Disclaimer: I do not own or claim to own Naruto in any way, shape, or form or am I making, intending to, or attempting to make a profit in any way, shape, or form with all rights and privileges belonging to the official owners of Naruto.

AN: Alright this is the first of, hopefully, a collection of theories, rants, and oneshots based on Naruto. Enjoy and please leave a review.

This is going to be the start of a series of rants, oneshots, and theories on the Naruto world and to start it off I'll begin with Chakra, a theory on how it works and allows Shinobi to do what they do. Now it is common knowledge that the Chakra Pathway System is relatable to the Circulatory System in the fact that it moves Chakra throughout the body, the same way that the Circulatory System moved blood throughout the body. With this basic fact out of the way I'll enter a theory, a theory that shows these two are one and the same, only modified for Shinobi and the World of Naruto. Now pay close attention to what I'm about to say next as it can change the way you view the Naruto World.

This theory stems from an conversation with my brother, based on the character Kakuzu and his ability to use the hearts of Shinobi to use a multitude of techniques with all five Nature Transformations. We talked and he suggested that if Kakuzu simply took the hearts of those with Kekkei Genkai he would be able to access, at the least, six different elements if he has all four hearts and only one of them has a Kekkei Genkai. I agreed with him but told him that Kekkei Genkai would be harder to come by for him as most of them seemed to have been located in the Land of Water and as we all know a Bloodline Purge was executed there, elimination many Kekkei Genkai uses. Now, as we talked I began thinking of something. How precisely did Kakuzu stealing the hearts of his opponents actually give him access to more Nature Transformations? It didn't make much sense at first but then I started thinking, what if the heart was the key to Chakra? This may seem crazy to you but hear me out because it'll all make sense in the end.

So how is the heart of all things the key to the Shinobi world? I bet this a question you may are asking yourself so I'll tell you right now. The heart produces Chakra the same way it produces blood but at a limitless rate, well if all Eight Gates are released then it would. It makes sense as the Eighth Gate, the most powerful of the Eight Gate, is the heart and causes it to pump at maximum capacity for a short duration of time. Going off of my theory then this means that opening the Eighth Gate gives you access to a temporary limitless amount of Chakra as the heart produces Chakra at an increased rate. Now moving onto what the Chakra does is when it becomes pure speculation.

The Chakra, being constantly produced and pumped out by the heart mixes with the blood and just like the oxygen the blood carries, the Chakra enters the muscles and tissues of the body, allowing for the increase in strength of Shinobi as it is absorbed by the body. Now the Eight Gates comes into play as if this is true then the body would only continue to grow in capability, making the Shinobi, in time, an immortal god with extreme strength, stamina, and durability with nothing short of the Gods themselves stopping them. The Eight Gates, particularly the Eighth Gate, works by controlling the flow of Chakra from the heart, keeping it from constantly going out and keeping it at a low rate while the other Seven Gates spread throughout the body will absorb and store excess Chakra, leading to the massive boost in the power when they are unlocked as when the surge of Chakra is first released and reaches the heart, the heart quickly increases its own rate of Chakra production to match the surge and sends it throughout the body, causing the massive increase in power and speed as the Chakra floods the body's muscles and tissues while also destroying them as the Chakra is so sudden the body has little time to increase its durability with it.

Continuing with this theory of Chakra coming from the heart and how the Eight Gates tie into Chakra allows me to head into a more deeper theory, one on the Nature Transformations each Shinobi has. Now, again, this is purely speculative with my own thoughts and my own interpretation of the events of Naruto being the only evidence. Nature Transformations are based in Chakra, which is created from the heart, showing a certain connection between the heart and the available Nature Transformations of a Shinobi. One of the possibly ways this happens is the DNA in the cells of the heart, well, at least the cells responsible for the creation of Chakra from the heart.

The DNA, in theory, would hold a gene from both parents and the dominant genes would prevail with an example being the father having a dominant Water gene and a recessive Fire gene while the mother has a dominant Water gene and a recessive Lightning gene, creating, in all likelihood, either the Shinobi offspring having a strong affinity to Water, a lesser affinity to both Water and one of the two, or one or two of the two recessive genes, a rare thing but still possible. Now if this is true then it makes sense why clans like the Uchiha would have primarily Fire Release users as the Fire gene is dominant as the clan wishes to keep the Sharigan within the clan and thus marries only within the clan.

Now, if this is true, then my next theory will make even more sense. For this one it was the same conversation with my brother but he brought up the Anime-only Shadow of the ANBU Arc where it shows Kakashi's interactions with the Iburi Clan, a clan with the ability to transform themselves into smoke but the ability was imperfect. Now for this theory, only the ability and the fact they are a clan matters in this situation as I have an idea on why the ability would at times activate against the will of the user and cause them to transform into smoke. Now, if I continue on the base of the heart producing Chakra and genes controlling the Nature Transformations available to a Shinobi then this theory makes perfect sense. Now, the way I see it, this clan, in the past, had a godly Fire gene, the gene so strong it rewrote the Chakra of the individual at its most basic level and as the Chakra entered the body from the blood it gradually gave the Shinobi the ability to actually transform their body into fire, those familiar with the anime One Piece would compare this ability to that of a Logia-class Devil Fruit.

Back to the main point of this which isn't One Piece. Now, as the clan wishes for this ability to remain in the clan, they only marry within the clan and overtime this causes the gene to remain powerful enough to rewrite the nature of the Chakra entirely but weaken gradually over time, a problem that happened to royalty as they intermarried and their offspring became prone to birth defects and shorter lifespans. Now as the gene grew weaker and weaker as they clan continued to intermarry, they gradually lost the potency of the gene and therefore the ability to turn into fire so instead of the Chakra allowing it as the potency of the gene faded, it instead changed into the weaker form of smoke.

In short, as the clan continued to intermarry it only grew worse, the gene growing weaker and weaker but still powerful enough to cause a rewrite of the user's Chakra, creating the ability to turn into smoke but lacking the stability needed to maintain the Shinobi's real body as the Chakra began to fight off the gene, slowly shifting back into the regular Fire gene and therefore the clan completely using the ability to turn into smoke.

With all of this evidence, well at least to me it is evidence as to you it can be complete crap, I can finally begin to expand on the concept of Chakra in general and how it can be expelled from the body. To do this, think of the pores along the body and remember that Chakra constantly enters the body, eventually building into an excess of Chakra that can no longer remain internal but cannot yet exit the body so the Chakra finds another way, beginning to fill the pores over time. Now, Chakra, officially, is connected to both the Body and the Mind of the Shinobi, making it that as the user trains both their Body and Mind that their Chakra will grow much faster and larger if only one was trained at a time. This can be seen in an easy example, the Nara Clan. Geniuses that can plan hundreds of steps ahead but with basically average Chakra reserves as the clan is shown to be very lazy, only training the mind will generally doing only the bare minimum of physical training. So, does this make sense? Since the Nara only train their minds extensively, they don't actually have massive Chakra reserves and instead only have far above average intelligence.

Now back to the original theory here, the Shinobi is able to unconsciously and very slightly modify their heartbeat for very, very, very short durations of time and use the slightly higher heartbeat, almost unnoticeable to all but the most sensitive of sensitive equipment, to cause the Chakra built up in the pores to move higher, entering what is the Chakra Pathway System, a system that rests just under the skin and are connected with the pores. With this the Shinobi can then use hand seals to shape the Chakra and then use it as they normally do in the show and manga.

And so, with this piece of the theory, everything ties together, Chakra is created in the heart, fills the body over time, eventually reaches the limit of the Chakra able to be stored to instead enters the pores, the pores are connected to the Chakra Pathway System, a system which lies just under the skin and transport the excess Chakra all throughout the body, the Shinobi then releases it with an unconscious modification to their heartbeat for a single instant to expel the Chakra, something only their bodies can handle multiple times due to Chakra reinforcing and strengthening their body slightly over time, despite the Eight Gates generally storing most Chakra that passes by them. Since this happens for at least several years before they actually use it makes its safe for the heartbeat to change for an instant as it does to help expel the Chakra.

But with all of these factors working together in such a delicate balance, it begs the questions, what would happen if even one of them was removed? What if a mutation took away the storing capabilities for the Eight Gates or the Shinboi had an increased heart rate, a heart rate that causes the Chakra in them to be released faster than it can be safely stored by either the Eight Gates and pores or absorbed by the body? Well in either of these situations one of two things would then happen, A, the Shinobi grows to an incredible level of power and basically godhood or, B, the Shinobi explodes as the buildup of Chakra becomes too much and destroys the Shinobi as the body can no longer the Chakra.

With all of this now out of the way, I can now head to what originally created this theory, Kakuzu and his Kinjutsu known as Earth Grudge Fear. If my theory is correct then the reason he can use the Nature Transformations from the hearts of his victims because that is where Chakra is produced and because of that Kakuzu possesses extreme abilities far beyond what is normal even for Shinobi. One, he effortlessly destroyed the gates to the Fire Temple in moments, Gates said to be heavily sealed and able to at least momentarily withstand a pseudo-Jinchuriki. This can be reasoned as Kakuzu has five hearts supplying his body with Chakra, therefore reinforcing and strengthening it to both take extremely powerful blows while dishing out the same.

So based off of this then the question can be, how did he lose to Kakashi and Team 10? A question that is simple to answer. The Kinjutsu known as Earth Grudge Fear clearly modified his body greatly as it became nearly nothing but threads and hearts in the end, removing many things that this theory is built on. He no longer has muscles and tissues to strengthen, only threads. He no longer has the capability to obtain the truly monstrous power he could potentially wield without a fully organic body, a body that would constantly strengthen itself with the overwhelming amounts of Chakra produced by the five hearts Kakuzu held. If Kakuzu held a organic body instead of nothing but threads, he could have easily withstood the Wind Release: Rasenshuriken Naruto used on him and basically anything else but he didn't, his body was basically just threads, bones, and skin, very few organs and little tissue left for the Chakra to be absorbed by and threads have their limits eventually.

So, what do you think of this theory, any holes you found and want to point out, any additions to what I said or something I might have missed, am I dead wrong and this turned out to be a waste of your time? Or do you have any ideas on future theories or even rants on a specific topic? Leave a review to the story to tell me all of this and more and I'll respond, well if it's a registered account as I really don't respond to guest reviews unless it brings up a very good point or it's a flames because then I have to respond to it and give you my opinion on what I think of it, which can be good or bad.

AN: So, how was it? Leave a review, please, and I'll respond to you personally if you have an account on FF.

Peace.