"It's so expensive. Good thing I completed that hidden task and earned a million attribute points—otherwise I'd have no idea how to survive in the Naruto World."
Ash muttered in frustration as he stared at the store prices.
He currently had 104,000 attribute points left. His remaining draws totaled 29 pulls—eight standard draws, five gold draws, and three black draws—after accounting for his previous savings.
"First of all, I need Chakra. Without it, I can't use any Ninjutsu. But the price…"
Ash's eye twitched as he looked at the exchange cost. Chakra was the fundamental power system of this world—no ninja could function without it.
Ding~!
"Redeem Chakra (Naruto World). Deducting 50,000 attribute points."
As the points vanished, a surge of deep blue energy erupted within Ash's body, flowing down into his Aura core in his dantian.
"Honestly, with my current strength, I could get a Chakra cultivation method easily. But refining it naturally would take too long. Better to exchange it outright."
The store's version was expensive, but convenient—you received Chakra instantly, no years of slow refining.
After all, natural Chakra cultivation required adapting the body to constantly produce energy from physical and spiritual power. Even following a scroll method wouldn't change that; it demanded the time of a developing teenager to reach stability.
Ding~!
"Warning: Chakra is repelling the Aura within the host. Attempt fusion?
Success rate: 70%
Failure rate: 30%"
"Damn it… I knew this would happen, but it still feels awful. Go ahead—merge them."
From the moment he exchanged for Chakra, Ash knew it would conflict with his Aura, their energies pushing against one another.
Chakra came from the body's cells; Aura was spiritual force given form. Complementary yet repulsive—two sides of a Taiji circle.
"Agh—! My meridians… this is the same pain as last time my Aura mutated!"
Ash gritted his teeth as the two energies clashed, ripping through his channels and reforming them.
Ding~!
"Fusion successful. Energy mutation detected. Manifesting in the form of a curse imprint."
A sudden burning flared on the right side of his neck. When Ash touched it, he felt a small three-tomoe mark, similar to Sasuke's original curse seal—but glowing red, not black.
"A Curse Seal? This looks like Jūgo's Sage-Force curse seal… the one that lets you draw on Senjutsu Chakra without natural accumulation. But activating it drives the user into a berserk state…"
Ash's smile widened. This wasn't a curse—it was a blessing.
Sage Chakra was absurdly powerful. Even the Ten-Tails Jinchūriki had been harmed by Senjutsu—proof of its overwhelming force.
"Does this mean my normal Chakra is stable without activating the seal? Feels like… around quasi-Kage level. Looks like Aura really helped stabilize things. Without it, I might have barely reached basic chakra formation."
He examined the mark again.
"Just like Jūgo's variants—there's a First State, where power floods the body, and a Second State, where the body transforms entirely."
A laugh burst out of him.
"Quasi-Kage normally, Kage-level in Curse State One, and Super-Kage in State Two… This is insane."
His grin sharpened.
"But I can't deny it… the Curse Seal still has limitations."
When Ash did not activate the curse seal, his Ninjutsu consumed his ordinary Chakra. Once the curse seal was triggered, his regular Chakra became the key that activated it. After activation, the energy used for Ninjutsu was no longer normal Chakra—it became natural energy, also known as Senjutsu.
"No wonder Jūgo couldn't maintain his curse seal form for long in the original story. Logically, Sage transformation should have far stronger regeneration than consumption. But if ordinary Chakra acts as the medium, then of course it's important. Without it, Sage power can't be triggered at all."
Ash reviewed the information imprinted into his memory by the curse seal and let out a small sigh.
With his current quasi-Kage level Chakra reserves, he could maintain Curse Seal State One for a little over an hour, and State Two for only about half an hour.
Because his Chakra had fused with Aura, he decided to simply call the resulting force Chakra for convenience.
"Now that I've secured Chakra, it's time to exchange for some Ninjutsu. But first, I need the Sealing Hand Signs."
Ash rotated his neck, loosening the tension as his body adjusted to the mutated Chakra flow.
Using Ninjutsu required forming hand seals, and the speed of forming those seals determined how quickly a technique could be released. In battles between experts, a fraction of a second could decide victory or death—seal speed was everything.
The highest-tier hand seal speed cost 100,000 attribute points, double the price of Chakra itself. Clearly, the system valued it enormously. After the exchange, Ash felt the techniques imprint directly into his mind. His hands moved instinctively, as though born knowing the movements.
Uchiha Itachi, considered a prodigy in the original timeline, could form seven seals per second.
Ash could now execute fifteen per second—a monstrous leap that made the 100,000 points both painful and worth it.
"Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique."
Ash's fingers blurred in a flash of movement. He inhaled deeply as Chakra surged into his chest—and then a massive fireball blasted out from his mouth, roaring across the open field.
...
TN:
⚡ Pa-treon-com/LordMerlin (Support me! 😊)