Early the next morning, Ruri got up before the sun had risen. The sky was still pitch-black.
Finding that Meilin Hyuga and Neji Hyuga were still asleep, Ruri quietly opened the door and stepped into the courtyard.
"It's not often I get up this early. I might as well train for a while! Otherwise, I'd be wasting such a good opportunity!" Ruri said, stretching.
With that, Ruri raised both hands over his head and began warming up.
After about five or six minutes, Ruri finished all his warm-up exercises and began his training.
"Eight Trigrams One Hundred Twenty-Eight Palms!" Ruri said softly.
Since it was still so early, Ruri did not want to wake Meilin Hyuga or Ruri Hyuga, so he kept his voice as low as possible and made his movements gentle to avoid making too much noise.
There was only one small oil lamp in the courtyard. In its dim light, Ruri's slight figure could be seen standing in place, thrusting his palms forward again and again.
Though he pushed his hands forward gently, the instant each palm extended, a faint, transparent palm print formed just beyond it and slowly drifted forward.
"It looks like I've completely mastered Eight Trigrams One Hundred Twenty-Eight Palms! Next, I'll practice the Rasengan!" Ruri murmured, looking at his palms.
Then Ruri held one hand flat in front of him. The chakra in his body slowly flowed toward the center of his palm, where a blue, spinning Rasengan took shape.
"The Rasengan is only good for close combat. If I have to fight at long range, I can only use the Flame-Flame Fruit's abilities for now!"
"I remember Wind Release: Rasenshuriken can be thrown, and it's incredibly powerful, too! Looks like I need to learn some ninjutsu for ranged combat. Otherwise, I'll be in trouble if I run into long-range ninja in a real fight!" Ruri muttered as he watched the Rasengan slowly fade from his hand.
After that, Ruri considered whether to train inside the Ring for a while, since he could earn a new ninjutsu that way. In the end, he decided to enter the Ring and train.
Under the courtyard's faint lamplight, Ruri sat on the ground and placed a hand against his forehead, then entered the Ring.
"Training mode!" Ruri said after entering the Ring.
"This session's training goals are 1,000 push-ups, 500 squats..."
"Seriously? Why is it all physical conditioning this time? And so much of it! When am I supposed to finish all this? What a rip-off!"
Seeing how many push-ups, squats, and other exercises he had to do, Ruri grumbled. An ordinary person could never finish all of this in such a short time, but Ruri was different. With his unusual constitution, completing these goals quickly should not pose much of a problem.
Complaining was one thing, but if he failed to complete the goals, he would miss out on the reward ninjutsu. So Ruri stopped wasting his time, walked to the center, and began working through the exercises.
"1"
"2"
"3"...
Ruri's physical fitness really was impressive. In less than an hour, he completed every goal.
"Man, I really don't know how Rock Lee and Might Guy train like that. What I did was nothing compared to their tens of thousands of reps. I really admire them now!" Ruri said, dusting off his hands after finishing.
"Congratulations on completing your goals. Your reward is the ninjutsu-Lightning Blade!"
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