69 - Second Year 9

The next day, after classes were over, I headed to the orphanage. JiJi should be there enjoying himself. After meeting with the kids and caretakers, I went to JiJi's office. After knocking and receiving confirmation, I entered his office.

Tatsumo: "Hey kid, long time no see."

"I didn't know you were capable of this kind of speech."

Tatsumo: "After your prank on the whole of Konoha, I thought I should change a bit."

"Oh, so Hokage-sama knows."

Tatsumo: "Yes, he even gave me a bottle. Quite a nice one."

"I thought of giving him two bottles for the trouble I caused, but you benefited instead."

Tatsumo: "I was somewhat angry, but after hearing you pranked Danzo too, I think now I can die happy."

"Yeah, it's one of the best moments of my life."

Tatsumo: "Hehehehe. So, what's the purpose of your visit?"

"Actually," I explained my schedule to him. "I can't find any time in my schedule to practice Taijutsu and Shunshin. I also want to merge Traceless Steps into Shunshin no Jutsu."

Tatsumo: "You are heading in a nice direction. But there are two things you are forgetting. Taijutsu practice is itself a body control and strength-increasing exercise. It also helps improve stamina. So you can forget the body control and strength training you're doing. You have already started with weights. Taijutsu performed with weights is going to benefit you anyway. As for the tree climbing exercise, you have already surpassed many Genin. Now you can concentrate on performing jutsus. Forget about it for now. Anyway, you are training in chakra control with that toy, right?"

I nodded.

Tatsumo: "That invention of yours is quite good. Train with it for now and give up water walking training for now. Start with the water walking exercise in fourth year of academy. Anyway, with that toy of yours, you will be able to handle water walking quite efficiently. About that Genjutsu, ask your homeroom teacher. He will be able to guide you or find someone to introduce you to it."

"Ahh, I see. I was considering Taijutsu training, body control, and strength training as different things, but they are the same. Got it. I will give up the tree climbing exercise for now."

Tatsumo: "Ahh, also concentrate on shuriken jutsu more in class and practice them as much as you can. They can help you in many situations."

I thought about it.

"Maybe I should give up on that. Daikoku sensei described my talent in that area as 'Even cats can perform better than you.'"

JiJi looked surprised hearing this.

Tatsumo: "Yes, but practice them so you can pass the exam. Also, as you perform Kenbunshoku no Haki, you should start hitting those balls with a bokuto. It will delay your training in Kenbunshoku no Haki but improve your reflexes in deflecting shuriken and kunai."

I nodded.

Tatsumo: "Okay, off you go. And don't pull any more pranks."

I nodded and left for home to have lunch. At 4 PM, as per my regular schedule, I went to Chikako's house and picked him up. Following JiJi's suggestion, I changed my approach to Kenbunshoku no Haki. Now, I feel the intent standing up, bokuto ready in my hand. As soon as I sense a ball coming at me, I hit it. Since my Kenbunshoku no Haki is already at 75%, it's quite enjoyable to hit the balls. This enjoyment has turned the training into a game of baseball. After my turn, it was Chikako's turn. Of course, he wasn't able to dodge many of the balls. After Kenbunshoku no Haki training, as usual, we started our personal training. But this time, I did different things. First, I decided to start with Shunshin no Jutsu.

Shunshin no Jutsu (Body Flicker Technique) is a high-speed movement technique. It's a D-rank jutsu. Until now, what I have mostly practiced is Kawarimi and Henge. We needed Henge to perform pranks on the people of Konoha. By using this jutsu, one can move short to long distances at an amazing speed. To normal viewers, it looks like the user has teleported. The method for using it is quite simple: vitalize the body with chakra and move at extreme speed. But it's hard to practice. Small distances can be achieved, but for long distances, it requires more chakra. Of course, continuous short flickers take more chakra. The user mostly hides this movement via distractions like leaves or other things. For example, in Gaara's case, it's sand. Known users include the most famous, Shisui. It would be great if he could be here to teach me.

After taking out the scroll for the jutsu, I started reading it. I am not going to employ distractions in this jutsu, as my future project is to merge Trackless Steps and Body Flicker jutsu. Body Flicker requires only one seal to perform: the Tiger Seal. After performing the hand seal, I started to vitalize my body and performed the technique as written in the scroll. Of course, it failed. After practicing for half an hour, I managed to perform it once. It's quite an odd feeling. The movement makes you want to puke. I pushed down that feeling and started practicing again. Because I performed it once, I now knew the feeling of the technique. Again, I started performing the technique. In about five minutes, I managed to do it again. And then again and again. For the next half hour, I performed it 20 times. However, the distance I can cover is mostly one meter.

"Ahh, it's quite hard."

[If anyone heard Ikki right now, they would probably want to strangle him.]

After ending the training of Body Flicker, I increased the weights on my body up to 10 kg and stood against a stump. What I wanted to practice was high-speed hand movements. High speed means the ratio of punches per second, as high as possible. I started practicing. How? With normal punches, of course. But soon I realized that they don't increase speed. When you pull back your punches and get in position to strike again, it takes some time. I needed to think of something else. After thinking for some time, I decided to include different kinds of punches in my Taijutsu. Normal punches and half punches, IP Man Style. IP Man style is famous for its speed, particularly punch speed. I wanted to incorporate that part into my Taijutsu. Of course, IP Man style doesn't help with strength, but chakra control will help me in that aspect. So pursuing speed in this part is the best possible solution.

After realizing the path to take, I started again, sometimes with half punches, sometimes with full punches. After practicing for half an hour, the extra 10 kg started showing its effect. Now I understand why JiJi told me that Taijutsu practice is the same as body training and body control training. It's like training your body to achieve specific movements effortlessly. I continued practicing half and full punches for 15 more minutes. Then I started practicing kicks. I wanted to practice only two kicks. Kicks are comparatively slower than punches but still have devastating power. I chose two kicks for my style: the front kick and the swipe kick. These kicks are only to force my enemy to distance themselves from me. After practicing kicks with weights on for 30 more minutes, I completed my Taijutsu training.

After removing the extra weights, I started practicing Rekkou and Yatagarasu with my bokuto. This time, I increased my bokuto's weight up to 10 kg. I wanted to practice these two techniques with increased weight. This will make performing these techniques hard, but the overall results of the strikes will be devastating. After performing these techniques, I started with Trackless Steps in the woods. This time, I only increased the weights on my legs. After training, I went home, and after dinner, I started practicing chakra flow and chakra control with the screw.

About the screw, I was able to successfully rotate it in the backward direction. Now I have already started practicing with the level 2 screw. Since its weight is somewhat higher than the level 1 screw, I am having a hard time rotating it. But it's just hard; in some time, it will be quite easy to rotate.