In the middle of a green field where the pleasant view of blue sky, white clouds, and grassy plain surrounded us, we momentarily stopped our travel.
"Lesson one: taijutsu." Jiraiya, who formed a seal of confrontation with his right hand, said seriously, "I've already told the three of you all n the past, but I will say it again for Akashi."
"...Did he say something about taijutsu before?" Saru whispered to Hanami, who shrugged with confusion written on his face.
"In essence, taijutsu is an extremely broad scope. All forms of techniques that involve the use of one's physical capability alone, can be considered as taijutsu to some extent."
Jiraiya explained, ignoring Saru and Hanami's conversation within themselves,
"However, taijutsu by itself, has limitations. Even if you were to take the renowned taijutsu styles, such as Hyuga clan's Gentle Fist, an extra measure is necessary to make it deadly in actual combat, such as Hyuga clan's Byakugan and their precise use of chakra."
Minato and I listened with all our focus, ensuring that we didn't miss a single word.
"If that's the case, what should be the key for a ninja to learn the art of taijutsu? How should we use it to maximize our combat ability?"
"...Experiences and one's overall physical capability." Minato answered thoughtfully.
"Correct." Jiraiya nodded, before continuing, "To us, the ninjas who don't necessarily specialize in the field of taijutsu, it is generally preferred that our skills regarding this area remain fluid."
"So rather than teaching a particular taijutsu style, focus on the improvement of one's essential abilities such as the reflex, speed, and strength," I muttered, having understood the insight behind Jiraiya's logic, "and build experiences based on that template."
"Essentially. Learning a specific set of style will narrow your vision and hinder your movement, depending on the situation." Jiraiya then ran his eyes over my body, "And I can see that you are well ahead of others in physical means."
He turned his attention to the other three, and stated, "We will now conduct a hand-to-hand combat spar. Saru against Hanami, and Minato against Akashi. No use of chakra will be allowed, and I will intervene if necessary."
""""Yes, sensei!""""
I stood up and walked some distance away from Minato. Both of us, disregarding Saru and Hanami who stood on the other side, faced each other, predicting the possible ways our opponent may move.
"Make the seal of confrontation."
Minato and I raised up our right hands with our index and middle fingers extended up.
Then, in this grassy field where the wind gently blew by,
"Hajime!"
We ran toward each other without any hesitation.
'I am physically superior to Minato. Knowing that, it's safe to assume that he will place his focus on targeting the vitals... if this was an actual battle. However, this is a mere spar. Therefore, he probably will focus on accumulating damage on me by targeting the same spot over and over.'
I thought as I dodged Minato's kick by leaning slightly to my left.
'Jiraiya explicitly stated that my physical capability far outcompetes the other three's. It would be strange if I were to lose here.'
Immediately dashing quickly while Minato's leg was still outstretched, I sent forth a quick jab with my right fist.
Minato quickly raised the guard by crossing his arms, but upon my punch landing on them, he was sent flying back, with his face exhibiting an obvious sign of pain.
'I have to win this spar, and while doing so, avoid grabbing onto Minato.'
After all, my hand grip was at an incredible level, with them having held onto the heavy swords for years.
Since no chakra was allowed in this spar,
'Grabbing may lead to a serious injury.'
Watching as Minato stood back up while rubbing his arms, I took in a breath to calm my body a little, before charging at the blonde once again.
Minato grimaced as he lowered his stance, preparing himself as much as he could.
As I was right in front of Minato once more, I moved my left hand at a rapid speed. Minato's right shoulder twitched in response, and using Minato's reflex against him, I retracted my left hand and sent forth a roundhouse kick with my right foot, which connected to his face.
Then, while Minato was airborne, I turned my body around clockwise, before slamming the heel of my right foot onto the other side of Minato's other cheek, causing him to cough in pain as he fell to the ground powerlessly.
With my right hand, which had its index and middle fingers extended, pointed at Minato, our spar has reached the conclusion in a short period of time.
"Ha," Minato cracked a chuckle out of amazement, shaking his head as he rubbed his bruised cheeks, "You win, Akashi."
He finally stopped calling me Kakashi, huh.
Minato held his hand out in a similar fashion as mine, before joining his index and middle fingers with my own. This was the seal of reconciliation, marking the official end of the spar.
"That was too easy, Minato." I stated with a grin.
"Of course," Minato replied with a smirk, "I am the ninjutsu specialist, not taijutsu."
__________
That evening, the five of us sat around a campfire, chewing on the oily pieces of meat that Jiraiya managed to get for us.
"Feeling tired?" While holding a piece of meat for himself, Jiraiya asked us with a smug expression.
"Not really." I replied casually before engulfing my share of meat in a single go, "It's bearable compared to the work that I've been doing on the construction site."
"Akashi's pure physical strength is insane, Jiraiya-sensei." Minato shook his head, "I won't be able to face him right now if the use of chakra were to be restricted."
Hanami and Saru had no words, about to fall asleep at any second.
I said, "If the chakra is allowed, I will probably lose. Apart from attaching myself to walls and ceilings, generating a little fire like this—"
I demonstrated a ball-sized fire on my palm, bringing Jiraiya and Minato to an interest,
"and that self-genjutsu thing that you taught me, there isn't anything else that I can do with it."
All of these that I stated are the extensions of what I showcased in front of Jiraiya years ago—there was no pointing in hiding these skills of mine.
"That fire," Jiraiya noted, "It has gotten bigger."
"It happened after I managed to stand on top of the water." I shrugged, "It isn't much, really."
"So your chakra nature is fire, huh." Minato exclaimed, to which I responded by tilting my head,
"Chakra nature?" I tilted my head in a feigned obliviousness.
"Oh, right. Let me explain it to you." Minato nodded with an expression of realization, "There are five natures that chakra can transform to: fire, lightning, wind, water, and earth."
"In usual cases, we use something called 'chakra induction paper' to check our chakra natures." Jiraiya added to Minato's explanation, "You have an affinity toward the fire for sure at the very least, such that—hold on."
Jiraiya stopped in the midst of his words, before turning his eyes to me.
"Fire... forest burnt—no, probably not. The possibility... no, I doubt it." Muttering to himself as he inspected me, Jiraiya eventually shook his thoughts off.
"Fire?" I raised my eyebrow at Jiraiya in an inquiry.
'...It's about that conflagration that I caused, isn't it.'
At this point, I already knew, that team Jiraiya's mission was to investigate the area where I set the huge fire accidentally. The direction in which we were traveling at currently, I recognized it.
"Fire, pretty cool indeed." Seeing that Jiraiya was at the loss for his words, Minato fluently changed the focus of the conversation, pointing at himself with pride, "I, on the other hand, have two chakra natures: lightning and wind."
"Wait," I said out loud upon hearing Minato's claim, "You can have more than one nature?"
"Yes." Jiraiya nodded with a smile back on his face, "I too have two technically; fire and earth."
"Then, I too may have more than one, right?"
"Possibly." Jiraiya agreed with a vivid interest in his eyes, before reaching for his vest and taking a paper out.
"How about we check it here then?"
I received the chakra induction paper from Jiraiya, and stared at it in wonder.
"Fire burns it away. Lightning makes it wrinkle. Wind cuts it in two. Water makes it damp. Earth transforms it to dirt." Jiraiya explained.
'...I haven't done this when I was with Gin.'
Apparently, this piece of paper is very expensive. Of course, it made sense, since making a normal paper itself is a hard job to do, and to do it in a way that soaks up the chakra well—I couldn't imagine how costly this thing must be.
"...Are you sure?" Therefore, I couldn't help but ask Jiraiya, "Isn't this really expensive?"
Jiraiya snorted while crossing his arms, "Boy, I am the Toad Sannin. How much do you think I own right now?"
I guess it wasn't a problem for Jiraiya.
"Alright then. Thank you, Jiraiya-sensei."
Nodding in thanks, I placed my focus back onto the paper that was held by my right hand.
As Jiraiya and Minato's attentions were on the paper, and Hanami and Saru seemed to have woken back up to check this 'chakra nature' of mine, I pushed my chakra out to the paper.
Then... there was nothing special. The fire has combusted onto the paper, and slowly burnt it away.
"Just fire, I suppose."
...Tch, no wonder it was hard for me to learn the wind nature.