Chapter 7: Training (Part 2)

Chapter 7: Training (Part 2)

The next day, Kazama woke up fully refreshed and eager to continue training.

Logically speaking, after exhausting himself the previous day, he should have been feeling sluggish.

But that was the mystery of the human body.

Both physical energy and spiritual energy were constantly being depleted at a slow, natural rate. Since the body was used to this process, it normally wouldn't trigger any major reactions.

However, because Kazama had suddenly drained a large amount of both energies the day before, his body had received a false signal—an emergency depletion warning. In response, his system had gone into overdrive, rapidly replenishing his energy levels.

This was the same principle as blood regeneration—when a small amount of blood is lost, the body instinctively boosts production.

As a result, despite yesterday's strain, Kazama woke up feeling better than ever.

Having learned from yesterday's trial and error, he quickly entered a meditative state.

This time, instead of blindly forcing his energy together, he followed his successful approach from the day before—focusing on a single thread of physical energy, guiding it, and merging it into his spiritual energy.

The energy he had mixed yesterday was nowhere to be found—it had vanished, completely absorbed into his body.

But that didn't matter.

Kazama now had a method.

No longer in a rush, he calmly repeated the process, guiding his energies into a state of continuous interaction—melding, intertwining, colliding.

Time passed.

Kazama's mind grew sluggish from prolonged focus.

Then—

Suddenly—

His entire body relaxed.

It was as if, after an intense workout, he had downed a bottle of ice-cold water—a soothing, all-encompassing relief.

His head still ached, his muscles were still sore, but this sensation was unlike anything before.

His spirit surged with clarity.

Kazama opened his inner vision.

Where the two energies had once been separate, they had now completely merged into a new, azure flame-like essence.

This was chakra.

From now on, as long as he gathered spiritual energy and physical energy, they would naturally combine into chakra.

Kazama opened his eyes and grinned at Kosuke.

"I did it."

A smile spread across Kosuke's aged face.

Kazama's progress was satisfactory.

Not every ninja had to be a genius.

As long as he became a ninja, he could serve the village. Whether he was a prodigy or not didn't matter.

"Eat first," Kosuke instructed. "You've just awakened your chakra. Your body needs nutrients and rest. Once you adapt to the consumption, it'll get easier. From now on, you must practice chakra refinement daily. The amount of chakra you can generate will determine your future growth—it's essential."

"Got it."

Kazama devoured his meal—a long-simmered wild vegetable and fish stew. Kosuke's cooking was no joke.

Even though his mind buzzed with excitement, Kazama knew he needed sleep first.

---

Six Months Later

Kazama's chakra training never faltered.

Meanwhile, at the Academy, more and more students had awakened their chakra.

The curriculum had shifted.

No longer just theory, they now trained in:

Taijutsu (hand-to-hand combat)

Shurikenjutsu (throwing weapons)

Basic tactics

Traps and camouflage

This was when the real ninja training began.

Kazama, with his modern education, easily grasped the theoretical lessons.

But when it came to ninjutsu, he hit a roadblock.

That roadblock was Kosuke Maruboshi.

His grandfather refused to teach him ninjutsu, insisting that Kazama was still too young and needed to focus on his foundations before pursuing advanced techniques.

Kazama had no counterargument.

Kosuke was right.

In the end, he had no choice but to accept it.

But acceptance didn't mean giving up.

Kazama had other plans.

He was familiar with the canon training methods—especially for Wind Release.

According to the story, the first step in training Wind Chakra was—

Cutting a leaf.

The exercise was simple:

Gather chakra in your palm.

Imagine it becoming sharper and thinner.

Use it to slice through a leaf.

Leaves were everywhere in the forest.

But what did it mean to "imagine the chakra as sharper and thinner"?

Was he supposed to just think really hard about it?

Was this some kind of mental trick?

According to the series, Wind Release was all about blade-like precision.

Most Wind Jutsu had a cutting effect—as sharp as a finely honed blade.

Kazama tried the technique.

He gathered chakra, focused it on his palm, and pressed it against the leaf.

Nothing happened.

The leaf didn't even budge.

It remained stubbornly intact, as if mocking him.

Clearly, he wasn't grasping the essence of Wind Chakra.

He tried again.

And again.

But after multiple attempts, the results were the same.

To make matters worse—

Even minor chakra exercises drained energy.

Even though cutting a leaf seemed simple, it still cost chakra.

And Kazama, as an Academy student, didn't have much to spare.

This was a problem.

He had been too influenced by the way Naruto trained—brute-forcing his way through everything.

That approach wasn't going to work here.

He needed to understand the principle behind Wind Chakra—not just throw chakra at the problem.

"The training method itself is correct. That means the mistake is on my end."

"What am I doing wrong?"

The first step—gather chakra in the palm—was easy.

The second step—imagine it as sharper and thinner—was the problem.

What did that even mean?

"Am I supposed to just sit here and 'imagine' the chakra becoming sharp?"

"That sounds like some mystical nonsense."

Then—

Kazama had an epiphany.

"Wait. What if… this actually works like a mantra? Like some kind of mental imprint?"

"Maybe chakra doesn't naturally have an element. Maybe we assign it an element by imprinting our will onto it."

If that were true, then attributes weren't something innate—they were a result of repeated mental reinforcement.

A ninja's understanding of an element shaped their chakra.

If so—

Then Wind Chakra wasn't innately sharp.

It became sharp because users consciously engraved that concept into it—again and again, until the chakra adapted.

This also explained why there were only seven chakra natures instead of infinite variations.

The human body had seven fundamental energy pathways, limiting the number of possible elemental affinities.

A ninja couldn't create a new element—only develop different aspects of an existing one.

For example, Fire Release could manifest as:

Burning flames

Explosions

Heat manipulation

Or, in the case of Wind Release—

Was sharpness really its only trait?

No.

But the reason people only associated Wind Chakra with sharpness was that it was the easiest concept to grasp.

It had been engrained into common knowledge over generations of use.

With this realization—

Kazama refocused.

If chakra could carry intent, then he needed to engrave the idea of sharpness into his chakra with absolute clarity.

"Wind is a blade. Wind is a blade. Wind is a blade."

He repeated it over and over.

This time, when he channeled chakra—

He swore he felt a faint, almost imperceptible edge forming in his palm.

He wasn't there yet.

But he was on the right track.