Itsuki Kaguya, Hidden Cloud Village
One of the most beautiful things about this world was that absolutely anyone can reach the peak of its power. No matter where you live, if you have a bloodline, or even what your Chakra levels are. The dormant potential to reach the level of power only the strongest have achieved lies dormant in everyone on the planet, no matter how weak your beginnings may be.
Might Guy is proof of that. He had nothing special about him; he wasn't even a particularly talented in any field.
But still, with nothing but dedication and hard work, he took his Taijutsu and brute forced his way to reach that peak.
There's no excuse to not reach such a level, even from a Clanless ninja. If they don't, then they simply did not work hard enough.
And as a ninja who is from a Clan, I especially have no excuse. Which is why I put everything I had into my training.
…
Exhaustion terrorised my mind and body as I neared the end of another lap. I was no longer welcomed by the cheering encouragement of my peers, excited for one of their fellow villagers to push themselves so far, no, the selfish, unpatriotic little gremlins had stopped that almost a week ago and now only bored, unsurprised faces remained.
But if you were to look closely, there was a flicker of respect in their eyes.
Panting, I completed the final steps of the lap as my mind urged me to do one more, but that idea had me collapse into a sweaty and groaning clump on the floor.
"This is crazy! We finished our laps like seven hours ago! We even left to have lunch and everything!" One of the kids who had come back to watch let his feelings known.
The protests of the child and his skill issue barely registered in my ears however as my body felt like it had been stretched out by a rolling pin and then used as a sumo mat.
I had finished running for over an hour and a half to train my endurance, going until I no longer move. But of course, I had only started this run after resting from my previous workout, because I had already collapsed on the floor today. Multiple times in fact.
Each and every time getting up sorer than the last, but with the burning determination to make the most out my Kekkei Genkai. Something which the Head Matron heavily agreed with.
It had been a week since my Chakra was unlocked, and I had made a few discoveries about my bloodline. The biggest of which being that my body actually makes two distinctly different types of Medical Chakra to heal me, instead of one. I had taken to calling them: my Regeneration Chakra and my Recovery Chakra.
The Regeneration Chakra comes about when I am actively using the Dead Bone Pulse, or from my observations whenever my body believes me to be in danger, and this is what I have been using previously to heal any damage I take near instantly.
In a situation that is not a threat to me however, my body will instead use Recovery Chakra to heal me. And while it is not as fast acting as the cheat that is my Regeneration, it has a very important trait that the other lacks: it allows my muscles to grow back even stronger.
A big relief in hindsight. When a person exercises, they are causing microtears to form in their muscles, and it is the human body healing these muscles to recover stronger than before that causes any gain in strength.
If I only had my Regeneration Chakra, then any attempt I made at training would just be completely pointless. My muscles would be immediately restored from any damage taken when exercising, but they would not come back any stronger, vanishing the gains I would be beginning to make.
A big flaw, one which I'm glad evolution ironed out by giving me two ways of healing. Or however Kekkei Genkai's develop.
That's not to say that the Recovery Chakra is slow. Far from it in fact. It'll kick in the moment I take a break, flood my body and begin its magic, only taking around 20 minutes if I'm completely spent. It does not restore me completely however, but it's a close thing. Like going to the gym and feeling sore the next day. The issue only comes after repeatedly abusing this training method, and the soreness of every recovery stack on top of each other.
Which is why after 4 such sessions, I decided to call it quits for the day.
"Oh, are you done with your running for the day Itsu?" One of the Matrons called out to me. Hearing my barely audible hum in agreement, she replied "Good job then! I'll go get you some lunch!"
"You ran even longer than you did yesterday. How the hell are we supposed to keep up with that!?" One of the kids watching voiced his thoughts, which had many of the others nodding in agreement.
"We can't. there's no way we can." A girl looked down at herself, slightly glum.
"This is so unfair! How come we don't get a bloodline!?" Another spoke up.
The kids have had a range of emotions about my Kekkei Genkai over the week. From being slightly scared about all the bones poking out of me, to recognising that they were not scary and in fact the coolest thing they have and will ever see, and then finally settling on becoming a small group of haters all agreeing that I was an overpowered individual.
I couldn't really disagree with them.
Tomoki, who was sitting amongst the small crowd, had apparently had enough. "No. There's no point complaining that it's unfair. It won't change anything." He then stood up and looked down at his fellow orphans, "It's his strength. And 'cause we don't have it, that just means it's our weakness! So, we just have to work even harder to cover for that weakness so we don't get left behind!" Tomoki said as he moved to stand by me and stomped on the ground.
"We just have to train! Harder than ever before! And we'll get stronger than you! Just you wait Itsuki!" He declared, like he was making a statement to the world itself. Tomoki looked back at the other kids with a look of resolve, "Come on, everyone! We've all rested since our workout earlier, so let's do it again!"
He turned around and took off, the other kids followed behind quickly with determination on their faces, shouting on their way to hype themselves further.
I lifted my head slightly and watched them go. This was good. I had come to like these guys over the week. And if me training motivates them to train even harder, then good for them.
They were wrong though. They had no way in hell of ever reaching me now that I was already stronger than them. The world simply wasn't that fair.
But I wasn't about to burst their bubble.
If they wanted to work this hard, and keep following me as a goalpost then I wouldn't dare to stop them. If they kept up this level of determination and hard work, then maybe they too can eventually join me at that peak.
…
The schedule for us academy-in-training students was pretty simple. A morning spar after breakfast, followed by the morning conditioning via running, then came the late afternoon Chakra control exercises, and finally the evening Katas practice.
I of course did a little extra though, and trained with my bloodline between the spars and conditioning, as I was not allowed to use it during spars.
But after a week of getting accustomed to the training regimen and familiarising myself with Chakra, I was deemed fit to finally be included in the Chakra control lessons.
"Okay, you all know which exercises you need to focus on, so get started." Tabui clapped her hands as she called out to us.
My day of training was far from over yet. While the soreness on my body lessened over the day, I knew it would not completely go away until the next morning.
I was tempted to just activate my Kekkei Genkai and get rid of this soreness, but I had already tested this on a previous day and knew its drawbacks. While it had brought me back to 100%, the progress made in my speed was far less compared to days I had just ridden out the pain.
So, it's just not worth it I found.
"Yuto, go and show Itsu how the stone sticking exercise is done, it's his first day learning these techniques," Tabui beckoned over a taller boy towards me with a wave of her hand.
"Uh, yeah. Sure thing, Ms Tabui," Yuto shrugged and walked over.
Yuto was in the 4th year of the academy, if I was remembering right. The ninja school had finished for the day and the students from the orphanage had now returned, making the hall feel a lot more cramped with 20 added bodies filling the space.
"Alright little bone man, you see those stones," he pointed at the collection of small stones in my hand. Seeing me nod, he continued "your gonna put those stones on your arm. Like this," he rolled up his sleeves and did as he said.
"Then you send up a tiny bit of Chakra to up to your arm, and make them stick! But don't send too much though, 'cause that'll make them fly off." He pointed at me to start. "And keep the stones close together. It gets a lot harder to control the more you spread them and you're not really ready for that right now."
"Right, right." I looked down at my task. "So how small an amount of Chakra are we talking? I wouldn't wanna fling these off into anyone's eyes or something by accident."
"That would take way more Chakra than you need for this. You'd have to be purposefully trying to do that. You can't mess up that bad." Yuto shook his head at my hypothetical, "I don't know man, you gotta just feel it out. This is training. I don't have the exact reserves that you have so I can't really explain it anymore than just not that much."
"Hmm. Alright, then." I moved the stones and pressed them against my bicep. Focusing internally, I slowly moved Chakra towards the points of the objects.
'Let's see'. Factoring in their shape, weight and size, I locked in on an amount I felt appropriate. 'This is kinda like using my bloodline, if I was only trying to push out small bones instead of the larger ones.'
"Wouldn't it be weird if I did it on my first try?" I innocently asked the boy as he watched my hold the stones to myself.
"You won't do it first try, man. It takes people like a month or two at least to get this down for a couple sec- wait. Why would you ask that? You wouldn't ask that unless you- no don't tell me you've already done it" Yuto's expression grew more and more appalled as he spoke.
Removing the hand from my arm, I left behind the stones in clear view, still clinging onto my bicep. I kept the innocence on my face and gasped in surprise.
"Woah! I did it. And on my first try too. Man, I must be even more of a prodigy than I thought." I rubbed my chin at the only possible explanation.
Yuto deadpanned in silence for a moment as he looked at my arm, before huffing out, "You asshole. How can one guy make everything so unfair."
"Hahaha, sorry man. That's just how it is; it's really similar to using my bloodline." I chuckled.
"Just…" Yuto gave a heavy sigh, "just keep them there for as long as you can. If it's too easy then spread them out more. And if that's somehow too easy…" He gave another sigh, "then I guess move on to moving the stones around your body. And add more stones."
I thanked him before he turned to walk away, towards his own practice in wall walking.
'I guess my Chakra control is naturally pretty good. And this is barely draining any of my Chakra, I wonder how long I can hold these for'
…
Tomoki's eye twitched as he looked at me. I pretended not to notice and continued going over the motions of the academy Taijutsu Katas. He wasn't the only one, and I was very much enjoying the attention that was on myself.
"It's been three hours! How the hell are you still going!?" A girl near us screamed as she dropped her pose and pointed a finger at my face. More specifically, at my forehead, where a few stones were dancing around in random patterns around each other at my own discretion.
"Hm? How am I doing what, Hina?" I turned my head at the voice, eyebrows high and looking at the easily exasperated girl.
"That! You know what! How are you still controlling them? And how are you moving them around like that on your first day!?"
"You didn't do this on your first day too?" I hummed back.
"No! No obviously not! This is ridiculous!"
"Oh? Why not? This isn't that hard, so there's no way you've been struggling with it," I gave a thoughtful look as I searched for a possible reason.
"You- Argh!" She had to be held back as she attempted to lunge at me.
I was expecting something like this to be the case. In the anime, Kimimaro was kept in a cage all his life by the Kaguya clan and was only released for battles, but with seemingly no training, he could go toe-to-toe with Chunins and come out victorious, all because of the innate high level of control he had over the Dead Bone Pulse and Chakra augmentation. The same control that I had from the moment my Chakra was unlocked.
So, it was safe to assume that something as basic as Kumo's leaf sticking exercise would come naturally to me. Hell, even tree walking and water walking might be a breeze to figure out too.
A dulled wooden kunai thumped against the girl's forehead, "focus! Don't become distracted so easily." Tabui admonished the girl before turning my way, "And you! Stop antagonising the others!"
We both nodded, and soon the final portion of the day's training was over.
I released the Chakra that was keeping up the stones and heard a voice behind me, "Excellent work, Itsu. I don't think I've ever seen someone master the stone sticking exercise as fast as you." Tabui walked over and ruffled my hair. "You were so eager to train on your birthday that we didn't take you out to eat, so come on! We're all going Miyaki's to celebrate!"
"Enjoy this Itsu, because tomorrow we're starting your personal sparring practice with me, making full use of your bloodline. And because of your healing, I don't have any reason to go lightly on you," she smiled sweetly at me.
…
My days carried on like this for three months, and the day to start the academy was finally here.
Spending almost all of my time training in some way has made me far stronger and faster than a four year old had any right to be. By the end of the first week, I had caught up to Tomoki physically, and the gap had only widened between me and my peers from then.
The Kaguya blood in me urged me to go further, relishing in the feeling of becoming something more than I was the day before. And it did not want me to stop growing. Ever. The idea of complacency was sickening. And I wholeheartedly agreed.
Training for me was becoming addicting, and whether that was from my battle maniac genes or from me becoming part of a world with limits beyond anything I previously dreamed of being possible, I couldn't say. But I knew that I would never stop.
I had plans on top of plans on how to get stronger, but time was not on your side in this world. Prodigies are snuffed out in the crib and never get the chance to make something of themselves.
I would not make that mistake; I would not have a moment of hindsight before death thinking that I should have tried harder. That I could've done something more.
No.
There are people out there who have already reached realms of strength that I couldn't touch right now, and may be gunning for my head once word of who I am gets out to them. So, I'll do everything in my power to make sure I'm as prepared for them as I can be.
AN: I'm more of a plot guy when I choose fics I want to read, so that'll probably translate in my writing and mean I'll get the academy section out of the way pretty quickly. But with that being said, there are a few things I want ironed out before Itsuki can graduate out of there.