In the afternoon at the Uchiha clan head's residence, Shen visited Fugaku to request a stack of "Chakra Paper" before politely excusing himself and returning to his room.
At that time, Fugaku noticed his eyes were slightly red but didn't think much of it. He assumed his younger brother, Shen, had been crying in disappointment at not being able to learn Taijutsu. Never did he suspect that Shen's tears were the result of being emotionally moved upon overhearing his conversation with their father.
Chakra paper could detect a ninja's chakra nature. Chakra was divided into five attributes—Fire, Wind, Lightning, Water, and Earth—and by channeling chakra into the paper, the corresponding attribute would cause a visible reaction.
Fire: The paper burns.
Wind: The paper splits in half.
Lightning: The paper wrinkles.
Water: The paper becomes damp.
Earth: The paper crumbles.
Shen's intention was to test his own chakra nature so he could proceed accordingly with learning ninjutsu techniques and chakra nature transformations.
He pulled one sheet of chakra paper from the pile and infused a small amount of chakra into it. Soon enough, the paper showed changes: one section caught fire, another split apart, another wrinkled up, another became moist, and the last piece crumbled.
Stunned by the results, Shen took another sheet of chakra paper and repeated the test.
"It seems my chakra possesses all five elements. So aside from some secret techniques, I should be able to learn quite a few jutsu."
Shen was satisfied with the result. His body might have been weak, but having so many chakra natures more than made up for it.
He couldn't help but reflect: truly, when heaven shuts one door, it opens another.
After all, ninja who naturally possessed all five chakra natures were without exception considered geniuses among geniuses. As far as Shen knew, both the Third Hokage Hiruzen Sarutobi and Kakashi Hatake carried all five elemental chakra natures. One was nicknamed "Professor of Ninjutsu," while the other was called "Kakashi the Copy Ninja"—or more accurately, "Kakashi Fifty-Fifty."
Therefore, for someone like Shen born with five chakra natures, manipulating their chakra properties came far more easily than for ordinary people.
Possessing all five chakra natures thrilled him immensely. The reason Kakashi earned the title "Copy Ninja" wasn't just because of his Sharingan eye—it was because, after copying jutsu, he could actually use them through advanced chakra nature transformations. Remember, performing a technique belonging to an element not naturally your own required an exceptional level of chakra control.
Eager to emulate Kakashi and copy various jutsu one by one, Shen realized his current chakra reserves—only those of a five-year-old—would never support anything too advanced. Even with all sorts of supernatural "cheat abilities" helping him, learning even a single D-rank jutsu per day would be difficult enough.
Realizing this, he quickly calmed his earlier excitement and began thinking rationally: "Rather than wasting my limited chakra reserves on learning low-level ninjutsu, it would be more practical to develop my body's innate capabilities instead."
His body had some features resembling a smartphone: enhanced processing speed for thought, extraordinary hearing, dynamic vision tracking like a camera, and powerful memory—all comparable to a processor, speaker, camera lens, and storage unit respectively. He believed there were many more 'components' yet to be developed.
Chakra was drawn cell by cell from the roughly forty to sixty trillion cells in the human body. Since its nature resembled electricity, each individual cell functioned like a rechargeable battery.
However, the essence of chakra is actually the fruit of the Ōtsutsuki Clan's God Tree. The tree converts the planet's hard-to-use natural energy into chakra, which has a much lower threshold. If it weren't for the Sage of Six Paths dispersing chakra among humanity, this world might have already progressed to developing heavy industry, just like Shen's previous life's planet.
Shen formed an idea regarding chakra's essence: "Since cells function like self-charging batteries and channels transmit chakra similar to wires, what would happen if I actively charged them?"
Back in his previous life, there was this saying he always remembered: "Practice is the only standard for testing truth." He decided to put this theory into practice.
Afraid of pain? If *Shen Uchiha* was willing to abandon his humanity, what did he have to fear?
Shen used Nature Transformation to convert his chakra into fire-natured chakra, then gradually injected it into his right index finger. Immediately, the corresponding cells felt a slight sharp pain, and he instantly understood how it worked.
"Charging" was like dropping water onto a stack of tissues. If you wanted only one layer to absorb moisture, you had to lift it or use some kind of separation. Otherwise, all layers would become soaked. Batteries had limited capacity too, and each cell varied in its capacity. Additionally, when chakra was introduced, the cells changed. Without isolation, nearby cell walls would be damaged, and in severe cases, the cells could suffer permanent necrosis. Thus, using mutually counteracting chakra types for isolation around the target area became necessary.
Ten minutes later, Shen completed charging his right index finger with fire-natured chakra, using one-tenth of his total chakra reserves, while simultaneously employing water-natured chakra to isolate the base of his finger.
Appearance-wise, except for faint wisps of heat rising from his fingertip, everything seemed normal. However, his finger was burning hot now. If his intention had been to perform traditional Nature Transformation for a technique, he'd already succeeded. Yet, with his current chakra reserves, he couldn't maintain enough to release a complete Nature Transformation technique. After briefly contemplating his still-hot finger with minimal consumption, he walked toward the desk.
He bent his fire-infused index finger and snapped it against the desk before him.
With a thunderous BOOM, the fire chakra inside his fingertip exploded, reducing the desk to ash and splinters. The remains were charred and blackened, like they'd been hit by pure flame.
"This strong? Just using one finger reached such a level. Someone with just one nature would barely be able to handle it." For Shen, who naturally possessed all Five Chakra Natures, this was simple work.
Among chakra natures: fire overcomes wind, wind overcomes lightning, lightning overcomes earth, earth overcomes water, and water again overcomes fire. Individuals using single-nature chakra would likely render their cells useless afterward.
After experimenting with various chakra natures throughout the afternoon, Shen concluded that all Five Chakra Natures could charge cells — and each came with unique effects:
[Fire Nature Transformation] increased power, emitting high temperatures during charging. Using chakra caused explosions, with dehydration as a side effect.
[Wind Nature Transformation] made cells lighter, granting gliding ability. Using chakra created high-frequency wind blades on body surfaces, with cellular edema from high-speed vibration as a side effect.
[Lightning Nature Transformation] enhanced physical speed. Using chakra generated electric arcs externally, causing cellular numbness as a side effect.
The Earth nature boosts defensive capabilities by forming a hard layer of rock over the body's surface when chakra is infused, though the downside is cellular hardening.
The Water nature increases cell capacity, causing partial hypertrophy of bodily tissues. The drawback is that this enlargement is permanent and can only be reversed as cells naturally expel excess water.
In addition, switching between different chakra natures results in roughly a five percent loss. This percentage decreases as Shen's familiarity with cellular capacity improves.
Shen calls the form achieved after infusing cells with elemental chakra an "[Elemental Chakra Mode]." In this state, the user's physical abilities are enhanced, and they can perform basic chakra releases.
However, his current chakra reserves are still too low to fully activate an Elemental Chakra Mode. If forcefully triggered, it would last about one second at most, while simultaneously causing side effects across all body cells.
Perhaps activating the [Sharingan] and the substantial increase in chakra reserves that comes with it could allow him to sustain the mode for longer?
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