Special Training

In Tazuna's wooden house, everyone had already eaten a simple dinner. Though it was only some salted dried fish and rice, for the utterly exhausted group, it was already a rare comfort.

After Naruto had eaten and drunk his fill, his energy recovered a little, and he began pestering Kakashi with questions, wanting to learn more about the Flying Raijin and the Fourth Hokage. Sasuke remained as silent as ever, leaning against the wall with his eyes closed to rest, as if storing up his strength.

Kakashi called Duanmu aside and began giving him guidance on some of the basic essentials of the Flying Raijin Technique.

"The core of the Flying Raijin lies in marking spatial coordinates and the instant eruption of chakra." As Kakashi spoke, he lightly tapped the air with his finger. "You need to attach your own chakra mark to the target object. That mark has to be concealed enough, and stable enough, to ensure the accuracy of the teleportation."

Duanmu listened carefully and nodded from time to time. He knew these were valuable experiences Kakashi had inherited from the Fourth Hokage, and they were crucial to him.

"Your chakra reserves are decent, but your control still isn't fine enough," Kakashi continued. "Every teleportation with the Flying Raijin requires precise calculation of chakra output. Too much is wasteful; too little could cause the teleportation to fail, or even get you swallowed by spatial turbulence. Over the next few days, you need to focus on practicing precise chakra control."

"I understand, Kakashi-sensei," Duanmu replied in a low voice.

"And Naruto, Sasuke, Sakura, you three come here too." Kakashi beckoned to them. "Starting tomorrow, your basic training will be doubled. Especially chakra refinement and control—that's the foundation of a ninja. Naruto, your Multi Shadow Clone Technique has potential, but you waste far too much chakra with it. You have to learn to allocate it precisely. Sasuke, your Great Fireball Technique has decent power, but there's still room to optimize your hand seal speed and chakra consumption. Sakura, your theoretical knowledge is very solid, but you lack real combat experience. Next, you'll participate in more mock battles to improve your reactions on the spot."

The three of them reacted differently when they heard that.

Naruto was stunned at first, then excitedly waved his fist. "Double training? No problem! I'm definitely going to get stronger!" He yearned for power and longed for recognition; after the battle with Zabuza in particular, that desire had grown even stronger.

Sasuke opened his eyes slightly, a solemn look flashing through them, then gave a heavy nod. "I understand, Kakashi-sensei."

He knew clearly the gap between himself and the strong, and he also understood that only through harsh training could he catch up. The flames of revenge for his clan burned fiercely in his heart.

Sakura frowned with some difficulty. Her chakra reserves had never been particularly outstanding, and doubling the basic training was undoubtedly no small challenge for her. But seeing that Naruto and Sasuke had both accepted it, she gritted her teeth as well. "I'll work hard, Kakashi-sensei." She didn't want to hold them back, and even less did she want to be left behind by her teammates.

Kakashi watched their reactions and nodded in satisfaction. "Good. Remember, there are no shortcuts in the world of ninja. Only sweat and effort can forge strength. Everyone get a proper rest tonight. Training starts first thing tomorrow morning."

The night deepened, and the sound of waves striking the cliff was low and steady, like a lullaby.

Duanmu lay on the crude wooden plank bed, but he felt no sleepiness at all. He thought back on Kakashi's guidance regarding the Flying Raijin Technique, constantly simulating the condensation of chakra marks and the positioning of spatial coordinates in his mind. The profundity of the Flying Raijin was far beyond his imagination. Every detail required repeated consideration and practice.

Beside him, Naruto had long since begun snoring loudly, clearly exhausted. Sasuke's room, however, was utterly quiet. Only the occasional extremely faint sound of breathing showed that he still maintained a high level of vigilance.

The next day, Naruto and the others, just like in the original story, began tree-climbing training.

Kakashi stood at the edge of the cliff, watching the three below struggle to climb the tree trunks, and said in a low voice, "Tree-climbing training isn't as simple as kicking off with your feet. You have to evenly attach chakra to the soles of your feet and feel the connection between yourself and the tree. This is the most basic chakra-control training. Only when you can go up and down as easily as walking will you count as having passed."

"What about Duanmu?" Naruto suddenly asked.

"He's already pulled far ahead of you," Kakashi said calmly, glancing at Duanmu, who was sitting in meditation with his eyes closed not far away. "He has more important training to do."

When Sasuke heard this, his gaze sharpened, and he unconsciously sped up the circulation of chakra under his feet. The force with which his fingers dug into the bark also increased a little.

The fact that Duanmu had received Kakashi-sensei's individual guidance on the Flying Raijin had already left a fire pent up in his heart. Now that he heard the assessment "pulled far ahead," it further stirred the competitive spirit in his bones.

He would never allow himself to be left far behind, especially when it came to improving the strength he cared about most.

Naruto was also provoked by Kakashi's words. His face flushed red, and he shouted in defiance, "What the heck! What's so great about that guy Duanmu? I can learn tree-climbing really fast too, and I'll climb higher and faster than him!"

As he spoke, he took a deep breath and drove more chakra toward the soles of his feet. In the end, because his control was unstable, his foot slipped, and with an "ow," he fell from the tree trunk and slammed solidly into the ground, kicking up a cloud of dust.

"Idiot!" Sasuke snorted coldly without looking back, but his climbing movements became even more cautious, clearly taking a lesson from Naruto's mistake.

The three of them were still the same as in the show: only Sakura's chakra control was the most outstanding. Relying on her solid theoretical knowledge and delicate perception, she quickly grasped the trick. Though she was not fast, every step was exceptionally steady, and her body moved slowly up the tree trunk like a light-footed cat. Before long, she successfully climbed to a height of several meters.

She lowered her head and looked at Naruto, who was still struggling under the tree, and Sasuke, who was climbing with all his might. The corner of her mouth revealed a faint, almost imperceptible smile, and a trace of confidence flashed through her eyes.

As for Duanmu, he was currently following Kakashi's guidance and carrying out even more refined chakra-control training.

He was not climbing trees like Naruto and Sasuke. Instead, on a smooth rock, he was trying to condense chakra at his fingertip, then carefully carve the formula mark of the Flying Raijin onto the surface of the stone.

This was not a physical mark, but the pure simulation of the mark's form and fluctuations through chakra, requiring extremely high precision. His fingertip trembled slightly, and fine beads of sweat seeped from his forehead. Every stroke consumed a tremendous amount of mental effort. The surface of the rock sometimes glowed with faint blue light, then dimmed again, clearly because his chakra output was not stable enough.

"Haa..." Duanmu let out a long breath of stale air and stopped what he was doing. He looked at the incomplete mark on the rock, its fluctuations in disorder, and his brows knitted tightly. Merely simulating the form of the mark was already this difficult. It was easy to imagine how hard it would be to instantly complete the mark and teleport in actual combat.

"Don't try to rush it." At some point, Kakashi had arrived beside him, his gaze falling on the rock. "The Flying Raijin's mark isn't just an imitation of shape. More importantly, you have to infuse it with the characteristics of your own chakra and make it a unique spatial coordinate. You need to feel the flow of chakra with your heart, and let it extend and retract as freely as your own arm."

Duanmu nodded, then closed his eyes again, cast aside distracting thoughts, and focused all his attention on the chakra at his fingertip. He recalled every detail Kakashi had mentioned, working hard to understand the subtle connection between chakra and space.

Time slipped quietly by amid the dull and grueling training. The sun gradually rose higher, and the wind over the sea became warm. Below the cliff, Naruto's screams and Sasuke's gasps rose and fell one after another, while Duanmu immersed himself in his own world, carrying on a silent dialogue with chakra.

Tazuna occasionally poked his head out of the wooden house and looked at this group of young ninja training desperately to protect him. His gaze was complicated, filled with gratitude as well as deep worry. He knew that the peaceful days had already passed, and the true crisis might descend again at any moment.