Asuma continued, "He forbade me from associating with people like that again, and he forbade them from continuing to use my name to cause trouble."
At that, he paused, his voice dropping even lower.
"So... I apologize for what happened yesterday."
The apology came out awkwardly, but it was genuinely sincere.
The anger on Kurenai Yuhi's face eased a little, and Rin Nohara let out a breath of relief.
Fang Xu looked at Asuma for a moment, then nodded.
"All right. I accept."
Asuma froze.
"Just like that?"
Fang Xu asked in return, "What else? Do you want me to beat you up?"
The corner of Asuma's mouth twitched.
He had expected Fang Xu to seize the opportunity to mock him, not to be so straightforward.
Instead, that eased quite a bit of his awkwardness.
Kurenai Yuhi was not so quick to let it go. She turned toward Fang Xu, concern in her voice.
"Did they hurt you? Do you need my help?"
Then she shot Asuma another glare.
Asuma felt his chest tighten under her glare, but this time, he could not argue.
Fang Xu smiled.
"No need. I've already taught them a lesson."
"Taught them a lesson?"
Obito could not help leaning over.
"You chased them off all by yourself?"
"Pretty much," Fang Xu said casually.
Obito's eyes lit up, and he immediately pressed, "How many were there? How did you fight them? Did you use ninjutsu? Did you look really cool?"
Fang Xu glanced at him.
"Want to learn?"
Obito immediately puffed out his chest.
"I'm Obito Uchiha, the man who's going to become Hokage! I don't need to learn your moves!"
Fang Xu nodded.
"Then stop asking."
Obito's expression froze.
Rin Nohara could not help laughing.
Seeing that Fang Xu really was fine, Kurenai Yuhi relaxed too.
She had mistakenly thought Asuma really had sent people after him, and her tone had been rather harsh. Now she looked at Asuma again, a little more apologetic.
"Asuma, I misunderstood you earlier."
Asuma had still been stewing.
Hearing those words from Kurenai Yuhi immediately improved his mood considerably.
"It wasn't exactly a misunderstanding."
He scratched his head, his voice growing quieter.
"They did go looking for trouble with Fang Xu because of me. I bear responsibility."
Kurenai Yuhi nodded gently.
"I'm glad you can see it that way."
Asuma looked at her, his face slightly flushed, then turned to Fang Xu again.
"But Fang Xu, let me make this clear."
"That kind of nonsense from yesterday won't happen again."
"But I'm still going to compete with you for Kurenai."
Kurenai Yuhi's face immediately reddened.
"Asuma!"
This time, Asuma did not back down.
"I'll compete with you fair and square. I'll beat you in the next assessment."
Fang Xu smiled at his earnest yet awkward manner.
"All right. Fair and square."
Asuma snorted, then turned and returned to his seat.
As he sat down, much of his resentment toward Fang Xu had somehow faded. At least the guy had not kicked him while he was down or deliberately put him down in front of Kurenai.
Though Asuma still refused to concede, this left him less inclined to cause trouble for Fang Xu.
The next week passed quickly. Fang Xu packed almost every day full.
He ran in the mornings and attended classes during the day. In the evenings, he practiced swordsmanship, Lightning Release, and the Three Body Technique. At night, he studied the Incomplete Cloud Lightning Body Tempering Technique, then cross-checked and corrected it using his experience with the Rumble-Rumble Fruit's lightning.
His hard work soon paid off.
He could now reliably perform the C-rank Lightning Release: Lightning Ball Technique.
At first, the Lightning Ball had only lasted a few breaths before collapsing at the slightest lapse in concentration.
Now, once he finished his hand seals, he could condense a fist-sized ball of blue-white lightning in his palm.
The Lightning Ball crackled as it spun. When it struck a wooden post in the yard, it blasted a patch of charred cracks into it. Its power was nothing extraordinary.
But this was genuine Lightning Release from the ninja system, which meant a great deal to Fang Xu.
He had also successfully grasped the basics of swordsmanship.
He broke down the basic movements in the Thousand Hands Swordsmanship Insights and practiced them over and over: downward cuts, horizontal slashes, diagonal cuts, and thrusts.
At first, he merely copied the movements. Later, he gradually began to feel how his footwork, waist, back, and arms coordinated to generate power.
When his wooden sword came down, he no longer swung with his arms alone, but could link his body's strength into a single line.
Though he was still far from being a true swordsmanship expert, at least he was no longer a complete novice.
The effects of Lightning Body Tempering were even more apparent.
After obtaining the Incomplete Cloud Lightning Body Tempering Technique, Fang Xu stopped stimulating his body with electrical currents as crudely as he had at the start. He divided his training into precise sections.
Fingertips, wrists, forearms, ankles, calves, and thighs.
He let each part gradually adapt to the intensity.
He still left his internal organs and brain untouched.
This steady approach did not produce such dramatic improvements, but it had the advantage of safety.
After a week, his constitution and stamina had both changed noticeably.
When he first started running in the mornings, two laps had left him panting heavily. Now, he could run considerably farther.
His arms took longer to become sore when he swung his sword.
The drain from Lightning Activation had also decreased considerably.
What satisfied Fang Xu most was the duration of the Rumble-Rumble Fruit's Elementalization.
It had increased from the initial ten seconds to fifteen.
Though it was only five more seconds, those five seconds were crucial in combat.
In a fight to the death, fifteen seconds of Elementalization would be enough for him to evade a fatal attack, or even turn the tables and kill his opponent.
Of course, Fang Xu did not get carried away. Fifteen seconds was still very short, and stamina remained a weakness, but he was heading in the right direction.
His practice of the Three Body Technique went smoothly as well.
The Transformation Technique, Clone Technique, and Substitution Technique were Ninja Academy fundamentals, as well as some of the techniques Genin used most often.
With the increase in his mental strength, Fang Xu's control over chakra became much finer than before.
His Transformation Technique no longer revealed flaws so easily; his clones' forms were also more stable.
The Substitution Technique was the hardest because it required timing and chakra coordination, but he could already perform it successfully in practice.
He also successfully mastered tree climbing and Water Walking.
Previously, the body's original owner had possessed crude chakra control, channeling either too much or too little through his soles. He would either crush the bark or fall straight off.
Now Fang Xu could maintain a steady layer of chakra on his soles and walk all the way up a tree trunk.
When practicing Water Walking, the water beneath his feet had still wobbled at first. By the third day, he could stand on the river and maintain his balance. By the fifth, he could even walk slowly across the surface.
These improvements did not seem as spectacular as the Rumble-Rumble Fruit, but they rapidly filled the gaps in his ninja fundamentals.
Fang Xu knew very well that his cheat determined his upper limit, while his fundamentals determined whether he could survive until the day he reached it.
On the seventh night.
Fang Xu shut the door and windows and sat down at his desk.
The cooldown of the Exchange Talent in his mind finally ended.
[Exclusive talent: Exchange Level 1.] [Cooldown complete.]
Fang Xu looked at the message, his breathing growing slightly heavier.