Kenji woke at noon, ate a quick lunch, and headed straight to the Hokage Building.
The building was busier than last time. Chunin and jonin moved through the hallways with mission scrolls and reports. He recognized a few faces from the original Kenji's memories but didn't stop to chat. He had business with the Hokage.
When he reached the office, the door was open. The Third Hokage sat behind his desk, reading through a stack of documents with his ever-present pipe smoldering nearby.
"Hokage-sama." he bowed. "I've finished the documentation you requested."
Hiruzen looked up, setting down his paperwork. "Already? That was fast."
"I worked through the night." Kenji pulled out the scroll and set it on the desk.
Hiruzen unrolled the scroll and scanned the contents. His eyebrows rose slightly. "This is excellent work, Kenji."
"Thank you."
"Show me the hand seal functionality."
Kenji detached his left prosthetic and held it up, pointing out the embedded chakra metal pathways. Then he reattached it and ran through a series of hand seals. His wooden fingers moved smoothly through each position.
He formed the final seal and executed a Transformation Jutsu.
Poof.
When the smoke cleared, he looked like a random chunin. He released the jutsu and returned to normal.
"Perfect execution," Hiruzen said approvingly. "The prosthetic functions as well as a real limb for ninja techniques."
Hiruzen rolled up the scroll. Then he leaned back in his chair and studied Kenji for a long moment.
"You know, when Masa first brought you here, I wasn't sure what to expect. A crippled chunin asking to remain active duty. It could have been pride talking, or simple desperation."
He puffed on his pipe. "But you've proven yourself. You faced your injury, found a solution, and turned a personal problem into something that could help the entire village. That's the mark of a true shinobi of Konoha."
Kenji could feel a lecture coming.
"The Will of Fire isn't just about protecting the village in battle. It's about this. Finding ways to strengthen Konoha even when you're at your weakest. Helping your comrades stand again when they've fallen. That's what separates us from normal mercenaries and missing-nin."
He went on. And on. The Will of Fire, the bonds between ninjas, the responsibility of those with power to protect those without. Sacrifice, dedication, teamwork. All the ideological foundations of Konoha wrapped up in a speech that was probably practiced and refined over years of giving it to young ninjas.
Kenji listened patiently. He'd expected this. Hiruzen was known for his speeches, and frankly, as propaganda went, the Will of Fire was pretty effective. It kept ninjas loyal and gave them something to fight for beyond money.
Two hours later, he finally escaped the office.
"Remember," Hiruzen called after him. "The strength of the village lies in the strength of its people. And you've just made us all stronger."
Kenji waved acknowledgment and headed for the exit before Hiruzen could start another round.
Outside, the afternoon sun was bright and warm. He had no missions scheduled yet, medical leave technically. Which meant free time to train and prepare for whenever he got back into active duty rotation.
He decided to hit the training grounds, but first he needed to restock supplies. The ninja tool shop was on his route, so he stopped in.
The shop was small. Kunai hung on wall racks sorted by size and quality. Shuriken sat in bins. Wire, explosive tags, soldier pills, all the standard equipment a ninja might need.
"What do you need?" the shopkeeper asked. He was a middle-aged guy with scarred hands, probably a retired ninja himself.
"I just want to restock basics. Some kunai, and shuriken. Standard quality."
The shopkeeper gathered the items and wrapped them. As Kenji paid, his attention was caught by movement in the corner. A cage sat on the counter, filled with white rabbits huddled together.
"You sell rabbits?"
"Snow rabbits," the shopkeeper said. "For Substitution Jutsu. Good for escapes or misdirection."
Kenji had heard of the technique but the original Kenji had never used it. Too focused on sensory work to bother with combat tricks.
"How much for one?"
"Five hundred ryō. Includes the cage and a few days of feed."
That was reasonable. Kenji handed over the money and the shopkeeper caught one of the rabbits, transferring it to a small wooden cage.
"Keep it fed and it'll last you a while. They're hardy."
Kenji took the cage and his weapons, then headed for the training grounds.
Konoha had dozens of practice areas scattered throughout the village. Some were popular spots where genin teams trained with their jonin instructors. Others were quieter, used by chunin and jonin for solo practice. He walked until he found an empty one near a stream. He set the rabbit cage in the shade and did a quick warm-up. Stretches, joint rotations, getting his puppet limbs moving smoothly. Then he started on basic taijutsu.
The original Kenji had been adequate at hand-to-hand combat. His focus had always been on the Yamanaka clan techniques.
But he wanted to be more well-rounded. Relying entirely on others was a good way to die if your team got wiped out.
Problem was, standard taijutsu training in Konoha seemed pretty basic. He ran through the Academy exercises. Laps around the field. Push-ups. Sit-ups. Squats. The kind of stuff Might Guy did constantly in the original timeline, though Guy took it to insane extremes.
After twenty minutes, he stopped.
This was just conditioning. Build endurance, increase stamina, expand chakra reserves through physical exhaustion. It worked, but it wasn't targeted training for actual combat.
Where was the footwork drills? The striking technique practice? The grappling? It was like the village expected ninjas to just stack raw physical stats and chakra, then figure out fighting through trial and error.
"Maybe they focus on that during team training," he muttered. "But still..."
Then he remembered something from his previous life. He'd studied taekwondo as a kid. Nothing serious, just a local gym his parents had enrolled him in. He'd only stuck with it for a few years before school got too busy.
But the foundation exercises. Those were burned into his memory.
Flexibility drills, balance training, core strengthening, explosive movement practice... All designed to build the physical attributes needed for fighting, not just general fitness.
Worth a shot.
He started with stretching. Deep lunges, hamstring stretches, hip flexors. The puppet legs felt strange during flexibility work, but he pushed through. Even if the wood didn't gain flexibility, maintaining it in his real torso mattered.
Then came hand technique drills. Straight punches, hooks, palm strikes. Focusing on form over power, and making sure his puppet arm moved correctly through each motion.
Next was leg work. Front kicks, side kicks, roundhouse kicks. His wooden legs moved smoothly through the techniques, and he noticed something interesting. Each kick generated a pulse of energy that traveled up through the pathways.
He stopped, considering. That hadn't happened during the conditioning exercises. Only during the more technical drills.
He tried a few more techniques. Elbow strikes, knee strikes, spinning back kick. Same result. The chakra in his limbs reacted to specific combat movements in a way it didn't react to simple running or push-ups.
"Huh. Maybe the pathways are responding to combat intent."
If his chakra naturally enhanced combat techniques, it meant his fighting effectiveness with the prosthetics might actually exceed what he'd expected.
He continued training. The moves came back surprisingly easily.
An hour passed. Then two. The afternoon shifted toward evening.
He finally stopped. The training had been productive. More importantly, he'd discovered that targeted combat drills were way more effective than generic conditioning for improving his fighting ability.
"Definitely sticking with this."
Now for the other part of training. Chakra control.
The classic exercises were tree climbing and water walking. The original Kenji had mastered both during his Academy days, and Kenji himself had practiced wall-walking at home. But he wanted to test them properly.
He picked a large tree with thick bark and sturdy branches.
He took a deep breath, and focused chakra to the soles of his feet.
He stepped onto the trunk. His foot stuck. He lifted his other foot and placed it higher. Also stuck. Alternating steps, he walked up the vertical surface, body parallel to the ground. It felt bizarre, like the world had rotated ninety degrees and he was walking on flat earth.
Halfway up, he stopped at a thick branch and flipped upside down, hanging by his feet like Kakashi's signature pose. The village spread out below him. It was one thing to remember seeing this. Actually experiencing it hit different.
After a minute, he climbed back down and headed for the stream.
Water walking was trickier than tree climbing. Trees were solid. Water was constantly moving, requiring constant chakra adjustments to maintain stability.
He stood at the water's edge and focused. He stepped out onto the stream. His foot sank slightly before the chakra caught him. He adjusted the flow and his foot rose until he was standing on top of the water. His weight distributed across the chakra adhesion.
He took another step. Then another. Soon he was standing in the middle of the stream, water flowing around his feet but not touching them.
"This is still wild," he muttered.
He looked down through the clear water. Green aquatic plants swayed in the current. Small fish darted past, completely unconcerned by the person standing on their ceiling.
He had a sudden thought. He could just stand here and fish. Perfect spot, complete stability, no boat required.
"Maybe I should take up fishing."