Ch. 8: First try at Jutsu!
When the day was over, Arashi asked to be allowed time for personal practise on the obstacle course and weapon practise range.
He was given the latter but not the former, since Obstacle course needed a medic on standby, and they cannot request a medic to do that for a single child. But instead, he was given access to Training Ground 1, which had only trees and a few critters and which was almost always vacant these days.
Thanking his sensei, he rushed back home, eager to hone his skills, and leaf through the books he lent from the Academy library which explained the basic E-Rank camping jutsus.
The E-Rank camping jutsus were low level jutsu with no combat application since they were low on power. There were two each for each elemental release, namely Katon (Fire Release), Futon (Wind Release), Raiton (Lightning Release), Doton (Earth Release) and Suiton (Water Release).
In the book, it was recommended to first test your elemental affinity, as generally it becomes difficult to practise the element which directly opposes your primary affinity.
But he was stubborn enough to give it a try. If Hiruzen Sarutobi can do it, then so can he. Seeing the first camping Jutsu which was to actually light a campfire, he was about to do the handseal, when he saw below.
Namely the wooden floorboard!
"Damnit. A single moment of delay, and I would have burnt my house down like an idiot."
He took the book, and took the twigs he had set aside to the terrace of his apartment. His dormitory being six storey tall, the floor above had a open terrace, which was usually unlocked.
He climbed the stairs, avoiding any interruption and sat down, when he noticed there was nobody here.
"Okay, here we go. The first one is Fire Release:Campfire Jutsu."
He scrunched his nose, practised the handseal to get familiar, without actually releasing any chakra, and finally when he was confident enough, did he take a deep breath, and began in earnest. Contrary to other Katon Jutsu, he didn't need to blow the fire from his mouth.
Surprisingly, in his first try, the small ball of fire left from the outstretched tip of his fingers, and followed the trajectory missing the bundled twigs and scorching the stone floor.
"Great. My aim sucks even without weapons. It seems, I would need to correct my accuracy, otherwise I will become a laughing stock."
He tried again, and succeeded in setting the twigs on fire. He got excited, and began the second one, which was a Wind Release, to blow the smoke from the fire away.
This one was tough, and after the fire nearly burnt away into embers, did he finally succeed to push a gentle stream of air which pushed the smoke away.
But from the passage in the book, the gust of air is supposed to blow a gust of wind, to disperse large amount of smoke. Therefore, he would classify this as passive success.
He saw the Earth Release Jutsu which were there to bury the campsite and ashes to hide your tracks, and the other one was to harden the stone to level the ground. These Jutsu can only be tried in Training Ground, and he chalked them up for later.
The Lightning Release Jutsu were to defibrillate a heart, and to prevent a stroke, while the other one was to zap insects if they come too close.
The Water Release Jutsu allowed the user to condense water into a container, which can be used to drink or wash something off. The second Suiton Jutsu allowed to make a small jet of water to wash something off. He was certain, that it would be difficult to master them, since he was about 60 percent certain he had a primary fire affinity.
The remaining Katon Jutsu was there to heat and dry wet clothes or even your own hair, while the second Wind Release could blow away your scent to throw off pursuit.
The last two Jutsu were not a part of Elemental Release, and they were Ninja Release: Illusion Barrier, which blocked the entry of the hideout or cave, but not good enough to prevent the Dojutsu users, or competent sensors from finding you.
The last one was similarly, Ninja Release: Capture Escape Jutsu, which allowed the captured target who has been incapacitated with robes and bindings can escape from them.
As he read further, Arashi could feel the calm and cold night pushing him towards sleep, and he decided to turn in for the night, when even the street lamps dimmed out.
As the days passed, Arashi had slowly and steadily pushed himself to his very limits. He was consistent in his training, and continued to train every day and never neglected his chakra control exercises even on days, when he was wrung dry of energy.
He could feel the difference within the first few weeks, as his familiarity with weapons allowed a prodigal progress, where he was now at the top of the class for the shuriken and Kunai throwing, both for stationery and moving targets.
He had thus graduated officially into Kenjutsu and Bojutsu, which were Sword and Staff/Pole Training respectively. He was consistently good at the theory and even in Taijutsu Kata he had advanced enough to be given permission to peruse the Taijutsu library for self-study.
Apart from the curricular excellence, he had also gotten proficient with Chains as a means to hook, throw or grapple targets, and he had gotten his chain hooked to a heavy weighted ball, to increase his endurance.
But all was not fine and dandy, as he found out from his peers, that the Uzushiogakure still stands, the Senju Hime is still under tutelage of Hokage-sama, the Ino-Shika-Cho Trio were born two years ago, and Uzumaki Mito-sama still lives in Senju compound.
This was a blow to his mind, as quite a few things didn't add up. But primarily, Arashi had estimated the timeline wrong, and it was the Second World War , and not the third which was being waged.
This meant that quite a few strong players were still alive, and if he could time it right, he could get the tutelage of quite a lot of strong Shinobi. He also learnt that there was no war going on, so much so, that there was no lasting peace found since the village was even founded.
This was an era of conflict, an era of skirmishes, and Arashi was lulled in to a false sense of security because he forgot that by the time he graduates, he would either be part of the cold war period of intense conflict after the Second War ends, or he would debut fresh during the Third World War, which was the bloodiest conflict before the Akatsuki launched their plans.
For now, Arashi was content in his slow, deliberate crawl of progress, while saving his monthly stipends for emergency. His teachers had only praises to sing for the diligent and matured boy, who worked hard to earn a place for himself at the top of the elite class.
Outside of class, he had very little interaction with others, and he was always found either perusing books at the library in the academy, in Training Ground 1 training his E-Rank Jutsus, clearing the obstacle course he set, and trying to beat his own record, or at home reading the material he brought home, or practising calligraphy.
As days became weeks, and weeks became months, his first end of terms exams came and he had topped his class by a huge margin.
He found himself held back by his teacher and asked if he wanted to skip the grade, but he vehemently refused. The results in the tests, gave him confidence to relax on the academy work, and he began his advanced training in earnest.
One day, he approached Takashi-sensei after class and asked, "Sensei, can I have a permission slip to purchase Chakra Paper?"
He had found out that either Genin and above can purchase the paper, or Academy students can, if they have permission slips from their Chunin instructors.
Takashi smiled wryly. "And have you began to look into D-Rank Jutsus now, Arashi-kun?"
He smiled. "No sensei. I want to try Nature Transformation as Chakra control exercise. And for that I need to know my primary affinity."
Takashi could only sigh, at yet another absurd request, which Arashi threw from the left field. "And why do you practise these advanced chakra control exercises, when you don't even bother to learn any high level Jutsu?"
Arashi grinned like a fool, "Sensei, why don't you ask me that, after I show you the results of my chakra control exercises?"
Takashi smiled at his favourite student, and mentally noted to include this request as a part of his daily report in Arashi-kun. "Okay then. Instead of giving you the permission slip, why don't I accompany you?"
Arashi agreed, as there was no downside to this. "Okay then sensei. Let's go."
His cheerfulness was infectious, and Takashi found himself smiling as he was led by his student to the Shinobi district.
And as expected, Arashi's primary element was Fire, but the paper crinkled a little too, which meant his secondary affinity was lightning. This merely meant, that he was going to have it most easy to learn and perform Katon Jutsu, and secondly he would find Raiton to be easy.
But Arashi already had planned to be extremely good at the Wind and Earth Release too, since one allowed him to make wind blades for offense, and Earth Release was extremely versatile of all the five elements. Be it for offense, defense or even to carry things or hide from his enemies, Doton would be a useful tool in his arsenal. With that set, he walked back home, ignorant of the fact that every aspect of his growth was being carefully monitored in the village and especially by those who sat at the very top of the food chain.
Unknown to Arashi, the permission to access Training Ground 1 was given to him, due to Hokage's orders to give him space for his own personal training.
As such, there was always a Chunin who kept watch, when Arashi visited the grounds for his training. They were there to report to Academy, and to Hokage personally, but to also offer assistance if Arashi ever needed help.
As an orphan, with smart and curious mind, who worked hard and with a singular focus to improve himself, he had garnered quite a lot of attention in the village.
His peers had always reported his progress in the academy to their parents, many of whom were clan heirs or Jonins. And there were a lot of people who wanted a diamond in the rough to be polished and whetted until he grew to support the village, especially during these turbulent times, when lack of war never meant peace.
The Shinobi Council had already requested to allow him to graduate early and be provided tutelage under the Strong Jounins like Uchiha Clan Head, Hokage himself, or Sakumo Hatake.
But his refusal to skip grades had surprised quite a few people, who expected him to agree readily. This drew further attention to him, because his refusal to advance quickly meant he had a few other uses for his spare time, now that he was already way ahead of his classes.
For any other child, he would be ordered to graduate early and be assigned a Jounin Instructor. But Arashi had no hobbies, no pastimes, no moment in his life left unspent. He was either sleeping or training, and even during his meals, he would have a book he would be reading through.
This made quite a few people curious, as to what the new wunderkind, and default mode of entertainment for the powerful ninjas was doing with his spare time.
There were even a few bets on it. Some believed he would look into history of other villages, since his record mentioned unhealthy amounts of History books borrowed and finished with haste. Others believed he would focus on the ball and chain contraption which he had begun to practise with utmost zeal.
Others believed he would focus on his Kenjutsu and Bojutsu, as he had showed remarkable progress within the few weeks, he had taken them up. And from an utter imbecile with the weapons, to being about an intermediate practitioner with both the weapons, he had come quite far.
And a lot of them bet on him switching to D-Rank and higher Elemental Jutsus. They had seen him master the Camping Jutsu, and despite a lot of them being sure of his Fire Affinity, he was seen trying his best to master Suiton first, despite needing tremendous effort to do the same.
His complete mastery with camping Jutsu, was remarkable, because unlike what Arashi believed, no one was expected to master all ten Jutsus. Usually a squad would learn the complementary Jutsus, and work in tandem should the need arise, and only the non-elemental Jutsus were learnt by all.
But when, the betting pool saw the book he picked from the library a missing piece of the puzzle about Arashi-kun finally was placed in position. Why the hell was Arashi spending half and hour of his nauseatingly exhaustive schedule to practise calligraphy? The answer led to everyone losing the unofficial betting pool, when the book he borrowed read, "Even You Can Make a Storage Seal: Beginners Guide to Fuinjutsu."