Story 21 Celestial Path Chapter 2

Hajime the chunin instructor for the class after we got our breath back properly then began explaining Chakra to us as we were obviously going to be ninja we weren't going to be as monofocused on our physical abilities as monks and samurai. 

"Now! Ninja's Monk's and Samurai share an interesting relationship of almost Rock Paper Scissors." Hajime started and he held up his sole hand and continued saying. "Now, ninja's assassinate monks outside their divine protected temples along with Samurai on and off the battlefield."

He then raised up his other hand... 'Oh, this bastard is using Genjutsu to fuck with us and projecting the illusion of another hand.' I thought as I made my chakra roil inside me and even as I felt a bit of pain in my head that instantly went away due to the elixer I took, I saw the illusion of his fake hand disappear.

"Samurai on the other hand are almost always a level stronger than ninja's and monks in open battle of the same level. Due to their speed, ability to use body-enhancing techniques, and the divine blessings upon their clans, they are the blades and open butcherers of our Daimyo." Hajime spoke with his hand going to the stump of his arm with a slight frown.

Then he shook his head and said. "Monks... You don't fight monks, you assassinate a monk and then flee before their spirit leaves their bodies and tell the divine they worship they were killed and the divine looks where their corpse was left." 

Hajime's face twitched as he said flatly. "Monks... Are an outlier as they do not use chakra, they use their divine favor and aren't as involved as ninjas and samurai in the Daimyo's affairs besides keeping Youkai and other spiritual creatures in check." 

His hand fell to his stomach and then he slowly began speaking and I felt his chakra fill his voice and then his chakra enter our bodies and made a warm feeling enter our bodies. 

"Feel the chakra within you, and as it pulses through your body. You will feel it naturally pass through the tenketsu's of your chakra system." Hajime spoke and unbidden as I felt in my stomach the core of my chakra a blue aura surrounded my body.

I looked through the blue aura surrounding me to see Hajime giving a raised eyebrow saying. "Well, thats a good bit of chakra you are casually letting out Akari. Now reel it back in." He finished more sternly as I flushed a bit at being the focus of attention as the clan ninja's look at me with eyebrows raised and I could feel Inari at my side looking at me again.

Taking a breath I retracted my chakra as easily as I breathed as it was truly part of me and thus didn't fight me and my thoughts were confirmed as Hajime continued to speak. "Chakra for the most part is harmless within your own body. Unless you are forcing it to move aggressively or otherwise trying to change its nature within your own body... Like the poor bastards who try to recreate the Raikage's Lightning Armor for example and end up frying their nerves and brains into making themselves into a vegetable or just killing themselves." 

Our teacher shook his head and said. "Alright, anyway I got you guys to run and got you all to touch your chakra. For next while the civilians, you will all be paired up with some genin to be taught the bare basics of the Leaf Fighting Style we use as a foundational martial art."

And Hajime snapped his fingers loudly with a flickering noise ringing out as a couple dozen teens a good bit older than us appeared on the field with some of them already showing the scars of battle across their faces in small cut scars and such.

"Genin, pick out a civilian and teach them the kata's of the Leaf, then teach them how to spar without killing another brat," Hajime ordered and then his body flickered before disappearing in what looked like a shunshin or something.

The genin flickered at high speed towards us and a chuckle rang out as what looked like an Inazuka due to the large dog that flickered behind them as they landed beside a particularly large kid that almost looked like a bastard Akamichi and grabbed them by the shoulder. "Alright haha! I got the best looking one!"

Several of the genin tsked and I realized something was up as I felt a soft hand filled with deceptive strength fall on my shoulder and I looked over at a dark-haired girl with dark eyes who had landed behind me to grab my shoulder before a couple of others who made tsk'ing noises and went for the last couple boys who didn't get picked so quickly.

"Sooo is there a bet or something about this teaching?" I asked curiously and she gave me a cold look.

Her dark almost black eyes were like obsidian pools as she looked at me searchingly and then after a moment she said frankly. "Yes, the top three civilians have their genin teacher get a C rank payment and mission credit for doing this tutoring for the next three hours, now follow me over here."

She turned around and strode over to one of the fighting posts for people to practice punching and when we got a good bit of distance away from everyone she continued to speak. "You have any fighting experience at all?"

To which I shook my head as the orphanage wasn't some jungle in which kids were fighting over scraps or anything. Not to mention the memories I had of Akari had him being a super shy kid normally who kept to himself and just did reading.

The older girl gave a slight sigh before saying plainly. "Very well, then match my stance."

She held up her hands in a sort of advanced boxing... No, a Muay Thai-like stance with her saying. "You want to protect your head and neck in a taijutsu fight with an opponent the most. The school has several healers on stand-by, so once you civilians get a few days of sparring in, you will be thrown in with the clan kids and they will be popping bones out of their sockets and you will have your nose broken if you aren't careful."

My lips twitched at the thought and then with my hands up she stepped closer and then she moved my arms a bit further away from my face with her then used a leg to knock my legs a bit apart so I was slightly on my side. "There, you stand to your side a bit so when people throw powerkicks you can more easily grab their legs and just back or sidestep if needed. But go ahead and throw some jabs so I can tell you where you are going wrong." 

I began throwing measured jabs with my fists with the older teenager giving me fair advice and after a bit I asked her curiously. "Are you a Uchiha?"

To which she raised an eyebrow and said plainly. "That is correct... Not that it matters but you aren't using your elbow enough when extending your jab outwards."

She sidled in a bit closer as though inspecting my range of motions better and then said quietly. "When you are fighting your fellow civilians go for the throat, the sides to get liver strikes, or kick them in the crotch. Right now your only goal is winning and showing you have the mettle to actually become a ninja." 

I silently nodded without a change to my expression as I kept practicing my movements and then she moved on to show me how to properly do low kicks to an opponent's shin or the back of it.

But even as I punched, and kicked the wooden pillar that was wrapped up in a thick rope, I didn't complain about the pain of it as the pain literally only remained for a split moment until the Uchiha girl said plainly. "Alright stop, you need to save your energy to actually fight." 

I took a deep breath as I shook the split second of the pain out of my hands, and miss mysterious Uchiha just gave a slight humming noise before she stepped away and folded her arms over her chest as Hajime shunshin'd or whatever back onto the field with him calling out. "Alright, lads! There is a good even number of you, so split in half in two lanes facing next in front of the other."

While clan-born students were already sparring a bit we got into our lines and then Hajime bluntly said. "Good, now the person you are facing is your opponent, spread out at least five meters now!" He yelled and everyone quickly made space while I gave a wry smile at my opponent. I had another civilian-born girl to fight, though she wasn't from the orphanage I came from at least.

"Not the face please." She said weakly holding up her arms in a matching stance that Uchiha girl taught me and I gave a wry smile at that.

"I will try." I gave out as a peace offering with her shaking her head before she stepped forward and I realized with our height difference of like more than half a foot of height difference as she was rather short, I had a longer reach than her.

So I kicked out in a low kick making her hop backward to dodge the low kick and with her hopping backward I stepped forward leaning down slightly with my arms fully covering my face as she sent her own fist into my guarding arm that I moved into position and then a wheeze rang out as I punched her into the stomach with my free arm in a powerful jab.

The air got knocked out of her and she quickly held a hand up to her stomach but seeing as Hajime hadn't called out one of our names for winning the fight as he alreadly been doing for people who got instantly kicked in the balls or something.

I blocked another punch with my hand swiping her weak punch away and I pulled her over my foot making her drop to the ground as I tripped.

"Akari you win!" Hajime said as the girl gave me an annoyed look but she gratefully took my hand as I pulled her up.

"Didn't want to beat you up slowly. Sorry for tripping you onto the ground." I said wryly and she gave a wry smile before we separated and I had to fight a boy the next couple of rounds and they were more of slug fests where I made sure they couldn't get me to the ground... But they sure hit the hell out of me as it wasn't like I had the Sharingan or whatever to dodge everything.

But all those hits didn't matter in reality, those would be bruises healed within a couple of split seconds, the punch to the nose that made my nose spurt out blood from the force of the punch? I could wipe off the blood a few seconds later and I was A-Ok

And most importantly they got tired and I didnt.

So finally it was just me and that last huge kid who although big and almost tubby was sure to be strong as he was the son of a local butcher. "Aright kiddo's whoever wins this fight gets an Akimichi Buffet Ticket for free haha!" Hajime called out excitedly and by now other classes had gotten done with the academic side of things and were being made to run laps on the track to match our prior exercise.

But either way, I looked at the teen who had a good couple of inches on me in height and more importantly... Probably at least seventy to a hundred pounds probably on me.

So I took a breath as I came in while the bigger kid held out his arms as he also came in to try to grab me.

I swung a quick jab towards his face but he just leaned back making me miss the blow and I gave out a quiet. "Shit." As he grabbed my arm and using his weight advantage he pulled me in a circle and I saw he was trying to throw me over his leg so I diverted my course so that as he drew me in I instead slammed into his chest with a knee making her grunt with his hands around my arm going slack.

He leaned down slightly as he had to get his breath back and although I hesitated for a split second I remembered the Uchiha girl's reminder that there were healers on the ready. So I grabbed the teen by the hair and then with a step forward I just smashed my knee into his face hard with a wet cracking noise ringing out as I broke his nose with a muffled cry ringing out.

I stepped back away from him while Hajime zipped in and with his sole arm and grabbed him and called out. "A bit much, but you won Akari, now let me take Gubbo to the healers. Genin take your charges and tell them what they did wrong before you leave." And then Hajime zipped away with Gubbo in clear pain as he held his nose.

I walked back over to the Uchiha who had their arms under their chest and as I got closer she said plainly. "You only reacted, and you threw too much of yourself with the knee strikes. What if he had a kunai to stab into your chest, or he had a paper tag flash bomb." 

My lips twitched at her blunt words and after a minute she gave me a bored look before saying. "A ninja needs to be swift and decisive, but not inflexible." She said before chewing on her thoughts and saying with a weak smile. "You need to kill someone without being killed in turn... Saw that happen before and a dead ninja lost their fight no matter what." 

I nodded in understanding with the honestly rather hot Uchiha, giving me a look before she zipped away with her own flicker technique.

After a couple of minutes, Hajime strode back onto the field and he gave me a ticket that was embossed with a code and he said. "Alright here, go put some meat on your body haha." Then he turned to the rest of the class and said.

"Civilians are welcome to the Academy Library now. However, you are not under any circumstances to take any of the materials back home or otherwise leave the library with any of the materials." He finished firmly giving us all a hard look that made my stomach tighten at the sight.

Then with that, he gave us all a nod and said. "Good, then be here tomorrow same time and good day."

But as I went to go to the library I felt the Celestial Grimoire reach out with a star of power of knowledge and potential being reached out towards... And then the Celestial Grimoire went limp as I didn't have enough CP/Soul points to reach the target.

'Wow feeling your cheat literally have ED and not reach the fucking finishing line is a major letdown.' I thought with a frown before I shrugged as I felt the Celestial Grimoire go back to rest and I continued to head toward the library.

Once I got to the library I saw one of the librarians and respectively asked what I obviously needed to know. "Hello, I am a new civilian and I wanted to know what I should look into to catch up with the others?" 

The older woman gave a wane smile and I blinked as she reached under her desk and then pulled out a small booklet and handed it to me with her saying quietly. "It's good to see you are willing to put in the work. This booklet carries the list and guide of books you should read."

I took the small booklet and gave her a nod in thanks, going a bit away so I could read the small five-page booklet and as I took in the booklet I realized that signed at the very front was a name I recognized along with a small message. 

[This booklet contains the guiding knowledge that will create a foundation for civilian ninjas even without a clan's backing. Even if things look difficult and it seems your growth has capped out, knowledge and training will always push you ever further- Minato Namikaze- Fourth Hokage.]

Well, this was certainly interesting, so with this being sponsored at least by the fourth Hokage I quickly got onto the list of books it wanted me to read. 

The first book being simply labeled as. [Ninja's Usage of Chakra.]

Going through the library I picked up the book and taking it over to a nice chair I began reading it without hesitation and I quickly picked up an interesting excerpt.

[A Ninja is to be the Daimyo's killer in the dark, or the killer who rushes to deal with lesser threats that don't require large-scale open combat.] [Their usage of Chakra reflects that as well with Ninjutsu being on the more powerful single-targeted side of things unless the ninja is attempting to create a diversion or wipe out a mob of untrained enemies.]

[The first step of learning Chakra as a ninja is to learn how to coat your body in chakra to do a multitude of things. First and most importantly, fully cloaking your body in your chakra gives the most powerful physical boost you can receive without special techniques, second with training it can be used to silence one's steps as your chakra will absorb all sound coming from your feet impacting the ground around with softening your steps to leave less tracks behind you in your travels.]

The book went on to explain how for people who had already touched upon their chakra, how to generally fully infuse their bodies with chakra to make themselves more durable. This was how people who got punched through literal trees didn't just explode into bloody mist as most tree's don't get cut in half when someone is kicked into it for example.

I gave a slight hum and then raising my hand I willed my chakra to rise up within my body making a blue mist form around my body. After a minute I wondered if I should try to make a Rasengan during my years of sitting in the academy but shook the thought off as I pushed back down my chakra to continue reading the book.

The book itself wasn't that long as after the first few paragraphs of gaslighting me into being an all-or-nothing attacker it got into the basics of using chakra and its use.

[Besides the simple exercise of sticking leaves to a single Tenketsu point and training in doing so. You can also train to hold a paintbrush point side down on your fingers and practice making it stand on your fingertips to train yourself on how to feel your chakra in your hands before you begin making hand signs for more advanced jutsu.]

I gave a slight hum before I slightly frowned at the thought of having to use hand signs all the time to perform jutsu. And the thought of having to do so, honestly made me just want to pick up a tanto or a small sword to fight so much easier... As who knows maybe I will be getting some kind of martial talent that makes me grow better with certain weapons or something.

Finally after a few hours of carefully reading that first book I put it away with my mind stuffed with the knowledge and I knew I needed to make my way back to my new apartment as a ninja in training. As I was all but kicked out of the orphanage with how I was now part of the ninja academy and on the track to being made an adult legally speaking.

My new apartment was a studio apartment with a small closet for a bathroom and a matching small shower with notes in my paperwork saying that this apartment building was strictly for Genin and civilian orphans to be move into. 'Jeeze, they are like literally terrified of a civvie teaching other people about Chakra and them killing themself or something.' I thought with amusement.

After a while I checked the fridge and raised an eyebrow seeing cheap but filling ingredients in simple rice, chicken, and frozen beef were stocked inside the fridge. After making myself some food and I was doing the dishes I stilled as I held the small knife that I used to cut up the beef slices.

I held the knife for a second as I considered my thoughts as I really needed to see the effects of the Hourai Elixir so with one quick motion I gave my finger a small cut across the tip. Nothing deep, nothing that would even make writing tomorrow painful or difficult. I barely even cut the first layer of skin honestly.

But as I saw a small bead of blood well up and a bit of a stinging pain from the small wound I felt the pain abruptly disappear and after I washed my finger off under the water and saw that where I had cut myself... Only smooth flesh remained.

"Ok... So I am truly immune to injuries as I could feel my bruised and hurt hands healing instantly when I was punching the posts." I muttered to myself as I went and laid down on my bed and held my head with my hands

As I had a something scary thought honestly. What if due to the fact that I had taken the Elixer, my body couldn't be toned up and I remained a scrawny teen for the rest of my existence?

Taking a deep breath I relaxed as nothing good would come of worrying about this even if I couldn't get an ulcer so I just relaxed and eventually, I fell asleep with my form being wreathed in the softly glowing moonlight as my bed was directly across the small room away from the window.

-

Waking up the next day I got up with a yawn and as I collected my stuff to get ready for the day I stilled and stopped dead in place as I re-entered my main room from the shower. Sitting with clear boredom on her face with her legs folded over the other and with her chin resting on her fist was the Uchiha girl from yesterday.

She was in a similar outfit as yesterday in tight shorts and a sleeveless top that had a bit of her cleavage exposed to air out. Which was normal due to how hot the Land of Fire naturally was.

"Uhh what the hell are you doing here?" I asked with a frown as I thankfully had already changed while inside the bathroom after getting washed up

But the girl not caring about my anger simply said coldly. "If you don't want people to come into your house within a ninja village, you should lock your window... Anyway, I am here to call you in advance for the next time we get called to tutor civilians." 

At that... I smiled as that gave me leverage over here and as I walked into my kitchen and got myself a can of juice that I got on the way home yesterday I spoke frankly. "I don't even know your name. And you are trying to order me around, why should I agree?"

To which the Uchiha gave a small smile and nodded her head saying easily. "That is a fair point. My name is Kari Uchiha, and as for why you should agree... Well besides the obvious fact of not wanting to get on my bad side, I will teach you two things that you won't be able to learn so easily while within the Academy."

I listened in as she raised up a hand and held up a single finger as she said proudly. "I will teach you the Grand Fireball Technique which is a Low C ranked Jutsu. And then I will spend an hour a day teaching you Taijutsu properly rather than your hurried sparring matches with other civilians and the clan-born students." 

After a moment of thought, I realized that I really wasn't losing anything from this but there was something I was lost on. "Why come to me and offer this then. You want me to get you those C rank rewards or whatever other reason you got, why not just pick me out later and instead come all the way here?" 

Kaori Uchiha gave me a long look before taking a breath and saying honestly. "You didn't complain once when punching the posts. Even when you bloodied your hand on the post in punching it."

She took a breath and then looking me up and down she admitted with some respect in her voice. "A civilian without a single callus breaking their skin on the rough ropes on the punching logs... That takes determination and with how you already showed you have a decent amount of chakra you have some potential to be honed. And I am willing to help you if you do the same." 

I looked into her dark eyes and after a moment of thought I slowly nodded and then held out a hand towards her with her looking at my hand and then back into my eyes and her eyes flashed red with a single Tomoe in her Sharingan as she said firmly while meeting my eyes with her cursed ones. "Then our deal is struck Akari Sadra." 

But as her hand fell into mine I felt the Celestial Grimoire spin to life... But this time as it reached for a star, it actually collected it and I barely managed to hear Kaori say quickly. "Now, I will be here at your place after your classes each day, don't make me wait here on you or I will be rather angry at you. And you don't want a woman angry at you who knows exactly where you sleep Akari." She finished and then she walked over to my window and I saw her climb out my window and leap away over to the top of a nearby building.

But once she left I was totally focused on the new perk/ability I had gotten from the Celestial Grimoire.

[Touch of Tzeentch] [Once per day, you may use the Winds of Magic that you can muster, or any other magical source of energy such as your mana chakra ki etc, to make a very small scale attack against a single foe that totally bypasses physical armor and gets at the fool on the inside. Depending on the amount used, you could rupture internal organs with a flick by erasing the tiniest bits of flesh in their bodies.]

[Or on a small expenditure, you can implant ideas into other people, making them assume the idea came from them. On a large one, you can almost warp the mind, causing them to follow an order to the end or even fill them with a false sense of hope. Keep in mind that all of this can only be done after physical contact is made, no matter how small for either use of this boon.]

I looked at my hands and I beheld true and unrivaled power... As I could punch someone in the face. And then give them testicular torsion at the same time!

But as she was fuming about the honesty in my words and how she literally couldn't deny it, I had a jolt run through me as I felt the Celestial Grimoire reach out into the countless stars filling my core and for a moment I thought it was going to fail again but it succeeded as it drew a star into itself and its information filled my mind.