One month in

The taijutsu training continued for a whole week, and in the following week, a mixed training of shuriken throwing and taijutsu began. Amidst the tests, Ryo discovered that he could infuse his chakra into the shuriken, even in a minimal amount that couldn't really be felt, allowing him to control the rotation, speed, and force of the shuriken, ensuring he no longer missed the target in training.

This impressed Iruka with Ryo's development in just a few weeks of training, although his taijutsu still had much room for improvement and would take more time.

"Perhaps I should start training in bukijutsu, using a katana or kunais for close combat. Considering that with Jiton, I can control the metal of weapons, even if I get disarmed, I can use that to catch anyone off guard."

Meanwhile, Ryo had decided which element he would use as primary and secondary. His primary element would be earth, as it had numerous defensive jutsus to use, not to mention that Ryo could manipulate the earth and perhaps the metals within it. However, he would need absurdly refined chakra control for that, which he didn't have at the moment, nor could he even think about achieving such a feat.

"Manipulating metal fragments in the earth, something like that would be extremely powerful, but I think I'll only be able to do that with mastery when I'm older."

As the weeks passed, in the third week, Iruka introduced the first jutsu to them, the henge no jutsu, the transformation jutsu. Ryo would finally learn a jutsu, and this excited him, especially since he already had a family jutsu, but after discovering he had Jiton, the basic scroll of his Shimura family had become more obsolete. Not that there wasn't anything left to learn, but it was more advanced for his current chakra level.

"Shimura, my family is quite mysterious, isn't it? My grandmother didn't tell me much about us, and there wasn't much in my memories, but haven't I heard that name before?"

Ryo shrugged, unable to remember anything concrete, as if there was something in the back of his mind but it wasn't knowledge he currently had access to. And so the days passed, Ryo analyzed the performance of his classmates, some managed in the first week, those being the children of the great clans. Ryo had trained at home and in the forest with the henge, and with that, he managed to do it in three days.

"Three days to master the jutsu, not that I've mastered it yet, I still have to perform all the seals, but it's much like programming. You have to make the hand seal that assists in molding the chakra for the jutsu. That's why it's possible to perform jutsu without seals, since if the ninja knows the shape that the chakra needs to take and where to go, the jutsu will be activated independently."

In the end, he chose to show that he could do the basics of the jutsu in a week and a few days, making him neither the best nor the worst, just average. Just what he was expecting, he didn't want to stand out too much from the other students; being average was enough, especially since he already had an area where he was excelling, which was shuriken throwing training.

On the other hand, Naruto excelled in taijutsu training, but otherwise, he wasn't very good, yet he was still the protagonist of the world and the child of prophecy. Ryo knew that Naruto would manage one way or another, and perhaps even better since Ryo was basically his only friend until then.

"I spend a lot of time with Naruto at the academy, we talk a lot, but I still have to be careful, not that I can make him not see that everyone else is openly excluding him. I imagine that just me won't make much of a change, since the prophecy is still real, he will be guided down the 'right' path."

At least that's what Ryo believed, but deep down, he felt something strange, a subtle unfolding in the universe not enough to alter the original plot, but Ryo would have more problems than he could imagine, although he couldn't know that now.

The month was coming to an end, and with that, Iruka announced that at the end of the next month, there would be some tests to be done, such as shuriken throwing, taijutsu combat, and henge no jutsu. The students were already getting more anxious, considering it had only been a month of classes, but Iruka soon spoke.

-- Don't worry, the tests will be a recurring thing in the academy. Don't fret over just one, and always do your best in all tests.-- 

He clapped his hands together and then took out a scroll from the table in the room, making a hand seal and placing his hand on the scroll, numerous small objects emerged from within the scroll.

-Now after a month in the academy, we will give permission to you all to the ninja library of the academy, where you will have access to the first and second floors, which respectively have E and D rank ninjutsus. I recommend you look at those on the first floor, as there are some basics that aren't in the academy curriculum, but they are available there. But remember, don't overdo it, don't try to learn more than one ninjutsu at a time! -

He spoke with a calm and warm tone as he did in the anime, except when he wasn't arguing with Naruto, obviously. On the other hand, Ryo had a fire burning in his eyes; he could finally go to the library.

- You can come one by one here to get your authorization; badges are necessary for you to enter the library, and each one has your name, class, and where you're allowed to go. -

Ryo grabbed his badge, seeing that there was a small image in the middle that was his, with letters written what Iruka had said. "Alright, I can finally start accumulating ninjutsus. I imagine that the E-rank earth and air ones should be simple to train, as my affinity for both is very high. It shouldn't take me more than a month to master at least one of each element."

After that, everyone was released, and Ryo headed straight to the library, where he showed his badge to the local ninja and was soon allowed in. Upon entering the library, Ryo could see numerous scrolls on the shelves, one on top of the other.

"That's it; it's going to take some time to find what I want, but it's good. I need to have an idea of what I can find in the E-rank section and later in the D-rank one."

Ryo began to pick up the scrolls, one by one, calmly looking at the titles. Many were more information than actual jutsus, but they could still be helpful one day. However, his current goal was to find an earth jutsu, which became a challenge after some time, as there weren't many useful doton jutsus in the E-rank section.

"I'll have to look in the D-rank section later, there aren't many useful doton jutsus in the E-rank, but I found a good one that focuses on training the earth element," he thought as he held a scroll in his hands. Sitting down on the floor, he opened the scroll and began to read it. Ryo noticed that there wasn't much in the scroll, and the training it contained was rather simple.

"Crushing stones with your hand? Is it really that simple? Here it says you have to start by increasing the size of the stones, eventually progressing to smashing boulders and perhaps even mountains one day. But it all starts with small stones, much like the leaf exercise on the forehead. You have to focus chakra into the stone and crush it with force. It sounds easy enough, but it's still just a stone," he pondered.

He knew that in this universe, breaking a stone with your hand was nothing special, but breaking it in a way that enhanced elemental control over the earth was another story since it was more than just breaking them.

"Alright, I'll start the training with the stones tomorrow, along with the exercises I already do. I need to get clearance to learn the underground displacement technique; that jutsu will be extremely important for the future since it allows for escaping or attacking potential enemies."

Closing the scroll and returning it to the shelf, he sighed for a moment before searching for the wind control training. Eventually, he found it, and like the stone exercise, it involved molding wind chakra to cut a leaf. He remembered Naruto's training in Shippuden when he did this. Ryo then read that the training would progress; once you could cut a leaf, you had to move on to a thin branch, and then to a thicker one, and so on.

"Alright, I have both elemental trainings in hand, I need to start practicing them. Perhaps next time, I'll learn the clone technique, even if it doesn't help in combat, it can distract opponents."

As the day was drawing to a close, the boy had spent a good amount of time at the academy, so he had to hurry home, do his nighttime training, and then go to sleep.