Refining Chakra

After eating his fill and enjoying a lovely afternoon nap, Shinji felt so good he could punch a cow to death-if there were any cows in the Uchiha Clan Compound.

Today was an important day. His father, the elite jonin Uchiha Yamakaze, who was usually run off his feet, had specially taken a day off. After lunch, he solemnly summoned Shinji to the family's private training room.

This was the first time in his three years of life that Shinji had officially stepped into this place steeped in the feel of a ninja. The room was spacious, with clean tatami mats covering the floor. Several unsharpened practice weapons hung on the walls, and a few wooden training posts stood in a corner. A faint blend of herbs and wood scented the air.

For all that Shinji seemed to have spent the past three years merely running wild around the compound, the hidden support of the system and his dual bloodlines had already raised his physical abilities to an absurd level. As his body naturally grew, the limits on his stats gradually unlocked. Yet every time a limit lifted, his formidable physique, transformed by the [Uchiha Bloodline] and [Uzumaki Bloodline], instantly filled the newly available capacity. As a result, the dozens of free stat points he had earned from quests remained completely unused, quietly gathering dust in his system inventory.

At present, three-year-old Shinji's stats were: reaction 10, chakra 10, thanks to his talents, and strength, agility, and endurance all at 5.

Those mere five points were nothing to scoff at! Based on Shinji's covert observations and estimates, a stat of 5 was roughly the limit for an ordinary three-year-old. A prospective genin fresh out of the Ninja Academy would probably have around 10 points in their strongest core stat. As for an elite jonin? Those monsters' main stats likely approached the hundred-point mark!

Stat growth was by no means a simple linear relationship. A strength stat of 10 wasn't merely twice as strong as 5; the improvement in physical ability was exponential. How many genin could an elite jonin take on? Ten? A hundred? On a real battlefield, with ninjutsu and tactics in play, they could probably kill however many came at them!

Yamakaze's reason for summoning Shinji to the training room was clear-it was time to begin formal ninja training. In a powerful clan like the Uchiha, children generally began learning about chakra and basic training at around three, then entered the Ninja Academy at six for systematic instruction, or simply received their training within the clan. After all, the Uchiha's kekkei genkai and inherited knowledge gave them an enormous advantage over ordinary ninja families.

Shinji understood this perfectly well. It was an Uchiha tradition, and a moment he had long awaited.

"Shinji, I won't waste words. You're a clever boy." Yamakaze was steady by nature and always spoke directly. "I'm sure the books you've read over these past three years have already taught you what chakra is. Now, I'd like to hear your own understanding first."

Shinji straightened his little body and answered with complete seriousness, his childish voice clear and orderly. "Chakra is the core power a ninja produces by combining their own life energy and Mental Energy. It's the internal force that drives all ninjutsu, taijutsu, and genjutsu. By controlling chakra precisely, you can drive your body to perform taijutsu attacks, or construct techniques and apply shape transformation and nature transformation to unleash ninjutsu and genjutsu."

"Very good. Your theoretical foundation is solid." An almost imperceptible flicker of approval crossed Yamakaze's eyes. Even among the genius-filled Uchiha, children who could read and understand these theoretical books at three were exceedingly rare. A child like Shinji, who had practically devoured the family's entire collection of basic texts, was unheard of.

"There isn't really any special trick to unlocking chakra." Yamakaze gestured for his son to sit comfortably. "Just relax, sit down, close your eyes, and calm your mind. Try to sense the two kinds of energy within you—the life energy that comes from every cell in your body, and the Mental Energy that comes from the depths of your consciousness."

I've already tried this in secret countless times, you know! Shinji grumbled inwardly. But every previous attempt had vanished without a ripple, yielding no response at all, even though his panel plainly read "Chakra: 10." He suspected this might be a restriction the system imposed before his formal training began.

Still, since his father had spoken, he obediently sat cross-legged-with such perfect posture that Yamakaze raised an eyebrow-closed his eyes, and worked to clear his thoughts, sinking his awareness into his body.

Huh? Well, what do you know!

This time, it felt completely different!

The moment his mind settled, he clearly "saw" two utterly different forms of energy. One was hot and lively, like surging magma, spread throughout every part of his body: physical energy. The other was cool and ethereal, like distant starlight, gathered mainly in the sea of consciousness behind his brow—inside his head: Mental Energy. Before, an invisible membrane seemed to have separated them. Now, that membrane was gone!

So the system really did unlock it! Shinji understood. With the care of someone handling a precision instrument, he drew a thread from the physical energy spread throughout his body, then guided a wisp of Mental Energy out of the sea of consciousness behind his brow. He tried bringing them together, merging them...

The two energies touched, intertwined, and finally blended perfectly, becoming a new, warm, powerful current of energy-at that instant, chakra was born!

Ding~ Congratulations on successfully refining chakra for the first time, host! Achievement unlocked-[The Ninja Path Begins at Your Feet]! Reward: S-rank talent-the way follows nature!

[The way follows nature (S)]: You possess an innate connection to the underlying principles of chakra, granting you nearly instinctive, supreme control over it. Effects: Greatly reduces the difficulty of learning all ninjutsu, including genjutsu, secret techniques, and more. Your ninjutsu becomes easier to wield, more powerful, and less costly to cast. Also activates the following three passive skills:

- Born with the Dao's bone (A): Break through affinity barriers! You can ignore the limitations of your own chakra affinities to learn and use ninjutsu, genjutsu, and most secret techniques of all basic natures: fire, water, wind, lightning, earth, yin, and yang. Note: Special combined natures such as kekkei genkai, kekkei tōta, and kekkei mōra still require specific conditions.

- Dharma body (A): Your chakra recovery speed is astonishing. Effects: Natural chakra recovery speed +500% outside combat; natural chakra recovery speed +75% during combat.

- Unquenchable wrath (A): Your ninjutsu deals bonus damage against "shell"-type targets! Effect: Any ninjutsu you unleash deals 50% more damage to all forms of protection, including barriers, shields, defensive ninjutsu, protective armor, and equipment!

"Hiss-!!!"

Shinji sucked in a sharp breath, feeling as though his little heart was about to leap out of his throat!

I haven't learned a single ninjutsu yet, and my talents are already overflowing?!

Another S-rank talent! And three A-rank passives to go with it! Daddy System, are you trying to make me invincible right out of the gate? Punch Indra, kick Asura? Take on the Sage of Six Paths head-on?

Calm down! Calm down! He hurried to check the talent descriptions. Fortunately, these talents mainly supported growth and provided utility rather than directly increasing his immediate combat strength. They wouldn't instantly turn him into a monster that could annihilate everything in sight. But in the long run, this combination was downright absurd! Access to ninjutsu of every nature, ultra-fast chakra recovery, bonus damage against defenses... this was practically slapping the perfect artillery mage build-or an Uchiha spell turret?-right in his face!

Ah! Whatever else happens, Shinji thought, inwardly weeping with joy, at least I don't have to worry about becoming a melee Uchiha who just swings a giant sword around! The path of the mighty mage is opening up to me, too!

After successfully refining his first wisp of chakra and claiming his new talents, Shinji's confidence soared. He abandoned his caution and boldly put his newly mastered chakra-refining method into full operation.

From Yamakaze's perspective, his son had only just sat down and closed his eyes for a moment before his body suddenly jolted, and an astonishing surge of energy burst out around him! What had been a faint chakra response erupted like a barrel of gasoline set alight. His chakra reserves skyrocketed at a jaw-dropping rate, breaking through the genin threshold in the blink of an eye-and still climbing!

This is bad! Did he refine too much and lose control of his chakra?! Yamakaze's expression changed sharply, alarm flooding his heart. Losing control immediately after learning to refine chakra was extremely dangerous! Without hesitation, he lunged forward and reached to strike Shinji's back, intending to forcibly interrupt the process.

Yet before his hand could touch Shinji, the violent chakra fluctuations receded like an ebbing tide, vanishing without a trace in an instant. It was as though the terrifying spectacle had been nothing but an illusion.

Shinji's eyes flew open, his big, dark eyes shining with excitement and eagerness. He sprang to his feet, grabbed Yamakaze's trouser leg, and shouted, "Haha! Dad! Got it on the first try! That felt amazing! Quick, quick, quick, teach me a ninjutsu! That Great Fireball Technique! The books said it's essential for us Uchiha!"

Seeing his son lively and full of energy, Yamakaze first breathed a sigh of relief, then found himself torn between annoyance and amusement. He couldn't resist lightly swatting the back of Shinji's head. "Look at you getting carried away! You haven't even learned to crawl, and you already want to fly?"

The corners of his mouth kept threatening to rise, but he forced his face into a stern look of disappointed frustration. "You've only just learned to refine chakra. That's the equivalent of finding the switch that turns on a faucet! You still don't know the first thing about controlling the flow or its direction! And now you want to jump straight to casting ninjutsu? Never mind whether you can successfully form hand seals and guide it-chakra running wild through your pathways would be enough to put you through hell! At best, you'd damage your chakra pathways and spend ten days or half a month in bed. At worst, you'd cripple yourself! Do you think this is a game?"

Shinji rubbed the back of his head and muttered inwardly, With [The way follows nature] and [Resilience], maybe I really don't need to worry about chakra running wild... But he also understood that his father meant well. Building a foundation wasn't something he could rush. Taking things one step at a time was the right path.

Though his son's recklessness had startled Yamakaze, what he felt most was wild joy. That chakra volume and refining speed marked him as a genius among geniuses! He suppressed his excitement; he had clearly come prepared. While he hadn't expected his son to succeed on the first attempt and cause such a commotion, he had originally figured his gifted son would at least find his footing by the end of the afternoon.

He took a specially made sheet of Chakra Paper from inside his clothes and handed it to Shinji. "Focus your mind, get that enormous amount of chakra inside you under control, and channel an extremely tiny thread into this paper. Remember, you must control the amount!" Under normal circumstances, that last warning wouldn't have been necessary for a child who had just learned to refine chakra. After all, what ordinary child started out with genin-level chakra reserves?

Shinji accepted the thin paper and took a deep breath, working to settle the excitement stirred up by his new talents. Carefully controlling the ocean of chakra within him, he separated a strand finer than a hair and slowly fed it into the paper.

To be honest, he was a little nervous. [Born with the Dao's bone] said he could learn every nature. He genuinely feared the paper might go poof and put on a dazzling rainbow display. That would be quite the spectacle-he would probably end up being studied as a monster. Fortunately, his father was testing him alone, so it should be fine.

Of course, he was simply overthinking it.

The edges of the white paper reacted first, developing tiny wrinkles. Then, with a hiss, flames suddenly erupted from its center. They spread rapidly, reducing the entire sheet to ash in the blink of an eye!

The whole process happened extremely quickly, with the wrinkling and burning occurring almost simultaneously. But Yamakaze's elite jonin dynamic vision still caught the slight difference in timing.

"Hmm... first wrinkling, then burning... dual lightning and fire affinities." Yamakaze nodded, unsurprised. Both he and Xing had lightning and fire affinities, the most common pairing in the Uchiha Clan.

"It burned extremely fiercely, and the wrinkles formed very quickly too... it's hard to tell which affinity is stronger." Yamakaze stroked his chin, a little conflicted. Generally, beginners were best off specializing in one nature first, then developing their second after gaining proficiency. Naturally, the best starting choice was whichever nature they had the greatest talent for.

"Judging by the order of the reactions, lightning seems to have appeared a fraction earlier. But in terms of the final intensity, the fire's burning seemed a little more forceful..." Yamakaze frowned. "Never mind. It's too early to draw a conclusion. We don't need to rush into choosing your primary nature. Your first priority right now is still the most basic chakra control training! Learn to crawl before you think about running!"

Looking at his father's stern expression, then sensing the surging chakra within him and his pile of gleaming talents, Shinji could only temporarily suppress his burning desire to learn flashy ninjutsu right away.

"Fine, basic control it is..." he muttered, already looking forward to whatever reward the system's next quest would bring.