2 The Grind Begins 1

The next morning, Daiki dragged himself up off the couch where he'd fallen asleep without even realising it at the crack of dawn.

He threw on a fresh set of clothes, took care of his daily business, ate a light breakfast and then got a move on.

He headed straight towards the training grounds and already he could hear the sound of ringing and clashing metal echoing and slight tremors shaking the ground.

"This'll do." he mused after finding an empty training ground. It was pretty small since it was a higher numbered training ground, but it had a small stream going through it, so if things went well, he could work on the next part of business he wanted to get around to.

For now though?

He made his way over to one of the large tree's surrounding the training field. It was time to get tree walking down.

Daiki lifted his foot and focused his chakra into the sole of it, before pressing it to the tree.

It stuck firmly for the moment, it wasn't really all that different from the leaf training exercise he learned in the academy it seemed.

Though, a bit more challenging since his feet were a lot larger, and his body a lot heavier than a leaf that he could stick to his head with one point.

He repeated the motion with his other foot, sticking to it and found himself sticking to to it vertically.

"Cool." Daiki grinned, he could already imagine all the ways this could help in combat.

With that thought in his mind, he lifted his foot from the tree to step up, only for the bark to spontaneously erupt and propel him backwards with quite a bit of force.

He flipped through the air and landed on the ground about ten feet away, lips pursed, "Okay…so not as easy as I thought it would be." Daiki mused.

________________________________________

Tree walking, really was far more complicated than Daiki thought it would be without proper instruction.

It ended up taking him a total of four days to get it down and done with. He couldn't remember exactly how long it took Naruto and Sasuke to finish, but he knew Sakura had done it on her first try.

That was frustrating. Was her chakra control just that good, or was it just the fact that her chakra capacity was that miniscule?

'Surely it isn't anywhere near my own.' Daiki consoled himself. Even in the academy, Sakura only ever used jutsu when called upon and he'd never seen her at any of the training grounds provided by the academy.

Daiki put her out of mind for the moment and wiped the sweat that had formed over his brow, "At least I've finally got it done." he grinned to himself from where he stood hanging by his feet from a tree over two hundred feet high.

And, he'd actually passed by Naruto this morning on the way here to the training grounds, so he definitely hadn't left for the Wave mission yet.

That was an accomplishment right? He'd learned Tree Walking before any of Team Seven at the very least.

Shaking his head, Daiki cut off the flow of chakra from his feet and dropped the two hundred foot drop to the ground, his feet absorbing the impact of his landing as easy as breathing.

"I suppose it's been a while," he stroked his chin, he hadn't wanted to check until he finished up with tree walking, "Status."

[Name: Daiki Yurei]

[Age: 13]

[Chakra Capacity: 962/1322 (Genin)]

[Strength: 14/500]

[Endurance: 15.3/500]

[Durability: 14/500]

[Agility: 14/500]

[Taijutsu: 25/500]

[Ninjutsu: 20/500]

[Genjutsu: 10/500]

[Bukijutsu: 15/500]

[Chakra Control: 66.6/500]

[Chakra Affinities:[

[Lightning - (N/A): You have no training with this element.]

His eyes widened as the status screen appeared and a wide grin appeared on his face, "Now that's what I'm talking about!" he pumped his fist into the air.

Over his time training, he'd noticed how much easier it was to call upon his chakra and use just a specific amount, and how second nature it became to use it to keep sticking to the trees while learning the chakra control exercise.

And his efforts had clearly borne fruit! His chakra capacity had grown by nearly a half in a mere four days, his endurance had increased by nearly ten percent and his chakra control score had outright doubled!

"Fuck yes!" he cheered, a savage delight filling him. He still couldn't tell if it had increased the rate at which he grew, since he was on the move constantly, using chakra constantly and mastered a control exercise way beyond the leaf sticking exercise he'd gotten down first time-

But, with his progress reflected back at him here and now in numbers, he felt like he really could do this!

"What should I do now?" Daiki wondered to himself idly, stretching out his arms.

He still had quite a bit of chakra left in the tank, but he'd just went through four days of intense training.

He should take a break.

"…Then again I have zero friends." his shoulders slumped. Different life, same story huh?

It wasn't even like he really had any other goal either, or hobby even. He hadn't been able to afford any decent hobby growing up.

The only thing that could even be slightly counted as a goal in his life before had been becoming stronger, rising up the ranks and drawing the awe of everyone around to him.

Kind of sad really now that he thought about it. Hell, it wasn't even all that different from what Naruto wanted to accomplish.

"Not that I can really afford to take it easy either." he added, and somehow, he felt himself slumping even further.

He couldn't leave the village without being branded a missing ninja and getting his ass hunted down and chopped up. And in less than four months, the Chunin Exams would take place and Orochimaru and Suna would be invading the village.

He was fucked either way he looked at it honestly.

"Stop being a pussy, you big sloppy pussy!" he scolded himself. He wasn't some little kid getting by on a stipend anymore, he could just go on a mission and make more money if he needed it and indulge in a hobby.

Maybe pick up a book, or go see a movie or something.

"Orah!" hyping himself up, Daiki pulled his shirt up over his head and kicked off his pants, leaving him in only his boxers before rushing over to the stream at the side of his training ground.

"Cowabunga baby!" he shouted, channelling chakra to the soles of his feet and landing on the water surface.

Or at least he tried to, he yelped as he sunk straight through with a big ol' plopping splash.