No matter how noisy the world outside became, Mo Ke felt like he was going mad.
The Fourth was a prodigy. Bloodline aside, his chakra pool was probably a few measly cards, yet everything else about him was first class. As a mere chunin he two-kick one-kunai'd three Cloud jonin. He took the Flying Thunder God that no one in Konoha had mastered for decades and made it into the wild, over-the-top Flying Thunder God Super Wheel Dance Howl.
So young, yet one clap learned from his wife and the Reaper appeared. Another clap and the Four Symbols Seal stacked into the Eight Trigrams Seal.
Sage Mode Not my specialty. Even worse. When both arms were ruined, no more clapping needed. One glare and the toad eyes opened.
Genius or not, none of that helped Mo Ke. The sealing alone was enough to make him sigh.
People often misunderstand the Fourth's seal as trash, unable to hold back the Nine-Tails' chakra. They blame it for forcing young Naruto to waste power suppressing the fox, leaving him with only four cards of chakra for daily life and messing up his Transformation Jutsu.
All wrong. The Fourth's Eight Trigrams Seal is smarter than a high-end smart lock. It runs two layers of insurance and siphons Kurama's chakra constantly, purifies it, and feeds it to Naruto.
At around ten years old, Naruto's native pool was about four cards. Add the fox chakra the seal kept stealing and he could spike to a hundred. How else do you think he split into a thousand shadow clones with four cards.
As for emotional spikes loosening the seal and letting the fox leak in. That is cool. A hot-blooded shonen needs a white-eyed berserk moment or even dogs would stop watching.
The real chakra unit has always been Kakashi. He spent most of his energy suppressing a three-tomoe Sharingan. That thing guzzles blue. One eye kept Kakashi in half-idle mode for over a decade. No wonder the Byakugan is more popular across the ninja world. Aside from a handful of Leaf veterans with Hashirama cells, no one studies the Sharingan deeply.
Naruto's clumsy Transformations were not the fox's fault either. He was the type of bright student who completely blanks on subjects he does not care about. He looked busy and learned nothing.
Watch how smooth his Sexy Jutsu was. Jiraiya took nosebleed combos. He read the A-rank Forbidden Multi-Shadow Clone once and learned it on the spot. Does that look like a boy with a chaotic chakra network.
Why did he fail the C-rank Transformation. Try sleeping through class, ditching lectures to paint graffiti, downing sour milk for dinner. If you pass the graduation test after that, I will call you boss.
Enough commentary. Mo Ke was now fully stuck in the Eight Trigrams seal.
He could push chakra into Naruto, but it was purified on arrival. Useless as eyes and ears. Reiatsu is soul power and overlaps with chakra a little. That helped him pick it up fast, but it also killed his plan to seep through the seal with soul pressure.
How did Kurama endure decades of this. Mo Ke skimmed the memories. No wonder the fox had gone from merely grumpy to destroyer. Tossing Tailed Beast Bombs at the world like fireworks. Mito the elder and Kushina the mad redhead. Do not let me out or I will eat you both, spit you out, then eat you again.
As for the Sage of Six Paths, the memories are almost blank. When the Sage brought the beasts close and preached love and peace, Kurama zoned out. A thousand years later, still a monstrous fox instead of a heavenly fox spirit.
Pure and honest blockhead. Shouting that in a seal all day. Even Kushina would never open the door.
Fine. As you wish. Stay inside.
If he kept absorbing these memories, madness would be a small problem. Becoming stupid would be fatal. He would let them fuse slowly.
No choice. Train.
For a modern man, cultivation is suffering.
Fat shut-in yesterday, Spartan machine today. No editor dares write that anymore. Too fake.
Resigned, Mo Ke reviewed Bleach fundamentals. Reiatsu, Zanjutsu, Shunpo, Hakuda, Kido.
Reiatsu is the base of everything. It is the outward weight of your soul's density. If it is strong, one flare drops small fry. Like Conqueror's Haki. Crowd-control treasure.
Reiatsu growth is mostly talent and grind. No shortcuts. Good thing the Nine-Tails is near-infinite chakra, which means monstrous mental strength. His talent here was top tier. He figured he was already stronger than Sajin Komamura before Komamura ever stepped outside Soul Society. At least he could eat one full incantation Kurohitsugi from Sosuke Aizen and then lie down.
Zanjutsu is swordcraft. You need drills and real fights. The Gotei 13 are a guild of killers. Yamamoto and the first Kenpachi, Unohana, washed Rukongai in blood more than once. The current Kenpachi, Zaraki, killed his fill there before he joined the court guard.
Mo Ke had neither drills nor duels. The System kills but does not bury. It made him a Shinigami without handing out the rest of the toolkit.
Same for Shunpo and Hakuda. Forget it for now.
Kido might be possible. He remembered a few incantations. Worth a try.
Mo Ke stood with feet shoulder width, turned sideways to the gate, raised his right hand, palm out, and began the chant.
"O sovereign. Mask of flesh and blood. All creation. Beating wings. That which bears the name of man. Blaze and strife. Cross the sea and surge to the south. Advance."
"Hadō Number Thirty-One. Shakkaho."
As he chanted, spirit power flowed. Reiatsu shifted in subtle patterns. Under his will, spirit particles gathered in his palm.
Pfft. A small pop. A red spark bloomed and burst like a wet firecracker.
Right. About the punch of a holiday string cracker.
A few channels tingled with damage. Kurama's healing closed them in a blink.
He parsed what he had felt. Kido rides your reiatsu in a specific program to marshal ambient spirit particles and shape damage, bindings, and mending. The incantation works like a formation plate. Different rhythms imprint a template for reiatsu to follow. The caster's task is to pilot his pressure through that template. The closer the overlap, the stronger the effect for the same power.
If you know the full template, you can skip the chant and drive the pattern by hand. That is no-incantation casting.
His first blast hurt him because he did not actively guide the current. Wrong path.
The fix is simple. Use incantations as training wheels. Accept the strain. Map the flow by repetition and trials. Mastery will come.
Good. I, Kurama Maha, fear many things, just not pain. Mo Ke began ransacking his memory for every chant he had ever heard and lined them up to try one by one.
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