Kenta kicked a dummy with a sharp side kick, his small leg snapping out with surprising force.
He switched legs and delivered another kick, the impact sending a dull thud.
To anyone watching, it was a funny sight: a small kid, barely tall enough to reach the dummy's chest, attacking a massive training dummy meant for the Daimyô's guards to practice their sword skills.
'Chakra really makes a difference,' Kenta thought, wiping sweat from his brow. 'Even without using chakra, my body's grown strong for my age to pull off moves like this.'
His kicks were faster and harder than any normal kid's, thanks to the chakra flowing through his body. In this world, chakra enhanced everything including strength, speed, endurance. It was like a cheat code for physical prowess, and Kenta was determined to max it out.
He'd noticed something interesting about taijutsu here.
From what Kenta has seen, taijutsu styles are just like martial arts from his previous life, tweaked a bit to work with chakra. Like for example, shinobi are a lot more flexible so it included moves that took advantage of the flexibility.
In his past life as Raiden Kuroshi, he'd studied countless fighting styles and even mastering them. Here, shinobi used chakra to make their bodies tougher, hit harder, and move faster, so they'd adapted their moves to match.
Kenta knew he could do Taijutsu better than most. With his knowledge of martial arts, taijutsu was going to be his trump card.
In his previous life, Raiden had learned kung fu, jujutsu, karate, boxing, taekwondo, muay thai, capoeira, judo, aikido, savate, krav maga, and wing chun among other styles.
Each style was a tool in his arsenal. By the time he was thirty, he could switch from a kung fu crane stance to a muay thai elbow strike in a heartbeat.
His martial artist mentor had called him a prodigy, though he'd also called him a "stubborn brat" for never taking things seriously. Raiden didn't care about being serious, he cared about winning.
That same talent carried over to this life. Kenta's small body was already adapting to the moves he'd mastered as Raiden.
He practiced daily, drilling katas and sparring with imaginary foes, refining his technique. His chakra gave him an edge, letting him hit harder and move faster than he ever could in his past life even with a much smaller body.
But more than that, his knowledge gave him confidence. He wasn't just copying the taijutsu styles of this world, he was improving them, mixing in what he knew from Earth to create something uniquely his own. He was determined to make taijutsu his foundation, a skill no one could take away.
'But most importantly,' Kenta thought, pausing to catch his breath, 'I need to balance my yin and yang chakra. That'll boost my stamina and chakra reserves big time.'
He'd been born with a major imbalance.
His yin chakra which was his spiritual energy was massive, likely because of his reincarnation, but his yang chakra which was his physical energy was weaker, leaving him with a frail body that tired quickly.
Through relentless training, he'd started closing the gap, but it was still a work in progress.
Here's how it worked: say he had 100 units of yin chakra and 50 units of yang chakra. His total chakra, formed by combining the two, was limited to 50 units, the lower number.
If he used up his yang chakra, he'd be physically exhausted, unable to move. If he burned through his yin chakra, he'd be mentally drained, barely able to think. If both ran out, he'd be bedridden, like Kakashi after overusing his Sharingan after every other mission.
Kenta's yin chakra was monstrously high, but without enough yang chakra to match it, he couldn't tap into his full potential. That's why physical training was crucial. The stronger his body, the more yang chakra he could generate, and the more of his total chakra he could use.
That's where taijutsu came in. By training in Taijutsu, he would be conditioning his body and thus increasing his physical energy.
He also wanted to be a Taijutsu focused shinobi. Some might call it boring compared to the flashy explosions of ninjutsu or the mind-bending tricks of genjutsu, but Kenta knew better. Taijutsu was the bread and butter of a shinobi.
A ninja who couldn't fight hand-to-hand was dead meat if an enemy got close. Plus, taijutsu didn't rely on chakra reserves. Even if he was low on chakra, he could still throw a punch or dodge a strike. It was reliable, practical, and deadly in the right hands.....his hands.
Kenta wanted to get muscular. Not just fit, but ripped, jacked, swole. He wanted a physique that screamed power, one that could generate enough yang chakra to match his spiritual energy.
He'd seen the shinobi in Naruto. Most were lean like Hiruzen, who could swing a massive staff despite looking like a skinny old man. Even Might Guy, the greatest Taijutsu user was lean.
The beefiest guy that Kenta could think of in Naruto verse was Jiraiya. His muscles had impressed Kenta when he showed off his chest that wound on it from four-tailed Naruto to Kakashi.
Kenta wanted to go beyond that. He wanted to be a walking mountain of muscle.
Of course, there were downsides to getting too muscular. Extra bulk could reduce flexibility and speed, two things shinobi needed to survive.
But Kenta wasn't worried. He knew exercises to maintain flexibility, stretches, yoga, that would keep him flexible. As for speed, there was boogie Woogie for that.
Kenta gave the dummy one last kick, a high taekwondo roundhouse that made it sway. He landed lightly and mumbled to himself with a grin, "Maybe I'll be the first one to be called the gym-bro muscle freak in this world."
------Author Notes------
Now you can read 20 additional chapters of the fanfic on my pat*reon.
pat*reon.com/BoogieWoogie266
No star