The Explosive Nature of Chakra

by falling skywards

Chakra is a deadly tool. Ninja's use it to kill. What would happen if you lost control of your chakra, if it sept out from your body into anything it touched. Could you live like that? Can Naruto?

The Explosive Nature of Chakra.

Chapter 1: A big bang with (slightly) less catastrophic effects.

Author's notes: Welcome. This is my second fiction, and I'll try to make it better than the first. Which I doubt I can do, as my skills at writing leave much to be , this fiction entails Naruto that makes anything he touches explode. Sort of. Wondering about the title? Read Hitch-hikers Guide to the Galaxy.

Beep beep beep.

Naruto moaned.

Beep beep beep.

He hid his head in his arms.

Beep beep beep.

He pulled his head tighter, trying to escape the unstopping noise that was trying to desperately to drag him from his bliss, his time with Sakura: his peaceful sleep.

Beep beep beep.

Why? Why did the world hate him so much? That it would drag him to spite him even when he disappeared as he so desired.

Beep beep beep.

Furrowing his brow, he slowly, tentatively, reached an arm out from within the covers, testing the cold, uncaring and uncomforting outside world with his arm. It hurt, but he could deal with it, at least, for this.

Beep beep beep.

That did it. He ripped a kunai out from his pouch, lying next to the alarm clock and stabbed it! Sticking the onyx throwing knife into it repeatedly, he imagined that he was killing an enemy as a ninja, one who had long since been troubling the entire world with its cruel, sick evil.

Smiling in content, he retracted his arm into the comforting confines of his comfy, crispy cot. With a cute sigh, he began to drift back to sleep and his beloved 'Sakura-chan'.

"Mmm...Sakura-chan...Do you like my ninja skills?"

Beep beep beep.

Naruto screamed, before giving in and getting up.

Naruto looked around his bare apartment from his couch, thinking of how much he could use a good TV. It was mornings like this that he could a TV. More specifically, while the instant ramen completed its being 'instant' and Naruto waited for it.

And waited.

And waited.

And waited.

As his microwave slowly turned, he decided it would be more fun if he ground his eyes along the concrete in an attempt to get chemical acid out of them. So long as he got his ramen in the end. Ah, ramen. At nine years of age, an aspiring ninja, there was nothing he loved more. Besides a good lesson. And Iruka had promised that today would be a good one! Learning something about the ninja 'lifeblood', Naruto thought. And when Iruka promised something good that HE was teaching, and not one of the other teachers, Naruto was almost certain to get something good out of it. He practically survived off the few practical things he learned off of Iruka, such as how to throw and dodge a punch. He had been at the school for a while, and they hadn't really done much cool ninja stuff. And he probably missed out a lot, with all the chores he was sent on. He was sent on quite a few...more than others. Nah, he was probably just complaining too much. They wouldn't pick on him, would they? Kiba would complain if he was sent on so many...hm...

As Naruto mused to himself, he realized that the microwave was done and immediately rushed over to inhale his daily sustenance.

Now with enough energy to last the sprint to Ichiraku's, donned in the traditional Uzumaki-ese orange jumpsuit, Naruto was ready to go.

"The usual six breakfast's please!" pleaded Naruto to the king of his culinary world, old man Teuchi. The man was as though a hero to him, bringing him one of the few things that kept Naruto just on the line of insanity. It wrapped its long, oily noodles around and him and pinned him down with its different toppings. At least, that was one of Naruto's occasional dreams. His mouth watered at the prospect.

Teuchi walked out, carefully balancing three bowls of ramen, closely, gracefully, followed by Ayame his daughter with the other three. The girl smiled, happy to see Naruto-kun again. He had a way of brightening up any day, she thought.

"Here ya' are Naruto! Six bowls of ramen: beef, miso and pork. Happy?"

Psshaw. Was he happy. Was Shino stoic? Did Neji have a stick up his arse? Was Jiraiya negligent of his godfathering duties? The answer to all the above is a clear and definite YES, and the same could be said of Naruto's response.

"Well I'm glad you like it! Always happy to serve my best customer. Tell me what you think of my new heating technique, will 'ya? I learnt it off a customer with no money. It was a good trade I say."

Finished with his fourth bowl, Naruto looked up. Did he just say "technique"? As in ninja technique? Nah, that couldn't be, he wasn't a ninja. Still, better to ask that not.

"Well, the speed was cool but I didn't notice a difference in the flavour. Why, was there meant to be? And what did you mean by technique? Did you mean ninja technique? It would be sooo cool if you meant that! Could you teach me? Huh? Could you? Please oh please!" He continued like that for a while, finally stopping to draw breath.

'That's got to be a world record...'thought Teuchi, marvelling at how much air that little guy could take in.

"Woah, slow down there Naruto. You talk even faster than you eat. Yes, I was hoping the taste wouldn't change, and I'm glad you liked the speed. I don't know if I should teach you the technique...I mean Iruka was in here recently saying how you guys hadn't even started chakra training yet due to how behind you were. Something about the other tea—" catching himself before he could make the student miserable, he tried again "Something about some of the other kids being a bit slow to learn. Too busy focused on that Uchiha kid. Don't get why everyone loves him...I mean he doesn't have anything on his older brother. Now that was a ninja!"

"Dad you're rattling on again! Just tell Naruto if you'll him or not." Ayame was exasperated with her father, and was desperately trying to get him to be cooler. Better for the service, she justified to herself.

"Oh...heh, sorry."

She rolled her eyes and went to serve another early customer that was shooting glares at Naruto, hoping not to have a repeat of her dad throwing a customer out onto the street.

"Well, once you learn to use chakra I promise I'll teach you. I mean I know how much you hate the waiting time for that crappy instant ramen you eat and –"

"IT IS NOT CRAPPY!" Naruto yelled, desperately trying to defend one of his loves with as much fervency as he would use to defend Sakura against, say, Ino.

Teuchi jumped back, shocked at the outburst. "Heh, I know Naruto, I just have a personal vendetta against them. They're constantly trying to buy out my stand, or take business away from me. Apparently, they're globalized."

Satisfied with what he had said, Naruto nodded for him to continue.

"As I was saying before I was so rudely interrupted," he smirked "once you learn to use chakra I'll definitely teach you. You're going to need as much help as possible to succeed at being a ninja and I promise to pitch in."

"Awesome! Thanks heaps old man! But I've got to go to school now, so I'll be back in the afternoon! Thanks for the ramen!" he yelled, throwing some bills back before sprinting to school, very late.

"—and that is the theory behind drawing out your chakra. We are now going to practice drawing out our chakra, and the Hokage himself has decided to come watch. Now kids, show respect to the Hokage. He is the most acknowledged and powerful ninja in the village, one of the best in the five great elemental nations. Who can tell me his nickname?"

Sakura's hand shot up immediately causing Naruto to sigh happily at the beauty with the skinny arm.

Iruka sighed. "Anyone else? No? Okay, Sakura. Go."

"His nickname is 'The Professor because' he has learnt over a thousand jutsu, right?"

Naruto's smile widened to preposterous lengths at hearing her sweet, angelic voice.

"Correct. Good job."

She smirked, but to Naruto it looked like any other smile. Impossibly, his smile went even further.

Iruka opened the door and let the Hokage in, bowing to show the proper respect to his boss, friend, mentor and Hokage.

"Everyone stand for the Hokage! Now bow," they bowed "good. Be seated."

Placing two scrolls on two different stands, one in kanji one in hiragana for the slowest of the class; he sat down and began to call each name out alphabetically.

As expected the males had a fair bit more chakra than the females, a few showing shimmers along their bodies to which the class clapped. Hyuuga Hinata, surprisingly, held a line of chakra along her arms and torso for about twenty seconds, clearly already familiar with this, as well as having a larger reserve than most. A few children used too much chakra and fainted, but were soon revived by Iruka or the Hokage himself, an honour to each.

When Sasuke's name was called out everyone went silent, hopeful to see the class prodigy show them all up once again. The Hokage frowned at this. He had seen how unconfident many of the students had been. This was, probably, due to the Uchiha's prowess and skill always besting them. He would speak to the boy about showing off.

When Sasuke tried, of course, he created a small amount of light off of himself, something almost unheard of in an academy student. But the Hokage was still happy that the boy was advancing.

The class groaned as Naruto's name was called out, expecting yet another annoying prank from the boy.

But he wasn't even thinking about pranks. This was exactly what he needed to do to learn some cool ninja techniques! Like the heating of instant noodles! Naruto's life would be oh so much better were it he could do that. So, as he made his way down, he showed everyone that he had a serious face on, attempting to make them pay attention. They all simply assumed he was putting on a 'poker face' for the coming trick.

He quickly glanced over the scroll that explained to him once again how to do so. And, with a deep breath, he reached inside himself and pulled out just a little bit of chakra like it said to start with. He didn't want to exhaust himself like the others. As far as he could tell, it was around one twentieth of his limit. With his eyes shut, he couldn't see that he began to glow as bright as Sasuke had, and he was far too focused to notice the gasps all round. Slowly, he increased the amount he was pulling out until he was about on fifth of his maximum potential. Suddenly, it jumped away from him! The pool just moved! The scroll had said that some people had a lot less control then others, and he assumed that was what it meant.

Opening his eyes for a moment, he noticed everyone was clapping. He had impressed them!

"Wow. Good job Naruto, now go take your seat." Said Iruka, tapping Naruto on the shoulder.

"But...I'm not done yet! That was nothing!"

The Hokage laughed.

"Naruto that was very impressive. I don't see how you can even be standing. That's more than I. could produce at your age. I'm very impressed."

"But I'm not done! Just watch me, would you?"

Smiling, the Hokage nodded in acceptance. It would do the boy good to know his limitations.

Closing his eyes once more, he immediately found the blue pool of chakra and drew immediately to about three quarters of the pool. Suddenly, there was a huge 'boom' behind him. He immediately spun around to see the desk Iruka had been sitting at through the wall in another classroom.

The entire class was silent, just staring and Naruto and the gaping hole behind him.

"N-Naruto...H-how...?"

"What's the big deal old man? It's not like everyone else can't do that if they use all their chakra. Right?"

"Was that all your chakra?"

"No?"

"No they can't. Hell, I don't think even I can do that without using all my chakra. I mean, if I use a jutsu sure, but from pure chakra? I'm...not sure. What you've done is...impossible. No one can have that much!"

"So I did a good job then?"

"Albeit you broke a wall, but still an excellent job. Congratulations, you're the best at that in Konoha." He turned to Iruka. "We need to speak with Naruto privately. Class dismissed for the day."

Usually the kids would have screamed in delight, but they were still too deep in shock to make noises. They simply shuffled out of their seats and out the door, eyes glazed over.

"So you see Naruto, that's why chakra is so important and what you've done is so...miraculous."

Naruto sat silent for a second, taking in what the two before him had just explained: the nature of charka, all the things it's used for, blood lines, how demons are physical embodiments of it, how it can be used to summon things, why having more is better, although it reduces your control, and so on. He had sat, listening for over half an hour. That was another record set by him.

"Now. I want you to explore your body for all the chakra you can find, alright? Tell me what you discover."

"Sure thing, but, uh, why?"

"Good question! I'm glad you asked. Most people just do as they're told around me. It can lead you to other smaller collections of chakra that you can pool with your main source to form a single, much larger pool, rather than just having wasted chakra."

Somehow understanding, the young Naruto closed his eyes and began his bodily hunt. It was unusual being able to do this, as it required chakra to do discover chakra. It was the reason only a few could be ninja, as if one was not naturally inclined to use it, they could never discover their reserves and have access to them.

Naruto was lucky enough to have lots of chakra, so scanning was easier. His body was nearly pitch black if not illuminated by chakra, although faint lights were directions to find other pools. Within minutes, Naruto found a pool comparable to his own. And soon another. And another. And another!

There were also many small clusters, puddles if you like, that he moved into his main pool. And with each that he found, it became easier. Soon he had found as much as he could. In one last sweep he discovered something...bad. It felt like chakra, but it wasn't moveable. While his chakra total was similar to a pool, this was more akin to an entire lake. It didn't respond to his orders, and it had seemed to make a jump at him before. Luckily, it had been pulled away by some unknown, powerful force. That had really scary! He didn't want to go anywhere near that...angry lake any time soon. Especially when it felt so much like it wanted to kill him. He hadn't read anything about it in the scroll Iruka had shown him, or heard about it from the Hokage. He was probably just a freak. And he had heard that people that were labelled 'freaks' were very rarely let to continue as ninjas. It was probably a bad idea to tell the Hokage now, just as he was finding what he was good at.

Slowly, tentatively, Naruto opened his eyes, shocked at the brightness of the room. Glancing out the window he noticed how dark it had gotten while he had been focusing on himself. The Hokage and Iruka were nowhere to be seen. Had he really been that long? He frowned. It felt like it had been only a few minutes inside of his head. Still if he lost track of time that easily it was probably bad for being a ninja. He did occasionally listen to Iruka in his academy classes, and on one occasion that he had he remembered that Iruka had stated to never lose your head outside of the village. Even inside the village was bad, as there were probably spies in lots of places. He'd have to improve his senses and be more aware of his surroundings. If he was killed while daydreaming he'd be a laughing stock.

Once more glancing around the room, he noticed a note on the table addressed to him. How did he not notice that? It reinforced what he had already thought about being aware. Picking it up, he read the words, the frown on his brow slowly receding.

It read: 'Naruto. Iruka and I have left temporarily as there was business to attend to regarding an interrogation. We were impressed both by your slowly rising levels of chakra, and the amount of effort you put into it. You acted like a ninja should,' Naruto smiled at that. That was one of the highest compliments he could be given, and he received very few. 'So head home for the night. Come by my office before school tomorrow. Oh, and don't forget to ask for your allowance for the week from my secretary. Good night.

Sarutobi

Sandaime of Konohagakure no Sato.'

Nodding, he made his way out the door, asked the secretary – a kind woman – for his allowance, and left towards his favourite place in the world, the ramen stand where Teuchi waited with a cool ninja move to teach him!

"And that, Naruto, is how you perform the warming technique. I know it may seem tricky now, but once you get the hang of it it's actually quite easy!" Exclaimed Teuchi to Naruto, just finished with his promised instruction.

"That doesn't seem...too hard. You think I can do it?"

"I KNOW you can do it!" Shouted Teuchi, fully believing in the boy.

And with that, something in Naruto changed. Someone believed in him, and that was something he wasn't he was used to. In fact, it was something that was so uncommon to him; he couldn't even remember the last time it had happened. And it set something alight inside of him. Something that let him surpass any limit that he previously had, letting him excel exponentially.

In another world, at another time it would let him master a jutsu well above his level. But that's a different world.

As his eyes slowly scoured across the newly written scroll that Teuchi had authored, he memorised the pattern as best he could before putting his hands to the frying pan and emitting his chakra. The effect was instantaneous: the pan caught fire.

Teuchi began to roar with laughter at the kids antics. He has himself had the same effect, but only after a week of practice. The kid was still a lot better than he was.

He let Naruto know that, which made him smile.

"Oh crap...sorry Naruto, son, it's quite late. I'm gonna call it a night and shut down shop, okay? Cool. I'll see you bright and early tomorrow for another lesson!"

Naruto nodded all the while, smiling that the man was so keen to teach him. He made his way out of the ramen stand, smiling as he went.

The old man Teuchi always brightened up his day with the littlest of things, like calling him 'son', something Naruto loved hearing from anyone, whether it be Teuchi or Sarutobi.

Halfway home his stomach began to rumble and he could tell that all that ramen had made him hungry. As soon as he got home he'd use his new technique to make ramen!

What a terrible mistake.

Putting his hands to the cup, he prepared his chakra as close as he could to the way he had before. Hopefully it wouldn't catch fire this time. That could be bad as he had no way of stopping the flames.

'Alright; on three.'

He took a breath.

'One...'

He slowed his chakra flow.

'Two...'

He manipulated the heat around him.

'Three...'

Beep beep beep.

His body jerked at the sound, completely losing control of his chakra and what he was doing.

Halfway through releasing a jutsu, being stopped was a bad thing. One in a million cases had a 'seeping' effect where they could not stop the flow of chakra. They had to have their coils removed if the seep was severe enough.

Naruto lost control and let out far more chakra than he should have. He let out enough to actually notice that he had lost some and, for Naruto, that was saying something.

His apartment exploded in a ball of fire. When the forensic ANBU came to investigate they found a cup of ramen with holes like nobody's business on the chakra plane.

And what of poor Naruto? He was suspended in mid-air in a hospital due to being affected by a serious case of the 'seeping' effect. Why? Because he let out the equivalent of ten exploding tags worth of fire-style chakra to everything he touched.

Ta-da!

I hope you didn't hate it too much.

May or may not continue, depending on reception.