A Package Training Plan

"Ahem. Your performance just now wasn't bad, but there's still plenty of room for improvement.

When attacking, don't just focus on the openings the enemy shows—more importantly, always watch their hands to see if they're forming hand seals. The moment you notice them disappear, you should move immediately and watch for attacks from blind spots."

Back in the training room, Chiriku forced his smile away, a hint of seriousness crossing his face as he began evaluating and advising Li Chuan on the fight just now.

Li Chuan didn't take the easy victory lightly, either. He listened with great focus, occasionally raising his own questions.

His combat experience was indeed rich, but that was in situations without Chakra or ninjutsu, and against opponents who also lacked them.

This was his first real fight against a ninja, and even then, it was only a Genin.

"Alright, let's stop here for today. Go back and digest what you've learned."

Seeing that Li Chuan hadn't grown arrogant from defeating Kukai and still maintained a diligent, eager attitude, Chiriku felt even more satisfied.

Now he needed to draw up a series of training plans for Li Chuan, covering everything from the basic theoretical knowledge a ninja must master to learning each ninjutsu and practical combat training.

After so many years as the abbot, he finally felt motivated again.

The Civil War among the Twelve Guardian Ninja had left only Asuma and him alive from the original twelve like-minded comrades.

Asuma returned to Konoha, and Chiriku, disheartened, came back to the Fire Temple to take over as abbot.

He had originally planned to train Kazuma's child, Kukai, but a few years ago, Kukai's body developed problems that remain unsolved to this day, so he dared not teach him ninjutsu anymore.

"Yes, Master!"

Li Chuan performed a Buddhist salute to Chiriku and left the training room.

The guidance from an Elite Jonin like Chiriku, with his experience and insight, truly gave Li Chuan a new understanding of combat.

"Creak."

Closing the training room door, Li Chuan walked along the corridor toward his private room.

Passing the training ground, he noticed the Monk Ninja training there occasionally sneaking glances at him. Their eyes no longer held the jealousy and mockery from before, replaced by a measure of awe.

In the month since he'd joined the Fire Temple, he hadn't interacted much with the Monk Ninja—not because of status differences, but because he saw no need.

He joined the Fire Temple to improve his strength; any socializing unrelated to that was a waste of time.

And based on his experience from his past life, as long as you were strong enough, others would naturally respect you and try to please you. Even a simple smile from you could seem charming.

Back in his room, Li Chuan continued his daily Chakra extraction training.

His physique and spirit were both strong—that was an advantage—but to increase his total Chakra reserves, he still needed to spend more time training.

A ninja's Chakra reserves are capped by talent, but effort determines the baseline.

Without talent, you'll never reach a Chakra pool as vast as Naruto's, but without effort, you won't even have enough Chakra to perform a single high-level ninjutsu.

After finishing his Chakra extraction training, Li Chuan adjusted his breathing and posture, and a faint sound like a cat purring began to emanate from his body.

This was the signature technique of Xing Yi Quan: the Tiger-Leopard Thunder Sound, where bones and sinews resonate together.

In Li Chuan's past world, martial artists didn't just improve their physical fitness through normal training—they also used stance training and breathing methods to push past their limits further.

Low-level martial artists practiced stances; once they reached a certain level, they moved on to breathing methods, training the body from the inside out.

The stance practiced by Xing Yi Quan was the Three Stance Post, and the breathing method was the Tiger-Leopard Thunder Sound technique.

Even though Li Chuan had now learned Chakra extraction and started studying ninjutsu, he didn't slack off on the breathing method.

Because a strong body was the foundation—the thicker the foundation, the more Chakra he could extract, and the greater combat power he could achieve with Chakra enhancement.

Stance training and breathing methods were things this world didn't have, and they were his key to overtaking others on the curve.

A month later, at the pond in the Fire Temple's back garden.

Li Chuan wrapped Chakra around his feet and carefully stepped across the water's surface, controlling the Chakra distribution as evenly as possible to keep from falling into the pond.

Ever since his spar with the Monk Ninja Kukai last time, he had been undergoing a series of formal ninja training under Chiriku's guidance.

The main focus was on cultural lessons—not astronomy, geography, physics, or chemistry, which Chiriku assumed Li Chuan, as a prince, had no problem with.

The cultural lessons Chiriku taught Li Chuan covered things like identifying different types of ninja tools and understanding the advantages and disadvantages of various weapons in different combat situations.

He learned about Explosive Tags and Ration Pills, which ninjas often used.

He studied the ninja code that all ninjas constantly recited, common team strategies and formations in combat, basic ninja cipher interpretation, and the ninjutsu specialties of the Great Ninja Villages.

Plus a lot of common knowledge that most ninjas would know.

Much of this knowledge was useless to the Monk Ninja of the Fire Temple, since they might never leave the temple far in their lives and wouldn't need it.

But for a direct disciple like Li Chuan, a future Elite Jonin, it was absolutely necessary.

Otherwise, when he traveled in the future and had to fight other ninjas, being ignorant of this knowledge would put him at a disadvantage from the start, and might even cost him his life.

When Chiriku first left the Fire Temple to travel, including when he joined the Twelve Guardian Ninja, he had suffered from such ignorance.

Fortunately, he was good friends with Asuma from Konoha, who taught him a lot of valuable ninja knowledge he'd learned in Konoha, and in return, Chiriku passed on the Fire Temple's Secret Ninjutsu to Asuma.

Aside from the cultural lessons, there was Chakra control training—starting with sticking Chakra to his feet to climb trees, then moving on to walking on water.

As for combat training, there hadn't been any since the last session.

According to Chiriku, Li Chuan's combat skills were fine for now and sufficient for the time being. He needed to focus more on cultural knowledge and Chakra control to prepare for learning new ninjutsu.

Once he mastered the new jutsu, he would integrate it into combat through real battles and develop his own fighting style.

For this, Li Chuan could only sigh that joining the Fire Temple had indeed been the right choice.

Even in Konoha, no jonin would have the patience or time to give him such detailed guidance.

Besides, there was a lot about ninjas that he truly didn't understand. What he'd thought he knew before was just the tip of the iceberg, glimpsed from anime he'd watched as a kid in his past life.

And because it had been so long, many of those memories were fuzzy now.

"Not bad. Your control over Chakra has improved a lot again."

As Li Chuan walked step by step across the surface of the pond, Chiriku approached carrying several small rectangular pieces of paper.