Naruto finally understood the purpose of her experiment. And it was true that if they could make that happen, they would no longer have to destroy nature to extract resources. Such a development would drastically change the energy situation in every country. If they could substitute chakra for all kinds of energy, then the Land of Fire, with the leading shinobi village of the Five Great Nations, might jump to first place as a major energy provider.
That was if she could actually make it work.
“Artificially transforming chakra,” he said. “How do you do that?”
“How do you do it?” Chihare asked in response, staring into Naruto’s eyes. “How on earth do you change chakra into wind?”
“Err.” Naruto looked anywhere but at her. Ever since his episodes had begun, not only had he not changed chakra into wind, he hadn’t even kneaded chakra. But normally he opened the palm of his hand and …
Wait. How do I do it?
“I go thud and then bam, I guess,” Naruto replied earnestly, and hearing it, Chihare let out a sigh.
“All you shinobi say the same incomprehensible thing. Well, I’m sure the perception is difficult to put into words. But at the very least, you must work with the idea, the intention of trying to give the chakra the form of wind. Just like when you move your arms and legs, your brain gives the command to knead chakra, the chakra receives that, and changes.”
She was right. As long as Naruto didn’t have the intention of changing chakra into wind, the chakra flowing through his body wouldn’t transform.
“And a command from the brain—it’s an electrical signal. Which means that, for instance, when you use the Rasengan, your brain is giving your chakra something close to an electrical signal. Perhaps we can artificially change chakra into the Rasengan. Making that a reality is the focus of my experiments.”
Chihare showed Naruto the petri dish in her hand. At the bottom of the flat glass dish was a viscous, transparent liquid.
“This petri dish contains chakra I made into a liquid with special technology. By giving different types of stimuli to this chakra and observing its behavior, I’m examining the state change mechanism.”
“Stimuli?”
“There are a number of them. Electrical current, temperature change, physical shocks. At any rate, my search is quite exhaustive.”
Chihare opened a notebook set against the end of the shelf, a record of her experiments thus far. It was filled with the conditions and results of experiments in neat, delicate characters.
Oxygen treatment followed by heat stimulus: 42.5°C, no reaction. Oxygen treatment followed by heat stimulus: 42.6°C, no reaction. Oxygen treatment followed by heat stimulus: 42.7°C, no reaction.
Raising or lowering the temperature, injecting drugs with electricity applied—she changed the amount and time bit by bit, repeating the experiment under a variety of different conditions.
“Hey?” Naruto asked. “What’s this ‘jellyfish stimulus’ here?”
“It’s extract from a jellyfish,” Chihare replied. “Research shows that it emits a stimulus similar to the electrical signal of the brain, so I tried introducing it to the chakra. But I didn’t get any hits.”
“Wow.” Naruto sighed in genuine admiration.
Doing the same work over and over for an extended period required patience and perseverance. And with no guarantee that this effort would bear fruit, it must have been tough to keep pushing forward. No wonder she’d want so desperately to protect her data.
“There’s one other thing I want you to see. I have it set outside though,” Chihare said, and the two of them went up the stairs and out of the house, not using the front door with the camphor tree but, instead, the back door that faced the alley.
A vehicle with two tires was parked there, leaning against the shrubs.
“What’s this?” he asked. “A cart? It’s kind of an odd shape for that though.”
“It’s a system bike. You use it to go places. This is the seat.” Chihare straddled the seat to show him. Her forward-leaning posture was like she was on horseback.
“You can go places on this?!” he cried. “That’s super handy!”
Unlike the experiment for chakra pluripotency, Naruto immediately grasped this one.
The development of a vehicle for individual use had been a topic of discussion since the time of the Sixth Hokage. Development had progressed centered around the institute and Katasuke’s research team, but fuel was a constant issue.
“This bike burns gas to move,” Chihare explained. “The Land of Fire mainly imports gas from the Land of Wind and the Land of Kizahashi, right? But if we keep taking natural gas, it will run out at some point.”
Given its serious dependence on trade, the Land of Kizahashi in particular was extracting gas without limit, but in the Land of Wind, the Kazekage had already begun to put limits on exports. His pretext was to keep prices from dropping too low, but he likely also wanted to prevent the gas from being depleted before an alternative energy source could be developed.
Chihare rapped lightly on the small tank attached to the bike.
“I’d like to revitalize personal transportation, but there’s not enough fuel for everyone to go riding around. But my research might resolve that concern. If I can transform chakra and artificially produce Kizahashi gas for fuel, then we would no longer be dependent on the unstable supply from other countries.”
“Amazing!” Naruto cried with childlike glee, his eyes shining. “If you can make that happen, then everyone’ll get to ride one of these and go wherever they want whenever they want!”
“Yes, well. That’s the idea.”
When he stared directly at her, Chihare averted her eyes, looking anxious. “If you’re thinking that way, I wish you’d help with my experiment. Would you, um, let me borrow the goggles that let you see chakra?”
“Huh? These?” Naruto touched the frame of the goggles.
Chihare pulled a glass stick out of her pocket. “I use this ‘scouter’ measurement device to see if the chakra in the petri dishes has transformed. I bring the tip of the scouter close to the liquefied chakra and check if the numbers are different from the previous day. But it’s quite time-intensive. I have to go around and measure each and every one of them. If I could confirm visually using those goggles, I would finish faster.”
“Ohh. Sure, I can lend them to you.” He himself had borrowed them from Orochimaru, but he quickly decided that Orochimaru wouldn’t particularly care if he passed them on. “But I don’t think you’ll be able to use them if you just throw them on without any training. I still haven’t quite gotten the hang of them, and I’m a shinobi.”
“What?!”