Chapter 2: Hiruzen And Aki

Two thin books magically "manifest" themselves in my hand. One titled "Basic Taijutsu Manual" and the other "Basic Chakra Control Manual".

Exercise...I never thought I'd see the day I'd be forced to actually put effort into something. How unbelievably sad, I can't believe I've fallen to such lows.

[You should pick up the habit of training hard Haru. If you don't the other children will eventually group up and topple your influence.]

Of course, of course. I'm sure I can find a way to make the extremely repetitive action of training interesting.

[You should try chakra control first, I assure you you'll find it extremely satisfying.]

How long do you think it'll take untill I manage to increase my skill of chakra control to the level you would consider "basic"?

[Only a few weeks. For most people learning just this level of chakra control is impossible but due to your strong lineage it's extremely easy.]

You think I can increase my chakra control from nothing to genin level in a few weeks?

[You already have a level of chakra control, it's just not worth mentioning. Remember, having genin level chakra control is the bare minimum for most techniques.]

Interesting, how long do you think I'd take to increase my chakra control to genin level without this instruction manual just using the regular leaf sticking chakra control exercise?

[Probably a few months, maybe even longer than that. The leaf exercise is the most basic chakra control exercise. Using it over and over will not push you to your limits since it has a low growth cap.]

Ah I see. Each exercise only has a certain level of difficulty, it's similar to training with weights in that aspect. At a certain point using a 5 pound dumbbell becomes easy and no longer increases your strength as quickly as before, thus you must increase the weight.

Although I don't know why you would think I'd need an entire new training method to increase my chakra control as efficiently. Wouldn't increasing the number of leafs also serve the same purpose?

[Yes, but only to a certain extent. The application of chakra needed to stick a leaf to you is the same for every leaf. You don't need to adjust the "wavelength" of chakra in order to stick more leafs, just the amount of chakra.]

If that is the case, what makes this instruction manual so much better than using the regular training methods? If I wanted to "increase the weight" per say, couldn't I just use tree walking or water walking instead?

[The chakra control manual will change the chakra exercise it recommends you to do depending on what your limit is. This allows you to achieve maximum gains without any wasted time training. This only applies untill you reach the peak level of a genin in chakra control.]

Could Minato surpass my rate of growth if I were to diligently follow this manual?

[No, at least, not for the time being. It's almost impossible, regardless of how talented he is.]

That's all I need to hear, thank you, I actually feel like trying now.

[You're welcome Haru (^^)]

~~~~~

Hokage Office, Konohagakure

Hiruzen looks at his assistant with a pissed off expression. His eyes seemed to twitch as she reads out the report to him.

"Several concerned parents have filed complaints about Uchiha Haru's conduct. They've reported their children coming home with bruises."

The blond haired Yamanaka slides multiple pictures onto the desk. They depict dark purple botches in various different body parts, all caused by Haru.

"Apparently only the children of noble families and clans have been targeted by him, for the purpose of..."

The assistant pushes her glasses up her nose bridge as she stares at the outrageous note on her clipboard.

"Giving money to the "poor underprivileged Uchiha", or at least, that's the reason Haru gave to the children he beat up."

"Pfft."

Hiruzen lets out a little chuckle once he hears what excuse Haru had given for terrorizing the children. He had heard of Haru's unruly behavior since the first week of school but hadn't ever taken it seriously untill now.

"Strange, if I'm correct Minato also suffered under Haru's hands?"

"Ah, yes!"

The assistant pulls another note out from her clipboard.

"Minato Namikaze also reported Haru's misbehaviour. The reason Haru gave to the instructor who confronted him was, "the civilians of Konohagakure deserve punishment for taking the Uchiha's protection for granted."

Hiruzen was genuinely amused, never in his life had anyone been so brazen in disrespecting people for seemingly no reason.

"So why is Haru stealing money from the other children? It's not like the Uchiha clan is poor, it's quite strange that he's doing this."

"The reason isn't known, but he seems to have some special place he buries the money since none of the teachers can confiscate money from him."

"Hmm..."

In Hiruzen's opinion there was only a few reasons Haru would steal from the children. The most probable was also the most simple, Haru might actually have a genuine dislike for his fellow students.

If this is the case than Haru needed to be stopped in order to prevent any messy accidents caused by emotional outbursts. Another reasonable possibility was that Haru just wanted money for more training supplies.

Although he was an Uchiha and had a hefty allowance given to him by the clan specifically for training purposes Hiruzen knew that amount was still limited.

It was likely that Haru ran out of money buying equipment and decided rather than waiting for his next allowance he would just steal from his other classmates.

After all, he only stole money from children of other clans. This showed that Haru didn't want to waste his time beating up the regular civilians who barely carried enough money to buy lunch.

"Hmm, I'll need to evaluate the kid myself, his identity is very sensitive so I want this to be kept quiet and be taken of quickly. Send him to me while he is at the academy, not off campus or off school time. It's critical that this is resolved as best as possible. Do you understand Aki?"

Aki nodded, "I'll make sure to do as you wish sir."

"Yes, I hope that Uchiha brat isn't what I think he is."