Chapter 58: Assigning Minor Homework
Renjiro thought about it more carefully and reached a conclusion.
"However, the lack of a visibly determined expression on his face doesn't necessarily mean he's disheartened. Although he did mention future challenges to the others, he doesn't seem like someone who wants to back down from difficulty. Anyway, I should observe him a few more times. If his resolve proves weak, then I have several methods to make him more determined!"
If Kaito knew his jonin instructor's plans for him, he would surely shiver with dread.
With five minutes remaining in their break, Kaito and Hodaka stood up and began stretching their sore muscles. Mieko quickly followed their example.
They weren't certain what kind of intense training would come next, so they decided to properly loosen their aching muscles.
Renjiro soon materialized before them and announced,
"Before we begin the next lesson, let's discuss your daily training schedules."
Renjiro then reviewed everyone's daily routine individually and in detail.
He planned to conduct team training from 5 AM to 9 AM, and again from 10 AM until noon.
For Kaito specifically, there would be an additional three hours of specialized sword training from 2 PM to 5 PM.
He systematically modified everyone's daily schedule to accommodate his comprehensive training plan.
He also provided detailed dietary recommendations to everyone. This involved consuming many military ration bars!
Renjiro suggested they eat one ration bar at 4:15 AM before training, two more at 9:30 AM after morning training, and one or two additional bars at lunch.
He explained that ration bars were specifically designed for shinobi on extended missions far from Konoha, so they contained all the essential nutrients a ninja required.
In addition to this, he also strongly recommended high-protein foods whenever possible.
Kaito had several complaints about his modified schedule. He thought with frustration,
"This won't work! Since when do jonin instructors spend this much time personally training genin? Aside from Kakashi teaching Sasuke the Chidori, and Might Guy teaching Rock Lee, I don't recall the other Konoha 11 receiving anything particularly important from their jonin instructors! He's monopolizing nearly my entire day, and I'll have virtually no time to continue practicing Wind Release techniques or learning new jutsu independently! I don't know if this trade-off will be worth it in the long run."
He considered the situation further and sighed internally.
"But I genuinely have no negotiating power here. I really hope this trade-off proves worthwhile."
Renjiro was about to commence the next training session. Considering his students' obvious exhaustion, Renjiro decided to take it somewhat easier on them.
This lesson focused specifically on teamwork coordination and tactical formations.
Nothing particularly complex—just practical application of concepts they'd learned at the Academy.
At noon, Renjiro halted the training and gathered everyone together. Then he announced,
"Kaito, I won't make you practice swordsmanship today. I have a different assignment for all of you. The three of you should go to the Library and carefully decide what techniques you want to learn over the coming year. We'll discuss your choices tomorrow morning. And don't forget—we'll meet here for training every morning at 5 AM sharp."
Kaito, Hodaka, and Mieko nodded their understanding and gratitude.
Hodaka and Mieko headed home to rest, while Kaito went to Yakiniku Q for lunch.
For the past five years, Kaito had indeed trained diligently on his own. However, today's training session far exceeded anything he'd previously experienced.
Although it was genuinely painful, he found himself actually looking forward to these intensive training sessions making him significantly stronger.
After finishing lunch, he headed directly to the Academy Library.
He entered the C-rank section of the Library and began systematically searching for Wind Release techniques.
He also wanted to examine C-rank Earth Release jutsu, but he thought cautiously,
"That elite jonin was able to ambush me without any warning whatsoever. Given that he assigned us this research task, I wouldn't be surprised if he's been monitoring this place. I'll investigate Earth Release techniques later when it's safer."
To his genuine surprise, the number of available C-rank Wind Release techniques actually exceeded the combined total of D-rank and E-rank Wind Release jutsu.
After carefully examining all of these scrolls, he compiled a comprehensive list.
The available C-rank Wind Release techniques were:
Wind Release: Gale Palm
Wind Release: Great Breakthrough
Wind Release: Rotating Shuriken
Wind Release: Beast Wave Palm
Wind Release: Dragon
Wind Release: Blade
Wind Release: Verdant Mountain Gale
Wind Release: Body Flicker
Wind Release: Air Current Wild Dance
He had already mastered Great Breakthrough, so he thoroughly reviewed the remaining technique scrolls to gain deeper understanding of each one.
After reading through them all carefully, his assessment was:
Wind Release: Gale Palm essentially represented an advanced version of his Gale Surge technique. It provided 360-degree coverage around the user, but its offensive power remained somewhat insufficient for serious combat.
Wind Release: Rotating Shuriken functioned primarily as a defensive technique. It not only created a protective barrier but could also reflect projectile attacks back at opponents.
Wind Release: Body Flicker operated similarly to the standard Body Flicker Technique, but the user's body moved accompanied by a visible gust of wind.
This was classified as an evasion technique. The user could potentially travel over a kilometer in a single use.
Wind Release: Blade and Wind Release: Verdant Mountain Gale were both offensive techniques. Wind Release: Blade essentially used compressed wind chakra to slice through enemies.
Wind Release: Verdant Mountain Gale required a sword, kunai, or any bladed weapon as a foundation. Using this technique, the wielder could generate wind blades extending several meters beyond the physical weapon.
Because these extensions consisted purely of wind chakra, they were nearly weightless, extraordinarily sharp, and extremely difficult to block effectively.
Kaito suspected the technique Baki used during the Chunin Exams represented a more advanced version of this particular jutsu.
Wind Release: Air Current Wild Dance served as battlefield control, useful for restricting and manipulating enemy movement.
Wind Release: Beast Wave Palm and Wind Release: Dragon sounded particularly interesting to Kaito.
Both required creating a compressed sphere of wind chakra first, then the caster manipulated that sphere to form either wolves or a dragon. However, these two techniques followed different developmental paths.
With Wind Release: Beast Wave Palm, as the user's skill increased, they could simultaneously create multiple wolves.
With Wind Release: Dragon, the manifested dragon could actually breathe Wind Release: Pressure Damage techniques!
He began analyzing thoughtfully.
"These techniques are genuinely fascinating. Most of these jutsu aren't strictly limited by their initial rank classification. If the caster becomes strong enough and masters these techniques to their absolute limits, their performance could potentially rival even S-rank jutsu."
In fact, Wind Release: Rotating Shuriken, Wind Release: Beast Wave Palm, and Wind Release: Dragon were all classified as C-to-S rank techniques, depending entirely on the user's skill and chakra capacity.
At C-rank level, Wind Release: Rotating Shuriken could only deflect basic weapons and projectiles. But as mastery increased, low-rank ninjutsu could also be reflected, and at peak mastery, even A-rank techniques could theoretically be redirected.
For Wind Release: Beast Wave Palm, advancement referred to the number of wolves that could be simultaneously formed and controlled. C-rank users could only create one wolf. But at S-rank mastery, the caster could theoretically create hundreds of such wolves—incredibly useful for large-scale battlefield control.
For Wind Release: Dragon, advancement depended on the size of the manifested dragon and the number of Wind Release: Pressure Damage techniques it could launch.
According to the scroll's documentation, a shinobi with massive chakra reserves and exceptional chakra control could theoretically create a dragon exceeding a kilometer in length that could fire hundreds of compressed wind projectiles.
Although the other techniques weren't explicitly stated to reach such extreme levels, Kaito could easily imagine their power scaling dramatically with mastery.
For example, with Wind Release: Verdant Mountain Gale, the wind blade's length could be extended much further, or its cutting edge could become exponentially sharper.
Similarly, Wind Release: Body Flicker might eventually allow travel across tens of kilometers in a single technique.
Then he calmed his excitement and thought critically,
"The real question is—why haven't I heard of anyone actually using these techniques at their highest levels? Even if these jutsu possess this theoretical potential, if nobody can actually achieve it, then there must be some fundamental problem or limitation I'm not seeing."
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