"Oho, that's good, and then what Sasuke?"

"And then! I grappled him to the ground and twisted my leg over him into an armbar and pulled! And then he tapped out!" Sasuke said, positively bouncing on the couch with excitement.

The old man showered some more praise on the baldie whose egg-like head was lightly blushing at the compliments.

'Get him any warmer and he'll go from a raw egg to a soft-boiled one...' I thought, not doing a good job of hiding my annoyance.

I'm the one who requested Hiruzen to come here, but from the moment he stepped foot in the house, Sasuke's been vying for his attention, for the past 5 minutes it's just been them both chatting while Tomo and I sat beside them awkwardly.

Seriously, sometimes Sasuke's excitement makes him act selifish-

"Oh, gramps! It's good that you came here, Aoki's been having some trouble with the Jutsus and I don't know what to do either! Can you please help him!?" Sasuke asked, toning down the bouncing and becoming a little serious.

Tch. So annoying I can't even complain in peace.

I was doing the thing where I become a dick for a while when I'm annoyed again. I chided myself for a moment before focusing on the Kage.

"Gramps, I've been trying to learn the Academy three for months now... and I have nothing to show for it," I revealed, frowning a little as I did so.

The Hokage hummed for a second and asked me to do the Jutsus for him to see, as he requested that of me, Sasuke jumped up and herded Tomo, as well as the kids, upstairs and gave me a thumbs up.

'Thank you, Sasu.' I said internally.

I promised to make this up to him in the future and demonstrated the fucked-up versions of the Jutsu that I had learned to the Hokage. I saved the Substitution Jutsu for last and instead of tripping, I only lightly stumbled. Progress.

"Oh, I see... that is quite troublesome..." mumbled Hiruzen, stroking his chin as I finished my demonstration..

I nodded back, "Can you help me Gramps? I'm falling behind some people in my class already"

The Hokage assured me to do his best and asked me to turn around, positioning myself in the same way I did with Tokei way back then. I sat on the floor as instructed and waited until I felt the familiar sensation of foreign Chakra entering my body.

The Hokage's Chakra followed the same path as Tokei's did but diverged a while later, heading to the central well of my Chakra instead of following along with the natural circulation.

This continued for over ten minutes, it was an uncomfortable sensation as the Hokage poked and prodded around my Chakra but it was nowhere near as painful as Yakumi telling everyone that he'd "surpassed Aoki" and trying to provoke me into a fight.

Ugh.

I can't wait for Taijutsu spars to begin next week...

I recognised that the session was coming to a close by feeling Hiruzen pulling his Chakra out of me. I turned to him, only to be met with a stupified expression, one I'd never seen on him before.

"What is it, Gramps?" I asked, growing more worried at his sour face. Normally, Hiruzen had an amicable or stoic expression; regardless of what he was feeling, it was always controlled.

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This was the first time I had seen him slip up... and it worried me.

Was he being careless? Or was my body that fucked up, that even the Hokage was surprised?

"Aoki, your Chakra is very... peculiar," Hiruzen said in a measured tone, it seemed he was taking care to tip-toe around the subject instead of telling me how he felt about it outright.

"Gramps, please just tell me... what's wrong with me?" I pressed him for more info, not satisfied with how political his reaction was.

Hiruzen took a moment before ushering me back to my seat, plopping down opposite me.

The Hokage took another moment before speaking again, "I'm sure that Tokei and Jinbei have taught you the basics of Chakra and how the energy originates... yes?" he asked.

I nodded, both my teachers had done a very good job at distilling the once ethereal energy into a science.

"Borne of spiritual and physical energies, our Chakra courses through our bodies and allows us to perform Jutsu, but for you, the situation is a little more complicated," he said, saying the last part a little awkwardly.

"You see..." he continued with a pause, "The quality and quantity of Chakra depends on those two energies... the ratio of the two can heavily impact how the Chakra within your body manifests and acts," Hiurzen explained.

I remember lightly touching on this subject with Tokei but he brushed past the topic as if it wasn't worth our attention.

"You may not be aware of the intricacies of this, as for most, this is never an issue. But within you, I can sense a great imbalance... your Chakra is thicker than any I've ever encountered, Aoki. Watery, fluid Chakra suggests an overpowering of physical energies over spiritual," Hiruzen lightly shook the glass of water next to him to drive his point forward, "but the viscosity of your suggests the overpowering of spiritual energies over the physical one."

At that moment, it felt as if my worst fears had come true.

The best case scenario was that this was an issue Hiruzen could fix with a wave of Hiruzen's hand, the worst case scenario had to do with Orochimaru, I guessed that his tampering might've fucked up my body. This was neither...

An overpowering of spiritual energy.

The reason for this... is me.

Souls are real, this is a fact I've come to terms with, but the uniqueness of my soul compared to others of this realm wasn't something I ever thought about too deeply. As the soul's energy has a direct effect on Chakra, it only stands to reason that my Chakra would be as unique as my soul is.

Hiruzen let me stew for a second, probably thinking that I was swallowing the information instead of theorising.

"Gramps." I looked at the Kage, resolute, "How do I fix this?"

Hiruzen thought for a second, taking a moment to answer, "There are a few ways, some manage to bring balance to the energies by increasing the quality of the one which is lacking, others use Sealing Jutsus to inhibit the energy that overpowers to allow for healthy growth... although I don't recommend that last one."

Fine. Just get strong enough that my physical energies are on par with my spiritual energies right? The goal was a little arbitrary but one I could surely see myself working towards.

"But that isn't guaranteed... we know so little about your situation that it's difficult to come up with a solution off the cuff..." eluded the Hokage, his tone shifting a little into a higher pitch. It was slight, but I could pick it up.

I know that my spiritual energies overpowered my physical ones, but my body was still exceptional. Whenever Ryoma was trying to annoy me, whenever Tomo was mad at me, whenever Yakumi tried to provoke me, their tones told a story the same way their words did. From sight, to smell to hearing, my senses were dialled way up from my last body.

Hiruzen always speaks in a measured tone, every word is deliberate and purposeful. But just now... I noticed a hint of a change, something I never really noticed before. It was slight and I might've easily ignored it, but my worried state had me focused.

Why was he speaking that way? Why the change? Was it an accident?

I felt that I might be looking too deeply into it but a voice from inside urged me to think further; explore the situation more.

Intentions dictate your words, but intentions can also subconsciously affect your tone. His words and intentions have a discrepancy between them... why?

Could it be that he's trying to get me to feel a certain way? Say a certain thing? Do a certain action? Possibly.

Hm.

I fell silent for a moment.

'Come to think of it...' A wayward thought popped into my head as the Hokage kept looking at me, waiting for my response.

'Why didn't Jinbei do the same thing the Hokage just did?! I've been hounding the man for so long... but he did jackshit other than telling me to smack a leaf on my head! Even Tokei, a Chunin, could do it... so a Special Jounin should be able to as well!'

I looked at Hiruzen as he smiled reassuringly at me. For some reason, it didn't feel as sincere as before.

'Somethings off here...'