Cid lazily watched as Naruto huffed, trying to concentrate on his energy, or chakra.
Yes, after their talks with Hiruzen, aka Hokage (that's a title, by the way), Cid got access to some juicy stuff, namely, the repository of information, library. Of course, they did not give him anything secret, but even what was available to the public was enough for his brains to start working.
Chakra. The inner energy of people in this world. A combination of their physical and spiritual energies, mixed into one that allowed them to surpass limits of human body and even wield the elements at their will… granted, that they have affinity with them.
It was both similar and different from magic. Magic, as he knew it, was still the mysterious energy that was contained in body and soul, and the more you advanced in magic wielding, the more it transferred to the soul. It could be used to create artifacts, harden materials, and even enhance your body. However, it's primary use was in bending the laws of the world to your will.
In comparison, the major chakra advantage was in enhancing your body. Yes, just like magic, it was quite versatile, and there were many various techniques that used chakra in non-conventional ways, but otherwise, chakra was still the energy of the body. Moreover, if magic runs out, then a person is simply left without magic; they can still fight physically. However, if you run out of chakra, you are dead. Really. Chakra replaced your lifeforce, or rather, it was lifeforce, just combined with spiritual energy.
Cid almost had a headache thinking about that… kidding, of course, but it was still quite interesting to think about. Apparently, people here decided to separate all ways of using chakra into categories (which Cid fully approved!): ninjutsu, which utilized chakra into wielding elements and doing various techniques (somewhat close to how he does it, but using some kind of seal system); genjutsu, which focused on making opponents see illusions by messing with their chakra (scary stuff); fuinjutsu, basically runecrafting of this world (he can't wait to dive into it); and taijutsu, style that is the least reliant on chakra as it focuses on physical combat.
There were, of course, other ways to use chakra, like medical jutsu which, as expected, used chakra to heal injuries, but otherwise everything would fall down into these four categories. Now Cid was all ready to immerse himself into the new world, and there was only one thing stopping him from that. Namely, lack of chakra system.
You see, chakra had yet another important distinction from magic — chakra system. Remember when he said about all these interesting channels that reminded him about his own attempts to smelt a pathway for Shadow Mana (and Core). Magic users of his world had channels, too, but his became redundant once he created Soul Space, as all his magic completely went into his Magic Layer over time. However, magic system and chakra system, despite looking similar at a first glance, were completely different upon further inspection.
Magic channels encompassed the whole body in a somewhat random pattern. They allowed to add and release your magic energy from any part of your body, granted you had enough control. Moreover, they could move and even remake themselves depending on how their user used magic.
In comparison, chakra system was fixed in place, in a pattern not different from circulatory system, and had some kind of gates called 'tenketsu' through which the chakra could be released. If they are unable to let chakra through, you can't release it, therefore you are unable to use about 90% of stuff that should be possible with it. Chakra also had some kind of a… core? If he can say that? Yeah, core which was located near solar plexus, similar to his own Shadow Core before it went into, heh, shadows. Magic system did not have one and stored the energy in the body as a whole.
This also made a difference in output of energy: you had to 'expel' the chakra out of your channels in order for it to take effect in whatever way you used, which forced you to learn to control it; magic started working the moment you make the energy output.
In short, while chakra was way harder to control, people here have grown accustomed to that restriction and started making roundabout ways in order to use it; magic was way more versatile if you can actually control it properly, but could be controlled to some extent even by complete beginners, resulting in most people not even bothering to learn properly, which forced an age of stagnation in the world he reincarnated into.
Another interesting topic was Magic Overload: there was nothing similar to that, or, at least, not that public knew about it… But judging by first glance, it was simply not possible. Chakra merged with people's lifeforce too tightly, and if chakra's amount started growing all of sudden, it was only for the betterment of the user… Well, if you don't count the fact that they need to re-learn how to control their newfound powers.
"Uhh, I can't make it!"
Oh, someone snapped.
"Can't make what?" he removed his sunglasses and slowly raised over his lounge chair… because every self-respecting enigmatic sensei makes it look like they enjoy the scenery while their students suffer, trying to finish the training.
"I just can't make this cha-ku-ra move the way I want! It's too hard!" kid whined.
"Do you remember how I controlled your chakra?" Cid asked calmly.
"Yeah, but each time I try to do it, it fails! Like something interrupts it!"
"Interrupts, you say…?" now that he thinks of it, there was also some peculiarity about that thing in kid's stomach… "Try to do it again, I will watch closely."
Kid mumbled something, but complied. Cid watched in interest as the chakra inside Naruto's body started moving, but before it even could go out of tenketsu, the anomaly on the stomach interrupted it with sudden release of… another chakra? But somehow… darker?
"Again!"
"Yes, I have seen that…" how interesting…
Clearly, there was something inside that anomaly…
"And do it yet again, I shall try something."
"Uh, sure?…"
Another attempt, and this time Cid manages to interfere right before the foreign chakra could enter kid's system. He caught the sample of it and barred the rest from entering.
"It worked!"
"Indeed, it did," Cid muttered, looking at the sample with a grin, "It did."
Naruto livened up and started doing training with twice the vigor. And whether it was placebo or were Cid's actions enough to somewhat scare the foreign chakra away, but this time kid could actually succeed in his attempts. Not every time, barely one out of three, but even that was enough for him to feel happy. And Cid felt happy, too.
Come to think of it, at the last moment he managed to take a glance and notice something like rune when anomaly emerged… Is this the mythical fuinjutsu? If so, Cid has large plans for it…
Naruto woke up yet again. He ate the delicious steak (two, actually!) mixed with veggies (bleh!) and drank the nice cold tea!
It was the second week since dad (?) came back from his mission and started training him seriously. At the second day Shadow, as he introduced himself, met with old man Hokage, and it seems like they were friends! Because almost every day old man has come to visit them and talk about something… Though it was hard for Naruto to understand, but sometimes it was related to his training!
Speaking about training, he can now use chakra! As old man said, using chakra was something important in becoming shinobi and especially Hokage, as chakra allows you to do cool techniques like disappearing in cloud or running really fast or breathing fire! He couldn't use it con-sis-tent-ly, though… Sometimes something just interrupts him, but dad (?) just says that it was some kind of anomaly that needed a proper check-up and buried himself in mountains of scrolls. Naruto couldn't understand a single word out of it, but dad (?) wanted to help him, so Naruto tried to do what he can!
Sometimes Shadow muttered about something like 'stage' and 'roleplay'. Naruto couldn't quite understand it, but from the likes of it it was very important! He even came up to ask about that and got an answer! It was a bit complicated, but what struck him the most was: "Remember; how you do first impression is important. If you manage to struck the public with your mere appearance, then they would accept you with open arms".
Naruto then came up to old man to ask about it, and after a minute of blinking (Naruto really thought it was something bad) Hokage confirmed that being able to hold a stage was, indeed, one of the crucial parts of becoming recognized and respected. He then pressed that if Naruto really wants to learn about it more, then it would be good if he paid attention to Hokage's speech when it was the time of Shinobi Academy enrollment… to which Naruto was accepted beforehand, by the way.
Old man clarified that considering Naruto already surpassed the initial requirements for the academy (at this moment kid puffed out his chest in pride, to Hiruzen's hidden smile), it would be wiser to just accept him on the basis that he can control chakra, albeit not quite at the level of being able to come out as genin… Genin was the first rank shinobi gets after finishing their study, by the way! After that come chuunin, jonin, and then… Uh, he forgot. Old man said it's important for Hokage to know their people, though, so he will definitely remember it!
Dad (?), on the other hand, was seemingly busy with his research on how to fix Naruto's control problems… from his simplified explanation, it seemed like something was actually interfering with his chakra and it was not an imagination, but for that he will need to study fuinjutsu for a bit… by the way, that was one of the ways shinobi can use their chakra! Others were ninjutsu, genjutsu, and taijutsu!… Though old man said that there were other ways, but overall the most used were ones that dad (?) mentioned.
Oh, they also now slept in a good house! Shadow made it using his own abilities to control the energy in things, and even said that if Naruto trains enough, he can at some point do the same! But that's a lot of training…
Oh, and people in the village don't try to beat him anymore! They still look at him with hate, though, but Naruto kinda didn't mind. He had old man and dad, after all!
It was the third week, and Cid has finally cracked the code on how to replicate the chakra system in his body. Turned out, the chakra was kinda unnatural in some way, as in it was merged with usual lifeforce… he already said that, right? But there were traces of something interesting in the chakra, couldn't quite figure out what it was as of yet, but it was… interesting. He also came to a conclusion that chakra somewhat differs depending on person's genetics. How did he know that? Well, he saw some strange guys with eyes that did not have pupils, and their chakra was… way different compared to usual. As it turned out, there was a whole clan of these people that had pupil-less eyes, and they had some kind of… x-ray vision? Or something? Something close to his magic vision, but kinda crippled. Overall interesting, though.
As Cid ran through the village, he found even more interesting cases: like, how about another clan with darker chakra that, too, had some kind of special eyes? Or a clan that could pack bond with dogs and raise them as warriors? Or clan that… used insects and hosted them in their bodies?…
In short, it heavily depended on genetics. That's why Cid decided to do the most wild stuff he could think of: use the left-over magical channels that were now unneeded since his soul used magic way better and in more natural way. He would try to grow them into a proper chakra system, so his body would not be left out. Of course, he will also try to integrate chakra into his soul, but considering that chakra is combination of physical and spiritual energy, it would probably not work out without body, anyway.
He also took some samples from other people, but overall he concluded that his body was way superior to whatever these people had, and the only interesting part were the super eyes.
Alright, he has prepared the stage and the rune circles (thanks to Hams and Todd), time to do yet another power up operation! It worked last time with Soul, right? And back then his methods were still in infancy stages, basically a coinflip! Now he is prepared! Chakra system, it's time!
Tomorrow I will go to hospital to do a check-up. If all goes well, then I will probably return the same day. If it turns out that what I am checking out is not well, then I will probably lie there for some time, without access to my PC, and I am not accustomed to writing from phone, so… yeah, you get it.
Just being transparent here, that's all.