I couldn't help but chuckle.
Well...
I suppose having a secret training ground isn't a bad thing.
Especially when I had plenty of things I wanted to experiment with.
As it turned out...
We didn't actually train that much.
At least, not at first.
Most of the time, the training ground became our little playground.
Naruto would challenge everyone to races.
Then he'd complain whenever he lost.
Shikamaru usually found a nice patch of grass and tried to sleep.
Choji was almost always eating something.
Ino and I would sometimes just sit around and talk while watching the others make fools of themselves.
And somehow, I became part of the group.
Days passed.
Then weeks.
I started getting to know more people from the Academy.
Kiba Inuzuka was loud, energetic, and almost as competitive as Naruto.
Shino Aburame was quiet and observant, usually saying very little unless he actually had something worth saying.
Sakura Haruno was surprisingly intelligent and had a habit of correcting Naruto whenever he said something stupid.
Eventually, they all became familiar faces.
And before I realized it...
I had actually made quite a few friends.
Naruto.
Shikamaru.
Choji.
Ino.
Kiba.
Shino.
Sakura.
Even Sasuke occasionally joined us, though he usually kept to himself.
It was strange.
In my previous life, these people had only existed inside a story.
Now they were my classmates.
My friends.
People I could actually talk to.
Sometimes, when we were all together at the training ground, I would just sit back and watch them.
Naruto and Kiba arguing over something stupid.
Choji eating.
Shikamaru complaining.
Ino and Sakura bickering.
Shino quietly observing everyone.
And Sasuke sitting off to the side pretending he wasn't listening.
I couldn't help but smile.
So this is what childhood in Konoha feels like.
For once...
I wasn't thinking about jutsu.
Or chakra.
Or the future.
I was just having fun.
And honestly?
It felt good.
A few weeks had passed since I entered the Academy.
And currently...
I was standing in the garden behind my house.
Alone.
I had already checked the surroundings several times with my Six Eyes.
No chakra signatures nearby.
No one watching.
No one spying on me.
Perfect.
I looked down at my hands.
Today...
I was going to attempt something completely fucking insane.
Wood Release.
Yes.
Wood Release.
The same Kekkei Genkai that had made Hashirama Senju one of the most terrifying shinobi in history.
A technique that allowed him to combine Earth and Water Release to create living wood.
A power that wasn't simply something you could learn from a scroll.
As far as I knew, Hashirama was the only person who had naturally possessed it.
Not even his direct descendants had inherited it.
And yet...
Here I was.
A six-year-old kid standing in his backyard, thinking about reproducing it.
"Some people might call me crazy for this."
I stared at my palms.
"They might even call me drunk."
A grin appeared on my face.
"But I think I can do it."
My Six Eyes had shown me things that ordinary shinobi couldn't even perceive.
I could observe chakra at an absurdly microscopic level.
I could see its flow.
Its composition.
Its transformation.
I'd already learned several techniques simply by observing them.
Wood Release was different, though.
Much harder.
I couldn't simply copy what Hashirama did.
I needed to understand why it worked.
I closed my eyes.
"Earth Release..."
I began manipulating my chakra.
Then—
"Water Release..."
I introduced second nature.
The two chakra natures began interacting.
Nothing happened.
I frowned.
"Of course."
Simply combining Earth and Water wasn't enough.
Hashirama's Wood Release wasn't just a normal combination.
There was something else.
Something deeper.
I focused my Six Eyes.
My perception expanded.
I examined my own chakra.
"I need to add Yang Release as well..."
Yang chakra.
Life.
Physical energy.
The force that gave form and vitality.
That was the missing piece.
I began experimenting.
Earth.
Water.
Yang.
I carefully adjusted the ratios.
Nothing.
Again.
Still nothing.
I changed the chakra flow.
Nothing.
I tried a different distribution.
A tiny crack appeared in the soil beneath my feet.
I froze.
My eyes widened.
"Wait..."
I could see something happening.
The chakra wasn't simply combining.
It was interacting.
Earth chakra was providing the physical foundation.
Water chakra was supplying the fluid component.
And Yang chakra...
Was giving it vitality.
My breathing slowed.
"That's it..."
I carefully pushed more chakra into the mixture.
The ground beneath me trembled slightly.
I grinned.
"Come on..."
A tiny green shoot suddenly emerged from the soil.
I stared at it.
Silence.
For several seconds, I couldn't move.
Then my eyes widened.
"...No fucking way."
A plant.
I'd actually created a plant.
It wasn't Wood Release yet.
Not really.
But it was something.
Something that shouldn't have been possible.
I crouched down and examined it with my Six Eyes.
The chakra structure was unlike anything I'd seen before.
My heart began pounding.
A huge grin spread across my face.
"I was right."
Maybe Wood Release wasn't something I had to inherit.
Maybe...
It was something I could reproduce.
I looked at my hands.
"If I can figure out the exact balance..."
My grin widened.
"I might actually be able to create Wood Release."
I took a deep breath.
If one me wasn't enough...
I'd make more.
I formed the hand seal.
"Shadow Clone Jutsu."
Poof! Poof! Poof! Poof! Poof!
Five clones appeared around me.
They all looked at me.
I looked at them.
"Alright."
They immediately understood.
"Let's do this."
We spread out across the garden.
Each of us began experimenting.
Earth chakra.
Water chakra.
Yang chakra.
At first, nothing happened.
Then something went wrong.
One clone's chakra destabilized.
Poof!
He disappeared.
Another tried a different ratio.
Nothing.
Another managed to create a tiny sprout.
I focused harder.
My six eyes were working at their absolute limit.
I could see the chakra on a level that ordinary shinobi couldn't even comprehend.
Earth.
Water.
Yang.
I watched them interact.
It wasn't enough for them to simply exist together.
They had to combine.
I could see the chakra being broken down and reconstructed at an incredibly microscopic level.
My eyes widened.
"There..."
I adjusted my chakra.
The Earth chakra began changing.
Water chakra flowed into it.
Then I carefully introduced Yang chakra.
The three energies began interacting.
Not just mixing.
Fusing.
My Six Eyes tracked every microscopic change.
"Earth provides the structure..."
"Water provides the fluidity..."
"Yang provides the vitality..."
I adjusted the ratio again.
Too much Yang.
The chakra became unstable.
Too much Water.
The structure collapsed.
Too much Earth.
The result became lifeless.
I corrected it.
Again.
Again.
Again.
Around me, my clones were doing the same thing.
Each one was experimenting with a slightly different ratio.
One succeeded in creating another tiny plant.
Another managed to produce a thin wooden tendril before it crumbled.
My eyes widened.
"We're getting closer."
I could feel it.
The three chakra natures were beginning to harmonize.
My breathing became slower.
My entire attention narrowed down to the chakra in front of me.
Nothing else mattered.
Not the Academy.
Not Naruto.
Not Sasuke.
Not even the possibility of being discovered.
Only this.
I needed to understand it.
I needed to reproduce it.
My Six Eyes followed the chakra down to an almost incomprehensible level.
"Come on..."
I slowly altered the flow.
Earth.
Water.
Yang.
Fuse.
For a brief moment—
The chakra stabilized.
My eyes widened.
Something began growing from the soil.
Not a tiny sprout this time.
A thin wooden stem.
Then another.
Then another.
The wood twisted upward.
I stared at it.
My clones stared at it.
None of us spoke.
Because we all knew what this meant.
We were finally getting somewhere.
I clenched my fist.
"Wood Release..."
I wasn't there yet.
But I was damn close.