Chapter 11: The Definition of Talent IV

Shiki did not even ease into it.

'Three Bodies Breathing Method: Breath of Yin-Yang'

His physical abilities surged over twice as much as last time, his chakra surging alongside them but while surges in chakra flow and potency usually lead to slips in control, Shiki's only became even more refined.

The boy could see the shock on Mito's face.

'But I'm not even done.' Shiki thought with a smirk.

He had a little project on the side.

'Flicker Flash'

Disappearing from sight, Shiki was instantly upon Mito's form with a Dynamic Entry like kick.

'That's not a regular Body Flicker.' The redhead thought, even more shocked, but her response was not delayed in the slightest.

Blasting chakra through her feet, the Uzumaki matriarch smashed the ground and created a cloud of dirt.

Shiki's kicked through the cloud hitting nothing.

He touched the ground on the other side, sliding to a stop but just before the boy managed to kill his momentum, Mito was already upon him.

Suddenly turning his gaze up, a white heel had his name on it.

But just like in the start of the battle, Shiki disappeared in a blur of motion, appearing a short distance away, looking on in shock as his mistress smashed into the ground with such force the whole area shattered forcing to jump further away to avoid the cracking ground and flying debris.

'What an interesting jutsu, rather than an improvement of body flicker, it seems more like a specialized variation.' Mito internally mused.

'Shall I do some stress testing?' The redhead wondered with childish glee she hadn't felt in ages.

For some reason, the thought of bullying the child in front of her filled with sadistic happiness, as wrong as that sounded.

This was Uzumaki Mito the kunoichi. Not the princess or matriarch of the Uzumaki clan, not the jinchuriki of the Nine Tailed Fox, not the wife of the First Hokage, just the kunoichi normally hidden behind all those formality demanding roles.

The kunoichi only her husband and parents got to know.

With her violence switched on, Mito once again body flickered to Shiki but rather than giving him some response time by crashing from above with a heel drop, she went right up to the boy with her chakra enhanced fist already flying towards him.

Staring death in the face, Shiki had no time to contemplate the redhead's sudden change in combat style and aggressiveness.

As a fist with his name on approached, the boy desperately flared his chakra.

'Did I press him too fast?' Mito wondered, about to forcefully redirect her strike to miss Shiki or she would kill him considering how much power she packed into her fist.

However . . .

Just as the balled up white hand was about to hit him, the boy's figure blurred and he flicker flashed away just in time.

Mito's strike shattered the earth and caused a localized earthquake.

Shiki, just out of range, quaked with cold sweat soaking his shirt. Dirt caked his skin and clothes, sticking because of the sweat.

Although it might have looked like a greatly timed escape, the boy just barely managed to launch himself out of harm's way with no consideration of destination or landing.

The massive burst speed of his jutsu turned on him, turning his rough landing into a painful crash, his haphazard activation also messed up one of his ankles.

Turning to look at the boy, Mito immediately saw through his injured state.

'I got carried away.' The redhead thought with worry.

She knew Shiki was a smart child and would not misinterpret her actions today but that did nothing to diminish the guilt she felt for causing his current state.

Rougher training was a matter of course to prepare Shiki for the world but that was for after his skill had already developed to a measure of completeness.

Approaching the fallen boy, Mito saw him trying to get up.

"Just stay down, I'll treat your injuries." She declared and with a tired nod, Shiki just crumpled to the ground on his back.

'Cracked ribs from the impact of his crash landing, a severely twisted ankle from launching his movement technique without properly stabilizing his body, several contusions and surface injuries, also from the crash.' Mito swiftly analyzed the extent of the damage.

'Mystical Palm Jutsu'

The redhead's hand was enveloped by a gentle green aura as her chakra started to be infused into Shiki's body, causing him to almost moan in comfort.

The contusions and open wound healed almost instantly, as an Uzumaki, Mito's chakra was particularly suited for medical ninjutsu, enabling her to heal others extremely quickly without needing them to suck on their chakra, an ability shown by some Uzumaki which she also possessed.

As her chakra permeated the boy's body however, she detected multiple small muscle tears.

'Looks like his Body Flicker variant has amplified the problems of the original.' The redhead noted as the healing process came to an end, courtesy of her Uzumaki abilities that made the process ridiculously quick.

She took a look at the boy but relaxed from the healing and dead tired from the sparring, he fell asleep in the process.

'I'll talk to him about his jutsu later.' Mito decided while brushing off the strands of snow white hair sticking to Shiki's face.

'He'll definitely be quite the heartbreaker.' She mischievously thought observing the boy's sharp features hidden behind the baby fat, already planning how to put future suitresses through the ringer like a proper evil mother-in-law.

And like this, another sparring session and morning training came to an end, one that taught Shiki some very important lessons.

*

It was night. Shiki squirmed awake, noticing he was properly cleaned up and in his bed.

'One of the servants probably washed me after the morning spar.' He thought, twitching with phantom pain in remembrance.

There was nothing embarrassing to him from that, though his mind was more mature, he was still young in body and had relied on others for those tasks for years so it did not bother him at all.

The thought Mito herself had been the one to bathe and tuck him in never even crossed his mind though had he known . . . Would his thoughts change?

Back to more important matters, the spar.

'The Body Flicker Jutsu scroll mentioned sprains and muscle tears were par for the course when the jutsu is used for high intensity bursts in combat with improper technique. My personal variant seems even harsher in that regard.' Shiki mused.

He had just learned with his body that haphazardly tossing out jutsu in desperation like it was sometimes done in the anime had unfortunate consequences even when the jutsu were not anything like a forbidden or S-rank jutsu.

'Still, having Mito-sama as a teacher is showing more and more benefits.' He thought to himself.

'Since the mistress' medical prowess is so mighty, I can go as hard as I want in training and Mito-sama will heal me up if I screw up too badly!'

Poor Mito was feeling guilty for pushing Shiki too hard when he had only started his formal training a few days before while the boy himself was already intent on raising the danger meter himself just because he knew there was an expert healer right there to help him.

His thoughts organized, Shiki swiftly concluded that to catch his mistress off guard, he would need something more powerful and now aware of Mito's superlative healing prowess, the boy was far less dismissive of self destructive methods.

The Uzumaki matriarch would be in for yet another massive shock in the next spar for Shiki had no intention of stopping until the very definition of talent changed to account for his existence.

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