240. Dragon Vein chakra

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At his desk, Naruto felt a nudge at his waist from a small Kurama. "I hate to interrupt, but the main body is asking for you to head into the sealed space," he said.

Naruto raised an eyebrow. "What's going on? Did the big fox tear something down again?" he asked as he stepped into the sealed space.

The moment Naruto entered, he was greeted by the sight of Kurama holding two orbs of purple chakra in his massive hands.

"What is this?" Naruto asked, his curiosity piqued.

Kurama stretched out his hand, presenting the orbs. "You've seen this kind of thing before," he replied flatly.

Naruto's eyes narrowed as he stared at the chakra. "This is… Dragon Vein chakra? Where did it come from?"

Kurama pointed toward the small lake that had appeared when the seal was altered. "It came from there. Out of nowhere," he said.

Following Kurama's gaze, Naruto noticed faint, wispy threads of purple chakra emerging from the air near the centre of the lake. The threads converged into a small orb, floating roughly a meter above the water's surface.

Judging by its formation speed, Naruto estimated a new orb could form every ten minutes or so.

"When did this start happening?" Naruto asked.

Kurama shrugged, looking unbothered. "Not sure. I only just noticed it."

Naruto raised an eyebrow. "You live here, don't you? How do you not notice weird stuff popping up in your house?"

Kurama glared at him, annoyed. "Do you notice every mosquito that enters your room, brat?"

"I have a barrier for that," Naruto said smugly. "Keeps out mosquitoes, flies, cockroaches, and mice. Nothing gets in."

Kurama clicked his tongue in exasperation. "Metaphor, you fool. It started as such a tiny amount of chakra that I sneezed out more energy than that. Why would I pay it any attention until it became noticeable?"

Naruto scratched his head. "I guess that makes sense. Still, this is pretty strange." Based on the current volume and the rate of chakra accumulation, Naruto deduced it must have started sometime after he arrived in this timeline.

He inspected the seal but found nothing unusual. Turning back to the chakra orb, which floated serenely above the lake, Naruto asked hesitantly, "Hey, Kurama… if this chakra keeps building up, is there a chance I might, you know, explode one day?"

Kurama gave him a withering look. "Do you see me letting you blow up? Use your head."

"But it's Dragon Vein chakra, isn't it? It's supposed to be infinite, right?"

Kurama scoffed. "Infinite chakra? Who isn't? I'm literally a tailed beast. That's the least impressive thing about it."

"Fair point," Naruto muttered, still eyeing the orb. Dragon Veins carried an air of mystery, which reminded him of the dangers of uncontrolled power surges. But logically, Dragon Veins were just vast chakra flows buried deep underground hardly as mystical as people made them out to be.

"Does it even do anything useful?" Naruto asked. He knew that Dragon Vein chakra was said to enhance puppets and enable time-travel techniques, but the specifics of the latter were unclear. Plus, tampering with time was a last resort.

Kurama lazily swiped the chakra orb into his hand with the tip of his tail. With a sly grin, he moulded it into the shape of Shukaku before squashing it into nothing with his claws. "It's good for relieving boredom," Kurama quipped.

Naruto facepalmed. "That's not what I meant!" he snapped. He couldn't help but notice how dexterous Kurama's claws were, though. "Wait a minute. You're seriously telling me you sit here playing with chakra like modelling clay when I'm not around?"

"Figure it out yourself," Kurama replied dismissively.

Naruto exited the sealed space and returned to the real world. He found his parents, Minato and Kushina, and filled them in on the situation.

"I don't recall anything like that appearing when we inspected the Dragon Vein's seal," Kushina said, shaking her head.

Minato frowned in thought. "Could it be a side effect of your time travel? Or did something happen when you defeated Mukade?"

Naruto leaned toward the first explanation. "It's not like Mukade dropped some rare skill that lets me absorb Dragon Vein chakra," he joked.

To test the chakra, Naruto went to a training ground. First, he moulded it into a purple Rasengan. Then, he created a regular blue Rasengan of the same size for comparison.

Pressing each one into the ground, they exploded with identical craters, though the purple Rasengan's impact was slightly larger.

"That's it?" Naruto muttered. He tried using the chakra for Wind and Water Release techniques, but the results were similarly unimpressive.

"Less than a 10% boost? This is nothing compared to Sage Mode or Kurama's chakra." Disappointed, Naruto decided to experiment further. Mixing Dragon Vein chakra with regular, Sage, or Kurama's chakra yielded no meaningful improvements.

"Guess it's only good for stockpiling chakra," he muttered. However, upon closer inspection, he realized the chakra lacked the volatile nature of Kurama's and could be adapted for use by ordinary shinobi.

Naruto shared his findings with Minato. "With its current output, I could charge up Konoha's entire ninja force without using Kurama's chakra. Strategically, it's pretty strong."

Minato nodded after hearing the report. "If it has no side effects, we can put it to good use. For example, it could help the barrier teams or even be used to power Aincrad."

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