65: Chakra and Natural Energy (2) & Meaning of Kimono

In the ninja world, there are countless examples of ninjas who died due to the exhaustion of chakra while fighting.

　　Therefore, chakra can be regarded as the energy element that the human body must have when it carries out life activities.

　　If this energy is lost, the body stops functioning and falls into a state of death.

　　Although there are many reasons for the death of the human body, the state of exhaustion causing death is the most special way of death in Shiraishi's opinion.

　　Although the mystery has not yet been solved, the results of the experiment now have some unexpected results, opening a mysterious door that leads to new knowledge.

　　The vitality potion fused with natural energy was accidentally injected into an experimental mouse. After draining the chakra in the mouse, it temporarily replaced the status of chakra as life energy, and maintained the operation of life activities for a certain period of time.

　　Whether it is a special case or can be generally applied, Shiraishi immediately launched a new experiment.

　　Twenty mice were taken out again, all of them were injected with the same vitality potion, and then the chakras in their bodies were extracted and placed in a glass cover for observation.

　　Shiraishi saw sixteen mice die in the glass cover immediately after draining the chakra, even though the vitality potion was used as an energy supply.

　　Of the four remaining mice, one of them was weak in limbs.

　　The second mouse had a similar reaction to the first, but only lasted a dozen seconds longer than the first, and fell there motionless.

　　Then it was the third one's turn. It was in good health. It didn't show signs of weakened breath because of the loss of chakra. Instead, it was jumping around in the glass cover.

　　Shiraishi was even more surprised by the change of the fourth mouse. After taking the vitality potion, the mouse's body became huge, and its eyes became even brighter, giving people a very dangerous feeling.

　　"This is..."

　　An experimental assistant showed surprise, staring at the mutant mouse without blinking.

　　"I didn't expect the vitality potion to have this kind of use. It's like eating energy hormones that fit your body and stimulate the potential hidden in your body."

　　Shiraishi gave an objective evaluation.

　　The fourth mouse had clearly begun to mutate in an unknown direction.

　　And this kind of mutation, even Shiraishi can't predict how it will end.

　　Shiraishi turned his attention to the third mouse again. The originally energetic mouse suddenly entered a weakened state. Like the first two mice, he lay motionless in the glass cover and died.

　　Shiraishi opened the glass cover, took the only surviving and mutated mouse out of it, and held it in his hand to observe.

　　Shiraishi felt it for a while, and found that the body of this mouse was filled with incomparably exuberant natural energy.

　　Although there is no guarantee that it will be left alone for a long time, it will suddenly weaken and die like other mice. For now, the life energy of this mouse is very abundant, and there is no sign of life failure.

　　And through the experiment just now, it has also been proved that chakra can indeed be replaced by other energy as an energy source for life activities.

　　This supply energy is related to natural energy.

　　But there is also a problem, that is, in the past, Shiraishi directly used natural energy to replace chakra as the supply energy for life activities, but it led to the death of the experimental mice without exception.

　　However, after the special treatment of natural energy, after the preparation of vitality medicine, it can provide life activity energy for the living body.

　　Losing chakra can also allow the human body to carry out life activities, and the result of this experiment was very successful.

　　The only thing that Shiraishi did not understand was why the original natural energy could not be used as life energy supply, however, the vitality potion that has been processed several times can do this.

　　Returning to the essence of the problem, after losing chakra, human life activities will stop, and the natural energy after special processing can be used as a replacement.

　　Chakra does not come from the outside world, but is based on the combination of physical and spiritual energy of the human body. It can be said that it is also the processed product of the 'factory' of the human body.

　　The fact that the experiment was proved correct indeed made Shiraishi happy.

　　It also means that the process of breaking the caged bird is one step closer.

　　However, the connection between chakra and natural energy makes Shiraishi even more inexplicable.

　　When the two energies are compared together, there is an indescribable sense of inconsistency.

　　"I always feel that there is a very important thing missing. Only by finding this thing, all the problems of Chakra and natural energy will be solved."

　　But unfortunately, what exactly is this 'thing', and the answer to the question is missing. Shiraishi has no clue, so he can only think randomly here, and constantly find new ways to prove the existence of that 'thing'.

　　◎

　　After that, Shiraishi has been devoted to the research of natural energy replacing chakra and supplying human life activities.

　　If the previous experiment was just an illusory guess, after the unexpected discovery that day, Shiraishi can be sure that natural energy replaces chakra and provides the human body with the necessary energy for life activities, which has great feasibility.

　　Since this experiment itself was not difficult to operate, Shiraishi handed over the experiment to the five experimental assistants, who were responsible for recording the detailed process of the experiment.

　　Shiraishi himself continued to practice the technique of spiritual transformation, and further mastered the ability to change the nature of the Yin attribute chakra.

　　The time also unknowingly came to the end of August, and the weather gradually became hot.

　　Almost a month has passed since returning to Konoha.

　　This month has passed. During this period, Shiraishi and the three also exchanged letters with Sakumo Hatake, the captain who was on the front line, to understand the current situation of the two sides.

　　What Sakumo learned was that the three of Shiraishi were accidentally calculated by Sand Shinobi, and the three of them managed to escape from Sand Shinobi's trap after a very tragic battle.

　　But after escaping back, due to their serious injuries, the three needed to return to Konoha for recuperation, which lasted for two months.

　　As for the rest, nothing was revealed.

　　In the letters Sakumo sent back, most of them cared about their words, and the task he was responsible for was completed very smoothly, successfully destroying an important stronghold of Sandyin, and regaining some advantages for the Konoha ninja on the front line.

　　The current Konoha ninjas on the front line are slowly raising their morale, while on the other hand, Sandyin's side seems to be a little weak in the follow-up.

　　It is believed that it will not be long before Konoha and Sandyin will sit together and negotiate to end the war in a peaceful way, drawing a perfect end to the war that has lasted for several years.

　　Although Sakumo tried to ease the situation on the front line as much as possible, the three of Shiraishi knew that this was just a word of comfort for Sakumo, and the situation on the front line was not allowed to be optimistic at all.

　　But as long as Sakumo was all right, Shiraishi and the others felt relieved.

　　◎

　　"The village is much quieter than before."

　　After eating at noon, I went out with Ruri, and walked with her on the streets of Konoha. When I found that the crowd was much sparser than usual, Shiraishi sighed.

　　Most of this is still related to the war ahead.

　　Konoha has experienced two consecutive wars between Yuyin and Sandyin. Although Konoha won the final victory in the war with Yuyin, his vitality was also damaged, and it took time to recover and develop.(T/N - Yuyin = Country of Rain)

　　However, it didn't take long for Konoha to recover. In this weak and extremely slack situation, Sand Hidden came to challenge things, so Konoha had to rush to fight.

　　In the battle with Sand Yin, both sides have won and lost, and it has been deadlocked until now, without a satisfactory result.

　　Sandyin hopes to plunder as many resources as possible in the land of fire to develop himself.

　　Konoha hopes to put pressure on Sandyin from the front, forcing Sandyin to sign a peace treaty and end the war.

　　This is an unsolved problem, and we can only see who can't stand it first.

　　For Shiraishi's emotion, Ruri didn't take it to heart.

　　"How is work?"

　　These days, Shiraishi has been soaking in the laboratory and rarely shows his face outside. He only comes out when he eats.

　　During the day, Ruri also had her own business to do, and basically didn't have time to ask about the situation on Shiraishi's side.

　　Knowing that Ruri was referring to the study of immortality, Shiraishi replied, "The success rate has increased a little, but the risk has not been ruled out. If you use it rashly, it will become what you were that day."

　　Ruri nodded.

　　That day, she forced the chakra in her body to fuse with natural energy to form the immortal chakra, which was used to increase the power of the fire escape technique. It seemed to be a success, but after that, the problem appeared.

　　The immortal chakra in her body began to riot, and her consciousness fell into a severe coma.

　　Therefore, immortality in that state can be said to have failed and cannot be regarded as an example of success.

　　However, recalling the incomparably powerful feeling that filled her body after the fusion of the Immortal Chakra that day, Ruri had a very strong desire in her heart.

　　The power of immortality is no trivial matter. It can be seen from the use of immortal chakra to release fire escape that day, immortality can make a ninja completely reborn, and his strength will grow by a qualitative leap.

　　The most important thing is that her current sharingan has opened to the form of three-tomoe, reaching the peak of ordinary sharingan, and has basically lost the possibility of continuing to become stronger.

　　There are two paths to follow.

　　One way is to obtain the method of opening a higher-level mangekyou sharingan from the elders of Sifang, and further sublimate the power of sharingan.

　　Another way is sage arts.

　　In the eyes of Ruri, immortality is more focused.

　　Because Ruri did not have an intuitive understanding of the power of the mangekyou sharingan, but Immortal Art was the power she felt personally.

　　Moreover, the person who once defeated Madara Uchiha, the owner of the mangekyou sharingan, was the first Hokage.

　　Among the stunts of the first Hokage, in addition to wood release, there are mysterious immortal techniques.

　　Immortal art is definitely a powerful force that is no less than that of a mangekyou sharingan.

　　Although Ruri was very anxious, she also knew that overcoming immortality was not that easy, so she never urged Shiraishi to avoid putting too much pressure on him.

　　"Let's go there and have a look. I want to buy some clothes."

　　"Okay."

　　Shiraishi didn't have anything to buy, it all followed Ruri's will.

　　This is a rather traditional clothing store with a good reputation in Konoha.

　　When Shiraishi walked in with Ruri, he accidentally found an acquaintance.

　　"Uchiha...and Chiba-san?"

　　Wearing a Konoha ninja forehead, a man in his twenties looked at Shiraishi and Ruri who walked into the clothing store with a look of astonishment.

　　"Fujimura-sensei?"

　　Shiraishi also recognized the identity of this man. From the first grade until the end of the sixth grade, he was his head teacher, Fujimura Taihe.

　　Didn't expect to come across it here.

　　"Are you the owner of this shop, Chunin Fujimura-sensei?"

　　Ruri looked at Fujimura with scrutiny.

　　The corner of Fujimura-sensei's mouth twitched, and the teacher is just a teacher. Why did you deliberately add a Chunin prefix?

　　"No, no, actually that..."

　　Teacher Fujimura pinched his face, a little embarrassed.

　　"...This is my girlfriend's shop. She goes out temporarily for something. I'll take a look at it for her."

　　"It turns out that Chunin Fujimura-sensei also has a girlfriend."

　　Shiraishi touched his chin, looking seriously thinking.

　　"..."

　　What's this, Fujimura groaned in his heart.

　　"Speaking of which, why are you two in the village? I remember your teacher leading the team is Hatake Jonin..."

　　"Ah, because of some accidents, we are currently on vacation in the village."

　　"Yes?"

　　Fujimura didn't care either, and began to introduce the clothes in the store to Shiraishi.

　　In this clothing store, there are a variety of ninja clothes, yukata, casual clothes, sportswear, etc.

　　In addition to this, there are many accessories, such as ornate masks and earrings, that look very attractive.

　　"Well, the clothes here are all good, right?"

　　Fujimura said happily.

　　"So-so."

　　Ruri said so, but her eyes were fixed on a piece of clothing.

　　It was a kimono with a style and tone that she was extremely satisfied with.

　　As for the price, it was not in her consideration.

　　Shiraishi also saw this kimono, and said with a smile, "Speaking of which, Ruri, I haven't given you a gift all these years. If you like it, I'll buy it for you."

　　Because the cost of research and accommodation are provided by Ruri, there are very few places for Shiraishi to spend money, and it is more than enough to buy such a kimono for the task reward that is saved.

　　And after Shiraishi finished saying these words, Ruri's face, which was originally calm, turned a blush at an alarming speed.

　　Fujimura saw Shiraishi who was blushing because of Ruri's blushing, and sighed and said, "Chiba-san, kimonos cannot be given away casually. For girls, if a boy presents this kind of clothes, it means a marriage proposal."

　　"Uh?"

　　Shiraishi's body stiffened, and he felt... murderous intent!