"Chakra is the perfect fusion of the body's physical and spiritual energies…"
"This energy can be drawn from the body's one hundred and thirty trillion cells, refined through training and tempered by experience. Once extracted, it is molded through hand seals and released as jutsu."
It was the last two lessons of the afternoon. With exams approaching, Iruka devoted a period to reviewing the fundamentals.
Naruto, chin propped against his hand, ignored his teacher's earnest words. His senses were fixed on the Hokage's office, where Shisui Uchiha lingered.
Half a month had slipped by.
In those weeks Shisui had visited the Third Hokage daily, sometimes meeting secretly with Itachi by the cliffs of the Naka River late at night.
Naruto had staked out those cliffs many times, waiting below for what he knew was coming, yet always returned empty-handed.
Still, he knew the moment was near. Shisui's death was close.
"Father, do you think Iruka's explanation of chakra is accurate?"
"Do you believe there is something wrong with it, Naruto?"
Naruto's consciousness slipped into the sealed space, seeking Minato to discuss the question gnawing at him.
"I have always wondered. If a shinobi successfully extracts chakra in life and then dies, leaving behind a body or fragment, does that chakra linger?"
"Why do you ask this?" Minato's expression tightened. The question dragged up memories of classified reports he had read as Hokage, files about experiments conducted with the First Hokage's cells.
Kurama, lounging nearby, opened a scarlet eye with faint irritation.
"And what does this have to do with me?"
Naruto turned to him calmly. "According to Iruka, chakra is created from physical and spiritual energy. But you told me, Kurama, that you bijuu are chakra given form, living entities. You die, yet return, whole and with memory intact. In a sense, you are eternal. That makes you not simply creatures of this world, but rules within it. Why has no one ever questioned this?"
Kurama stiffened, tails curling beneath him. His voice rumbled low. "That is enough, boy. It is true that you have touched on something few dare to consider, but I will not give you answers now."
He turned his gaze on Minato. "Others have asked this before. Most accepted a softer truth. Isn't that right, Fourth Hokage?"
Minato's face grew grim. He nodded.
Naruto pressed on. "Then back to the question. Can chakra remain after death, persisting in the world?"
"Yes," Minato admitted. "Excluding my case, you know this through Kurama. Even after Hashirama Senju's death, his cells retained impossible vitality, carrying chakra still. Konoha's experiments sought to reclaim Wood Release from those cells. None succeeded. Only blood and horror followed."
"In the Third Great Ninja War we discovered Sand Village had a technique to craft human puppets. They preserved the chakra of the dead, retaining every jutsu and bloodline ability. Monsters made from corpses, wielded as weapons."
Naruto's eyes narrowed. He had not expected his father to know even this.
"Father, your knowledge is thorough, but outdated. Someone in the village has already succeeded in awakening Wood Release again."
Minato's face paled. "What? That is impossible…"
"It is true. But that is not today's concern. Think instead of chakra itself."
Naruto's tone grew sharper. "Chakra is defined as physical energy combined with spirit. Yet it behaves like a parasite, present from birth, separate from the soul. Souls pass on, but chakra often fades. Only Hashirama was different, his cells thriving after death. Even you, father, remain now only because a fragment of chakra was sealed away, like a shadow clone without a soul."
Minato's heart sank. "Naruto… what are you planning? What have you seen in that Mirror World of yours?"
Naruto only smiled faintly. "I am simply curious. But tell me, does it not bother you that Hashirama's cells could live while the man himself died? It makes no sense."
Minato shook his head. "No one knows. His death remains a mystery, even in Konoha's deepest records."
Naruto let the matter drop, withdrawing from the sealed space just as Iruka began handing out exam papers. Shikamaru passed one across. Naruto accepted it, quill in hand, yet his mind churned.
He remembered how the great conflicts of chakra reincarnations had been shown. Indra versus Asura. Madara versus Hashirama. Himself versus Sasuke.
Of all three, only Hashirama had wielded Wood Release. Only he had left behind cells alive with terrifying vitality. It felt more like the divine traits of the Ten Tails or the God Tree than any normal shinobi.
The bell rang, ending the exam. Naruto rose, slipping his paper onto Iruka's desk. At once, his senses found Shisui again, still in the Hokage's office.
Night fell.
Naruto sat upstairs, a book forgotten in his hands, eyes distant. Still Shisui had not left.
Then suddenly, movement. Shisui departed, and not long after, Hiruzen himself emerged with his entourage.
"There are so many signatures… no, wait. This chakra surge… they are fighting!"
Naruto snapped to action. His hands blurred, forming a clone. From a scroll he pulled a black robe and a mask. In an instant he was gone.
He reappeared at the cliffs of the Naka River, crouched upon a jagged rock beneath the waterfall. More clones split off, racing to prepare nets beneath every cascade.
Ten minutes later, his senses sharpened. Shisui and Itachi were together on the cliff above.
A splash thundered.
The signal.
Naruto tugged sharply. Shisui's body fell into the trap below. Relief flickered until he sensed Itachi's chakra plummeting straight toward him.
Eyes narrowing, Naruto commanded his clones to withdraw with their nets. In a blink he vanished.
When he reappeared, he stood deep within the Forest of Death.
A cough. Then a hoarse voice.
"…Who are you?"
Naruto looked down. Shisui had survived the fall.
"Oh? You are still alive?"
Shisui tried to speak again. "I..."
But Naruto's kunai, wrapped in the edge of wind chakra, pierced his heart cleanly.
"It is better this way. You should stay dead."
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