3 Chakra Control

"Class, today is the day you all have been waiting for a whole year. We are going to unlock your chakra! But before we begin can anyone tell me what is 'Chakra'?", chunin instructor of our class, a tall brown-haired man with the name Fusao Nakamura. He appeared to be in his late twenties, a respectable age for a ninja especially when his age means he had gone through the Third Great Ninja War as a genin aka cannon fodder. Very few come out intact after that, those who survive are either very lucky, very strong, or very clever. And no one will ever call instructor Nakamura dull.

Sitting in the training field, the entire class was hanging on instructor's every word. One year has passed since Itsuki started the academy. The entire first-year students had been hammered with basic knowledge about geography, maths, economics, language, and a highly edited history to make it appear Hidden Leaf friendly. Intense physical exercises were performed daily to bring bodies in shape and ready for chakra circulation in coils, but not a single word related to chakra was uttered until today.

"Chakra is created when two more primal energies, physical energy from each of the body's cells and spiritual energy derived from the mind's consciousness known collectively as one's 'stamina', are molded together. So to unlock your chakra you need to... ", Itsuki droned out the rest. He knew it well enough. Since his first day at the academy, every free moment not spent on sealing was spent on understanding chakra. Chakra was extensively studied since the time of the sage of six paths to reach present understanding so further research on generally would be extremely unproductive.

'But I know something others don't, that chakra does not belong to humans. Chakra is the energy possessed by the otsutsuki clan who obtain it from the chakra fruit of God trees. A simple understanding that changes everything.', Itsuki thought while trying to find faults in sensei's explanation based on his understanding. 'It's not like he is completely wrong, just lacking in understanding about how chakra does what it does. '.

Spiritual or Yin component of chakra increases through studying, meditation, and experience. All insights while researching had started to make my yin half skyrocket beyond manageable and I still have no permanent solution for hiding my chakra.

"Now take the smallest leaf you can find and start by focusing on tenketsu at the center of your forehead place. Keep at it and then slowly bring leaf in hand just above the tenketsu. Then release the leaf and see if it sticks to the forehead. If the leaf is not sticking, try concentrating harder and try again." Fusao Sensei taught class leaf sticking exercise.

"Hey! Itsuki-chan see this, it's so easy", with a jerk I turn towards the obnoxious voice and gave her a stink eye while ignoring the aforementioned nuisance blowing raspberries at me and pointing to leaf sticking between on her forehead.

Hana Inazuka, the bane of my existence. Wearing a sleeveless jacket and knee-length shorts, she had long brown hair which she wore in a ponytail, and two locks of hair framing the sides of her face. Her chubby cheeks had red fang tattoos which I may have found cute if her black eyes were not always trying to make me spontaneously combust.

Since he first met Hana, for some reason she has always tried to rile me up. But I being the responsible elder, even if only in mind; kept myself above these petty squabbles. That is until she found my weakness.

"Hey shorty-chan, look here short-short chan."

'Her nerve', I thought while glaring at Hana, who was half a head taller than me. Puberty hit girls earlier than boys so they start to grow faster earlier, even more so in this world. Me being short has always been a sore point and being among the shortest in the whole year does not help it either.

"Go bother someone else wall-flower", and pointedly ignore her while channeling just enough chakra in tenketsu for the leaf to stick. Then he lowered output just below the required and watch as the leaf kept sticking. He gradually kept lowering it until the leaf slowly slipped on his skin before briefly catching it with tenketsu between his eyes and letting it fall. Satisfied, he once again picked up the fallen leaf and went back. But his masterful control was missed by everyone but Hana and Fusao Sensei. Later nearly smiled and wrote something in his file. Hana too knew she just watched something amazing but she could not put her finger on it. She too tried to do what he did but to no avail.

"So students, this is it for today. Now move along.", Fusao watched every student but his gaze lingered a moment longer on Itsuki.

Standing up, I give one last look towards Hana who was still trying to futilely replicate my little stunt, fully aware of Fusao Sensei's attention. Walking up to the orphanage, he directly went to his room while ignoring everyone else. Flooping straight on his bed, he tried to calm his beating heart. He did not show his chakra control trick because he wanted to show off, he did what he did by carefully taking into account all the risks and rewards.

A few weeks ago he was able to disable the protective seals on academy archives and shuffle through the records. He was able to shuffle through records of students that had vanished. It was a shock seeing records of missing children still intact. Perhaps because Root is still legal, while just being a very well kept secret; they did not think to traces remove traces or perhaps academy and Danzo does not work as closely as he previously assumed. Whatever the reason, it worked to his favor. By going through the record he looked for any pattern. Everyone who went missing had been a recipient of a regular stipend meaning either an orphan or from a poor civilian family, in both cases if they went missing, no one even a little important will care. Second, every one of the children had an above-average chakra, a high taijutsu score, and a few other factors. Surprisingly, chakra control was not among them.

Moreover, the second form of selection is in the form of recommendations by their instructor. Instructors are told to recommend students for various programs like the Fastrack barrier unit program, direct recruitment into the Intelligence division, or something along these lines but the Barrier unit comprises less than three at a moment. Even when working in shifts, it would at max be three teams working together and a few reserves. The intelligence division comprises almost entirely of Nara clan members. The same problem can be seen with other so-called recruitment and considering said students were never heard from again, it's safe to assume most if not all ended in the Root program.

He noticed one more detail, Fusao sensei only ever recommended one student in his five-year-long career as a teacher. He never did it again, not even considering every recommended student is marked as a huge positive in a teacher's file.

'Then again, he is very perceptive. He must have noticed something after the student vanished. But it could also be that he never had anyone good enough to recommend. Perhaps he noticed but never bothered. Perhaps the whole recommendation was a hoax created after a child goes missing to provide a cover.'

He looked outside the window and noticed night has arrived.

'It is getting very difficult to cover up in class. Every test has a hidden test. Every quiz has a hidden agenda. Creative writing tested loyalty. The drawing exercises are a preliminary test to know your sealing potential and evaluated your emotional state. IQ tests were taken almost every day and each child was carefully monitored through these. Such a system is posily designed to root out child spies planted by enemies as well as see that children are doctrine to the philosophy of Konoha. All this effort to get perfect teen soldiers. Maintaining a high enough score to not get removed from the academy while maintaining it low enough to not appear outstanding while simultaneously appearing as normal on those hidden tests was not easy. But neither Anbu nor Root ever recruits one type of Ninjas; that are those combat medics.'

'If I could establish myself as a combat medic aspirant, I could get a lot of leeways.'

Expanding my chakra sense, I securely place my mother's scroll inside my jacket and kept a lookout.

'Another peculiar detail was that everyone recommended never returned after the first day of the new academy year. Which means if anyone's gonna come for me, they will come tonight.'

Sensing as most of the orphanage had gone to sleep, Itsuki forms his hands into a ram seal.

'If worst comes to worst, it's not like I am truly helpless'

A diamond-shaped, dark-colored seal materialized on his forehead.