Attacked During Weighted Training

Ryuto kicked the last piece of broken rock to the roadside and dusted off his hands.

"This DIY training weight is a total shoddy construction job."

He glanced at the map and continued along the mountain path. He kept Ki Sense active, scanning several hundred meters around him like radar.

After walking for a while, he stopped and found an even bigger rock.

"Let's try again."

This time, he had learned his lesson and did not try to do too much at once. Pale golden ki flowed from his palm, carefully wrapped around the rock, and then slowly pressed it against his right arm.

The ki held the rock like glue, fastening it to the outside of his arm.

Ryuto swung his arm.

Heavy, but he could still move it.

"This could work."

He tried walking forward while keeping his ki wrapped around the rock.

A dozen or so steps later, there was a crack.

The rock split, fell to the ground, and shattered into several pieces.

"...Broke again." Ryuto crouched down and looked at the fragments. "Was the ki wrapped too tightly? Or is the rock itself just no good?"

He thought for a moment, then stood up without looking for another rock.

"Maybe I'm approaching this wrong." Ryuto looked at his arm. "Covering my whole body with ki for defense or speed works fine. But using it as glue to stick heavy objects onto me takes too much energy, and it isn't stable."

"Maybe...I shouldn't be thinking about using ki to 'stick' things."

He raised his right hand, and ki began gathering in his arm.

Not wrapping around it, but penetrating it.

The pale golden ki flowed like water into the muscles and bones of his arm, and a faint golden glow spread over his entire right arm.

Ryuto clenched his fist a few times.

"It feels...different."

He walked over to a tree with a trunk as thick as the mouth of a bowl. Without using any technique, he threw an ordinary punch.

Bam!

His fist punched a hole straight through the trunk, sending wood chips flying.

Ryuto pulled back his fist and examined it.

His hand did not hurt, and he had used very little ki, far less effort than a Ki Blast or full-body coverage had taken before.

"Localized reinforcement?" Ryuto's eyes lit up. "Concentrating ki where I need it instead of distributing it evenly across my whole body...this could work!"

As he pondered it, Ki Sense suddenly warned him.

Three chakra signatures were rapidly approaching through the woods ahead to his left.

They were not passing by. They were coming straight for him.

Ryuto immediately put his thoughts aside and locked Ki Sense onto those three targets.

Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh-

Three figures darted out of the woods and landed on the mountain path, surrounding him in a triangle.

All three wore worn-out ninja vests without clan crests. Their faces were filthy, and their eyes held the vicious gleam of hungry wolves.

Wandering, unaffiliated ninja.

"Kid," the tall, thin one in the middle said hoarsely, "hand over your rations, and we'll spare your life."

Ryuto said nothing and gave them a quick once-over.

Three men, none with much chakra, nowhere near the regular Uchiha and Senju troops he had seen on the battlefield before. But their eyes were ruthless, their grips on their kunai tight. They had spilled blood before.

"Didn't you hear him?" the short, fat one on the left roared. "If you don't want to die-"

Before he could finish, Ryuto moved.

He poured ki into his feet, blurred forward, and charged straight up to the tall, thin man.

His right fist swung out, ki concentrating in it the instant he punched.

The tall, thin man reacted quickly, immediately raising his kunai to block.

Clang!

The punch struck the kunai, sending both the man and his weapon flying. He slammed into the tree behind him, grunted, and slid to the ground, motionless.

The short, fat man and the scar-faced man on the right froze.

One punch?

"Shit, he's trouble!" the scar-faced man cursed, forming hand seals. "Wind Release: Wind Cutter!"

Several invisible wind blades sliced toward him.

Ryuto did not dodge. Ki instantly spread from his fist across his entire upper body, forming a thin membrane.

The wind blades struck the ki membrane and dispersed with several soft puffs.

The scar-faced man's eyes widened. "What the hell?"

The short, fat man had already charged in, thrusting his kunai straight at Ryuto's back, behind his heart.

Ryuto did not even turn his head. The instant he sensed the attack, his ki concentrated on the small patch of his back where it would land.

Clink!

The kunai struck the ki membrane as though it had hit an iron plate, unable to advance even a fraction.

The short, fat man's expression changed, and he tried to pull back.

Too late.

Ryuto turned, shot out his left hand, and seized the wrist of the man's kunai hand. Ki instantly concentrated in the five fingers of his left hand.

Crack.

The sound of wrist bones shattering.

The short, fat man screamed, and the kunai slipped from his hand.

Ryuto did not stop. He slammed his right palm into the man's chest, ki erupting from his palm.

Bam!

The short, fat man flew backward and ended up lying beside the tall, thin man.

Only the scar-faced man remained.

The scar-faced man stared at Ryuto, his hands trembling. He gritted his teeth and formed hand seals again. "Wind Release: Great Breakthrough!"

A powerful gust blasted toward him, whipping up sand and stones.

This time, Ryuto tried something new.

Instead of spreading his ki evenly, he instantly formed several small ki shields at the points on the front of his body where the wind pressure was strongest.

Puff, puff, puff, puff-

The wind pressure struck the ki shields and was dispersed and neutralized.

Ryuto walked forward into the wind, one step at a time.

Sweat beaded on the scar-faced man's forehead. He continued forming hand seals, but his hands shook so badly that he got them wrong.

Ryuto walked up to him, raised his hand, concentrated ki in his fingertip, and lightly flicked his forehead.

Thonk.

The scar-faced man's eyes rolled back, and he toppled over stiffly.

The fight was over.

From beginning to end, it had taken less than a minute.

Ryuto stood where he was and took a breath, not from exhaustion, but excitement.

He looked at his hands.

"Localized reinforcement...concentrating it instantly when attacking, precisely covering the point of impact when defending...it only uses a third as much as full-body coverage, but works even better."

He walked over to the three unconscious unaffiliated ninja, crouched down, and checked them.

None were dead. The tall, thin man had several broken ribs, the short, fat man had a shattered wrist, and the scar-faced man had a concussion.

Ryuto searched them and found a few moldy rice balls and several rusty shuriken. Their rations had long since run out.

"No wonder they resorted to robbery." Ryuto tossed the rice balls back onto them and stood up.

In the chaos of the Warring States era, ninja who lost their clans could end up even worse off than ordinary people.

He continued on his way.

After walking some distance, he suddenly stopped, closed his eyes, and carefully felt it out.

His ki...seemed to have grown a little stronger.

It was not an increase in quantity. Rather, he had a clearer sense of its "quality," and controlling it felt smoother.

"Fighting really does speed up growth." Ryuto opened his eyes, remembering the manga he had read in his previous life. "A Saiyan constitution. Confirmed."

He continued forward, practicing as he walked this time.

He concentrated ki in his left arm, held it for five seconds, then dispersed it.

He concentrated ki in his right leg, held it for three seconds, then dispersed it.

He formed a small, localized ki shield over his chest, held it for one second, then dispersed it.

He repeated the exercises in a cycle, like doing radio calisthenics.

After practicing for an hour, he found a flat rock, sat down, and took out his map.

"At this pace, it'll take another seven or eight days to reach the Uzumaki Clan." Ryuto studied the map. "I need to sort out the weighted gear as soon as possible, or all this travel time will go to waste."

He recalled the problem with the rocks shattering earlier.

"Wrapping them in ki won't work. I'll still have to rely on sealing jutsu."

An idea popped into Ryuto's head.

"Could I make 'sealed weight bands'? They'd feel light as a feather normally, turn heavy when I released the seal, then become light again when I resealed them..."

"Like...adjustable dumbbells?"

The more he thought about it, the more feasible it seemed.

"For specialized work, I still need a specialist." Ryuto put away the map, stood up, and brushed the dust off his backside.

He extended Ki Sense again and continued on his way.

This time, he walked faster, continuously practicing localized reinforcement as he went.

He reinforced his right fist and threw a punch, making his ki erupt the instant he struck an imaginary "target," then immediately dispersed it.

He reinforced his left arm and blocked an imaginary "kunai," condensing his ki into a small shield at the point of contact, then dispersing it after the block.

It was like running a combat simulator in his head.

"Once I reach the Uzumaki Clan, get weighted gear, and combine it with this localized reinforcement training..." The more Ryuto thought about it, the more he felt he was on the right track. "Won't my fighting strength just shoot right up?"

He glanced at the mountain ranges stretching into the distance.

The Uzumaki Clan was just beyond those mountains.

He had to hurry.