Time tends to pass quickly when you have fun, isn’t it?
What was that? I shouldn’t waste time by having fun and instead have to seriously training and preparing to face future’s calamity?
…Well then, let me rephrase it.
Time tends to pass quickly when you enjoyed it, right?
Me and the lunch group, plus Ino, did ended up visiting the home of Kiba, Shino, and Choji at that first summer holiday. Exactly in that order. We also visited the Yamanaka’s flower shop where I ended up buying a flower to decorate and freshen my dining room.
Oh, and I did bring some more of my cooking results to each of the houses that I visited. Each house got different treat that I think would suit their owner’s preference. All of it was thankfully very well received.
Choji and Choza even liked them so much that they arranged my recipes to be sold in one of their Akimichi owned store. Not for free, obviously. Not even for a fixed price. Instead, they actually promised me a percentage of the profit.
And that’s another source of income. A passive one at that. Neat.
That’s to add to all of my parents’ investment result and the stipend.
Yup, turns out I am still qualified to receive stipend somehow. But I digressed.
Ino ended up joining the group lunch immediately once the second term started. She also brought along someone with her. It was the famous pinkette, Haruno Sakura.
Of course, she asks the group’s permission beforehand, and everyone agreed.
To be honest, I didn’t entirely agree to it, simply because canonically at some point they broke their friendship over Sasuke. I was afraid that would cause fracture in the group down the line.
Sure, that was in the future that might no longer happen at this point. But unless Ino’s and Sakura’s, especially Sakura’s, personality were drastically different from their show’s counterpart, the chance of that break up happening are not low.
Obviously, that was no reason to reject Sakura into joining this group. I even have a feeling Ino would wound up not joining if Sakura was rejected. And at least in the short term, it was a good thing to bolster the number of girls in this group.
It was kinda painful watching every time Hinata and Aki seemed like they wanted to join a conversation but were too shy to do so. And with both of them being shy, it was very rare for them to chat with one another.
With the addition of two more girl, at least they can talk among themselves. Then with Ino here, the hope was that she can again help bridge the shy and shyer in the conversation.
And she did not disappoint.
Not a week after she joined, the girls’ side of the group became noticeably livelier. They also joined the group conversations more and more often.
Again, as expected of someone from a family of mind readers, huh?
Overall, my school’s social life in this second life was looking good.
Of course, I also never let up my training.
My leaf training for the Earth’s was finally hitting a milestone about halfway through the second term. Though, unfortunately the result was different from my expectation. Read this novel at novelping.com for the best experience.
Instead of making the leaf hardened and sturdy, I left with a very brittle leaf which easily crumbled. Not unlike a very dried up, browned leaf that’s been fallen for a while.
On one side, that phenomenon was closer to the reaction of the chakra paper. But on the other side, I don’t know if that is considered a success, because it felt like I failed to apply the defensive aspect of the Earth Nature.
Because of that notion, I continued the Earth’s training at school until near the end of the third term, the end of the first year. Though sadly, in the end I still failed to recreate the Razor Leaf.
At home though, I continue to train my Fire Nature. Finally, also at the end of the third term, I managed to make the leaf lit on fire. So that’s really one dud element for me.
I also never skipped a Saitama’s for the Daily, though my progress in pursuit of double Saitama’s a day has not fully realized because I had stalled for a while.
Not because I was getting lazy, mind you, but because I found other direction for physical training that I wanted to explore; weight.
That’s right, just like Rock Lee.
Some might wonder why I didn’t start wearing weights before enrolling in the academy. Why wait at all?
First of all, I want to make sure I got some headroom for the Saitama’s. That’s to assure that even the first day I wear a weight, I could still finish a Saitama’s properly and safely.
Remember that for every first round of Saitama’s training that I did every day, it means a single increase in the multiplier of my chakra. I simply can’t miss that. It is my cheat, after all.
Second of all, my parents did not mention anything about wearing weight in any of their books. Sure, it sounds like an obvious step up in physical training to do so, but is that still the case for someone of Nobu Takeshi’s upbringing? Better to err again on the side of caution until I find a much better alibi.
Which I did find on one of my library visit.
It was when I was reading a book among the recommendation from the consultation with Hiruzen and Iruka. In it was explicitly mentioned about wearing weight to further one’s physical training. Also mentioned was how and where to acquire said training weight, which was very helpful.
It was to my relief that the store which have it doesn’t restrict me from buying it. For comparison, I actually asked if I can buy a kunai for training purposes, which the clerk refused to sell after he inquired my age and my year at the academy.
It was also probably because the weight that I needed were not that heavy.
Obviously, the weight that I intend to use are not to the degree that Rock Lee showed during his fight against Gaara. That would be suicidal.
For starter, I only equipped half a kilogram on each limbs and a kilo on my torso. The bracelet that houses the weight for the limbs was strapped to my forearms and lower legs.
If I want to add the load, I could either change the weight with a heavier ones, or increase the number of slotted weight on each bracelet to the maximum of 4 per bracelet and 8 on the vest for the torso.
Though, for ones that I bought, there was a limit of 8 kg for the bracelet and 16 kg for the vest. I’d need to buy a better version if I wanted to add more weight—one I can’t currently get, not due to a lack of money, but because I don’t have the proper clearance.
I inwardly call that BS, to be honest.
The clerk did say that it was for safety measures, and I did need a written permission from Iruka as my sensei in order to buy it. In that permission letter was even the max amount of weight that I can buy, which for now was 5 kg. That’s with 10 weights of half kilo each. Read this novel at novelping.com for the best experience.
See? If I needed permission letter to buy the slotted weights in the first place, why don’t just let me buy the better vest and bracelet anyway? Buying this lower tier first would only gonna cost me more in the long run.
… Which I guess was the goal all along. Sigh…
Of course, of course, I also didn’t forget to inquire about the chakra paper while I’m at it. Unfortunately, that store didn’t sell it and the clerk also didn’t know where to get one when I asked further. So I can only give up temporarily.
Moving on.
Also among the recommended reading list was a book to further my fuinjutsu training. It was a book that trains the calligraphy needed for the most common version of the most commonly used fuin product, the explosive tag.
Sounds dangerous for the early stage fuin training, right? Eh, not really.
Here’s the thing, for the explosive tag to work, there’s chakra manipulation involved in the process of making it, as with every proper fuin product. Something the book simply mentioned and doesn’t explain at all.
Not to mention, it also needed a specific ink and paper to make. Both of which were simply unreachable for someone of my status.
So in actuality, this training will only serve to further refine my calligraphy skill. I haven’t even got to the language needed for fuin, so my journey in this field are still very far indeed.
My last noteworthy gain from the library for this first academic year was about footwork. It was another step-up (heh) from what my parents’ books have taught me, which is simply about stances.
Once I finished every book that was on the reading list, I held back asking Iruka for another book recommendation and instead went back training to ingrain the new knowledge I obtained.
I thus reduced the library visitation to at most every other weeks, mostly once a month. In those visits I usually just browsed around for other books that caught my interest in the area that I have clearance for.
It was after I have scoured the entirety of those area that I concluded; my clearance seemed like of the lowest one. The most glaring indicators was the lack of jutsu in the area. Not even the academy three, let alone others E-rank jutsu.
Which I guess was expected. It was a merit-based access, being top ranker in only one term was obviously not gonna cut it. Neither did being top ranker for three consecutive terms. Though, I was already promised Kage Bunshin for that instead.
Oh yeah, I did get the first place in the class ranking for the second and third terms. That meant I am a top ranker for the entirety of my first year at the academy.
As I expected, the class for second and third terms doesn’t change at all to how it was in the first term. The practical class was still mainly P.E. class and the theoretical class was still covering the basics. It is more difficult, sure, but still basics nonetheless.
Thanks to that, I was still somehow able to edge out Sasuke just enough to maintain the first place.
It was quite a struggle though. Sasuke was noticeably becoming more and more fervent as time goes by.
But damn was it worth it.
Kage Bunshin, here I come!
Note
Another info dump chapter… I kinda sucks in making these chapters titles, huh?
Btw I kinda want the fuin in my fic to be on the harder side in the difficulty scale to learn. Just so my MC can’t do any reality bending crap with it, at least not as soon.