In the Hokage's office, Hiruzen finally finished organizing all the papers related to the massacre. It took a long time to sort through everything. Taking a break now, he let out a sigh. The old man wasn't sad about it all, but still, his mind was filled with reports about the movements of the other villages.
"This event may have left Konoha seeming to be in a difficult situation, especially without one of the Sannin with us, and we're recovering well with the number of genin and chunin graduating every year. Now if only Orochimaru hadn't gone rogue, we could be in a better situation, cursed my student."
Hiruzen heard a knock on the door, then allowed entry to whoever was there. It was Asuma, who greeted him as he entered. Asuma began speaking promptly. "I have a quick report to make about my class, we're about to start the initial tests, and all the students are showing rapid growth in their areas. Most of them are training with their own clans, but I arranged for two of them to have an instructor, as you instructed me."
"Kurenai Yuuhi and Kentou Kabame are training Haruka Asahina and Shimura Ryo, respectively. Haruka has shown a good aptitude for genjutsu, and Ryo was approved by Kentou in a one-month period, and according to Kentou's report, he has a good talent for Iryojutsu."
Hiruzen looked at Asuma, who finished the report with a slight smile on his face. It was always good to hear that numerous academy students were showing excellent progress, and it was even better since they would all likely graduate by the end of the year. Next year, they would already be in the ranks of Konoha's genin to go on missions and strengthen the Hidden Leaf Village.
"Great, Asuma. Once the year is over, you'll be able to return to missions. Have you considered becoming the instructor for one of the genin groups next year?" Hearing this, Asuma made a face and shook his head. "Not yet. They're all talented, but I feel like it's not my time for that yet. Maybe in a couple of years." Hiruzen nodded, and Asuma left the room.
"Ryo-kun has a talent for being a medical ninja too. If he can train that, he'll be very useful on the battlefield, especially training with Kentou Kabame. Even though he's a retired ninja, he was one of the best alongside Tsunade when he was active."
Hiruzen looked at one of the files on his desk containing Ryo's name, then closed it after reading the report from the ANBU who watched over him, seeing the progress the boy made when no one was around, and he was satisfied with what he read. "He can mold a katana with the golden coin. His family's lost art is more versatile than the old reports. Maybe I should get an instructor from the Land of Iron to teach him to use more types of weapons."
Of course, Hiruzen didn't know the whole truth about the golden coin, only what could be observed by the ANBU who watched over and took care of Ryo from the shadows, which was currently half the capacity Ryo could achieve since he hadn't mastered sensory ability yet.
In the middle of several trees, which was the training ground Ryo used, there were several cuts on the tree in front of him, large thin cuts, punch holes, and even some jutsu holes.
Jumping back, Ryo then made a single hand seal. "Earth Release: Rock Projectile!" As soon as the seal was made, the ground in front of Ryo broke as a stone jumped up and was then fired forward, hitting the tree squarely. Wiping the sweat from his forehead, Ryo sat down on a chair.
"I can already do the rock projectile with one seal, but its power is less effective like this. The projectile is 20 centimeters long and 10 wide. Which isn't bad, it can almost go through a big tree like this. If I do all the seals, it doubles in size and has the force to obliterate the tree."
He looked to the side, seeing some fallen trees on the ground. And then he made another movement, with a few more seals, he hit the ground with his hand, saying, "Earth Release: Stone Wall!" And from the ground in front of him rose a two-meter-high and one-meter-wide wall, with a thickness of half a meter.
"Not bad, but half a meter will be pierced by many things easily, but to stop other D and E-rank jutsu, as well as weapons thrown at me, it will be very useful." Ryo was focused on training what he already knew about jutsu and a few other things, as the first big test of the year in the ninja academy was approaching.
"Asuma-sensei said the last part of the exams would be a battle allowing the use of what we know, meaning ninjutsu is also allowed, so everyone can use it during the duels." After some time, Kentou arrived for them to start training.
In these last few days of training, he had trained both alone and with Kentou. The medical ninja training took a different turn than Ryo imagined. Of course, he still had to read numerous books on medicine, but the training had become more physical.
Ryo had a duel with Kentou while Kentou used a wooden sword, hitting the vital points of the boy who had to protect them, and if hit, he would fall to the ground in great pain. Then the second part of the duel began, he had to heal himself to be able to return to the fight.
Something much more complicated to do than to say. Given that you have to have a great focus to activate the basic healing jutsu, something Ryo could do without seals now, but even so, trying to do that after taking a blow in the middle of the chest and being out of breath was a daunting task, both mentally and physically.
"Come on, Ryo, the longer you stay down, the more times you'll die." Kentou hit points that left movement limited but didn't restrict it, so Ryo could flikering back to start treating quickly to at least reduce the pain.
"Damn, it's always like this, how am I going to effectively do this with a basic healing jutsu?!" He cursed Kentou in his mind while one hand was on his chest and the other raised in a guard position with a kunai in it.
Of course, Ryo wasn't in any life-threatening danger during his training, but he pushed himself mentally to get a faster response every time they trained, even if he had to expend more chakra to execute the healing jutsu to its limit, which didn't increase much but still helped.
Kentou narrowed his eyes, observing Ryo and his struggle to heal the injured point. "Can he already overload the basic healing jutsu? Was he taught or was it instinct? I imagine it's the latter. He needs to heal quickly, and the basic jutsu is crap for that. Overloading it with chakra slightly increases its effectiveness, it's a viable option."
Shortly after, Kentou saw that Ryo managed to return to a decent state. Kentou let go of the wooden sword and pulled a chair for himself, then sat down. "Alright, Ryo-kun, you're doing well for a boy your age. I was thinking of teaching you a better healing jutsu, but you still need to improve your chakra and control. Maybe by the end of the year, you'll achieve that.
But that doesn't mean we have nothing to do, your chakra is already at an acceptable level. I'll start teaching you my jutsu, and with that, you'll also learn some sword techniques. But even though I'm teaching you, you'll need technique and composure to learn it. I already explained this to you when we met, and you've already felt it in your body. I hope you're prepared to continue the training."
Ryo, still breathing heavily as he felt the pain in his chest increasing and decreasing, remembered how Kentou had used the technique on him in the first weeks of training. Ryo occasionally shivered at the thought, but now it was different, he was about to truly learn it.
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Hi, author here.
Just stopping by to say, thank you all for your support.
All the comments, power stones, evaluations help me to continue making the fanfic.
The story is reaching a point where it won't be long before Ryo leaves the academy.
There are many things I intend to do in the story, and several concepts to be explored.
I may still make some mistakes, but I'm doing my best to improve!.
Stay tuned for Ryo's next adventures!