Chapter 6 – Breakthrough

Yesterday noon, a bank robbery in Metropolis was stopped by the intervention of two superheroes: Superman and the Flash. The robbers had taken hostages but the Flash is not known as the fastest man alive for nothing. Before the robbers had the chance to even blink [...]

The sound of someone changing the TV channel in a frustrated manner was heard and something else was displayed.

The insane psychopath known as "The Joker" broke out of Arkham Asylum yesterday night. According to Jeremiah Arkham, the administrator of the asylum, the Joker had managed to break out with the help of one of the staff members, Dr. Harleen Quinzel. In regards to his subordinate's betrayal, Jeremiah Arkham declared that [...]

Naruto changed the channel again while shaking his head in apathy. That's what he despised the most about superheroes - their stupidity.

'A rabid dog cannot be cured. When you see a rabid dog, you don't catch it and try to make it behave by putting it in a leash. When you see a rabid dog you fucking kill it.'

Naruto's train of thoughts was interrupted by the boisterous voice coming from the TV.

Hello people! Today we're going to hold the most anticipated poll of the last 2 years! Even the USA president's elections have never reached this popularity! The question we all wonder is: "Who is the sexiest female superhero in the world?" There are 20 contestants: first, we have the Amazonian Princess, Wonder Woman! Second, none other than the Man of Steel's very cousin, Supergirl! Third, one of the most loved performers on a scene in the world - Zatanna Zatara! Fourth, the [...]

The sound of the remote control's buttons being violently pressed was heard again and the TV channel was changed.

Today, at "Superheroes' Love" we're going to discuss Gotham's Dark Knight's suspicious interactions with [...]

The channel was changed again.

General Danzo, what is the army's position in regards to the Justice League? What are your personal views in regards to [...]

The channel was changed once again.

What colour did Supergirl's panties have today? Was it [...]

All of a sudden, the remote control pierced through the large and flat screen of the TV and an exasperated yell was heard.

"The fuck is wrong with all the Americans?!"

It was 3 o'clock in the afternoon and Naruto had just managed to take a shower and change his clothes after the gruelling training session that he had pushed himself through. While yesterday he had worked on strengthening his tibia, today he has pushed the durability of his knees to the limit. Even with his chakra's healing ability, Naruto's knees were shaking like crazy and the muscles of his legs were contracting and relaxing and then contracting again without him doing anything.

Naruto had heard before about an extremely famous Muay Thai practitioner who was said to be able to shatter walls and destroy concrete columns with his knee kicks...and today, while he had been trying to snap the wooden log with his knee kicks, he couldn't help wondering in disbelief - 'How the hell did he do that?!'.

Naruto had the healing and the strengthening effect of his chakra and it still felt like his knees would shatter at every kick. Yet that Indonesian martial artist could break concrete columns while having just the constitution of an athletic but still ordinary human. It was mind-boggling.

That being said, after training Naruto went to the living room and plopped himself on the sofa as stiff as a puppet whose strings had been cut. And to pass the time easier he decided to watch the TV for a while... only to see that no matter the channel there just had to be a TV show concerning superheroes. Some were hailing them as God's gift to humanity, others were slandering them while others were openly lusting after their bodies. The point is that it was as though nothing else existed in the world aside from them.

Naruto sighed and rubbed his temples to calm down his heart. His grandfather had always told him that a martial artist's life goal is to reach the harmony of the body and the mind. A martial artist had to never let himself be controlled by his emotions.

Naruto grunted in pain and with great difficulty, he somehow managed to sit in a crossed-legged meditative posture. He closed his eyes in contemplation and his breathing became even and soft as he recalled his grandfather's words.

Flashback

"You can become an excellent martial artist by channelling your emotions. Emotions are powerful and the drive behind them can transform someone just like how the carp passing through the dragon gate is said to become a dragon. However, the one that lets himself being led by those emotions will never become a master. A powerful martial artist, yes...but he will never reach the pinnacle. He will forever be stuck at a bottleneck . . . And that is because before mastering a martial art you have to master, to conquer, your own heart first."

"What does it mean to conquer my own heart?" a 10-year-old Naruto asked innocently with his cute face scrunched in confusion.

"To conquer your heart means to conquer your emotions. To not let yourself become clouded by them and act on impulse." the old man Sarutobi said.

The young Naruto's blue eyes blinked owlishly and he said a bit deflated at his lack of ability to comprehend his grandpa's words:

"I still don't really understand.."

However, his grandfather didn't get mad. He didn't expect in the first place for his grandson who was only 10 years old to directly understand his words. There were even grown-up men who wouldn't be able to, let alone a child like him. Therefore, he tried to explain better, with no signs of impatience.

"Ne, Naruto, have you ever watched on TV how lions hunt antelopes?"

"Hai!"

"Then, can you tell me, how many lions are usually in a pack and how many antelopes are in a herd?"

Naruto's face frowned cutely in thought for a few seconds before saying:

"Antelopes are very many. Like over a hundred. No, even more!" young Naruto said. "But lions are usually only around 10 or 15."

"Bravo." the old man commended and lightly patted his grandson's head. "Now tell me, Naruto. If all those hundreds of antelopes were to fight against the lions all at the same time, who would win?"

Young Naruto shouted even before his grandpa's words ended:

"The lions!"

But his grandpa flicked his forehead.

"Ouch!"

"Don't 'ouch' me! Think before you speak!" Sarutobi said sternly and then he continued: "Do lions ever get hurt when they hunt antelopes?"

Naruto nodded his head.

"Yes, when the antelope tries to defend itself sometimes the lion gets hurt by its horns."

"Very well then. Now close your eyes and try to picture in your mind how would it be if those hundreds of antelopes were to charge with their horns first into the pack of lions?"

Naruto's eyes stood shut tightly for a few seconds but then his mouth opened wide.

"None of the lions would survive!" Naruto exclaimed and the usually stern old man allowed a smile to surface on his face. He took a seat beside his grandson and asked again, trying to make Naruto reach the conclusion by himself:

"Then why don't they do that?"

Naruto answered after a brief hesitation:

"B-Because they're afraid? I mean they will kill the lions but probably many of them will die too."

"That's exactly the reason!" Sarutobi exclaimed extremely pleased at his grandson's sharpness and ruffled his blonde locks of hair.

"You see, because of their cowardice, the antelopes never mustered the courage to fight back. They could wipe out the lions in that territory but they're too afraid to do that. Sure, some of them will die in the process, but for many years even after their deaths their offspring will live in safety."

"But antelopes are controlled by their fear. Likewise, if a martial artist lets his fear control him he will never succeed in anything. Or if he gets angry and acts on his anger he might get killed instead because when you're angry you cannot think clearly."

"That is the reason why you need to learn to control your emotions. Sure, it is normal to be afraid...but do not fall in panic. Instead, use that fear to sharpen your senses and devise a cautious plan to succeed. It is also normal to get angry...but don't become enraged. Use that anger to train even more bitterly..."

"...and if you'll ever want to get revenge on someone, don't do it when you're angry. Let a day or two to pass. Let even a month pass. Even a year if it is necessary for you to calm down your heart...and only then you should go to kill him. Because when you're angry you can't think. You could fall into your enemy's trap and die."

"You could say that your emotions, that your heart is like a Monkey King: very powerful and rebellious. The Monkey King is not afraid even of the lion and when it rampages, the entire jungle becomes restless and all the living beings run from its path."

"However...how would it be if you managed to tame the Monkey King? What would you be unable to do after that anymore?"

Flashback end

Unknowingly, as he pondered on these words, Naruto has spent two entire hours in meditation. But to him, it felt as if only half a minute passed. He instinctively groaned when he changed the position of his legs, but then he was stupefied: his previously quivering muscles and aching bones were completely healed! He was actually feeling no pain anymore!

"But how is this possible? By the time I finished my training my entire chakra was exhausted! How could I heal so fast?!"

Naruto suddenly went still. A faint thudding sound was coming from his torso...and it wasn't from his heartbeats.

"W-What the...!"

He closed his eyes but the next moment they opened wide in surprise. Inside his body, in his dantian, something had been born. Whereas before his chakra simply laid there like the still water of the lake, in the complete darkness of the dantian's inner world, now, a blue ethereal organ was shining. It was a heart. His entire chakra had coalesced into the shape of a heart that was continuously pulsating, not unlike the heart of an ordinary human body.

Naruto closed his eyes again, focusing intensely on sensing the changes in his body. And he 'saw' that from his chakra heart, 6 large chakra pathways went to the most important 6 parts of his body: the arms, the legs, the brain and the heart. From these 6 main pathways, countless ramifications were spread throughout the entirety of his body, linking each inch of his flesh to the chakra heart.

However, as the ethereal heart from his dantian pumped chakra, Naruto realized that amongst all those countless chakra pathways, the chakra circulated only through one of the 6 main pathways, the one leading to his left arm. It was as though all the other ones were clogged up.

Naruto opened his eyes. He had a feeling that cleaning open the clogged pathways wouldn't be easy at all. However, he wanted to see first what the changes in his body meant to his overall strength. He went in the backyard to the large wooden log. His chakra heart began to pump rapidly and the chakra rushed through the opened pathway into his right arm.

While letting a yell Naruto punched the large wooden log.

*boom*

An explosion occurred. The upper part of the log that was so thick that a man couldn't fully embrace it with his arms was blown into smithereens!

Naruto stared dumbly at the sight in front of his eyes. He was shocked to the point that he was getting dizzy.

"W-What the...?!"

He couldn't believe that in less than 3 hours his body has experienced such an enormous increase in strength. And when he punched the log he didn't use his full strength! Previously he could crack the asphalt with a kick at the expense of the entire chakra inside his body... but now, after throwing that chakra powered punch, Naruto felt that the amount of chakra inside his body had not dwindled at all.

He was trembling. But it wasn't because of pain - there wasn't even a scratch on his fist. It was excitement.

Scene break

While Naruto was crazy with excitement over his feat the two men whom Misaki had encountered before have arrived together with her at the dojo.

Two massive wooden gates stood in front of them and written with red Japanese characters on them was [The Monkey King's Dojo].

Since Sarutobi Hiruzen's passing away, the gates of the Dojo have always been locked up, Naruto opening them only when he or Misaki left the compound or when they came back. They weren't being opened wide all day long like before.

Misaki pressed the button of the doorbell and waited. Half a minute passed but no answer came. She pressed the button again, but like before, Naruto didn't come. In fact, he hadn't even heard the ringing of the doorbell, he was too immersed in his excitement.

All of a sudden the older of the two men who wanted to challenge the dojo plunged towards the massive wooden gates of the dojo while shouting out loud:

[Dynamic Entry!]

Misaki was stupefied.

'Is he an idiot?!'

But her attitude did a 180 degrees turn when with a loud bang the gates were blown away by the ferocious flying kick of the middle-aged man. The gates themselves weren't destroyed but the hinges holding them were.

The loud noise created by the large gates crashing into the courtyard startled Naruto from his thoughts and he rushed towards the entrance of the compound. He didn't even try to understand the situation or ask for the identity of the one that had blown away the gates because nobody would break so violently into someone's home if he came with friendly intentions.

Therefore, just as the middle-aged man came into his view, Naruto dashed at him. His chakra rushed into his left arm and he punched explosively towards the intruder. The force behind Naruto's fist was so powerful that the middle-aged man was sent plummeting backwards like a rocket, slamming heavily into the building across the street.

[Guy-sensei!] the teenager standing beside Misaki cried out in worry.

But the middle-aged man picked himself from the ground and stretched his sore back. A series of popping noises were heard from his spine and a serious expression appeared on his face.

'What monstrous strength!'

Guy was not the only one shocked, Naruto was just as surprised as him.

'With my new strength, I can easily shatter concrete walls and break wooden logs. What are his bones made of?!' Naruto thought in disbelief when he saw how Guy shrugged off his attack as if it was nothing. But if Naruto had paid closer attention he would have noticed that Guy's left forearm, the one that he had used to block his punch, was shaking.

"Who the hell are you?" Naruto shouted.