Standing at the door was the beast-masked ANBU.
Once the door opened, he stepped aside to stand off to one side, and in walked the Third Hokage—wearing a straw hat, a pipe clamped at the corner of his mouth, hands folded behind his back.
“Lord Hokage.”
Genshin turned to invite him in.
Hiruzen Sarutobi’s gaze swept across the room and landed on little Naruto, who was up on his tiptoes drying a bowl.
He paused imperceptibly, then smiled and sat down in the chair across from Genshin.
“Little Genshin, are you settling in all right here?”
“Thanks to you, Lord Hokage, I’m living very comfortably.
Before, I never even dared to dream I could live somewhere this peaceful.”
“So, do you have any plans for the future?”
“Grandpa Hokage!” Having finished the bowl, little Naruto came pattering over.
“In the future, I’d like to live a stable life in the village with Naruto, and I’d like to learn ninjutsu under you, Lord Hokage—to become a strong ninja who can protect his comrades and protect the village, so that no one will ever bully us again.” Genshin reached out and ruffled the head of the Naruto who had snuggled up beside him, grinning as he spoke.
“And I hope to fulfill my parents’ dying wish, and let the bloodline of the Uzumaki Clan carry on here in Konoha.”
Say what you will, but in Konoha only a village-loving do-gooder could really get by.
The hand holding the pipe paused.
Hiruzen Sarutobi took a slow puff, smoke drifting leisurely from the tip of his nose, and his gaze circled between Genshin and Naruto—the boy whose eyes were shining with excitement at the mention of ninjutsu.
“So you want to become a ninja.
Very good.
The village has never turned away a child who wants to grow stronger.”
Hiruzen Sarutobi chuckled, and from the ninja tool pouch at his waist he fished out three basic ninjutsu scrolls.
“These are the three basic scrolls from the Ninja Academy—Chakra Refinement, Basic Taijutsu, and the most fundamental Three Bodies Technique.
Start by building your foundation with what’s written here.
In half a month, I’ll send an ANBU to assess your refinement progress.”
?
Genshin had actually been about to ask the Third for a Chakra cultivation method, and he never expected the old man not only to offer it freely but to hand over an entire beginner’s care package right off the bat.
What a generous old fellow!
Genshin quickly accepted them with both hands, his fingertips brushing the rough covers of the scrolls, and his heart couldn’t help giving a small skip—after so many days since crossing over, he could finally make formal contact with the core power of this world.
“Thank you, Lord Hokage!”
“Cultivate well, and don’t waste that fine natural foundation of your Uzumaki Clan.
If there’s anything you don’t understand, just ask Zō—since you’ve already spotted him anyway.”
“Zō” referred to the beast-masked ANBU.
Genshin truly hadn’t intended to hide his Hamon and his perception abilities.
The Shinobi World was full of all sorts of strange bloodlines, so one more thing like Hamon wouldn’t stand out—besides, the Uzumaki Clan’s sensitivity to Chakra was famously strong to begin with.
Hiruzen Sarutobi rose to his feet and glanced once more at the Naruto glued to Genshin’s side, his gaze softening a touch.
“Naruto, you’re welcome to come and play too—just no making trouble here, understand?”
“I won’t make trouble!
I’ll help Big Brother Genshin wash the bowls!” Naruto planted both hands on his hips and answered loudly.
Hiruzen Sarutobi smiled and patted Naruto’s head, then slowly walked out with his hands behind his back.
The beast-masked ANBU gave Genshin a nod and pulled the door shut behind him.
It was only now that Genshin remembered where he knew this Zō from—he was that masked ANBU who’d served as the color commentator outside the Four Violet Flames Formation during the Konoha Destruction Plan!
Supposedly one of the Third’s most trusted ANBU, he’d spent the whole time outside the barrier hyping up just how strong the Third was, only to jinx it and get the Third killed in the end.
After seeing the Third Hokage off, Genshin couldn’t wait to open the first scroll, the one on Chakra Refinement.
His fingertips traced the neat writing on the scroll, and following the method recorded there, he slowly closed his eyes and reached out to sense that faint, barely-there wisp of energy inside his body.
First extract the body’s energy, then extract the spiritual energy.
Then let them spin and mix in a spiral, and that becomes Chakra.
Extracting the Chakra went unexpectedly smoothly.
Following the method described in the scroll, he guided the Chakra within his body to flow slowly along the Chakra Pathway System.
He didn’t know how long passed before Genshin opened his eyes, looked at his faintly warm palms, and could clearly feel a current of energy circulating steadily inside him.
As expected of the Uzumaki constitution—that energy affinity was no joke!
“Big Brother Genshin, have you started cultivating?” Naruto lay draped over the edge of the table, craning his neck to peer intently at the scroll.
“Will I be able to cultivate with you someday too?”
Looking at Naruto’s head leaning in close, Genshin was suddenly struck by a whim and poked the little skull in front of him with two fingers.
“Of course you can.
When you’re a bit bigger, I’ll teach you to refine Chakra.
From then on we’ll grow stronger together, all right?”
Heh heh, is this what it felt like when Itachi poked Sasuke’s forehead?
Why does it feel kind of addictive?
“Okay!” Naruto nodded hard.
From that day on, Genshin officially began his cultivation life in Konoha.
Every day before dawn he’d rise to hone the basics, dragging the bleary-eyed Naruto out to run laps around the village first to build up his stamina.
Come on—at your age, how could you possibly sleep in?
You’re going to save the Shinobi World someday, you know that?
After the run and breakfast, he’d practice basic ninjutsu and refine Chakra at the training grounds, and in the afternoon he’d cultivate Hamon Breathing.
When he tired himself out, he’d play with Naruto for a while.
Little Naruto practically lived at Genshin’s place every day, and the smile on his face had finally become just like the one in Genshin’s memory.
Once he’d grown proficient at both extracting Hamon and extracting Chakra, Genshin began to gradually verify some of the guesses in his mind.
In the cultivation room at home.
Genshin began his first experiment.
First he used the Hamon Breathing technique, and with a faint “hmmm” his whole body brimmed with Hamon—much faster than the first time he’d used it, almost instantly entering this Hamon state.
In this state, both Genshin’s ability to perceive energy and his ability to control it were greatly enhanced.
Then, while maintaining the breathing technique, he began extracting Chakra.
This kind of multitasking—maintaining the breathing while extracting Chakra at the same time—was old hat to Genshin; after all, in his previous life he’d loved to play LoL and Dou Dizhu at the same time.
After a while, Genshin frowned and stopped.
Something’s wrong.
There’s a mistake somewhere.
It was true that in the Hamon state his body’s strength and speed, his perception, and the precision of his ninjutsu were all greatly enhanced.
Maintaining Hamon while extracting Chakra really was strong and satisfying—but the thrill didn’t last long before he ran into one problem: stamina drained far too fast.
In battle, running out of stamina was as good as death.
Genshin scratched his head, stood up to pour himself a cup of water and drink it, then sat back down on the floor of the cultivation room to sort out his thoughts.
First, Hamon itself consumes stamina—when stamina is exhausted, Hamon can no longer be extracted.
And extracting Chakra drains both stamina and spirit simultaneously; if you forcibly extract Chakra with your stamina already depleted, the odds are you’ll just drop dead.
Both are massive stamina hogs, so using them together is like a single engine driving two fully-loaded machines at once—in no time at all it’ll drain your stored stamina dry.
This usage clearly could only serve as a temporary burst; there was no way to sustain it as a normal combat state.
The first experiment had hit a snag, so next Genshin decided to test another one of his guesses and began the second experiment.
First, the foundation of both Hamon and Chakra was the human body’s cells and life-force vitality.
Hamon was life energy, while Chakra was body energy plus spiritual energy—in essence, both were energy born from within the body.
And Hamon itself was purified, activated body energy—so could the two be fused together?
Could he use Hamon energy in place of the body energy in Chakra, and then recombine it with spiritual energy into a new kind of Chakra?
Genshin closed his eyes again.
First he drove the Hamon breathing, and once his whole body was suffused with gentle Hamon energy, he slowly guided a tiny bit of spiritual energy and Hamon energy together, trying to let the two currents brush against each other, spinning clockwise as they mixed.
The instant they touched, the two currents were like Madara shouting “Hashirama” and Hashirama shouting “Madara.” They immediately collided inside his Chakra Pathway System, and the pain made the corner of Genshin’s mouth twitch.
He hurriedly separated the two currents, and it took him a good long while to calm before he could suppress that surging, swelling ache.
Good thing I chickened out and only mixed a tiny bit—otherwise it would’ve been a real disaster.
It seemed forcing them together bluntly wouldn’t work; he had to find the right method.
Genshin stroked his chin and recalled the essence of Hamon Breathing.
Hamon itself was a kind of life-vibration energy, similar to a biological electric current—so could spiritual energy also be made to vibrate?
Vibrate along with Hamon’s frequency?
Following this line of thought, Genshin tried again.
This time he no longer forced them together, but slowly adjusted the state of the spiritual energy little by little, letting it gradually synchronize with the vibrational frequency of the Hamon.
Ohh ohh ohh, my brain’s trembling!!!
But… it seemed to have worked.
Although the Chakra Pathway System still ached faintly, this time it had actually succeeded!
Genshin could feel it—Madara and Hashirama had reconciled.
The two energies no longer collided with each other; instead they blended together to form an entirely new kind of Chakra, which Genshin tentatively named Hamon Chakra.
As the faintly vibrating Hamon Chakra circulated through his body, his body’s cells began to activate—just like activating Lightning Release Chakra Mode or Sage Mode—and his strength, speed, and perception surged explosively.
What’s more, as long as he maintained the Hamon Breathing technique, Hamon Chakra consumed less stamina than using Chakra alone.
In other words, his sustained combat ability was stronger.
It even retained Hamon’s self-healing function.
This direction is right!
Genshin’s eyes lit up.
I knew it!
There’s no way the cheat that came with crossing over could be this weak!
Other people all get systems—no reason my Hamon alone should be this feeble.
That said, it wasn’t without its drawbacks.
Hamon required a fixed, steady, uninterrupted special breathing rhythm, while forming Hand Seals and manipulating ninjutsu required concentration to control the flow of energy.
So the operational threshold for Hamon Chakra was still quite high—one had to get used to multitasking in combat.
Luckily, this wasn’t much of a problem for Genshin; he’d get the hang of it with more practice.
The trickier issue was that Hamon Chakra required maintaining the breathing technique the entire time—meaning he had to watch out for ninjutsu that could produce a suffocation effect, like the Water Prison Technique or Fire Release: Ash Pile Burning.
Still, being unable to breathe didn’t leave Genshin without any means to fight back—worst case, he could just switch back to ordinary Chakra, or later on study Fūinjutsu and craft a seal that stored Hamon energy inside his body for emergency use in battle; that wasn’t out of the question either.
Next, all he needed to do was gradually get accustomed to the process of refining Hamon Chakra, until he could use it skillfully in combat.
After that, Genshin’s daily cultivation gained one more fixed item: every day he set aside an hour or two to repeatedly hone the feel of refining Hamon Chakra.
As Genshin cultivated in utter absorption, the half-month passed quickly, and the day arrived when the Third Hokage had arranged to conduct his assessment.