Chapter 8: Academy Days 4

Turns out that Rock Lee was a rare combination of multiple factors: low talent in chakra control, no aptitude for ninjutsu and genjutsu, and a naturally small chakra network. This prevented him from even performing the simplest ninjutsu like the Academy Three. He may be able to use them after years of practice, but the effort would be a waste of time since this would be the peak in that area he could ever reach.

"Yo, Lee," greeted Tekku, the boy who was once again secretly training on the Academy training ground after class to perform ninjutsu. "Why are you wasting your time?"

The boy startled, looked at Tekku with a downcast look before it changed into determination. "Hello, Tekku. So you came to mock me? But I will become a ninja no matter what!"

"Huh, no, you are misunderstanding me. I know that you will become a ninja! You have that look. I am asking you, why are you trying to learn ninjutsu? It is just wasted time for you. If I were in your shoes, I would aim for that extra credit through the electives," he explained with a grin.

"Extra credit?" asked the bushy-browed boy, confused.

"Yes, you can substitute your lack in the Academy Three if you complete enough of the electives and show enough aptitude in them. So you should focus on Taijutsu, Bukijutsu, and also complete Poison and Trapping!" explained Tekku. He wanted to give Lee more time in his Taijutsu. If he starts early, maybe he can reach a level where he would beat Gaara by the time of the Chunin Exams, whether that fight would happen again or not.

"I see, thank you for the tip, Tekku. You are indeed right. If I focus on them, I should be able to graduate," nodded Lee with flames of youth in his eyes.

'Wait, already? He didn't even meet Guy yet,' thought Tekku as he saw that fire suddenly appear.

He did something similar for Tenten when she found out that she had low talent in chakra control and wasn't suitable to study medical ninjutsu. Instead of wasting time in overcoming her low talent with hard work that wouldn't pay off, he pointed her towards weapons and, more importantly, fuinjutsu to develop her own unique style instead of just copying Tsunade of the legendary Sannin.

- Shinobi - Shinobi - Shinobi - Shinobi - Shinobi - Shinobi -

In that manner, Tekku learned all three Academy jutsu while also further developing his chakra control. After mastering Tree Walking to a decent level, he did the same with Water Walking. But chakra control wasn't something you could finish practicing. You would need to train in it until your chakra reserves reached their natural limit, although it became easier with a more advanced understanding.

His goal was perfect chakra control. After mastering all three standard exercises required for Chunin, he began to combine and vary the different exercises since he didn't know the ones required for Jonin and higher. So he had to theorize his own.

Sometimes he would tree or water walk with leaves sticking to his body, sometimes he did it on his hands or tried to stick himself somewhere with other body parts. He also tried waterfall walking, which was very popular in fanfictions. The result: his chakra reserves were simply too low. He only managed to do it for a few seconds before he was overtaken by the strong current.

But with his hard work every day, his body, mentality, and his chakra reserves improved constantly. After figuring out how to enhance his strength and speed slightly with chakra, he even managed to fight Neji to a draw multiple times. His first victory against the arrogant Hyuga was just around the corner.

Once he expanded his standard Academy-style taijutsu with a more advanced style, he should be able to overcome the disparity in taijutsu skill between the two rivals. His skills in shurikenjutsu and trapping also further improved. Hunting for his food allowed him to develop further in these areas. He had no problems hitting unmoving targets and also had high accuracy on moving targets since they always moved in the same vectors. Hitting living targets that can move and run was around 50 percent accuracy right now, but it would improve further with every day.

Tekku managed to develop his own shurikenjutsu style right now. Inspired by Granny Chiyo from Sunagakure and the Uchiha style with ninja wire, he improved his own technique. After finally figuring out how to create chakra threads himself, he stuck them to his kunai and shuriken and began to manipulate their trajectories after throwing them. Still, he hadn't fully figured it out yet. Chiyo had far better control over her chakra strings, being able to precisely throw over 15 kunai at Sasori. But he was getting there. He already managed to manipulate 5 at the same time, which was much harder with kunai than with shuriken.

At least this technique was refining his chakra control and gave him a small edge over other shinobi. Since this wasn't a typical Konoha technique, he could use it to surprise his opponents.

After he helped Lee out that one time, he developed somewhat of a friendship with the bushy-browed boy. Lee had no problem helping Tekku with his training. They would spar in taijutsu against each other from time to time. But most importantly, Lee also helped him to train other aspects of his chakra strings, puppeteering to be precise. Lee assisted him in figuring out how to control others with the chakra strings during their secret training sessions.

He learned that the stronger the opponent fought against it, the more chakra he needed to use to keep control over his opponent. With his chakra reserves right now, it would be too ineffective to use his enemies as puppets as he would quickly run out of chakra. No, it was much more effective to create thin invisible threads so his opponents weren't aware of them, to secretly disrupt their movements during fights.

In his fights with Neji, he hadn't tried it yet since the Hyuga could see even the invisible threads with his Byakugan and could easily rip them off with enough strength. Using a lot of chakra in his threads made them almost impossible to rip off but consumed a lot of chakra and made them visible to the normal eye. While the thin invisible ones consumed much less chakra, they were more concentration-intensive and easy to remove with pure strength.

It would be only a one-time trump card against a Hyuga since once they were aware of them, they would watch out for them with their dojutsu. While normal opponents would only know if their movements were disrupted and they knew of the threads.

And that's how Tekku spent the first year of the Academy honing his skills and finishing the necessary knowledge for graduation. Technically, he could lay back now and wait until he was 12 to graduate since he already fulfilled all necessary requirements to become a genin after the normal education.

He was already at the level of the main characters from the first chapters after they graduated from the Academy. He could argue that he was beyond pre-Shippuden Sakura already, even after the Chunin exams. Tekku knew the same jutsus as her, had mastered the same chakra control exercises, even his own combined ones, was better in taijutsu, and had his chakra strings. So he should be able to beat Sakura before she trained under Tsunade right now.

While the other main characters had clan jutsus, early training, Sharingan, Kyuubi hacks, or a year of hard training under Mighty Guy during the Chunin exams, making them hard for him to beat now, he should be able to beat most of their fresh genin counterparts as they weren't that strong or hadn't worked hard. Maybe all besides Sasuke and Neji, probably also Naruto after learning Shadow Clones. An army was hard to overcome with just taijutsu and the Academy three.

But now he had the possibility for one year to hone more skills and complete the electives so he could graduate early. It would give him an even greater advantage over Naruto and the others. But he had to do it before Itachi massacred the Uchiha Clan, so around over one year from now when Sasuke was already a bit in the Academy.

The main cast would start their first year in the Academy under Iruka this year, and once they graduated and became genin, things around here would begin to become serious. Tekku had no time to waste in order to become a ninja and gather more funds so he could start many of his planned projects. If he wanted to survive the coming storms, be it Orochimaru, Akatsuki, Madara, Kaguya, or the Ootsutsuki, he would need any advantage he could get, and he would take advantage of all the knowledge he had in order to become superior.

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