Chương 20: Daiken’s TED Talk

I opened my eyes to the familiar ceiling in my flat. I'd drawn the Milky Way galaxy on it as a chakra control exercise, standing on the wall like a bored bat. It wasn't easy, but I managed. A little piece of home at home. I stared at it and muttered, "I guess I'm still here." After stretching my limbs, I headed to the bathroom to freshen up, then went down for my usual morning routine, running wide loops around the neighborhood while doing body exercises and increasing the chakra circulation flow through my body.

With the added exertion, the chakra pushed deeper into the muscles and bones, way beyond the usual surface-level enhancement. The process was brutal but effective. Slowly but surely, I was carving myself into something stronger. As I ran, I noticed people eyeing me with curiosity. A few of them looked like they were trying to memorize my routine, probably thinking of finding a dark corner to rob me later. Joke's on them. I'm likely the poorest kid in the neighborhood. If they mugged me, they'd owe me money.

Back at the flat, I took a quick shower and ate the piece of bread I'd smuggled out of the Academy the day before. Honestly, for a village that sells the services of child soldiers, Konoha's nutrition program was surprisingly decent especially compared to a first world country. I planned to keep using my oversized pockets to smuggle food, especially since most clan kids brought their own fancy meals, leaving more for me. The cafeteria guy even gave me extra portions after seeing my ragged clothes. Bless that man.

I was officially his charity project now. And my cloth smelled like food which is a bonus if you ask me. I walked to the Academy while the village was still stretching awake. Konoha was healing fast. Most of the physical scars from the Nine-Tails attack were gone, replaced with construction and fresh paint. The emotional ones, though? Those still lingered, buried just beneath the surface of every polite smile and tight-lipped conversation. Still, the people pressed on. It was hard not to admire them.

I reached the classroom a little later than usual. As always, I was the last one to arrive, and once again the clan kids looked at me like I'd committed a war crime by not showing up only ten minutes early. I ignored their judging eyes and headed to the back to claim my seat. The Nara girl, unsurprisingly, was already there. Sitting next to me. Again. It was getting hard to tell if she was my classmate or a persistent piece of furniture.

She sat quietly, already organizing her notes for a lesson that hadn't started yet. I glanced at her and finally decided to ask the question that had been on my mind for a while.

"Why do you keep following me?" She froze, clearly caught off guard. Her head lowered slightly, letting her black hair slide in front of her eyes so I couldn't see her expression. Her voice came out soft, almost a whisper.

"You're sma— I mean, not as stupid as the others." If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it. I blinked.

"And how did you come to that genius conclusion?" She didn't raise her head. If anything, her voice got quieter.

"The way you walk. Your body language. The way you look at things. It's purposeful. You're... different." I stared at her for a moment. She had figured that out just by watching me for a few minutes on the first day? She added something even stranger, her tone barely audible.

"Also... your shadow feels comfortable. Bigger than any other shadow I've felt before." I had no idea what the fu*k that meant. What do you even say to that?

"Thanks for noticing my big... shadow?" Before I could ask for clarification, the classroom door creaked open, and Daiken walked in. That was the end of the conversation. Too bad. It was just getting weird. Daiken didn't waste a second.

"Today we're going to talk about chakra and the year's curriculum." His voice hit like a hammer. Calm, slow, and made of gravel. He had the attention of every kid in the room instantly.

"Chakra," he began, "is what makes a shinobi a shinobi. The thing half of you still don't know how to use properly." Straight to the point. I respected that.

"Chakra is made by combining physical energy from your body with mental energy from your mind. That energy can be molded and shaped. It can enhance your body, let you climb trees, walk on water, or if you're good enough... perform jutsu." His eyes swept over the classroom. A few kids were already trying not to nod off. Poor bastards.

"Let me make one thing clear. Chakra is not magic. It's not luck. It's not some mystical force you get to mess with whenever you feel like it. It's your body. It's your will. Mold it wrong, and you hurt yourself. Push it too far, and you burn out. Lose control, and you become a liability." He walked between the desks like a wolf inspecting his pack. When he passed by mine, his eyes paused just a second longer than necessary. Just enough to let me know he felt it. That chakra. Dense and steady.

I saw a flicker of thought behind his eyes. He wasn't sure what to make of me yet.

"You'll all have different chakra natures. Fire, wind, water, earth, lightning. You'll learn yours eventually. But that won't mean a thing if you can't control your chakra first. So, for the rest of the year, that's where we start. Chakra control and its practical applications." My fingers twitched on the desk. I'd already mastered that. I also knew my chakra nature. Lightning. And I still hadn't decided if that was fate being poetic, or fate laughing at me.

Daiken moved to the front and drew a rough diagram of a human body. He sketched chakra pathways branching through it like rivers.

"These," he said, "are your chakra pathways. Think of them like a river system. Block them, and you flood. Force them, and they rupture. Master them, and you shape the current however you want." A few kids raised their hands. Daiken didn't even glance at them.

"You want to be shinobi? Then you'll learn your limits. You'll push them. You'll expand them. But if you do it without control, without caution, then you won't last. Simple as that." He kept going, laying out the curriculum for the rest of the term. meditation, chakra flow, chakra control, tree-walking, water-walking, basic jutsu theory. Stuff I already knew. Stuff I'd already practiced. Well, minus the water walking. I haven't tried that one yet.

So while the others scribbled down every word like gospel, I leaned back and started planning. First, I'd keep using classroom time to refine my chakra circulation. No one here was going to push me further than I could push myself. And second, I'd head to the library the moment class ended and start digging into lightning nature theory. If I was going to push my body forward, then I'd need to figure out the next planned evolution of my chakra circulation. Lightning, here I come.