14 Chakra Control! Part-1

{Academy Training Ground}

"This is an E-Rank Ninjutsu, Fire Release: One, that you will learn in the upcoming months." Iruka finished his explanation, he waited for me to respond with some excitement at learning a ninjutsu but my reaction was likely a little underwhelming for him.

"You okay?" Iruka asked.

"Yeah, all this just seems so overwhelming, just for this simple Jutsu I have to manipulate my chakra according to the seals. Then what about more complex jutsu that take more than 2 hand seals, even some that use upwards of 20 hand seals?" I asked, remembering the Water Dragon Jutsu, it was a B-Rank I think, and used some absurd number like 40+ hand seals. 

"Well..." Iruka hesitated for a moment, after thinking about it for a while he spoke, "...there are very few jutsu that need more than 5-10 handseals to work. Most of the ones that use more than that are not highly optimized and thus need the extra handseals. Take the fire jutsu I performed for example, I used 2 seals to mold the jutsu, some people can do it in 1 and some can do the same in 3 or even 4 depending on which approach they take."

Iruka paused momentarily before continuing, "Most of the time the reason behind using extended seals is either a low affinity with the element or low mastery over the jutsu."

'There is no way Zabuza fits in either of those 2 conditions...' I thought, the power scaling of the Naruto world was pretty confusing, in the beginning and throughout the first part of the series. It was only in Shippuden that real godlike S-rank shinobi revealed themselves.

"Okay, how do I increase control of my chakra?" I asked, hoping that the leaf concentration exercise wouldn't be more stressful than it was in canon.

Iruka looked back at the rest of the class but no one had woken from their trance yet, he looked back at me and nodded, "Alright, sit down and start meditating, I'll teach you the Leaf concentration exercise."

I nodded eagerly as I sat down in the shade, Iruka motioned for me to pick up the leaf that I had found as he began lecturing once again, "As you know, chakra is a combination of Physical and Spiritual energies. Being a mixture of two entirely different energies, Chakra has some distinct properties of its own. First of all, it hardens and increases the vitality of any organic substance when injected. So you need to be careful with chakra poisoning with any pets."

"In addition, Chakra is quite resilient, it is very hard to control once it's outside of your body which is one of the points of this exercise. Your job is simple, you are to place the leaf on top of your palms, at the very center, and try to expel chakra from the tenketsu located at the center of your palm." Iruka spoke as he extended his hand to demonstrate. He then tilted his hand slightly until it was upside down with the leaf sticking to it like glue.

"If you could successfully expel your chakra, even a little bit then the leaf will stick to your hand. But be careful if you push too much chakra out then..." The leaf puffed out of his hand and slowly fell on the ground, "...the leaf will be expelled out of your hand. The objective of this exercise is to get used to expelling chakra from your tenketsu and at the same time controlling the amount of chakra that you expel."

'Alright, this exercise seems like the same, though the anime they did this exercise on their foreheads.'

"But how would this help with forming Jutsu, expelling chakra, and controlling which tenketsu to use are very different things right?" I asked.

"Indeed, to be honest, there exist two types of chakra control. One that I just taught you is External Chakra Control, which involves precise release and control of the chakra once it's outside of your body. Although it does help in Internal Chakra Control as well, which is the process of controlling the chakra when it is inside your body. Actual use of Internal Chakra Control is a chunin level skill since you could harm yourself if you push your chakra into the wrong muscles or nerves."

The warning in Iruka sensei's tone was pretty clear so I nodded agreeing to be careful with any and all experiments, "Understood Iruka sensei..."

After giving me a serious nod he walked back to the class as I focused on the leaf on my hand. I wasn't joking when I agreed with the no-experiments rule, although I'm pretty sure if I'm careful my system will turn my experiments into a useful skill. Taking a step back to understand the chakra instead of blowing up my own muscles seemed more appealing.

'Status' I thought as the blue screen once again appeared in front of me, there had been no change in the window except for the COR stat but I still made sure to keep an eye on my chakra pool as I focused on the exercise, intent on tracking my progress.

...

[Name: Akio Uchiha]

[Age: 18]

[Level: 7 (213/400)]

[Chakra Points: 1600]

[PHY: 26]

[REF: 8]

[VIS: 9+{0}]

[AGI: 24]

[COR: 7+{0}]

[Chakra: 15+{1}]

[Chakra Control: 10%]

...

'According to my abysmal chakra control rate, I would lose almost 90% of my chakra in these attempts.' I sighed as I focused on the leaf. Instead of lamenting at the state of that particular stat, I closed my eyes. It took barely a moment for me to reconnect with the vast chakra network hidden in me. 

Now that I was free to explore, I focused on trying out some things, I focused on the chakra that was flowing through my right palm, flowing through the tenketsu above which the leaf was situated. Instead of jumping to the excessive, I observed how the chakra moved through the tenketsus.

The rate of transfer was steady as the chakra flowed throughout my body, I quickly noticed that each tenketsu had a different rate of transfer which doesn't make sense considering that the chakra can not simply disappear out of thin air, it was then I noticed that I'm likely not able to feel the finer chakra capillaries that took the chakra and distributed that throughout my body.

At the same time, the question of where the chakra originates from was quickly answered. With each pump, more and more chakra was introduced into my system by the heart which was in sharp contrast with what was shown on the show.

'Neji saw it pretty clearly in his fight with Naruto right, the chakra originated from the the spot above the abdomen. I was half expecting the stomach to be the source but as I traced my chakra network it was pretty clear that the heart was responsible for creating chakra, though it is indeed stored somewhere in my abdomen.'

I was content in my explorations for a bit but since wasting time won't do anybody any good, I focused on the task at hand. I focused on the tenketsu at the center of my palm once again, extending my will I forced that connection to close and it was surprisingly easy. I instantly noticed how the flow of chakra was disrupted by my actions. Still, the overflow and chakra shortage didn't happen as my chakra network automatically redirected chakra flow simply working around the missing connection.

I let go of the temporary dam and the whole course-corrected itself once again like an involuntary reflex, intrigued this time I focused on something else. I forced my chakra to expel from the tenketsu and it flooded out.

'Huh... that was easier than I thought...'

I opened my eyes to see the leaf that was supposed to be on my hand flying through the air.

'...Or maybe not.'