“Tap, tap, tap…” In the backyard of the Kazama family estate, Kazama’s hands continuously shifted through one hand seal after another while he walked straight up the trunk of a tree.
A thick foam mat had been placed on the ground behind him, so even if he fell, he was unlikely to suffer any serious injury.
“Damn it…” Practicing hand seals while simultaneously practicing tree climbing divided his concentration.
Although forming the seals had already become almost second nature, part of his physical control was still being diverted, causing him to lose his footing and fall from the tree.
Kazama flipped backward in midair and landed steadily on the mat.
Then he immediately charged toward the tree trunk again.
After several attempts, Kazama finally reached the top without falling.
He repeated the exercise several more times.
Only once did he fall midway; every other attempt ended with him successfully reaching the top.
“I should be ready to start practicing water walking.” Kazama jumped down from the treetop and wiped the sweat from his cheeks.
After resting briefly, he prepared to begin practicing water walking.
Tree climbing and water walking were both exercises designed to improve chakra control.
Better chakra control would prevent him from wasting chakra when performing ninjutsu and would also lay a strong foundation for learning shape transformation in the future.
Several months later— “Whew… seventy-eight, seventy-nine, eighty…” Kazama was upside down over the surface of the water, supporting his entire body with both hands.
Chakra kept his palms firmly attached to the water as his arms repeatedly raised and lowered his body.
Drops of sweat ran down his neck and across his forehead before falling into the water below.
“Ninety-five, ninety-six… ninety-eight, ninety-nine, one hundred!” “Whew!” After completing one hundred inverted push-ups, Kazama lightly lowered himself onto the water.
He stood upright on its surface as though it were solid ground, then walked toward a tree in the courtyard to begin the next part of his training.
First, he loosened his arms and legs.
Then he planted his feet firmly.
“Tekkai!” Kazama murmured the name softly.
Using his extraordinary control over both his strength and his body, he precisely tensed and arranged the muscles throughout his body, increasing his physical defense.
Since he had no ninjutsu available to practice, Kazama could only focus on accumulating chakra, training his body, practicing hand seals, and improving his chakra control.
Once he had made sufficient progress in chakra control, he had begun trying to imitate— No.
Calling it imitation wasn’t quite right.
He was attempting to recreate the Six Powers.
The effect of Tekkai was still rather limited.
Although Kazama could precisely tense and coordinate the muscles throughout his body, he was still made of flesh and blood.
There was no way his current body could truly achieve the defensive power of the real Tekkai.
However, once his body became stronger in the future, merely coordinating his muscles in this manner should greatly increase his defense.
Right now, he was simply too young.
His muscles were neither strong nor tough enough.
Once he eventually learned Lightning Release, perhaps he could even condense chakra around his body like the Fourth Raikage’s Lightning Release Chakra Mode, dramatically increasing his defensive capabilities.
“Soru!” Kazama stamped his feet against the ground more than ten times in an instant.
Whoosh!
His body suddenly shot forward.
Unfortunately, the result was unimpressive.
After moving barely more than two meters, he lost the strength necessary to maintain the burst of speed.
The physical requirements for Soru were simply too demanding.
Even though Kazama possessed exceptional control over his body, his physical strength and raw power were nowhere near the necessary standard.
After all, he was only a little over three years old.
Even with his perfect physique, his body was comparable to that of a five-year-old at most.
Still, Kazama had no intention of giving up.
He continued practicing Soru so that the movements would gradually become ingrained in his body.
Practice made perfect.
If he waited until his body was finally strong enough before beginning to train the technique, he would only waste precious time.
The Third Shinobi World War would break out in only a few more years.
Before then, Kazama needed to increase his strength as much as possible.
“Kami-e!” After practicing Soru for a while, Kazama moved on to Kami-e.
His body seemed to become as light and flexible as a sheet of paper, swaying freely through the air.
Because Kazama possessed near-perfect control over his body, Kami-e was actually one of the Six Powers he could perform relatively well.
However, he currently couldn’t attack while using it.
That weakness would have to wait until he became more proficient with the technique before he could attempt to improve it.
“Geppo!” Bang!
Bang!
Bang!
Kazama kicked against the air.
Chakra gathered beneath his feet as his body rose into the air.
He climbed roughly two meters before slowly descending again.
He repeated the process several times before finally stopping.
Since he was training inside the Kazama family estate, he couldn’t fly too high.
Otherwise, someone might notice him.
Abilities that allowed a person to fly or move through the air were extremely rare in the Naruto world.
There were only a handful of known methods, such as the repulsive force of Shinra Tensei, the flight technique used by the Third Tsuchikage, Perfect Susanoo, or certain flying summoned creatures.
An ability that allowed someone to move freely through the air was far too conspicuous.
Kazama was still too young to expose something like that.
If anyone discovered it, he would have a difficult time explaining where he had learned it.
“Shigan!” “Rankyaku!” Kazama could also perform a rudimentary version of Shigan, but its destructive power was minimal.
Once again, his strength and physical toughness were holding him back.
However, once he eventually mastered chakra nature transformation or shape transformation, Shigan could potentially be improved dramatically.
In Kazama’s eyes, it could even serve as the foundation for a hand-seal-free ninjutsu.
As for Rankyaku— He couldn’t perform it at all.
It was even more difficult than Soru.
Rankyaku required tremendous leg strength to compress and slice through the air, producing a vacuum blade.
With Kazama’s current physical power, creating such an attack was simply impossible.
“Whew…” By the time Kazama finished practicing all Six Powers, his entire body was trembling slightly.
Training the Six Powers demanded extremely precise physical control.
A practitioner needed to command practically every muscle in the body, and most of the techniques also placed tremendous demands on physical strength.
Even though Kazama was only practicing simplified versions of them, completing a single training session still left him nearly exhausted.
He sat down cross-legged.
Kazama began refining chakra to ease his physical fatigue while simultaneously using the opportunity to practice another sequence of hand seals.
At noon, a servant came to tell him that lunch was ready.
Only then did Kazama stop refining chakra.
By now, Kazama’s chakra reserves had firmly reached the level of a genin.
That was the advantage produced by the combination of a perfect body and exceptionally powerful mental strength.
In the future, Kazama was confident that chakra reserves would never become one of his weaknesses.
As he grew older, his body would continue developing.
Combined with continuous training, his physique would become increasingly powerful, and the rate at which his chakra reserves increased would only accelerate.
Kazama even believed that one day his chakra reserves might not be inferior to those of people with extraordinary physiques like Kushina Uzumaki or Naruto Uzumaki.
Of course, that comparison excluded any chakra obtained from a Tailed Beast.
After lunch, Kazama returned to his training.
His routine remained unchanged.
First came physical conditioning.
Then chakra-control exercises and hand-seal practice.
After that came training in the Six Powers.
Finally, he refined chakra to replenish his stamina and soothe his exhausted body.
By the time the sun was beginning to set, Uncle Gen finally returned.
“Young Master Kazama , these are the ninjutsu I managed to purchase from the black market.” Uncle Gen handed several items over to him.
“They’re all fairly low-level techniques, but you should take a look…”