The next morning , I found myself in a secluded training ground, one of the many reserved for academy students, as while I was sure that no civilian student would be training during the holidays, I choose a particularly secluded one, as I needed the peace to work to my full potential, as I hated disruptions while working.
Instead of straightaway working on accessing my chakra, I first started with an intense physical training routine consisting of twenty laps around the training ground, three sets of pushups and pull-ups, twenty five each, and then came squats, burpees, sit-ups and then came skipping. And then I finished off the physical training with Yoga, to increase the flexibility of my body. All in all it took me nearly two hours to finish the workout, and I had managed to burn off all my excess energy, making it easier to meditate.
So, deciding that it was time, I sat in a perfect lotus pose and concentrated on my breathing, as I took deep long breaths.
I didn't know how long I sat in that pose, but after a while, all my sensations of the outer world faded away, and I could feel a warm comforting sensation somewhere in the pit of my stomach.
Deciding that this was what I was searching for , I slowly extended my consciousness towards it in an effort to grasp it. But it was like trying to hold water in my palm, as it kept slipping away, and suddenly I found myself pulled from my meditation as my frustration got the better of me after quite a few attempts. And saw that I was in meditation for more than an hour.
Deciding to get back to it after having breakfast, I returned to my apartment to make myself some breakfast rich in protein, as it was very important for my muscle and height development, and then returned to the training ground determined to gain access to his chakra before the day was up. I also made a note to collect the stipend for orphans that I had not collected for the last two months along with that of this month. I had read about it in one of the books found in my apartment, though I didn't know where to collect it from and so decided to ask Tsunade when I went to the hospital later in the day.
It took a lot more hours, but finally after another nearly two hours, I finally managed to gain access to my chakra by gently coaxing it to flow throughout my body, after realising that brute force was not working very well for me, and then I spent another hour following the flow of my chakra throughout my body, making myself familiar with the feeling and flow of my chakra. As my body got used to the unlocked chakra, I could feel a noticeable difference in the energy levels of my body, and I found it difficult to sit still for meditation, making me decide that I had meditated enough for one day, as I had not expected to be able to sit still for even this long and so decided to have lunch and read for a while followed by Bukijutsu practise and then another physical training session before heading to the hospital and then chakra control practise and going to bed.
That evening in the hospital :-
Tsunade ran her green glowing hands over her godson as she analysed his condition.
" Well brat, you are fine, and I see that you unlocked your chakra somehow? ", Tsunade remarked .
" Yeah, it took a lot of meditation to gain access to it", I answered her unasked question.
" Tsunade san, I read that you are a famous shinobi. I read most of the first year academy books, and there is not much useful in there about actual shinobi training, other than the leaf sticking exercise. And I have no one to turn to for help. So, could you please recommend what I should be focussing on, in regards to shinobi training? " Naruto asked, hoping for some tips from her.
Seeing a way to help her godson, Tsunade immediately asked Shizune to clear her schedule for an hour, and then addressed Naruto, saying " yeah sure, no problem. I would recommend that you focus the most on Chakra control, as you have nearly a genin level chakra, and it will become difficult to control your chakra as it grows further. Focus on the leaf sticking exercise, but perfect it till you are able to stick atleast ten leaves on various parts of your body while moving about freely. After you have done that, I will tell you about other chakra control exercises. And before you ask, yes !chakra control along with Taijutsu are the most important part of a shinobi's training. "
" So what should I do for my Taijutsu training, Tsunade san? " I asked, immediately resolving to do as she instructed, though I had to squash down the sudden impulse to ask her for a cool jutsu.
" You don't need to learn anything fancy for Taijutsu. The most important part of Taijutsu, is knowing how to throw a punch and a kick correctly, by applying maximum force behind them. I will show it you, and you will practice them everyday for a month, till they are practically engraved into your muscle memory. And then you can do physical conditioning by running laps and other exercises such as pushups and pullups, squats, burpees, situps, skipping in sets of three and make sure to increase the number of repetitions everyday, atleast by five, so that the body never becomes comfortable with the workout, as that will lead to stagnation. You can stop increasing the number of repetitions after your body has reached its peak physical condition. And I will give you a small book which gives explicit details about the human body and all its weak points such as the eight vital spots, different arteries and veins and nerve clusters. You will have to memorize it thoroughly, as these are the spots you will want to target on your opponent, if you want to kill him or incapacitate him. ".
" Now spread your legs like this, and stand straight with arms to your sides facing upwards ", Tsunade said as she made him practise how to throw basic punches and kicks and corrected his posture. She was satisfied that he had gotten it down after half an hour of constant repetition. She found that she enjoyed teaching Naruto, as he never complained and diligently followed her instructions and also because she was the best Taijutsu practitioner in Konoha along with Gai, though many people neglected to remember that fact due to her medical prowess.
Before sending off her godson, she also instructed him to start learning to use both his hands equally well, as it was a very useful skill for a shinobi to have and also told him to improve his calligraphy till it was absolutely perfect and then to work on the speed of his calligraphy. She knew that as an Uzumaki, Fuinjutsu was practically in his blood and the above mentioned things would help him in the future, when Kushina could train him, as she was better than Tsunade in Fuinjutsu, though she also was a dab hand at it.
She also prescribed a few exercises to increase his flexibility which would be very necessary if she was to teach him her personal Taijutsu style, based on the Senju style of Taijutsu. Which was all about flowing around an opponents blows and using his own momentum against them and then launching deadly counterattacks.
Tsunade gave a small smile as he thanked her profusely and scampered away to practice what she had thought him before having dinner and doing some reading from the book she had given him.
" You did very well Tsunade sama. That will help Naruto kun greatly. If he follows your instructions perfectly, he should be able to more than catch up with his classmates, and even exceed them especially with his Uzumaki vitality and increased healing factor", Shizune remarked.
" Who knows, he may even become a medic like us, if he trains under you. We haven't had a true combat medic in Konoha after you, as most medic nin don't have the massive chakra reserves required to function as true medic nin. He would be perfect for the role with his massive chakra reserves, especially if he manages to perfect his chakra control, which is very much possible, as you know that he doesn't have the Kyuubi in him to throw his chakra control out of whack like it does in Hiruko chan," Shizune remarked as Naruto left.
" What you are saying is true Shizune. Maybe this way I can keep watch over him. And with his improved attitude maybe he can be my heir, as he is afterall family to me ", Tsunade remarked wistfully.
" But we will have to see, as he is still a long way from being ready to become my apprentice. So lets shelve that topic for later and get on with our work ", Tsunade said as she dismissed Shizune and returned to completing her paperwork. But Tsunade decided to occasionally spy on her godson's training to see how he was progressing.
Twenty days later :-
" Oh yes! " Naruto exclaimed happily, as he had finally managed to perfect the leaf sticking exercise to the point that he could now comfortably have fifteen leaves stuck to different parts of his body using chakra for an entire day and also complete his Physical conditioning and Taijutsu practice. It had been a nightmare to perfect, but it was worth it, as he could sense that his chakra flow was not as erratic as it had been previously.
He was now doing fifty laps around the training ground, twice every day and he had also increased the number of repetitions of all his exercises and his routine of punches and kicks, to the extent that he was completely exhausted by every day evening, when he would finally start reading the book given to him by Tsunade as well as finish commiting all the important details from the first year books to his memory.
With constant practice and a little help from Tsunade who had corrected his throwing technique when she had once walked in on his training and had seen his atrocious Bukijutsu skills, and after lecturing him on trying to learn physical skills without supervision as it lead to developing bad habits which would be hard to break in the future. And Naruto had managed to hit five out of ten stationary targets using Shuriken and Kunai, due to his practice. And he knew that he would still need a lot of practice to perfect his Bukijutsu skills as according to Tsunade san, perfecting all the basics was essential before learning anything else.
Today he hoped that Tsunade would tell him about the next chakra control exercise, as it was evident that the control exercises that she had suggested were actually having visible effect on the flow of his chakra.
" Well brat, you have mastered leaf sticking. Now it's time for rotating. Keep a leaf stuck on your forehead and keep it rotating on your forehead while you go about your training. When you can keep three leaves rotating for atleast three hours while you train, then you can consider that mastered. And then you can start on the next exercise which is making five leaves stick to your body and move around your body along the direction of your chakra flow all the while you go about your work. And that will be the end of the basic chakra control exercises for medic nins. Is it clear? I don't want you to slack off on your chakra control training just because the academy will be starting in a few days. Due to all the meditation that you do everyday and all the other training, your chakra reserves are also growing if only by a very small margin and it is vital that you keep doing the chakra control exercises daily without fail", Tsunade said and then departed to the hospital after healing the split skin on his knuckles from his constant punching of the wooden training posts.
" Well, I guess that was that. Now I need to make sure that I manage to completely memorize all the details in the anatomy book she gave me, by the end of the next ten days. Because I won't have time once the academy starts and I can't fit my entire training schedule along with the academy schedule. And this will give me a huge edge in Taijutsu, so lets get to work on that", Naruto thought as he packed up his training session and returned to his apartment.
Seeing the depletion of his monetary reserves from buying meat and other groceries to supplement his training regiment, he decided that he would be better served by learning to hunt small animals like boars and squirrels. Though he wouldn't hunt rabbits, as he liked them too much. And they were too cute. He would start on the next chakra control exercise tomorrow as his chakra reserves were severely depleted from sticking so many leaves throughout the day to his body.
Day before the academy restarts :-
As Naruto finally got ready to go to bed, he reflected on all that he had managed to do in the one month.
He had perfected the leaf sticking exercise and had managed to keep a leaf stuck to his forehead and rotating for three hours. He was confident that in another ten days he would be able to do that with three leaves and could then move onto the next chakra control exercise.
He could hit seven out of the ten stationary targets with both kunai and shuriken while throwing with his right hand and three out of ten with his left hand. His calligraphy had also improved considerably with his right hand and his writing with his left hand was barely legible, but it was improving.
And he had learnt how to throw a punch and a kick properly. He had perfectly memorized the entirety of the anatomy book given to him by Tsunade.
And while it was nothing to brag about to anyone, Naruto knew that it was considerable improvement for someone who had never done any training whatsoever in his life.
He hoped that he wouldn't be bored in the academy, as he wasn't sure that he would attend the classes regularly if he found them boring or useless, as his time was better spent training himself than wasting time in noisy classrooms.
Tsunade had been very pleased to see that he had memorized the book she had lent him and then he had also aced the test that she had made Shizune set for him to check his progress on the human anatomy topic. It was one topic that his previous studies in medicine had proven to be very useful in.
Naruto hadn't known it but Tsunade was very impressed with his progress in both theoretical knowledge as well as dedication to his training as she had seen him spend nearly sixteen hours a day training. She was also pleased with his chakra control training , which though not very impressive in its speed was impressive for someone with his huge chakra reserves.
Deciding that he wanted ample sleep to tackle the academy tomorrow, Naruto finally succumbed to sleep after setting his alarm for five in the morning so that he could complete his chakra control and physical training in the morning before going to the academy at eight thirty in the morning.