Seeing his parents leave, Higashino Makoto sat silently on the bed, feeling the extracted Chakra slowly dissipate.
Chakra was not internal energy or mana; it could not be accumulated. If not used after extraction, it would slowly return to the body.
Unless accumulated using a special method, such as Tsunade's Yin Seal.
After the Chakra completely dissipated, Higashino Makoto immediately formed the Ram seal with his hands again and continued extracting. This was Chakra cultivation.
Because Chakra is an energy meant to be used immediately upon extraction, ninjas extract it before every battle for convenience.
But the problem is, your enemy won't stand there waiting for you to extract it slowly.
Ninjas are not chivalrous heroes; they won't talk about morality with you, nor will they wait for you to be ready before deciding the outcome.
Ninja is a profession that values efficiency. Completing the mission is the primary goal, and for this, they can use any means necessary. Sneak attacks, poisoning, threatening relatives and friends—these are all basic operations.
So while you spend time extracting Chakra in front of an enemy, their choice will definitely be to send you on your way.
With a ninja's attack speed, a little bit of time is enough for them to kill you in nine different ways.
If a ninja wants to be combat-effective, they must cultivate Chakra extraction until it becomes an instinct of the body.
The standard for this instinct is not needing to bother with adjusting the ratio of physical and spiritual energy, nor needing to form hand seals. Instead, with just a thought, Chakra is successfully extracted within the body.
If cultivated to the extreme, the body might even autonomously synthesize some Chakra during normal times.
The function of the Yin Seal is to collect and compress this Chakra that is autonomously synthesized and naturally dissipates, making it convenient to unleash during battle.
It is equivalent to having a super-large mana bar compared to others, naturally providing a huge advantage, and even maintaining eternal youth.
It is said that Tsunade does exactly that. A person dozens of years old still pretending to be tender all day, her age oscillating between ten and thirty daily.
Extracting Chakra again, Higashino Makoto found that after one successful experience, the second time was easier. He didn't need to carefully adjust the ratio of the two energies anymore.
His body seemed to have memory and began to slowly solidify the Chakra synthesis path. The synthesis speed was also faster, but he still needed to form the Ram seal to assist.
Very good. This would be his nightly cultivation homework until it became a bodily instinct.
After the Chakra naturally dissipated, Higashino Makoto continued with the third extraction.
After cycling like this a few times, Higashino Makoto looked at the alarm clock and ended tonight's cultivation because it was almost bedtime.
After being reborn into the Ninja World, his schedule became extremely disciplined. He went to sleep on time every day, giving his body ample time to recover, and never let fatigue carry over to the next day.
He also got up on time the next day to exercise, absolutely never allowing himself the thought of being lazy and staying in bed.
Coming to the living room, he found his parents had already gone to sleep. There were quite a few empty wine bottles on the dining table.
His parents were both young people in their 20s. Usually, absence makes the heart grow fonder, and they would definitely engage in some physically and mentally pleasurable exercises at night, but now the master bedroom was quiet.
It seemed the couple was a bit too happy after seeing their son was a genius. They accidentally drank a few too many bottles and were now sleeping soundly.
Ninjas are a profession that needs to remain vigilant at all times, so alcohol is one of the three prohibitions. To let them indulge like this, besides happiness, family is also a harbor that gives peace of mind.
Humans are an intelligent species prone to extremes, and ninjas who master powerful forces are even more so.
The masterminds behind the scenes either had too many younger brothers die, or their goddess died, or their best friend died, so one by one they all became mentally ill.
And a happy family is the good medicine for all this.
Unfortunately, this is exactly what many ninjas lack.
Higashino Makoto quietly cleared the empty wine bottles and snacks from the table, did a simple cleanup, and prepared to wash up and sleep.
Back in the bedroom, seeing there was still some time, he sat silently by the bed practicing his hand seal speed.
Currently, he was unsure about his future combat style.
Because he didn't know yet whether ninjutsu, taijutsu, or genjutsu suited him better, but regardless, grinding his hand seal speed up was definitely correct.
At his designated bedtime, Higashino Makoto extracted Chakra for the last time today. After sensing his cells beginning to tire but his body filled with power, he lay down and slept, letting the Chakra dissipate naturally.
The biological clock developed over several years made him fall asleep as soon as his head hit the pillow, quickly entering dreamland.
But today there was a problem. Soon he found himself still awake, unusually awake, and his senses seemed much sharper.
This shouldn't be happening!
Reborn into a happy and complete family, living a fulfilling life every day without any mental internal friction, it was impossible to have insomnia.
Could it be that the joy of successfully refining Chakra for the first time made him too excited? Or was it caused by the dissipating Chakra in his body?
Since he couldn't sleep, Higashino Makoto decided to go to the study to read books on Chakra theory; perhaps he could find the answer there.
But soon he discovered he couldn't move at all. His body was like it was imprisoned on the bed.
This situation felt a bit familiar to him, and he quickly recalled experiencing a similar problem before—it was before the college entrance exam in his previous life.
At that time, there were a few nights where a similar situation occurred. His eyes could see clearly, but his perspective was fixed, his body couldn't move at all, and fear spread uncontrollably.
It scared him badly back then. It wasn't until later that he learned it was sleep paralysis caused by excessive stress, commonly known as "ghost pressing the bed," resulting from too much pressure during adolescence.
Since he had experienced it and knew the cause, there was nothing to be afraid of.
Higashino Makoto even observed the familiar ceiling of his bedroom with interest in this state.
Then he realized he was wrong.
This wasn't the same "ghost pressing the bed" as in his previous life at all.
His body was indeed fixed, completely immobile, and his eyeballs couldn't turn.
But his perspective could rotate. He could look wherever he wanted, as he wished, like a fixed but freely adjustable camera.
Then he "saw" his body sleeping soundly on the bed.
At this moment, he seemed to be floating above his body.
What is this? Astral projection?
Calm down!
Higashino Makoto analyzed carefully.
This is the world of Naruto, different from his previous life. Souls really exist and are visible; he knew of several kinds.
Not to mention the dead lying in the Pure Land who can be pulled out by Edo Tensei, among the living, Orochimaru should start researching cutting his own soul in a few years, and Dan Kato used to like floating his soul out to cut others.
Shadow Clones can even split consciousness.
But those can all move freely, unlike him now, who can only look but not move.
After thinking about known intelligence for a while and finding nothing that matched his situation, Higashino Makoto began observing the world from this perspective, trying to analyze the cause.
Then he discovered that under this state's perspective, things were different from usual.
The world was still the same world, the environment still the same environment.
But besides these, the space seemed to be filled with ubiquitous, extremely thin mist.
This was something invisible and imperceptible from the physical perspective.
In this special perspective, these mists appeared to have a ribbon-like flow, like rivers flowing freely between heaven and earth, presenting faint colors of white, red, green, purple, cyan, and so on.
What is this?
Higashino Makoto tried to mobilize them with his mind and found that he could slightly pry some of them.
He tried to attract the most abundant red mist. When a trace of red mixed into his consciousness, Higashino Makoto immediately felt an incomparably violent aura invading.
Danger! Danger!
He immediately instinctively cut off the connection between the two and expelled that trace of red mist.
He could actually expel it autonomously? Then there was nothing to be afraid of.
So he tried other colors and found they were all dangerous. But unlike the red's invasion, the other colors seemed to want to assimilate him.
Only white was different. The white mist seemed to be trying to decompose him, but its power seemed too weak, causing the decomposition to be very slow and within a tolerable range.
Higashino Makoto found that after mixing and tangling with his consciousness, these white mists flowed toward his body sleeping on the bed.
He observed calmly and found no abnormalities in his body. The consciousness body floating above seemed to have become a filter, fighting against the decomposition power of the white mist and transporting the filtered mist to the physical body.
While filtering, Higashino Makoto was also thinking.
What exactly are these mists?
Thinking through all the Ninja World intelligence he knew, only one answer remained: Natural Energy.
But are there so many kinds of Natural Energy? The original work didn't say so. Could this be his Golden Finger?
Yes, as a reincarnator, how could Higashino Makoto not want to cheat? After all, cheating is legal in this world and won't get you banned.
Not to mention various small bloodline cheats, later on, the admin old man Rikudo even personally stepped in to give cheats to his reincarnated sons.
After giving bloodlines, he gave his son's reincarnated Chakra; after giving Chakra, he gave on-the-spot resurrection; after giving resurrection, he gave the Six Paths Yin-Yang power.
After that, there was nothing left to give.
Face... he didn't even want face anymore.
After rebirth, Higashino Makoto was just a commoner, not a descendant of the Six Paths, without Sage Eyes or a Sage Body, and no one stuffed a pet in his stomach to act as a warmer.
For a while back then, he even called out to System-kun, Panel-kun, and Deep Blue-kun before going to sleep at night, but there was no response.
So he started to study with desperate discipline, trying to become strong through his own cultivation.
He had even thought it through: if this body really had no talent in the future, he would go acknowledge Might Dai as his godfather and practice the Eight Inner Gates to burn his life away.
As for finding Orochimaru, he hadn't considered it. That guy was too evil; ordinary people couldn't handle him and would easily become experimental consumables.
Unexpectedly, today it seems the Golden Finger has arrived. Doesn't that mean he won't have to work desperately hard in the future?
I worked hard before the Golden Finger arrived, and I still work hard after the Golden Finger arrives—then isn't this Golden Finger here for nothing?
No, Higashino Makoto felt on the contrary that he needed to work even harder in the future.
Just then, Higashino Makoto suddenly felt his consciousness body couldn't hold on much longer. If he continued, he would disappear and become part of the white mist. So he immediately voluntarily cut off the connection between the two, like a scumbag who disappears after tricking a girl into bed.
The consciousness body felt a wave of fatigue. With a thought, it returned to the body on the bed and fell into a deep sleep.
It seems this cheat isn't easy to use either. If not careful, one could turn oneself into a vegetable.
Natural Energy is good, but don't get greedy. Eat too much and you'll easily ascend to heaven