One Month of Training

Three days after the preliminary rounds ended, Takuma received the bracket for the final tournament.

His opponent had not been determined yet, but regardless of who he faced, his current strength was far from sufficient.

He had only defeated Tsurugi Misumi by using the Neo glasses to exploit the weaknesses of his soft-body modification; he might not have such good luck against a different opponent.

Takuma sat in the backyard of his family's bookstore, spread out a sheet of white paper, and began to list his training agenda.

First, fully master Water Release: Water Wall and Earth Style: Earth Wall.

These were the basic elemental techniques of the Senju Clan his father had given him. They provided excellent defensive capabilities, but his proficiency was still far from where it needed to be.

Second, develop practical applications for the Cursed Seal.

The first stage of the Cursed Seal could significantly boost his speed and strength, but the side effects were too severe; he had to find a controllable way to activate it.

Third, train his Chakra vision in coordination with the Neo glasses.

These glasses allowed him to see the trajectory of Chakra flow. When combined with his Spider-Sense, his combat perception range would improve by several levels.

Fourth, strengthen his shuriken throwing accuracy.

Tenten had said his shuriken trajectories were too erratic; in a real fight, missing vital points was no better than throwing them away.

"Writing a will?"

Takuma looked up to see Tenten poking her head out from the second-floor window of the ninja tool shop, holding an unsharpened shuriken in her hand.

"Writing a training plan." Takuma turned the paper over to show her. "Help me see if the ninja tool section is reasonable."

Tenten squinted for a few seconds, then climbed directly out of the window and landed beside Takuma.

She snatched the white paper, scanned it from top to bottom with a frown, then pulled a pen from her tool pouch and scribbled several lines onto it.

"At least two hundred shuriken throws every day, half at fixed targets and half at moving ones. Your trajectory control relies too much on your wrist; your shoulder and waist coordination is completely lagging behind."

She continued writing without looking up. "Practice throwing explosive tags one hundred times separately. Use smoke tags instead of live ones, but keep the weight exactly the same. Also, I'll have Neji come over to help watch your throwing angles—his Byakugan can see the trajectory deviation of every shot, which is much more accurate than my naked eye."

"Neji?" Takuma paused. "Will he agree?"

"Guy-sensei is always taking Lee for rehabilitation training anyway, and Neji is just sitting around by himself."

"You're so invested in this that I'd feel bad if I didn't give it my all," Takuma said.

Tenten looked up, her expression too serious to be joking. "You certainly have to give it your all. I don't want to see what happened in the Forest of Death a second time."

During the few days Takuma had been unconscious from the torture of the Cursed Seal, Tenten had stood guard at the bookstore entrance every day waiting for news—a fact he had only learned from his father later.

"Understood." Takuma took the revised training list, folded it, and put it in his pocket. "Starting tomorrow, I'll train until I drop."

At five o'clock the next morning, Takuma was woken up by a deafening pounding on his door.

"Wake up! Training!"

Takuma rolled over in his quilt, wondering if he was still dreaming.

Then the door was pushed open—Might Guy stood in the doorway, his green spandex suit shining so brightly in the morning light that it hurt to look at, his teeth bright enough to serve as a mirror.

"Mori Takuma! Tenten told me you need special taijutsu training! Youth does not allow for sleeping in! Right now, immediately—run ten laps around Konoha Village on your hands!"

Takuma rolled out of bed and put on his clothes with the fastest speed of his life.

He didn't dare to be slow, because he had seen with his own eyes how Guy trained Lee.

The facts proved his judgment was entirely correct.

Ten laps of handstand running was just the warm-up.

Next came five hundred kicks at a wooden post, three hundred push-ups, two hundred sit-ups, and then one-on-one taijutsu sparring.

It was called sparring, but in reality, it was just Guy tossing Takuma around, and after every toss, he would give a thumbs-up and say, "Your break-fall posture improved by 0.3 centimeters compared to last time."

"Guy-sensei, I have a question." Takuma lay on the ground of the training field, his face pressed against the dirt, his voice as weak as a mosquito's hum. "How exactly has Rock Lee survived under your tutelage until now?"

"Lee!" Guy put his hands on his hips, tears streaming down his face. "His taijutsu is all built on sweat and blood! Every time I collapse, he continues to do another five hundred push-ups! That is youth!"

Takuma buried his face back into the dirt.

He silently kowtowed to Rock Lee three times in his heart, worshiping the legend.

After the morning taijutsu training ended, Neji appeared at the training field right on time.

Neji Hyuga stood in the shade of a tree with his arms crossed, his Byakugan already activated.

"Tenten asked me to guide your throwing angles," Neji said, his tone devoid of fluctuation.

Takuma didn't waste words; he pulled a stack of smoke tags from his tool pouch and began throwing them at the target.

The moment the tags left his hand, Takuma knew he had messed up.

The angle of the paper tags was way off, and a gust of side wind blew them off course, sending them flying straight toward Tenten, who was standing to the side.

Tenten reacted quickly, tilting her head to dodge. The smoke tag grazed her hair and slammed into a tree trunk, exploding into a cloud of white smoke.

Neji flashed in front of Takuma and slapped his wrist, knocking the remaining tags to the ground.

"There is a fundamental problem with your throwing habit." Neji withdrew his hand, his tone still cold, but with a hint of seriousness in his eyes. "Every time before you throw, you subconsciously mobilize your Chakra and concentrate your power in your wrist. Throwing explosive tags doesn't require Chakra attachment; your habit actually disrupts your body's natural coordination. Your wrist trembles slightly when you mobilize Chakra, and that tremor is amplified the moment you release."

Takuma paused, then looked down at his hand.

He did indeed have this bad habit. He would unconsciously mobilize Chakra before using any ninja tool, a muscle memory left over from his previous training with Chakra-conducting kunai.

When using conducting kunai, this habit was a bonus, but when using ordinary ninja tools, it became an interference.

"Get rid of this bad habit." Neji turned and walked back into the shade.

Tenten walked over to Takuma and lowered her voice. "Neji doesn't mince words, but the fact that he's willing to come and guide you means he actually—"

"I can hear you," Neji's voice came from under the shade.

Tenten stuck out her tongue and pulled her head back.

By evening, the day's training finally ended.

Takuma lay sprawled on a wooden post at the edge of the training field, every muscle in his body protesting.

Tenten pulled a rice ball from her tool pouch and handed it to him, then sat down beside him.

"He's just that kind of person." Tenten rested her hands on the wooden post, looking up at the sunset. "Neji has been locked in a cage since he was a child. He believes that things like fate cannot be changed. That's why he looks down on anyone who doesn't give their all."

Takuma chewed the rice ball without speaking.

He knew about Neji's situation; the Caged Bird was not something he could solve.