Chapter 8 : The Chakra

Hello everyone, well, I hope you're enjoying the beginning of the story. Just wanted to give you a heads up that I'm trying some things with the Chakra and Qi system throughout the story, and you might find it a bit off. So, feel free to comment with your thoughts. Enjoy the read :)

====================================

Seated in Chikara's room, Akeno made sure no one was eavesdropping and looked at Chikara seriously: "Chikara, now that I've told you about Qi, it's time for me to explain how it works. I'll need your full attention because what I'm about to explain will allow you to reach new heights."

Nodding with a formal gaze, Chikara listened to Akeno like a disciple listening to his master.

"Cultivators are divided into different levels. Each level is different and allows you to surpass your physical prowess and more. The first level you'll need to go through is the opening of the meridians. You'll have to capture the Qi and circulate it within your body in a precise way to gradually open your meridians. There are twelve of them located in different parts of your body.

After that, you'll need to gather the Qi in your dantian to move on to the next level, and so on. You don't need to know about the upcoming levels for now; you need to focus on the first one.

The most important thing in cultivation is to take your time. You shouldn't rush your efforts but build a solid foundation for the rest of your journey. You should imagine cultivation as if you're building a house, and the first levels are the foundation of that house." Akeno explained.

Enthralled by this new world opening up to him, Chikara's eyes sparkled with stars as he already imagined flying through the air and becoming stronger: "This is so incredible! And at what level are you, big brother?"

Seeing the excitement in his younger brother, Akeno couldn't help but be pleased that he was interested in all of this: "I'm at the fifth level, the stage of organ fortification. You could say I'm quite strong at this point."

"So, can you move mountains, spew lava, fly in the air?!" Chikara asked.

"Well... not exactly. I do have more strength than most people, but I still haven't reached the level of moving mountains or things like that.

To give you an example, if the strength of an average person is 1 unit, then using my strength without techniques, I would be around 30 units.

Furthermore, Qi doesn't allow you to spew lava or things like that. That's precisely what makes Chakra such a precious energy."

Looking visibly calmer, Chikara was still delighted by the strength gained from Qi.

"And now, this is what I expect from you—to teach me the path of Chakra," Akeno continued.

"But how can I do that? I mean, normally everyone has Chakra, you just need to circulate your spiritual and physical energy to do it," Chikara replied.

Seeing the doubt in the young Uchiha's eyes, Akeno quickly reassured him: "No one can produce Chakra in this world, but with your help, that can change. I want you to let me feel what Chakra is like in my body. You'll need to place your hand on my back and transmit Chakra to me."

Although hesitant, Chikara complied and positioned himself behind Akeno, placing his hand between his shoulder blades.

By circulating his Chakra through his body up to his hand, he gradually transferred the Chakra to Akeno's body.

Through his senses, Akeno could feel an unfamiliar blue energy spreading through his body. Closing his eyes, he focused on this energy, the key to boundless power. First, he tried to feel it, then tried to understand it. He used his Qi to touch it and decipher it.

But feeling was one thing; reproducing it was another.

Suddenly, after an unknown amount of time, the blue energy vanished, and Akeno opened his eyes. The first thing he heard was Chikara's exhausted breath behind him, followed by the sound of a body falling onto the bed.

"Chikara?" Akeno questioned.

Turning around, he saw Chikara lying on the bed, red and overcome with fatigue.

"Why did you have to do so much?" Akeno murmured as he carefully covered the young child with a blanket.

Leaving him in the room, Akeno headed to his own room and closed the door behind him.

The room was bathed in light from the sunlight, with four beds arranged on each side of the room. Three of the beds were clearly occupied, adorned with personal belongings and books nearby.

Sitting on the last available bed, Akeno took a deep breath and, with closed eyes, focused on the energy he had felt.

Chakra was the fusion of two energies that the ninjas of the Naruto world could produce even in their sleep. As a cultivator, Akeno knew how to manipulate energies to gather Qi in his body. He used the power of the soul for this and could therefore understand the theories behind using spiritual energy to create Chakra.

Now, he needed to learn to manipulate physical energy and merge it with spiritual energy.

"Spiritual energy is produced by the soul, by the mind, while physical energy is produced by the body, by the cells. If I can figure out how to manipulate this energy, then I could produce my own Chakra. Although the test with Chikara didn't immediately let me produce Chakra, I sense a change in my body, a new path has opened up.

Now I need to learn how to traverse it," Akeno thought, a smile on his lips.

Ever since he activated his system, he had been eagerly anticipating the day he would produce Chakra and possess both Chakra and Qi. And he felt it, that day was rapidly approaching.

"Well, I see the newcomer is getting his bearings rather quickly."

Suddenly, as Akeno was attempting to create his own Chakra, a deep voice echoed in the room.

"Are you okay, buddy? There's blood at the corner of your mouth..." the person asked.

Finally regaining his senses, Akeno touched the corner of his lips with his fingers and, as the man had said, found blood staining his finger.

Getting up from the bed, Akeno stopped abruptly, as if his legs gave way, and he collapsed onto the floor, spitting out blood onto the ground.

"Damn it, guys, help me!" the man who had warned him shouted.

Shocked, destabilized by the events, Akeno fainted amidst the cries for help from his future companions and teammates.

...

Hours passed, and night fell. When Akeno opened his eyes, he was lying on a bed, surrounded by a few strangers looking at him.

"Finally awake? I must say you scared us. Seriously, on your first day here, you collapse like a sack of potatoes for no apparent reason," a woman with black hair grumbled.

"What happened?" Akeno asked in a trembling voice.

"I should be asking you that. Your body is in a critically fatigued state, your Qi was disrupted, and you have tears in your meridians, which caused blood loss. What on earth were you doing in your room to end up like this?" the woman inquired.

Listening carefully to the report of his health condition, Akeno didn't immediately reply and tried to think about the mistakes he might have made in his attempt to create Chakra.

The physical fatigue could be explained in two ways: either by forcing his body to shape physical energy without really knowing how to do it, resulting in an overload and great fatigue, or unintentionally slowing down his bloodstream and cell activity while focusing on perceiving physical energy, which caused a state of semi-hibernation.

The disturbance of Qi was harder to understand. The only hypothesis Akeno could think of was an incompatibility between Qi, an energy taken from nature, and Chakra, produced entirely by the human body. Maybe Qi and Chakra simply didn't mix, like water and oil.

As for the tears in the meridians, Akeno supposed that might be the solution to all his problems. Listening to the woman's explanations, who seemed to be a doctor, he thought that the tears might be the path that Chakra needed to take.

If Qi and Chakra couldn't blend, then Chakra had to find alternative pathways to circulate within the human body. Qi moved throughout the body and gathered in the dantian, so Chakra had to find a new route to be stored in the body. Unlike Qi, which passed through 12 meridians, Chakra had to pass through 361 release points, the tenketsu.

The question was whether the tears occurred during his attempt to create Chakra or if it was thanks to the Chakra that Chikara had sent into his body, allowing his body to adapt and create this new pathway.

In the Naruto story, the Sage of Six Paths had shared his Chakra with the people he met during his travels, enabling them to pass on this power from generation to generation. And what if it wasn't just about sharing Chakra but rather altering the human beings' physicality so they could produce their own Chakra? After all, the Otsutsuki could manipulate genetic code and modify the host's DNA to make it resemble their own.

For Kaguya Otsutsuki's son, adding a circuit to the human body or enabling humans to produce their own Chakra shouldn't be a problem.

Now, Akeno had to remain patient and avoid mistakes in his attempts, if he failed, he probably wouldn't get a second chance.

BAM!

"Ouch!" Akeno exclaimed.

"Are you going to answer me instead of playing the silent thinker?" the woman shouted.

As the woman began to have a fit of anger, her assistants by her side tried to calm her down and prevent her murderous intentions toward her patient.

Watching the woman become hysterical, with two assistants holding onto her arms, Akeno couldn't help but smile at the scene.

"Forgive me for causing you concern; I'll make sure this doesn't happen again," Akeno said.

Regaining her composure, the woman completely changed her demeanor, becoming professional again. She rechecked Akeno's condition and, once finished, sighed. "Your condition is stable now, you're no longer in danger. I don't know what you were doing, but without the help of your roommates, you would probably be dead. You'll stay here for the night, until you recover. By the way, I'm Zhāng Yànfēi, in your case, you should hope we don't meet again."

"Why?"

"Because that would mean there's been an accident," Zhāng Yànfēi answered before leaving the sickroom.

After the assistants also left, only Akeno remained, alone in the vast room with creaking floors, closed windows, and drawn curtains. The room was spacious enough to fit 20 beds side by side.

Weakened, Akeno decided not to push his body further and closed his eyes for a good night's sleep and recovery.