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You guys are insane. So, over a hundred favs and two hundred follows, just for this? And two communities, to boot? That's crazy, thank you all so much!

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Chapter Three

No Time For Complacency


How to describe connecting to chakra?

Well, usually people would say it was like a warmth in the gut that spread to the whole body. A-a-and technically, it was. But that was considering, well, the lucky/normal scenario. Normally, people accessed their chakra at a tender age, say, anywhere between three and six, if they were born for the career or for any other career in which chakra was an important component. From five to eight, people would learn the basics - reading, writing, math, basic science, agriculture, a weird-ass version of Life Orientation, Calligraphy, and Physical Education. Civilians went on elsewhere, while civilians deemed good enough for a shot at ninja training went on to the Academy. From there, a four-year course on the basics of being a ninja until Graduation, from where one would become a Genin (or fail and, depending on how bad it was, repeat the Final Year or drop out altogether and go full-time civvie, which brought up a lot of questions I couldn't find the answers to). So, y'know, standard stuff. That was how they did it.

For me? It was not very comfortable. Not at all. Pissed me right off, when I thought about it.

See, I was dropped into the body of, what, an eleven-year-old? (Yeah, yeah, eleven-year-old) An eleven year old, with zero warning or proper preparation, somehow severing the Yin-Yang connection in the body that generated the chakra, which resulted in my Gates being closed completely and my chakra effectively sealed completely. That put me in a worse position than even Rock Lee, who at least could express his chakra internally, but only enough to do the basics. Tree walking, water walking (?), and Gate opening. So, to rectify that, an operation had to be done on me to reopen my Chakra gates and allow that shit to flow in my body again.

How was it?

It hurt.

It wasn't too bad at first, uncomfortable really, because the sensation of something twisting and churning in my guts and the rest of my internal organs pressed me something fierce. It was akin to... I wasn't quite sure how to describe it, but perhaps the closest comparison I could make was a slowly onsetting muscle strain, not dissimilar, perhaps, to doing crunches in slow motion and feeling that strain and eventual burn every step of the way. Chakra was like a particularly enjoyable training session - strenuous, nothing particularly relaxing to immerse myself in, yet the endless inner warmth and unshakable confidence it engendered was compellingly powerful, so much so that I felt like, if I could stretch a little more, I could just crack a mountain with one punch. Then after that initial discomfort, it felt good.

Then it hurt.

I opened my eyes - and when had I closed them? - and I took a moment to revel in the power. I couldn't see my chakra; I could feel it. I could see why so many fictional characters were smug bastards. A warmth unlike any other, flowing about my stomach like water -

"Concentrate! Don't stop!" the Hyuuga doctor barked at me, snapping me out of my trance. "The process is not over yet."

"How far?" I asked.

"Not far," she told me bluntly. "Your chakra is still pooled around your stomach. Focus on guiding it to the rest of your body."

I opened my mouth to ask how, but stopped myself in time - that would be awfully fucking suspicious - and settled for a nod.

Guesswork time. Revise what you know and put it to practice.

I had to internalize - for once and again, not emotionally, but literally, physically. I inhaled deeply, exhaled, and inhaled once more, shuddering at the unnatural, powerful sensation in my stomach, absolutely nothing like having a filled meal or a need to take a two, and yet inexplicably normal, with me being the abnormal factor.

Oh, wait...

Anyway, I shut my eyes once more, shut out the world for the power in my body. I focused strictly on my deep breaths and the new power vested in me by simple existence, an easy task given how proprioceptively distinct it was, a new biological capillarity, exactly similar and different to the way a deaf man would experience sound for the first time in his life. It was an odd, unique state of matter, chakra was, and my mental grasp on it felt like cupping water in my hands that was actually also concentrated water vapour. So, I tried to tell myself, take it and move it all over your body.

The act of using my hands to grasp as much of the chakra as I could was the easiest to visualize, hands that did not hold all that power, yet grasped everything all the same. I welled my chakra upwards, shuddering at the almost-hot, slightly ticklish sensation of its upsurge through -

Oh, hold on. Why's it going to the right of my stomach?

I had my answer as soon as I asked, my mind snapping to a memory of the way Kishimoto drew chakra pathways, an anti-clockwise (?) swirl emanating from the stomach that propagated throughout the body in ways not dissimilar to the way blood worked its way through the body via numerous veins, arteries and capillaries; not the cardiovascular system, definitely, but absolutely vital all the same to my new way of life.

My chakra was carving (perhaps re-carving) its pathways, drawn without my remit to follow the spiral and build unto the rest of the body. I let it, following and guiding the flow, my upper body gently swaying in an imitation of that spiral, pushing round and outwards to the rest of my body. I shuddered, feeling an ecstasy so incredible it was almost sexual, as Power flowed throught the rest of my body, the hands splitting, splitting again, and splitting again in ways I understood and simply could not comprehend, guiding the way, reaching the apex of my head, the tips of my fingers, and the tips of my toes - the latter not as difficult as I'd subconsciously expected.

I have chakra. I made it. I have chakra!

"Good! Good!" I heard. "Now flare it outwards!"

I inhaled once more, my hands rising in opposition to my flattening diaphragm, and my arms spread as I pushed out. I gasped as I felt my entire skin crawl, and my eyes opened to see a dim, flaring aura, white enough that I could just make it out in the candlelit room, yet so hazy that it was like vapor.

"Hold it like that!" the Hyuuga told me. "Hold it that way for as long as you can. I'll tell you when to stop."

I didn't acknowledge her but followed her instruction nonetheless, making the effort to maintain my exudation. My eyes widened in shock when my chakra began tapering off - I was faltering.

"No, keep it up! Push it out as hard as you can! Whatever you visualized before, try it again but sustain it!"

I inhaled, then I blinked in realization.

Visualization. That's the key. That has to be it. Visualise exuding power from your body, unlocking it, pushing it out. And what better example to visualise than a Z Warrior?

I disrupted my seiza, perhaps far more than it already was, my knees spreading away, my arms shifting to a tame imitation of a Horse stance. And I pushed, gritting my teeth, tensing every muscle I could.

"Thirty seconds!" she called out. My chakra was much less hazy now, and it was definitely off-white in color, raging wildly with my intent to push to the highest possible level. Huh? Isn't chakra supposed to be blue?

"Twenty!"

It was becoming increasingly harder, like pushing past 50 crunches; I was quite literally shaking with the effort to push my power out. It became harder and harder with each second, a mounting strain that I had to find some energy from somewhere to maintain.

"Ten!"

Naruto... was... fucking... bullshit! I roared, a sustained noise, forcing myself to keep going just a little bit longer. Somehow, it helped, making my efforts more complete.

One... more...

"And stop!"

My chakra flickered off, and I almost fell with it. I felt like I'd completed six more sets of a particularly difficult exercise, somehow pushing through even my exhausted exhaustion.

Man, that -

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA -

I died.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA -

I was fairly certain that I died. Because there was no other explanation for how holy fuck everything was fucking suddenly on fire and the pain was pervading as it was unexpected as it was thorough as it hurt like a motherfucking flash burn in space -

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA -"

I heard noise through the white of my sheer agony. It took me a long time to realize it was me, screaming in agony, and I'd finally fallen on the ground.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA -"

Oh, so I'm alive. That's why it hurts. Well the fucking way it hurts, I'd prefer to die again!

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA -"

I cried. I wouldn't be too proud to admit that pain made tears come straight out them ducts. It felt like something had grabbed me in every possible part of my body and began the methodical, delicate, calculated process of fucking tearing me apart. If this was how every demon felt when the Doom Slayer got his hands on them, it was a fucking wonder that none of them ran away.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA -"

I felt something latch onto my arm through the pain, grip as solid as that of a leech, and I felt myself lurch upwards.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA -"

I heard a voice shouting something about tigers... tigams... tigams? I had no fucking idea, but then I felt a gentle jab on my shoulder, then another, and another set of four on my torso, then another set of eight on different areas of my arms and torso.

And I was reasonably certain I was falling again.

"AAaa-!?"

It stopped. My pain receptors just completely shut down, going from 'HOULY FUCK, ALL THE DEFCON!' to 'oh okay, we're good'. It was frankly shocking, to be honest, like instantaneously effective anesthetic for a man with his body burnt through with unholy fire literally six seconds ago.

Trigrams, I thought with faint realization. Trigrams. She hit me with the Eight Trigrams. Didn't feel like that many palms, I don't think. Sixteen, maybe? Or I just didn't feel the rest?

"What." I vocalized, my voice croaking like I'd been - oh God I had been shouting. "The fuck."

"You just experienced chakra cramps," she explained, setting my legs so I could lie down straight.

Chakra cramps?! Chakra can cramp?! What fucking kind of cramp was that!?

"A common occurrence when one opens their Gates," she explained, while I was taking in that information. "It's why it's so difficult to open them and release your chakra limiters willingly - the agony of having so much power rippling through your entire body at once without any prior adaptation and training is enough to discourage most people from trying it, and pushing past even that will have dire consequences. Muscle tears, severe arterial ruptures, eventually paralysis and death. Do you remember Masato Sakai?"

"Yes? I rem'm'br... you..."

"Mentioned him yesterday, yes. He had an unexpected physical condition that completely prevented him from feeling pain. Such an ability would've made him a wonderful and exceptionally resilient shinobi, and his potential was one, if I remember correctly, that was of great interest to many in the ranks of Konoha. With that advantage in mind, he performed an experiment at some point and pushed to open his Gates, and the backlash, while not fatal, ended his potential career, and for the first time in his life, he truly felt pain, for he'd kept his Gate of Opening open for too long. The sheer, continuous strain ended his life. This was before I became a doctor here, it wouldn't have been too difficult for me to find a way to correct the issue, but it was impossible for everyone else since Sakai would've been a vital part of the closing process, and he could not concentrate. Until a sensory ninja or a Hyuuga joins the ranks, I am the only doctor in this village that can be classified as an expert on Chakra treatment."

"You didn'...t say... it would... hurt. So much."

"I had faith in you to handle the pain. And you have. That you can speak at all is a testament to an impressive will for someone of your age - you have done a fantastic job. Besides, it was necessary that we do it this way. With these seals, we could open most of your Gates as far as possible, even all the way, otherwise this wouldn't work."

"Why all... the way?" I croaked.

"To force your chakra out," she said. "I closed some of your tenketsu to keep your chakra pooled around the gates, so it can build up, maintain the openings and allow you to produce usable chakra, permanently. You'll be able to use Ninjutsu and Genjutsu eventually, and with the right training, your Taijutsu and movement will also sharpen to the standards of any decent Shinobi. Now, this is what will happen from here. You will be taken to our Non-Intensive Care wards, and you will stay here for the night while your body recuperates and re-adapts to your condition; I don't want you to strain yourself too much for the next four days. Do not, under any circumstances, try to access your chakra for the rest of today and for as much of tomorrow as possible - to give your body time to heal and rest. No hand seals. No messing with your chakra. Nothing. Do you understand? If you mess this up, you may well damage your chakra coils and possibly cripple yourself, ending your career as an active ninja."

I nodded as fervently as I could. Definitely, definitely had to avoid that.

"Good. Last question." Her eyes burned into mine. "Please do not attempt to lie to me, I will see if you do. Do you understand?"

...A small spike of horror shot through my body like a 50 Cal. Ah, great. I'm in shit. I'm gonna kill that fucking ROB for this.

"Don't worry, it's nothing too difficult. I'm only checking a theory. Don't worry about it. Here, let me ask now." She drew herself up a little. "Do you know who shut your Gates?"

Fuuuuck. And I couldn't lie or those eyes of hers would catch me out instantly. I doubted I could just twist my words into some convoluted technical un-lie the same way Pinocchio did to Prince Charming on Shrek... was it Shrek 3? Either way. I couldn't lie and I couldn't risk another technicality.

"I'm not entirely sure. Whoever or whatever did it... I didn't detect it until class. Maybe I was taken advantage of while I was sleeping, or maybe some kind of accident happened. I'm really not sure."

She examined me for way too long for my comfort, and ultimately nodded without saying anything. "Come," she said eventually. "Get up."

Oh god fuck I'm fucked.


A bit after settling Minato on his bed and leaving him with some requested reading material, Maki met Hana outside the hospital. Hana leaned against the wall, basking in the warm afternoon sunlight.

"How is he?" she asked.

"He'll pull through. It's a good thing we confronted this so early; otherwise there really would be another Lee. Speaking of which, the results on him should be ready by tomorrow; check with me after you finish your classes."

Hana hummed, somewhat relieved that it worked and that she'd have her answers that soon. "Anything?"

"Hm, he doesn't seem to know any more than we do. I'm not entirely certain that he was entirely truthful, however; I think he has a theory, and beneath all the nervousness... there was some twinge of annoyance. Perhaps humiliation? I'm not sure."

"So, is he..."

"A spy or one of Danzo-sama's?" Maki shook her head. "I doubt it. It would be unusual, even by his standards - we can certainly control our emotions better than the boy could. There's something he's afraid of me finding out, but the likelihood of him being a spy is minimal to nonexistent. I think he was more humiliated and annoyed about the situation than anything, and didn't want me to know of any of his guesses about what happened."

"So, something he did to himself." Hana's voice was flat, unimpressed.

"Could be. I can't quite understand what specific sort of mess-up could possibly cut off his access to chakra so completely without the Eight Trigrams: Complete Palm or a suppressant seal. So we can't discount anything, but we certainly should keep our eye on him."

"Should we have a Yamanaka have a look?"

"Mm, no. He's an Academy student, but at this time he's still technically a civilian. There are laws against that even we must comply with, and this is certainly not an abuse of power we can keep suppressed. We'll just have to go with the old-fashioned methods and give it time. There's plenty of ways."

"Hm." Hana considered the situation. "Too obvious and incompetent to be a spy. Not enough control over his emotions to be a ROOT agent in the field, from your experience. Inexperienced and foolhardy enough that he somehow fucked his Gates and closed them by accident. Not loud enough to be some kind of distraction - there's specifically nothing of value in the Academy, and if he was a potential recruit for ROOT..." Hana glanced at her. "Is he?"

"No. Not quite competent enough, no unique skills, no relation to that Yakushi, from what has been studied of his DNA, no possibility that he may have encountered Nono-san, too young for that, she never made it out of that mission in Ame anyway... don't spread this around, but Danzo-sama hates working with children, unless they have a mindset little Minato doesn't have. Too unpredictable; what may be incredibly effective for one child would break another. He doesn't seem to be in that situational bracket that would make him a perfect potential recruit anyway; nothing stands out about him except those closed Gates."

"Nothing special, then."

"No. Keep an eye on him, all the same, but nothing screams that this has to be kicked higher up the chain."

"Which only means we have to watch him anyway."

Maki shrugged. "Perks of the job."

"Love it." Hana got off the wall. "Fine, I'll head on and collect my material to mark. When should I expect him back in class?"

"Aftermorrow."

"Day of discharge?"

"This time tomorrow."

"Very well. Later, Maki-San."

Maki inclined her head. "Hana-San."

Hana Shunshinned out.


Boredom. Frustrating, frustrating boredom.

I had no way of passing the time other than reading whatever I could get from Hyƫga-San. I couldn't even access my newly found chakra, otherwise I'd put myself in shit. It was so frustrating to have chakra just there and not be able to use it at all; it was a lot like having a Ferrari in the garage, but the wife took the steering wheel away.

It was annoying, unnerving, and most of all, boring.

So I decided to sleep.

That worked. Then it didn't. Then it did. Then it didn't.

(Hospital food sucked here too, by the way.)

One afternoon, after God knows how long, a nurse came to me and told me I was finally getting discharged. I wondered about payment plans; turned out a small part of my stipend went into a setup quite like Britain's NHS, and given that it was my first visit to the hospital in literal years, I didn't have to worry about nothing.

Perfect and convenient.

I went home, and studied. I wanted to bathe in my chakra again, but I decided not to risk it.

Then I went to sleep.


So! Day five.

Hana gave me some personal attention, surprisingly. She watched over me as I brought my chakra out once more, completely without needing to use a Ram seal, or any at all. I wondered if that was unusual, or perhaps I didn't need to focus on bringing it out like Naruto had to at the time. Maybe I was just overly sensitive to having it; it was new to me, and it just really stuck out to my proprioception, like having a knife in the stomach but in a good way.

(Weird, right? Yeah, definitely weird. Oooor... maybe just like having a new sense, or full access to a sense that was completely repressed before. Yeah, actually that described my situation far better.)

(Knife in the stomach but in a good way, WTF? Where'd that come from?)

Chakra was like having a new limb out of absolutely nowhere, one that did not have muscles and therefore wasn't moved conventionally. What I found was that the entire body had to be committed to the act, including the mind. So, I had to visualize how I wanted the chakra to move, then probably commit the appropriate physical movements to facilitate its movement - hand seals.

I hadn't quite tested their effects yet, Hyuuga's words about straining myself too much for the next few days lingering in my mind, but I figured basic chakra exercises wouldn't be too strenuous for me to do. They discharged me, after all, and policy after being let go was to take it easy for the next day or two, do whatever the doc recommended, then get on with life.

Hana made sure I didn't fuck anything up when I brought it up, and she gave me a leaf. I got what she wanted me to do, so I complied.

Leaf Concentration was... easy?

The fuck?

Jeez. No, seriously, it was weirdly easier than I expected. Stick a leaf to my head, bring out chakra to make it stick to my forehead. I did fuck it up at first, channeling too much and blowing the leaf off my head, and I did that a couple more times, but I realized that, just like when I brought it out, I needed to picture and control how much I was using. Kind of like figuring out accelerator pedal control.

And from there, a couple more attempts and I got it down pat. It was stupid easy. It actually had me wondering if it was supposed to be that hard or it was that hard because it was Naruto, who had an outsized amount of chakra and hyper-ADHD, that I was using as a benchmark for how difficult it would be. I had no idea, and I didn't want to ask Hana-Sensei, no cause to make her suspicious.

After moments of thinking about it with a leaf casually sticking on my forehead, I decided to challenge myself. More leaves, I decided, would probably make for a more substantial challenge. I got up to go look for another leaf -

"Ahg, still doing Leaf Concentration?" a nasally voice said from nearby. "That's plain embarrassing."

I repressed the urge to sigh and roll my eyes. Ah yes, the classic schoolyard bully. None of my fucking business -

I blinked in surprise as this guy just popped up in front of me. "Hey, I'm talking to you."

I looked around stupidly, before realizing that no, this random was making eye contact with me. "Wha - me?"

"Yeah, you."

"Who are you?"

He recoiled at that - why? - and he growled at me. "I'm Homura, dammit. Homura! You better remember that."

Okay, but what did that have to do with me? I looked at him, utterly confused, but decided not to say it out loud - I didn't want to be too antagonistic.

I had no idea what he wanted, or why he was talking to me.

"What's with that stupid look on your face?" the boy asked... what was his name, his name...? Oh, Homura! Homura asked. "Did you hear anything I said?"

What the fuck is going on? "I wasn't really paying any attention...?"

"Well, pay attention to this," the boy sn - Homura, Homura, try not to forget his name - Homura sneered. "Doing Leaf Concentration at your age? You're absent, and now this? You're gonna fail this year. This is Year One stuff, too basic. You're falling behind. You're gonna be Dead Last."

An awkward silence enveloped us, but I decided not to let it last. "Can I... go?" I checked, pointing at a tree I intended to get a leaf from.

He glared at me. Oi, what did I do?

"Tch, you'll be dead last this year, Yakushi-teme. You and Rock Lee." He sneered at me and left.

I looked after him, utterly confused. What the hell was any of that?

Was... was he trying the old bully routine with me? Where'd he get the time for that? Why me? Was it the whole of what happened the past couple of days?

...Anyway. I shrugged the whole thing off and went to get a leaf.

It was time to get to work. I wanted to exercise, and I wanted to see if I could train while keeping Leaf Concentration on at the same time.

The world was going to end in seven, eight years, so I had a lot of work to do.

It's gonna be a long year, and I gotta get in gear.


Next one around tomorrow. But before I post it, let me know: should I keep a steady clip, keep the Academy Arc going for like maybe five, six more chapters, or should I just sum it all up in two chapters and move on to the next thing?

Drop a review, let me know what you think.