Birthday and Taijutsu Basics

Finally, I'm going to start practicing taijutsu.

My Japanese did improve greatly, I'm finally able to write and read it. My body constitution improved considerably, from being able to run for 15 minutes to an hour nonstop, and being more flexible thanks to the exercise that I do; and 3 months ago I felt the trace of chakra.

Today, a day before my 3rd birthday, I'm able to feel my chakra and do the leaf concentration practice. After feeling my chakra 3 months ago, It didn't take long enough to master the leaf concentration practice. Now every time I meditate, I do the leaf concentration technique together with it.

According to what my father said to me, my birthday is going to be in the morning, and in the afternoon he had something he wanted to showed me. I was excited because finally, I was going to train in taijutsu.

"Congratulations on your birthday, little Kira." said most of the adults when they saw me. They gifted me a new set of clothes and training clothing as well. The training clothes were simple, it was a black t-shirt, black sweatpants, and black sandals.

My clothes consisted of the same color scheme but it was a long sleeve t-shirt, I told my parents that I wanted to keep the sweatpants and the sandals the same. Jin wanted to give a beige vest or sweater but I rejected the idea.

I approached a group of kids, the same ones I play soccer with. We were all wearing kimonos, although of different colors they were ultimately the same thing. After a few hours, the guest started to leave. "Okay Kira, Go and get changed into your training clothes," my father said to me.

After changing, my father took me to the study/training room. Once I entered I saw a bunch of scrolls and books, there was a small table where you could sit down and read while enjoying a cup of tea. Going through a small door in the back, there was a spacious space, mostly used for sparring.

"Here, this book will show you the fundamentals of the gentle fist. The gentle fist is the taijutsu only taught to the members of the Hyuga clan, it's also the strongest taijutsu known in Konoha," my father said proudly.

"That means that we are the strongest clan in Konoha right dad," I said with excitement clearly showing in my face.

"Yes, the Hyuga clan is the strongest in Konoha. Well, enough talking about our clan, we're here to practice taijutsu. I'll give you ten minutes to memorize the first 3 exercises shown in the book, after that you'll show me what you learn in the book," said Jin firmly.

I simply nodded and started to study the book. The book that I was given wasn't that thick and it mostly contains different poses.

The first pose that I had to do was just a squat and keep the form as perfect as I can, for as long as I can. The second pose I had to do palm technique as shown in the book. And lastly, the last one was a breathing exercise.

I had 3 minutes left after I finished studying the 3 exercises, instead of telling my dad that I was done, I went over the exercises in my head.

'Hmm, these exercises are really simple, the most difficult one seems to be the breathing technique. It seems it'll take me a while to get the hang of it.' I said while going over the techniques in my mind.

"Okay, 10 minutes have passed. I want to see all you've learned in these ten minutes," said Jin with a frown. After noticing that he was serious and a little disappointed at me I simply nodded. 'He probably thinks that I slacked off and gave up once I put down the book.' I analyzed the situation quickly.

Jin activated the Byakugan and said, "Show me the first exercise in the book." I acknowledge his statement and did the squat as specified in the book. After 5 minutes I saw the expression in my father softened, and after 10 minutes he seemed a little shocked, but at the 10-minute mark, my legs were shaking. Jin saw me starting to struggle to maintain the form correctly, "Excellent let's move on to the second set of exercises, start." He said not as mad as before.

I immediately started to throw punches with my palm open, I threw the punch exactly at how the book said to do it. The book said that the punch had to be thrown as perfectly and as fast as possible. I threw 80 perfect punches in one minute, I could have thrown more but I was trying to keep the form perfectly. After the 30th punch, I got used to the form and started to go faster, unfortunately, my father told me to stop at the 1-minute mark.

At this point, my father seemed excited and asked, "Good! Kira do you know how to perform the 3rd exercise?" I looked at the happy face of my dad and simply said, "Yes, I read how to do it, I just need some time to get it."

He seemed surprised and looked and said, "Okay, in the last exercise, you're going to have 1 minute to perform the breathing exercise, after that you need to keep breathing as stated in the book without being distracted."

I simply acknowledge his words and got down to business. The breathing technique was kind of irregular but after seconds I was able to do it perfectly. After a while, I heard a loud noise, when I turned to look where the noise originated I saw my father. "Again, you shouldn't' get distracted and lose concentration." I closed my eyes and started the breathing technique again, after a while I heard the same noise but at a different location. this time I didn't turn to look but got distracted and stopped the breathing technique for a second.

My father was about to talk, but he stopped himself when he saw me immediately starting the breathing technique again. This time when my father tried to distract me he failed. After 2 minutes I opened my eyes, finally able to look around while maintaining the breathing technique. 3 minutes after that my father told me to stop.

"You have a 5-minute break after that you're going to perform all 3 exercises at the same time," Jin said excitedly. I saw that the more exercises that I did, the better his expression. 'It seems that I'm doing an excellent job in these exercises.' I said to myself.

I sat down and started to meditate to recuperate my stamina back, especially in my legs since they were the most exhausted part of my body. My father still had his Byakugan turned on and saw how I was manipulating the chakra in my body to recuperate faster.

"Akira, can you manipulate the chakra inside your body?!" Jin said exclaiming. "Yes, I've been able to do it for 3 months now," I told him the truth. "Excellent! It seems that you've skipped the next step in the fundamentals of the gentle fist. Usually, we teach the young ones how to manipulate chakra once they've finished the basics of taijutsu, but you, you already know how to do it. I just know that you are going to become a great ninja," Jin said almost laughing.

"Anyways, I still need to test you in the basics of taijutsu, so let's get started with the last test." He said as calmly as he could. As soon as he heard that I did the breathing technique, then the squat, and finally started to throw the punches. I did everything as fast as I could, my dad tried to distract me, but ultimately he failed. After 5 minutes he told me to stop.

"Great job! You did all the techniques perfectly and passed with flying colors! Tomorrow you can go and have some fun with your friends. The day after tomorrow we are going to start on the real basics of the gentle fist," my dad said proudly.