As the greatest of the Five Great Shinobi Villages, Konoha naturally possessed numerous training grounds, both indoor and outdoor.
Under Might Duy’s lead, Kazama and Guy arrived at one of Konoha’s largest training grounds.
It was an open-air training field.
Although it was still early in the morning, quite a few people were already there.
This was Kazama’s first time visiting the place.
Not bad at all.
“All right!
Now we begin the real training!” Might Duy led Kazama and Guy toward an empty corner of the field.
He stood in front of the two boys and began teaching them what he considered proper training.
Of course, even someone as obsessed with training as Might Duy wasn’t going to teach them any profound taijutsu techniques.
Guy was simply too young.
So Duy started with the basics— how to punch correctly, how to kick, how to stretch the muscles, and various fundamental movements.
Kazama didn’t look down on such basic training in the slightest.
On the contrary, he studied everything extremely seriously.
With his extraordinary memory, he only needed to watch Might Duy demonstrate a movement once to memorize it.
Combined with Kazama’s absolute control over his own body, he could reproduce almost every movement perfectly after seeing it a single time.
At first, Might Duy deliberately slowed his demonstrations because Kazama was joining them for the first time.
But he soon discovered something astonishing.
After watching him perform a movement once, Kazama could reproduce it almost perfectly.
Even if there were a few minor imperfections, Kazama needed at most three attempts before eliminating them completely.
“Genius…” Might Duy was deeply shocked.
“What an incredible genius!” What surprised him most was Kazama’s physical control.
While observing the boy train, Duy realized that Kazama’s command over his own body had nearly reached the absolute limit.
Even Duy himself couldn’t achieve that degree of precision.
“Young Master Kazama , your movements are practically flawless.” After they finished the basic training, Might Duy looked at Kazama with undisguised admiration.
“I can’t find any obvious problems with them.
Your control over your body has already reached an astonishing level.
I doubt there are even three people in all of Konoha who could match you in that regard.” After praising him, however, Duy also reminded Kazama not to become arrogant.
Talent alone wasn’t enough.
He needed to continue training consistently.
Then Duy pointed out Kazama’s biggest weakness.
“Young Master Kazama , although your control over your body is nearly perfect, you still haven’t learned how to use that body efficiently.” He gestured toward Kazama.
“After completing that training just now, you should be pretty tired, right?” “Now look at Guy.” Kazama wiped the sweat from his face and turned toward Guy.
Guy immediately gave him a thumbs-up.
Although Guy was sweating too, he was nowhere near as drenched as Kazama.
More importantly, his stamina consumption was clearly much lower.
“This is part of the technique behind taijutsu,” Might Duy explained when he saw Kazama’s curiosity.
“Training in taijutsu and using it in battle both require a strong body and consume a great deal of stamina.” “But when you train or fight, you need to learn how to move efficiently.” “You have to minimize unnecessary stamina consumption while also finding opportunities to relax your body between movements…” Might Duy continued explaining the finer points of conserving stamina and using the body effectively.
Although Duy was officially only a genin, taijutsu was practically the only thing he knew.
That meant he had spent more than ten years constantly studying, practicing, and refining it.
More than a decade of relentless daily training had given Might Duy an extraordinary understanding of how to train and apply taijutsu efficiently.
His official rank might only be genin— but that certainly didn’t mean his true strength was limited to the level of an ordinary genin.
For Kazama, the most valuable thing he could learn from Might Duy might very well be these practical training methods and taijutsu principles.
With them, Kazama could extend his training sessions considerably without unnecessarily exhausting his body.
And the stronger his training foundation became, the more powerful his physique would eventually grow.
“Guy!” Once the morning training session ended, Kazama suddenly called out.
“I want to compete with you!” Judging by the time, Kazama could tell that Might Duy and Guy were preparing to head home for breakfast.
Although his task had a three-day time limit, Kazama had already decided to finish everything today.
Besides, judging from how easily he had completed Might Duy’s task, “defeating” Guy might not necessarily require an actual fight.
Under the puzzled gazes of Might Duy and Guy, Kazama looked directly at Guy.
“If you beat me, I’ll teach you a taijutsu technique I created myself!” “A taijutsu technique you created?” Guy looked at Kazama in confusion.
He didn’t seem particularly impressed.
After all, he was still young.
He had no idea how extraordinary it was for someone to create their own taijutsu technique.
Might Duy, however, reacted completely differently.
“You’ve already created your own taijutsu technique?!” He stared at Kazama in astonishment.
Kazama was only four years old!
Yet he had already begun creating taijutsu of his own?
Duy had no idea whether Kazama’s self-created technique was actually useful, but the very fact that a four-year-old had attempted such a thing was astonishing.
Creating taijutsu wasn’t something just anyone could accomplish.
It required extensive training and a deep understanding of the human body.
And Kazama was still so ridiculously young!
“Watch carefully.” Kazama looked at Might Duy and Guy.
He activated precise control over every muscle in his body and rearranged their tension and positioning.
“Tekkai!” In an instant, the muscles throughout Kazama’s body tightened and coordinated with one another.
His body appeared unusually smooth and compact.
However, because his muscles and physique were still far too young and soft, he didn’t display the metallic or stone-like hardness associated with a fully developed Tekkai.
“Amazing!” Might Duy couldn’t help praising him.
While training together earlier, Duy had already realized that Kazama’s bodily control was nearly perfect.
But he hadn’t expected the boy to use that control to coordinate every muscle in his body and increase his defensive power.
Still… This wasn’t a technique just anyone could learn.
Even Might Duy himself probably couldn’t reproduce it.
His control over every individual muscle had simply not reached Kazama’s extraordinary level.
“That’s so cool!” Guy’s eyes lit up as he stared at Kazama.
To a child, simply watching Kazama’s entire body change and become strangely smooth and rigid was fascinating.
“So how are we competing?” Guy immediately became interested.
“We’ll play rock-paper-scissors.” Kazama smiled.
“If you beat me, I’ll teach you this move—Tekkai.” Inside, Kazama was already laughing.
Defeat Guy?
If he beat Guy at rock-paper-scissors, wasn’t that still technically defeating him?
As for making Guy sincerely accept the loss… If one round wasn’t enough— then they could play several.
“R-Rock-paper-scissors?” Guy had already prepared himself for a proper spar.
He had never expected Kazama to suddenly suggest something like this.
“Fine!
Let’s do it!” Even so, Guy immediately accepted the challenge.
Might Duy merely smiled from the side and didn’t interfere, watching the two children begin their “contest.” As for the result… It was practically predetermined.
Kazama possessed perfect control over the muscles and bones throughout his body.
Before Guy even threw his hand, Kazama could observe which muscles in Guy’s arm and fingers began moving and determine exactly what he was about to choose.
Naturally, after losing the first round, Guy refused to accept defeat.
So they played again.
Second round.
Third round.
Fifth round… Tenth round.
Finally, Guy lowered his head.
“All right…” “I lost.” Ten rounds of rock-paper-scissors.
The final result— a complete defeat.
Guy hadn’t won even once.