"To be honest, your house is way too big."
After glancing around Ruri's room, Hakushi didn't seem the least bit reserved and sat down.
"It is big, but it gets a little lonely every day."
"That's true. By the way, aren't your parents home? Should I go say hello or something?"
Ruri shook her head and said, "No need. The two of them are rarely in the village. Since they don't have any talent as ninja, they can only do some small-time business as traveling merchants outside. Every month, they just send a bit of money back."
Hakushi's eyelid twitched.
Small-time business?
He really wanted to ask if Ruri had misunderstood what 'small-time business' meant.
"So, what are you here for? I mean, I do have a private training area, but it's too conspicuous—doesn't really fit your 'mysterious' style."
Yesterday, Hakushi had already told her he had something important to handle here.
"I want to run an experiment here. Is there any vacant room that's concealed and sturdy?"
Running an experiment? Ruri frowned, not really grasping what Hakushi was up to.
With Hakushi's skill level, Ruri didn't think he needed that much space to mess around.
The research funds and living expenses she gave him were just handed out casually—she never really expected Hakushi to pay her back or anything.
Money? She'd never had much concept of it since she was a child, anyway.
"Because I think it might get a bit loud, and could be dangerous. My home lab is too small."
Hearing Hakushi's explanation, Ruri didn't press him any further and led Hakushi down a corridor into an empty house.
Then she pulled aside a wooden plank in the room, and revealed a secret passageway underground.
There were electric lights installed along both sides, illuminating the whole way.
At the bottom, there was about a fifty-square-meter underground space, with tough stone slabs reinforced on the walls and floor—strong enough to withstand even ninja techniques.
"Will this work? If not, there's another one right next door, about twice this size."
"This is perfect—much better than I imagined."
Hakushi was very satisfied with this closed-off space—far exceeding his expectations.
"I'll head upstairs. Call me if you need anything."
Ruri went up by herself.
Hakushi took out a sealing scroll, unrolled it on the floor, wove hand signs, and with a loud 'poof', white smoke burst from the scroll.
Along with the smoke, a whole pile of research equipment appeared.
All of these were small-sized instruments—just right to store inside a scroll.
Come to think of it, this whole idea of using scrolls for sealing and carrying things easily was something Ruri taught him.
After neatly placing the equipment in order, Hakushi got started on his new experiment.
But this time, it was different than usual—the risk level was much higher.
If it succeeded, the rewards would likely be just as great.
◎
By evening, as the sun went down, Hakushi still hadn't come out of the basement.
Having finished her afternoon chakra refinement in her own room, Ruri asked her maid to set up dinner, and seeing Hakushi had no intention of coming out, just ate alone.
Even after she finished eating, Hakushi still hadn't emerged from the basement.
Ruri continued not to bother with him.
Until late at night, while Ruri was sleeping soundly, the ground suddenly trembled.
Her body shook slightly too; senses sharp as ever, she immediately sat up straight on her futon and scanned the surroundings.
An earthquake?
No, she quickly dismissed that.
The epicenter seemed very close, and the tremor felt more like it came from some kind of explosion.
It wasn't obvious, but she could sense it clearly.
Thinking of something, Ruri didn't even bother putting on a jacket—just slipped out in her black form-fitting underclothes, slid open the sliding door, and quickly headed down another corridor to the targeted room.
Her destination was the basement below that room.
When Ruri arrived, she saw the basement was a complete mess, with a huge new crater in the center.
Even the reinforced floor, which was supposed to withstand ninja techniques, had been blasted open like that—Ruri's eyes flashed strangely.
She then saw Hakushi, covered in soot and dust at the side, looking pretty shell-shocked by the explosion too.
In the blasted crater, there was an intense, swirling chakra presence—except it felt a little different, an overpowering aura that filled the place and made Ruri feel as if some wild beast was about to pounce on her.
Other than that, there were only a few utterly destroyed pieces of research equipment—all beyond salvage, totally wrecked.
"What are you doing here?"
Hakushi came to and asked a dumb question.
Ruri ignored that, and didn't even get angry at the state Hakushi had made of her basement.
What she really wanted to know was what kind of experiment he'd been running to blast apart flooring reinforced against ninja techniques like this.
"What were you experimenting with?"
"Channeling natural energy..."
Hakushi didn't hide a thing and answered honestly.
"Sage techniques?"
Ruri gave him a surprised look.
"Yeah. That was the experiment hypothesis and procedure. But now I can add the conclusion too."
Hakushi pulled out his notebook from his ninja tool bag.
Ruri took it and opened it up.
Though she recognized every word, there were so many specialized technical terms that it was all Greek to her—she had no idea what Hakushi had written.
"So, the experiment failed?"
Seeing the explosion, Ruri assumed it was a failure.
"Yeah, you could call it a failure—or a success. I managed to channel natural energy and merge it with chakra, but I don't know the precise ratio between them or whether you need something else to help them fuse. That's what caused this little accident. Once the natural energy and chakra lost control, it became even more violent than I expected..."
Hakushi picked up a fragment of destroyed lab equipment, standing there deep in thought.
Ruri nodded in agreement.
Regular chakra, when not shaped by a jutsu, certainly didn't pack this kind of destructive power.
"So, what do you need next?"
For the first time, Ruri—never much interested in Hakushi's research before—actually felt like supporting him.
"Money. Lots and lots of money! And a much sturdier space!"
Hakushi didn't hold back.
In his eyes, Ruri provides the funding and base, he does the research, and they both share the results. Totally fair.
◎
Following Ruri to the house above.
"You want to live here?"
Hakushi was a bit surprised by Ruri's sudden suggestion.
"That's right. It's such a hassle going/logging back and forth all the time. Otherwise you'd only have Sundays to come, and you wouldn't have enough time for natural energy research, so progress would be slow."
"Won't that make people suspicious?"
That was Hakushi's main concern.
"My maids aren't all Uchiha. I'll just officially hire you as a staff member to work here. Besides, who would bother paying attention to a Ninja School kid? You think the Hokage's Anbu have time to fuss with trivial stuff like this? Even if someone did investigate, it'd be the Uchiha Security Team's job."
Hakushi thought it did make sense.
After all, you couldn't really run natural energy experiments at his place.
His earlier experiments had been pretty standard and not dangerous. Even if found out, he could just talk his way out of it.
But with natural energy, no way.
This stuff was top secret—it absolutely had to be kept hidden.
If Ruri officially employed him at her house, that really would make the perfect cover.
The Hokage's Anbu wouldn't waste their time monitoring a Ninja School student. Plus, Hakushi hadn't done anything to make the village suspicious.
He was a legit inheritance candidate for the Will of Fire.
Even if anyone did notice something off, it'd be a matter for the Security Team, and Ruri—being a genius from the Uchiha Clan—had solid backing.
Most important of all, he was really poor.
Konoha didn't have child protection laws. Hakushi had been kicked out of the orphanage at six and forced to live on his own, so a minor working for a living—totally reasonable!
Ruri hiring him under contract was just friendly help between, well, friends.
After all, he and Ruri hung out together almost all the time; in many people's eyes, the two of them were very close friends.
Friends helping friends is no big deal.
And this way, he'd have enough time to experiment with natural energy, and keep it plenty secret as well.
"By the way, how did you manage to channel natural energy?"
Ruri finally asked what she was most curious about.
The sage technique information she'd given Hakushi in the past was all just superficial stuff.
She was really curious how Hakushi had actually managed to channel natural energy.
"Didn't you look over the notes before? Actually, it's pretty simple. I don't know how the First did it, but I lured in natural energy starting from the root of chakra—using the chakra system's core as bait."
"..."
"And as for where chakra comes from, it's actually tied to our usual state and diet. Physical power can't exist without food—so carbs, protein, fats, glucose and so on. Spiritual energy isn't just about the soul—emotions can also influence your mental state. At the end of the day, physical and spiritual power both come from things like these, and fuse through reactions in the body that are pretty much like chemistry, which produces chakra. Of course, there's a pretty complex self-regulation system in the body on top of that, and everyone's constitution is different, which means... Uh, you understand any of this?"
"..."