“The principle behind Chakra Enhanced Strength is to gather chakra into your fist—or another part of your body—concentrate it at a single point, and then release it explosively…”
“To fully master this technique, you must have perfect control over your chakra. Otherwise, even if you gather all your chakra together, the amount of power you can actually unleash will still be limited.”
“Before you begin training Chakra Enhanced Strength, Kazan, you need to complete these exercises first.”
Tree climbing and water walking.
The Ninja Academy didn’t teach these training methods.
Even in the original story, Naruto and Sasuke only learned about them from Kakashi after graduating.
The principle was simple.
By gathering chakra beneath one’s feet, a shinobi could walk up trees or across the surface of water as easily as walking on level ground.
The difficulty lay in control.
Because of the distribution of the body’s chakra points, the feet were among the hardest places from which to precisely regulate chakra.
As a result, successfully completing tree-climbing and water-walking training would raise a shinobi’s chakra control to an entirely new level.
Hiruzen Sarutobi demonstrated first.
He planted both feet against the trunk of a tree and walked upward as casually as though strolling along a flat road.
“Master tree climbing first. After that, move on to water walking.”
“Got it!”
Kazan bumped his fists together, formed a hand seal, and created several Shadow Clones.
The little Kazans, all wearing the same sturdy, energetic expression, immediately spread out and each selected a tree to begin training on.
Hiruzen watched Kazan and his Shadow Clones, the corner of his mouth twitching.
“What a pity. If Kazan had Kakashi’s talent for ninjutsu, his future achievements would undoubtedly surpass Kakashi’s.”
Those chakra reserves were simply astonishing.
If Kazan’s background weren’t completely clean, Hiruzen might have suspected that he carried Uzumaki blood.
Hiruzen hadn’t witnessed Hashirama Senju’s childhood, but he imagined that even Lord First’s chakra reserves at Kazan’s age could only have exceeded his by so much.
Poof!
Poof!
Poof!
…
Before long, Kazan and his Shadow Clones came tumbling off the trees one after another, landing sprawled across the ground.
Tree climbing and water walking were simple in principle, but actually mastering them was far from easy.
Even a genius like Sasuke had needed more than a week to complete the training.
There were no shortcuts.
The only way forward was through constant trial and error, repeatedly adjusting one’s chakra until control gradually improved.
Of course, some people were simply born with exceptional chakra control.
Sakura Haruno, for example, had completed this sort of training in an extremely short time.
It wasn’t because her overall talent for ninjutsu surpassed Sasuke’s.
Rather, Sakura possessed exceptionally high aptitude for medical ninjutsu.
As for Kazan…
His talent for ninjutsu truly wasn’t particularly impressive, and he had even less potential as a medical-nin.
But he had Shadow Clones.
After training for a while, he would dispel them, absorb all their accumulated training memories, review what had gone wrong, summarize the experience, and then create another batch to continue.
Hiruzen didn’t leave entirely either.
He left behind a Shadow Clone of his own to personally guide Kazan.
Gradually, the sky darkened.
Kazan still hadn’t stopped.
After finishing his work for the day, Hiruzen personally brought over a large wild boar.
By the time the moon hung high in the night sky, the old man and the boy were sitting around a fire roasting meat.
“Your father and mother loved you very much, Kazan.”
“They wanted more than anything to stay by your side and watch you grow up.”
A trace of discomfort flashed across Kazan’s face.
Here it comes.
The old man was about to start brainwashing him with the Will of Fire again.
“But there are some things we simply have no choice but to do.”
“Why?”
Kazan asked at precisely the right moment.
“Because the village is like a great tree, and every person in the village is one of its leaves. One day, all of us will wither and fall. But the old leaves of Konoha become nourishment, allowing new buds to break through the earth…”
Konoha itself meant “tree leaves.”
Ever since Hashirama Senju and Madara Uchiha founded the village, ideals such as sacrifice and devotion had always accompanied it.
“Where the leaves of Konoha dance, fire will burn…”
Hiruzen looked at him.
“Do you understand, Kazan?”
“I understand.”
Kazan had never personally experienced anything like it, but he could still understand.
Because the Dragon Country of his previous world had endured similar hardships.
The peace of the present had only been won through the sacrifices of generation after generation.
In an age of war, no one could remain untouched.
“Until the Guangdong Army is exhausted, the Sichuan Army will not march.”
That saying was perhaps the clearest example.
Nine hundred thousand soldiers from Guangdong had gone to war.
Only three thousand remained.
White mourning cloth hung from household after household.
“So war really is unavoidable now?”
“Why do you ask?”
“Because you gave me Chakra Enhanced Strength.”
“…”
Hiruzen fell silent.
This child was intelligent.
His thoughts were far more meticulous than his carefree appearance suggested.
Hiruzen suddenly thought of his disciple Jiraiya.
He too appeared bold and carefree on the surface, yet possessed an exceptionally perceptive mind beneath it.
“Until you graduate, I’ll teach you with everything I have!”
Hiruzen didn’t answer the question directly.
“Kazan, you’re strong. Stronger than many others. I hope that one day, I’ll see you become a towering tree capable of sheltering Konoha.”
And then give everything I have for Konoha?
There was no such thing as a free lunch.
Hiruzen’s generous package of benefits came with equally considerable expectations.
That was Hiruzen Sarutobi’s method of winning people over.
Sophisticated in some ways.
Not particularly sophisticated in others.
He created emotional resonance, making people willingly devote their lives to Konoha.
“I will.”
Kazan nodded with a deliberately serious expression.
Hiruzen smiled in satisfaction.
…
The next day.
Kazan continued training.
It took him one full day.
With fifteen Shadow Clones training simultaneously, even someone with his thoroughly mediocre talent for ninjutsu managed to complete the tree-climbing exercise.
He didn’t immediately move on.
Instead, he continued consolidating what he had learned until he could perform it perfectly.
Only then did he begin training in water walking.
His actual goal wasn’t learning how to climb trees.
It was improving his chakra control.
Hiruzen once again left a Shadow Clone nearby to guide him.
It was spring, and the water was still bitterly cold.
But Kazan’s powerful physique barely registered the chill.
Every time he fell into the water, he immediately climbed back out and continued.
After training for a while, he would dispel his Shadow Clones, absorb their memories, organize everything he had learned, and begin again.
His progress was so rapid that even Hiruzen found it astonishing.
His training speed was more than ten times that of an ordinary person.
Unfortunately, this method wasn’t something normal shinobi could use.
Only someone like Kazan, who possessed enormous chakra reserves and a will as resilient as steel, could withstand it.
If Kakashi tried the same method, a single Shadow Clone would probably be his limit.
Water walking proved more difficult than tree climbing.
Even so, Kazan mastered it in only two days.
From tree climbing to water walking, the entire process had taken him just three days.
Of course, without Shadow Clones, even with Hiruzen personally instructing him, Kazan probably would have needed half a month.
“Is this enough?”
“Mm. You can begin attempting Chakra Enhanced Strength now.”
Watching Kazan sprint across the surface of the water, Hiruzen nodded.
“First, try gathering chakra into your fist. Compress it, then release all of it when you strike.”
Kazan did as instructed.
Compared to the soles of his feet, controlling chakra through his hands was several times easier.
That brought Jiraiya to mind.
During his battle against Pain, that Pervy Sage had been capable of forming hand seals with his feet to activate ninjutsu.
Jiraiya’s chakra control had clearly reached an almost unbelievable level.
BOOM!
Kazan threw a punch and easily shattered a tree.
The result made him frown.
That punch had actually been weaker than one thrown with his pure physical strength.
He could clearly feel that his chakra control had improved tremendously.
So why was this still the result?
“There’s no need to be surprised. What you just unleashed was only the power of your chakra. You haven’t integrated it with your physical strength yet. Keep going…”
Hiruzen wasn’t surprised.
Chakra Enhanced Strength wasn’t that easy to master.
The technique was only truly suitable for monsters with more chakra than they knew what to do with.
The more chakra someone possessed, the more powerful it became.
For an ordinary shinobi like Kakashi, who needed to carefully ration every bit of chakra he used, the technique simply wasn’t practical.
Ninjutsu was far more efficient for him and much better suited to Kakashi’s fighting style.