Naruto: Tango with Death

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Confused, I couldn't but ask, "What's the problem?"

I turned to look at the Sacred Water Pool, but there didn't seem to be any problem.

I turned my gaze back to the Owl Sage, who, with a calmer voice now, said, "Why don't you try using a Jutsu?"

I tilted my head and tried to use my Clone Jutsu. To my shock, as I tried to move my chakra, I felt like I was trying to move a giant pile of sticky glue. Moving the whole chunk wasn't really a problem, but finer movements were hard.

Not unlike a certain blond haired student in the original manga, a distorted version of me appeared at my side.

Freaked out, I immediately cancelled it and asked the Owl Sage, "What happened to me?!"

The Owl Sage shook its head and said, "If I didn't pull you out, I'm afraid you would have continued until you became unable to mould your chakra."

If I had continued? Does this mean my condition was caused by my absorption of Yang Chakra?

Seeing my confusion, the Owl Sage shook his head, and I suddenly felt a slight pain on my arm. Looking down, I was bleeding as I had been cut.

Even more confused than before, I sent a glance at the Owl Sage, who explained, "Look at your wound carefully."

I looked back down, and after a moment, I realized what the Owl Sage was talking about. My wound was healing much faster than usual. This meant my theory was correct, partly so at least.

The Owl Sage said, "Chakra is said to be a mix of physical and spiritual energy, that is Yang and Yin. However, that is slightly inaccurate. Or rather, people have made a wrong assumption out of that statement."

I couldn't help but tilt my head, and he explained, "Since it's a merge of the two, you assumed the ratio of Yang to Yin was 1, right?"

I nodded, it was indeed my impression that my chakra was made up of as much Yang Chakra than Yin Chakra. However, it seemed I was wrong.

The Owl Sage shook his head, "It isn't the case. Everyone's Chakra is different, some have more Yang Chakra, while others have more Yin Chakra. Never do they have as much of the two though."

I asked, "How so?"

The Owl Sage replied, "Because having a balanced Yin and Yang is the biggest prerequisite to house Natural Energy in your body, that is Sage Mode, but you're too young to know about this."

This was a surprising discovery. But what did this have to do with my condition? No one would answer my question in my mind, so I asked him instead.

He explained, "Yang represents the body, and its strength. Yin represents the mind, and its wisdom. A strong Yang makes the body stronger in all aspects, and gives Chakra a raw strength. A strong Yin makes the mind faster, and gives you more control over your Chakra. Do you understand now?"

Realization did strike me as I asked, "I lost control over my chakra because I rapidly increased my Yang Chakra without doing anything for my Yin Chakra?"

The Owl Sage nodded, and I asked, "So if I always had a good control over my chakra, it was because I had a stronger Yin than Yang? And now I reversed that situation?"

The Owl Sage once again nodded, and finished the explanation, "I don't know how you did it, but you not only increased your quantity of Yang Chakra, but also its quality by absorbing the one from the Sacred Water. Your body has become much stronger, and you will need much less chakra to use a jutsu than before, but you will find it very hard to control your chakra. Even your body will feel hard to follow."

I scratched my cheek, a little embarrassed, and asked, "To resolve this problem, I must strengthen my Yin Chakra then?"

The Owl Sage explained, "Indeed you must, and as fast as possible. To do so, meditation, studying or anything that involves using your mind will help."

I nodded, and the Owl Sage turned around as he said, "Considering your condition, you hold no chance at mastering Stealth, so we'll switch to another training. Are you scared of the dark, girl?"

Scared of the dark? I was tempted to make a joke, but considering who I was speaking to, and the current situation, it probably wasn't the time, so I replied respectfully while quickly putting on my clothes, "I am not."

The Owl Sage waited for me to put on my clothes before he started walking.

I followed him as he led me through the Fukuro Temple, and before long we reached a giant statue. With a glance, I recognized it as the Sage of Six Paths, Hagoromo Otsotsuki. But I wasn't supposed to know about him, so the Owl Sage made a vague explanation.

"This is a revered figure in the Summon World, and should have been in your world about him. Unfortunately, not much is known about him, but he has left several artefacts through both of our worlds. This statue is one of them, or rather, it houses one of them."

The Owl Sage approached the statue, and continued, "Touching the statue will send you into it. It will deprive you of any sensations towards the outside world, and speed up your thoughts by many times."

I couldn't help but show surprise at the power of the artefact, and how convenient it was. I asked, "What is the artefact within the statue? And does the Sacred Water also originate from an artefact of this man?"

The Owl Sage answered, "Inside the statue is the mat the Sage of Six Paths used to meditate on. It was gifted to us by the sage because most of our strengths relies on Yin Chakra, such as Stealth. As for the Sacred Water, it is of a natural source. Now, enough questions, and get in there."

I nodded, and without another word, I touched the statue. The moment I did, I felt the world around me disappear, turning completely dark. The world also turned completely silent, and tasteless.

Be it my vision, my hearing, my taste, my touch or any of my senses, they were all shut down as I felt nothing outside of my body. However, it only allowed me to completely focus on what was happening inside of my body.

Normally, no matter how much of my attention I put on what was happening inside my body, a large part of my unconscious would keep track of what was happening outside. However, now that I couldn't feel anything outside of my body, the entirety of my mind was on the insides of my body.

I had a vision clearer than ever before on my inner body, and it felt great. However, as I tried to mould some of my chakra, I once again felt I was trying to move a giant behemoth of glue.

But I only wanted to move a very small piece of it, so even with my current situation I was able to continue doing what I wanted to do.

Since any mental exercise you increase my Yin Chakra, then I decided to turn this into an opportunity. My experiments with my Tenketsu Points was bound to take a lot of time, and was very taxing on my mind because I memorized everything, so it was the perfect exercise to train my Yin Chakra. Moreover, I would be doing something useful.

And so that's exactly what I did. While in the statue, my sense of time seemed warped as I had nothing to help me know what time it was, or how long I was in there.