The short blade in Yō's hand flashed with cold light, slicing the air with a sharp hiss. His footsteps tapped out a steady rhythm as he shifted across the empty training ground, body weaving and turning with practiced ease.
Within several meters around him, the air itself seemed to chill, a biting cold radiating outward in waves. His swordplay looked almost sluggish, like he was just fooling around—yet when the movements linked together, they flowed as smooth as running water, sharp and exhilarating.
Not far from him, another Natsume Yō was training as well.The swordsman was only a shadow clone. The one drilling ninjutsu? The real body.
"Suiton: Great Water Arm Jutsu!"
His fingers snapped through the seals, and water surged from his core, wrapping around his arm like a coiled serpent until it solidified into a dense arm of flowing current. Yō stomped forward, driving his fist straight into the nine-meter boulder before him.
Boom!
The massive rock shattered on impact. Shards rained down like meteors, but Yō calmly wove another set of seals, spreading a fan-shaped water barrier in front of him.
"Mmhm."The weight of the falling stone had to be at least a thousand catties, but to him it was just perfect resistance training. Every crash honed his control, forcing him to bend raw ninjutsu into precise obedience.
When the rubble settled, Yō sprang upward, legs clamping onto the wooden training dummy. With a fierce kick combo—Lion Combo!—he hammered it skyward, then spiked it down with a heavy finishing blow.
Couldn't let it break though. Would be a waste.His hands blurred through seals midair, summoning another water wall to catch the dummy gently. Recycle, reuse—training tools aren't free.
"Konoha Whirlwind!"
Landing with a rebound, Yō lashed out, foot whipping into the trunk of a towering tree. The crack echoed like an explosion, bark shredding into flying splinters.
"Suiton: Great Water Arm Jutsu!"Again, he drove the water-forged fist into the tree—splinters flying, the trunk finally creaked and toppled.
"Kenjutsu: Blade of Wind!"
Before the tree even finished falling, his sword-wielding clone burst forward. A streak of cold light carved through the trunk—once, twice, thrice—splitting it into five colossal chunks of timber that thundered to the ground.
"Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!"
Yō's eyes gleamed as seals flashed again. Five new clones popped into existence, each charging at the descending logs.
The sound of roaring wind and crackling thunder erupted as they all formed the same technique: wind-nature chakra swirling violently into spheres the size of cannonballs.
Fūton: Rasengan!
The five orbs smashed into the timber with deafening force.
This was his newest prize, a technique he had only just reached the threshold to learn. With the Wind Release Rasengan under his belt, his strength skyrocketed—XP surging by a clean 100 points.
He'd even patched up his Suiton: Water Clone Jutsu—though that barely netted 10 points. Still, the math didn't lie: he was now only 50 XP away from breaking into Jōnin rank.
Puchi! Puchi! Puchi!
The logs disintegrated under the violent Rasengan barrage, exploding into a storm of shredded wood, reduced to splinters like countless blades slicing all at once.
The training field was a wreck, but Yō's grin was sharp. Progress was progress.