Hopefully, I still have some time to train before I face him.
Hikaru thought to himself as he made his way back to the classroom to collect his backpack before leaving the Academy. With his current abilities, he couldn't fight Inuzuka Seiji just yet. He could afford to lose in a fight, but not at the hands of a bullying kid who had hurt his friend.
At least he had to get stronger first. This was, after all, only Academy sparring, not a life-and-death match. There was no need to hold a grudge against a child forever, but he wanted to be able to stand up for himself and his friends.
Hikaru found Konoha village unusually crowded today after walking out of the Academy. As he strolled through the town center, he saw a large number of people walking in the streets, probably doing their evening shopping.
While Hikaru was walking slowly toward his home, enjoying the liveliness around the village, a voice called out behind him. "Hikaru-san, wait for me!"
When he turned around and saw that it was Kajiwara Ryōta, he stopped and waited for him to catch up.
Once Ryōta came close, Hikaru asked curiously, "What's up, Ryōta-kun?"
Ryōta was panting as he stopped, and he looked at Hikaru with hopeful eyes. "You said earlier that we could spar with each other. Did you really mean it?"
"Of course I meant it," Hikaru confirmed with a smile. "We should get together sometime to train. It would be fun."
"I'm up for anything," Ryōta said excitedly. "As long as you let me train with you."
Hikaru felt somewhat embarrassed and rubbed his head, thinking Ryōta wasn't as timid as he had appeared in class. "Why wouldn't I? Training by myself has been boring lately."
Looking at Ryōta's beaming face, Hikaru couldn't help but add, "How about eating something first before training together?"
"Sure! But meals are expensive these days. How about a food street snack that's become popular recently?" Ryōta agreed and suggested food that he liked.
"Which one?" Hikaru asked, scratching his cheek and wondering which street food he was talking about.
"The meat skewers from one of the food stalls in the market," Ryōta said, swallowing his saliva. "They're really tasty and cheap."
"Oh!" Hikaru exclaimed, immediately recognizing the food he was referring to. It was his sister's food stall, which sold the specialty yakitori snacks he had suggested.
"Let's try it then," Hikaru said with a smile, changing direction and starting to walk toward the market area.
Ryōta hurriedly followed him and said, "You won't regret it—it's that good!"
The food market was lively, with many stalls offering different kinds of food. The atmosphere was cheerful, as many people had gathered to enjoy dinner or buy ingredients for their families.
One food stall caught their attention when they arrived at the market. There were many civilians and even some ninja waiting in line to buy food and snacks.
Muranaka Ayako, busy with her work, caught sight of her little brother. She quickly called out loudly, "Hikaru-kun, come and help me!"
"Coming, Onee-chan!" Hikaru replied casually, raising one hand and waving to acknowledge his sister's request.
Ryōta was dumbfounded and his mouth fell open after hearing the conversation. He realized that the girl who made the street snack food he enjoyed was related to Hikaru.
On their way to the stall, Ryōta had been praising the street snack food he liked, only to discover that it was Hikaru's family business.
"Why didn't you tell me earlier?" Ryōta asked with a pained expression.
Hikaru found his reaction amusing and replied, "Well, you never asked."
He then immediately walked toward the stall and started helping his sister with customers.
Twenty minutes later, when Hikaru noticed that it was almost Ryōta's turn in line, he turned to his sister and asked, "Onee-chan, can I have ten yakitori sticks? I'm hungry."
Ayako looked at her brother with a smile and said, "That'll cost two thousand ryo."
Hikaru was stunned by the price and asked, "Why are they so expensive?"
"The cost doubles just for you," Ayako said with a smirk, teasing him. "For others, it only costs half as much."
"HAHAHA..."
Ryōta burst out laughing when he heard Ayako tease Hikaru. He thought Hikaru deserved this as payback for not telling him earlier.
Hikaru looked at his sister with a blank expression before introducing her to Ryōta briefly. He then took the yakitori sticks and turned toward Ryōta, gesturing with his head. "Pay for yours first—it'll only cost us a thousand ryo total, and then we'll split them."
Ryōta quickly agreed, grabbed his money, and made the payment with a happy expression.
Ayako gave Ryōta a warm smile as she accepted the money, then looked at Hikaru and said, "Smart boy."
Turning her attention to Ryōta, Ayako asked, "Are you a friend from the same class as Hikaru-kun?"
"Yeah," Ryōta replied shyly, rubbing his head.
"Since you're his friend, here's another set of yakitori sticks for you, free of charge." Ayako handed him another five sticks with a smile.
Hikaru simply rolled his eyes at her behavior.
Ryōta's eyes lit up like the sun, and he said gratefully, "Thank you, Ayako-san!"
Ayako only nodded with a smile before turning toward Hikaru and reminding him, "Don't come home late, Hikaru-kun."
"Alright, we're leaving." Hikaru split the yakitori sticks with Ryōta, waved goodbye to his sister, and walked away toward the training ground.
It was the same one that Hikaru used every day—Training Ground Forty-three, near his house.
After finishing their food and resting for a while to let it digest, Hikaru could feel his nose getting runny as he sniffed. The weather was getting colder as he sat near a tree. He calculated how much time they had for an evening training session.
A few moments later, Hikaru suggested doing some running exercises before starting taijutsu sparring.
As they talked while exercising, Hikaru got to know Ryōta's character better and came to think of him as a real friend. He was shy in some ways, but very determined.
Despite losing his parents, Ryōta didn't live in an orphanage like Hikaru had thought. Instead, he lived with his grandparents on the outskirts of the village, not far from Hikaru's home.
Ryōta had high expectations from his family to carry on their legacy, so he was looking for friends or someone to help him improve.
Hikaru was willing to help him, seeing it as beneficial for both of them. He had grown tired of doing physical training and combat practice alone. He already had a study group with Yuki and Kenta for theory and basic lessons, but practical training like taijutsu and physical exercises were different—you needed someone to spar with to really improve.
Having someone to train combat skills with would help a lot.
After an hour of running around the training ground, both took a break before deciding to spar with each other.
The Academy had taught them both the standard Academy taijutsu style. Hikaru performed better than Ryōta in sparring because of his speed and reflexes. Ryōta's only advantage was his strength due to his bigger body, but the main purpose of sparring was to learn from each other and avoid making mistakes.
While sparring together, Hikaru got a better understanding of Academy taijutsu, and his movements started to become a little more fluid. After half an hour, Hikaru decided to stop because he could see that Ryōta was too tired to continue.
After they finished sparring, Hikaru shared his thoughts. "You're lacking in chakra control, Ryōta-kun."
Looking at Ryōta's puzzled expression, he added, "You're not using chakra efficiently in your body, which makes you slower when moving."
After thinking for a few moments, Hikaru asked, "Have you practiced the leaf concentration training that Koji-sensei taught us?"
"Not as much," Ryōta said, shaking his head.
"Then I suggest you focus on that from now on," Hikaru said, taking a seat nearby to rest and emphasizing its importance. "Although it's a basic exercise, it's the foundation for all shinobi skills. It helps with taijutsu, ninjutsu, genjutsu, and everything else. You shouldn't overlook it."
After hearing Hikaru's suggestion, Ryōta took it to heart, thinking he would make this training a priority in his schedule.
"Thanks, Hikaru-san, for helping me," Ryōta expressed his gratitude sincerely.
"No problem. I'm only repeating what Koji-sensei taught us," Hikaru replied, turning his head toward Ryōta. "It's getting late. How about we do this again next time?"
"Yeah, of course!" Ryōta smiled widely.
"Oh, and Ryōta-kun," Hikaru added, remembering something. "I have a study group with two other classmates—Yuki and Kenta. We meet once a week in the library to help each other with theory and basic lessons. Would you like to join us sometime?"
Ryōta's eyes lit up. "Really? You'd let me join?"
"Of course," Hikaru said with a smile. "We help each other with things like chakra theory, history, and other subjects. It might be useful for you."
"I'd like that a lot," Ryōta said gratefully. "Thank you, Hikaru-san."
"You can go back first. I'm going to rest a bit more since my house is just nearby," Hikaru said, pointing in the direction of his home.
Ryōta nodded and said, "Alright, see you tomorrow morning, Hikaru-san."
After waving goodbye and watching Ryōta walk away, Hikaru began thinking about his taijutsu performance today and what he had learned in the last half hour. He considered what weaknesses he could improve on before deciding to head home as well.
When he got home, he saw that his sister hadn't returned yet from her stall. Hikaru took a shower and took care of his other needs. After finishing everything, he sat at his room's desk and looked through various notes and plans about Fūinjutsu (sealing techniques) that he needed to learn.
Hikaru had completed the introduction to kanji and was now looking for resources for the next lesson, following his mother's advice.
Learning kanji hadn't been difficult, since it was almost the same as in his previous life. Reading through the book was just a process of reviewing the basics and checking to see if there were any differences.
Writing kanji was easy, but the art of calligraphy was no joke at all. He had never been good at writing with a brush, and he had to use one to write kanji for sealing techniques.
Kanji was different from hiragana and katakana—the characters looked very similar to Chinese characters.
Writing required complete focus to avoid mistakes, especially on seal paper. Each stroke had to be precise with the right amount of chakra input to prevent waste or a faulty seal.
Hikaru was a complete beginner on this subject, and he could only start little by little.
His mother's advice on learning sealing techniques was very thoughtful. She hadn't immediately given him a sealing technique scroll. Instead, she had guided him step-by-step through the process, which he had turned into a well-planned learning path.
She had recommended many books to strengthen his foundation, helping him understand the meaning of each stroke, the structure of seals, how to apply chakra to them, how they worked, and their various uses.
This way, he wouldn't just learn sealing techniques—he might even be able to develop new ones. Or he could learn to understand enemy sealing techniques and figure out how to counter them.
The most important thing was that sealing techniques required a lot of talent to understand how complex each technique was and how to use them, as well as the precise chakra output needed to perform them properly—something his mother had struggled with.
Because of this, she was only considered a competent fūinjutsu user during her career, but she was far from becoming a master.
There was one seal that Hikaru wanted to try creating first: a weight-training seal to help with physical exercise. It was similar to the weighted clothing that Might Guy and Rock Lee used for training.
Hikaru had an idea to make the weight adjustable using sealing techniques.
Although he didn't need the seal right now, he set it as his first goal after looking around the village shops and finding that no one was selling them.
Hikaru spent the entire evening studying until his eyes became sleepy. Feeling tired from the day's events, he turned off the lamp on the table and decided to call it a day.
Tomorrow I'll train with Ryōta-kun again, he thought as he got ready for bed. Having a training partner is already making things more interesting.
As he lay down, Hikaru reflected on how much his life had changed since starting at the Academy. He had friends now, people who cared about helping each other improve. It felt good to have that kind of support.
Maybe I should ask him about his goals sometime, Hikaru wondered. Everyone seems to have big dreams about becoming strong or famous. I wonder what his are.
With that thought, Hikaru drifted off to sleep, already looking forward to tomorrow's training session with his new friend.