Decisions and Chakra Control

(Karu POV)

So I've been thinking recently about a choice. A decision that will cause heavy ripples for the future of the Shinobi world. That said, here I was, confronting my parents for it this very second.

(3rd Person POV)

"So...Mother...Father...I wanted to ask you something."

Both parents looked at each other before turning to their son. "You never called us Mother or Father. What's going on?"

Hina nodded and questioned, "Are you in trouble?"

Karu shook his head. "No, no. It's just...I am going to ask something of you that you might not agree to."

"...you know what's funny?" said Minato, stroking the beard on his chin. "You have never once desired anything. Most of the time, we had to give it to you or we force you to make a choice. If I'm being honest, I feel kinda happy that you went out of your way to request something from us for the first time."

"I agree. Let's hear what you have to say."

He took a deep breath and then exhaled. "Okay. Here I go." Staring right into their eyes, he asked, "Can we adopt Naruto into the family?"

Silence. They didn't shift from their positions nor did they have any change in facial expression. A few seconds later, they were both contemplating and Karu could see it happen. Once he assumed that his parents were done, both man and woman gazed at each other and smiled all of a sudden.

"Karu," his mother started. "You want the bad news or good news."

Sighing in resignation, he replied, "Bad."

"You're gonna have to share a room until we expand the house." His eyes widened in understanding.

"Seriously?" He couldn't hide the tremble in his voice.

She nodded with a grin. "Seriously. I'm gonna take a wild guess and say that you know what the good news is?"

In his joy, he glomped them to the floor saying, "Thank you. Thank you so much."

"Kid. You two are brothers in all but blood. I don't mind making it official. Screw what the village wants. He is going to be ours whether these people like it or not." declared Minato as he patted his son's head.

"Hey!" she fumed. "You want to get us in trouble or something! We live in the village moron!"

"Of course I know that you dimwit. I was trying to show how cool I am to my son! Or sons in the future!"

"There are other ways to do it!" Hina retorted, rolling her eyes. "Why would you teach kids to not follow rules? Rules create and contain order."

"Or can be used to legally cause crime, injustice, or chaos. We've seen what humans are capable of."

"Not everyone is the same."

"Tell that to more than half the village that blames a kid for their losses."

In her rage, she shouted, "They're uneducated about Sealing Jutsu and ninja in general!"

"And that gives them the right to harass and harm a child?" Minato ranted. "We have a damn library that citizens can use to discover information. It's not ignorance if they choose to play dumb!"

Slowly escaping the scene, he went to his room and continued to play with the leaf concentration exercise. In the morning, he kept a total of seven leaves on his forehead and afloat. If he remembered correctly, the next step naturally would be the tree-climbing exercise. Because he had a curfew and there were solid walls around him, he had no intention to go outside.

Grabbing a few pillows, he layered them on the opposite wall of the one he was going to climb. With preparation finished, he laid down on the wooden floor and had his feet touch the wall. Closing his eyes and breathing, he tugged on the chakra that he had and guided them to the bottom of his feet.

This exercise required a fixed amount of chakra and the trick was to figure out how much. Beginning with a small amount, not that he had that much anyway, he slowly increased how much chakra he was sending in the stream to his lower body. At one point, the door to his room opened and two pairs of eyes observed the unsuspecting boy.

After a minute, he found the amount he was searching for and kept training in it. Until this was second nature to him, he would keep practicing this skill. There was simply too much potential in it as Karu found out.

Aside from chakra control, this displayed magnetic properties. Utilizing this with weapons would prevent weapon loss in combat or maybe, he could grab someone and rip their face off or something. Kinda brutal but interesting nonetheless.

[Master. A new ability has been unlocked. I recommended you check it out.]

'Thanks, Saturday.'

+ - +

Karu Sonida - Male Human

Bloodline: Negative White Dragon(Rank 1, Lv. 4)

Abilities: Absorb Negativity from humans(Rank 1, Lv. 9), Dragon Skin(Rank 1, Lv. 8), Dragon Healing(Rank 1, Lv. 6), Energy Acceptance(Rank 1), Energy Control Mastery(Rank 1, Lv. 9), Energy Regeneration(Rank 1, Lv. 1)

+ - +

'Buy it immediately and max it to the peak of Rank 1. Don't care about the price.'

[It will use up half your Negativity. Are you sure?]

'So I end up using three-quarters of Negativity in one day. Unfortunate but necessary. Do it, Saturday.'

[Energy Regeneration is at the peak of Rank 1. It's estimated to be a twenty percent increase.]

Due to this upgrade, he created a schedule around it. As he can turn off his abilities at any time, he used up nearly every bit of chakra he had and initiated the Energy Regeneration to recover his chakra with the new reserves his body received. It was the most basic method of increasing your total chakra amount but with Karu's bloodline, the difference in effectiveness shines through.