[A/n:- I apologize for the late release. Though I can't promise that it will be any different in the future]
[Words :- 2063]
[Tatsuya's pov]
Drip, drip
The sound of water moving echoed through the air. "Hmm?" I slowly opened my eyes, and the evening sky came into view.
Looking down, I saw that my body was submerged in a liquid, contained within a wooden barrier – a wooden bathtub.
Suddenly, my grandfather's voice echoed as I glanced at him, sitting near a bonfire. "You sure took your fill of sleep, boy... Hahaha."
"Grandpa, what's this liquid, and what exactly happened on that hill?" I asked him. "While I was running, it was as if I was getting devoured by darkness."
"That's a medicinal bath, quite costly if you ask me, but only for commoners, hahaha," he replied.
I had no idea why he laughed after each sentence. Shouldn't the elderly be wise and speak less?
He continued, "That was genjutsu. You were trying to break free from it, but it never worked... Even with those blessed eyes of yours. Do you know why, boy?"
I thought hard, but no answer came to mind. When I got these upgraded eyes, I thought I was invincible to ordinary genjutsu. But now that I thought about it, it wasn't ordinary at all.
"I have a little bit of an idea, but still, please tell me, Grandpa," I said, responding to his jabbing words about my superior vision.
"Well, first, your chakra control is awful. Understandable, since we Uzumaki tend to be bad at it in the early stages due to huge chakra reserves. You'll have to work on that. Second, the genjutsu was the work of seals, so even if you tried to break out of it, it was cast again within seconds, making your methods ineffective," he explained.
"Ain't that cheating?" I retorted.
"You're no one to complain, boy,nothing is fair. ....Spend half an hour more in the medicinal bath, then let's return home. For today, this much was enough. You might as well choose a weapon to specialize in... Though you've already practiced basic ninja tools like kunai and shuriken to a satisfactory degree."He ordered.
"It's time for you to learn how to enhance strength and lethality of these tools' . Among ninja weapons, a tanto or a sword is usually the most obvious choice. Think it through and tell me about it tomorrow... Alright then, I'm leaving. Come back on your own." He continued, moving away from the bonfire.
I nodded in agreement, my gaze shifting from the crackling flames to the resplendent stars above.
Except for the presence of chakra, there was hardly any difference between the shinobi world and Earth. The stars shone brightly, covering almost the entire sky.
The occasional sound of burning wood and the serene sky gave this moment a breathtaking and stunning look.
I was in a deep state of trance, my eyes fixed on the sky, which was illuminated gorgeously. The word "exquisite" seemed fitting to describe the current state.
Although this world was filled with dangers from both internal and external territories, the sense of security, love, and liveliness it had given me made it my duty to maintain and protect it.
I felt a sense of responsibility wash over me as I gazed at the stars, their beauty and wonder inspiring me to do what was right.Somehow encouraging me to train harder in order to protect my loved ones.
____________
Next Day
"Have you increased the gravitational force, Grandpa? I thought I had adjusted to it yesterday," Tatsuya complained while stepping into the fuinjutsu-enclosed hill.
"By a negligible amount, hehe. Well, leave it at that. Today, we'll start with chakra control exercises, as I've gauged a rough estimate of your body's boundaries," Grandpa replied.
"Chakra control is the ability to efficiently use and manipulate one's own chakra," Grandpa began to explain.
"This involves being able to mold and manifest chakra, as well as regulate the amount of chakra used for a particular technique, or jutsu. It's a crucial skill for ninjas, as it allows them to perform various techniques that wouldn't be possible otherwise, such as walking on water ,exhaling fire, manipulating other elements or creating illusions."
"The basic chakra control exercises known throughout the shinobi world are tree walking and water walking, each with its own variances," Grandpa continued, providing a clear overview of the fundamental techniques Tatsuya would be learning.
[A/n :- The leaf sticking exercise was actually introduced by Tobirama when he had created the ninja academy.. So as of now it hasn't been introduced yet ]
"Well, let's start with the tree walking exercise, obviously with the added gravity," he explained, moving towards one of the trees surrounding us.
With my Shizen'ma gan, I could clearly perceive the chakra he applied beneath his foot before walking up the tree, perpendicular to the ground. He said no more, and I didn't need any further instructions, as my eyes laid out all the secrets before me.
Applying a small bit of chakra to the soles of my bare feet, I landed on the tree trunk. After two seconds, checking that nothing had happened, I planted my second foot on it, standing horizontally on the tree with respect to the ground.
Slowly altering the chakra beneath my feet, I lifted and placed it upwards, repeating the process with the other leg.
However, suddenly, I felt a surge of heaviness on my body and instinctively applied too much chakra to my feet, thinking I might fall. This resulted in the tree trunk cracking, and I lost my balance, falling down to the ground.
Despite the height not being too great, the added gravity made my body strike the ground hard. I winced, feeling the impact. It seemed I still had much to learn about controlling my chakra.
I forced myself up with the support of my hands. Looking around, I noticed that Grandpa was no longer in sight.
Even my Kagura's Mind Eye range was limited to 5 meters due to the fuinjutsu seals placed on the edges of this enormous hill. I had no idea how fuinjutsu could decrease the effect of one's own kekkei genkai.
Summoning my courage, I moved towards the tree I was practicing on and continued my grind in Tree Walking. I experienced two more falls, but within fifteen minutes, I got the hang of it. I was able to reach the top of the tree and come back down with relative ease.
Next, I tried standing upside down on one of its branches. To my delight, I succeeded. 'Nice,' I thought, feeling a sense of accomplishment.
Leaping down from the branch, I decided to increase my speed of climbing. However, I fell again, but only once. Within the next five minutes, I was able to breeze through the top of the tree and return within seconds.
It was worth noting that the trees surrounding me were 15-20 feet tall, making the task even more challenging.
Then another idea struck me, remembering the ninjas in the future who leaped from roof to roof.
I thought I could replicate it in a similar way, jumping from tree to tree, not by stepping on their branches, but horizontally on their trunks.
Glancing around at the adjacent trees, I made up my mind to try it out.
Another round of trial and error ensued, and this one proved to be the most challenging. It took me almost 30 minutes to get the hang of it and perform it swiflty.
By the end of it, I felt my chakra nearing exhaustion. Honestly, I doubt anyone could blame me for using chakra without any conservation . Using up so much chakra without taking breaks to recover it was demanding, especially for a five-year-old body.But a Uzumaki body definitely had it's perks.
As I came down from the trees to rest and recover my chakra, Grandpa appeared instantly in front of me, holding four scrolls in his hand. "Your progress is quite explosive, hahaha, as expected of my grandson," he spoke exuberantly.
"Well, now that we've dealt with this, next comes water walking," he said, putting down the scrolls at the base of a tree and moving towards a flowing freshwater river.
I followed him, not at all embarrassed by his words of admiration for my potential.
"Well, try to control your chakra and step on the surface of the water here," Grandpa said, pointing to the crystal-clear river in front of us. "You should be able to do it quickly."
I nodded, acknowledging his instruction. First, I sat on the riverbank and raised my leg to the surface of the water, applying chakra beneath my foot.
As I experimented with the pressure and chakra flow, my foot occasionally dipped into the water, creating a ripple.
After three attempts, I finally grasped the technique. I stood up and walked on the river's surface with ease.
Even when Grandpa created a disturbance in the water by waving his hand releasing a wave of wind attributed chakra, my feet remained stable, and I was able to move around freely.
I practiced various movements, including running, jumping, and backflips, and my chakra control worked seamlessly. All of this took less than 10 minutes, and I had almost mastered the basics.
"Good, the fundamentals of chakra control are complete," Grandpa said. "Greater mastery will come with experience and practice with jutsu and nature transformation."
"Okay, Grandpa, what's next?" I asked, eager to show off my progress. "Hahaha, quite haughty, huh boy,i'd say a little impressive compared to your yesterday's whining," he teased.
I blushed, feeling embarrassed by his words.
"Don't say that... I was just not in my best form yesterday," I muttered, trying to deflect his teasing.
"Hahaha, well now that this is over, we should move onto some basic jutsu," Grandpa said, picking up the four scrolls placed at the base of a tree.
"You see these four scrolls? They contain Clone Jutsu, Transformation Jutsu, Substitution Jutsu, and Body Flicker Technique. These form the basics of any shinobi."
[A/n :- The three basic body techniques were already present before the village formation era...Atleast I think so. It was Tobirama who invented multi shadow clone jutsu and later improvised it to shadow clone jutsu. Though no idea when he created it. ]
"I'll show you once how to do it. Pay attention to the hand seals and my chakra flow," he said, handing me the scrolls.
"Read these, they contain insights into these respective jutsus, which will help you understand and perform them. Do it in the order I've told you."
He then performed the three body techniques one after another, clearly demonstrating how to regulate chakra for each technique.
With my Shizen'ma Gan, it was easy to see the regulation and movement of chakra through his inner chakra meridians.
I felt confident that I could learn it quickly, but I decided to give it a try the next day after reading the scrolls.
"The last is the Body Flicker Technique, a bit complicated for you since you're just starting," Grandpa said. "First, master these three body techniques, then we'll move on to it."
Just as I thought I could read the scrolls, he spoke again, " Now that this is over we should begin again with your survival exercise, hahaha" ,laughing maniacally.
He grabbed me by the back of the neck and sped up to the starting point of the hill where the fuinjutsu seals were engraved.
'Noooo,' I screamed inwardly, recalling the previous day's survival training. I looked at Grandpa grudgingly, but he ignored my grumbling face.
"Okay, boy, let's start. Go on. Yesterday, you took 22 steps before passing out. Let's see how much the chakra control training has helped you," he said, grinning at the reddish sky where the sun was about to set,clearly ignoring my expression of reluctance.
With no choice left, I started running again towards the forest.
"Ahhh"
After a few minutes, a scream echoed through the woods, causing Akira to laugh demonically. "Hahaha, wasn't in form yesterday, hmph. Let's see whether you are in a good form today or not... Hahaha."
.
.
.
[Reviews and powerstones are always welcomed. Honestly it was the occasional add to collection notification due to which I wrote this chapter 😅.otherwise I would have released it after 3-4 days. ]