In the early morning, two figures met on time at the desert training ground.
Without much talk, Shira and Gaara began their morning training in easy accord. Shira had plenty of training experience from his previous life, and he had designed some basic, safe exercises for Gaara to build his physical fitness and cultivate discipline.
Gaara practiced earnestly, doing his best to copy every movement. Sweat ran down his temples, but he paid it no mind.
It was a silent agreement between them, one of the few bright moments in their bleak childhoods.
When they finished training, Shira glanced at the sky. "I have to go to school."
The light in Gaara's eyes dimmed for a moment, but he nodded.
He knew that place didn't belong to him. He had another teacher-Baki-who taught him not teamwork and mission protocols, but how to control and use the power inside him, along with darker things.
"Tomorrow?" Gaara asked quietly, a trace of anticipation in his voice.
"Same time, same place." Shira gave him a reassuring smile and clapped him hard on the shoulder. "Keep at it."
The two parted outside the training ground. One headed toward the noisy school at the center of the village; the other walked toward that lonely realm, separated from everything else by an invisible barrier.
When Shira entered the Ninja Academy, those familiar gazes, a mixture of rejection and curiosity, focused on him once more.
After what had happened yesterday, the twin labels of "Ninjutsu trash" and "the monster's friend" had spread everywhere. Whispers and undisguised laughter followed him like background noise.
When Temari and Kankuro saw him, they immediately turned away and pretended not to notice, edging closer to their other classmates and making the separation clear through their actions.
Shira remained calm, as though he heard nothing and saw none of the stares. He walked straight to a secluded window seat at the back of the classroom, sat down, and opened the most basic textbook the school had handed out.
The bell rang, and a Chunin teacher walked in and began teaching the most basic ninja course-Chakra theory.
"Chakra is an energy produced by the perfect fusion of the various components of energy controlled by the human body. It is the source of energy used to perform Ninjutsu, Genjutsu, and Taijutsu, or to make threadlike strands to bind opponents or cut through substances also made of Chakra..."
The teacher's voice echoed through the classroom. Most of the children found it tedious and were growing drowsy.
But Shira listened with absolute concentration, every word striking his heart like a heavy hammer.
"Once Chakra has been extracted, Hand Seals are needed to use techniques. The order of the seals and one's proficiency with them are crucial to activating a technique, and the foundation of all this lies in unparalleled precision in Chakra control..."
"The same is true of Genjutsu. It requires Chakra to invade an opponent's cranial nerves with precision and disrupt their five senses, demanding the utmost mastery of Yin Release..."
When the teacher came to Puppet Technique, he made a point of glancing at several children from prominent families in the classroom, Kankuro among them.
"Our Sunagakure's proud Puppet Technique is the ultimate expression of precise Chakra control. Condensing Chakra into Senbon-thin threads that are difficult to see with the naked eye, then controlling multiple puppets at once to perform different actions, is far more difficult than ordinary Ninjutsu."
"Puppet Technique requires years of painstaking effort and the ability to control Chakra as naturally as one moves one's own limbs."
Shira listened quietly. All his vague guesses and impressions were finally being confirmed, systematically and ruthlessly.
Without thinking, he tried to sense and extract the Chakra inside him as the teacher had described. He could feel it-that energy did exist, lying dormant deep within his body.
But when he tried to guide it and concentrate it at his fingertips, everything went wrong.
It felt like trying to thread a needle while wearing a pair of immensely clumsy iron gloves. His Chakra was either as difficult to restrain as a flood bursting through a dam or as still as stagnant water.
Never mind forming it into threads-even getting it to flow along a simple path inside his body was exceptionally difficult and sluggish.
At last, he understood completely.
His "zero talent" didn't mean he had no Chakra. It meant his innate Chakra control was so poor that it was hopeless.
Ninjutsu required precise changes in shape and nature? He couldn't do it.
Genjutsu required the utmost control over Yin Release? He couldn't do it.
Puppet Technique required peak-level fine control? He could forget even thinking about it.
Holy fucking shit, that path had been blocked from the very start. There was no chance of getting lucky. He had previously wanted to seek Chiyo's protection, using a request for Taijutsu instruction as an excuse, but perhaps deep down he had still harbored a sliver of hope for Puppet Technique. Now reality had shattered that too.
A profound sense of helplessness seized him in an instant. In this world where Ninjutsu reigned supreme, he was like a person robbed of hearing who wanted to become a musician, or someone robbed of sight who wanted to become a painter.
The laughter in the classroom seemed to grow louder. Those children who could easily perform the Clone Technique and Substitution Technique took their superiority so completely for granted.
Yet the helplessness lasted only a short while.
In its place came an unprecedented clarity and resolve.
Every hope of getting lucky had been severed. Every path of retreat had vanished.
Only one road remained before him, the one he had chosen from the beginning, though perhaps he had never fully understood just how difficult it would be-the road of pure, ultimate Taijutsu.
Since he couldn't release Chakra outward with enough precision to form techniques, he would put everything into burning it internally!
That was how the Eight Gates Released Formation worked, and his Seven Heavens Breathing Method would surely work the same way!
The academic lessons, Shuriken-throwing class, and tactical analysis class followed. Shira was still the ostracized "trash." But in a corner where no one noticed, the look in his eyes had changed.
He still listened attentively in class, but he no longer paid attention to the Hand Seal techniques and theories of fine Chakra control that he could never master. He began deliberately filtering the information:
Human anatomy? Pay close attention. Understanding muscles, bones, and meridians was crucial to Taijutsu training.
Tactics and strategy? Pay close attention. Since he couldn't overwhelm opponents with raw strength, he had to rely on intelligence and strategy.
Using ninja tools? Pay close attention. Kunai, wire, smoke bombs... These things could be used without Chakra and would be important aids in his future battles.
Geography, pharmacology, and knowledge of poisons? Remember it all. This knowledge was equally crucial to survival and combat in the wild.
His learning goals became exceptionally clear and practical. For the other children, school was the starting point on the road to becoming a ninja. For him, it was a vast repository of information, and he needed to draw from it everything that could nourish his pursuit of Taijutsu.
After school, he headed to the training ground alone once more.
The setting sun stretched his shadow out long, making him look especially lonely.
But he clenched his fists and looked toward the distant dunes, his gaze firm and burning.
He had finally come to fully understand the desperate situation he was in, and had finally made completely clear to himself the only path ahead.
There was no wavering, no hesitation.
There was only the determination to follow this lonely road to its utmost, all the way to the peak.
"Poor control doesn't matter," he murmured, as though speaking to the Chakra inside him. "You don't need to become precise. You just need to become violent."
"Being able to burn you is enough."
When Shira got home after his evening training, he found a pen and began writing in his notebook: "In this world, Chakra is a mixture of physical energy and spiritual energy. Unless they have some extremely rare disease or constitution, everyone possesses Chakra. It is the foundation for using any extraordinary ability."
Shira paused, then continued writing: "My zero talent shouldn't mean that I have 'no Chakra at all.' It should mean that I have an extremely low 'amount' of Chakra. My total mana bar is very short, possibly only at the level of an ordinary person, and it can't sustain even the most basic D-rank Ninjutsu."
He frowned and continued: "My control over Chakra is extremely poor. This is the most crucial limitation on me. I can't manipulate Chakra precisely enough to perform shape transformation and nature transformation."
"That is the fundamental reason I can't use Ninjutsu or Genjutsu. Genjutsu requires extremely fine Chakra control to disrupt the opponent's nervous system, and the same is true of Ninjutsu."
"Even pure Taijutsu requires Chakra. The reason Guy and Lee are stronger than ordinary Taijutsu practitioners is that they don't just use Chakra to release techniques outside their bodies. They use it to strengthen themselves to the utmost-sending an instantaneous burst into their muscles and surging it toward their fists and feet, thereby gaining superhuman strength and speed."
That was the principle behind the Eight Gates Released Formation. The process of opening the gates was the process of removing restrictions and mobilizing Chakra beyond its normal capacity.
"And my Seven Heavens Breathing Method should essentially be the same kind of internal application. It uses a special breathing method to maximize the blood's oxygen-carrying capacity, while Chakra is the 'fuel' that drives the body to achieve this overloaded state. It doesn't release Chakra outside the body, but burns it frenziedly within."
"So I must be able to extract and concentrate Chakra. Otherwise, I won't even be able to become a Taijutsu expert; I'll just be a somewhat stronger ordinary person. My training should include sensing and guiding my own Chakra, learning how to use it for internal strengthening rather than releasing it externally."
"Haaah..."
Under the bright moon hanging high in the sky, Little Shira yawned and fell fast asleep.