73 - Second Year Vacation

Next two months passed by in a similar fashion. I wanted to start with Genjutsu, but I decided to leave it for the next academy year. For the results of the second year, I got the 10th rank. Why? Because this time, practical exams didn't happen. They calculated our ranks based on our Shuriken techniques, two basic Jutsu, and Kumite results over the year. Mine were bad in Shuriken techniques and Kumite results. It's good that, I was somewhat saved in the theory parts. I ranked 4th in theory.

Again, All the clan kids were so pissed with the results that they almost broke down the door of the Hokage's office to complain. Chikako and I discussed how they determined the ranking. We found out that theoretical knowledge accounts for about 40% of the result. That's why I was able to play around—sorry, try new things—in Kumite. It was nice sometimes pissing them off and sometimes just beating them right away. Even if my loss ratio was high, no one was able to get a clear win on me.

About Blade Steal, I am barely able to hang on. It takes me 3 to 4 minutes to get the hang of any opponent's style. What a scary man Ikki Kurogane was. Even if his magic capacity was initially low, he created quite a crazy technique with his mind. Just one word comes to my Mind "Genius". I want to learn Blade Steal and have an indomitable spirit. But alas, I don't have the capabilities to learn them.

Blade Steal, I can barely manage. And adding Kenbunshoku no Haki might reduce the brain capabilities required in Blade Steal, but still, it's just patching things up. About the indomitable spirit, I am not meant to inherit it in early age. It's not about brain capacity or hard work. It's just life experience. Ikki Kurogane suffered so much in life that, as a gift—sorry, as a side effect—he got this capability. Always stand up after beaten down and move ahead. And through this capability, he broke into the domain of Demons, which is said to go against the will of Heaven, (Majin) "Desperado."

I haven't seen any setbacks in my life, nor do I want to in the future. Ikki Kurogane and I are different people. And since I am not the true inheritor of these techniques, I decided to pass them on to others. I chose two people. With brilliant brain capacity, Chikako is the perfect inheritor of Blade Steal. And the second one is the most miserable kid in Konoha. He is the perfect embodiment of the indomitable spirit. Let's make their lives miserable—sorry, give them these capabilities.

The next day, I gave Chikako a scroll for learning Blade Steal. Even if it's a scroll, it's quite large. Chikako looked at me,

Chikako: "What should I do with this scroll?"

"Learn it. It's not a technique per se. It's a capability. With your brain power, you are the perfect inheritor for it."

Chikako: "You are kidding, right?"

"No. I taught you Kenbunshoku no Haki, right? It's a similar technique. You don't have a natural talent for Kenbunshoku no Haki. Of course, you can proceed with it, but you need more help and time to practice it. For this, you need brain power and observation. You are tailor-made for practicing it."

He started reading the scroll. After reading, he started getting scared.

Chikako: "This technique is quite high-level. It's hard to practice."

"No, it's actually quite easy. You just need constant practice. For this vacation duration, from morning to afternoon, we will only fight. Taijutsu battles only. Of course, I will limit my strength."

Chikako was stunned.

Chikako: "Why should I learn this?"

"In the future, we are going to be on the same team."

Chikako: "That ain't gonna happen. Ino-Shika-Cho is the standard team for all Nara, Yamanaka, and Akimichi kids."

"Don't worry about that. When I started teaching you Kenbunshoku no Haki, your inherent trait for observing increased so much that it would be detrimental for you to join a standard team. What I want you to achieve with this technique is to find out the quirks and future moves of your opponent. You, 'Naras', are so intelligent that, you find out all possibilities while keeping yourself out of battle for some time. But with this, you can keep fighting and analyzing your opponent."

Chikako: "How did you get this?"

"I have many secrets. In the future, I might tell you. Let's start the fight. For now, I will apply one style in my fighting. Try to find my quirks."

Chikako: "Aren't quirks hard to generate?"

"I already started practicing Blade Steal. It requires user to change my fighting style in mid-fight. It's easy for me to generate quirks. You won't be able to copy opponent fighting style, but advantage for you is you will be able to analyze opponent style in mid fight."

Chikako nodded, and the fight started. Heavily, I started beating Chikako. After the fight ended in the afternoon, I carried him home. Okako-san opened the door. After seeing Chikako's mouth,

Okako: "What happened?"

"We were training."

Chikako: "[Crying] Stop lying. You beat me up constantly for the past 5 hours."

"That was training. And it will continue for the whole vacation. Enjoy! Hahahaha."

Chikako: "You bastard."

Okako: "You two sit down. I will prepare lunch for you." [As I was about to reject.] "Don't reject. You are training Chikako, so you earned it."

After saying this, she left us alone. We started playing Shogi. I knew I needed to spend my whole afternoon here. But I like this. I want to start training Naruto in the indomitable spirit, but I should wait until Jiraiya-sama comes back. Having him by my side as precaution, as he is seal master, will be good as Naruto is Jinchuriki.

---

[Shisui POV]

It's been one and half year since my departure from the village. It's been quite, what's the word, a silly trip until now. My view of Jiraiya-sama is changing, and quite a lot at that. If before someone said he was a perverted, senile old man, I would have made that person half-dead before. After all, he is many people's dream, their hero. But after venturing for 6 months with him around the Land of Fire, I started to doubt if he is a hero. He is just a pervert. He reads perverted magazines, peeks in onsens, and goes to red-light areas. WTF. What have I involved myself in? If things keep going like this, I don't know if monsters will destroy the world in the future or not. But I will kill this old man right here and right now. It's good there are no women in this team. She would have already committed murder.

Even my teammates started to doubt his competency. But we are still following him. There are many times he has caused trouble. And since these problems are with civilians, and this damn old man is always at fault, we don't have any other option than running away. Because of this, I heard rumors floating around all over the Land of Fire. "Group of perverts." If my grandfather heard this name in heaven, he would come back to earth and kill this old man. Hell, even I want to make my hands red with his blood. But I doubt I have the power to achieve this.

One time, because of going to a red-light area, he had an issue with one escort. And a group of mafia chased after us. Why would Fugaku-sama send a 16-year-old like me with this damn old man? Even with these types of problems, we know he is a good man. But this is getting seriously out of hand. Ahhhh, what should we do? How can we cure him? Or should we give up? Please, Kami, give us a revelation.

As I am thinking this, I can feel something kicking in me, and I dodged. This caused my teammates to be alert as well. And we see it. It's a squirrel. But its size is different. It's around the size of a large cat. But something is different. Its speed is higher than a normal Genin ninja. Technically, dealing with it should not be this hard, but its reflexes are high. And its body is quite small. After making a simple trap, we were able to deal with it. After dealing with it, we followed our normal procedure that we have been doing for the past 6 months. We started finding the nearby space channel and started recording its size. Until now, the biggest channel we have got is around 10 cm. After measuring and adding it to the report, we waited for our perverted team leader to arrive.

After waiting for 1 hour, we could feel him coming. But we know what to do. How can we feel it? The fucker brought the whole town chasing after him again. I never cursed this much before.

"Everyone, let's run. Run like we don't know this man."

Even before I completed my sentence, everyone started running.

Jiraiya: "Wait for me."

"We don't know you."

And this made an iconic scene. A group of ninjas running away from angry townspeople because of a perverted legend.