First on the list was chakra control. But at this stage, Kairi Shinatokawa found himself a bit lost on how to keep progressing. Tree climbing and water walking he had mastered both quickly.
To be fair, his innate control over chakra had exceeded the requirements for those exercises right from the start. What he needed now was to train that control until it became second nature something he could do without thinking.
That part would just take time and repetition. As for more advanced forms of control, however, he had no clear path forward yet, so it would have to wait.
Next was chakra shape transformation. Currently, Kairi was still working on establishing a stable connection between his refined chakra and his ability to perceive it. Without hand seals to guide the process, forming chakra outside the body and shaping it freely was proving extremely difficult.
Luckily, Kairi's chakra reserves were still relatively small, and the limited amount he could extract made control slightly easier. He had already begun to sense that connection and could perform minor manipulations.
But shaping that chakra into actual forms was still a long way off.
Even though both tasks fell under chakra control, they were entirely different in practice. Controlling it inside the body felt easy as if the chakra were a well-behaved child, responding to his every command. His only limitation was the lack of a teacher to show him the next steps forward.
But once that chakra left his body, it became something else entirely more like a wild child who refused to listen. Kairi had started to regain a bit of control, but getting it to behave as it did internally? Not yet.
For now, though, he was focusing on something else: laying the groundwork for Sage Mode.
Of course, Kairi had no idea how to actually absorb natural energy. But thanks to Naruto's training in the original story, he at least understood the prerequisites.
The first requirement was stillness both of body and of mind. Only in that state could one begin to perceive natural energy.
Naturally, even if he did manage to sense it, Kairi wasn't about to try absorbing it yet. Without a toad master looming over him with a sacred staff ready to whack him back to sanity, one slip-up could turn him to stone. Game over.
Still, that worry was irrelevant for now because he couldn't even reach the starting line.
He could barely achieve physical stillness. Even now, it felt like ants were crawling all over him when he sat still. It was tolerable, but hardly comfortable.
Mental stillness? Forget it. He was a modern human being how was he supposed to silence his thoughts? That kind of calm seemed like a cheat code reserved for those with truly innocent hearts.
No matter how hard he tried, his mind wouldn't shut up. Even when he consciously tried to empty it, stray thoughts kept sneaking back in.
The only time Kairi could probably reach that kind of pure stillness would be if he were completely asleep and not dreaming.
But Sage Mode didn't work like that. It wasn't about falling asleep.
So here he was, struggling to meet even the preliminary conditions. And yet, Sage Mode was something he had to master.
The opponents down the line would be monstrous. Regular ninjutsu wouldn't cut it. Without Sage Mode, the only other way to deliver real damage was through raw taijutsu.
But in terms of taijutsu, Kairi had to admit no matter how hard he trained, he'd never be able to surpass someone like Guy. Taijutsu wasn't something you could brute force overnight. It took relentless, day-by-day grinding. And Kairi didn't have that kind of time.
Even Might Guy himself only managed to pull off that final kick and it broke his leg.
If a taijutsu master like him ended up like that, what was someone like Kairi supposed to do? Just lay down and accept it?
No. For Kairi, Sage Mode wasn't optional it was the only path forward.
He'd already spent a long time trying, without success. But slowly, over time, he had started to figure out a few workarounds.
You could call them… unorthodox solutions.
He couldn't shut his mind off during normal meditation. But in a man's so-called "sage mode" well, his mind was a lot quieter afterward.
Of course, there was no way Kairi was going to go down that route. He was still a kid. Never mind whether he could even physically manage it it was just wrong. Plain and simple.
More importantly, it would affect his physical development, and that was something he absolutely couldn't accept.
Even so, that line of thinking gave him an idea: if he pushed his body to the point of total exhaustion, to where he didn't have the energy to think about anything else, maybe that would help.
So that's what he did. And it did help somewhat. The problem now was that his mental energy had become a double-edged sword. Even when his body was worn out, his mind was still racing.
Still, it was better than nothing. Kairi stuck with the routine. By now, it had been several years since he started this method, and while he was close, something still felt just out of reach. He still couldn't achieve true mental stillness.
After his extracurricular training, during free activity time, he once again pushed his exhausted body into another attempt. Like always, it felt like he was on the verge of something but that final step eluded him.
To others, though, he just looked like he'd fallen asleep sitting up. In truth, even if he hadn't reached true stillness, his perception had improved dramatically. He could now sense it when someone tried to touch him and when they did, he would slowly open his eyes and silently stare them down until they got freaked out and backed off.
Word got around. People started to think of Kairi as another lazy slacker, like Shikamaru.
In fact, some thought he was worse. Shikamaru at least had to lean on his desk to nap, but Kairi? He could fall asleep sitting perfectly upright. No need to lie down or slouch at all.
Of course, Kairi didn't care what they thought.
He knew that while he still hadn't reached the ideal mental state, the attempts at calming his mind were still useful and that internal stillness would, in turn, help with future chakra shape transformation.
He used up the last of his chakra to practice shaping it, and by then, the school day was nearly over.
After heading home for dinner, he would rest a bit while digesting, recover some chakra, then go spar with Rock Lee. He saved that recovered chakra for practicing the Three Basic Techniques.
Kairi's training schedule was tightly organized each part connected to the next like clockwork. With that kind of planning and dedication, it was no surprise he improved so quickly.
But no one else knew what he was really doing. To the outside world, Kairi just looked like he was slacking off. So after a few days of this routine, Iruka finally couldn't hold back anymore.
"Kairi, you can't keep being this lazy," Iruka said sternly. "With your talent, you should be working harder, not wasting it!"
Kairi was stunned.
Lazy?
Since when have I ever slacked off?
As far as Kairi was concerned, for someone his age, he might not be the absolute hardest-working student but he was definitely in the top 0.1%.
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