This was a pitch-black, illusory space.
Only a fragment of broken jade emitted a faint glow. Beneath it hovered a pale-blue mass of energy—his own chakra.
At this moment, the light from the jade fragment swept over that chakra mass, separating tiny points of light from it. Those points gradually formed four hazy, illusory figures—only to be erased moments later as the jade fragment passed over them again.
"The Sage of Six Paths? Ōtsutsuki Kaguya? Ōtsutsuki Isshiki?"
Seeing the shapes of those four shadows, Tamura Haruki's heart sank.
He could recognize three of them.
Though indistinct, their outlines clearly resembled the Sage of Six Paths and Ōtsutsuki Kaguya—especially the horns on their heads.
The final shadow was the hardest to make out, the most blurred of all. Yet it, too, bore horns and was the last to be separated. It was almost certainly another member of the Ōtsutsuki clan.
"Some kind of… mental imprint?"
With a rough hypothesis forming, Haruki understood what this likely was.
Chakra in the shinobi world originated from Ōtsutsuki Kaguya. Kaguya gave birth to the Sage of Six Paths, who then spread chakra throughout the world. It wasn't strange for chakra to carry imprints of the two of them.
After all, during the Fourth Great Ninja War, the Sage of Six Paths had even manifested through Uchiha Madara and appeared within the mental worlds of Naruto Uzumaki and Sasuke Uchiha.
As for the presence of Ōtsutsuki Isshiki's imprint within chakra—that wasn't surprising either.
According to the Boruto setting, for a primordial Ten-Tails to transform into a Divine Tree and bear a chakra fruit, an Ōtsutsuki had to be sacrificed.
Originally, Ōtsutsuki Kaguya was meant to be the sacrifice. But she rebelled, ambushing Ōtsutsuki Isshiki instead. Isshiki escaped, but only with half his body—the other half was likely sacrificed by Kaguya to the Ten-Tails, allowing it to become a Divine Tree.
The quality of a chakra fruit depended on both the Ōtsutsuki sacrificed and the life force of the planet. The greater both were, the higher the quality of the chakra fruit.
That was precisely why Kaguya's Divine Tree and her power had been so overwhelming—granting her multiple Kekkei Mōra abilities.
As for the fourth shadow, it was likely an even higher-ranking Ōtsutsuki—perhaps even the true source of chakra itself.
"With Isshiki's presence… does that mean this world follows the Boruto timeline?"
Haruki pondered this in silence, realizing that this Naruto world might indeed include Ōtsutsuki Isshiki—and the Kara organization he created.
In his previous life, the Naruto canon had been full of contradictions, especially when it came to the timeline.
The Naruto Uzumaki era conflicted even more with Boruto, with many settings outright revised—Kaguya's characterization included.
Now, it seemed this world adhered more closely to the Boruto version. At the very least, Isshiki existed here.
Which meant this world was far more complex than expected.
Steadying his thoughts, Haruki turned his attention to the broken jade fragment.
"So… this is my cheat?"
He had always been searching for his own "cheat ability." After all, being reincarnated to this world wasn't something an ordinary person could achieve—there had to be a reason.
Yet for ten years, he'd found nothing.
His talent was average, and if he followed the standard path, the ceiling of his life would be chūnin at best—someone like Iruka.
But now, inside his head—inside his mind—there existed this fragment of jade.
That was clearly abnormal.
Was this the thing that had brought him to this world?
So he did have a cheat ability after all—he'd just never found the correct way to activate it until today.
And something capable of carrying him across worlds could not be ordinary.
As his consciousness slowly approached and made contact, a short stream of information flowed into his mind, revealing its function.
[Alter destiny and intercept the power of fate.]
[Consuming fate power can temporarily enhance comprehension.]
"An auxiliary-type cheat… not as flashy as some, huh."
Haruki muttered to himself, understanding that this was a support-type ability, focused mainly on enhancing comprehension.
Enhanced comprehension was undoubtedly valuable.
Many difficult ninjutsu and secret techniques required sufficient insight to master. Improving or refining techniques also demanded high comprehension.
Take Water Style: Water Dragon Jutsu—it required forty-four hand seals. Even at four seals per second, that still took eleven seconds. Far too long. Far too deadly.
Yet hand seals could be reduced.
Kosuke could perform it with only six seals. The Second Hokage, Tobirama Senju, needed just three.
Such simplification clearly required extraordinary talent.
Then there was Uchiha Itachi's one-handed hand seals—another feat that demanded immense aptitude.
And ninjutsu creation itself.
If Haruki wanted to develop something like Kakashi's Chidori, he would need exceptional talent.
Of course, more important than all of that was chakra quantity—his current biggest weakness. He didn't know whether his teacher had a solution for that.
Still, this comprehension cheat or whatever it is was extremely useful. It could greatly assist his training.
"Altering destiny… does that refer to the plot?"
Thinking back to how the cheat had awakened, Haruki began to piece things together.
The change had occurred only after he handed over the one billion ryō and the firearms to the Third Raikage.
And afterward, that strange sensation had continued to appear—that must have been the fate power he'd intercepted.
The Third Raikage and the others had clearly changed their thinking because of Haruki's actions.
Especially the Third Raikage. Any change in his decisions would have massive consequences—potentially affecting the entire course of the Second Great Ninja War.
No wonder such a large amount of fate power had been generated.
And when it came to destiny, that clearly meant the original storyline.
"So from now on, I'll need to change the plot as much as possible. The focus has to be Konoha—that's where most of the story happens.
"But right now I'm too weak. I'll have to lie low in Kumogakure for a while, grow steadily, and then look for opportunities to stir things up in Konoha and farm fate power."
With a plan forming in his mind, Haruki turned his attention back to the dark space around him.
"Is this like the mental world where Naruto and Sasuke met the Sage of Six Paths?"
Assuming this was his mental world, he looked at the purified chakra mass.
From what he'd just seen, the fragment possessed a form of self-defense—it had actively separated and erased foreign imprints from his chakra.
Of course, that process consumed fate power.
So what was different about this purified chakra?
With that thought, Haruki willed his consciousness to withdraw from his mind and first tried refining chakra normally.
"As expected… nothing. Even the chakra seed in my bloodline has been extracted and purified?"
After refining for a while, he opened his eyes. No chakra formed.
Clearly, the chakra seed within his body had been removed.
Chakra in the shinobi world originated from the Sage of Six Paths and was passed down through bloodlines. Without that bloodline-embedded chakra seed as a foundation, chakra refinement was impossible.
With a thought, Haruki separated the chakra mass from his mental world and merged it back into his body.
Using it as a new foundation, refining chakra finally worked.
And this chakra was completely different from before.
"My control has increased dramatically!"
Extending four chakra threads and letting them dance in front of him, Haruki immediately understood the key improvement brought by the purification.
Its raw power hadn't increased—but its controllability, or rather its compatibility with his body, had skyrocketed.
Previously, he could only control two chakra threads, extending them about one meter.
Now, he could control four, each extending two meters.
And this clearly wasn't the limit.
With focused training, there was room for even greater improvement.
Chakra threads were an advanced chakra control technique—far beyond tree-walking or water-walking. Haruki had spent a long time mastering them.
Over five years, he'd only managed to form two.
Now, that number had doubled instantly.
The magnitude of the improvement from purifying his chakra was undeniable.