Chakra

Chakra is the life force of a person. It is made up of the physical and spiritual energies of a person and exhausting one's chakra completely can be fatal. Ninja mold this energy inside and outside their bodies to increase their abilities and perform various jutsu to affect others and the environment.

Chakra goes through the body via the chakra circulatory system, a system within the body that functions much like the blood circulatory system. The chakra pathways are connected to all organs and muscles within the body and numerous points, called tenketsu, help relegate the flow of chakra through the body. The Hyuuga clan has a bloodline that allows them to see this system and they have developed a fighting style to close the tenketsu of an opponent because of that bloodline.

Sources

Standard Chakra Sources

Physical energy comes from physical activity. The more in shape someone is physically, the more physical energy they have to mold into chakra. Spiritual energy, meanwhile, comes from mental activity. Smarter, more knowledgeable people have more spiritual energy available. Molding the two together results in chakra.

Nature Energy

Nature energy is a completely different type of energy compared the spiritual and physical energy used to make standard chakra. Nature energy exists, as the name suggests, in nature. Being able to access nature energy requires either a shortcut method or being able to meditate absolutely still and become one with nature.

Types

Standard

Standard, or non-elemental, chakra is the earliest and most basic form of chakra. This form of chakra is used for most non-elemental Ninjutsu, Genjutsu, internal boosts with Taijutsu, and most bloodlines. Use of this chakra type only requires the ability to mold chakra, though use of it for Ninjutsu and Genjutsu also requires the ability to express chakra outside the body.

Standard chakra takes on a bluish color when manifested sufficiently outside the body.

Elemental

Elemental chakra is a transformed version of standard chakra. If a person has an affinity for an element, they can alter their molded chakra into the element through training. This ability to alter chakra into an element is required for most high-level ninjutsu. People cannot alter chakra into an element they lack an affinity for, and having more than one affinity within the "official" elements is fairly rare. Those with multiple affinities tend to have elemental combination bloodlines, where two affinities can be combined to form a new "element". The Elemental Lands only considers five types of elemental chakra as such. All other types, including jutsu resulting from elemental combination bloodlines, fall under non-elemental jutsu.

Elemental chakra tends to take on the appearance of its element when sufficiently manifested outside the body.

Medical

Another version of standard chakra, medical chakra is used to heal injuries. The ability to create medical chakra requires a large amount of chakra control, to the point that few people are capable of forming it. Some theorize that it is, like elemental chakra, a chakra type that requires having the affinity for it. They point to this due to the lack of non-medical affinities in some of the top medic ninjas such as Tsunade, Shizune, and Sakura Uzumaki nee Haruno.

Medical chakra appears green when manifested sufficiently outside the body.

Senjutsu

Senjutsu chakra results from pulling in and balancing nature energy evenly with both physical and spiritual energy. Done correctly, this forms a special chakra type that results in the person being in "Sage Mode" with access to Senjutsu. If too little is pulled, nothing happens. If too much is pulled, bad things happen to the puller.

Because nature energy can only be collected when absolutely still, it will not recharge in battle due to the inability for a person to remain completely still long enough to recharge. This places a time limit on how long a ninja can stay in Sage Mode, with high level techniques draining the energy faster.

Demon

Demon chakra is not well known due to its source. Except in specific cases, demon chakra is poisonous to humans. The only exceptions are jinchuuriki - those who have had demons sealed within them all of their lives. However, using too much demon chakra can damage the jinchuuriki. Also, the more chakra pulled by the jinchuuriki at once, the more the person transforms into the demon sealed within. At full power, the jinchuuriki takes on the physical appearance of the sealed demon.

The color of demon chakra varies depending on the demon. For instance, the Nibi jinchuuriki showed blue chakra when pulling on its chakra, while the Kyuubi jinchuuriki had red-orange chakra when drawing on its chakra.

Medical Problems

Chakra Exhaustion

Chakra exhaustion can be a serious issue for a ninja. If a ninja stops using chakra when they begin to tire, it is only mild exhaustion. Those that push past that point may collapse and fall unconscious. This is more serious, as it typically only occurs when the body is low on the chakra needed to keep the body going. At this point, it is advised to seek medical attention for the person to ensure the situation does not worsen. In the worst case, a person empties their reserves too far and the body begins failing. In extreme cases, a person may completely exhaust their chakra and simply fall over dead.

In nearly all cases, food and rest, and not using chakra, is sufficient to recover from exhaustion. Food replenishes one's physical energy while rest does the same for one's spiritual energy. Should someone fall unconscious, steps should be taken when possible to provide nutrients to the patient, though sufficient rest will eventually refill the reserves enough for consciousness. In the event a person suffers extreme exhaustion, medical attention is required due to the risk of death. Chakra transfusions and soldier pills are key to quickly fill one's reserves before too much damage occurs.

Chakra Overload

While not having enough chakra in your system can kill someone, having too much in one's system can also kill you. Forcing too much chakra through the pathways can result in stressing the pathways. If done properly, this will enlarge one's pathways to allow more chakra to flow through at once. Doing it too often or not allowing recovery time for the pathways between stressing the pathways can result in overstressing them. Overstressed pathways that do not fully heal can hinder the system's ability to move chakra around, and in extreme cases can result in death. A worse issue comes if so much chakra is pushed through in a short period that the pathways are ruptured. Ruptured pathways are permanently unusable in any way. Damage incurred from chakra overload is currently considered permanent and untreatable, be it from overstressing or rupturing.

Overstressing pathways is commonly referred to as "burning" the pathways or "burning out" the system.

Nature Energy

Nature energy is very potent, and can have adverse effects on the body if it is not perfectly balanced with physical and spiritual energy. Having too much nature energy pulled results in the puller transforming into a creature and becoming a statue when the process is complete. Given that the only known Sages have been trained by toads, the resulting statue will likely be a toad statue.

The only known cure for this condition is for the person to be struck by a specific staff before the transformation is completed. The staff in question is in the hands of the Toad summons and is only brought out when training someone at the toads's home mountain.

Chakra Stats

Chakra Capacity

Chakra Capacity is a measure of how much chakra a person has to draw on before running out. Large reserves are necessary for performing high level ninjutsu or some summonings. The generally accepted method for increasing one's reserves is to regularly train until mild chakra exhaustion with recovery time between sessions. Much like exercising a muscle, the reserves will gradually grow. Some chakra control exercises can double as capacity increasing exercises as well.

This is measured for roleplaying purposes on the scale 1-10.

Chakra Control

Chakra Control is a measure of how efficiently a person can use their chakra. High chakra control results in less waste, allowing the person to go longer before exhausting their chakra. Low chakra control can result in overloading low level jutsu. High chakra control is necessary for medical jutsu and genjutsu, as well as some ninjutsu. There are a large variety of chakra control exercises one can perform to increase their control over time, and these can vary from region to region based on available resources. Many of Konoha's exercises involve trees and water due to both's abundance in their area. Suna's exercises are more oriented to desert survival skills.

For roleplaying purposes, this skill is measured on the scale 1-10.

Related

Chakra Control Jutsu

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