Becoming a ninja: chakra, the academy and elements

A pawn is a ninja when they have World of Naruto's Chakra trait. It opens the Ninjutsu, Taijutsu and Genjutsu tabs. Without it, a pawn can't mold chakra.

Where it comes from:

• Genes: every clan gene (all of World of Naruto's and all of ours, the Ryuugan too) and every element gene brings it. A pawn born into a clan is always a ninja.
• Backstories: the 33 ninja-trained backstories (academy hopeful, clan heir, genin team leader, missing-nin, field medic and the like). See Names and backstories.
• Ninja from the villages: their ninja always have it, so a recruited ninja does too.
• By chance: a small chance on any pawn.
• Awakening: see below.

Children (Biotech). A colonist child who studies in the academy (lessons, the school desk, reading, play: the Biotech learning need) awakens chakra the first time they learn. A letter says so. From then on the academy raises their class levels as before. See Ranks.

Adults. An adult without chakra can awaken it under a sensei:

• Select the pawn and use the Sensei button to pick a jōnin or the village leader.
• Send the pawn to the chakra study apparatus ("Study chakra at"), one session a day, with the sensei awake within 15 cells.
• Each session has a 10% chance; by the 12th session it always happens.

Without the sensei nearby, a session does nothing for chakra (a message says why). Once awakened, the three ninja tabs open and a chakra paper can show their nature.

Each element gene opens that element's trees: World of Naruto's release tree and our arts tree.

Clan genes can carry elements too: Sarutobi opens fire, water, wind and lightning; Ice Release opens wind and water; the Kazeraikou carry water, lightning and wind. Clan-only elements (ice, sand, crystal, paper) come with their own clan tree.

How far a ninja can go in their elements is set by their ninja build: how many element trees they may enter and which go up to S rank.

A slip of chakra paper shows a ninja's nature.

• With an element gene, the paper shows that element.
• With no element at all, the paper finds a leaning: one of the five basic natures, always the same for that pawn. At first it is only a leaning (+5% Ninjutsu XP). The element isn't theirs yet, so its trees stay closed.

Nature training makes that leaning theirs. Every session at the chakra study apparatus trains it: 40 sessions alone, or about 14 with a sensei nearby (each counts three). Then the nature becomes a real gene, its trees open, and the ninja's children can inherit it. Training needs room in the build: if all of the build's element tree slots are in use (or the build has no ninjutsu), a message says so and nothing is gained.

• Technique scrolls (missions, the village archive, village traders) teach elements the ninja already has. About one scroll in 33 is a rare find that opens an element the ninja doesn't have, with a letter to say so. An element learned that way is the ninja's own, but it isn't in their blood, so children don't inherit it.
• Written scrolls from a scribe desk: a scroll of an element technique can only be read by a ninja with that element ("Needs fire nature").
• Rare arts (Rasengan, Chidori, Hiraishin and others) have their own forbidden scrolls. See Rare arts and legendary blades.

Clan and element genes are inherited genes, so children can get them:

• a gene both parents carry: the child always gets it;
• a gene only one parent carries: the child gets it half the time;
• a bloodline grafted on (a Syndicate grafter or a graft operation) is not inherited; an element learned from a rare scroll isn't either; a nature won through nature training is.

Two clans: a child can carry two clans, for example a Ryuugan father and a Nara mother. Both genes work and both clan trees open. If each parent carries only their own clan, about a quarter of the children get both, half get one, and a quarter neither.

Clan eyes: the Sharingan, Byakugan and Ryuugan block each other: a pawn can only use one. A child of two eye clans (say Uchiha and Hyuuga) always gets at least one of the parents' eyes. A child who inherits both uses one; the other stays dormant, and can still be passed on to their own children.

Any child who inherits an active clan or element gene is born with chakra. The others can awaken it in the academy.