"Haa." Exhaling deeply, Kudo did a series of hand seals, 'Tatsu-Ne-Tori-Tora-U...' He transitioned between the 12 basic hand seals as fast as he could. The exercise which used to take him over 20 seconds had been reduced to just below 5 seconds which was still slow. After repeating the cycle several times, frustrated he lay down on the ground in his family yard. The backyard had trees, his mother's garden and a large path of grass that now had poles leading to the trees. Standing next to one, he was shorter by a head.
"Go." He burst in a sprint zigzagging around the poles as fast as he could, his hand forming hand seals. The hands seals were awkward sometimes not a hand seal at all but he kept at it. A full hour and he had barely formed a proper hand seal, Kudo lay heaving.
'This is impossible.' He felt frustrated, as a ninja must fight on the move, set ambushes or respond to ambushes but he could barely focus on both.
Ina watched from the window, her heart in agony as she was about to head out to Kudo, Murata grabbed her shoulder, "Darling, he needs this. To struggle so that he learns that worth is built, through sweat and not claimed. This is his journey, he needs to start now." Murata softly said brushing Ina's tears away. Ina placed her head on his chest sobbing quietly.
The evening went by and it the morning after,
Kudo walked the streets of Konoha half limping, although he was flexible his muscles ached.
Getting to class, his classmates had split into groups with some solo ones, Sasuke being the case. He was hated by all boys in the academy, even the senior girls raved about him. "Sasuke this…" "Sasuke that…" The greatest antagonist was Naruto. Their rivalry was known to the class and Sasuke only lost in physical tests against Naruto.
"We are increasing the depth of exercises today. Squats, planks, push ups but I will warn you now do not train with weights. You are still developing and weights will stunt your growth. Your first year will mainly be physical development in preparation for taijutsu, shiruken throwing and advanced chakra control exercises." Iruka's words were met by groaning at the mention of advanced chakra control exercises.
"Walking on walls and water." Iruka said, "Bang." "Really?!" Naruto slammed his desk in joy, "Hahaha, when I can walk on walls who is gonna catch me? Kudo, we will be invincible."
"Naruto, you are the only one who's ever been caught." Kudo replied tearing away from his textbook. Over at the side Shikamaru, Choji and Kiba all nodded in agreement.
With shock, "Hey! Don't tell them that." He rushed over attempting to shut Kudo up.
"Naruto. Sit down." Iruka's shout calmed the air, "Now, today we are going to add Human physiology to our list of studies. For those of you who aspire to be medical ninjas pay attention."
Iruka's monotone voice drowned out the flow of time. After 12 pm, it was time for the physical class and Kudo did not enjoy it one bit. After the class it felt like his body was in constant pain, every twitch and step were a nightmare.
He and the gang went around the village, the four lords of mischief. Choji was snacking and fought to enter every food restaurant but the others held him back. Kudo had learnt painfully to never treat an Akamichi to food, his week allowance was gone just like that.
The days went by peacefully the division between the clan and hokage faction on shelf as undercurrents stirred in the other villages.
Multiple attempts to bring the Hyuga clan into the fold by the hokage faction had failed, Hinata's incident was still fresh on Hiashi's mind and the sight of Neji did not ease the burden.
The Nara, Yamanaka and Akamichi clans had taken a wait and see attitude no longer backing the hokage faction.
'A chakra paper huh?' Kudo thought staring at the paper in his hand, his hand seal proficiency had improved and it was now time to start training ninjutsu. His aim was the three basic ninjutsu; clone jutsu, Substitution jutsu and Transformation jutsu. He planned to add an elemental justu into the mix but was torn over which until he remembered chakra papers.
Taking a deep breath, he channelled chakra into the paper and it instantly got wet, his heart dropped at the sight. He wanted lightning affinity but he clawed his mind trying to recall any ninja with decent mastery of water techniques. Tobirama Senju, the second Hokage but he was mostly renown for his Flying Raijin justu.
His mind wondered to Kirigakure but no notable figure existed even the Mizukage did not seem that extraordinary in using water release.
'If there isn't someone then I just have to become the first.' He thought gazing at the plethora of books in the E-section.
By late afternoon his hopes had been dashed, the second hokage was truly exceptional with water release. 'There goes my mark in the shinobi world. Wo wants to listen to second place?'
He continued browsing the books, in his hand the tree basic ninjutsu techniques. He was now torn between which water based justu to choose. Water release: Water bullet, Mud bath, water clone, Piercing shot, Moon blade and flickering illusion.
Water bullet released a ballon size water bullet at the enemy, just the force of the water crashing onto the enemy.
Mud bath weakened the soil creating a sludge of mud immobilizing enemies.
Water clone, a variant of the clone technique.
Piercing shot released a straw width stream of a mouthful of water to pierce the enemy. Moon blade made crescent shaped water blades attacked like the water shiruken technique.
Flickering illusion made reflections in nearby water sources capable of distracting the enemy.
Kudo after reading them thoroughly chose water bullet as his first ninjutsu technique to learn and hopefully master. His path was set, he aimed to at least surpass Tobirama Senju.