{During Netero's second year in the Academy}
'Yes, that's it.
That's how it should be done.
Keep the flow steady, and don't lose concentration.'
I have to admit it, walking on the surface of the water in my bathtub wasn't what I expected my Chakra control training to be, but I can't do much about it.
I even had to do it in a crouched position, I'd hit the roof of this abusive project with my head If I were to do it standing.
Despite this little inconvenience, my Chakra control training was giving results and it was giving it fast. Honestly, I'm what they'd call a "natural" about it. That's what you get when you spend most of your 110 years of life dedicating to master both martial arts and Nen. The concept behind getting better at Chakra control, is no different from the one behind both martial arts and Nen. True dedication and gratidude towards what you're working on.
I've mastered both three walking and water walking in one day, and I've tried walking on all sort of surfaces. I'm pretty confident that now I'd be able to maintain perfect balance on even the most insidious terrains.
I now have one last thing to do, but it's pretty late. I'll just eat, exercise and pray then go to sleep.
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{The next day after school}
Instead of going home, I head to a weapon and ninja tools shop hoping to find what I want.
The Academy gave orphans money based on their performance in classes. The minimum wage was of 4k Ryo, 2.5k for the rent, and 1.5k for the rest of the expenses. I've been very careful in maintaining my grades above average avoiding to be labeled as a prodigy. Unfortunately, I couldn't manage to lose on purpose in tajiutsu spar. I just couldn't. Soon enough Iruka and the majority of my classmates were calling me a tajiutsu-genius, and to say that I never got serious. This reputation allowed me to have a 7k wage. Meaning that my performance in classes were worth 3k of ryo. That combined with my for myself, I was able to approximately 30k ryo.
After about 10 minutes of walking, I reach the shop, and enter it.
The shop appears to be well-stocked with various types of weapons displayed. Some of the weapons are worth three times my budget. I've been saving money since I read about the Chakra paper in the Chakra's theory book. It appears to be the equivalent of the water divination test in this world.
A middle-aged man greets me with a friendly smile. "Welcome to the Higurashi's weapon shop, what can I do for you?"
"Good evening." I said with a polite bow. "I was hoping to find some chakra paper, how much would that be?"
"You're very lucky, a new stock of it arrived yesterday. 1 meter of it it's worth 25k ryo."
"Is it possible to buy less than 1 meter of it?"
The book said that even a small piece would do it. No need to waste money.
"I'm afraid not, 1 meter is the smallest package we sell to customer. You must be a ninja in training, I recommend you to buy it as it's a valuable tool for a ninja." Eh, I could search for another shop, but I already tried a lot of shops before this and Chakra paper was indeed a valuable good. Most of it was usually bought by a clan, that I guess to be the Sarutobi's.
"mmm, I think I'll buy it."
"Wonderful! Anything else you need?"
"I'll take kunai for a worth of 2k ryo, thanks." Even if in my past life I wasn't a weapon users, kunai are a versatile weapon that seems to be the must for a ninja, It's both an opportunity blend in and a valuable weapon in itself. Also, the end of the month was only one week away.
"No problem, I'll prepare everything and be right back."
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I've finished exercising and now I'm ready to see what my Chakra nature will be.
I take a piece from the 1 meter roll and channel chakra into it.
The paper gets sliced in 4 pieces, and then those pieces dissolve in gold dust.
Mh.
The gold dust doesn't correspond to any of the base elements according to the textbook, so I must have a kekkei genkai or kekkei tota.
'And I will grant you an ulterior gift to take with you, in memory of the days in which you fought with such grace, all of it dedicated to me.' The conversation with The Divine suddenly returned to my mind, even if, to be honest, I'm not sure it never left it.
It was always as clear as it happened yesterday, in fact, as clear as I was living the exact same conversation now.
So that's the gift The Divine told me about...
I always thought the gift was related to me maintaining my memory.
This is wonderful news. Mainly because, other than having a kekkei genkai, a powerful tool on which clans were built apon, I was able to understand one of the chakra natures that make up my kekkei genkai. The Chakra paper was indeed cut, so I'm certain that I have a wind affinity as one of mine.
To be honest it's one of the best affinities I could get, it worked perfectly with martial arts.
I could already think of some techniques to develop. Other than the textbook wind clone.
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{The following week}
Gather the chakra in the palm... and push!
The rock I directed my attack at crumbles.
I almost had it. The day after I discovered my Chakra affinity, I immediately started working on it.
I've already been practicing on the wind clone, and working on a variation of it. Basically, after performing the standard hand seals for a wind clone, adding a bird hand seal at the end, which is commonly associated with wind chakra techniques, I could compress my Chakra in the clone, making so that the clone exploded in a burst of wind upon getting touched. This technique wasn't exactly the best, but I developed it mostly for my future ninja duties, it is after all a valid technique for distracting the enemy and had some usage for teamwork.
The other techniques I've been developing is an application of Nen to wind chakra. In theory entering a state of Ken and then a state of Ryu in which I divided 20% to defense, 40% to palms, and 40% to feets, I would greatly improve mobility, force behind the attacks and general resistence to ninjutsu. However the difference in nature between Nen and Chakra, the latter being more physical and thus not entirely developed in a 9 year old, ruined my plan. I simply had not the chakra reserves to perform the technique as I wanted, even with the nearly perfect control I had. The 40% in the feet which I hoped would improve my mobility moving midair in a controlled manner using bursts of wind chakra, didn't work accordingly, so I decided that for now I would use a 70% on my hands, 35% for each hand, that gave me two option for attack: a palm strike, of which I increased the force behind it using a burst of chakra and a knifehand strike which aided by the natural cutting nature of wind chakra, could easily cut through non-chakra enchanted flesh. The remaining 30% was used as an armor and gave me a general protection against ninjutsu, even if by no means I would be able to withstand more advanced techniques unarmed.
The name I decided for those two jutsu were "wind style: bursting clone" and "wind style: wind Ryu".
I can't progress anymore for today, training further would have me incurring in chakra exhaustion.
I'd just exercise my body for the rest of the day.
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As I was training my body, approximately 30 minutes ago a guy with bushy eyebrows arrived and started exercising with me.
He didn't last long and frankly his execution was terrible, as of now he was watching with amazed eyes... I mean, he wasn't making noise and even if he was I'm the type of person that has a better chance of dying by training than losing concentration, but still... Didn't have better thing to do?
As I finished my training and packing things for going home, bushy eyebrows stopped me.
"E-e-excuse me! Y-you know I saw you training before-" I noticed that much.. "and was really amazed, can you give me some tips??" he said with such hopeful eyes that rejecting him would be the same as denying food to a starving puppy... That didn't ease my anger though.
"Hear me out-" I said losing my cool much more than I'd like "people like you, who expect to receive everything with no commitment pisses me off the most. If you don't want to dedicate to martial arts just dedicate to something else. You have other options, don't you?"
The boy whispers something, but I can't get the grasp of it.
"What was that?" I said more calmy than before, but still pissed.
"I DON'T HAVE ANY OTHER OPTIONS! MARTIAL ARTS ARE MY LAST HOPE TO BE A NINJA!" the bushy brows shouted, with tears in his eyes.
A little surprised by this instance, I used En on him to see what I was dealing with, and he actually wasn't lying, his tenketsu appeared as obstructed in their way out. The chakra flowed through his body but couldn't get outside of it. Ninjutsu and Genjutsu were both impossible to him.
I sighed "Well..." The boy glanced my way while whiping away his tears "first thing, your endurance is comical, and so is your execution of exercises. you should get a teacher to follow you," the boy looked a little down again, but listened nonetheless.
"but, even before that, if this is really your last resort, you have to get the right mind to achieve what you want. Martial arts won't spoil you, but they are the fairest art you could ever train in.The more you dedicate to it, the bigger your reward will be."
The boy looked like he witnessed the speech of a prophet. I don't have anymore to tell him. The rest his up to him.
I again headed for home, but the boy stopped me once more.
"Thanks for everything, I have one last request, may I know your name?" he said with deep respect in his eyes offering me an handshake.
I guess don't have much choice do I? "My name is Isaac Netero." I replied accepting his handshake.
"Rock Lee. Thanks for everything. I mean it" He flashes me a smile.
I start heading home, for good, I hope, hearing the background noise of Rock Lee running in circle as loudly as possible. "OOOOOOOOOOOOOOH!!!! I MUST ACT ON THE WISE WORDS OF ISAAC!!"
I might have been to soft on him... but I can't help it, when I see such will it reminds me of myself from a far away time, and it fills me with nostalgia.
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