Two weeks had passed since Hikaru added the three jutsu to his training schedule. He was glad that he had asked Koji-sensei for the jutsu early, because his sensei still didn't seem to have any plans to teach them to the other students yet.
The reason was probably that they were still in their first year, and despite the fact that the number of elite shinobi had gone down significantly due to the Nine-Tails demon fox attack, there was no need to rush anyone to graduate early from the Academy.
Especially not the students from his class.
Hikaru yawned as he looked around the morning classroom. He sat near a window, feeling the warmth as the sun shone through. He felt a bit tired today and sat with a worn expression on his face.
He had been training before and after school for the past two weeks, pushing himself harder than usual.
Coming to the Academy had many benefits, but it also gave him a lot of headaches. The biggest one was that Inuzuka Seiji taunted him daily in class. It seemed like this was the boy's way of getting the attention he wanted.
Almost all the students in the class had experienced similar bullying at some point. Hikaru was just another unlucky kid who got into an unwanted situation.
The only positive thing Hikaru could see about this boy was the puppy he had next to him. His ninken, Eiji, was really cute and seemed much nicer than his owner.
Looking at the clock, Hikaru remembered that today was another morning of fundamental classes and an afternoon of taijutsu practice.
Opening his backpack, Hikaru took out a leaf and played around with it between his fingers. He could study most fundamental or theoretical classes independently at home, which provided an ideal opportunity for his wind transformation training and sensory skill development at the Academy.
Hikaru ignored the noise around the classroom, staring at the leaf in his hand and putting his usual effort into splitting it with his chakra. A small cut appeared on the leaf, but it wasn't significant.
That was the most progress he'd made since the start of his training.
Hikaru kept trying multiple times, even ignoring the arrival of Teshima Yumi-sensei, who had now begun teaching ninja history.
After an hour of trying, Hikaru sighed and leaned back against his chair with his hand supporting his head. Should I go find another Chakra Induction Paper? he wondered, rubbing his forehead in frustration.
Once again, he was doubting whether his affinity test had been accurate. Many times, he had thought about keeping some allowance from his sister to buy a second Chakra Induction Paper just to double-check his results.
Maybe the one his parents had provided had expired or something.
The ninja history lesson was quite boring, with some students falling asleep while Yumi-sensei continued to teach. Hikaru was surprised that she didn't seem to mind and just continued with her lesson.
A few more students started to doze off as the lesson changed to geography for another hour. Honestly, Hikaru would have fallen asleep too if it weren't for trying to keep up with his training plan. He had nearly given up on his training schedule a few times before, but he pushed through each time.
After taking a short break, Hikaru put the leaf away and started another training session for his sensory skills.
Hikaru began to concentrate, molding his chakra and changing it to "sensory mode," his eyes closing in deep concentration. This allowed him to sense chakra signatures around him, letting him distinguish each individual classmate and even his sensei by their unique chakra patterns.
Hikaru managed to extend his senses within a fifteen-meter radius now, an improvement from when he first started this training a few weeks ago. Back then, he could barely sense anything beyond a few meters. Interestingly, no one had detected his use of sensory skills—not even Yumi-sensei.
He practiced by keeping his senses spread out for fifteen minutes, then switched to a chakra suppression technique, which was the opposite of spreading chakra out. Instead, it focused on keeping chakra contained inside to avoid detection for another twenty minutes.
Compared to his training with the wind transformation exercise, his progress with the sensory techniques seemed to be much smoother.
According to his father's notes, if Hikaru continued to train and improve the skill, he could theoretically become more skilled and extend the radius further to the same level as his father had achieved.
At his peak, his father, Muranaka Sora, could spread out his senses up to several kilometers.
The downside to this skill was that when Hikaru switched to "sensory mode," he could only use it during peaceful times. The technique required a lot of concentration, and he couldn't use sensory mode while fighting. In fact, no sensor-type ninja could do both at the same time.
Hikaru continued to practice his sensory skills until the end of the morning classes, then went to the training ground to wait for his afternoon class.
Today's taijutsu class was a little more interesting than usual.
After teaching his class for one and a half months, not including the break from the Nine-Tails demon fox attack, Koji-sensei had decided to have his students spar with each other.
Finally, was Hikaru's only thought when he heard the news. He would get to test the taijutsu techniques he had been studying in actual combat. Even losing would be better than not fighting at all—experience only came from real combat, after all.
Hikaru was chosen as the first one to spar with another classmate, but his first opponent today wasn't Inuzuka Seiji, as he had expected. Instead, it was Kajiwara Ryōta, a quiet boy who was an orphan.
Ryōta had shaved his head and wore a simple yellow shirt and black pants. Despite his young age, he was nearly as large as a young Akimichi clan member.
"Both of you, please perform the seal of confrontation, just as I have taught you," Koji-sensei said, looking at both of them. "Remember, we only allow taijutsu—no shuriken or kunai throwing."
After completing the seal, Hikaru took his ready stance while looking at his opponent carefully.
Unexpectedly, Ryōta, who was usually considered a timid boy in class, decided to start the fight aggressively. He came at Hikaru with determination in his eyes.
Despite the boy's slow pace, his right hand was clenched into a fist, ready to attack. Hikaru quickly shifted his body slightly to the left to dodge the incoming attack and countered with a side kick aimed at Ryōta's head.
Ryōta successfully avoided the attack by ducking down on one knee and countered with a sweep kick, trying to knock Hikaru down.
Seeing the incoming attack, Hikaru flipped backward with a one-handed jump to dodge and reposition himself, then immediately jumped back with a spinning kick toward his opponent.
Ryōta blocked the kick with both hands, then took three steps back to balance himself after the impact.
Despite feeling his hands go numb from the block, Ryōta decided to approach Hikaru again. This time he aimed for Hikaru's left side with a low kick, followed by a high kick and several punches.
Hikaru dodged the attacks by moving left and right for almost ten seconds. Once he saw an opening, he took a quick jab at Ryōta. The boy dodged the attack and responded with another strike from his left foot.
This time, Hikaru decided to jump over the attack and follow up with a spinning kick and a punch. His attack didn't miss this time—his kick was blocked, but his left fist connected with Ryōta's chin and knocked him backward.
His punch didn't actually have much power behind it, but the momentum was enough to send Ryōta stumbling.
Ryōta tried to stand up and continue the fight, but Koji-sensei declared it over, with Hikaru emerging as the winner.
After the fight ended, both of them performed the seal of reconciliation following ninja tradition.
Hikaru reached out his fist for a fist bump, saying with a light smile, "It was a good spar, Ryōta-kun."
"Yeah, but I lost really quickly," Ryōta said, lowering his head timidly as he returned the fist bump.
"I was just lucky. Don't think too much about it," Hikaru said encouragingly. "We should spar again sometime."
Koji-sensei interrupted their conversation. "Alright, you two, stand to the side. Give other classmates some space to spar too."
Hikaru stuck out his tongue in embarrassment and hurried along with Ryōta to the sidelines. His first fight had been short and hadn't involved any fancy moves, but he was excited to have won. Some of the techniques he'd used were the result of the original body's experience training with his parents.
He might not have remembered everything consciously, but the body didn't forget muscle memory.
While Hikaru was watching other classmates engage in sparring matches, Ryōta suddenly spoke to him. "Do you think I can be as good as you one day, Hikaru-kun?"
Hikaru was surprised by the question and scratched his cheek awkwardly before turning to answer. "Of course you can! But you shouldn't use me as your target."
He gave the boy his honest thoughts. "If you want to aim high, use the Hokage as your main goal." Hikaru pointed toward the Hokage Rock visible in the distance, then turned back to Ryōta. "If you think that's too much, just keep working hard and try to be better than yesterday's you, because that's what I'm doing right now."
"Yeah, thanks, Hikaru-kun!" Ryōta said, his timid tone gaining confidence from the expression on his face.
Hikaru felt a bit silly offering advice on how to get stronger, rubbing the back of his neck sheepishly, given that he wasn't exactly considered strong yet. Despite his good intentions, he could only provide advice on the mental aspects of training.
Kids often doubted themselves about whether they were doing well or not. Hikaru believed it was better to provide encouragement rather than crush their hopes.
After watching several more sparring matches, it was finally time for Inuzuka Seiji to spar with another classmate—Taketa Kenta, one of his study group friends.
Kenta was a small, skinny boy who always tried his best despite not having the physical advantages that some other students had.
As soon as both fighters performed the confrontation seal, the battle began. Seiji started the fight with confidence, forming both hands into claw-like shapes and attacking his opponent with quick movements.
The assault only made Kenta jump around, trying to dodge desperately. He did attempt to fight back with kicks or punches, but his efforts were very limited. The entire fight looked like a one-sided beating.
Seiji ended the fight quickly, knocking Kenta to the ground when the smaller boy couldn't dodge fast enough.
"What a loser!" After winning the battle, Seiji made a loud, mocking comment that made Kenta look embarrassed and hurt.
"That's enough!" Hikaru called out, stepping forward with clenched fists, his jaw set with determination. He couldn't just stand by and watch his friend get humiliated like that.
Seiji turned toward him with a smirk. "Oh, you want to defend your weak friend?"
"He's not weak," Hikaru said firmly, helping Kenta to his feet. "He just fought hard against a stronger opponent."
Koji-sensei quickly stepped in before the situation could escalate further. "Both of you, calm down. Seiji-kun, that comment was unnecessary." He looked sternly at the Inuzuka boy. "A true shinobi shows respect to their opponents, win or lose."
Hikaru couldn't help but feel proud that he had stood up for his friend, even though he knew it would probably make Seiji target him even more. But seeing Kenta's grateful expression made it worth it.
Looking at the fight that had just ended, Hikaru realized that his own speed was still inferior to Seiji's. His body's reflexes also needed improvement. His victory against Ryōta had been fortunate because the larger boy was slow, making it easy to predict his moves and dodge his attacks.
To put it simply, he still needed a lot more training time to improve.
Koji-sensei forced both fighters to perform the seal of reconciliation after the spar ended, which marked the end of their taijutsu exercise for the day.
As students began packing up their things and preparing to leave, Hikaru found himself thinking about what he had learned from the sparring matches.
I need to figure out what my own strengths are and work on my weaknesses.
"Thank you for standing up for me, Hikaru-kun," Kenta said quietly, bowing his head slightly in gratitude as they walked back toward the main Academy building. "I know it probably made things worse for you with Seiji."
"Don't worry about it," Hikaru replied with a reassuring smile, placing a hand on Kenta's shoulder. "Friends look out for each other."
"You're right," Kenta said, looking more determined. "I need to get stronger so I can stand up for myself next time."
"We'll help you," Hikaru promised. "That's what our study group is for, right? To help each other improve."
As they reached the classroom to collect their bags, Hikaru reflected on how the day had gone. His first real sparring match had been a success, he'd learned something about his classmates' fighting styles, and he'd stood up for a friend when it mattered.
Things are getting more complicated, he thought. But I'm glad I spoke up for Kenta-kun.
Looking at his friend, Hikaru felt a sense of responsibility. The study group wasn't just about academic work anymore—they were becoming real friends who supported each other.
Tomorrow we'll continue helping each other, he decided. And I need to keep getting stronger.
As they walked toward the Academy exit, Hikaru found himself clenching and unclenching his fists, still thinking about how he could help Kenta improve his taijutsu skills during their study sessions.
But in the back of his mind, he was still thinking about his eventual confrontation with Seiji. That fight was coming, whether he wanted it or not. The question was whether he'd be ready when it happened.
I need to get stronger, he reminded himself. And fast.