Uzumaki Naruto was busy with his chakra.

It has been two months since he joined the academy, and…

"Who even let demon here?…"

It went bad.

All the time with just dad and old man Hokage made him forget how he was treated in the village… Well, he tried to forget, but memories only got back again.

Apparently, dad also took the role of a teacher… he said something about 'the hidden powerhouse that awaits at the starter location'… Naruto didn't get that one, but dad elaborated it's about the fact that he wouldn't fight all-out until the opponent manages to come to him… He still didn't get it, other than dad would not want to fight if possible. As old man Hokage explained later, it was actually because most shinobi after coming back from big battles only want relaxation and peace.

Anyway, that means that as long as Naruto manages to show his talent he can get into dad's class! Though for some reason he took taijutsu, the punch throwing class… Naruto more liked the cool ninjutsu… Uhh, hard choices…

"…Uzumaki Naruto!"

Naruto blinked, taken out of his thoughts.

In front of him, an older man with a scar on his nose huffed angrily.

"Clearly, you wouldn't tell us for what do you need chakra for?"

"Uh, chakra?…" he blinked again and beamed up, "Oh, chakra is a cool energy that can make you stronger, allows you to run on anything, and also can make cool stuff like breathing fire and making wind!"

"…Well, technically correct, but not fully," teacher's frown softened, "do you want to add anything?"

"Hmm…" Naruto went in thoughts… oh shoot! "Chakra is also required to live! Without chakra you die because it… how was it… lifeforce… spirit…"

"Yes, correct," teacher smiled, "But I prefer that you would actually learn the definition fully."

"Uh, yes, Iruka-sensei…"

"And also don't get astray during your lessons anymore."

"Ugh…"

The academy lessons were over, and Naruto hurried over to his small house (as dad always said, though Naruto didn't believe him; like, this 'small' was bigger than most of those in the village!); some time ago dad taught him a very cool technique! Though he mentioned that this is taijutsu technique, but it was a requirement if Naruto wanted to continue studying as it allowed him to control chakra better… or something like that, he couldn't fully remember.

The technique itself… was weird. It was something called 'Second Stance' (and yes, there was First), and it had to be done in a certain pose with a certain way…

'Make a tension in your limbs; start with shoulders, continue to your elbows and hands, then make a claw with them and tense muscles as much as possible. At the same time, tense up your thighs, then continue down to the feet, as if clawing the ground. If done correctly, you will feel a large flow of energy within yourself trying to exit and not finding a way, until it breaks out in large aura that blows away everything around you…'

Uh, cool?…

Apparently it was important, so Naruto had to take this… strange pose… Uh, lean in a bit, tense your hands and legs? Something like that?…

He honestly feels stupid, but dad wouldn't give out a joke, right? That means Naruto did something wrong… No, wait, like this?…

He moved his hands up and down in frustration, tensing up and relaxing, until he suddenly felt something… Burning in his stomach.

So technique works!

Kyuubi blinked in disbelief.

Apparently, whatever the hell this kid was doing actually allowed his seal to open up a bit whenever he took a certain pose, which in turn allowed Tailed Beast's chakra to freely flow outside. Of course, it was absolutely not enough for Kyuubi to break out, but…

It lay down in a more comfortable position.

Anyway, it doesn't care about it as of now; why would it need to break out so soon? Especially with half of its nature being stolen? Who knows if Fox actually gets killed and merges with another half… That will make a full meal in Shinigami's stomach…

So nope. Not breaking out any time soon.

But giving out a bit of Beast chakra wouldn't hurt… Or maybe would. Kid's chakra system. Or maybe wouldn't. It was very sturdy… Well, they chose Uzumaki as Nine-Tailed's vessels for a reason.

Though…

Fox 'glanced' at the thing that successfully imitated normal clothing.

Yeah, that thing somehow cleaned up Fox's chakra to the point where it could only cause minor discomfort for kid instead of a full-blown invasion of poisonous chakra.

Naruto focused on the feeling of strange chakra.

He actually did it!

Second Stance is real! It was just like it was written (he didn't quite understand it fully though…): after taking a pose you will get a huge flow of chakra inside yourself! However, this chakra would try to break out!

So Naruto had to let it go, right?

He briefly relaxed the claw, and suddenly a gust of red chakra went out of his hand.

At the same time, the burning like that one time he took spoiled milk by mistake and drank it became weaker.

"Hey, Naruto-kun-! Oh, you are trying Second Stance?" Rock Lee suddenly appeared and interrupted him.

"Uh, yeah, but I still don't get it…" Naruto relaxed and allowed the red chakra to leave his body.

"Don't worry, it took me some time too!" Lee smiled widely and showed thumbs up, "You just need to tense yourself a lot, then it works!"

"No, it works, but… wasn't your chakra green?"

"Oh, that's what you mean…" Lee sheepishly scratched his head, "Sensei said all people emit different chakra… or something like that. If yours is red, it's fine."

"Nice!"

That only means that Naruto did everything right!

In the meantime, Rock Lee slowly tensed up, forcing his chakra to move and concentrate. At some point, the strain became unbearable, and Lee relaxed, allowing the chakra to break out around him, creating a small gust of wind. Immediately after that Lee did a spin kick against the dummy, which broke apart as splinters dropped on the ground.

"Phew!" he sighed, washing away the sweat, "Second Stance is so tiring, I can't even do it a second time now!" personally, Naruto never had problems with not having chakra… though dad mentioned something about excessive lifeforce…

He sighed and continued training. Strange poses… Why couldn't dad just show cool ninjutsu?

Meanwhile, Kyuubi looked at strange water with suspicion. Fox suddenly had an epiphany about what it could be, given that after the practice kid's chakra amount increased…

"So it's working," Cid nodded in joy.

Oh, yes, now it's all coming together!

Second Stance got a slight overhaul because Cid just couldn't actually make it its own attack (yet); now instead it was a power-up for a brief period of time. Basically the concentrated chakra heavily hardened the muscles and created a slight aura of power that interfered with energies other than user's… Basically cheat mode for a short time, as it was really taxing; if it was not for Protagonist's privileges, even Naruto would only be able to activate it for a short time of thirty seconds. Lee could only hold it for a second before dropping in exhaustion, but attack was really worth it: it not only broke the dummy apart, but also created a strong shockwave behind it… Well, strong enough to make other dummies fall down, that is. Not that much damage… But Lee also was an eight years old kid (Naruto was close to seven now, by the way; what should he gift him?)! What would happen in two years? Four years? Ten years?!… Well, Cid would long leave by that point probably, but anyway!

It was proven for a fact that Cid did manage to create a foundation of a new cool fighting style! Though Naruto himself was more a fan of Second Stance, while First Stance… Well, he did not need it, basically. It did not do much for him. Lee was the opposite: too low amount of energy to properly use Second Stance, but ideal situation for First with his strange chakra layout and structure that allowed easy access to muscles. You know, that just seems like the start of faction war between members of one style where both sides say that their branch is better because reasons… He's all for it!

Oh, right, what about other five stances (and plus one) he thought about? Well, as it turned out, you need to have to be able to use Elemental Transformation in order to somewhat use it… And yes, fire did, in fact, work. Also, surprisingly, wind. Though still in infancy, Cid managed to create working stances for both of these elements!

Though as of now… Yeah, nothing cool. Just when using Fire, his touches left a burn on whatever he touched, while wind gave him cutting ability… But hey, at least he can now chop his veggies without knife and cook meat without fireplace!

…Yeah, he's still far away from what he pictured: taking a stance and suddenly you are being embraced by flames that threaten to burn everything away, or the wind concentrates around you in tornado, or lightning runs around your body, or… you get it. He was far away from this.

But! He was working on it! And that's what matters.

Now, on juinjutsu topic… It was strange.

Like, it was really strange. It was similar to fuinjutsu, but at the same time different; while everything in fuinjutsu focused on sealing, thus somewhat limiting the freedom in choosing symbols, juinjutsu used all kinds of symbols in order to achieve some effects… And sometimes it didn't even use symbols, opting for drawing random stuff instead. Certified bullshit moment.

Anyway, back to the topic.

Juinjutsu was kinda nasty in a sense that most seals done with it couldn't really be removed without specified way creator lays out. It was also weird that it could even interact with chakra system… In essence, almost all juinjutsu was created to mess with other people's chakra, either via boosting it, sealing it, or making some kind of truth-or-lie detectors… and other stuff. Yeah, as it turned out, it was only runecrafting in name… Really name, if he's being honest. What, does he have to create his own system again?! That's some high-level bullshit.

He and Hams had so many plans for mixing fuinjutsu/juinjutsu and runecrafting… And that's what he gets. Pure disappointment. Eh, it's fine; he would rather much prefer remaking it for his needs, anyway; starting from scratch doesn't seem like a bad idea.

Ninjutsu and genjutsu were, after some consideration, thrown out of the window; genjutsu only worked on people with chakra, because the whole point of genjutsu was to mess with chakra in someone's brain, and other worlds certainly wouldn't have such unique system of power; ninjutsu was something that would be best touched after he is finished with everything else, as it would lay a foundation for his Elemental stuff… And because everything he saw done with chakra didn't compare much to magic, anyway, so he only studied ninjutsu out of pure scientific interest. That's all.

However, now he has come to certain breakthroughs in Soul's study with help of chakra…

Alright, so he has Physical Body. Then comes Lifeforce. Then Astral (or Spiritual) Layer. Then come Emotion and Mind (actually Sentience and Sapience, but he prefers that way) Layers, tied together; on top of them lies Magic Layer.

Chakra uses Lifeforce and Spiritual energy to form, magic is independent. Technically, there should be a lot of other energies that all use other layers, but he has yet to encounter them. He also has a feeling he missed something very important in soul's structure, but no matter how he looked at it, there was simply nothing he could miss… Or maybe he just didn't look deep enough.

That's two energies that require physical body to be used, by the way… Makes you think there's simply no way to split away from it and continue existing… Or is there?

The last one he misses is Core, but you can't see it on yourself because it's literally you. You also can't see it on other people as once it's free of all other layers, it immediately goes on reincarnation without further ado.