Chapter 14: Increasing Chakra Reserves
Other shinobi villages were equally surprised and shocked when they received this news.
In Sunagakure, the Fourth Kazekage Rasa thought, First Minato and their jinchuriki's deaths, and now Orochimaru's defection? Is Konoha falling apart internally? What a shame. We were devastated in the previous war, and we're recovering so slowly because that damn Daimyo keeps cutting our funding. Otherwise, I would definitely exploit this weakness.
In Kirigakure, the Fourth Mizukage Yagura also received the intelligence report.
However, he was preoccupied dealing with the Hidden Mist's severe internal conflicts and the ongoing Bloodline Purge, so he had no time to concern himself with Konoha's problems.
In Iwagakure, the village council debated the situation extensively.
Some advisors suggested they should seize this opportunity to retaliate for what Minato had done to them during the war—the Yellow Flash had single-handedly decimated their forces.
Others urged caution, suspecting Konoha might be playing some elaborate strategic game.
Finally, when the heated discussion concluded, they asked the Third Tsuchikage Onoki what course of action they should take.
Onoki stroked his beard thoughtfully and said, "There's no point rushing into anything now. Even without Minato and Orochimaru, Konoha remains formidable. And regardless of our actions, that man will definitely make a move soon. Let's observe what Kumogakure does and how Konoha responds, then we'll decide our strategy accordingly."
Hearing Onoki's cautious decision, everyone present at the meeting shared one thought: The old man's a fence-sitter as always!
However, in Kumogakure, the Fourth Raikage A pondered this development with great interest.
After consulting with his advisory council, he decided to investigate whether he could exploit Konoha's current misfortune to the Hidden Cloud's advantage.
While the entire shinobi world discussed Orochimaru's defection and its implications, Kaito ignored the political drama and focused entirely on his personal training.
After two weeks of intensive practice with the Transformation Jutsu, it finally reached an acceptable proficiency level, though there remained substantial room for improvement.
Following that milestone, he began training in the Substitution Jutsu. This technique proved far more challenging than the previous two.
It took him nearly twice as long to learn this jutsu and master it to a functional level.
However, the mechanics weren't quite as Kaito had imagined from watching the anime. He realized:
This technique is fundamentally a misdirection skill designed to mislead opponents. The critical element is exploiting gaps in the enemy's attention and awareness.
When the enemy loses focus for even a moment, you rapidly switch your position with a nearby object before they notice the exchange.
This isn't instantaneous teleportation or switching.
Therefore, it won't work effectively against opponents significantly stronger than you, or those who've activated the Sharingan and can track every movement.
And the substitution object must be very close to your position—otherwise, executing this jutsu becomes exponentially more difficult.
Well, it makes sense. Considering every Academy student learns this technique, if it were true instant switching, it would be absurdly overpowered.
But it does have numerous practical variations and applications.
Combining it with genjutsu and the Transformation Jutsu can create extremely effective deceptions.
Chakra threads can be used to covertly pull distant objects closer for substitution.
The scroll also mentioned that advanced users could employ low-level summoning techniques to instantly summon pre-registered objects to their location for substitution.
While it wasn't as powerful as Kaito had initially imagined, it remained an extremely useful technique.
As a shinobi, the ability to subtly mislead and misdirect opponents was a crucial survival skill.
It could be applied effectively in countless combat scenarios.
Kaito decided he should eventually master it to the point of performing it without hand seals. But for now, his focus needed to shift toward learning the Body Flicker Technique.
He also needed to begin studying actual Wind Release and Earth Release jutsu for offense and defense.
For nearly two months, Kaito continuously practiced these fundamental techniques until his chakra was completely exhausted each day.
This process of training to complete chakra depletion had a remarkable effect on expanding his chakra reserves.
During these two months, his chakra capacity increased dramatically—far more than previous training periods.
Throughout this time, he also searched the Library extensively for scrolls specifically addressing methods to increase chakra reserves.
He easily located two relevant scrolls.
One scroll explained that chakra naturally increases with physical and mental maturation.
That is, over time, chakra reserves could be gradually expanded through consistent physical exercise and regular meditation practice.
The second scroll compared chakra reserves to muscle development.
Just as repeatedly straining muscles causes them to grow larger and stronger, chakra reserves also expand by constantly pushing them to their limits.
Therefore, to increase capacity, one must consistently use chakra until it's completely depleted, then allow it to recover fully—repeating this cycle continuously.
Kaito had unconsciously relied on both these methods throughout his training, which explained why his chakra reserves had grown so rapidly compared to his peers.
Beyond these established methods, he also discovered several other theories and experimental approaches.
One scroll discussed harnessing natural energy—specifically Sage Mode—which would dramatically increase chakra reserves and amplify one's power when the Sage transformation was activated.
Another scroll presented a theory about increasing cellular activity.
By making body cells more metabolically active, one could theoretically extract significantly more chakra from each individual cell, thereby greatly expanding overall reserves. It would also enhance physical capabilities considerably.
Kaito was genuinely impressed by this cellular theory.
Unfortunately, the scroll contained no practical methods for actually increasing cellular activity safely.
Kaito wondered, I suspect increasing cellular activity isn't simple at all. Otherwise, this method would be commonplace among shinobi. I'm curious who originally proposed this theory. Maybe I could contact that researcher later.
When he reached the end of the scroll, he noticed the name of the original author.
He was surprised initially, then concluded with resignation, Of course. This theory was proposed by that snake bastard Orochimaru.
Well, it seemed this particular avenue was essentially a dead end for now.
Perhaps later, if Kaito ever raided one of Orochimaru's hidden research facilities and obtained his experimental data, he might find a viable method.
But honestly, the chances seemed slim.
Alternatively, he could try asking Tsunade eventually.
Her understanding of human physiology and medical ninjutsu might even exceed Orochimaru's in some areas.
And since she was his former teammate, she'd likely assisted with or reviewed this research.
Alas, another problem to consider far in the future!
The remaining theories in other scrolls were similarly impractical.
Some were incomplete fragments, and others involved methods that were harmful to the body in the long term.
Kaito sighed and returned all the scrolls to their proper places on the shelves.
He thought to himself:
My only realistic option would be asking Genki-sensei directly.
Unfortunately, Kaito had no reasonable excuse to explain why he desperately wanted to improve his chakra capacity.
Genki's first question would definitely be asking how his chakra kept getting depleted in the first place.
And Kaito absolutely couldn't tell Genki he was practicing all the Academy Three techniques independently at home.
If he revealed that, and Genki mentioned it to his colleagues, the information would eventually reach the Hokage and Danzo.
A six-year-old orphan who could already perform all three fundamental jutsu independently would receive a direct invitation to Root—probably not a voluntary one!
After adequately mastering these three basic techniques, Kaito began reallocating his training time to other priorities.
Over the past two months, he'd reduced his shuriken throwing practice time, temporarily abandoned clay sculpting exercises, stopped formal chakra control drills, and only meditated when his chakra was completely exhausted.
Among these three jutsu, he didn't intend to invest too much additional effort perfecting the Clone Jutsu, since he'd eventually replace it with the Shadow Clone Jutsu and elemental clone variations anyway.
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