The young people of the Senju Clan

The wooden cabin's door swung open. A young ninja sent by Hashirama Senju stood outside, holding two scrolls.

"Lord Ryuto, the clan leader sent these." The young ninja handed over the scrolls, looking a little stiff. "He said they're records of basic taijutsu, for you to look over first."

Ryuto took them.

"Thanks."

"You're welcome." The young ninja left, glancing back at Ryuto with curiosity in his eyes.

Ryuto closed the door, sat down at the table, and unrolled the scrolls.

The first scroll was a written record, densely covered in text.

"Senju Clan basic taijutsu: generating force..."

Ryuto read on.

It contained no flashy moves, just the most fundamental techniques for generating force.

How to push off the ground, how to turn the waist, how to transmit power from the soles of the feet to the fists.

But the instructions were exceptionally detailed.

One passage read: "Release a burst of chakra through the leg tendons for instantaneous acceleration, but the release point should not be too high. It should be three inches above the ankle; otherwise, the knee will bear excessive pressure and be prone to injury."

Another read: "When defending, chakra should evenly cover the area receiving the blow rather than concentrate at a single point. Concentrating it at one point can withstand a direct hit, but a misjudgment will leave you wide open."

As Ryuto read these records, his mind began to work.

Bursts of chakra and bursts of ki worked on different principles, but their purpose was the same-to deliver power.

When he had sparred with Tobirama before, he had noticed how particularly "deft" the Senju Clan's taijutsu was. Every bit of force was used just right.

Now he could see that this was not innate. These techniques had been compiled and refined over countless generations.

"Could I do the same thing... with bursts of ki?" Ryuto muttered to himself.

He put down the scroll, stood up, and tried a few movements inside the cabin.

He clenched his right fist, and ki began surging toward it.

But rather than punching immediately, he recalled the "transmission of force" described in the scroll.

The feet pushed off the ground, the legs exerted force, the waist turned, the shoulder delivered power, and only then came the fist.

His ki followed the same sequence.

It rose from the soles of his feet, passed through his legs to his waist, then traveled upward before finally gathering in his fist.

Bang!

He threw a punch, and the gust from it made the oil lamp on the table sway.

"The power... seems a little greater?" Ryuto assessed it. "And it used less energy."

Previously, whenever he released a burst of ki, he simply shoved it straight into his fist, crude and direct.

Now, following this process of "transmission," the ki flowed through his body and seemed to become more condensed, producing an even more powerful burst.

"Interesting."

Ryuto opened the second scroll.

This scroll contained drawings, illustrating various stances for generating force and diagrams of chakra flow.

One illustration caught his attention.

It depicted how someone attacked from both front and back could defend against both directions with minimal movement.

In the diagram, chakra split into two streams, one flowing toward the back and the other toward the chest, bursting out at the instant the attacks made contact.

"Defending multiple places at once..." Ryuto rubbed his chin.

Previously, when defending, he always sent his ki surging toward a single place.

If he needed to defend two places at once, he had to divide his ki into two streams.

But after dividing it, the defensive strength on either side would decrease.

Yet with the technique in this drawing, the chakra was not "divided into two streams," but instead "flowed toward two places simultaneously," only bursting out at the instant of contact.

This allowed simultaneous defense without excessively dispersing his power.

"How precise does your energy control have to be for that..." Ryuto muttered.

But he wanted to try.

Within his body, ki was more obedient than chakra.

He closed his eyes, sensing the ki inside him.

Then he tried to make it flow toward both arms simultaneously.

It felt awkward at first, like drawing a circle with his left hand and a square with his right. The ki became disordered halfway through.

But after several attempts, he slowly got the feel for it.

Like two little streams, the ki departed from his chest simultaneously, one heading left and the other right, flowing steadily into his arms.

"Then... release them together?"

Ryuto opened his eyes and thrust both hands forward at once.

Thump! Thump!

Two dull reports rang out, and the air on both sides was jolted away.

"It worked!" Ryuto grinned.

Though this was only the most basic attempt, it proved that the approach was correct.

Although these taijutsu techniques of the Senju Clan had been developed around chakra, many of their principles were universal.

Especially the parts concerning force generation, defense, and energy control.

"These techniques, combined with ki's properties..." Ryuto's eyes lit up. "There are even more possibilities."

He put away the scrolls, pushed open the door, and went outside.

Saiyans were not good at studying, but they excelled at actual combat. He needed someone to test these new techniques on.

On the training ground, several young ninja from the Senju Clan were sparring.

They were all in their teens or around twenty, trading blows back and forth, their chakra-coated fists and feet landing with repeated bangs.

Ryuto walked over and watched from the sidelines for a while.

One young man with short brown hair noticed him and stopped.

"Are you... Lord Ryuto?" the young man asked curiously.

The others stopped as well and looked over.

"Just call me Ryuto," Ryuto said. "Practicing taijutsu?"

"Yes, basic sparring." The short-haired young man nodded. "I'm Takuma Senju. These are Ryo Senju and Kazuya Senju."

The other two young men nodded to Ryuto.

"Interested in sparring?" Ryuto asked directly. "Just taijutsu, no ninjutsu."

The three young men exchanged looks.

Takuma Senju hesitated. "Lord Ryuto, with your strength... we might not be a match for you."

"That's fine. I'm just testing something new." Ryuto assumed a stance. "Come on. You can all attack together."

At those words, the look in the three young men's eyes changed.

All together?

Wasn't that looking down on us a little too much?

Ryo Senju was rather straightforward by nature. He stepped forward. "Then let me have the first try!"

He pushed off the ground and charged straight in, his right fist glowing with chakra as it headed directly for Ryuto's face.

Ryuto did not dodge.

Following what he had practiced in the cabin, he sent ki surging from his soles, through his legs, waist, and shoulder, finally gathering it in his right hand.

Then he punched to meet the attack.

Bang!

Their fists collided.

Ryo Senju felt as though his fist had struck an iron plate-no, something even harder.

An enormous force came through the other fist, sending him flying backward uncontrollably. After landing, he staggered another five or six steps before regaining his balance.

His right hand went numb.

"What just happened..." Ryo Senju froze.

He had used seventy percent of his strength in that punch, and coated it with chakra.

Yet the other man had sent him flying with a casual punch?

"Together!" Takuma Senju shouted.

He and Kazuya Senju charged simultaneously, attacking Ryuto from the left and right.

The illustration of "defending two places simultaneously" flashed through Ryuto's mind.

His ki split into two streams, flowing toward both arms at once.

Just as their fists were about to touch him, ki burst across the surfaces of his arms.

Thump! Thump!

Takuma Senju and Kazuya Senju both felt their fists bounce away from a resilient yet solid force, the impact numbing their arms.

They retreated and exchanged glances, each seeing the shock in the other's eyes.

"Again!" Unconvinced, Takuma Senju charged once more.

This time, he changed tactics. Instead of clashing head-on, he used the close-quarters fighting techniques the Senju Clan excelled at.

Closing in, short strikes, elbow blows, knee strikes.

His movements came fast and thick.

Ryuto struggled to adjust at first and took a couple of hits.

But he soon found the rhythm.

Ki flowed within his body, sensing the trajectories of his opponent's attacks and covering the places about to be struck in advance.

As he defended, a counterattack was also taking shape.

Takuma Senju drove an elbow toward Ryuto's chest.

Ryuto did not dodge. Ki instantly condensed over his chest to take the elbow head-on, while his right hand had already reached out and seized Takuma Senju's wrist.

A pull, a twist.

Takuma Senju lost his balance and was flung away, rolling twice across the ground before stopping.

"Stop!" Takuma Senju climbed up, raising a hand to call a halt.

Panting, he looked at Ryuto with a complicated expression.

"Lord Ryuto... your taijutsu is a little different from ours."

"How so?" Ryuto asked.

"I can't quite explain it." Takuma Senju scratched his head. "It's just... your power bursts out so suddenly, without any windup. And when you defend, it's like you know where I'm going to hit ahead of time."

Ryo Senju and Kazuya Senju came over as well.

"Right, I felt that too," Ryo Senju said. "Before my fist even touched you, your ki had already covered the place I was aiming for."

"How do you do that?" Kazuya Senju asked curiously.

Ryuto thought for a moment. "Through sensing."

"Sensing?"

"Yes, sensing the flow of energy," Ryuto said. "When you attack, your chakra moves first. I sense its flow, so I know where you're going to strike and defend in advance."

The three young men looked at one another.

Sensing the flow of chakra?

How sharp would someone's senses have to be to do that?

Things changed in an instant on the battlefield. Who had time to slowly sense anything?

"What about your attacks?" Takuma Senju asked. "Why can you release your power so quickly?"

"That..." Ryuto smiled. "Because my ki is faster than chakra."

The three young men exchanged looks but did not press further.

Takuma Senju dusted himself off. "Lord Ryuto, you're very strong. In pure taijutsu, even the three of us together couldn't beat you."

"You're not bad yourselves," Ryuto said. "Your close-quarters fighting techniques in particular are impressive."

He meant it.

The Senju Clan's taijutsu truly had its own strengths.

If he had not been cheating with ki, relying on taijutsu techniques alone, he really might not have won so quickly.

"Could we spar with you often from now on?" Ryo Senju asked. "I want to learn how you sense things."

"And that sudden burst technique," Kazuya Senju added.

"Sure." Ryuto nodded. "Anytime."

Smiles spread across the three young men's faces.

Their earlier resentment had now turned entirely to admiration.

Strong, yet putting on no airs-who wouldn't respect someone like that?

At the edge of the training ground, Hashirama Senju had arrived at some point and was watching with his arms folded.

Seeing Ryuto laughing and chatting with the three young men, he smiled too.

"Brother." Tobirama Senju's voice came from beside him.

He had arrived as well, still holding that clipboard.

"Mm," Hashirama acknowledged.

"I recorded the data from that spar," Tobirama said. "His energy use is more precise than before. Especially that technique for defending against two attacks simultaneously. I haven't seen it before."

"He's learning from us," Hashirama said.

"He learns quickly," Tobirama admitted. "And... integrates it very well."

Hashirama smiled and walked toward the center of the training ground.

Ryuto saw Hashirama approaching and greeted him.

"Hashirama."

"Well fought," Hashirama said. "Takuma and those other two are among the best of the younger generation in Taijutsu. The fact that you could beat them so easily shows that your control over your strength has improved again."

"Thanks to the scrolls you gave me," Ryuto said. "The techniques in them were very useful."

"I'm glad they helped." Hashirama nodded, then glanced at the young men who had gathered around. "Ryuto, I'd like to formally invite you to join the Senju Clan's daily training."

Ryuto raised an eyebrow. "Daily training?"

"Yes," Hashirama said. "Not just Taijutsu sparring, but tactical drills, teamwork, battlefield survival skills... You may not be very familiar with these things, but they're important for surviving in these warring times."

He paused. "If you really want to end this age of chaos, individual strength alone won't be enough. You need to understand the battlefield and how ninja wage war."

Ryuto fell silent for a few seconds.

Hashirama was right.

His previous fights had all been one-on-one bouts or small-scale clashes.

He actually had no idea what a real battlefield was like.

As a major clan in this age of warring states, the Senju Clan had accumulated vast battlefield experience.

That experience was precisely what he lacked.

"All right." Ryuto nodded. "I'm in."

Hashirama smiled.

"Then starting tomorrow, meet at the training ground every morning. Takuma, you and the others will be responsible for showing Ryuto the ropes."

"Yes, Clan Head!" Takuma Senju answered loudly, excitement on his face.

He couldn't have asked for more than to train alongside someone so strong.

"That's all for today," Hashirama said. "Ryuto, go back and rest. Starting tomorrow, you'll have plenty to keep you busy."

Ryuto nodded and headed toward his wooden cabin.

Behind him, he heard Takuma Senju and the other young men talking.

"What are we training tomorrow?"

"I think it's team tactics, in groups of three."

"Then do we get to be on Lord Ryuto's team?"

"In your dreams. The clan head is sure to have something planned..."

Listening to them, Ryuto felt a little strange.

A few months ago, he had still been a transmigrator hiding deep in the mountains, training alone.

Now, he was actually going to train alongside the Senju Clan's ninja and learn how to fight a war.

"This is a pretty sudden change of genre..."

He muttered the words, feeling a little apprehensive. Saiyans didn't know how to coordinate with others.

Inside the cabin, the two Taijutsu scrolls still lay open on the table.

Ryuto walked over, rolled them up, and placed them beside his pillow.

Starting tomorrow, he would begin systematically learning from battlefield experience.

I'd better prepare properly.

He lay on the bed with his hands behind his head and stared at the ceiling.

Ki flowed quietly through his body, more docile than yesterday, and more abundant.

"The battlefield, huh..."

I wonder what it'll be like.