As the sun sat at it's highest point in the sky, a heavy Thunk was heard across the forest, coming from an area where an unlikely resident made his temporary home.
'I'm getting better and better at this hunting thing! Only three tries on this one.' Kuroichi thought as he picked up his dinner for today. Eating well hasn't been a regular thing for him for the past 1 to 2 weeks but his aim as well as his whole process of hunting had seen improvements each and every day.
He wasn't some unprecedented genius who figured out the perfect throwing technique within a week, but he was certainly smart enough to figure out how to hold his hands and fingers as well as rotating his hip when throwing etc. to make his throws more efficient.
There were still a lot of aspects of his technique that could see improvements, but he didn't have an instructor who could correct him or anything of that sort so he made due with what he had. Namely, a little instruction from a scroll and his own common sense.
'Alright I already did my exercises this morning, today I will finally start tree walking!'
By this point in time Kuroichi had devoted hours upon hours of his time into the leaf concentration exercise, and his actions bore fruit. Holding the leaf did not take a great deal of concentration for Kuroichi anymore. It hadn't become something like second nature to hold the leaf yet, but he wouldn't have expected such results after such a short total amount of time of training.
The amount of time holding the leaf was pretty much indefinite at this point, the only reason he'd let it fall being something like accidentally getting distracted or momentarily losing concentration.
'Now I only need to get to the point of not even having to truly concentrate on the chakra that's holding the leaf ,and then I can say I've truly mastered the exercise.'
Kuroichi's thought process was simple, to make sure he'd truly become strong, and to maximize his results; he'd have to master everything available to him.. and then some.
Chakra control was one of the most important aspects. Kuroichi had so many ideas he wanted to try out, however his insufficient level of expertise in all sorts of different fields of expertise made that impossible for now.
As Kuroichi came back to his shelter, he first hung the animal he hunted in a special area letting the rest of it's blood run out, to then skin it after.
While Kuroichi was doing some 'chores', keeping everything neat and clean, he thought to himself 'Phew I stink. I really need to find a place to take a shower or a swim. I've only been cleaning myself with the water leaking from that one rock formation.'
As he made a mental note not to forget to go looking for perhaps a small lake or a waterfall, he left the immediate area of his shelter again to go a bit further away, so that he had enough space for what he would try next.
'Alright just like described in the scroll: put a foot on the bark of the tree, as if walking upwards, while releasing an amount of chakra that's enough to let me stick to the tree but not so much chakra that it repels me and pushes me off instead.'
Slowly, making sure to figure out the right quantity of chakra to channel, Kuroichi placed his foot on the bark and channeled his chakra to the soles of his feet. Still standing on the ground with one foot, he noticed that at a certain point his chakra had gained the same quality it took on when holding the leaf to his forehead. He felt that feeling of secured and controlled stickiness.
Being a bit cautious, he halted the chakra flow, lifted his foot of the tree once and then put it back, wanting to retry it to get a feeling for the lowest amount of chakra needed to stick on the bark.
As he felt his one foot sticking to the bark of the tree, he took a deep breath and lifted the other leg off the earth too, moving as if taking steps up the tree, and put one of his feet in front of the other.
Not only did he feel an immediate strain on his whole body, his core region in particular, he also could not channel the same amount of chakra to his other foot making him fall off the tree and unto his bum immediately.
'Ahh well that could have hurt a lot more if I fell from a higher height..' Kuroichi sat in thought as he replayed the exact moment where he channeled his chakra wrongly, making sure to commit it to memory. 'I also didn't think about the fact that my whole body needs enough strength to support myself standing horizontally on a tree..'
As this was only Kuroichi's first try, he got back to work straight away. Figuring out the right ratio of when chakra lets him stick to and walk on the tree, instead of blasting him away from it, was a serious balancing act. He felt that this would come more intuitively in the future as he got used to it.
For today, Kuroichi thought, he would mainly concentrate on the chakra control aspect of this exercise, the following days he'd still have enough time to actually start trying to walk up the tree more instead of just holding his feet onto it.
Walking horizontally would work out the muscles needed in the first place, maybe in a few weeks to a few months walking on trees wouldn't at all be a problem for Kuroichi anymore.
Kuroichi's practice continued for this like hours. As the sun was beginning to set and the sky began to turn a deep dark orange, he made his way back to his shelter, getting ready to cook up his dinner.
'I made good progress today. The leaf concentration exercise already came easily enough to me before, and though tree walking will take longer, it went better than expected. I thought I'd be constantly falling on my butt like Konoha's Team 7.'
As he sat there looking at the fire, his eyes already half closed, they shortly glinted in anticipation of what was to come.
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