Chapter 7: True Ninja Talent
Konoha Year 43, July. The Ninja Academy had entered its "independent study" period again.
Enrolled students could sign up for the school-organized wilderness survival camp, or use the time however they saw fit.
On the training grounds behind the Academy, Might Guy sat with his back against a large tree, eyes locked on the two figures clashing overhead.
Clink.
The sharp ring of kunai on kunai came in a steady rhythm. Hatake Kakashi, headband sitting on his forehead, sprinted across the thick tree trunks, leaped in a quick sequence, braked just long enough to load his next push, and drove back in close.
Kakashi swung both kunai in rapid sweeps, sparks flying with each impact. When Furukawa Osamu vaulted cleanly over his head, Kakashi twisted his body around fast.
He dropped low to block, more sparks, then ground through a string of attacks aimed at him before finally finding a gap to counter. A high roundhouse kick, followed immediately by a stabbing thrust toward his opponent.
In the split second Osamu moved aside, he clamped down on Kakashi's arm with precision. Osamu's left-hand kunai deflected cleanly, and before Kakashi could muscle through it, a puff of smoke swallowed him whole.
"Shadow Clone!"
The thought barely had time to form before Kakashi felt the kunai coming from behind. The sharp focus drained out of his eyes and his usual dead-fish stare came back. He let out a long breath and said quietly:
"When did you throw the clone in?"
"That's a secret. How's the prep going for the exams, Kakashi?"
Furukawa Osamu asked as he dropped down from the branch. Kakashi followed, and as soon as the upcoming chunin exams came up, the complaints started:
"My team leader didn't put me forward for the joint exams. It's just the village's internal selection."
"You know how it is. Ordinary genin can't keep up with me. I just don't want to keep doing pointless D-rank missions."
Osamu gave a slight shake of his head at the shrug Kakashi offered. Might Guy, who had been listening, snapped to attention and jumped in eagerly:
"What about C-rank missions? Kakashi, what's the pay like?"
"Ten thousand ryo? I haven't really been keeping track. Most of it's escort work or intel gathering. For you that might be tricky, I don't think stealth is really your strong suit."
Kakashi delivered the line with a shrug for good measure, clearly getting a little payback for one of Might Guy's previous "youth strikes."
Everyone caught the dig underneath the words. Might Guy himself, however, folded his arms and fell into serious thought, eventually looking up and saying:
"My Transformation Technique does still have some issues. If it's infiltration work, I'll need to keep training."
"To start landing C-rank missions as soon as possible, I'll do five hundred side kicks!"
"..."
Uchiha Obito, who had just heard the latest entry in the "daily youth challenge" series, turned his head stiffly. He was starting to regret coming to find Kakashi at all. He couldn't keep up with any of them at this pace.
"Come on, let's go fishing! I'm not letting Rin go hungry."
Obito pivoted decisively and called everyone over to the riverbank at full volume. In the distance, Nohara Rin and Shizune had just finished picking some wild vegetables for today's planned cookout.
It was everyone's first time fishing. Half the day went by, and the only one with anything to show for it was Kakashi.
Blanking out at fishing of all things was genuinely embarrassing. Furukawa Osamu eventually decided the ninja way was the only way forward.
"Lightning Style: False Darkness!"
"Wait, what are you doing..."
At Obito's startled shout, several fish bobbed to the surface at once. Osamu walked over calmly and collected them into the bucket. The passionate young Uchiha went red with outrage:
"You're cheating again! We agreed, the fishing competition decides it, you can't just..."
"Interesting. So this is also a form of training. I'm in!"
Might Guy tossed his fishing rod aside without a second thought and charged out onto the water's surface. He couldn't hold it steadily, but he didn't sink immediately either.
Water sprayed everywhere. Obito shouted in frustration from the bank. Kakashi reeled in his line, picked up the bucket, and walked away without a word. He had plenty of ingredients already.
Nobody was sure what kind of fish they were, but the flesh was thick and the bones were few, which was all that mattered. Might Guy buried his face in it.
Across the fire, Obito was still simmering over losing the fishing competition and kept grumbling about it at regular intervals.
"Kakashi, is the chunin exam really difficult?"
Nohara Rin, making the most of a rare chance to spend time with someone she admired, leaned in and asked in a soft voice. Obito promptly choked on his grilled fish.
"The village's internal selection shouldn't be that tough. It puts more weight on ninja fundamentals and individual ability."
"There are a lot of missions keeping the jonin tied up right now. Someone needs to take on the lower-level work."
Kakashi explained with his usual calm, apparently unbothered about the promotion itself. The effortless confidence underneath the words needled Obito all over again.
"A guy with real ninja talent, that's Kakashi. I honestly wouldn't be surprised if he made jonin by twelve."
Furukawa Osamu added his own praise with a smile. Nohara Rin glanced toward Kakashi and that look of admiration crept onto her face without her noticing. Obito couldn't take it anymore.
"What's so special about his talent! Once I awaken my Sharingan, jonin is nothing. I'll blow right past this show-off."
"Kakashi's chakra control is genuinely impressive."
Shizune, who rarely spoke up, offered the compliment quietly. Osamu nodded, then turned to Obito's thoroughly unconvinced expression and gave a simple explanation:
"The chakra that gathers and flows through the body's meridian system has a natural limit. Eight specific pressure points act as valves, regulating how much can circulate at once, to keep the body from destroying itself."
"The amount of chakra the body can hold and channel externally also has a ceiling. That's why extraction and control matter so much."
"The Uchiha clan carries enormous chakra reserves. Without precise control, it's actually hard to turn that into a real advantage."
"..."
As Furukawa Osamu laid out the theory, explaining ninja strength and weakness through the meridian system and chakra flow, Might Guy listened with complete focus. Kakashi looked like he was turning something over in his head.
Both girls had covered this ground in the medical track and followed along easily. Obito just stared at his grilled fish with a completely blank look on his face, as if to say:
What are you even talking about right now?
"Extracting a large volume of chakra in an instant and controlling it precisely, that's Kakashi's talent. As a future jonin, that ability will directly amplify the power of every jutsu he performs."
Furukawa Osamu left it there and started working on his fish.
These principles applied to every ninja, of course. But there were always people who broke the rules entirely.
The most obvious examples being Hashirama Senju with his chakra that defied all logic, the Uchiha with their eyes that opened up something like a whole different operating system, and the Child of Prophecy with his endless supply of energy to burn...
"Whatever! You just have to let your body remember what fighting feels like!"
Obito threw up his hands and complained loudly, putting on the face of someone who had absorbed absolutely nothing. Shizune laughed softly at the sight. Nohara Rin smiled too.
Kakashi noticed Obito grinning along with the girls, made a show of sighing, and spread his hands:
"Can't really expect more from the dead last."
The two of them were arguing again in seconds. Might Guy, though, had gone quiet.
Thinking about his own ceiling, he understood now why his father didn't use that forbidden technique lightly. The damage it did to the body was worse than he'd imagined.
* * *
Late September. News of Hatake Kakashi's promotion to chunin swept through the entire village. Even traveling merchants were remarking on Konoha's prodigy.
As the weeks passed, the story of a six-year-old chunin spread further and wider, and a wave of renewed effort rolled through the Ninja Academy in its wake. The village leadership seemed to be deliberately cultivating the example. More and more students were talking loudly about graduating ahead of schedule.
Before afternoon classes started, homeroom teacher Kimura Ryosuke took another moment to praise Kakashi, then turned to address the class:
"This time next year, Osamu won't just be graduating from the Academy. He'll be formally taking part in medical ninja work as well."
"Lady Tsunade has reviewed and given extremely high marks to the improved military ration pill Osamu has been developing recently."
"..."
From military ration pills, Kimura Ryosuke moved on to missions, then to war, and kept going, gaining momentum with every sentence, showing no sign of stopping anytime soon.
In his seat at the front by the window, Furukawa Osamu's mind was somewhere else entirely. Ever since he'd started using Essence to cultivate certain medicinal herbs, the pharmacology experiments had been accelerating rapidly.
But solving the abnormal transformation problem had only uncovered the next one. Thinking through the past few days of attempts, Osamu turned it over quietly:
Only one minute of sage chakra at a time...