Ever since Naruto learned how to refine chakra, he continued his daily tree-punching routine in the small grove by the river.
Day after day, it became almost second nature to him.
Even when he was still half-asleep, his body would automatically walk to the grove. By the time he fully woke up, he'd already be going "Bang! Bang! Bang!" on the trees.
Unfortunately, he hadn't made much progress with the Clone Technique yet.
In his past life, he had watched countless ninjas in anime perform clones effortlessly, like it was second nature. But now that it was his turn, he realized it was much more complicated. Not only did he have to remember the chakra flow route within his body, but he also had to precisely control the amount of chakra he used.
Using too much or too little chakra could both lead to failure.
What complicated things even more was the presence of the Nine-Tails' chakra...
Although Kurama had restrained most of his chakra, traces of the red chakra still mixed with Naruto's blue chakra.
At first, Naruto's chakra input would be just right, but then Kurama's chakra would seep in unexpectedly.
The results were disastrous. In his earlier attempts, Naruto's clones either had missing limbs or no consciousness at all—much worse than the pitiful clones he remembered from the original series.
After a few failures, Naruto tried reducing his chakra output...
But Kurama's chakra was unpredictable. Sometimes it would appear, and sometimes it wouldn't.
At this point, Naruto fully understood why the Naruto from the original series had such a hard time with this technique. It wasn't just that Kurama was sabotaging him on purpose—sometimes, the sheer amount of the Nine-Tails' chakra was too much. Even a tiny leak could disrupt an adult ninja's chakra flow, let alone a kid like him.
Naruto tried to console himself with this reasoning, but he still couldn't help feeling frustrated with Kurama.
That damn fox had been laughing at him the entire time he was practicing the Clone Technique!
As Naruto glanced at yet another failed clone—one with only its upper half and another with just its lower half—he couldn't take it anymore.
"Hey, you stupid fox! Can you stop laughing?! You're distracting me, and that's why I can't get it right!"
"Hahahahaha!"
"I've never seen clones this ridiculous!"
Kurama completely ignored Naruto's complaints, laughing so hard he could barely breathe.
Naruto was fuming, but he channeled that anger into more practice. Fine! He'd just keep at it! His chakra reserves were large enough to let him practice for a full day and night if needed!
In his past life, he could work on plans for days without sleep. There was no way he'd give up on something as simple as a Clone Technique!
Thus, the forest echoed with the sound of "bang, bang, bang," as clones popped in and out of existence.
Failure after failure.
Kurama, seeing Naruto's determination, eventually stopped laughing.
By the thousandth attempt, Naruto finally managed to create a clone that looked somewhat normal.
Though it was a miniature version of himself, it was a step in the right direction.
After five thousand more attempts, something clicked in Naruto's mind.
Since Kurama's chakra was interfering with his...
And the Clone Technique required a precise amount of chakra...
Why not calculate the fixed amount of his own chakra needed for the jutsu, factor in the unpredictable variable of Kurama's chakra, and adjust the total accordingly?
The scroll from the Third Hokage didn't provide any specific information about how much chakra the Clone Technique required. It only described the internal chakra pathways, the hand seals, and the basic function of the jutsu, leaving the rest up to the user to figure out.
It was all trial and error, pure experience-based learning!
Naruto realized that most ninja techniques must be learned this way. They relied on intuition, trial, and experience. Those who learned quickly were praised as geniuses.
No wonder Naruto had taught Konohamaru in a similarly abstract way in the original series. It wasn't because Naruto was a bad teacher—Konohamaru learning so quickly actually proved how talented he was.
It was like when recipes vaguely say to add "a pinch of salt," or martial arts manuals describe techniques in cryptic language. Everything was left open to interpretation.
"Hey, stupid fox!"
"Is there any unit for measuring chakra?"
Though Kakashi had once compared his own chakra to Naruto's in the anime, and fans had jokingly come up with chakra as a unit of measurement, it had all been for fun. Still, Naruto wanted a more concrete system.
Fearing that Kurama wouldn't understand, Naruto tried to simplify his question.
"I mean, is there any way to measure how much chakra is needed for things like the Clone Technique?"
Kurama paused, surprised by the question.
'Why would anyone need something like that? 'He had limitless chakra, so it never occurred to him to measure it.
Still, he thought back to the days of Hashirama and Madara, as well as all the ninjas he'd encountered over the years. None of them ever seemed to care about such a thing.
"Why would you need that? No one I've ever seen has bothered with it."
Well, that solved the mystery.
Naruto's expression turned strange.
The shinobi world had been around for what, a thousand years?
How had they never thought to standardize something as basic as chakra measurement?
No wonder the shinobi were so outclassed later on by the Otsutsuki clan. They were practically begging to be crushed with their lack of progress.
No way! Now that he knew about this issue, Naruto was determined to solve it.
He'd figure out a standard unit for chakra. That way, learning jutsu would become a systematic process. He could figure out the exact amount of chakra needed, and no more guessing would be involved. The whole process would become data-driven, far more efficient than the vague, trial-and-error method they had now.
Once Naruto had made up his mind, he stopped practicing the Clone Technique and lay back against a tree.
Kurama watched, puzzled, wondering what the kid was up to. Moments later, Naruto appeared inside the sealed space.
"How should I do this...?"
Naruto scratched his chin, pacing around the grove inside the seal.
He passed by an apple tree and, without thinking, took a bite of a low-hanging fruit.
Crunch, crunch—
Chewing thoughtfully, he looked up at the sky in a pensive, almost dramatic manner.
Suddenly, his gaze shifted to the lights above the sealed space.
"I've got it!"
"I can use the wattage of light bulbs to represent chakra units!"
In the system's interface, lights—like all powered tools—didn't specifically require electricity. Any energy source would do. And since chakra was essentially another form of energy, it made sense.
Chakra could be a type of energy, right?
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