Chapter 12: Talent
"Sit down"
Yugito pointed towards the bed.
"On the bed? What training can we do on the bed?"
Sato asked with confusion but went ahead and sat down anyway.
Yugito didn't waste time and sat before him with a stool.
Now that they were sitting face to face, she can begin teaching.
"First you will refine chakra."
"Normally kids are told to exhaust themselves before refining chakra."
"But the best time for it is right after eating, it's when your body is producing energy from the food."
Rubbing his chin Sato wondered aloud.
"Then why are kids told to exhaust themselves?"
Getting into her teacher mode Yugito began speaking seriously, leaving nothing out of the explanation.
"Excercise makes you tired, when your body is out of energy it will automatically generate more."
"Sensing new energy being generated when you don't have much left is very easy."
Folding her hands, Yugito elaborated further.
"But doing this can damage your body."
"You are supposed to forcibly extract chakra when your body is already running out of steam."
"Can you see why it would be a problem?"
Sato nodded with understanding and Yugito continued.
"The technique I am telling you is safer, but it is much more difficult to sense your chakra using it."
"Mostly geniuses are the only ones who use this, but I want you to give it a try."
"This is the safest method after all."
Pointing towards himself Sato blinked.
'Is she telling me to do what only geniuses can.'
'I am a bit scared of her expectations now.'
Grumbling to himself Sato shook his head, whatever, she was the teacher.
It's not like she doesn't know about his average talent.
"I'll give it a try."
Yugito smiled at his willingness to accept the challenge and told him the chakra refining method.
Sato heard it three times back to back before he understood everything.
"Okay, I'll give it a try."
Sato said and closed his eyes.
Yugito sat there with a smile but became confused when Sato opened his eyes after two seconds.
"What's the matter? You should try it for at least three hours."
"As long as you are digesting food of some kind it's fine."
But Sato looked at her weirdly before saying.
"I sensed chakra."
"It's like a warm liquid which increases a bit when I try to refine it the way you told me to."
Yugito's eyes went comically wide.
She was left confused and had no idea how Sato could sense chakra so soon.
She didn't think he was lying to her, he wasn't that dumb, but this was truly weird.
"How did that happen? It's weird."
"Even geniuses need at least a few minutes to sense and refine chakra for the first time."
Yugito looked at Sato with buring eyes.
"Are you perhaps a genius?!"
Sato didn't know what to say to her, he knew what was going on within him the best.
It wasn't that he was some sort of chakra wizard, he had just lived an entire lifetime without chakra.
As soon as he was reborn in this body he knew there was a different sensation inside him.
That extra sensation was clearly chakra.
His ability to sense chakra came form a lifetime of not having it, while his ability to refine it on the first try was because he had a mature mind.
There was no other secret to his success.
"I don't think I am a genius sister."
"You know, I was regularly starving for years when I was wandering."
"But whenever I happened to eat a full meal, this energy used to pulse inside me."
"I just remembered the feeling of it back then."
This happened to Sato whenever he ate a full meal, he always felt a slight increase in chakra.
It's just that he had truly sensed chakra way before that incident.
But telling her he sensed it as a fetus was a very stupid thing to do.
"I see, so you exhausted your body to sense chakra, but instead of exercising you did it via starving."
"It's a very crude method, but it worked because you remembered the feeling of chakra back then."
"Not many your age could do that."
Yugito nodded with emotion, that made sense.
She was impressed by his ability to feel this low of a chakra fluctuation, even when starving he remembered it happening.
If nothing else this showed his absolute presence of mind.
"Okay, now that you know how to extract chakra, you should extract it every time you eat something."
"Stop only when you feel a strain on your body."
"After a few tries you will understand your limit, from then on stop right before you feel the strain."
Sato showed his understanding and Yugito folded her hands.
"Okay, do it, keep going until you feel the strain."
"Let's test your limit."
Sato didn't say a word, he closed his eyes and started refining chakra.
Three more hours went by before Sato opened his eyes and rubbed his belly.
"It hurts a bit."
"It feels like I did more sit-ups than I was supposed to."
Yugito who was sitting silently all this time put her hand on Sato's belly.
Sato waited patiently and let her check what she wanted to, it took her only a few seconds to take her hand back.
"Your chakra increased by about 1%"
"This speed should be consistent more or less, this is your inherent talent."
"If you refine chakra four times a day every single day for ten years, you will reach Chunin levels of chakra when you graduate."
Yugito pursued her lips, Sato's talent was really average, the data she gave Sato was simply the best possible outcome.
In reality no kid can follow a schedule for 10 years straight, they also can't always do it with the best efficiency possible.
Someone with Sato's talent should still have genin levels of chakra when they graduate.
But she had hopes for Sato, he was a calm and collected boy, he might just pull it off.
"Sato, this is just the best possible situation, if you slack off you will not go above genin chakra reserves."
"So follow this schedule without fail okay?"
Hearing Yugito's concern Sato smiled, others might have trouble following a schedule but he certainly won't.
If he didn't even have this level of awareness he wouldn't be able to survive these four years of wandering.
It wasn't as if Chunin was his limit either, he might have Chunin chakra but he will make up for it with Jonin control.
As long as he follows the training given by Yugito, becoming special Jonin by his graduation wasn't out of the question.
Advanced chapters ahead on patréon
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