Nearly a month had passed since Hikaru began his training routine, and he was finally starting to feel like he belonged in this world. The village of Konoha had been steadily rebuilding from the Nine-Tails attack, and life was slowly returning to normal.
As Hikaru walked through the village streets on his way to and from training each day, he could see the progress everywhere. Damaged buildings had been repaired, new shops were opening, and people were getting back to their daily routines. The lively atmosphere that made Konoha special was gradually returning.
Despite losing loved ones in the attack, the villagers remained hopeful. As long as Konoha stood strong, they would continue to thrive and move forward. The recent tragedy was just one of many that had happened since the Third Shinobi War, but the village's spirit remained unbroken.
The most important announcement of the past month had been Sarutobi Hiruzen officially resuming his role as the Third Hokage. Hikaru had expected this based on his knowledge of the story, but it was still reassuring to see. No ninja village could survive long without its strongest shinobi to protect and lead it.
One of the first things the Third Hokage did after returning to office was establish compensation programs for families who had lost ninja parents defending civilians from the Nine-Tails. Hikaru's family was included on the list, which significantly helped ease Ayako's financial worries.
After receiving the compensation, Hikaru could see that his sister was doing much better. She worried less, smiled more often, and seemed generally more cheerful. She still grieved for their parents—sometimes he would catch her crying when she thought he wasn't looking—but the financial security helped her focus on moving forward.
Ayako continued running her barbecue stall in the market, even with the village assistance. Following Hikaru's suggestion to add special sauces and serve the meat as yakitori, her business had grown significantly. The new style was especially popular with the Akimichi clan, who appreciated both the taste and the convenience.
Hikaru's relationship with his sister had also improved greatly over the month. At first, he had felt awkward about suddenly having a sister he'd never had before. Being an orphan in his previous life meant this kind of family relationship was completely new to him. But as time passed, he felt closer to Ayako every day, and he was beginning to accept their bond from the bottom of his heart.
Getting up early for training had been difficult for the first few days, but it had become a normal routine. His body clock had adjusted to the morning schedule, and now he woke up naturally without needing an alarm clock.
After finishing his morning training session, Hikaru returned home to clean up and get dressed for his return to the Academy. Looking at himself in the mirror, he felt proud of the progress he had made. His training discipline had been his biggest worry at the beginning, but it had gone surprisingly well.
He had a history of laziness in his previous life, and changing those habits had required stepping far outside his comfort zone. But the results spoke for themselves.
Over the past month, Hikaru had made small improvements in many areas, but the most noticeable progress was in his chakra control. When he performed the leaf concentration exercise after his Tai Chi meditation training, the results had been exactly what he hoped for. His chakra control ability had improved quickly, benefiting from the high level of focus that meditation provided. Even when he did only the leaf concentration exercise without meditation, he could still maintain it for almost fifteen minutes. But after meditation, he could keep the leaf stuck to his forehead for close to thirty minutes.
The improvement might seem small, but Hikaru suspected it was due to an imbalance between his physical and spiritual energy. Probably because his soul was a combination of two—his adult consciousness merged with the child's original soul—his spiritual energy had grown almost five times larger than his physical energy. This meant the chakra he could effectively build and use was only about one-fifth of what his spiritual energy suggested it should be.
His goal was to eventually hold the leaf until he became exhausted from chakra depletion, or at least until he completed two full rounds of Tai Chi exercises, which took about an hour at a slow pace.
The only disappointment was that he hadn't been able to recreate the miraculous state he had experienced during his first Tai Chi session in this world. That feeling of perfect balance and chakra flow had been incredible, but it remained frustratingly elusive.
Hikaru took Sundays off from physical exercise, using that time for meditation, studying fundamental textbooks, and reviewing his parents' notes. The rest schedule helped prevent overtraining while still maintaining steady progress.
After adjusting his appearance and fixing his messy hair, he prepared his backpack and books for class. One of the books on his desk was particularly interesting—an introduction to hand seals that he had been studying carefully.
The Academy taught hand seals from the very beginning, and the illustrations in the book matched what he remembered from the anime and manga. There were twelve basic seals, each named after a Chinese zodiac animal: Rat, Ox, Tiger, Rabbit, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Goat, Monkey, Rooster, Dog, and Boar.
These hand seals helped people mold and focus their chakra effectively for different techniques. Every jutsu required specific sequences of hand seals, with some techniques needing only a few seals while others required many more to execute properly.
If a ninja's skill level was high enough, they could reduce some techniques to just one hand seal or even perform them without hand seals at all. Tobirama Senju, the Second Hokage, was famous for being able to perform high-ranking water release jutsu with just one hand seal.
Seeing the hand seals in books looked cool, but practicing them in real life made Hikaru feel somewhat embarrassed. Still, he spent his free time practicing the sequences to get familiar with them, concentrating especially on the Tiger seal, which was the only requirement for the Shunshin no Jutsu (Body Flicker Technique).
After packing everything and leaving his room for breakfast, Hikaru couldn't help but make a face when he thought about his progress with the Body Flicker Technique. It hadn't been as impressive as he'd hoped.
After failing to perform the jutsu five or six times initially, Hikaru could now use it for short distances before stopping due to headaches or low chakra. When he had successfully used the technique for the first time, though, he had felt like the happiest person alive. The rush of suddenly moving faster than normal was incredible and helped keep him motivated to practice.
He planned to wait until he had a better understanding of chakra theory and learned the three basic jutsu from the Academy before attempting to mold chakra with more complex hand seal sequences.
"Hikaru-kun, breakfast is ready!" Ayako's voice called out as soon as he entered the kitchen.
He was slightly startled by the sudden call and replied weakly, "I'm here already; no need to yell."
A line appeared between Ayako's eyebrows as she looked at him with one hand on her hip. "Have you prepared everything? You need to go back to the Academy today."
"All here," Hikaru replied, showing his backpack as he sat down and started eating. He really liked his sister's cooking—today's breakfast was fried rice, grilled fish, scrambled eggs, vegetables, and miso soup. It was just enough energy to start the day right.
Ayako was eating the same meal, but with smaller portions, which made Hikaru wonder if that would be enough to sustain her throughout the day.
After finishing his meal, he relaxed at the table and pulled out a leaf from his backpack, holding it between his fingers. He had also begun training in wind nature transformation, the first of his three chakra affinities. Since he had two wind-type jutsu scrolls from his parents, it made sense to start with wind techniques.
Following the same method described in the story, he attempted to split the leaf in half using wind chakra. So far, his progress over the past month had only resulted in tiny nicks on small portions of the leaf. It made him wonder if the chakra induction paper had been wrong about his affinities, since his progress seemed so slow.
Every day, the wind transformation exercise and Body Flicker Technique practice nearly depleted his chakra reserves. Hikaru made sure not to overdo it, since theoretically his chakra reserves would continue growing at a steady pace if he allowed proper recovery time.
He hadn't yet attempted shape transformation practice or genjutsu training for the same reason—his chakra control wasn't efficient enough yet, and he wanted to avoid potentially dangerous techniques until he had better fundamentals.
While he was examining the leaf, Ayako glanced at the clock and urged him to hurry up.
"Stop playing around! You don't want to be late on your first day back."
She got up to clear the table and started her morning chores before preparing to set up the barbecue stall.
Hikaru could only get up from the table and pick up his backpack. "See you later, Onee-chan."
"Okay," Ayako responded while folding laundry. As Hikaru almost reached the door, she quickly turned around and reminded him, "Don't forget to come home early today."
The sudden request made Hikaru's eyebrows furrow in confusion. "Why? Do you need help with something?"
"Today is my birthday, baka! Have you forgotten?" Ayako spoke loudly, a vein popping out on her forehead.
Oh no, I really did forget, Hikaru thought, scratching his cheek in embarrassment. "Yeah, I'll come back quickly," he said, waving goodbye.
As Hikaru walked toward the Ninja Academy, he strolled through the village slowly, lost in thought about his training progress.
He had started studying Fūinjutsu after getting an introduction to kanji book from the Konoha library. He needed to master the fundamentals before progressing to more complex sealing techniques, but even the basics were incredibly complicated.
His throwing technique accuracy had also improved nicely—he could now hit the target seven out of ten times when throwing weapons individually. However, if he tried to throw three or four kunai or shuriken at the same time, it was still a complete disaster.
He was also planning to practice various sensor skills and techniques once he returned to class, including the chakra suppression technique that his father had written about in his notes. This technique could hide a ninja's chakra signature, making them undetectable even to sensor-type ninja. It would be incredibly useful for infiltration missions.
Counting all the things he wanted to accomplish, Hikaru couldn't help but sigh. He had so much training to complete that he wished he could use the Kage Bunshin no Jutsu (Shadow Clone Technique) as soon as possible. Having multiple copies of himself would make learning everything so much faster.
But that technique could kill me if I'm not careful, he reminded himself. I need to be patient and build up my foundations properly first.
The next phase of his new life was about to begin, and he felt ready to face whatever challenges awaited him in the classroom and beyond.