Chapter 5

A bit battered and tired, but very satisfied, I leisurely walked home, reflecting on the mentor I had today. Considering her quite young age, her taijutsu skills are very good, and Kanade herself is experienced enough to defeat me purely in hand-to-hand combat. However, here I'm being a bit deceitful — with seals disabled and muscles fueled by chakra, I could easily overpower her almost effortlessly just with speed, not to mention strength.

My cloak played its role in today's training too, reliably concealing all tenketsu from the Byakugan's view and serving as an obstacle for the opponent's chakra. However, considering Kanade's demonstrated modified soft fist style, her eyes aren't capable of distinguishing most tenketsu, and instead, strikes of concentrated chakra are usually directed at vital points on the body.

Considering my control, chakra density, and knowledge of human anatomy, I can easily take advantage of it for myself, but the soft fist style, used by the most experienced combatants, provides much greater scope for inflicting damage to the opponent. If the mentor's ninjutsu is on a similar level, then it becomes clear why she holds such a high rank at her age.

Usually, tokubetsu jonin are promoted after eighteen or nineteen, like Ma. Getting a promotion at sixteen, even during wartime, is a very solid achievement that commands respect.

At least, I'm satisfied with the assembled team, even despite Tsume's presence, with whom relations didn't start off well from the beginning. After some time and a dozen or so brutal beatings, in which I wiped the floor with her almost without any problems, Inuzuka and her pack reluctantly acknowledged my leadership, and our relationship settled at the level of armed neutrality with a drop of respect.

I didn't have anything against Ishi before, even sometimes helping the guy with advice, so considering the tactics drilled into us at the academy and the habit of acting in teams, we got quite a balanced cell capable of working both at close and long distances. And the fact that they attached a woman to us greatly pleased me — Kanade's figure turned out to be beyond praise, as well as her almost third-size bust.

But most importantly, she didn't try to cling to me and annoy me, which was so irritating in the academy. Thank all the demons in the world that I foresaw attempts to ensnare me through simple seduction and managed to disguise myself — it's very difficult to track the reaction of a bundled-up person whose face and eyes aren't visible. However, a couple of times I caught the mentor giving me overly assessing glances, but what they were related to... time will tell.

For now, I should hurry home and inform Saya about the composition of my team, have a snack, and drop by Mito's place — at yesterday's celebration of becoming a genin, she asked me to come over to discuss something. I hope it's not a taijutsu training. Remembering the first sparring session with a fully recovered Uzumaki, I shivered. Thirty-two seconds.

That's how much time Mito needed to completely defeat me in hand-to-hand combat. The result was twenty-six fractures and numerous bruises. Yeah, my relative doesn't like to hold back or know how to. Never before in my life had I been leveled to the ground like that. Considering that even most jonin had a hard time grappling with me by that time, you can assess the power of the First Hokage's wife.

It was after this incident that I started seriously strengthening my bones and muscles with medical techniques. At the moment, my personal record for the duration of a spar against Mito is five minutes thirty-two seconds, which is quite good against an S-rank kunoichi. Maybe in three or four years, I'll be able to fight her on equal terms in taijutsu. In any case, I'll put all my efforts into it.

Nodding friendly to the guard at the quarter gate, who congratulated me on receiving the hitai-ate, I headed home.

"Ka-chan, I'm home!" pushing open the front door with a shout, I was quite surprised to see an extra pair of shoes in the hallway.

"We're here, Ryo-kun," Saya's voice came from the living room.

Shrugging, I kicked off my sandals and headed to the living room, where Ma and three guests were present. I've only managed to half-learn to use my sensory abilities constantly, but accurately determining the ownership of detected chakra sources was still beyond me.

The exception was only Uzumaki and Senju for obvious reasons. But the trio felt somewhat familiar. Stepping over the threshold, I found that in addition to my uncle and his wife, Grandpa was also there. And all four were extremely serious. And Ma seemed annoyed too.

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