Training III,
A couple days passed and nothing else had happened apart from Kiryu's usual body strengthening sessions and completing D-rank missions. For the most part, D-rank missions were boring. Luckily for him though, he only had to do them two times a week, and Kiryu found that completing them as fast as he could was the best as it made the time spent doing them seem quicker and gave him a higher pay. Apart from daily necessities like food and water and the rent for his run-down apartment, Kiryu had been saving for a real metal sword and if he kept completing missions at his rate he just needed another day of working and he would be able to afford it.
Kiryu snapped out of his thoughts as his short break ended. He stood up and followed Hayate to the tallest tree in the training ground, reaching a height of 200 feet tall.
"The trick is to distribute just enough chakra to your feet so that you can stick to the surface tree and walk along it", Hayate started his explanation as he started walking up along the massive tree. "If you put in too much chakra, you'll simply propel yourself off the tree, and if you put in too little, you won't stick", he then added as he jumped off of the tree landing on the ground next to Kiryu. "Your turn".
"Yes sensei", Kiryu nodded as he looked towards the tree. Coating the soles of his feet in chakra, he burst towards the tree, making it about 5 feet up before he fell straight onto his bum. Kiryu frowned as his sensei tried his best to stop a laugh escaping him. Shrugging it off, Kiryu stood up once more, ready to try again.
Focusing all his attention on how much chakra he put into his feet, Kiryu ran at the tree once again, last time he put too much chakra in, so this time he made sure to add less. Kiryu managed to only get about 7 feet high before he slipped off of the tree, being unable to stick to it.
After an hour worth of attempts and fails, Kiryu had managed to get tree walking down and successfully climbed the entire tree. From the top of the tree Kiryu had a birdseye view of the lush green training grounds that inhabited Konoha. In the distance he could also see the village itself and the mountain that showed the faces of all the Hokage. Kiryu took a few seconds to enjoy the view and the peace it brought while it still lasted, before making his way down to where he found Hayate waiting for him.
"Now that's that outta way, next up is water walking. Follow me", Hayate said as he started walking away. He led Kiryu to a small lake that neighboured their training ground. "It's pretty much the exact same as tree walking, just the control of your chakra has to be way more precise. This is tens of times harder than tree walking. Ah, I'd advise taking your clothes off too because by the end of this you'll probably have fallen into the water at least a hundred times". After hearing his sensei's explanation and advice, Kiryu didn't waste a moment's time, taking off his main clothes and putting them to the side next to a tree.
Approaching the lake, Kiryu flared his chakra as he put one foot onto the water, however with one foot still on the ground he found it hard to tell if it was working. Finding himself drenched soon after trying place his second foot onto the water, he found his answer. 'This is gonna be annoying', Kiryu thought in frustration.
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Almost 6 hours later, Kiryu stood steadily in the middle of the lake in his undergarments, soaked from head to toe. He started moving around in the small lake just as a person would on ground, starting off with a slow walk and gradually increasing his momentum until he was in a full blown sprint. "Yes, I did it!", Kiryu laughed in victory as all the frustration that built up from failing all day turned into relief.
After finally setting foot on ground and putting his clothes back on, Kiryu turned around hearing his sensei speak. "Well done", Hayate congratulated him, to which he simply thanked him. "Now as promised, I'll start teaching you jutsu", Hayate added. Kiryu's small smile widened as his heart rate elevated in excitement. Finally it was time to learn jutsu. This was what made powerful ninja who they were and earned them their reputation.
"Really quickly before that though, we'll test your chakra affinity", Hayate said as he pulled out a small piece of paper in the shape of a square and handed it to Kiryu. "Just run some chakra into it", he explained. Kiryu nodded as he flared his chakra and focused it into the paper in his hand. The paper floated out of his hands and crumpled up before splitting itself into 2 pieces. "Wind and lightning. Kinda unlucky", Hayate commented.
Kiryu frowned hearing that, "What'd you mean by that?". He was confused by what his sensei meant and had worried if those chakra natures were too weak or something.
"Well it's not as bad as I just made it sound. Just me personally, I use fire release so elemental ninjutsu for now may be out of the list of things I can teach you, and secondly wind and lightning users are a bit hard to come by in the land of fire. Especially wind users, there's only two people that I know who can use it to an advanced level". Hearing Hayate's explanation his frown deepened as he realised that was indeed true. The only man he knew of in the leaf village who used wind style was Asuma Sarutobi, and thus far he had no interactions with the man.
"Don't worry though, I can think of a few things, and I can still teach you Kenjutsu for now if not the Ninjutsu", Hayate quickly added, sensing his students progressively souring mood.
"Oh well, nothing I can do for now, no point getting frustrated over it", Kiryu said while letting out a sigh of defeat. Just his luck he supposed. As he said though there was no point of getting frustrated and also he figured that it would only be temporary. Lighting users while not as rare as wind users, were still uncommon, but it didn't mean he couldn't learn it all. It would just take a bit more time and effort.
"Tell you what, we still got a couple hours, I'll teach you a Kenjutsu technique right now. It's called Secret Sword: Tsukikage", Hayate offered, lifting up Kiryu's dejected mood.
His liveliness suddenly rejuvenated, Kiryu paid deep attention to the demonstration that he was being shown.