, like a barren, parched stretch of land. The physical energy that could be squeezed from it was negligible, scattered, and weak. His powerful mental energy was like a surging river, yet there was not enough matching physical energy for it to merge with.

With every attempt to guide it, that faint physical energy seemed about to be scattered and drowned by the overwhelming mental force. It was not because his control was insufficient. On the contrary, his mental control was too strong, making the extreme weakness of his physical energy all the more apparent. The two were severely disproportionate and could not merge stably at all.

Changes gradually began appearing in the classroom.

The sturdy boy named Black Ant was the first to show an extremely faint energy fluctuation around his body. Though rough, it carried a wild vitality. Teacher Arai walked over and sensed it carefully before giving a rare nod. "Not bad. Keep it up."

Soon after, several other children from ninja families, or those with strong physical constitutions, also began sensing energy. Faint, nearly imperceptible fluctuations emanated from their bodies.

Most of the civilian children, including the timid Keli and the stiff Wenshu, still looked completely lost. They furrowed their brows anxiously, trying hard without finding the right approach. The mischievous Hushan had long since lost patience and was secretly peeking around through a slit in his eyes.

Shaye, meanwhile, had fallen into a unique predicament.

Fine beads of sweat appeared on his forehead, and his face was even paler than usual. To outsiders, he looked just like those children unable to sense energy, perhaps even more strained because of his weak body. Only he knew that it was not that he "could not sense it," but that he "could not balance it."

His mental world surged with raging waves, while his body was like a battered little boat, utterly incapable of carrying or responding to that power. Every attempt at fusion was like using a sledgehammer to strike a slender embroidery needle. The only result was for the needle to bend or even snap. Waves of weakness and stabbing pain rose from deep within his body.

Time passed second by second.

Under the individual guidance of the two Special Jonin, more and more children successfully refined their first trace of chakra, excited smiles appearing on their faces.

Shaye was still stuck in place. He could even clearly "look inward" at the unbalanced energy field, but he could not solve the fundamental problem—his body was too weak.

Teacher Arai came to stand before him and sensed him, his brows tightly furrowed. He could not feel the surging mental power within Shaye; he could only sense the lack of physical energy and the extreme difficulty of fusion.

"His physical foundation is too poor!" Arai said bluntly and quietly to the colleague beside him, his tone carrying a trace of helplessness. "At this rate, it will be difficult for him to refine chakra. Forcing it will only hurt him."

Shaye heard those words, but he did not give up. He stopped trying to "merge" them and instead used all of his powerful control to perform an exceptionally delicate task—as if operating under a microscope. From the barren land of his body, he extremely slowly and carefully "drew out" thread by thread of that negligible physical energy. Then, with his mental energy likewise compressed to its limit, he guided it toward contact at an almost motionless pace.

It was painstaking work, demanding an absurdly high degree of control.

As class drew to a close, most of the children had already experienced the sensation of chakra and were excitedly whispering among themselves. Even Keli and Wenshu had barely succeeded once with the teachers' help.

Only Shaye remained, his eyes tightly shut as he struggled alone.

Teacher Arai checked the time, shook his head, and prepared to dismiss the class.

Just then, Shaye's body trembled ever so slightly.

A flow of energy thinner than a strand of hair, so faint it was almost impossible to detect, finally merged with difficulty and only briefly under his incomparably precise control. At his dantian, it formed an extremely weak wisp of energy that seemed as though it might extinguish at any moment.

He had succeeded!

Yet the feeling of success was so faint that even Teacher Arai beside him did not notice it at first. It was only when the other Special Jonin, whose senses were sharper, uttered a surprised "Hm?" and looked carefully at Shaye.

"Arai, wait... this child seems to have... succeeded?"

Teacher Arai froze, then immediately bent down to sense him carefully. After a long while, he finally confirmed it in disbelief. "...He actually did it? It's so weak... but it really is chakra."

He looked at Shaye, his expression complicated. This might have been the weakest chakra and the most difficult refinement process he had ever seen, but it was still a success in the end.

Shaye slowly opened his eyes and let out a long, exhausted breath. There was no color in his small face, as if he had just suffered a serious illness. Yet deep within those black eyes, an almost imperceptible glimmer flashed.

There was only a trace of it, weak enough to be ignored.

But it meant that the door to that world had finally been pried open by him in the clumsiest and most difficult way, leaving an almost invisible crack.

He was the last in the class, and the one who had struggled the hardest.

(End of Chapter)