As soon as Iruka declared the winner of the tournament, a screen popped up.

                I smiled and dismissed the window. Iruka said, “Everyone except Arata can go.” Some hesitated like Sara but eventually, they all went as Iruka said. After we left standing alone, he got closer to me. “Are you ready?”  I nodded. “Good. Just remember what I said about the difficulty of these moves.” I nodded again. “Well then. Do as I say.”

                With that, our training started. At first, Iruka seemed apprehensive. It was obvious for all my confidence, he thought I would fail to do what I said. I sighed and threw myself at the katas with extra motivation. Who knows how long it would take to persuade Iruka again. I managed to master the thirtieth kata and a notification popped up saying my Academy Style Taijutsu is now 30 of 80. ‘I still have a long way to go.’

                “Good. You really learn fast, but it most certainly doesn’t seem fast enough.” I frowned, he continued, “No matter. I will teach you until midnight, until then, learn as much as you can.” I nodded and he changed his kata to what I guessed to be the thirty-first one.

                It was still bright when I reached level 35 in Academy Style Taijutsu but the level was at 62 when it was midnight. Iruka sensei wiped the perspiration from his forehead with his sleeve then said, “As I thought, you couldn’t learn fast enough but you still learned at a prodigious speed.”

                I nodded smiling with some effort. Normally I am very resistant to tiredness but working on katas for hours tired even me out. “Thanks, Iruka-sensei. I am pretty sure I can put your lesson to good use.”

                Iruka chuckled. “See that you do. Let me get you to the orphanage.” He said and took a bag he dropped before the tournament then started waiting for me. So I got my bag too and followed him.

                “So, Arata-kun. What are you plan on doing when you are out of the academy?” He said looking at me from the corner of his eye.

                I shrugged, “You already know about my goal with fuinjutsu. I didn’t think of any other goal yet since there is still time until I graduate so I don’t need a goal.”

                Iruka raised a brow, “You don’t need a goal?” I nodded. He sighed, “Arata, you always need a goal. If you don’t have a goal, you won’t be able to reach your potential.”

                “I guess I forgot about that,” I murmured.

                “About what?” Iruka asked.

                “My very first goal sensei.” He gestured me to go on, so I nodded and continued, “Reaching my potential is my first goal.” ‘I even used 20 points for Talent.’ “I don’t really need any other goals since this one goal shadows every other, similar goal.”

                Iruka nodded. “Well that’s not what I wanted to hear but it’s still good enough I guess.” We walked like that in silence for a few minutes. When we were in front of the orphanage, Iruka waved without stopping, so I waved back and passed the guard.

                When I made my way inside the orphanage building, I saw Rena waiting for me. She looked at me pointedly and asked, “How did your lesson go?”

                “It was good. I managed to learn about thirty katas.”

                Rena tilted her head. “First thirty kata?” I shook my head. Rena sighed and pointed towards the corridor where the rooms are, “Go back to your room. You won’t be able to eat anything since there aren’t any leftovers today.”

                I sighed and nodded, “Good night Rena-san.” I said and started walking towards my room. When I was inside, I opened my notifications and took a look at my gains.

                ‘Great improvements overall. What should I do tonight? I have only one glaring weakness and that is my Speed. It would be good to work on fuinjutsu since it’s both fun and something I get good returns on, I really need to work on my Speed. So how should I go about it? I can get to the backyard and sprint there but it would both make noise and would let others see my improvements in an obvious way. I already show too much of my talent, I don’t want them to think or infer something about my ability. So, how?’

                ‘Let’s start from the beginning. What is speed? It’s how fast one moves, so if I want to get faster, maybe I should move faster. That means it’s not only sprints that would increase my Speed but other motions would too. So, what can I do? Yes! I can do my katas but make the transition as fast as I can manage. If I do that, I should both increase my Academy Style Taijutsu and Speed at the same time.’

                Giddy with expectation for an increase in stats, I started doing katas. At first, fast transitions felt odd, but after the first set of 62 katas, the next set got easier then easier. Like that, I managed to hone my transitions in a way that I could do them reflexively and more importantly, fast.

                I work on this for what felt like an hour then stopped, feeling tired again. I sat on the ground and looked at my gains.

                “Taijutsu didn’t gain a level. Well, it’s not very surprising since it’s sitting at level 62. I gained lots of speed relative to the time I work on it so that’s good.” I stretched and yawned a little. ‘I didn’t sleep for a while now. I can’t sleep though, I promised Naruto I would treat him ramen. That means I have to write some Special Explosion Fuin.’ “Well, time to work.”