Mukai's understanding of Chakra came mostly from his own experience.
He dispersed the wind and lightning whirlwind, which was filled with violent, destructive power,
and steadied his breathing before testing his idea.
Mukai first concentrated the power to control wind in his left hand, collecting carbon dioxide from the air he exhaled.
Using the difference in specific gravity and precise wind manipulation,
he quickly used this seemingly useless ability for precise control to form a mass of nearly pure carbon dioxide in his hand.
Next, Mukai used Chakra to compress and manipulate the carbon dioxide,
forming a special gas tube that was thin at the edges and contained highly compressed carbon dioxide at its center.
Outside this tube, a high-speed cyclone of nitrogen spun rapidly around it.
Mukai then drew on a fifth of his Chakra with his right hand, forming an electric arc of twenty thousand volts and three hundred milliamps.
The arc formed at Mukai's fingertips,
and now, like a well-behaved little creature,
he gently placed it inside the special carbon dioxide chamber.
Inside the carbon dioxide chamber, completely enveloped by the gas mirror formed from the swirling nitrogen current,
a violent reaction began as it absorbed the high-energy, lightning-like arc.
The high-voltage arc precisely pierced the carbon dioxide chamber.
The gas absorbed the lightning's energy, exciting the carbon dioxide molecules to a high-energy state and producing a population inversion.
A small number of spontaneously emitted photons bounced back and forth between the air mirrors,
continually triggering other stimulated carbon dioxide molecules to release photons of the same frequency and phase.
The light produced an avalanche effect and was amplified dramatically.
Soon, a powerful 10.6-micrometer infrared laser
shot out through an opening at the end of the mirror facing the enormous rock, forming an invisible, high-energy cutting beam.
Not far away, Shisō watched Mukai disperse the spectacular wind and lightning whirlwind,
then hold a mass of distorted air in his hand, not knowing what he was doing.
Naturally, he didn't go over to ask, nor did he strike the boulder, afraid that the noise might disturb Mukai.
He didn't notice that the boulder sheltering Mukai from the wind and sand had already begun to smoke with a hiss.
Soon, Mukai stopped the electrical discharge.
The smile on his face grew wider.
He had found a thread of a clue to the true nature of Chakra, or rather, the truth of this world.
In his view, the essence of Chakra
should be a tool for making wishes come true,
as well as a vessel for one's fundamental will.
The power it bestowed also seemed to carry a hint of the hopes others had placed in him.
From a metaphysical perspective, Chakra was more like a power of wishes that could bring one's innermost thoughts and desires to fruition.
The increase in the quantity and quality of Chakra he had felt when gathering it,
and those faint threads leading out into the void, were likely a reward for temporarily changing the fates of Sasori and the original owner's family.
The voice that had said thank you in his sea of consciousness seemed to have strengthened his spiritual energy.
It had also made his Chakra extraction more efficient, and the combined effect of spiritual and cellular energy would make him stronger.
This meant that, rather than saying the Sage of Six Paths had bestowed Chakra quantity and Senjutsu Chakra, it was more accurate to say he had merely planted a seed.
And as humanity multiplied and developed, it was more like the gathered mental power of all beings' hopes lending its support.
For some reason, he thought of the copper coin that had been vaporized by an electric arc and fused into his body during the laboratory accident.
One side read "boundless merit," and the other read "divine wishes and immortal affinities"!
So the savior and protagonist halo had been hidden here all along!
Sorry, Naruto, but it looks like I'm going to steal your job as savior.
I don't like the Shinobi World you built, a world where powerful families and clans still stand above everyone else!
And that thread of power flowing in from outside was likely a seed through which this world responded to wishes and guided Chakra into taking tangible form.
Affecting other people's cause and effect ultimately brought about a qualitative change in Chakra.
For Mukai, in the mecha dreams he had cherished since childhood, the things that could hold those dreams back
had always been precise control over experimental results and the support of a tremendous amount of electrical energy.
Wind and lightning natures really were the best aid for a mecha!
So this was the obsession he had carried over from his previous life!
Chakra really was a marvelous thing!
Mukai wiped away the tear at the corner of his eye, shed in longing for his previous life,
then stood up and brushed the sand from his clothes.
He had figured out the principles of Chakra, and he also knew that if he wanted to grow stronger, he would need more than just training.
His future path was therefore very clear.
He would use his knowledge of electricity from his previous life and the help of Chakra to make mecha and other equipment to strengthen himself,
then use that power to influence and change the fates of more people!
That power was what would give him the confidence to face future challenges without fear and become truly strong!
With his thoughts clear, Mukai no longer needed to train here.
He waved goodbye to Shisō at his side:
"Sorry, Uncle Shisō, I got in the way of your Taijutsu training.
I'm done here, so go on practicing!
Until we meet again!"
With that, Mukai used wind to lift his body and leaped lightly down from the platform, leaving.
Shisō watched Mukai's departing figure enviously
until he disappeared from sight, then went over to the boulder Mukai had been facing.
Looking at the circular patch of ground scoured out by the wind and lightning whirlwind, he was just about to marvel at it when a glint on the boulder caught his eye.
Thinking he had seen wrong, Shisō moved closer to the massive stone pillar that blocked the wind and sand.
He examined it carefully and finally noticed something unusual.
On the side of the boulder facing the spot where Mukai had just been sitting,
there was a straight little hole piercing all the way through it!
The edges of the hole were exceptionally smooth, as though everything inside it had been completely vaporized.
The hole was only a few millimeters wide, yet it went all the way from this side of the boulder to the other!
Heavens, what kind of terrifying power was this?
Mount Myōboku, the Great Toad Sage's residence.
Sage Fukasaku had received a summons from the Great Toad Sage,
and hurried over with a basket of insects slung over his arm,
hopping into the hall of prophecy first.
The Great Toad Sage was still snoring as he slept on the stone seat above.
Countless points of light, however, appeared between his curled claws.
Each point of light flickered faintly, as if all sorts of figures were appearing within them.
"Papa, what has the old man seen this time?"
Sage Shima, also carrying a basket, crouched beside a doorpost.
She saw the aged Great Toad Sage's eyelids twitch; his half-open eyes were filled with bewilderment:
"Chakra, it's the voice of Chakra.
Chakra is laughing, and Chakra is crying."
The Great Toad Sage's voice was full of bewilderment.
"This world has changed. The collective wishes of all beings have become one.
Could it... could it be Ōtsutsuki..."
Sage Fukasaku had never seen the Great Toad Sage so bewildered.
He leaped onto the stone seat and gently touched the Great Toad Sage's body with a frog's claw:
"Is it a change brought about by the Child of Prophecy?
Could little Jiraiya have found the Child of Prophecy?"
The Great Toad Sage seemed to have fallen asleep again. After a while, he half-opened his eyes and continued haltingly:
"In my sleep, I saw only fragments. The entire Shinobi World...
The entire Shinobi World was affected.
A red moon, it was a red moon... It was as if Chakra had gained a will of its own.
Even the Ōtsutsuki Clan was no match for that variable.
Tell Jiraiya to beware of insects..."
As he spoke, the Great Toad Sage fell asleep again.
Sage Shima and Sage Fukasaku waited a long time, but heard nothing except snoring.
Utterly baffled, the two looked at the baskets in their hands and spoke in unison:
"Insects? Can insects cause trouble in the Shinobi World?"
Land of Hot Water, hot spring inn
Jiraiya had just finished gathering material and was in high spirits. He was about to take out paper and a pen to continue writing
when, with a puff beside him, a messenger frog appeared in a cloud of smoke.
"Yo! Does Sage Fukasaku have any new information?"
The messenger frog didn't answer. It spat a scroll from its mouth, then turned into smoke and returned to Mount Myōboku.
Jiraiya shook his head, picked up the scroll, and opened it.
There was only one baffling sentence on the scroll:
The Great Toad Sage foretells a great upheaval in the Shinobi World. Beware of insects.