Stop me if you've heard this one before. I got hit by a truck and woke up as a ninja. I know, it's a cliche at this point. I mean, let's be real, we've all read these stories, all seen the tales of heroism and vengeance, all heard how people beat the odds to conquer their fears and become the greatest ninja of all time or fall into depravity and become monsters that make Orochimaru look like a sunday school teacher.
You've heard the complaints, the fear, the bitterness. "This is a death world" some say "I'm screwed" bemoan others. Some are excited about it, happy to meet their idols or heroes, or come to the world expecting to be the savior of the hidden leaf.
My reaction might have been a bit different than most, but not too far off I think. The second I woke up as a ninja in Konoha, I went to the fucking LIBRARY.
Well, I mean, I actually went to work. I had a shift that night. So I slept in and then went and stood by a gate for nine hours. Then I went home, slept and did it again the next night. But after THAT I went to the library.
I had the memories. Of course I did. I had a life of civilian ease where I lived with parents who loved me, followed by joining the ninja academy. I'd graduated with middling grades, gotten on a genin team, and even passed the chunin exam (fucking SOMEHOW). But now, at eighteen years old? I'd peaked. I was just a random unremarkable village guard, destined to stand around looking harmless and inoffensive until the day I died.
Except that was definitely NOT what was going to happen. I was going to be fucking SCREWED if I didn't get stronger. Big things were on the horizon, things that could end me with a snap of their fingers. I was no one special, no one important, but that wouldn't save me from being collateral damage for some of the shit coming down the pipe.
I needed something to keep me alive, needed something to make me stronger asap. I was, quite frankly, pathetic. My bingo book rating would be somewhere around D-rank in Taijutsu, D-rank in Ninjutsu, D-rank in Kenjutsu, D-rank in Shuriken jutsui, and D-rank in Genjutsu.
My sole and singular good point was that I had unusually high chakra capacity. Not like, Naruto high, obviously, but higher than most. B-rank or thereabouts. Low enough not to tank my control but high enough to make me an outlier in terms of power at my level. Which meant literally nothing at the moment, hence my current desperate search for any possible answers in Konoha's Archive Library.
Stepping inside the building, I let out a surprised breath at how…cool it felt. It was nice and chill in here, a surprising relief compared to the heat of the beating sun, and the older woman sitting at the desk looked surprisingly chipper as I approached. "Ah, Kai," she chirped happily. "Haven't seen you here in quite some time. What brings you to the archives?"
It took me a second to place her in my memories, but once I did, I smiled back. "Sarai, right? It's been a while. I'm just here to brush up on some of the basics. I'm afraid I've let myself get a bit out of practice."
She raised an eyebrow at that. "You planning to try for promotion to Jounin?" she sounded actually curious, rather than being the mockery that the question should have been, because I had NO fucking business attempting Jounin promotion. Which told me she either didn't know anything about me or was way nicer than anyone in this village had any right to be.
"Nothing like that," I said wryly. "I was actually coming to check out the documentation on summoning. I'm nowhere near ready for Jounin work, but a nice dependable summon would really help expand my arsenal, you know?"
That got an approving nod. "Well, it's certainly nice to see someone who knows their limits. Too many of you young shinobi go traipsing off after adventure without knowing what's good for you. A sensible head will take you far, young man. I'll tell you what. We have a few books on the summoning jutsu you can take a look at. No contracts, you understand, but familiarizing yourself with the terms might help you make your case to a contract holder. We have a few in the village."
I nodded gratefully, and she pointed me down a hallway to the left, giving me detailed directions to the room I needed.
The first thought I had when I arrived was: what do I do? The second thought was: summoning. I'd read plenty of stories about isekais, transmigration, reincarnation what have you, and plenty about Naruto in particular and how the world worked, and I understood one fundamental truth that people seemed to overlook. Summoning was bullshit.
Not the summons themselves, mind. Summoning.
Summons came from, depending on what part of canon you paid attention to, other worlds or places so fucking far away that they were literally unreachable. Summonings could be performed by small children, but only if they wanted to get small child summons, and summoning did not seem to distinguish between which summoning clan you called on, only on the size of the summons in question.
This led me to conclude several things, and sitting down in the reading room and poring over summoning jutsu materials, those things were, in fact, confirmed.
Fact 1: summoning did not take into account distance or even dimensions. When you summoned something, you could call it from anywhere, and the jutsu would bring it to you, provided you supplied enough chakra.
Fact 2: the chakra requirements scaled based on the chakra capacity of the being you were summoning, NOT based on their capability. Theoretically, you could some the greatest supergenius in the world as easily as a small child, and summoning DID work on humans, reverse summoning proved that for a fact.
Fact 3: anything could be summoned, provided you had its name and supplied enough chakra. Granted, a being could REFUSE the summons if it was stronger than you and understood the mechanics, and if it did, there could be a backlash depending on how big the difference was. This was why summoning contracts were the norm. They acted as a kind of invitation and safeguard all in one. If a contracted summon refused a summoning, the contract ate the backlash, so the summoner didn't just fucking die.
Summoning, in point of fact, used to be VERY dangerous before the advent of contracts. You were basically throwing power at some unknowable being and hoping it bit instead of punting it back into your skull like a live grenade.
All of this, however, confirmed several factors that I had been DESPERATELY hoping to confirm. In fact, the summoning jutsu was so perfect, so absolutely broken in exactly the way I'd been hoping, that I was tempted to get up and start dancing where I sat. Of course, I didn't do that. My old self might have been willing to look like an idiot, but Kai Mikado did not indulge in such foolishness.
Still, I all but sprinted to the front desk to ask Sarai to borrow some paper and pencils, and when I came back, I began furiously scribbling the formulas I needed.
To most people, the summoning jutsu might not seem quite as broken as I was making it out to be. Its utility was obvious, but limited. I couldn't summon some godlike being to give me powers, or some guardian beast to make a contract with that was beyond the understanding of mortal men. I didn't have the chakra for any of that shit, even if I knew the names of those beings, which, admittedly, I did in some cases.
But see, I knew some things people in this world didn't. I knew what the multiverse was. I knew it was real. And I knew the names of people who LIVED in that multiverse. People who didn't have super chakra powers or world destroying strength, but had knowledge and abilities that were almost as good.
To a resident of this world, nothing you could summon with normal human strength would be worth calling on. The summoning jutsu didn't scale directly. It DID have a setup cost, and that ate up some of the chakra. Your average academy student, for instance, couldn't even call a tadpole from Mount Myoboku.
I definitely COULD call a tadpole, but that would be pointless. What would I do with it?
Summoning a normal human man with normal human strength would be functionally pointless. A civilian? What the hell were they going to do for me? What knowledge would they hold?
But see, I knew that the answer to that question could be 'a fuck ton'.
As I made my way back to my apartment carrying my papers, I felt my heart pounding in my chest like a war drum. This was going to be the first day of the rest of my life.
Getting inside, I closed the door, pulled out the charcoal I'd stopped to buy, and cleared a space on my floor. Then I began to draw. I fucked up. I erased it, wiped the floor clean, and started over. And over. And over. I had zero experience with seals, and the design of the summoning circle was complicated as hell.
Eventually though, I finished it, and , referring back to my research, I searched out the symbols that specified WHAT was being summoned, and I changed them.
There were…honestly a bunch of them. The summoning parameters for contracts were pre-programmed basically, but for a summoning like this, or a blank summon as they'd once been called, you had to specify everything yourself.
Name. Height. Disposition. I had to fudge a bunch of shit, but luckily the weight and height parameters only had to be close. You could brute force it with mental imagery if you knew enough about your target. And I did. I knew so damned much. Enough that I was sure I could call him. Even if I wasn't sure he'd respond.
Because he had no chakra. No special force energy. Or at least none that was present ninety percent of the time. Just knowledge. The knowledge that would help me start on my journey. The first step on my path to power.
I changed the symbols, then double checked them. Triple checked. I didn't know what would happen if I missed the target. If I tried to summon something that didn't exist, maybe it would backlash automatically and kill me. So I was careful. Patient. I was methodical about all my work.
Eventually though, I realized I was just making excuses. Just putting off the inevitable. So…I decided to get started. Following a combination of steps from the book and my own memories, I performed the steps of the summoning. I bit my thumb to draw blood (which hurt WAY more than it looked like it did) and dripped the crimson liquid onto the circle. It began to glow, and I funneled in my chakra just like I was supposed to, then stepped back to wait.
I felt a draw, a pull on the chakra coils in my body, and there was a puff of smoke, and then…he was there.
He wasn't very tall. Five foot five, and he was stooped with apparent age. I knew that under those formal japanese clothes was a form of pure sculpted muscle, but he hid it well. His wild white hair was spiked up in a gravity defying swoop, and his mustache was neatly combed. But the big kicker was his eyes. Steel grey and sharp as a razor, boring into me like drills.
"Where am I?" And who the hell," asked Bang, also known as Silver Fang, S-Class hero and greatest treasure of martial arts. "Are YOU supposed to be?" I didn't answer right away, I was too busy smiling. It had worked, and my life was never going to be the same again. Now I just needed to convince him to train me.
AN:// Welcome to Call of the Void! This one has been getting good feedback on patreon, so I hope everyone here enjoys it as much. The MC of this story is 18, and will not be romantically involved with anyone younger, which, given the necessity of canon, means none of the Konoha 12. There are plenty of possible romantic interests though (Temari I might nudge up a year or two since she's pretty close anyway) and this will most likely be multi-pairing, and is tagged as such.
No gender bends, and obviously there will be elements from other media, though I'm not planning any actual world jumps for the MC. Hope everyone enjoys, and let me know what you think! Also next five chapters are up on patreon for anyone who wants to read them, though I imagine most of you will wait until it has a bit more meat on it lol.Last edited: Nov 14, 2025 Like ReplyReport Reactions:Mappy, sicksock, Hiroshima911 and 1,153 othersMalcolm TentNov 14, 2025Add bookmarkView discussionThreadmarks Chapter 2 New View contentMalcolm TentMonkey with a typewriter.Nov 18, 2025Add bookmark#75"So, you're saying you want me to train you to…what? Survive all the terrible things that are coming?" Bang asked as he sat across from me at the table in my small apartment. He took an experimental sip of sake, then grimaced. "This is terrible by the way," He pushed the small cup away.
I shrugged. "I'm a gate guard. I mean, technically as a chunin I'm a C-rank ninja, and guarding the gate IS a C-rank mission, but it's long term. C-ranks pay about thirty thousand ryo at the low end, and I get paid monthly for my job. Eating out costs a few thousand ryo for a decent meal, and if I cook for myself I can get away with spending a little less in the long run, but I don't have the disposable income for shit like wine."
He nodded slowly. "I can understand that. Your accommodations are certainly spartan. The question is, why should I help you?"
"I was expecting that," I said with another shrug. "And honestly…I don't know. I summoned you first because taijutsu is like…the foundation. It's the first thing they teach, the thing that all the rest of shinobi life is built on. If I'm working from the ground up, I need to be on firm ground, you know? As for your motivation? I didn't really get that far. I guess I could get you some ninja stuff. Storage scrolls with spatial storage, or explosive tags you can use to blow stuff up. Might be useful in your hero work. At the end of the day though…I need help. I'm asking for it."
To my surprise, his mustache twitched up in a small smile. "You know, you would be surprised how few people take that approach. They try to beg, bargain, or bribe, they even threaten me sometimes. But so few people just say 'please help me'. I find it…refreshing."
"So you'll teach me?" I said excitedly. "Because honestly, I have no idea how I'm going to survive without your help." Which was true. I had other plans for summoning, plans for people to help with my control, my power, even my ninjutsu in a roundabout way, but it all started here. I needed to become stronger, needed to improve. Chakra was a combination of physical and spiritual energy, and having a weak or underdeveloped body would hamper mine.
"I will," he said with a nod. "Provided, of course, you can send me back. You CAN do that, yes? If you've summoned me here permanently I will be…displeased."
I waved him off. "Summonings can be cancelled at any time. You're being held here by my chakra. All I need to do it cut the jutsu off. So, where do we start? I don't know if I can get you to a training ground without questions, might be easier to just summon you there. But I have some room in here, should we spar?"
"We can," he nodded, standing up. He looked around my place. "There is a small amount of room here, and I'm good enough at managing my force to make sure you don't accidentally break anything. It would do me good to see exactly what you're capable of."
Which was probably a decent amount to him, honestly. Ninja were stronger and faster than most normal people, even out of shape ones like me. Admittedly, I probably wasn't stronger than HIM. Firstly he was a monster who could fight giant centipedes with just pure bullshit skill, and secondly I was only barely a chunin. My teammates had carried me through the exam (which was NOT as brutal as Naruto's would be), and I'd been only mostly passable at taijutsu.
Of course, I had another reason for choosing Bang. It was that I was pretty sure he would help. Bang was, at his core, a hero that liked to teach. Bad experiences aside, he enjoyed taking students and forging them into powerful fighters.
Having someone like that train me to begin with would be key, because like I'd told him, I didn't have access to more powerful incentives. I DID have a plan to use taijutsu to GET something that I was pretty sure my next target would be able to use, but I'd need to be extremely skilled to manage that. Not to mention I was pretty sure you could only have one active summon at a time. In the series Sasuke switched from Snake to Hawk, but he didn't use both at once that I remembered.
There was a chance that once I broke this…contract? I would probably need to sign a contract with Bang actually. Once I broke it I might be unable to get him back easily. Maybe next time I tried to summon him I'd get a different Bang. A contract would ensure continuity, and make certain I could keep learning from my actual teacher and not someone with his face.
Which meant I needed to get this out of the way. "Hold on, let me do something." I headed over to my gear, pulling out a scroll and some chakra ink, then started to sketch out a basic summoning contract as outlined in the books I'd read. The books had outlined the matter of summoning randomly and how to hook in your summons, being from a much earlier time, so I knew what to do. I handed it to him and explained.
Once he understood (and damn, he must have seen some weird shit in his world because he didn't even blink at multiverse mechanics) he shrugged and bit his thumb like I showed him, then placed a handprint in blood. Once that was finished, he stepped back out into the middle of the room.
Gesturing for me to approach, he held up his hands. His stance was…relaxed, open, like he was just casually posing with no real intent. I wasn't fooled.
"Well," he said after a moment. "I'm waiting."
I considered the constraints. Space, limited, mobility, restricted, and my own skills were lacking. All I could do was just…attack. I only really knew the academy taijutsu style, though I had years of experience. So that's what I used. I shot forward, aiming for his center mass, trying to avoid being deflected, though I knew it was pretty much pointless.
Sure enough, my punch met…nothingness. Like a rock falling into a flowing stream, before my fist could actually land, it was just kind of swept away by the current, the force moving seamlessly and then kind of exploding off the side, jerking my body forward. It was like someone had used a mouse to drag and drop my punch, and it just stopped working in the interim. I stumbled forward, but Bang caught me effortlessly by the shoulder, holding my whole body motionless with a gentle grip.
"Not bad," he mused. "You've been trained. And you have a lot of experience. But your style is very raw. Some kind of generalized form designed for beginners, I'd assume? It's not ideal, but I've worked with worse. I prefer starting from scratch, honestly, fewer bad habits to break."
I straightened up. "You got all that from one shitty attempted punch?"
"Martial arts," he said firmly. "Is a formula. Each step is part of the equation, and by studying those steps, you reach the correct answer. Whether that answer is victory, strength, the protection of the innocent, it matters not. If you take the wrong steps, you reach the wrong answer. I wouldn't be much of a martial artist if I couldn't deduce which steps led to your incorrect conclusion after watching you calculate your formula."
He looked consideringly around. "Would it truly be such an attention grabbing event for us to leave this place? Is resummoning me at a training ground really necessary?"
I considered that. "I mean…maybe not?" I said slowly. "You don't have any active chakra, so people will just assume you're an old civilian. I mean, you not having ANY chakra is suspicious as hell, but unless we run into a Hyuuga who decides to study your chakra pathways I doubt anyone would notice. So I guess it wouldn't be a huge thing. Do you have somewhere in mind?"
"My martial art is the fist of flowing water, crushing rock," he told me proudly. "To properly experience that, it is ideal to witness these phenomena in nature. From what you told me, this place has many training areas. Is there perhaps one where we might find a waterfall?
"Well, I mean the Naka river runs through the village," I hedged. "I think theres a few spots where it drops off and creates waterfalls. Let me think." I tried to remember back in my genin days, the different training spots. "Training ground…seventeen?" I said cautiously. "I think there's a waterfall there. I mean, there's also the Valley of the End, but it's kind of a cultural landmark, and if we break anything I'll probably be executed for treason."
It was also not close to Konoha. The Valley of the End marked the border of the Land of Fire and what would one day become the Land of Sound.
Nodding, he gestured for me to go ahead and lead the way, and I shrugged, tucking the contract away and then leading him out of my apartment and out into the street. I was about to head for training ground seventeen when Bang reached out and casually tugged my arm. I felt weightless for a second, and then my whole body just…flowed out of the way of a small form as it hurtled through the space where my chest had been.
"Hey wha-" squeaked the confused child who had been trying to jump on my back. "Oh no!"
There was a crash as the wild eyed form of Kiba Inuzuka slammed into a nearby trashcan, sending it scattering and covering himself in trash. "Damn it Kiba!" snapped an aggravated voice. "What did I tell you about attacking Kai!"
The kid hopped up, looking outraged, and pointed at Bang. "What the hell old man? How did you do that? Who are you?"
His demanding rant was interrupted when the furious woman who had yelled at him stalked over and yanked him off the ground by the scruff of his neck. "Kiba!" snapped my old teammate, Hana Inuzuka. "You apologize to that nice old man right now! You aren't an animal, no matter what mom tried to tell you. Use your damned manners! I'm so sorry sir," she told Bang apologetically. "You too Kai, he hasn't seen you in a while and he forgot himself."
I just laughed it off. "It's cool Hana. I see he's as much of a brat as you were at that age."
"I was NOT a brat," she said in irritation. "I was a refined lady. I comported myself with the utmost grace and dignity."
"You once bit me during classroom sparring," I said flatly.
She shrugged. "There's no rule against that.
"The spar was OVER!" I snapped exasperatedly.
"You were being smug," she sniffed. "I was just teaching you a lesson."
I threw my hands up in the air in aggravation at the argument we'd had a dozen times. "I was making the seal of reconciliation!"
"And you were doing it very smugly," she said, her tone veering in that direction as well. "Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go dunk THIS" she shook her brother. "In the river before the smell sets. It was good seeing you Kai. You should come by the clinic sometime. It's been too long." She gave me a warm smile and then dragged her kicking and screaming sibling off into the distance, towards the nearest river bank.
Bang watched me watch her go with a smile. I frowned at him. "What?" I snapped. "Never seen two old friends talk before?"
He held up both hands. "Just observing. A true martial artist is always aware of his surroundings." I huffed at him and turned to head off towards the training ground. I very carefully did NOT acknowledge the low chuckling coming from behind me. I had far too much dignity for that.
AN:// For those unaware, and since I forgot to mention, this updates Tuesdays and Thursdays, replacing A Novel Approach's slot.Last edited: Nov 18, 2025 Like ReplyReport Reactions:Mappy, Hiroshima911, Grislyfrostbite and 1,144 othersMalcolm TentNov 18, 2025NewAdd bookmarkView discussionThreadmarks Chapter 3 New View contentMalcolm TentMonkey with a typewriter.Nov 20, 2025Add bookmark#106We arrived at training ground seventeen pretty quickly. The village was…well not empty exactly, but not full. It was coming up on dinner time. It wasn't dark yet, but it was twilight, and the cool breeze coming off the river and the rush of the waterfall created a peaceful atmosphere. I took a deep breath, enjoying the scents and sounds of nature and then turned to Bang. "Alright, so…why are we here exactly?"
"Because training in a cramped apartment is stupid," he said bluntly. "And I like waterfalls. I might use it in your instruction later, but for now consider it…inspiration. Now, tell me what you know about my martial art."
I snorted at his admission that this wasn't necessary, but focused on the request. "Alright, the fist of flowing water, crushing rock. It's emphasizing on soft force, deflection and-"
"Wrong," he cut me off. "This is your first mistake. We do not deflect. Can you tell me why?"
That brought me up short. "I mean, not really? I guess maybe because its too direct? Your moves don't seem to be about confronting force."
"Close enough," he nodded his approval. "Deflection is the act of countering force by offsetting it with another force. Striking an attack to knock it off course. This is fundamentally opposed to the fist of flowing water. To strike an opponent's blow is to bleed off the force of their strike while redirecting it. This is folly."
He gestured to the river. "The river is one of the mightiest forces in nature. It wears down stone, splits the land, and creates huge canyons. But when someone means to redirect a river, they do not confront that power head on. They dig a canal, and let the river guide ITSELF in the direction it wishes to go. Attack me." I blinked at the non sequiter, but after a moment, I nodded and did as he said, rushing him with a haymaker.
As before, his hands drifted up to guide my attack, but rather than focus on where things ended, I focused on how they got there. I could feel the force in my body, the tension in my muscles, the leverage of my feet pushing off the ground, all pouring towards him. When his hands met mine, none of that force was spent. Instead, he simply provided a path for it to follow. In fact, not only did my force not diminish, it slightly increased, the guiding movement added flow to the motion, speeding it up as I was shifted away.
I stumbled away, then rounded on him quickly to make sure he wouldn't follow up. He didn't. "The fist of flowing water is the mastery of force." His voice was austere and proud. "To pluck the strength of another from the very air and guide it to follow your will. To become the tributary that directs the mighty river, and at the end of the journey, to bring that overwhelming power crashing down on the enemy, to crush them like the stones worn down by the current."
Seeing the awe on my face, he nodded. "You understand. Now, knowing what you do, what do you suppose is the most important aspect of the fist?"
"Um…the fist?" I guessed. "Or I mean the arms maybe. The tools that redirect the flow."
"Foolishness," he responded simply. "Hands are hands, fists are fists. But the mighty river is supported by the earth that shapes its currents. The true mastery of Ryusui Gansai-Ken lies in the FEET. The balance of the stance, the adjustments of the footwork. To redirect force, you must become the earth through which the river rushes. Provide the riverbed and direct the tributary."
Then, he MOVED. There was a rush of air, and Bang shifted forward towards me, flowing across the ground like he was skating on the surface of the waves. His feet glided over the dirt like they weren't even touching it, and his body skimmed forward right into my space, so fast I couldn't even think. I lashed out with my fists, trying to drop into a lower stance so I could defend, but my strikes just drifted harmlessly away in the current of his motions. Each blow seemed to almost fuel his movements, increasing his speed as he circled around me.
I felt his hand gently reach out for my and settle on my back, and then…WHAM.
I pitched forward, stumbling to my knees with a choking gasp as a colossal impact SMASHED into my back and knocked the wind out of me. I lay there on the ground, choking and wheezing, and he walked over to stand beside me placidly. "In the parlance of today's youth, I believe the phrase I'm looking for in this situation is 'quit hitting yourself'," he said dryly.
Rolling onto my back I coughed and gasped, desperately trying to regain my ability to breath. "That was…my punches? You redirect the force into my back? But how did you maintain the momentum? Shouldn't it have all burned off between the redirection and the attack?"
"Well reasoned," he said cheerfully. "But conceptually flawed. There was no between. I never stopped moving. I told you, the power comes from the feet. My footwork maintained my momentum, even added to it, and by the time the strikes you used against me were returned, they had multiplied several times over."
"That seems a little…reactive," I pointed out as I sat up. "You don't strike me as pure defense."
He smiled. "I'm not. There are advanced techniques that allow you to multiple your own force, to borrow power from the earth below, and of course, to direct the currents of your own movement into pinpoint strikes. My own title: Silver Fang, comes from a manifestation of this concept, my 'piercing fang' technique. But this is all a matter for your future self. For now, we begin at the beginning."
Reaching down, he pulled gently, and my body popped to a standing position. Then he started shoving and tugging on my until I sunk down into a deep squat, my feet locked in a very specific position.
He walked over to the other side of the clearing, bent down and fished a hand in the river, plucking out several stones. "First lesson," he said serenely. "Do not allow the rocks to strike you. And do not move your feet."
My eyes widened as he wound up and fucking HURLED the first rock at me. I yelped, my hand coming up to smack at the stone, and I hissed with agony as the rock smashed into my knuckle. It deflected the stone, but my finger throbbed from the impact, and I noticed another stone already incoming.
This one I missed, it slammed right into my shoulder, and I grunted in pain. Another rock, this one to my knee, then to the ribs. I tried to reach of one, but it struck my elbow, and I desperately flailed to react…until I fell over.
Bang strolled over to stand above me. "You blocked the rock," he said conversationally. "Why?"
"I didn't want it to fucking HIT me," I spat. I sat up with a hiss of pain, looking at the spots on my body with surprise. Bruises, deep ones, but despite the speed and pain of the strikes, nothing was actually broken.
He nodded. "Do you know why you were standing like that?"
"Because my power came from my feet?" I asked in annoyance. "I should have like…channeled the power from the ground?"
"No," he said simply. "Because it was impossible for you to properly block from that position. I told you that footwork is key. The power comes from the earth. But that power is a GUIDE. We do not deflect. Do not defend. That was the FIRST thing I told you. Martial arts is a journey. Seeking to understand what you are told is good. Forgetting what came before is not." He pulled me back to my feet.
Pushing me back into the same position, I prepared to have more rocks thrown at me, but to my surprise, rather than throw them, he held out a handful. I frowned, but took them, and he nodded again. "You cannot block from that stance. But it is a stable and firm footing. You CAN learn to direct force. And to do that, you must have force to direct. Do you know how to juggle?"
I blinked. "I mean…kind of? I know the basics."
"Good. You will juggle." He walked back over and picked up a few more stones from the river. "You will start with three. Then four. When you have them all in the air I will toss you more. When you can keep ten stones in motion, we will move on to the next step. Begin."
I nodded. My legs…burned. The stance I was in was deep and felt unnatural. But it didn't matter. This was the training. My body still ached from the bruising stone throws, and as I started to toss the stones up, I noticed that the spots that had been struck seemed to hurt more when I made certain motions.
Frowning, I adjusted my juggling form to avoid the pain…and it got smoother. One stone. Then two. I got up to five (all the ones I had in hand) fairly quickly. As a shinobi, I had excellent hand eye coordination. I'd learned to throw kunai and shuriken from a young age, and a bit of juggling wasn't too tough. At first.
By the time I was juggling five stones, I was having trouble keeping track. It was hard to see where my hands needed to go, and the adjusted form made it difficult to keep up.
Bang tossed me a stone, and I yelped, grabbing it and adding it to my rotation. I almost fell, but I saved it at the last second. He tossed me another. This time, I didn't reach for it. I let it come to me. Plucked it from the air and added it to my tosses.
Another, another, more and more stones until I was at nine. I couldn't keep up. I was starting to slip, almost missing throws, I was unsteady and about to fall.
He tossed me the last stone. As it sailed toward me, I took a moment to consider the task. To think about what he'd told me. I wasn't fast enough to do this. Wasn't fast enough to pluck each stone from the air and send it back up again while the other nine were falling. It was too much, too difficult.
And then I considered what I was supposed to be learning. The rocks rained down, the one in flight almost halfway to me. When the next one reached my hands, I considered what to do. Instead of catching and throwing, I just sort of…passed it. I guided the downward force as I redirected the rock, adding a bit of my own. Then I did it again, and again. The tenth stone reached me, and I just passed it into the rotation, seamlessly changing the motion from forward momentum into circular force.
For one moment, one beautiful perfect moment, I had it. The stones were a cycle, a spinning vortex of self sustaining energy, and all I had to do was tap them as they went by, keep them spinning. Until I put too much force into a tap and one of them overshot, and the other nine came raining down as I overextended to try to correct and lost my balance.
I toppled over, and then yelped in pain as all the rocks pelted me from above as they crashed down on my unprotected body.
Lying there, I waited for criticism, for some type of reproof. But when I looked up, I saw Bang grinning at me, eyes alight with victory. "Well done," he said intensely. "Most take quite a while to reach that stage. You understood the lesson?" I nodded as I climbed to my feet. "Good. Again. We'll continue until you reach one hundred." I didn't question us not 'going to the next step'. I was too excited by what I'd felt earlier. I was learning. This was going to be fun. Like ReplyReport Reactions:Mappy, Grislyfrostbite, Hiroshima911 and 1,131 othersMalcolm TentNov 20, 2025NewAdd bookmarkView discussionThreadmarks Chapter 4 New View contentMalcolm TentMonkey with a typewriter.Nov 25, 2025Add bookmark#145"Another!" barked Bang as he hurled a rock at me from somewhere outside my line of sight. Cursing, I tried to adjust and…dropped all of them. All twenty seven. This was the most I'd managed in the three months since I'd started training with Bang, and I was SO CLOSE to thirty. I'd felt like today might have been it.
I groaned, rubbing my shoulder blade where the stone had smacked into me hard enough to bruise. "Damn it sensei, is this NECESSARY? I know you're adding more rocks to train my abilities, but you could at least make sure I can SEE the damned things."
"That would defeat the purpose," he said sagely. "I'm trying to train your dynamic vision. While energy direction and footing are key elements to the Ryusui Gansai-Ken, the ability to perceive incoming attacks is also crucial. The Allsight is one of my most fundamental techniques, and one you MUST master as soon as possible."
I let out a long sigh. "Well, when you put it like that, I understand. But couldn't you have just TOLD me that?" He probably had some vague bullshit reason that I wouldn't be able to argue with.
"Well yes," he said dryly. "But where's the fun in that?" Or…he was just fucking with me. Fair enough.
Sighing, I stood up and stretched. "I'm going to take a break for today I think. Maybe go into town and get something to eat. You want to grab some ramen with me?" Bang had long since become a semi fixture around the village, often seen in my company. He told everyone he was my grandfather, in from out of town, and considering my parents were both civilians and also dead, no one was really around to contradict him.
It was kind of nice, honestly. The old man was harsh and ruthless during training, but he wasn't bad company. He wasn't stingy with praise either. When Bang thought I did something right, he told me so. Same for when he thought I did something wrong.
So we headed into town, walking the streets of Konoha in companionable silence. One thing about Bang was that he didn't feel the need to fill the quiet. He would stroll down the street for hours without speaking. Not because he had nothing to say, but because he was just comfortable with himself.
We arrived at the best ramen stand in Konoha pretty quickly, all things considered, and luckily it wasn't too busy. I took a deep breath as we entered, grinning at the smell. "Now that's more like it! Man, that smells fantastic. What should we get today, gramps?"
"You ask that like you haven't already decided," came a wry voice from nearby. I turned to see a pretty dark haired girl with dark eyes and pale skin smiling at me in exasperation. "Shio Ramen with a single quail egg and red pepper oil. Every single time. And you spend twenty minutes looking at the menu before you actually order, despite always getting the same thing. A girl might start thinking you have ulterior motives."
I winked at her. "Oh, I do. I come back to see your dad. I crave his approval and validation. Why, did you think I was here to see you?"
Ayame Ichiraku, daughter of Naruto's favorite ramen chef, pouted at me cutely before sticking her tongue out and turning away to pretend to clean. Bang rolled his eyes. "You know, you'll never find a woman that way. I suppose that kind of teasing might work with your dog girl, but most ladies prefer a more delicate approach."
"Oh yes," I said dryly. "That's what my life is missing. Romantic advice from the eternal hermit bachelor who lives in a mountain temple and hasn't spoken to a female human being in twenty years."
He scoffed. "Boy, I know more about women that you could learn in a millennia. Damn brats who think they know better." He sat down next to me at the bar. "You hear this nonsense Teuchi? My fool grandson thinks he's too good for my romantic advice. Little punk is going to die alone at this rate."
I just snorted and didn't bother responding. The thing was, I knew he was kind of right. Younger Bang had been an absolute poon hound. I'd seen flashbacks of him, and he was basically like a hornier version of Garo, except more focused on women than battle. But I didn't need his advice on getting girls, and honestly, I didn't need to GET girls right now. I was a little distracted by the insane snake ninja planning an attempted genocide of the village.
Speaking of insane snake ninjas and their targets, I was amused to notice a small, orange clad missile explode into the ramen stand, eyes wide and shining with excitement. "OLD MAN!" screamed the number one knucklehead ninja. "I WANT ALL THE RAMEN!"
Teuchi, who had the patience of an absolute saint, I swear, just chuckled. "That seems like a bit much, Naruto. How about a bowl of Miso to start you off. You can ask for seconds if you're still hungry." Despite being phrased as an offer, he was already ladling the noodles into a bowl and decking it with garnish as Naruto scampered up to the counter to hop into a seat.
"Sup," I told him with a nod. "Cool hair."
He blinked at me. "Um…thanks? Who are you, old timer? I ain't seen you in here before. You new in town?"
"No," I snorted. "I grew up here. I just don't have a lot of intersection with small children. And who are you calling old timer? I'm only eighteen, brat." I made sure to smile so he knew I wasn't actually pissed. Naruto liked to bicker, but I didn't want to come across like one of the people who hated him. He got enough of that.
He glared at me. "Oi! I'm not a small child! I'm a shinobi of the leaf! Believe it!"
"I don't believe it," I responded bluntly.
He reeled back. "What? But I told you to believe it!" He turned to Teuchi. "Old man, tell him I'm a leaf shinobi, he doesn't believe it!"
"He knows you're a leaf shinobi naruto," Teuchi said wryly. "You're not exactly subtle. Kai is a village guard. He's seen your work up on the Hokage monument." He raised an amused brow at me. "He's just teasing you."
I shrugged. "The statues were ok. A little derivative. Impressive amount of stealth for a kid though. How did you avoid being noticed while you were up there?"
He puffed up. "I covered a blanket with mud and pinned it up over me while I worked. From far away it totally looked like normal rock. Pretty smart, huh?" He squinted at me. "Wait, if you're a village guard how come you're not guardian' the village?"
"Because I'm not on shift," I told him serenely as Teuchi passed me my bowl. I took a long, happy slurp of the noodles and then exhaled with a sigh. "That's the stuff. The secret is the red pepper oil. Gives it that perfect kick." I reached into my pocket, pulled out my wallet and withdrew a few bills. "I'll cover me and the old man, and put the kid's bowl on my tab too." I grinned at Naruto. "Just to prove that I 'believe it'."
His eyes widened. "Hey thanks, old guy! You're alright. I had a pretty tough day at school ya know. I've been working on the three academy jutsu and I just can't get them down. My dumb clones keep coming out all sick and weird."
Huh. Ok, so this was pre-graduation. That was something. Honestly, part of me wanted to help him, to teach him to get better…but I knew that would be a mistake.
Making Naruto's life better was a good thing, the kid had an objectively raw deal, but before any of that, before I could measurably help him improve, there was one thing he needed. Shadow clones. Naruto was fucking BUILT for shadow clones. He was basically custom designed for the jutsu. They were his ultimate weapon. Rasengan, Chakra Cloak, none of that shit was what made Naruto a beast. It was always the foundation, the bread and butter. His shadow clones.
"Huh, well how long do you have until you graduate?" I asked mildly, slurping up some noodles. "Maybe you'll get it down by then."
He slumped. "I mean, I do still have a few months. But I just don't know why I'm having so much trouble. Stupid clones all come out looking all gross. Everybody else does them super easy though."
"Well, just keep at it," I told him breezily. "Practice makes perfect."
I felt bad. He wasn't going to get it. He couldn't. Not the way he was going. What he NEEDED was chakra control exercises, and lots of them. But doing them as a single twelve year old wasn't going to accomplish shit. Once he got the shadow clone jutsu, I'd teach him a few tricks and tell him the secret. He'd fly through his training then. Bonus points, I could LEARN the damned shadow clone jutsu.
Currently, I could survivably use one, maybe two clones. I had plans to fix that, but that was all I could manage right now. But even those two clones would be enough to triple my training speed.
Still, just because I couldn't train the kid didn't mean I couldn't make his life better while I was around. I fished out another bill. "You know what, I respect the hard work. That kind of determination deserves a reward. I'll take another three bowls for the kid."
He cheered. "Hey thanks, old guy! You're not so bad."
"Kai," I corrected him with an eye roll. "My name is Kai Mikado. Chunin and gate guard. I'm the one who keeps this village safe from unwanted outsiders." I jerked my thumb at myself in a faux arrogant manner, obviously joking, but his eyes widened.
"Whoa, you're a chunin? You're just like Iruka-Sensei. I guess you're pretty old though, so that makes sense." His absent tone was infinitely more painful than malice.
Rolling my eyes, I stood up and cracked my neck. "Whatever kid. Enjoy the noodles. I'll probably see you around here once in a while. Make sure to catch me up on how you're doing when I run into you ok?" Shooting him a confident salute, I turned to Bang. "I changed my mind gramps, we should head back out for a bit more camping."
I'd been slacking off. I only had a few more months until graduation. After that, it was the Wave Arc and then a downhill landslide of suck into the chunin exams. I needed to be strong enough to be relevant by that point. Which meant if I wanted to follow my plans through in time, I needed to MASTER flowing water fist and impress Might Gai by about the time Naruto graduated.
Bang, seemingly taking note of my shift in demeanor, sighed. "Well, I recognize that tone. Fool boy's gone and got a notion in his head. No talking him out of it now. Nice seeing you Teuchi. Fantastic Ramen as always."
He finished his bowl with a few pulls, then sighed contentedly and stood up, nodding to Naruto. "Work hard, young man. No amount of adversity can withstand the fires of effort."
Naruto puffed up excitedly. "Yeah. YEAH! You're right, old man! I can do this! Jiji, give me those bowls to go! I need to get back to training!" He drained the one he already had and then stared at Teuchi expectantly. The old chef gave Bang an unimpressed look, but rolled his eyes and started working on packing up the ramen.
Meanwhile, I headed back out to training ground seventeen. Only a few months, and I had lots of work to do. The fourth shinobi world war was off in the distance, whether I liked it or not. And I had to be ready.
"So…this is it?" I asked Bang with unexpected sadness. "My last lesson?" I glanced up at the waterfall we were standing in front of. "I know you said you were going to use it in training, but I kind of thought you just forgot."
He chuckled fondly. "I never forget anything. My memory is as sharp as my piercing fang. You've completed your education in the Ryusui Gansai-Ken. You haven't reached my level, obviously, but you have the foundation. And besides, you know as well as I do that my usefulness here has come to an end."
I grimaced at that. "I…that's not how I'd put it. But yeah. Diminishing returns. You've given me a hell of an education in taijutsu. But I have other aspects of my arsenal that need honing."
"As well you should," he nodded proudly. "A disciple that hides under their master's skirts is no true disciple at all. You've reached the point where you're ready to stand on your own two feet, boy. All that's left…is for you to prove it."
Nodding, I stepped out onto the water. The chakra control necessary to water walk was honestly kind of my limit. But luckily the principles of the flowing water fist had given me a much more intricate understanding of concepts like force redirection and fluid tension. My chakra control hadn't improved, but the way I was using it was much more elegant.
Bang, meanwhile, couldn't walk on water. He just hopped forward into the waterfall, landing on a stone jutting out of the spray.
I didn't attack. While the style could be used to redirect your own force for combat amplification, it WAS mainly defensive. I was pretty sure the old man had been hyping the offensive applications to boost my confidence. Regardless, flowing water fist shone best as a reactive force.
Stepping under the waterfall, I grimaced. This was…uncomfortable. Not the pressure, but the constant downpour of force on my head and shoulders. My arms were being weighed down, my legs bending, and that was damaging my footwork.
I ignored all that. I began to move forward. Not attacking, simply entering his range.
Bang flickered, piercing fang striking out at me. I didn't hesitate.I activated the body flicker jutsu. The world slowed down, though it didn't help much against speed like his. I was still barely able to raise my hand to defend.
His strike speared out at my throat, clearly aiming for a lethal shot, but my palm moved fluidly, cupping the water in front of me and guiding it, creating a pathway in the downpour that caught his attack and guided it away from my body. He struck again, and my other hand came up, doing the same.
I whirled under the spray, spinning on one toe like a ballet dancer, and brought both arms around in a sort of flowing whip that made me feel like I was a paintbrush on a canvas of combat.
Bangs hands redirected mine, guiding me into the wall of the cliff the waterfall flowed down, and there was a colossal boom as my palms crushed the rock, chunks of stone flying out in all directions, propelled by both the force of my strike and the rushing water.
I cursed as the river burst forth through the gap I'd created, slamming into both of us and carrying me downstream. I kept my feet, even on the disturbed liquid, using my flowing water footwork, but it was a near thing. Bang, meanwhile, actually glided over the water without fucking chakra, which I hadn't realized he could do.
My eyes widened in panic as rather than attack directly again, he flowed down the river toward me…and started to intercept and redirect the still flying rocks.
Guiding them around himself like a shotputter, he whirled on his back foot (he'd needed to find purchase on a rock, so while he could MOVE on water with enough speed and force, he couldn't really FIGHT on it) and started flinging stones at me with the speed and force of a fucking machine gun.
My hands came up, body flicker pulsing as I raised them to redirect the flying rock missiles.
Body flicker was probably the ONLY reason I was keeping up this well, actually. It was a very basic jutsu, and one that nearly all chunin knew, even if they couldn't always use it as well as I could.
While to the uninformed observer, the body flicker jutsu might seem to be a teleportation jutsu, it was actually anything but. By using chakra to temporarily boost the reflexes, it allowed the user to move at speeds that would otherwise be impossible for them. Of course, it wasn't without flaws. Like most speed based techniques, body flicker was prone to causing tunnel vision. There was a reason the undisputed master of the technique had been a guy with a Sharingan.
My Allsight somewhat alleviated that weakness. Somewhat. It was NOT the Eye of Insight of the Uchiha clan or anything even close to it, but the enhancement to my dynamic vision allowed me to push the body flicker SLIGHTLY faster than the limits of a chunin at my level, and quick enough to match a Bang who I was pretty sure was holding back quite a bit.
My hands FLOWED, my palms creating currents in the air. Actual currents, to be clear, of actual chakra. I'd long since learned to cheat with the flowing water fist and create drag by utilizing the physical nature of chakra manipulation.
A dozen rocks clammed into my defense and slid right off, flung to the sides like a car sucked up into a hurricane and spit out to the sides. Crashes abounded as the chunks of dirt and stone smashed into the river banks moving with not just their own explosive speed, but the force of the redirection both Bang and I had used on them.
I expected him to keep coming, to attack again…but he didn't. He lowered his arms, still standing casually on that one protruding stone, and bowed to me formally. I frowned at him on confusion. "Are we…done?"
He grinned at me. "It wasn't a death match, boy. It was a graduation exam. I was evaluating your progress. So let's tick it off. Firstly, your footwork. Admirable and fluid. Your Allsight, well developed. Your redirection, excellent. And you even managed to work under the waterfall, a buffeting tide of force that would strain even my most talented disciples."
After counting off the points on his hand, he clenched it into a fist, holding it up in victory. "In a mere six months, you've absorbed every bit of my teachings like a sponge. You've dedicated yourself to your training, heart and soul, and have become a splendid martial artist of the Ryusui Gansai-Ken. And in light of that achievement, I have a gift for you. To celebrate your graduation. Come with me."
He hopped from the rock to the bank, walking over to a nearby tree. He wiped his hands on the bark, stopping to wring out his coat a bit, then reached into a hollow in the trunk and pulled out a small leatherbound journal.
Walking over to me, he bowed his head, formally offering me the book. Doing my best to dry my own hands before taking it, I lifted the book from his hands, flipping open the brass catch and cracking the spine to read what was inside…and then froze, staring down at the neatly written instructions in awe.
"This is…Whirlwind Iron Cutting Fist. This is your brother Bomb's signature fighting style," I was in shock.
I'd considered trying to learn the complimentary attack style to flowing water fist. Of course I had. But I couldn't bring myself to ask. Not when he was already doing so much for me. Not when he'd been giving up his time for months for no payout to train me and help me grow. It felt like too much to ask. Too greedy.
He just smiled wryly. "I could always feel your desire to learn it. I know we discussed the combination style. Your fascination with Roaring Aura Sky Tearing Fist was clear to see. But you never asked. Nor did you ever request to learn my Exploding Heart Fist." His face became serious. "That was why I decided to give you this. Desire to learn is important. But the wisdom to know when NOT to push. That is the mark of a great master.
"Of course," he continued. "It will take time and dedication to learn. My brother's style is no simple brawling art. But I have faith that with the firm foundation I set and the instructions in that book, you will eventually perfect it. My notes on the combination styles is in the back, and I would thank you to refrain from exploring them until you've achieved sufficient mastery of both forms. I am placing a great deal of trust in you, Kai."
Stepping back, I pressed my fist against an open palm and bent low at the waist. "Thank you, Master," I told him sincerely. "Thank you for your kindness, and your patience, and your wisdom. Thank you for being there for me when I needed you most."
He smiled warmly. "Of course, my boy. And you'll note I put a bit of a foreward there in the book. Just a little training regimen for a pre-disciple. For instance, a certain blonde haired brat who might be interested in learning my brother's fighting style. That boy could use an edge, once you've made sure he understands the dangers involved."
Over months of going back to Ichiraku, Bang had grown fond of the kid. Naruto had even taken to calling him Gramps like I did. I knew he'd be devastated when Bang left, but I had faith teaching him this combat style would at least help. I'd mentioned his chakra nature to Bang, who knew more about this world than most people IN it at this point. The old man was a good sounding board in the months we'd been training together.
"Do you want me to pass the kid a message? A letter might soften the blow." Naruto had been abandoned more than any human could take. I absolutely didn't want to add to that if I could help it."
He rolled his eyes. "It's folded in the back cover, fool. I'm not a moron. Just…watch out for the boy. As best you can. And one day, if you can, try to call me back. I'd like to see how this all turns out." I didn't know if I could do that. I was pretty sure once the contract broke if I tried again it would be a different Bang.
But someday, once I learned more about the summoning jutsu…maybe. I stepped forward, giving the old man a tight hug, which he accepted with grace, then stepped back to smile at him. With that last gesture, I swallowed hard, then reached into a pouch on my belt and tore up the contract he'd signed. "It was an honor to know you, master," I said thickly. Then I made a handseal and, with a simple recitation of my name, dismissed the summon.
There was a puff of smoke, and when it cleared, the old man was gone. I took a long, deep breath. The scent of the forest and the water surrounded me, cocooning me in a blanket of memories. Bang throwing rocks at me as I tried to juggle, laughing with me over ramen as he and Naruto made fun of me, whacking me on the head when I got too big for my britches.
Bang had been…the closest thing to family I had in this world. For the entire half year I'd been here, he'd been a near constant presence. A guiding hand of support and a mentor who was always there when I needed him. And now he was gone. And I was alone. Again. Sighing, I started mentally mapping out the symbols for my next summon. I wouldn't be alone for long. The next one would be coming soon. But before that, I had something else to do. I needed to find and impress Konoha's green beast.