Fujin wasn't surprised by that news. He had already gathered enough information about the academy in the previous year. For normal students, the Ninjutsu training began in their 3rd year. However for the elite batches, it began in their 2nd year. Having already learnt the 3 basic jutsus, he wasn't much interested in the news. Though he did have a concern, he thought, 'I'll have to hide the fact that I can use these jutsus. I'll need to learn how to fail at these jutsus. And have to do it in a manner that doesn't give me any bad habits. I suppose I could just make hand signs without molding my chakra, or maybe mold chakra for a few of the hand signs without molding it for 1. I'll have to test that first. When around 7-8 are able to perform the jutsu, I'll show that I have just managed to do them too.'
In the first week, Genki just revised what they had learnt in the previous year and tested all the students. However, seeing the progress of some of the students had left Fujin speechless. Genki too was surprised, but it was a joyous surprise for him.
In the leaf concentration exercise, Hana, Teru and Nobu, all were able to hold the leaf for more than half an hour! While Yori and Hoka exceeded 25 mins. Fujin had dropped his leaf after 36 minutes, in order to not attract any suspicion. His thoughts were, 'Damn! If they keep up this competitive nature, they may well reach beyond 1 hour by the end of this year! While it's reasonable to expect me to keep up, I should instead show that I've slacked off and not made much progress. While Genki might get a bit suspicious, if he ever asks me, I'll just say I felt bad for them and am letting them win.'
Genki was very impressed too. He thought, 'Four kids were able to stick the leaf for over half an hour, another two should be able to reach that in another couple of months. This batch is good. I guess that Fujin brat spurred them all on. They might actually be able to do tree climbing and even water walking before they graduate. Oh this is so nice, I could get a huge bonus from the Hokage.'
The shuriken competition didn't give much insights on their growth, as many were already doing very well in the previous year. The Taijutsu tournament however, didn't show that much improvement for everyone. Among the ones at the top, only Yori and Nobu made significant progress. Fujin guessed that it was only because of his performance in the Leaf concentration exam that made everyone focus a lot on it. However, the Inuzukas were performing much better than last year and were very aggressive too. Due to the poor scores of all 3 Inuzukas in the exams, they were given some 'special' training by their clan in order to not embarrass the clan any further.
In one of the spars, one Inuzuka kid screamed, "I'll defeat you no matter what! There's no way I will go through that training in my clan ever again." Hearing that, the other two Inuzuka students winced. Fujin, getting a hint of what would have happened thought, 'This world is in a severe need of laws punishing child abuse!' Sadly for that Inuzuka student, he still got mercilessly beaten into the ground by Nobu, which made everyone feel pity for the poor kid.
The Taijutsu tournament, however, did provide Fujin with the opportunity to finally test his progress. And he was very pleased with the results. After deactivating the seals, his body moved a lot faster. And his blows carried more weight. He tied against Teru in their match.
After the first week was done, Fujin entered the library and went into section D. He thought, 'I've probably tried the substitution jutsu over a thousand times. I'm still not able to reduce the hand signs needed for it. Honestly, jutsu is almost completely useless against ninjas if you have to make those hand signs. Even a random genin would be able to identify the jutsu and be on alert. Though I guess it might still work on normal bandits. Anyways, I guess I'll need a few years to be able to reduce the number of hand signs needed. So let's just move on to a new jutsu.'
He quickly started searching for the jutsu he wanted to learn. He was quite excited to learn it as it was one of his favourites. On finding it, he read out softly, "The Body Flicker jutsu"
He found a place to sit, and read the scroll. After reading and analysing it, he concluded, 'Hmm, this jutsu can be called both easy and complicated at the same time. It's easy as there is only one hand sign required. The Tiger seal. So the way of molding chakra is very simple. And it's complicated as actually performing this technique is quite difficult. I would have to focus a lot of chakra in my legs to be able to move at such high speeds. According to the scroll, initially I'll only be able to flicker a few metres away. Only when I'm able to flicker a 100 metres away would I be considered to have learnt this jutsu. It is also mentioned to use something like smoke or leaves just before using this jutsu so that the enemy doesn't understand the direction in which you flicker to. Also, it is very important to ensure not to run into someone or something while using this jutsu. I suppose me being a sensor might help a bit in this regard.
However, there's no such thing as the maximum distance one can flicker away. Instead it is the amount of time you can sustain this jutsu. I thought that I'll need to learn to be able to flicker many times consecutively if I want the help of this jutsu to be able to escape. However instead it is the amount of time you can maintain this jutsu. So if I'm able to flicker 100 metre away in a second and am able to sustain this jutsu for 10 seconds, I'll be able to run a kilometre away. But this is good I suppose. It's more convenient then having to flicker again and again.'
After learning the whole process from the scroll, Fujin left the library. He transformed into a random 13 year old stranger in an empty alleyway. And then ran into a nearby mini-forest. He then ran around in that mini-forest while trying to sense if any chakra is present around him. After that he thought, 'Alright, this forest is clear. Also I'm under a disguise. So I can start training. While a forest isn't the best place to train body flicker, but, since the amount of distance I can flicker initially will be low, there shouldn't be an issue. Though I'll need to train in open spaces once I start to flicker long distances away.' And he started training for this jutsu.
The months went on in a peaceful manner for Fujin. His physique kept improving due to the seal. He used to increase the pressure of the seal by 0.1% from time to time.
In the academy, Genki started ninjutsu with the transformation technique. Fujin had experimented and found it easy to fake hand signs without molding his chakra. However he felt that it was wasteful…. So he tried another trick. He started faking the first hand sign, but while changing the hand sign to the second seal, he used to try to mold the chakra for the first seal without the aid of the first hand sign. In this manner, he practiced to do those jutsus with one hand sign less.
As expected, Teru and Yori were the most talented in Ninjutsu. They competed for the top 2 spots. Nobu, no matter how hard he tried, only ranked 3rd. Hoka, Hana and the Aburame kid competed for ranks 4-6. Fujin ranked himself 10th in transformation jutsu, 7th in clone jutsu and 8th in substitution jutsu.
It took him a month to be able to do the body flicker jutsu despite learning the way to mold chakra within just 3 days. Even then, he was only able to flicker for a few metres. Over the next month, instead of trying to increase the range, he instead worked on increasing the speed of performing the jutsu, and also managed to pull it off without using any hand signs. In a single month, he probably practiced that jutsu thousands of times to be able to do that. Next he worked on increasing the range of the jutsu. It took him 4 and half months in all to reach 100 metres with body flicker. He then started focusing on sustaining the body flicker for a longer period.
Sometime around this time, the incident of Kumo trying to kidnap Hinata and the death of Hizashi happened. Both Hoka and Hana were very solemn the next day.
In order to properly measure his progress, he bought a stopwatch. After 6 months, he was able to flicker 400 metres away in less than 4 seconds. After that he thought, 'My original plan was to start with elemental jutsu by now, but body flicker does have more applications I want to explore. Sigh, let's stick to it. Mastering body flicker to a high degree will be extremely essential later on.'
He continued with his body flicker training. By the time the exams for 2nd year were up, Fujin had managed to sustain his body flicker for 12.76 seconds and managed to cover 1.9km. He could also change the direction mid-way, though he couldn't do it very frequently, and could also perform flicker while in a forest and having to avoid running into a tree. He was extremely pleased with his progress.
Over at the academy, he had managed to reduce the hand signs required for transformation and clone jutsus by 1 and for substitution jutsu, he was close to reducing it by 2.
His chakra field had increased a lot during this year. It's radius had increased to 180 metres. Without the hand sign it reached 162 metres and while running at normal speed, it could reach 135 metres.
His chakra reserves too had grown exponentially. Physical training and meditation itself were a huge boost. On top of it, he had practiced Body flicker till he dropped on a daily basis. He had performed body flicker for tens of thousands of times over the past 9 months. His reserves now exceeded Teru's. On comparing it with the senior most batch, he noticed that his reserves would be well above average in that class, probably entering top 10. Only 2 students, probably from the Senju clan, exceed him considerably. Even then, he was sure that in another year, he would surpass their current chakra level. He thought, 'I guess it's time to ask Hiruzen for the shadow clone jutsu.'
[A/N : I would like to clarify the shadow clone jutsu a bit. Shadow clone jutsu isn't a forbidden jutsu, it's merely a B rank jutsu which Jounins can learn easily. In Naruto, it was shown that a Genin Konohamaru was able to perform Shadow clones and use Rasengan on one of the Pains. Even Kiba, while being a chuunin, was able to perform a shadow clone. The jutsu in the forbidden scroll of sealing was the Multi Shadow clone jutsu. This is the one which Naruto spams and Kakashi had used to scare/bluff away Gato's thugs.
So I'll follow this pattern - someone with Genin level chakra can create 1-2 shadow clones, with chuunin level chakra can create 3-5 shadow clones and with a jounin level chakra can create more than 5 shadow clones.]
The increase in his chakra level could be seen, when he was finally able to burst the rubber ball, finally making progress in the stage 2 of Rasengan training. However, he was only barely able to burst it. He still needed more chakra to be able to actually perform Rasengan.
His skill at throwing shurikens had increased too. He was now able to hit the board while running around and was also able to hit a moving board. In order to allow students to practice that, a board used to be suspended from a tree branch and moved. It worked like a pendulum. However he still struggled to hit a moving board while he was running himself. Fujin decided that after he managed to do that, he'll start practicing to hit his clones with shuriken as that would replicate battle scenarios even better.
Something that Fujin gained while practicing in the many mini-forests in Konoha was shurikens and kunais lying around. He had found 23 shuriken and 11 kunai. However 7 shuriken and 4 kunai were very badly damaged, leaving him with 16 shuriken and 7 kunai. He handled them with extreme care, not touching any directly, in case they were coated with poison. He thought, 'Well this is convenient. Though these are used weapons, they are still very usable. However I need to wash them properly in order to remove any scents of previous users and in case there's any poison applied on them. Still, I've been in these forests for so long and only found so few of these. I guess everyone collects them back after using them as they aren't cheap. Maybe others like me too roam around trying to find them.' He sighed, 'Whatever, these many should be enough for me to practice.'
And soon, it was time for the 2nd year exams.
