5 Not-so-baby steps

Dix was in high spirits, he knew he can make a difference with his memories and mature thinking. He knew he has a ton of time to work on whatever he wants to, because being a baby is boring. There wasn't much he could or was supposed to do. All he can do for years to come is eat, sleep and wet himself. That is all, if you look from the outside. Dix was familiar with the concept of chakra and how it works. He was sure he would probably be able to train some, even as an infant, just to build up a better foundation.

He was about to begin the exercise, when his body's nature showed itself once again and suddenly crashed. He had to insert some snooze time into the 'tight' schedule he put together. After the rest Elma came to feed him, which meant he could look forward to a lengthy food coma. After that was done he almost managed to start but due to the feeding and the long sleep right after that, his body already processed whatever was taken in so he had to be tended to... again. Elma rushed in after a few minutes of helpless crying, and made short work of Dix.

With everything done, every parameter of his body being in the green, Dix still waited a few minutes to see if there is anything else to disturb him. After making absolutely sure nothing will come up for a while again, he began the practice.

He remembered the tickling feeling that came from his stomach the first time Kurama entered his body. He smiled, then closed his eyes so he could concentrate on his insides better. He could still feel the energy coming from the seal, albeit way slower and smaller in quantity then at first. He still remembered that glorious feeling when his veins were filled with high quality energy that was released due to Kurama's fit of rage. He wanted to hold this memory close to himself and grab the feeling that came with it. He already could perceive the chakra flowing in his body to an extremely small extent, as Kurama gave him a good pointer. There is much work to do, but he was provided with a small platform he could jump away from.

Dix reach out with his mind to interact with the energies in his body, but all he could was marvel at the feeling, without being able to do anything with it. It was like a river full of water, going on its merry way throughout the body, getting everywhere to provide energy and life. It was incorporeal, but for Dix's consciousness it still felt somewhat tangible. All he could do for now is immerse himself in the river and let it take him to the farthest places of his body, then take a turn and visit other parts, all the way until he got back to where he started out from, making a whole trip trough his energy network.

This network was mostly the same everywhere, except, not so surprisingly, at his stomach. When he got there he saw a huge dark red vortex of burning charka, which scared his being as a whole. Fortunately it was behind some sort of mechanism. It looked something like some sort of unorthodox spherical car engine, with different stances and timed moving parts. When Dix noticed the seal he decided to step off his ride and inspect it for a bit. What he saw was marvelous.

The seal used a couple of dozens of small chambers to hold small bits of Kurama's hatred filled dark orange chakra, hermetically sealed it away from the source like a sluice, then injected this energy into another chamber which somehow 'cleansed' it. It was a somewhat long process, and at the end the energy turned out kinda whitish in color. After that the mechanism released the cleansed chakra directly into Dix's stream of chakra, which was blue in color. As soon as the white chakra came in contact with the blue it started diluting and changed color, it slowly transitioned into the same blue as everything around it.

Dix felt like he had the rare opportunity to take a glimpse at some alien technology and started pulling up theories of how the mechanisms work and their future possibilities.

*So this is how the seal lets me use Kurama's chakra as my own... The most of it isn't really complex, the first chamber regulates the amount chakra that can be refined at once, the second chamber cleanses it and that's mostly it. I can't see how the second phase works, but that must be where the magic happens. Lets leave it to later, there isn't much I can get out of this for now. By the way the type of chakra that comes out at the end is interesting as well. The way the seal purifies Kurama's chakra probably rids it of all 'intent' and 'will' chakras usually possess which is unique to everyone. By this the chakra is turned into something like a type of universal energy that can be used by the naturally generated chakra which it is injected into. If I had to come up with an example I'd say it probably works like blood transfusion with a bit of magic in it. The seal takes Kurama's lets say A type blood, converts it to O by miraculous means, thus making it able to be used in any body due to it being 'universal'. This is certainly noteworthy and I shall research this later...*

At this point Dix has been occupied by his own experiences for hours now and Elma came to check on him, as a baby being silent for many hours is usually a cause for concern. She entered the room and headed straight to Dix and took him up in her arms with a worried expression on her face. As Dix was still, lets say, under water, it came as a small shock for him when he was forced to focus back on the outside instead of gazing inside. He dizzily opened his eyes and was on the verge of crying, something he fights less and less as time progresses, when he noticed the worried face of his caretaker. He could see clearly enough by now to recognize her expression, so he just stayed silent and stared at her face with his deep dark blue eyes.

Dix knew he was an orphan now but had no idea how Naruto was raised as a baby in the story, simply because it was not disclosed. Thus he had no idea where he actually was. What he has seen so far suggested he must be in an orphanage and Elma must have been a caretaker of this facility. Probably that's why he only seen her, and not much at that, so far. She only came from time to time to check on his condition and satisfy his physiological needs. Other than that occasionally she talked to him or sang some song, but that is it. Dix didn't have much contact with people, but that was for the best, he thought. Usually this would be bad for children, but he was glad, as he could practice alone in peace.

Upon seeing the child 'waking up' Elma released a relieved sigh, but not all of her worries were gone. She decided she would report this 'issue' to her superiors. Sleeping a lot is not that unusual, but this particular baby had a lot to shoulder and there was a lot revolving around his well-being. Probably it was nothing serious, but they had to make sure. There is no telling what catastrophe would ensue if the 9 tailed beast were to escape due to their negligence. Thus, after making sure the baby was currently alright, Elma put him down, turned around and walked out of the room, closing the door after herself. Dix could even hear the small 'click' from the door. Suddenly he felt like a prisoner. Now he felt like he can somewhat understand Kurama's frustration.

Deep inside the seal Dix just visited, Kurama was still dumbfounded by the child's behavior. Although he could not see the trip Dix took around his body, as he only used his inner perception, which is omnipresent in his body instead of the point-form Dix imagined, the child was unusually quiet most of the time and had a potent chakra stream in his body. For now Kurama attributed this to being a 'natural' at chakra usage, and did not seem to suspect anything else. Even though he considered himself the embodiment of hatred he couldn't easily bring himself to mercilessly hate a newborn the same way he does with other humans. These creatures are the closest to nature when they are born and are only corrupted by their own humanity later in life. There was only a small difference, but Kurama couldn't easily overlook it. Although he was happy he had to suffer less from his crying, he still felt a tiny bit of worry for the child at the deepest and late-forgotten parts of his heart.