A year passed since Asahi, Konan, Yahiko, Nagato, and Kyoko met Jiraiya. During that year, they trained relentlessly in clone, transformation, substitution, body flicker, cloak of invisibility, and rope escape jutsus. Chakra control exercises became extreme thanks to Asahi; because of that, they can run on water with leaves attached to their bodies from head to toe while dodging weapons that were thrown at them or deflecting them with their own weapons that are attached to chakra threads.
Not only the basic ninjutsu training, due to the nagging of Asahi, they all had physical training every morning and evening, six days a week, with the final day taken as the rest day.
From the fourth month onward, Jiraiya started to teach them the basic taijutsu and had them sparring against each other. In taijutsu training, Asahi stood out as he beat every single one of them without any remorse. Thanks to the memories of his first life, he was able to point out the mistakes done by the others during the sparring section, along with Jiraiya. And hearing Asahi's pointers and seeing the improvement in the taijutsu of others, Jiraiya told his four students that Asahi would be his assistant in taijutsu training, and if they had any doubts but couldn't find him, they should ask Asahi about their doubts.
It wasn't just shinobi training they had from Jiraiya. They also had calligraphy training, moral training, haggling, cooking, hunting, fishing, and many more that could help them in their day-to-day life. He also taught them the three shinobi prohibitions, which Jiraiya himself sometimes disobeyed, but he still taught them.
When the sun's rays fell on his eyes from the window, Asahi woke up from his sleep and stretched. On his way to the bathroom, he kicked the legs of Nagato and Yahiko while shouting, "Rise and shine, people! Rise and shine!"
"Shut up!" Yahiko mumbled in his sleep.
"Five more minutes." Nagato said weakly.
Not minding those two, Asahi knocked on the door of Konan and Kyoko's room, waking them up within the second knock. After his morning routine, Asahi went straight to the kitchen to make breakfast. Bustling around in the kitchen of their small house, Asahi made breakfast for six: boiled eggs, veggies, venison steak, a bowl of rice, and a plate of raw meat for Ichika, who had grown to the size of a large dog.
By the time Asahi set the plates on the table and sat down, the others had finished their morning routine; even Jiraya came. They then started to eat their breakfast while having small talk at the table. Yahiko was silent but fidgeting, and seeing that, Jiraiya asked him, "What is it, Yahiko?"
"Sensei, you haven't taught us any ninjutsu other than the Clone, Transformation, Substitution, and Body Flicker. When are you going to teach us?" Yahiko asked with a hopeful face.
Smiling at his young student, Jiraiya said, "Ah, those are the basics, and I wanted you guys to master the basics before moving on to elemental ninjutsu. Right now, you have mastered basic ninjutsu and basic taijutsu; it's time for you guys to delve into genjutsu and bukijutsu."
"Aghhhh." Yahiko let out a strained growl; he didn't want to displease Jiraiya.
Jiraiya shook his head at Yahiko and told the rest, "Genjutsu is one of the main jutsu categories that uses chakra. Unlike ninjutsu, the effects of genjutsu are not real, being only sensory illusions experienced by those who fall victim to it.
A ninja's use of weaponry in combat is known as "bukijutsu." All ninjas use a weapon at some point in their careers, but not all do so regularly. Weapons can be just as useful on the battlefield as any other jutsu in a ninja's arsenal, either due to the weapon's design, its special abilities, or the unique way in which a ninja combines it with his or her other skills; ninjas frequently coat their weapons with their chakra to alter the weapon's properties, a process called chakra flow.
In bukijutsu, I'll be training you in shuriken, kunai, and steel wires. Swords, staffs, knives, etc., won't be taught by me, as I don't know them myself, so if you want to study them, then you will have to do self-study."
"What about fuinjutsu, sensei?" Asahi asked, 'I'm not going to forget about our deal.'
"Yes, fuinjutsu." Jiraiya nodded, and looking at the rest, he said, "Fūinjutsu are a type of jutsu that seal objects, living beings, chakra, along with a wide variety of other things within another object. Fūinjutsu can also be used to restrict movement or unseal objects either from within something or someone. If one has enough understanding and some talent for it, they will excel in fuinjutsu. It will take years to reach mastery, so who else besides Asahi wants to learn it?"
Only Konan and Kyoko raised their hands to learn fuinjutsu; Nagato was going to raise his too, but seeing that Yahiko wasn't, he didn't. Seeing this, Asahi thought, 'If Nagato learned fuinjutsu in the original, how powerful would he have become?'
Nodding his head, Jiraiya said, "Alright. From today onwards, you three will have fuinjutsu training at night, genjutsu training in the morning, and bukijutsu in the afternoon. The rest of the time is free time. You can do whatever you want in that time."
Clapping his hands, he continued, "We will start our genjutsu training at nine; be ready."
Like that, their second year of training began in full swing. Jiraiya taught them simple genjutsu that can disrupt the senses of their enemies and the method to get out of a genjutsu. True to his words, Jiraiya only taught them kunai throwing, shuriken throwing, senbon throwing, and steel wire usage. In fuinjutsu, he taught them the basics, and because of their training in calligraphy, the three students got the basics down within seven months. When they finished the basics, Jiraiya had instructed them how to make storage seals and explosion tags.
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On the day of their rest day, Yahiko walked up to Jiraiya and asked, "Sensei, can we go and play in the river?"
With a shrug, Jiraiya told Yahiko "You can do whatever you want to do. Rest day doesn't mean sleeping around; it's the time for you to do what you like. If you want to go for a swim, then go ahead."
"You're the best!!!" Yahiko jumped in excitement and went out of the house, followed by Nagato, Kyoko, and Konan.
Looking at Asahi, who was sitting there observing the storage seal that Jiraya had made and his own creation, Jiraya asked, "Aren't you going out with them?"
Shaking his head, but not taking his eyes off of the seals, Asahi said, "Not now. When I finish this, I'll join them."
Snorting, Jiraiya asked, "I have told you that I could help you with that if you want to finish it faster, but you're stubborn as a mule."
"Failure is the mother of success. If I fail and identify what I did wrong, then I can correct it next time, and when it reaches the point where there are no mistakes, then I have achieved my goal." Asahi said as he started to write the sealing inscription on a new paper.
Jiraiya nodded his head in understanding and asked, "Well, getting help doesn't mean that you are not achieving your goal."
"True, and I will ask for your help when the time comes. But not now." Asahi said he wrote the final inscription and channeled chakra into it after placing a dozen senbons on top of the paper. With a puff of smoke, the dozen senbons disappeared into the sealing paper.
A few moments later, he channeled chakra into it and said, "Kai!"
With a puff of smoke, a single senbon appeared on top of the sealing paper. He repeated it for some more time and nodded his head. 'I have finally mastered storage sealing. The inscriptions that I use have the ability to alter the storage space created by the storage sealing method. If my ideas work out, I can create the time chamber from Dragon Ball with Fuinjutsu. But for that, I'll have to study more on Jutsu Shiki that was used by Tobirama and Minato for their Flying Thunder God Jutsu in the original. Since I know what I want to do, and I have the basic understanding of jutsu shiki, the time chamber is possible.'
Jiraiya, who was watching Asahi as he practiced the storage sealing, clapped his hands and said, "You're the first one to properly create a storage seal. Practice diligently until you can make those seals without ink and brush."
"Hai, sensei." Saying that he started to clean up the table, while doing that, he asked Jiraya "Sensei."
"Yeah?" Jiraiya asked as he was preparing to take the whole table for himself after Asahi had cleared it.
"Is there a jutsu to increase and decrease the weight of things?" Asahi asked as he finished clearing the table and set aside his things in the corner.
Rubbing his chin, Jiraiya said, "The only jutsu I know is the one used by the Third Tsuchikage." Looking curiously at Asahi, he asked, "Why do you want to increase your weight?"
"For physical training." Asahi said without a pause.
"There are weights for that. You can get up to 5 tons if you can inscribe seals on it. Why don't you try that?" Jiraiya asked, confused.
"I don't want that; it's a bother to have it in my body. If I use it, then I'll have to remove it after physical training, and I'm sure that my enemies will not give me the chance to remove it too." Asahi shrugged.
"Make sense, I think." Shrugging, Jiraiya placed his writing equipment on the table.
Nodding his head and thanking Jiraiya, Asahi went outside to play with his fellow students. As soon as he reached the riverside where they were playing, Konan bounced towards him with a sweet smile. Without another word, she dragged him into the river to play tag on water, which was a chakra training method that Jiraiya and Asahi came up with to entertain the rest.
Asahi didn't resist and became the one who cannot be tagged within minutes. They had some laughs at the expense of Yahiko, as he fell into the river when he was hugged by Kyoko as she tagged him. Nagato, on the other hand, watched them with a content smile and forgot about survival, war, death, hunger, and everything that had plagued him since the death of his parents.
After two hours of playing on the river, they went back inside to have their lunch. As usual, Jiraiya and Asahi commandeered the kitchen, and the other four helped around. Finishing their lunch, Asahi went to the forest for personal training, followed by Konan. Yahiko had a thought at that moment: 'What if they're doing lewd things instead of training? Like hand-holding, hugging, or kissing on the cheek? Is that why Konan always follows Asahi into the forest, to be away from our prying eyes? Aghhhh!! I'm envious!' Then an idea struck him: 'Wait! I can do the same with Kyoko, but Nagato will feel lonely if we all go. Arggg! Forget it, it's better to stay inside and rest as much as I can. Asahi is a slave driver when it comes to physical training'.
With the decision made, Yahiko went to his bed to take an afternoon nap. Jiraiya also left the house for research, and Nagato, being the one who knew his first two friends, made himself scarce by training in chakra control. Seeing this, Kyoko smiled a bit and nodded to Nagato in appreciation and went inside the boy's room. As silently as she could, she lay down next to Yahiko while taking hold of his right hand. And for the next two hours, they slept like that without moving an inch from their position.
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Inside the forest, Konan was sitting cross-legged with her eyes closed, and behind her was Asahi, who was also sitting cross-legged with his eyes closed and his hands placed on Konan's back. Their breathing became steady, and slowly, their breathing became synchronized. A few moments later, Asahi opened his eyes, and removing his hands from her back, he stood up and sat down facing her to observe her.
A few seconds later, a small paper flower bloomed in Konan's hand, and seeing that, he smiled while thinking, 'I had always thought her paper jutsu was some kind of secret jutsu, but from what I know about her in this life, I know that things are different. During our training, I haven't seen her creating or using paper jutsu, so paper jutsu being a secret jutsu is out of the question. Then that leaves the chakra nature combination. So I just thought of a method to create paper in my second life. Wood chips are boiled and then ground into a slurry, and the slurry to make paper.'
He paused his thinking as he saw Konan opening her eyes and looking down at the paper flower she had created. A small smile bloomed on her face, and she suddenly lunged towards Asahi and hugged him. Asahi didn't resist it either; he embraced her too. A few moments later, Konan released him from her embrace with a shy smile and sat back on the ground.
Looking at Konan, he said, "You got the hang of it, right?"
"Yeah. I feel like I can use Paper Release without any hand seals, like you do with your earth release." Konan nodded her head while looking back at Asahi with a smile. 'Now, I can do jutsus like Asahi and help him.'
"Good. You understand what we have done, right?" Asahi asked her with a smile.
"Yes, we created something called Kekkei Tota." Konan said with a slight tilt of her head and continued, "By combining the chakra natures of earth and water, I created the wood chakra, and using the wind chakra, I shredded it into small pieces. Then I soaked it in water chakra, making it into a slurry chakra, and then I used my yang chakra to shape the slurry chakra into that of a paper."
"Right." Asahi said with a wry smile and thought, 'Did she have to add chakra to the end of slurry? I just told her the basic way of creating paper, and she added her own explanation for it.'
"I have a question, Asahi." Konan asked, and when he nodded at her, she continued, "Why couldn't I use wood release like the first Hokage, even though I created wood chakra?"
Tilting his head upwards, he pondered how to answer that. As he was thinking about how to answer her question, Konan started to make origami using her newly created paper release. A few seconds passed by, and looking back at Konan, he said, "I think everyone who has the chakra nature of earth and water has the ability to create wood chakra. But only Hashirama could use the wood release; that points to one thing. Bloodline. One of his ancestors might have had the wood release, and it was awakened in him after a thousand years or so. Now, why the other Senjus don't have wood release, we can just chalk it up to them not having Hashirama's talent."
"I see." Konan said after hearing his long-winded explanation, with a bright smile she continued, "It's alright. I have paper release now; it's better than his wood release, right??!!"
With a wry smile, Asahi shook his head and said, "I won't say that; it's better than his wood release." Konan's smile dropped at that, but Asahi went on with his explanation. "You see, Hashirama could subdue tailed beasts with his wood release. In front of his wood release, the tailed beasts were nothing but a puppy in infront of an adult human. They couldn't resist him, and that is why he is hailed as the God of Shinobi."
Konan pouted and hugged her legs, her knees touching her chest. She said, "Just say that I'm useless."
Reaching forward and ruffling her hair, which caused her pout to melt, he told her, "You are not useless. But, if you try to add more yang chakra into your paper release, there might be a slight possibility for you to subdue a tailed beast."
"Really??" Her expression brightened at that, but it was dashed when a thought passed through her mind. "But I can't fully control the yang chakra; making the shape of the paper itself is hard."
"Yeah." He didn't elaborate, but he decided to look for a way to control yang chakra. 'The Akimichi clan is best known for their yang release jutsus. If I observe some, then I might be able to share my insights with Konan and help her control her yang chakra. After all, since I got those special abilities, I was able to control all three innate chakra natures of mine.'
Clapping his hands, he told Konan, "Alright, let's create some paper release jutsus that you could use in combat."
"Yes!" Konan got excited at the prospect of creating new jutsus, forgetting about her earlier conversation easily.
Days passed, Konan and Asahi went to the forest to train in her paper release at nighttime, and trained with the rest during the daytime under the watchful gaze of Jiraiya. With the imagination and memories of a man from Earth, where comics, manga, anime, and movies run rampant in superhero creation, Konan created dozens of jutsus, but she only mastered three jutsus. Paper clone jutsu, paper shuriken jutsu, paper wings jutsu.
On the final day of the year, since Jiraiya started training them, Jiraiya had told them, "You guys have understood and mastered the basics of ninjutsu, taijutsu, genjutsu, bukijutsu, and fuinjutsu. So, in a week, I'll be training you guys in nature transformation and elemental ninjutsu. We will start from common D-Rank jutsu, and I'll teach you one B-Rank jutsu for each of you. But don't slack off in your basics."
"Yes, sensei!" They agreed readily, and Yahiko was so excited about the prospect of learning nature transformation and elemental ninjutsu that he was restless throughout the days that followed.