(Takes place between Perigee 9 and Aphelion 1, but intended to be read after 2.1)

ᓚᘏᗢ ~The First Lesson~ -^^,,––,,~

Kuoh Academy

(Sunday, April 15th)

In the forest behind the building which housed the Occult Research Club, there was a gap in the trees which hadn't existed at the start of the day. This newly-created clearing, with uneven patches of disturbed topsoil scattered throughout the grass and a trio of fully grown, uprooted trees haphazardly piled just past the tree line, was populated by a duo of shorter than average teens.

As absurd as it was, there was a fourth tree— stripped of all its branches and roots— being held above the ground, in the arms of the tiny slip of a girl.

"Set that one down over here, Koneko-chan!" Naruto called from the edge of the artificial clearing, sitting on the ground with his back against an untouched tree. "You won't need to be on your feet for a while once we start, so we'll use the trunk as a bench."

The white haired girl nodded, not that he could see it with her upper body hidden behind her load. She over walked over and set it down on its side where he directed her, taking a seat on the log when she finished. The blond carefully pushed himself up, and gingerly walked over to take a seat next to her with a sigh.

"First thing's first," Naruto started after a moment, "I'm going to start you off with a tiny lesson on the history and folklore of my people, hitting on a couple of things that might help you understand what I want to teach you. Oh yeah-" He flashed a grin Koneko's way. "-I never did actually get around to telling you about the Bijuu, did I?"

She shook her head. "No. We got interrupted by Yuuto-senpai before we got that far," she confirmed, the only thing giving away her interest being a slight shift in her normal tone.

He chuckled. "Luckily for you then, it works out pretty well to start there."

"See, it changed over a thousand years ago, but we didn't always have access to chakra, we were as normal as any other humans. The story goes that one day, the pregnant wife of the emperor ate the fruit of a sacred tree and became immortal, gaining god-like power from it in order to end a war. She then went on to have a son, who she endowed with parts of her power, a power they called Chakra. Everything was fine at first, with her being revered as the goddess that brought peace to the land, but the experience of subduing the enemy nation changed something in her. She became a cold and cruel ruler, using fear to suppress dissent. Over time, she became paranoid of being betrayed and overthrown by her child, and so decided to kill him and steal back the power she gifted him during birth. When her son proved too strong for her to easily defeat in their battle, she unleashed her full power and went on a rampage, absorbing the sacred tree and transforming into a monstrous creature with ten tails, taller than mountains and with the capability to destroy the world."

As Naruto told the tale, Koneko found herself becoming immersed in the story itself, forgetting about the original intent for it to serve as an introduction to chakra theory.

"Unknown to her, She had ironically caused her own downfall in her paranoia. Her son had been seeing her descent into madness and use of intimidation for years, and recognized that he wasn't powerful enough on their own to defeat her if she went too far, so he'd been secretly training in the use of sealing arts long before she finally attacked him. When the time came that she fully transformed into the ten-tailed beast, he was given a perfect opportunity to activate his trump card. Using the technique he created and perfected over the course of years, he sealed her monstrous form inside of himself, since nothing else was strong enough to contain her. Using their combined power, he remade the land after the destruction caused by their battle. The man would go on to be known by our people as the Sage of Six Paths, and went on to teach people how to connect to each other and reach true understanding on a spiritual level, gifting them the ability to use chakra. He had two sons of his own shortly after, who he also bestowed with his powers. These people's descendants would go on to form the current remaining shinobi factions." Naruto paused.

Koneko waited seemingly boredly for him to continue his story, hiding the genuine interest she felt.

"Or that's how the stories go, at least." He chuckled at the tiny furrowing of her eyebrows as he completely ruined her immersion in the tale. "In reality, there are a lot of details that our legends missed or got wrong, but the major events are largely similar to what actually happened."

Naruto paused and took a breath. "Now that the background info is out of the way, we can get into the more relevant parts. Chakra networks and the Bijuu."

Koneko perked up.

"To start with, every living being has a life force that keeps them alive in body and mind. Humans in particular are almost entirely unable to make use of it without proper training and a chakra network, which only exists in descendants of the Sage and his disciples. There are exceptions, but for the most part, humans without chakra networks are unable to manipulate their life force well enough to do anything more complicated than reinforcing their bodies."

Unknown to Koneko, Naruto was completely talking out of his ass just then. As far as he was aware, just about all people in the Elemental Nations had chakra networks at this point, so he was just saying whatever might sound believable in that regard.

"Whenever the Sage passed on his teachings, he connected his life force to his chosen disciples and crafted pathways in their bodies that would assist them with channeling their energies," he continued. "This same technique, what he called Ninshu, is what allowed him to fully connect to and understand people on a deeper level."

Koneko tilted her head in slight confusion. "Isn't that just basic Senjutsu?"

Naruto wiggled his hand in a 50/50 manner. "Sort-of. From what I understand, Ninshu is more like a creed to live by than an actual ability, so it's fair to say that, since they both come from the same principles. But for humans like me, they're two distinct sides of the same coin. For those of us who rely on our networks to manipulate our chakra, Ninshu is something that anyone can learn. In the end, it's all about connecting to and understanding people, so all it really takes is fine control and the willingness to open your very self to others."

He lowered his hand and brought up his other one.

"Senjutsu on the other hand, is extremely dangerous to us as I said yesterday, and requires a completely different skill set. Because most of our chakra is concentrated in our networks and constantly flowing through them, feeling and taking in natural energy is extremely difficult to begin with, requiring us to remain completely still so that it can even enter our bodies in the first place. Then once you get the feel of it and begin taking it in to mix with your chakra, you have to constantly balance it evenly with your physical and mental energies. Gather too little, and it's squeezed right out of you." He mimed clenching his palms together as he said that.

"Gather too much, though… Well, let's just say that there are plenty of reminders why that's a bad idea still there on the mountain where I learned it." Naruto's face became serious. "I don't know what risks there are with the style of Senjutsu that species like yours use, but seriously, please try not to practice it without supervision. It would not be difficult to accidentally kill yourself with my style."

"Understood." She nodded equally seriously. "That's actually a relief," she admitted a moment later. "A Youkai messing up with Senjutsu risks absorbing too much of the world's negativity and going berserk. I want to learn so I can protect my friends, so I'd rather my own mistake kill me than hurt them."

"If we ignore the part where that's a terrible mindset for you to have because your friends will be more hurt by your death than any amount of physical pain-" Koneko averted her eyes at his pointed stare and statement, "-that actually reminds me of a guy I met briefly, Judo or whatever his name was. He was a member of my friends team, and had a unique trait that allowed him to transform parts of his body at will using a bastardized form of Senjutsu, but the more he transformed the more crazy he got." He shook his head. "Anyway, getting off topic. The Bijuu."

Koneko perked up, interest piqued.

"The sage didn't just give chakra networks to a bunch of humans, he also separated the chakra from the body of the ten-tailed beast within him near the end of his life, splitting it into nine different pieces, and gave them lives and forms of their own, each with a different number of tails." Naruto frowned. "He originally meant for them to grow alongside humanity and act as protectors and guardian spirits, but that was forgotten with the passing of generations, and people's fear and greed made them begin to see the nine as potential weapons and mindless beasts of destruction."

Naruto sighed, crossing his arms. "This, obviously, made them come to distrust and dislike humans, which only ended up furthering this fear of them. Certain events came to a head last year and we're back on generally good terms thanks to a few people coming to understandings with them, like me and Kurama, the Kyuubi, but that's veering into off-topic territory." His hand waved as if fanning something away. "The reason I brought up the Bijuu is because their bodies are made entirely out of condensed and solidified chakra. They don't actually need organs to live or manipulate their energy precisely because it's literally as simple to them as breathing. Being immortal masses of chakra without actual living flesh, the way they replenish their energy whenever they use it is through Senjutsu."

"Now," Naruto raised both his hands palm-up in a weighing gesture, lowering his left hand. "Whereas humans have to deal with multiple hurdles and restrictions when it comes to Senjutsu, having to train extremely carefully, hold still while gathering the energy, and must already be exceptionally powerful to begin with," His right hand rose higher, "the Bijuu are the opposite, with Senjutsu coming so naturally to them, that even in the cases where they have 'died' for whatever reason– usually if not always involving sealing techniques– they always reform some time later from nothing, natural energy condensing and being absorbed wherever their spirits drift even without any conscious input from them."

Koneko had been following along with the explanation with interest before, but that last bit of info had her eyes widening as a potential connection crossed her mind.

'Is that what's happening here in Kuoh?' She thought to herself, unsure if she should be feeling relief or panic at the thought. 'A Bijuu is reforming?' She leaned more towards relief, since if it were true, then the being could be reasoned with.

"The point-" Unaware of the sudden shock his new student and friend was going through, Naruto continued. "-is that there is a lot of variation in how different types of beings' process energy."

Koneko gave a nod to show she understood.

"So, given that I have zero familiarity with how Youkai handle chakra, I want you to give me a run down on what you know about that." Naruto lifted a fist. "Things like where it naturally settles within your body, how easy or hard it is to make it flow through you, what it feels like when you use it, basically everything you can tell me about how it interacts with your body." He extended a finger from his hand for each item listed.

"Got it," Koneko nodded again, before closing her eyes in concentration, trying to get a feel for her internal energy. Despite the years of neglecting it, it didn't take more than a few seconds for her to remember the sensation of her life-force responding to her will.

"Take your time. To give you some examples, my people's chakra is normally concentrated around our mid-sections, since that's the area where our bodies generate the most of it. We tend to call that our 'chakra core,' though we do also have eight other points where it concentrates, if to a lesser extent." Naruto explained, ticking down one of his fingers. "Learning how to channel our chakra correctly is difficult at first, because the pathways it flows through– our chakra networks– wind around our bodies and split off into many different interconnected paths that can interfere with each other, but as soon as we finish getting used to the feel of our network and remember where each pathway leads and intersects with others, it becomes something that every decent shinobi finds extremely easy, able to channel specific amounts of their chakra where they want on reflex."

The blond tilted his head in thought.

"For me, I guess I would compare the feeling to how I imagine a building's plumbing works, with all the different pipes and faucets and things that allow the water to easily flow to the correct places in the correct amounts. When I needed a certain amount of chakra in my legs or hands quickly, it felt like pressurized liquid fire, except it didn't burn," Naruto finished.

Unlike his explanation of pathways and multiple concentrated 'cores,' Koneko felt that her chakra settled relatively evenly throughout the entirety of her body, only gradually becoming denser in an even gradient the closer it was to her sternum. She tried moving it around, shifting some from her center to her hands, and noticed immediately the difference in how Naruto described it to how it felt for her. Whereas he described his chakra as feeling essentially like lit kerosene or napalm and being relatively straightforward to channel precisely, for her it felt like dipping her metaphorical hands into a pool of warm water together, and spreading them apart to push waves of the stuff down her arms.

She could tell immediately that she gathered way more than she intended, having accidentally pushed the majority of her chakra from around her chest into her arms.

Despite metaphorically feeling like a liquid, her chakra behaved more like a syrup once it reached where she wanted it to in her physical hands, slowly being pulled back down her arms towards her center. In order to keep it where she wanted it, she had to keep a constant hold on it, making adjustments as small amounts slipped from her control.

She told him as much.

"Hmmm…" Naruto rubbed his chin. "Despite you having an actual physical body, I'm almost tempted to say that's more similar to how the Bijuu work than humans." He shrugged a moment later. "Oh well. I'll just have to come up with some ideas that would work for both, then. For now, grab a leaf from the ground. Any leaf will do."

Koneko nodded, turning her head back and forth while twisting in her seat, trying to find one close enough that she wouldn't have to stand up. Seeing one directly behind her over her shoulder, she leaned back and twisted slightly, her arm reaching behind her to pick it up in a show of good flexibility. Settling back into her seated posture with leaf in hand, she looked at the blonde who was staring blankly at her.

"What now?" She asked with a tilted head.

Naruto blinked, before smirking. "You're going to make it stick to your forehead with chakra."

"..." Koneko's head tilted further.

"..." Naruto continued smirking.

"...How?" She deadpanned.

"Ah," he blinked twice again, "Right, somehow I forgot you wouldn't know about this trick. If you channel a thin layer of chakra over a part of your body, you can make things stick to you. If you get good enough, you can use this ability to walk on walls and ceilings-" He mimed a stick figure walking vertically upwards with his fingers. "-or keep a hold of things that are normally too big to easily pick up without leverage," he explained. "For now, I want you to practice with a leaf on bare skin to get an idea of the concept first, then we can move on to doing it through layers of clothing and with heavier items once you get good. The forehead is the best place to start, because it's the closest surface of your body to your natural core that doesn't require taking your clothes off."

Koneko nodded at the explanation.

"Any questions?"

"Mm." She nodded once. "Any advice other than 'a thin layer of chakra'?"

Naruto shook his head. "A big secondary part of the exercise for you will be getting familiar with how your chakra behaves. When my class learned, we'd already had weeks of experience messing around with our chakra, so I want you to pay attention to your failures, and continue trying new things even after you succeed the first couple of times." He shrugged a moment later. "Well, all that's still true, but there's also the fact that it really is a super simple application of control, which makes it hard to explain in further detail. The more advanced applications have better explanations. In this case though, it really is just all about getting the feel for it."

He smiled apologetically. "Basically, the best I can tell you is that consistency is the key, no matter what you use chakra for. In more meanings than are immediately obvious."

She nodded a third time, and got started.

After a few attempts that only blew the leaf away from her when she clumsily used too much chakra, Koneko started to get the hang of manipulating smaller amounts at a time. Even if she hadn't managed to get the leaf to stick at all yet, it took her no more than a couple minutes of trying to figure out that it was easier to keep a steady and consistent flow of chakra if she first created a looping current of it from her center to wherever she needed it.

By creating a flowing current, she could minutely adjust how much total chakra she brought to bear by widening or tightening the loop, skimming off only what was needed at the very end of it while the rest flowed back to her core to start the cycle again. The only downside was the buildup time required, but Naruto assured her that if she kept up with it, it would eventually become second nature to keep going constantly.

Having figured out one strategy for manipulating her flow of chakra, it was only a matter of time before she figured out the trick behind the leaf exercise.

Fifteen minutes later, and Koneko had been sticking the leaf to her forehead constantly for over five minutes.

"Good job so far," Naruto complimented. "You got that down way faster than everyone else in my class, other than the clan kids. Most of them already knew it since they're parents taught it to them though, so that's not really saying anything against you."

"Thanks." She accepted his praise with a serious face. "What's next?" She asked calmly, reigning in her eagerness to continue.

Naruto held out his open hand, palm up. "Next…" He turned his hand over while curling his fingers into a fist, then a moment later, opened it with his palm facing her. "...is using multiple leaves!" He grinned at her, three fresh maple leaves held between his fingers like shuriken.

She struggled at first when trying to create and maintain two new currents of chakra towards her palms, where the new leaves were, but it didn't take long for her to realize that she could just expand her original flow to fit the shape of her entire body instead, only bringing it to the surface in places where the leaves were.

Naturally, this meant that Naruto wanted to see how far she could push this method of chakra manipulation.

By the time he decided to have her move on to heavier objects such as pebbles, the only visible part of Koneko underneath the leaves were her deadpanning eyes, while Naruto used his phone to take funny "commemorative" pictures of her "accomplishment."

Koneko swore internally she would have her vengeance if he ever showed them to anyone at all. Terrible vengeance.

ᓚᘏᗢ ~,,––,,^^-

A/N: awdasafgd.