15 - Training begins...

Konoha...

Ninja Academy...

Kirito had arrived at the ninja academy a few moments ago and found Saito planting trees in the backyard. Though he wanted to start training immediately, he thought it wouldn't be appropriate to interrupt.

So he stood there silently, patiently waiting for Saito sensei to finish his task.'The kid came, but he's not talking. It shows patience, which would be good for learning how to be a normal citizen of the village, but...' Saito thought while continuing his tree planting.

Once Saito finished planting the trees, he thought, 'The kid is still standing there patiently, showing determination. However, he needs to learn to ask questions; otherwise, he'll be pushed around by others.'

"Kirito, can you bring me that water pot?" Saito said, turning his head toward Kirito to let him know he was aware of his presence.

"Here, sensei," Kirito said as he went near Saito with the water pot.

"Good, now pour some water on my hand," Saito said, placing his hands on the tree's roots.

Following his instructions, Kirito started pouring water.

"It's finished," when no more water came out, Kirito said as he placed the water pot on the ground.

"You did well, kid," Saito said, wiping the water from his hand with a towel because his hand was already clean.

"Sensei, why were you planting trees?" Kirito asked curiously, as it wasn't a common sight to see shinobi planting trees.

"That's because it's my hobby. It also gives me peace while I do it," Saito said with a smile, looking at the curious kid.

"But doesn't it take a lot of time for a tree to grow?" Kirito asked curiously.

"Yes, it does, and that's precisely the point.

Especially trees that take the longest time to grow. When they grow big and give fruits, it gives a pleasure like none other," Saito explained, a smile on his face.

"So, you want to eat some fruit. Why don't you just buy it from the market? I think that would take less time," Kirito said, as if he had discovered something clever.

"It's not quite like that, kid," Saito said, shaking his head.

"Then what is it?" Kirito asked, confused, as he was certain Saito sensei was doing all of this just to eat tasty food.

"You see, kid, us shinobi can do a lot of things very fast, but there are some things that even take a lot of time for us to do. After fighting all day and doing all kinds of tasks, you will get tired at one point.

So I decided to do something that would take a lot of time to do. One of those things is to raise a tree," Saito explained, his voice filled with emotions.

"I really don't get what you're talking about, sensei," Kirito said, scratching the back of his head.

"Don't worry, you'll understand one day," Saito said, motioning for Kirito to follow him while thinking,

'You're still too young to understand. When you reach that point, you'll also understand what I mean.'

As they reached the academy's exit door, Kirito asked, "Where are we going, sensei?"

"Jump on my back, kid," Saito sensei said, crouching down to allow Kirito to climb on.

"What now?" Kirito asked while climbing onto his back.

"Now hold on tightly. We're going to our training destination," Saito said as he stood up.

"Okay, I'm ready," Kirito said, hugging Saito tightly.

"Well, let's go," Saito said as he vanished from that spot.

In the blink of an eye, they appeared on top of a building a few hundred meters away from the academy building, as if they had teleported there.

After that, he disappeared and appeared a few dozen times and finally stopped on top of Hokage mountain.

"Go slow, sensei…." Kirito said as he tightened his grip on Saito's neck.

"We have stopped, look, kid." Saito said as he patted Kirito's head and thought, 'Let loose a bit, kid; you are choking me to death.'

"What did we do?! We are too high. I am afraid of heights." Kirito said, surprised by the fact, as he loosened his grip just to tighten it even harder this time, shouting, "We are too high. I am afraid of heights."

"You are choking me, kid…" Saito said while tapping on Kirito's hand as he couldn't take it anymore.

"Oh, sorry." Kirito said as he let go.

"Good. Sigh." Saito said while breathing heavily and finally said, "You know we would have been there if you didn't strangle me that hard."

"Oh, sorry Sensei." Kirito said with a kid's laugh.

"Don't worry; let's go…" And then they disappeared from that spot.

After a few seconds, they appeared in front of a big lake behind the Hokage mountain and stopped.

"Where are we, sensei?" Kirito asked while looking

at his surroundings.

"We are a few miles away from the village." Saito said as he looked around.

"How did we arrive here so fast? Weren't we in the academy a minute ago?" Kirito said, surprised by the fact.

"Yes, you are right. I used one of my advanced movement jutsu to bring us here. You will be happy to know that only I can use this jutsu, and you will also learn it." Saito said with a proud smile.

"What is its name?" Kirito asked, like an enthusiastic kid he is.

"It is called Flash steps. When the second Hokage created his "Hiraishin," I found a lot of flaws in it. Though it is good if you want to go a far way or your destination is very far away, it is a good jutsu.

But when you fight with your enemy in close combat, there are a lot of flaws. So I created this jutsu of mine." Saito said with a smile.

"You are awesome, sensei." Kirito praised Saito with a smile without knowing why.

"Enough talking; let's begin…"

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