Chapter 8
Yahiko would be lying if he said he wasn't excited to learn from Jiraiya. He didn't know if it was his luck turning around or fate, but neither did he care.
As long as he could learn and get stronger to protect Nagato and Konan when the time came, he was more than happy to accept whatever it was.
"I can only spare a couple of days. So, I will only be able to teach the basics; the rest you will have to learn by yourselves. I will skip the theory for now; all you have to know is that to access chakra, you need to combine two energies within your body: the spiritual and the physical."
"And how do we do it?" Yahiko asked, as he already knew that much.
"You don't. It is done by your body instinctively. That is what differentiates a regular person from someone who can become a shinobi. Some can do it without any training, as they are already born with far superior spiritual and physical energies than others. But as far as it is known, only one was born already able to use chakra: the Sage of Six Paths."
"Yawn," Yahiko lay down. "I thought you said you don't have much time. Why are you teaching us history?"
"Yahiko," Konan punched his shoulder. "Be respectful to our teacher."
"You're only saying that because he gave you candy," Yahiko replied. "You're way too easy to bribe, Konan. You need to act hard to get, that way he will be more desperate and offer you far more. He looks like someone desperate for approval."
"I can hear you." Jiraiya didn't seem to be too happy with Yahiko's evaluation of him.
"I know."
"So, you want to learn it quickly, huh? Fine by me."
Maybe Yahiko should have kept his mouth shut.
Meditation was needed to train one's spiritual energy. Keeping the mind empty but active was the key. Physical energy is derived from the body and stamina. So, to increase it, one had to do intense physical training.
"Very good. As it seems you can comprehend everything so easily, an hour will be enough for you to memorize this text."
Yahiko could only nod, extending his arms and bending his knees ninety degrees in a horse stance, as a scroll was put in front of his eyes. He was already sweating as the weight on his arms and the pot on his head made it far more difficult than it needed to be.
And he couldn't complain much either. All he could do was focus on the poem in front of him. If only it were something nice, at least then it would have been easier to memorize, but it was full of complicated words and barely rhymed as it was.
Yahiko could only grumble about how stupid it was and read it over and over, trying to distract himself from his burning thighs and arms. He couldn't move at all. If the pot fell off, he would have to repeat this.
The last thing Yahiko wanted was to give Jiraiya his victory. So, Yahiko read it over and over again, trying his best to memorize the stupid poem while ignoring the pain. And he had to do it for an hour.
…
"Keep running and don't forget to breathe."
It seemed Jiraiya wasn't very happy with Yahiko's successful training, so now he was forced to run laps around the abandoned warehouse. At least now, Konan and Nagato joined him, so it wasn't that bad.
Intense physical training was what they needed, so they got it. And Jiraiya seemed to want to push them to their absolute limits. Well, Yahiko was more than happy to do so. He couldn't wait until the day he could use his chakra.
"Stop! On the ground, do push-ups until I say otherwise."
At least Jiraiya knew how to efficiently train someone. Once their legs got too tired, they were forced to train their upper bodies. Keeping the intensity but changing the muscles they worked with, they could continue this kind of training for far longer.
"On your back, do sit-ups."
The training kept on, even when Konan had collapsed from exhaustion, and then Nagato fell too. But with Yahiko's more mature mind, he was able to keep pushing his body, never forgetting to breathe, even if he felt his lungs were burning.
Still, he was just a kid right now. His willpower only let him continue for half an hour more than Nagato and Konan. And he knew it would hurt far more tomorrow. Still, he couldn't help but feel excited.
"After hard sessions of training, rest is the most important," Jiraiya looked very happy with them. "So, eat up, even if you have to force it."
"No," Yahiko looked at the food prepared by Jiraiya. "From now on, you aren't allowed in the kitchen, master. I will be cooking."
If the slob they were presented with could be called food, then Yahiko could be called the God of Shinobi. Yahiko already knew that Jiraiya was pretty useless in any aspect other than being a shinobi, but this was on a different level.
"You wound me, my student," Jiraiya acted all disappointed and sad at Yahiko's evaluation.
But when even Konan refused to eat the slob, he realized they weren't joking and got even more depressed. Yahiko could only sigh as he realized he was the only adult in the room—and the only one who knew the difference between salt and sugar.
At least they had Chibi, so the food wasn't a total waste. Though it seemed it hurt Jiraiya more that his cooking amounted to nothing but dog food.
"Seriously, can't even boil the potatoes, and this is how you cut meat, not shred it. Just a pinch of salt and pepper is all you need. And there, you have it."
"Bravo," Jiraiya clapped his hands in admiration, with Konan and Nagato joining him. "Just as I have expected from my student."
"Shut it, and eat it," Yahiko was too hungry to entertain Jiraiya.
They were all too happy to just do that. Jiraiya brought quite a bit of food from the nearby town, so they didn't need to think about rationing it or anything. And with the proper cooking equipment, Yahiko could show off his skills.
"I will be leaving tomorrow," Jiraiya announced to the shock of Konan and Nagato, but Yahiko expected as much. "I can't stay with you any longer. I will try to come by as soon as possible, but until then, I have to trust you to follow what I taught you and continue your training."
"Good luck," Yahiko was first to reply, as he knew Konan and Nagato had gotten quite attached to Jiraiya, and they would ask for him to stay a bit longer. "But you'd better hurry up and come back, because if you don't, by the time we see each other, you will have nothing to teach us. And all we will have will be a useless master."
That night, Jiraiya left without a word. Yahiko didn't comment on it. He just wished that he hadn't messed up the timeline for Jiraiya getting into danger. You never know with stuff like that.
…
Sweat poured down Yahiko's forehead as he tried to push himself from the ground. His arms trembled under the strain, but in the end, he managed to do it before collapsing to the ground. Catching his breath, Yahiko thought for a moment that maybe he was overdoing it.
But then he would turn to Konan and Nagato, who struggled as much as he did, and think that this wasn't nearly enough. Rolling onto his back, he continued with sit-ups before he couldn't do them anymore, and then he started to run again.
Then all of them would have a feast, before Nagato would go to read one of the books Jiraiya left, while Konan folded papers into various forms, and Yahiko relaxed by a nearby pond. Even if it wasn't rich with fish, it was relaxing to just sit there, watch the clouds while his body rested.
...
"How long will we need to do this?" Nagato asked.
Another day passed, and once again all three of them were on the ground. Completely drenched in their sweat and the rain. Trying to catch their breath and resting just enough to be able to move again.
"The rest of our lives, probably," Yahiko replied. "Being a shinobi isn't that easy. And it isn't like we can do anything else."
"I thought we would start learning cool jutsu or something."
"Before that, we need to access our chakra."
"What do you want to learn first?" Konan asked.
"I would love to learn some cool jutsu that would let me control gravity so I could lift giant boulders and drop them wherever I want," Nagato replied. "What about you, Konan?"
"I would love to be able to grow wings and fly," Konan replied. "What do you want to learn, Yahiko?"
"I wish I could make fireworks that would light up in the dark sky, and everyone could just enjoy them."
It would be pretty cool. He was sure Konan and Nagato would love to see what crazy patterns and colors he could make. And this grey sky wouldn't feel so gloomy anymore. It was quite a nice dream.
"Lame," Nagato said, but Yahiko noticed how he looked into the dark clouds and imagined it.
"Stupid Yahiko," Konan muttered as she too looked at the sky.
"Well, let's get inside. We don't want to get sick now, do we?" Yahiko said after a moment.
Their new home was quite big for them. Plenty of space to have their own rooms, though most of the time they spent together in a makeshift dining room—with Yahiko cooking, Nagato reading, and Konan making flowers and animals from colorful paper.
It was peaceful, and it was nice. Yahiko didn't think anyone would come here, not with the traps Jiraiya had made and surrounded the place with. It was safe, and that was all that mattered. But he had to admit, he missed Jiraiya and his terrible humor and loud personality.
But he also knew it would be some time before he came by again. All they could do was study and train. Yahiko didn't understand the concept of meditation, so he couldn't explain it to Konan and Nagato either.
Jiraiya's explanation of how one should keep their mind empty but active didn't do much to help them understand it. And neither did his other attempts to explain it. How the hell does one look inside himself and at the outside world at the same time?
In the end, Yahiko gave up on it and told Konan and Nagato to do the same. Rather than waste time on something they couldn't understand, he told them to just do as they wanted and relax.
Yahiko knew well that Nagato would be able to use chakra either way. Even if the scatterbrained Jiraiya hadn't yet noticed Nagato's Rinnegan, he surely would have noticed that he had talent.
The same went for Konan. Though not as obvious as she couldn't comprehend the little theory Jiraiya taught, like Nagato, she was smart and not any weaker than Yahiko.
Yahiko was more worried about himself. His smarts and willpower were only because of his mature mind. He wasn't anything special. But at the same time, he didn't think that mattered. He had no plan to learn any overpowered ninjutsu or reach the apex of shinobi. As long as he had the talent to learn basic ninjutsu, he was fine with that.
"Do I fold like this?"
Today, Yahiko found the rain worse than before and didn't want to go out into it. So, he stayed inside and decided to learn origami from Konan.
"No, look, you hold this part first, then unfold, and then…" Yahiko sucked at it, and he just couldn't follow Konan's instructions.
"I think I will just go read with Nagato." Yahiko didn't like the disappointed look on Konan's face, but there was nothing he could do about it.
Sitting down next to Nagato, Yahiko picked up a random book and started to study it. It wasn't anything complicated, and he got most of the gist of it, but it was so damn boring. At some point, it became a battle of not falling asleep while reading it rather than studying anything.
"You are being a distraction, Yahiko. Get lost."
It was days like these that he missed video games. His body was too exhausted to handle any training, and he had already made enough food for today. So, he became bored. And his stupid master hadn't started to write smut yet.
His books were as cliché and as boring as they could be. Well, Yahiko decided that the next time he saw his master, he would do everything to direct him in the right way of entertainment.
He'd better come back soon, as he was already forced to try this meditation stuff again. One had to be on the verge of insanity to consider doing it rather than anything else. But Yahiko was left with no other choice.
So, he got into the lotus position, as uncomfortable as it was. He closed his eyes and emptied his mind, concentrating on his heartbeat and the sound of the rain falling outside their home.
It felt quite nice to call it home. A safe place where he had everyone and everything he would ever want. Konan's paper flowers and animals littered all around, Nagato's textbooks piled up further and further with each passing day, and the smell of Yahiko's cooking lingered in the air.
"Yahiko!"
"Hmm?" Yahiko slowly opened his eyes as he heard his name being called out, as if it came from the rain itself.
"Yahiko!"
Only it was Konan yelling out to him with a concerned look on her face. When he fully opened his eyes and looked around, he found that dust had settled around him. Had he forgotten to clean today?
"Are you alright?" Both Nagato and Konan were upon him with worried and even scared faces. "You've been like this the whole night. We've been calling out to you for the past half hour."
Yahiko couldn't understand what they meant, but he felt different. His body felt lighter than it ever had before. All the burning in his muscles had completely disappeared, like he hadn't been training every day and pushing his body to its absolute limit.
That was quite weird.
A.N. As always, thanks for reading and supporting me, so I can continue writing without any concerns, and if you want more, up to 7 more chapters and 28 chapters in total with all my other stories, you can support me on pa treon. com \ ironwolf852.