That afternoon, the jōnin instructor continued teaching.
By now, Kazama had already coaxed Kurenai into sitting beside him.
The price?
A few snacks used to bribe the children who had originally been sitting nearby.
For someone as wealthy as Kazama, money was the last thing he lacked.
If a problem could be solved with money— then it wasn’t really a problem at all.
As for the jōnin instructor, he naturally didn’t bother interfering with something so trivial.
This was the Ninja Academy, after all.
Once a group of children became familiar with one another, switching seats was perfectly normal.
The instructor resumed class by reviewing the key points of chakra refinement from that morning.
This was one of the most important fundamentals of all.
Whether someone could successfully refine chakra largely determined whether they had the potential to become a shinobi.
Of course, it was technically possible to become a ninja without relying on ninjutsu or genjutsu.
There were people like Might Duy, and later Might Guy and Rock Lee.
But not everyone could become as formidable as they did.
“Next, I’ll demonstrate the most basic ninjutsu for everyone—the Three Basic Techniques!” The Three Basic Techniques consisted of: Substitution Technique.
Transformation Technique.
Clone Technique.
As soon as the instructor finished speaking, an identical figure appeared beside him.
A wave of astonished exclamations immediately spread through the classroom.
The only students who remained relatively calm were those from major clans or established shinobi families.
After all, the Three Basic Techniques were extremely common.
Poor Kazama, on the other hand, still hadn’t learned them.
The instant the jōnin instructor demonstrated the techniques, the two-tomoe Sharingan behind Kazama’s sunglasses began spinning rapidly.
He carefully memorized the hand-seal sequences.
The Three Basic Techniques were all extremely simple.
The easiest among them required only a single seal.
The Substitution Technique, in particular, was an extremely important and practical technique.
Even jōnin—and sometimes even Kage-level shinobi—could find opportunities to use it in battle.
Kazama listened carefully to the instructor’s explanation while his hands continuously practiced hand seals beneath the desk.
Guy had long since grown accustomed to this habit.
Back when they trained taijutsu together, Kazama had always been like this.
As long as one of his hands was free, he would use the opportunity to practice seals.
Kurenai, who hadn’t known Kazama for very long, found it much more fascinating.
She watched him with curiosity.
Kazama was clearly listening attentively to the instructor while simultaneously practicing hand seals with both hands.
Neither activity seemed to interfere with the other.
He looked as though he had long since become accustomed to splitting his attention between two tasks.
Amazing… Kurenai sighed inwardly.
She also began to understand that Kazama’s extraordinary hand-seal speed had not come from talent alone.
He had clearly put an enormous amount of effort into practicing.
Ever since Kakashi had seen Kazama use a taijutsu technique that allowed him to move through the air, he had started paying closer attention to him.
Kakashi noticed that no matter what the jōnin instructor taught, Kazama always listened carefully.
Even when the lesson covered extremely basic common knowledge, Kazama remained focused.
Yet the moment class ended, he would immediately start spending most of his time with Kurenai.
Kakashi could understand part of the reason.
There had never been any shinobi in Kazama’s household.
Naturally, he lacked even some of the common knowledge that children from shinobi families took for granted.
But that raised another question.
What about that taijutsu technique that allowed Kazama to move through the air?
Had Kazama created it himself?
Or had someone else taught it to him?
Over the next few days, Kakashi deliberately reduced the pace of his own training and spent some time observing Kazama.
Eventually, he discovered that Kazama often trained taijutsu with Might Duy.
“Maybe Might Duy taught him.” Kakashi came to that conclusion.
That afternoon, classes ended and the students began heading home.
Kazama, however, took Kurenai away to practice Geppo.
He had promised to teach the little girl, so naturally he intended to keep his word.
Over the past few days, Kurenai had only memorized the principles and techniques Kazama had explained.
Today would be her first real attempt at practicing Geppo.
In exchange, Kazama had already learned quite a few practical genjutsu principles from her.
He had even learned two genjutsu.
The first was the previously taught: Genjutsu: Bewildering Heart.
The second was: Genjutsu: Illusory Path Technique.
This technique confused the target’s perception of direction and movement.
The victim would believe they were continuously traveling forward, while in reality they remained trapped in the same area.
Kazama was certain that Kurenai must have gone home and asked her father, Shinku Yūhi, for more guidance.
Because of that, he decided he should teach her Geppo properly in return.
Bang!
Bang!
Under Kazama’s guidance, Kurenai attempted the technique several times.
But none of her attempts truly succeeded.
At best, she managed to push herself upward as though jumping from a stone beneath her feet.
Once airborne, however, she couldn’t form another stable foothold on the air to continue rising.
Kazama frowned slightly.
He quickly identified the problem.
Kurenai’s chakra control wasn’t precise enough.
She was releasing too much chakra during the first step.
Then, once she entered the air, she couldn’t maintain the proper chakra output necessary to perform the second step.
“I… am I just too stupid to learn it?” Kurenai looked at Kazama with obvious disappointment.
“No.” Kazama shook his head.
“I was like this in the beginning too.” “Let’s work on your chakra control first.” Originally, Kazama had assumed that Kurenai’s chakra control would already be quite good.
After all, she had a highly skilled father.
He had thought Shinku Yūhi would naturally have trained her chakra control from an early age.
If that were the case, Kazama could have taken her directly into Geppo training.
Reality, however, was somewhat different.
Kurenai’s chakra control wasn’t especially outstanding.
It could only be considered average.
Of course, compared with most children her age, it was already quite good.
“All right…” Kurenai lowered her head.
She could tell Kazama was trying to comfort her, which only made her feel even more discouraged.
And when she heard that she would need to practice chakra control instead, her enthusiasm dropped noticeably.
“Let’s start with tree climbing.” Kazama pointed toward a nearby tree.
“This will improve your chakra control.” “Once you master this, we’ll move on to the next exercise.” “Watch.” Kazama walked over to the tree.
Without using his hands, he placed one foot against the trunk— and calmly began walking straight upward.
His body remained perfectly perpendicular to the ground as he strolled up the tree as naturally as though he were walking along a road.
“See?” Kazama continued all the way to the top.
Then he kept chakra concentrated beneath his feet and remained firmly attached to the trunk.
His body hung completely upside down.
From that position, he looked down at Kurenai.
“This is a very effective way to improve chakra control.” “Want to learn it?” “Yes!” “I want to learn this!” Kurenai’s eyes immediately lit up.
Watching Kazama simply walk straight up a tree and then hang upside down from the trunk looked incredibly exciting to her.
Especially when Kazama had walked upward so effortlessly— it looked unbelievably cool.
“Good.” Kazama released the chakra beneath his feet.
His body dropped from the tree.
He flipped backward in midair and landed steadily on the ground.
“Then I’ll teach you tree climbing first.” “Once your chakra control improves, learning Geppo will become much easier.” Kazama looked at Kurenai seriously.
“Better chakra control will also help whenever you use ninjutsu or genjutsu.” “You’ll be able to regulate your chakra more precisely and avoid wasting it.” Kurenai listened quietly.
Without realizing it, she had already begun treating Kazama like a little teacher.
And she listened with remarkable concentration.
For some reason— learning from Kazama felt much more interesting than being taught by her father.
Far away, Kakashi sat on the branch of another tree.
He silently watched Kazama demonstrating the tree-climbing exercise.
A thoughtful expression appeared in his eyes.
Then— Kakashi also began practicing tree climbing.