Chapter 16: Second Academic Year

Over the next few days, Fujin experimented with the pressure applied by the seal. He turned 7 year old as well. It took him four days to be able to figure out the amount of pressure he could be under and still complete his workout. It was slightly over 2% of the seals max capacity. He thought, 'Wow, that's very low! Then again, I'm barely 7 years old now. Anyways, at least my physique should develop faster now.'

His sensor training continued as well. It took him 8 days to finally be able to sense the objects placed around him. Yamanaka Shin was a bit disappointed by the progress, he sighed and thought, '8 days, while it ain't bad, it's not very good either. He probably won't be able to be an exceptional sensor. Though with some work, he could be a decent one. While the time is slightly better than the average of other Konoha sensors, it lacks when compared to sensors from my clan. On average, we are able to sense the object on the 7th day, and the more talented ones do it even faster.

Oh well, Konoha does severely lack sensors. Due to the existence of Hyuga, Aburame and Inuzuka clans, the village didn't really invest much into training sensors. Majority of Konoha's sensors come from my clan. Having another sensor, even just an average one will be good for the village.'

After that, Shin moved the objects away from Fujin and placed them 4-5 metres away. As the basics were the same and the objects were still in his chakra field, he was able to sense it very quickly in less than half an hour. Shin was surprised by the speed. He moved the objects 7 metres away, and the same thing repeated.

This surprised Shin a lot, 'Well this is surprising. Though on average a Yamanaka senses the objects on the 7th day, sensing after moving it away takes some time, with most going into the 8th day and a few even to the 9th day. I guess he has more talent than I thought.'

Fujin's thoughts were, 'While it did take a long time to detect it, to detect after increasing range wasn't tough. The principles were the same and the object was still in my chakra field. I guess the next training would be to increase the size of my chakra field.' He sighed slightly thinking, 'I hope the training for it isn't as boring as this one.'

After the training was done, Shin said to Fujin, "Not bad, you have progressed faster than I thought. Over the next 4 days, keep practicing the same at your home, so that you get more comfortable with sensing chakras in your field. I'll be out on a mission, so I won't meet you. Once I return, we will start training to increase the radius of your chakra field."

Fujin thanked him and left. The next couple of months went in a similar manner. The training for increasing the Chakra field included even longer hours of meditation. He had to focus on one point and try to increase the range in that direction. Fujin thought, 'This is gonna take a long time! I guess over the vacation, I should work on being able to train while also keeping my eyes open instead of putting up a blindfold. That way I can train for this in the class too. Otherwise, there will be no hope of continuing this training after academy restarts.'

Over the vacation, he kept up his physical workouts, which produced great results thanks to the seal. He also trained a lot in the substitution jutsu. His goal was to reduce the time required to perform it and also reduce the number of required hand signs from five to zero. While he didn't make any progress on reducing the number of hand signs, he was able to perform it much faster, being able to do it in less than a second, though he wasn't sure of the exact time due to having no instruments to measure it.

For clone jutsu, he was able to create 3 clones, which if he recalled correctly, was the requirement for the Genin graduation exam. Transformation jutsu was progressing well too as no one was able to see any issue with him when he was roaming in the streets while being transformed into others. But he hadn't yet tested it against someone who knew him.

As for Chakra control, he became capable of running freely on water surfaces. So he reduced the time allotted to it and only practiced it twice a week instead of daily. While he had some ideas to improve his chakra control even further, he decided to try them later so as to be able to focus more on Ninjutsu.

The wind nature transformation training had taken a step back as Fujin felt that he had trained enough for it. He thought, 'Being able to cut a stone was probably on par with being able to cut a waterfall. Even on the metal, I'm able to leave small scratches on the surface.' As for earth training, he had bought more clay to work on molding it and had also brought a small one foot rock in his home, which he attempted to crumble after being bored of sensor training.

As for sensor training, after teaching Fujin how to increase the radius of his chakra field, the meetings with Shin were reduced to only twice a week. When the vacation ended, Fujin was able to instantly sense chakra if anyone stepped in his chakra field, unless that person had hidden his chakra. However he had to actively focus to do that. If he didn't focus, then he wasn't able to sense anyone. However, he noticed that he was able to passively sense chakra in 0.6 metre radius around himself. Shin said that this was something every sensor developed over time. And was very important as this didn't require attention and the sensor could do other tasks simultaneously.

His radius of chakra field increased to over 4 times of its initial size to slightly over 30 metres. Shin was quite impressed with the pace of his improvement. Shin also taught Fujin to be able to measure the amount of chakra in the ninjas in his chakra field. He explained its uses in identifying the threat level. But he also explained to not be entirely reliant on it as the amount of chakra can be hidden as well. He demonstrated to Fujin as to how he could reduce his chakra that others can sense, or even completely hide it to appear as a common civilian. Shin taught the same to Fujin too.

Fujin had some success in hiding his chakra completely, though it wasn't perfect yet. However, trying to reduce it and putting up a facade of having a lower chakra level was very difficult as his chakra would fluctuate a lot. On the other hand, Fujin was able to sense chakra without restricting any of his senses or without having to use the hand sign or even while moving around. However, without the hand sign, the radius of the chakra field used to reduce to around 25 metres, and while moving around, it went down to merely 17 metres. It showed that he still had a lot of work to do.

On the last day of vacation, Shin said, "You have improved a lot. In the future you can easily become a good sensor with some more training. So keep working on it. We won't have any more training sessions, but feel free to approach me if you have anything to clarify." Fujin thanked him for all his help over the past 2 months and took his leave. He also returned the chakra objects that he had borrowed.

Fujin was really grateful to him. Though Fujin's capabilities as a sensor were still very poor, in the past 2 months, Shin had drilled all the basics of being a sensor into him. Now he merely needed to put more efforts into becoming a good sensor.

The new year in the academy finally started. Genki was again our class teacher. Fujin guessed that he'll be the class teacher until they became genin.

The new year started with another brainwashing lecture. Fujin, not wanting to waste any time, employed the art he had mastered in his previous life and remastered in this one - The art of faking attention in a lecture. He moved his attention to his chakra field. His plan was to focus on increasing the radius of his chakra field. But upon sensing others, he decided to compare everyone's chakra levels first.

After noticing everyone's chakra levels, he concluded, 'Wow, my chakra reserves are really very good! The efforts taken over the previous year and half have really been very fruitful. It's good to finally be able to see the results of my efforts.'

As for others, Fujin noted that on average the chakra levels of the civilian students, and students from Nara, Yamanaka, Kato, Hatake, Sarutobi and Kurama clans is lower than others. Comparatively, students from Hyuga, Akimichi, Inuzuka, Aburame and Uchiha clans have slightly more chakra. In all, Uchiha Yori's chakra is the 6th highest in the class, while Hyuga Hoka ranked 7th. While that was what he expected, the one with the 5th highest chakra surprised him. He thought, 'Now that's surprising. The 5th highest chakra level is of Shimura Nobu. I guess Danzo really has a proper training system for kids from his clan.'

As for the ones at the top, there was no surprise. He thought, 'Sigh, these Senjus are really blessed with high chakra reserves. Even the two who aren't that talented have their chakra reserves almost 50% greater than that of Yori. Whereas Teru's chakra reserves are more than twice that of Yori. It's even larger than mine!

Anyways, the chakra levels of everyone is just as expected. Only Nobu was an exception. Which implies that they haven't started to do any training to increase their reserves. Makes sense though, as they are only 7 years old. Anyways, if he doesn't focus on increasing his chakra level, I should be able to increase my chakra reserves to become larger than Teru's.'

He then tried to measure the chakra level of Genki. On measuring it, he thought, 'I see, his and Shin's chakra reserves are very similar to each other. I guess there isn't much difference between an elite chuunin and a special jounin. It's just that a special jounin has a skill that is at Jounin level, while the rest of his skills are only at elite chuunin level. For Shin, it is his capabilities as a sensor.

I gotta agree that becoming a sensor is very convenient. Unless the ones being sensed are sensors too, there's little chance of anyone realising that they are being sensed. Though I suppose all of the Kage level ninjas would have mastered this to a certain extent. Oh well, it's not like I'm planning to hunt any Kages.

Anyways, enough with this class. I should check the ones from other classes, especially the ones who will be becoming genin this year. While the 25 metre radius of my chakra field is pretty insignificant in an open field, in a compact building, it covers a lot.'

With those thoughts, he started to focus on chakras outside his classroom. He first observed the classroom in which he had seen Daisuke run in. Noticing the chakra levels of the students there, he observed that they were really low!

He then focused on the room where he knew the classes for senior most batches happen. He measured their chakras. He observed that there were a few with really pitiful chakra levels. He guessed that most of them won't become genin. On average however, their chakra level was only 20% higher than Teru's. Though there were a few having much higher chakra levels. Fujin guessed that those kids were from the Senju clan too.

Fujin concluded, 'I see. I suppose by the end of this academic year, my chakra reserves should become high enough and could be considered genin level. And I know all the 3 basic jutsus too. So in terms of chakra and Ninjutsu, I should reach Genin level in a year. Even Taijutsu should reach that stage in less than 2 years. But that won't be enough to actually pass the graduation exam. The graduation exam has so much more than just Taijutsu and Ninjutsu. There's training on moving stealthily, setting up an encampment, incapacitating a target, freeing yourself if you are captured, using a first-aid kit, even hunting, cleaning and cooking a wild animal and a lot more that will be taught in the academy. Without all that knowledge and training, becoming a ninja might well be suicide.

Not to mention, actually trying to graduate so early would be stupid. Itachi was a different case. He is the son of the Uchiha patriarch. I, on the other hand, am merely an orphan. It would attract a lot of unwanted attention.

In addition, just from the point of view of ninjutsu, I still have so much more to learn. I still have to learn a few more basic jutsus like Body Flicker, and not to mention I still have to learn Wind and Earth style jutsus. Apart from that, I'm almost entirely blank when it comes to Genjutsu and have a lot to learn in Kenjutsu. So there's no point in graduating until I have gained everything I could from the academy. If I ever reach a point where I can't make much progress due to being in the academy, then I'll consider graduating early.'

After considering all that, Fujin finally focused on increasing the radius of his chakra field. The remaining lecture went in a similar boring manner. However, at the end of the lecture Genki said something that excited some of his fellow students. He said, "This year, we will start learning Ninjutsu."