Innovation of Ideas

Early in the morning, Kamiya Keiyun jogged all the way to school, trying to refine Chakra while running. As a result, he arrived surprisingly early.

When he got there, there was not a single student around. Umino Iruka was there, though, jogging around the field with a small child. When he saw Kamiya Keiyun, he waved, and Kamiya Keiyun joined them.

"This is my son, Umino Iruka!" Umino Iruka said. "He's not in your class, but you'll be regrouped in the second or third year. You might still end up classmates then!"

"Oh, hello, Iruka!" Kamiya Keiyun looked the boy over. He was utterly ordinary, with the sort of face that disappeared into a crowd, and he seemed rather shy.

He was probably just a background character.

"Come on, run with us. Why are you here so early?" Umino Iruka asked.

"Oh, I couldn't sleep at home." Mainly because the Meditation Method worked too well. It could not replace sleep, true, but it could shorten the time he needed. Kamiya Keiyun felt that six hours of sleep a day was enough to restore all his energy.

He was only five years old!

"Fine, then you can come here every morning to run. Taijutsu classes won't start until second year, but getting your body in shape early can't hurt!" Umino Iruka said.

"Oh, then Teacher, what else will we learn after first grade?" Kamiya Keiyun asked.

"Nothing else!"

"Huh? What do you mean, nothing else?" Kamiya Keiyun froze.

"In first grade, you only need to master the Chakra Refining Technique and Hand Seals. The rest of the time is mainly spent learning to read. Don't think that's easy. Your learning goal for this year is five hundred characters!" Umino Iruka said seriously.

Kamiya Keiyun was speechless. What did five hundred characters even mean? Back in Huaxia, first-grade elementary school students had to become proficient in pinyin and learn three hundred new characters in one school year.

But there was no such thing as pinyin here. They could only look at the characters, read them aloud, and memorize them.

The difficulty was far greater than in Huaxia.

In other words, five hundred new characters really was quite difficult for elementary school students.

Still, since they did not have all those strange classes like math, art, information technology, science, reading, calligraphy, and English, five hundred characters did not seem like all that much.

But the key was that Kamiya Keiyun had already learned them. He had started speaking late, but an adult's learning speed was no joke. Though he had only begun speaking at two, he had finished Five Hundred Characters for Beginners by three. By four, he could read all sorts of books stored in the shrine without any trouble.

Learning beginner characters here again would be a complete waste of time.

"This is probably a problem most reincarnators have. Unless they start out as adults, they all have to repeat elementary school." Kamiya Keiyun considered asking whether he could skip grades, but then felt it would be a shame to do so.

After all, this was a carefree childhood. Skipping grades meant ending it early.

He would wait and see.

When class began, it was just as expected: an hour of Chakra Refining Technique first, followed by literacy.

The teacher did not care whether they were refining Chakra or sleeping. It was the same during literacy lessons. Even if someone slept, the teacher ignored them as long as they did not disturb the other students.

So Kamiya Keiyun lay facedown on his desk and practiced the Bright Virtue Method all morning. The human figure he shaped was becoming increasingly refined.

In the afternoon, there was a Hand Seals class first, followed by more literacy. However, Kamiya Keiyun did not continue practicing the Bright Virtue Method, because he noticed students sparring outside!

They were upperclassmen. They were too far away to see clearly, but he could make out two figures surrounded by a crowd. They formed Hand Seals first, then began darting and leaping about, trading blows.

Suddenly, one of the children leaped into the air, dodged a Sweeping Leg, then swung an arm as if throwing something.

"Damn, how could he jump that high?" Kamiya Keiyun was stunned. One of the children had jumped more than three meters straight up from a standing position, nearly reaching the height of the top of his tiered classroom!

That was not easy. On Earth, the world record for the standing high jump was only 2.43 meters, and that was using the Fosbury Flop, by the most elite athletes.

Even Cloud Ascending Steps, a Wuxia technique renowned for its vertical mobility, had only allowed Yu Daiyan to leap one zhang—3.3 meters—even when he used it with all his strength in a life-or-death moment.

Yu Daiyan had studied martial arts under Zhang Sanfeng for more than a decade, and Cloud Ascending Steps was a top-tier martial arts technique. Those two factors combined only produced a one-zhang leap, yet this child could jump three meters?

That was absurd!

"Could he be naturally gifted?" Kamiya Keiyun asked quietly.

"What do you mean, naturally gifted?" Inuzuka Hana's voice sounded beside him. Kamiya Keiyun turned around and realized class was already over.

"Look at that guy. He just jumped three meters into the air. Is he from some clan that specializes in leg techniques?" Kamiya Keiyun pointed at the two people still fighting below.

"I don't know him either, but judging by his clan emblem, he should be from the Hayate Clan. They aren't some leg-technique clan. Their inherited art is Konoha-style Swordsmanship," Inuzuka Hana said with a smile. "As for jumping three meters, I can do that too!"

"What?" Kamiya Keiyun stared at the girl in shock. How was that possible? There was actually a master right beside him?

"You don't believe me? Want me to show you?" Inuzuka Hana asked.

Kamiya Keiyun nodded.

"Then come with me!"

The two left the classroom, went downstairs, and found a tall wall.

"Look at this wall. Do you think it's three meters high?" Inuzuka Hana asked.

Kamiya Keiyun estimated its height and said, "Less than that? It should be over four meters high!"

This wall separated the ninja academy from the outside. Perhaps it had been built to protect the students, because it was exceptionally tall and sturdy.

"Then do you think I can jump onto it?" Inuzuka Hana asked again.

"That... is impossible, isn't it?" Kamiya Keiyun shook his head. "Forget it. Don't hurt your legs, or else you'll—holy shit!"

Kamiya Keiyun watched as Inuzuka Hana, who was not even 1.3 meters tall, sprang upward. In the next instant, she was standing atop the wall!

How... how was that possible?

"Do you believe me now?" Inuzuka Hana hopped back down neatly. In his previous life, Kamiya Keiyun would not have dared jump from that height even onto soft dirt, yet Inuzuka Hana landed as though nothing had happened.

Kamiya Keiyun felt as if he had overlooked something.

"H-how did you do that?" he asked curiously.

"By using Chakra. Channel it into the meridians in your legs, and it can strengthen your leg muscles. You should have sensed the meridians while refining Chakra, right? Try it. You should be able to do it too!" Inuzuka Hana replied.

"You can do that?" Kamiya Keiyun hurriedly tried it. He had practiced the Bright Virtue Method for nearly three days already, and his control over Chakra was quite smooth. The meridians in his legs were not as broad and sturdy as the major ones in his body, but he had no problem channeling Chakra into them.

Then he felt his legs become extraordinarily strong and resilient!

Then Kamiya Keiyun sprang upward. By the time he came back to his senses, he was already four or five meters in the air!

"Holy shit!" Kamiya Keiyun hurriedly steadied himself, then fell back down.

"Holy shit!" This time, it was from pain. His legs were fine, but his stomach and heart ached sharply from the sudden drop. Still, pain aside, Kamiya Keiyun was ecstatic.

"So this is Chakra? It's incredible! I've only practiced for three days, yet I can already do this!" Kamiya Keiyun began to realize that comparing Internal Energy from Wuxia novels to Chakra might not have been appropriate.

Chakra was on a higher level than Internal Energy, and by a great deal!

After all, someone who had practiced for three days could jump higher than Yu Daiyan after more than a decade of training. If he learned Tai Chi Sword, Tai Chi, and the like, would he not be able to utterly crush Yu Daiyan?

When he opened his eyes again, Kamiya Keiyun suddenly noticed that Inuzuka Hana seemed shocked too.

"How did you do that?" Inuzuka Hana hurriedly asked when she saw him come back to his senses.

"What do you mean, how did I do it?" Kamiya Keiyun was confused.

"Why were you able to jump that high?" Inuzuka Hana asked.

"Uh, didn't you teach me?" Kamiya Keiyun was speechless. "You literally just taught me!"

"D-did I?" Inuzuka Hana's mouth twitched. Was this what a genius was?

She had refined Chakra when she was four. Over the past year, although she had spent most of her time learning medical skills, she had not neglected Taijutsu.

She had looked relaxed when she jumped onto the wall just now, but that expression had been an act. She mainly wanted to show off the excellence of a clan child, so that Kamiya Keiyun would yearn for her clan.

After all, most people found it hard to accept marrying into another family.

In reality, she had already gone all out!

Yet it was Kamiya Keiyun's first attempt, and he had jumped even higher than she had!

What if he trained more and became familiar with it?

"What's wrong? Was there something wrong with my jump?" Kamiya Keiyun asked.

"No, no. I'm a little tired. I'll head back first." Inuzuka Hana waved a hand. Her body was tired, and so was her heart.

"..." Kamiya Keiyun fell silent for a moment, then shook his head.

Sure enough, never try to guess what girls were thinking. It was impossible to figure out, completely inexplicable.

But wait, had he just mastered a new skill?