Chương 4: Chakra

As it turned out, Dongye Jirō's little test was utterly pointless. After dinner, Zhen didn't bother wandering aimlessly around the house with the key. Instead, he walked straight into the study and headed for a specific pillar next to the bookshelf. He pulled over a stool, stood on it, and rapped his knuckles against the wood, listening to the change in pitch. After a few rhythmic taps, he pried open a decorative wooden panel, revealing an old-fashioned analog lockbox tucked away in a hollow space.

Using the key, he clicked it open. Inside, nestled among various documents and stacks of Ryo, lay several scrolls. Zhen turned his head to look at his father, who had been trailing behind him the entire time. Jirō looked stunned.

"How did you know it was there? Did you catch me opening it at some point?"

"No, Father. I don't make a habit of spying on people's secrets."

"Then how? I designed this during the initial renovations, before I even married your mother—long before you were even a thought."

"I've spent time observing the layout of this apartment building," Zhen explained calmly.

"The load-bearing pillar between the kitchen and the study is structurally redundant."

"That's it? That's all it took?"

"I visited Uncle Kuroda's general store on the first floor. In the exact same spot in his unit, there is no pillar."

"Ah... hahaha... was the flaw really that obvious? I thought the design was perfect." Jirō rubbed the back of his head sheepishly.

"My sense of achievement... ruined yet again." Zhen: "..."

It wasn't even close to perfect, Zhen thought. A random pillar in the middle of a room is an eyesore. Do you even have a basic grasp of architectural common sense? Jirō reached in and pulled out the smallest scroll.

"This is the one. Put everything back exactly as it was, and let's head to your room."

"Understood, Father." Zhen didn't ask about the other scrolls. He knew those likely contained the accumulated Ninjutsu techniques the Dongye family had gathered over generations. To the Great Clans, these might be scraps, but for a civilian family looking to establish a legacy, they were the most precious of heirlooms. In Konoha, the Hokage's faction naturally suppressed the Great Clans while uplifting civilian shinobi to maintain a balance of power.

Yet, every civilian shinobi secretly dreamed of turning their own family into a prestigious clan. At the end of the day, civilians viewed the Great Clans with a mix of resentment and envy. This was a universal truth, not just in the hidden villages, but in every world. The fact that Jirō didn't take the key back meant that Zhen now had the "clearance" to access the safe. After all, if his parents didn't have another child, he was the sole heir to the Dongye legacy.

Back in the bedroom, Jirō handed the scroll to Zhen.

"Read it through first. Ask me if there's anything you don't understand."

"Yes, Father." Zhen opened the scroll and began to study it with intense focus while Jirō waited patiently. The Chakra Extraction Technique wasn't overly complex; the scroll mostly detailed safety precautions and minor tips for beginners. Thanks to his adult soul and two years of voracious reading, Zhen's comprehension speed was elite. He finished it in minutes.

"Any questions?"

"None."

"Good. Give it a try. Remember what I told you: after every workout, use your mind to sense the subtle changes in your body."

"I remember."

"Don't be impatient. Keep your thoughts focused; do not let them wander. This process takes time—it could be hours, it could be days. I have faith you'll get it eventually." Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings. Zhen recalled the sensations from his daily training. He sat cross-legged on the bed, his hands forming the Ram (Un) seal. Following the scroll's instructions, he closed his eyes and emptied his mind.

He gathered his mental energy, casting aside any worry of failure. A tangible wave of spiritual energy flowed down from his mind, enveloping his entire body, searching for the physical energy stored within his cells. Thanks to a year of meditative practice and the scroll's precise descriptions, Zhen quickly located the "physical spark." He immediately began to draw them together. According to the theory, he had to balance the two.

Energy in the body was invisible and unquantifiable; it could only be felt through intuition. His first attempt at mixing them failed. Zhen remained calm, analyzing the sensation. A muscle near the site of the mixture twitched involuntarily. According to the scroll, this was a sign of excessive physical energy—the balance was off. He increased the spiritual energy slightly. The second attempt failed as well, though the physical reaction was much milder.

He adjusted the spiritual energy once more, adding just a tiny fraction. This time, the two energies felt like a perfect match. They embraced instantly, weaving together into a single, cohesive force. As the mixture stabilized, the new energy—Chakra—began to race through his pathway system, eventually pooling in the spiral network at his lower abdomen. This wasn't the "Dantian" found in Earth's wuxia novels or TCM; the human anatomy in this world was fundamentally different, built around a chakra network.

Jirō, watching his son sit silently on the bed, smiled to himself. This is the most critical first step of being a shinobi. Let's see if you have the patience for it. After a few seconds, he began to quietly back out of the room to give the boy space. But before he reached the door, a voice stopped him.

"Father, I think... I've successfully extracted Chakra." Jirō spun around, his eyes nearly popping out of his head.

"What? Already? Are you certain?"

"I'm certain."

"Don't stop! Keep extracting! The first time is crucial. Continue until you feel the onset of fatigue." Zhen didn't reply. He focused on the rhythm he had just discovered. Waves of physical and spiritual energy collided and fused, sending a steady stream of power into his core. Soon, a faint sense of weariness washed over him. He immediately released the seal, ending the session. According to the theories he'd read, continuing beyond this point wasn't "extraction"—it was "squeezing."

Unless it was a life-or-death battle, it was highly discouraged. Over-squeezing your cells could shorten your lifespan; taken to the extreme, it led to total cellular collapse and instant death. As soon as Zhen finished the seal, Jirō lunged forward, placing a hand on his son's abdomen to sense the boy's chakra with his own. A moment later, he let out a boisterous laugh.

"A successful extraction on the first try, and the volume is impressive! You really are a genius. My son has the makings of a Hokage!"

"I feel like you're jinxing me," Zhen muttered. Jirō, naturally unaware of the "death flag" memes regarding such high praise, immediately denied it.

"How could I be? I'm just telling the truth!" Zhen didn't want his father to keep "planting flags," so he quickly changed the subject.

"Father, how long did it take you on your first try?"

"That... well, that's not important!" A flash of embarrassment crossed Jirō's face before he shouted toward the door, "Hui! Are you finished cleaning up? Bring a piece of Chakra Induction Paper over here!"

"He succeeded already?" Hui walked in, looking equally surprised. She had been hoping to see a rare glimpse of frustration on her son's otherwise stoic, "adult-lite" face. She had envisioned him struggling for three to five days, at which point she would step in with a sage-like "mother knows best" lecture. Her expectations were shattered before they even began. Jirō didn't answer her; he took the slip of paper and handed it to Zhen.

"Channel your chakra into this." Zhen took the paper and injected his newly minted chakra. Almost instantly, the small slip of paper split cleanly down the middle. One half remained in his hand, feeling distinctly damp, while the other half crumbled into tiny, dust-like fragments that fell onto the bedsheets.

"Hui, did you see that? Three innate affinities!"

"Wait... it's a combination of your Wind and Earth, plus my Water? As expected of our child, he took the best of both of us!" Most shinobi were born with only one innate affinity. Making a second affinity "active" usually required years of grueling elemental training. If it were easy, all-affinity shinobi wouldn't be such a rarity. Starting with three affinities meant saving an immense amount of time during his growth phase. Of course, more affinities didn't automatically mean more power.

A shinobi's strength was a cocktail of chakra volume, tactical intelligence, and combat instinct. But having multiple innate attributes gave a ninja more tactical options and made them harder to counter. This was why most single-affinity ninjas eventually spent years developing a second one. Well, except for that one "cheat" who just spams glowing blue marbles.

"Today is a great day! Come on, Hui, let's go have a few drinks to celebrate." Jirō grabbed his wife's hand to lead her out, then paused as he remembered he actually had a son.

"Zhen, you know the follow-up to chakra extraction, right?"

"I know, Father."

"Good! Keep at it! Just remember not to overdo it. Get some rest—a strong, healthy body is the foundation of everything."