Shurikenjutsu

The evening had fallen.

Most academy students had given up on training. After all, tonight was the famous 'Mist Festival', one of the few events of the village that provided some sort of relief to its inhabitants with flute music, feasts and dances throughout Kirigakure. 

The usually stern and reserved Sandaime Mizukage was going to do a speech, even though he always stayed clustered in the infamous Mist Tower, in which he was taking care of the village's affair and tensions with the Damyo of the land of water.

"I will return home as well", Biwa said to his rival, his arms covered in cuts and bruises.

Facing him, a grinning youth was standing passively, lacking any expression on his face. He merely nodded at him, and resumed his training.

"As energetic as always...But you know, my father told me that sometimes, rest is just as important as training", Biwa gave advice, before leaving.

However, even though Takeshi's body was screaming in pain, he was not planning in stopping here. He was so close to his goal...

*SWOOSH*

After a couple more throws, a familiar notification rang in his ears.

[Way of the Shinobi IV (Chain quest)- D-rank mission

You have learned a ninjutsu, a taijutsu and kenjutsu already, which are necessary to considered a real shinobi. These will become the foundations of your shinobi skills in the future, but there is one more skill to acquire before having the right to become a real ninja: Shurikenjutsu.

Task - Throw 100 000 shuriken accurately (100 000 / 100 000)

Reward - Shuriken Mastery (E), 1000 EXP]

[You have successfully completed the quest [Way of the Shinobi IV]. You have received 1000 EXP]

[You have earned the E-rank passive kill [Shuriken Mastery] (E)]

[You have unlocked a new quest]

"Finally", Takeshi shouted in excitement.

If anyone saw him, they would think that someone possessed his body. After all, be it the previous Takeshi or the current one who transmigrated, the both of them were unbelievably reserved and apathetic. Few expressions could be read on his face.

Yet, now there was pure joy.

He had finally completed this exhausting D-rank mission.

There were many art of the shinobi.

The main ones were the following

Ninjutsu, representing the elemental use of chakra to display feats resembling spells, from basic fire balls to forbidden reanimation jutsu. Each major hidden village possessed a legacy of jutsu of any element, but there was no denying that their legacy was unbalanced. For intance, Konoha had little wind jutsu, yet they had plenty of fire jutsu. Kirigakure, the village of the mist, had a huge library with thousands of jutsu. Takeshi aimed at learning them all. With the system, it was something doable, as he could accelerate the process of learning spells with experience.

Taijutsu, representing martial, weapon-less arts. To make a parallel with Earth, it was a mix of ancient chinese martial arts and efficient, modern ones. Eventually, just like other jutsu, taijutsu was created to defeat targets. It was just as lethal as muay thai, and just as discrete and flowing as tai chi. Each village had its own forms of taijutsu, but utilmately all were very vicious and lethal.

Genjutsu, was the art of illusion. Though it was rarely lethal itself, it put the target in a state of confusion that left him wide open for any incoming attacks. In a way, these mental attacks were the scariest on a battlefield, which is one of the reason why the Uchiha were so feared in battle.

These three art of shinobi represented the foundation of any worthy nin. 

However, there were also branches of minor shinobi arts.

Fuinjutsu, the art of sealing, were used in every village to seal tail beasts and store equipment.

Shurikenjutsu was a lethal art of throwing shurikens, and they could threaten armies when the proper jutsu was used. Of course, it was a branch of ninjutsu, but it was very popular.

Kenjutsu was one of the best close combat arts. Unlike regular taijutsu, kenjutsu was the art of the sword. Each one of the seven swordsmen of the mist, that had disappeared for a long time, was considered an elite jonin. This was proof that Kirigakure was not weak, and Kenjutsu had huge potential.

Kyūjutsu was another art of combat, relying on accurate archery. In siege battles, it was incredibly lethal, though it was a forgotten art. Few still knew about it after its main users died during the Second Shinobi War.

As expected, the fifth mission of the chain quest was aiming at learning genjutsu.

[Way of the Shinobi V (Chain quest)- D-rank mission

You have learned a ninjutsu, a taijutsu, shurikenjutsu and kenjutsu already, which are necessary to considered a real shinobi. These will become the foundations of your shinobi skills in the future, but there is one more skill to acquire before having the right to become a real ninja: Genjutsu.

Task - Learn a D-rank Genjutsu.

Reward - 1000 EXP]

However, Takeshi closed the window and ignored the message.

Jack of all trades are master of none.

Now that he had the basics of shinobi learned, he planned on solidifying his skills. He wanted to be well rounded, which is why he had learned kenjutsu in the first place. After all, ninjutsu specialists often met their end in close combat.

Hence, he put a lot of effort to become good in kenjutsu. Rather than just good, he could be considered excellent. Among academy students his age, only Biwa could be considered superior to him in kenjutsu, and even then, it was only because of his physique. In terms of technique, he was the strongest by far.

However, Takeshi still was a ninjutsu specialist at heart.

And just like that, he invested a crazy amount of EXP into upgrading a talent.

[You have upgraded your perk [Chakra Mastery] to [Medium]. You have spent 1250 EXP.]

After training so hard stirring water in a glass without breaking it, he had obtained a chakra control perk [Chakra Mastery]. Not only did it allow him to control his chakra much better, it became second nature to walk on water or even run vertically on trees and buildings. Parkour was very much fun when you had the body of a superhuman.

[Name - Takeshi Ryu | Level 16 Academy Student [50 / 650 EXP]

Attributes:

Strength - 15 → 19 [D] | Agility - 15 → 19 [D] | Vitality - 16 → 21 [D] | Chakra - 39 → 54 [C]

Perk - Water Elemental Talent (Medium) [+], Swordsmanship Talent (Medium) [+], Chakra Mastery (Medium) [+]

Taijutsu - Kirigakure Academy Taijutsu [E] (25)

Kenjutsu - Hidden Mist Kenjutsu [D] (46)

Ninjutsu - Water Eagle [C] (45) ; Water Shuriken [D] (110), Water Clone [D] (80), Water Shield [D] (60)

Shurikenjutsu - Shurikenjutsu [E] (25)

Items - Forging Land Black Katana [C]]

There was nothing more satisfying than getting stronger.

Peaceful times truly were the best to lay foundations for what was to come. In war time, he would have been killed dozens of times already, with no opportunity of learning skills as he would not have been able to train. The story would be different if he were stronger though. Battlefields were maybe even better, but you needed to survive it first.