As the Jinchūriki of the Nine-Tails, and the orphan of the Fourth Hokage, Naruto held a uniquely sensitive position in the village.
Although the Anbu operatives monitored Naruto constantly, their presence served more as protection than surveillance. If Naruto were to die, the Nine-Tails sealed within him would perish as well. Aside from the lengthy regeneration cycle of a Tailed Beast, Konoha would face tremendous strain—manpower, resources, and strategic effort would all be required just to locate and re-capture the Nine-Tails. With so many outside villages coveting the Tailed Beasts, the Third Hokage, along with Shimura Danzō and other key figures, could not afford to allow any harm to come to Naruto, regardless of how ostracized he was in public.
This was one of the underlying reasons Danzō once proposed that Naruto be brought into the ROOT organization for training. Of course, this was primarily out of his own ambition. If he could successfully brainwash and manipulate Naruto, Danzō believed it would bring him one step closer to claiming the Hokage seat for himself.
Thanks to this secret but ever-present protection, Naruto knew that even if he wandered into the Forest of Death—a place far more dangerous than the forest he trained in—he would still not be in real danger.
Now that Naruto had successfully extracted his chakra, this area—once only a place where he gathered food and materials to survive—would become his main training ground for the next few years.
Naruto didn't worry about Anbu reporting his training activities to the Third Hokage. Although Hiruzen Sarutobi did little for him personally, Naruto had come to understand that unless he did something truly alarming or threatening to the village, the Hokage would not interfere. Training to control chakra on one's own was far from suspicious; in fact, it was seen as a normal first step for any aspiring ninja.
Even when Naruto had first managed to extract chakra, Hiruzen had already been informed through Anbu surveillance. But since no outsiders were involved, and Naruto hadn't learned this from anyone suspicious, the Third did not intervene. It wasn't uncommon for children growing up in a ninja village to figure out chakra extraction on their own.
The truth is, chakra extraction is no secret. It's the most basic foundation of all shinobi arts. Anyone raised in a hidden village, especially Konoha, has at least heard of the method—even those who aren't from ninja clans. Whether one can extract chakra, however, depends on innate potential and compatibility. That's the key difference.
No Hidden Village deliberately hides chakra training techniques. Even the weakest genin strengthens a village's fighting force. If chakra refinement alone turned someone into a ninja, then every villager would be one. In truth, becoming a ninja requires more than just knowledge—it takes talent, endurance, and purpose.
Beyond the Five Great Shinobi Nations, minor villages barely have a handful of trained ninja. The distribution of genin, chūnin, and jōnin is heavily skewed. That's why even wandering rogue ninja often know how to extract and use chakra.
For Naruto to discover chakra refinement alone was certainly impressive. But because it was self-learned and done in isolation, with no apparent guidance or danger to the village, the higher-ups didn't interfere.
Furthermore, no matter how controversial, Naruto was still the son of the Fourth Hokage. As long as he didn't threaten the safety or interests of Konoha, Hiruzen would tolerate a degree of autonomy in his actions.
Naruto couldn't fully grasp the political calculations behind the Third Hokage's decisions, but he had a strong intuition. He could at least speculate correctly based on patterns he'd observed over time.
"Alright, today begins tree-climbing practice!"
After arriving in the secluded forest he was so familiar with, Naruto quickly located a towering tree with a broad, sturdy trunk. He raised his head to look up, eyes filled with determination. His small face wore a resolute smile as he nodded to himself.
Refining chakra, learning to control it, and expanding its volume—these were the building blocks of strength for any shinobi.
Though Naruto hadn't studied the original timeline too deeply in his previous life, he remembered enough of the story to grasp key lessons. One of those was chakra control training: tree climbing and water walking.
By focusing chakra to the soles of the feet and controlling both the output and the stability of the flow, a ninja could hone their chakra control with precision. It was a method demonstrated even by the legendary Sannin in the original work.
For Naruto now, this training wasn't just about power—it was also about survival. Better chakra control would help him in everyday life, from foraging wild fruit to fishing, and would allow him to conserve energy more efficiently.
Even though the Nine-Tails' chakra constantly interfered with his own, making fine control harder, Naruto saw it as an advantage. If he could master chakra under these conditions, his control would eventually surpass even highly skilled shinobi.
One day, he would confront Kurama directly.
And once the interference was neutralized, his power would grow by leaps and bounds.
Recalling the mental cues and techniques he'd seen and read about from the original timeline, Naruto formed a hand seal and began channeling chakra carefully to the soles of his feet. Not too much, not too little.
Too little, and he wouldn't adhere to the tree at all.
Too much, and he'd blast chunks out of it.
"Yosh! First step—let's do this!"
With his chakra level adjusted to what he believed was just right, Naruto took a deep breath. His eyes sharpened with focus. He stepped forward and placed one foot onto the tree trunk.
Crack—
As expected, his first attempt failed.
Despite his best effort to maintain balance, the chakra output was imbalanced—partially due to inexperience, and partially due to the ever-present Nine-Tails chakra subtly destabilizing his own. The instant his foot touched the bark, the pressure was off, and the wood beneath him split slightly. Losing his center of gravity, Naruto stumbled back.
But he wasn't discouraged. He twisted mid-air, landed lightly on the ground, and analyzed what went wrong.
"Too much chakra?"
He had feared applying too little and overcompensated, resulting in excessive chakra output that shattered the tree's surface. It was exactly the kind of mistake he had expected.
It was only the first failure.
Naruto wasn't disheartened at all—this was just the beginning.
He understood well how difficult ninja training was.
Even the protagonists in the manga had to work tirelessly. In the original timeline, Naruto's mastery over elemental chakra nature had taken long, painstaking practice. Without the shadow clone technique—a cheat-level jutsu—his progress wouldn't have been nearly as fast.
Everything needed to be earned, step by step.
And Naruto was ready.