Haruki suddenly opened his eyes. The pitch-black room was illuminated by moonlight. The ceiling, patterned with wooden slats, was revealed.
'System!'
'System!'
'Are you dead?'
Haruki shouted to the system in his mind.
[Can't you be quiet even late at night? The good fortune of this home will be disturbed by you sooner or later.]
"..."
Haruki gave the system a minute to compose itself.
[The system recalled a message]
[Good evening, may I ask where it hurts?]
Haruki: "..."
He stared resentfully at the ceiling. 'Why does Sukuna have more swagger than me?'
Isn't he the protagonist? Isn't he the Cursed Spirit Mother?
Sukuna looks more like his old mother.
[...]
[Didn't Sukuna always have more swagger than you?]
[Is this the first day you've known this?]
"..."
Haruki closed his eyes and went to sleep.
[...]
[Cold-shouldering me again.]
[The system recalled a message]
Haruki slept until the next morning. He was woken by Yahiko's voice. He opened his eyes and saw that Yahiko on the opposite bed had jumped up. His head almost hit the ceiling.
"Haruki, did I wake you?"
Yahiko looked at Haruki, who was sitting up in bed, and scratched the back of his head sheepishly.
Haruki shook his head.
"Hehe!"
The next second, he pounced onto Haruki's bed.
His eyes were wide, his face full of excitement. "Haruki, you know, right? Jiraiya-sensei is going to teach us Ninjutsu. This is great!"
Yahiko was so excited he was jumping up and down, as agile as a red-bottomed monkey in the forest.
...
After breakfast, they arrived at the part Yahiko had been looking forward to.
Haruki and the others followed Jiraiya out of the wooden house. They arrived at a rocky beach a short distance from the sea.
Jiraiya stood opposite Haruki and the others, hands on his hips, and said seriously, "Today, we will learn the basics of Ninjutsu – Chakra."
"Chakra?" Konan looked at Jiraiya curiously.
Yahiko immediately jumped up and excitedly said, "I know! I know! I've heard ninja talk about it. They often say they don't have much Chakra left."
Jiraiya nodded and continued to ask, "Then do you want to know what Chakra specifically is?"
Haruki had no choice but to pretend to be curious like Yahiko and the others.
After building up the suspense, Jiraiya finally lifted his chin and explained, "Chakra generally refers to the product of an even mixture of one's mental energy and physical energy."
This explanation was difficult for a group of children to understand. Jiraiya knew this just by looking at Yahiko and Konan's confused expressions.
He cleared his throat and continued to explain, "Our human body has 130 trillion cells, and the mixture of physical energy and mental energy produced by these cells is called stamina."
"Do you know what stamina is?" Jiraiya looked at them.
Seeing Jiraiya's gaze fall on him, Haruki had no choice but to answer, "It's the amount of strength and endurance displayed normally, like Yahiko's stamina is greater than Konan's."
Jiraiya nodded. "Well said, that's stamina, easy to understand, right?"
Yahiko and the others nodded repeatedly.
"Stamina is the basis for activating taijutsu. The physical combat you've seen ninja engage in without using ninjutsu is taijutsu."
Jiraiya paused, confirming that no confusion appeared in the eyes of the four children before him, and continued to explain, "Stamina is converted into Chakra within the body. Ninjas can use ninjutsu by extracting Chakra through hand seals."
"Therefore, to learn Ninjutsu, you must be able to extract Chakra."
As soon as Jiraiya finished speaking, Yahiko eagerly asked, "Jiraiya-sensei, how do we extract Chakra?"
Jiraiya said, "Everyone possesses mental energy and physical energy. Chakra can be produced by evenly mixing these two elements, mental energy and physical energy, together."
Haruki asked, "If one fails to evenly mix mental energy and physical energy, will there be no Chakra?"
Jiraiya nodded. "Yes, everyone has mental energy and physical energy, but not everyone has Chakra. If you can't extract Chakra, you can't become a ninja."
"Today, let's start by extracting Chakra." Jiraiya sat down cross-legged under their expectant gazes.
"The first step to extracting Chakra – Meditation." Jiraiya held up one finger.
"Meditation?"
Yahiko's eyes widened, a little confused by the word.
Jiraiya explained, "Meditation is to sense the power within your body by achieving a state of deep tranquility, and then evenly fuse the sensed mental energy and physical energy together. This way, you can extract Chakra."
Jiraiya reminded, "Of course, achieving meditation is very difficult. It requires you to completely forget everything around you and immerse yourself in your own consciousness."
Yahiko immediately imitated Jiraiya, sitting cross-legged and firmly closing his eyes. "It's just meditation. I can definitely do it. I can definitely extract Chakra."
Yahiko kept giving himself psychological suggestions.
Jiraiya: "..."
Haruki, Nagato, and Konan also successively sat cross-legged, slowly closing their eyes.
Losing sight, their hearing became exceptionally keen. The sound of ocean waves and the rustling of wind sweeping through the grass echoed in Haruki's ears.
He slowly calmed his mind. All thoughts in his mind were cast aside. Then, a piercing, clippy voice rang out in his mind.
[What are you doing?]
"..."
Haruki tried his best to remain calm. 'Is it hard to guess? I'm meditating.'
[Hmm... why are you meditating?]
"..."
Haruki took a deep breath, his hands on his knees tightening. 'You're not deaf, are you? I'm extracting Chakra.'
[Hmm... Well... Never mind...]
[Take your time. You can do it.]
[System is offline]
"..."
Haruki continued to meditate. He didn't know how much time had passed. He heard Jiraiya and Nagato talking.
"Successfully extracted?"
"Mm."
"You're the first to successfully extract it."
"..."
Haruki composed himself.
Again, he didn't know how much time had passed.
"Konan, very good."
"You're the second to successfully extract Chakra after Nagato."
"..."
Haruki's heart was calm, even dead calm. He felt the mental energy and physical energy Jiraiya spoke of, both incredibly strong.
This was good news, and also bad news.
Because both his mental energy and physical energy were excessively strong, he simply couldn't evenly mix them together.
"This is great!"
"I did it!"
"Jiraiya-sensei!"
"Huh? Nagato! Konan! You succeeded too?"
"How amazing!"
"But why hasn't Haruki succeeded yet?"
"Shh!"
"Let's not disturb Haruki!"
"..."
Haruki was physically and mentally exhausted.
Everyone could extract Chakra, so why couldn't he?
[You haven't extracted Chakra, have you?]
"..."
Haruki did the math and knew the system was online to make sarcastic remarks.
'Yes, I haven't extracted Chakra. Does system-sama have any brilliant insights?'
The voice in Haruki's mind was weak.
[Have you forgotten? Your body is a Yuta Okkotsu template, you don't have Chakra, only Cursed energy.]
"..."
[You are not from the Ninja World and neither is Yuta. It's impossible for you to have Chakra.]
"..."
'Why didn't you say so earlier?'
[You were trying so hard. The system couldn't bear to tell you to give up.]"
"..."
'I think you want me to die!'
[...]