One Arm

Another two weeks had passed, and Ryo's training was going very well even on his own. He had finally managed to eliminate the hand seals for the Earth Release techniques: Stone Bullet and Stone Wall. During this time, he had also visited the library and acquired two Wind Release jutsu scrolls: Wind Release: Wind Shuriken and Wind Release: Air Bullet.

Both jutsu were straightforward, focusing on offense. The first one involved launching wind shurikens, while the second was a stronger but more easily evaded air bullet. Ryo had chosen to learn them, hoping for their effectiveness, but ultimately felt a bit disappointed.

"However, the wind shurikens will be extremely useful," he thought. Forming a hand seal, he created four wind shurikens in front of him and swiftly launched them towards a tree. Then, grabbing three real shurikens, he tossed them into the air. Simultaneously, he activated the air bullet jutsu, causing the wind shurikens to surround and spin with the real ones, before hurling them all towards another tree, piercing it perfectly in three places, then two more times before coming to a stop on the third.

"The combined power of the two is very strong. It helps with my long-range offense, but I still don't have any large-area jutsu. In the end, I don't have many options, so I have to use what I have."

He spent the next few days training further. He finally began to understand how to use the sensory ability of the coin. It was mentally taxing, but slowly, using the clone, he learned to control the waves emitted by the coin. He could now handle three sensing waves at once.

Activating the ability and controlling the chakra for it, the coin vibrated three times, and Ryo closed his eyes, breathing calmly. After a few seconds, he started receiving the waves again, and his mind constructed a mental image of his surroundings. With three tracking waves, Ryo's range was small, sensing up to 300 meters around him without much difficulty.

Placing his hand on his head, he felt the somewhat painful sensation, albeit at an acceptable level. This method allowed Ryo to circumvent many stealth abilities, as an image formed in his mind. He could perceive anything human-shaped or similar.

Just as it happened now. A man approached, and the static image updated every two seconds with the information from the three waves going back and forth. He was tall, bearded, with loose hair, and his face wasn't clearly distinguished, but Ryo could perceive that the man was missing one arm.

"Someone without an arm... I don't remember having contact with someone like that. Did Hiruzen send someone to see me?" As he pondered, Ryo looked in the direction the person was coming from and then flickered towards the man as soon as he appeared in front of him. There, he had a surprise.

"Kentou-sensei?!" He looked at his teacher's arm and noticed it was missing. Had he lost his arm on the last mission? Ryo also noticed that the man's face looked tired, with additional bandages on his other arm and some on his face.

"What happened? Was the mission that bad?" Ryo asked, watching Kentou release a sigh before walking towards him. Kentou passed his remaining arm over the boy's shoulders, pulling him into the forest. "Yeah, it was terrible. There was a ridiculously strong guy, but we dealt with him, not without some losses, and my arm. But it was good for me, at least."

Kentou chuckled lightly as Ryo looked at him, not understanding why it was good. "Since I won't act as a ninja anymore, the arm gave me the retirement I wanted." Ryo was speechless. Kentou always complained about having to teach him and go on occasional mandatory missions.

"Sensei? So, this is good then, but you lost an arm... Wait, are you going to stop teaching me?!" He asked, releasing himself from Kentou's arm and looking at the older man, who then put a cigarette in his mouth. "What? No, no, what that means is that for the rest of the year, I'll have more time to train you! I hope you've practiced the Mystic Palm technique properly; I want to see it."

As he said this, Kentou removed one of the bandages from his face, revealing a nasty wound, as if burned by fire or struck by a strong lightning bolt. "Heal this with the Mystic Palm technique."

Looking at the wound, Ryo quickly analyzed it, realizing that Kentou had possibly left it untreated as a means for Ryo to heal someone for real. He performed some hand seals, having managed to reduce them by three, which was already good. Then, he placed his hand over Kentou's face, and the wound began to slowly close.

After a few minutes, Ryo lowered his hand as Kentou placed his own on his cheek. "You learned this on your own in a month and managed to reduce some hand seals? You're something, my student." He chuckled and then started walking to sit on the chair ahead, making some strange grunting noises, possibly still feeling pain in his body.

Sitting there, he looked at Ryo. "How much time do you have left in the academy?" Hearing from Ryo that he had another four months of studying, Kentou nodded. "Four months, then. And after that, you'll graduate and become a real ninja. Well, we have four months to train then. I'll start passing on my sword fighting style to you, Ryo."

Saying this, Kentou formed a hand seal with one hand, and a clone appeared in front of him. "Make a clone too, with plenty of chakra, use about 70% of your total chakra." With the order, Ryo formed a hand seal, and a shadow clone appeared in front of him.

Kentou stood up, stretching his body. "How long will he last, Ryo?" Ryo looked at his clone, who promptly replied, "I can stay here for two hours." Nodding in agreement, Kentou then threw a scroll onto the table. "My clone will teach yours more about medicine and other things I haven't yet covered with you. Now, you and I are going to have some fun."

He said this while tapping the katana he had by his waist. Ryo swallowed nervously, thinking it would be like this every day for 4 months. Of course, he knew it would be much more effective for him to learn medicine with Kentou and at the same time learn sword fighting, but his mental state would suffer along with his body.

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