Ken 'looked' at the lake in front of him with a smile on his face.

The cold weather didn't bother him one bit as he took off his clothes, grabbed his large blade and dove into the lake, blade in his mouth as he swam to the bottom of it without any issue.

As soon as Ken's feet touched the bottom of the lake, he poured chakra into his blade.

A motion he had already been practising for months. The water around him was electrified, as Ken resisted it without much issue.

Then, the next second he added nature energy into the mix, and the water around him started revolving as he started swinging the blade at the greatest speed he could muster.

Underneath the weight of the water, his body moved slowly, much slower than usual, but his speed was still comparable to most Genin.

Ken spun around, his body moving along with the blade, increasing its momentum more and more as the muscles in his arms flexed, veins appearing on every part of them.

At that point, the water around Ken started to deform completely, all of it getting blasted away as he continued spinning faster and faster.

A small tornado was created that blew away all of the water near him, Ken spun more and more, maintaining the tornado for as long as possible.

The water raged on as waves started rampaging the shores of the usually calm lake.

The tornado itself seemed to get bigger, but Ken knew he wouldn't be able to maintain it for long, as his chakra was already down to a fourth of his reserves after 10 seconds.

Ken then stopped spinning, and the tornado around him raged on a little more, using the momentum of his spin, he turned sideways, raising his long blade to the sky.

Then Ken proceeded to cut the air vertically with all of his strength, a flying slash materialized from his downward swing, cutting forward and splitting the small tornado in half, breaking it apart and continuing forwards.

The flying slash cleaved through the waters and created a large gash into the shores of the lake.

The Tornado dissipated thanks to the flying slash, and the water started trying to fill in that hole in an instant.

Ken's location was quickly flooded, as he took a deep breath of air and dove into the water, resisting the pull of the whirlpool that quickly formed in his previous location.

This was the training method he had devised after a year spent on that mountain.

Ken had thought he would only train for a few months at first, but the more he trained the more he wanted to train.

His strength had grown exponentially in that one year, to the point where he felt confident in facing a Jonin in battle, instead of just assassinating them.

Ken had also developed a few more techniques and even improved whatever he had. The tornado creating one was the current version of the 'Dragon Twister'.

The flying slash was unnamed, but it was a finisher for 'Dragon Twister', using the built-up momentum from spinning and the cover of the tornado to send a flying slash at an unsuspecting enemy.

Ken had put a lot of thought into using his powers in battle and their practicality.

The largest problem he had was actually being underwater, and it was still a huge weakness to him despite training under a lake for a year...

While underwater, most of the senses that he could use to feel and track others were basically turned off completely.

Underwater, he didn't have a sense of smell, he didn't have hearing as his ears filled with water. He also found it more difficult to feel vibrations in the water than on the ground.

Thankfully, he could still feel the energies around him, and he could still somewhat sense movement while within the water.

Still, it felt unnatural for him to stand in water for too long. He had made plenty of other discoveries as well though...

At this point, after an entire year of training, Ken reached a conclusion.

'I won't grow much farther if I keep blindly swinging my blade like this...'

It should've been obvious that he'd reach a roadblock at some point, one would never be able to endlessly grow stronger by doing the same thing over and over again.

Ken had already perfected several techniques to use in battle.

His control over both Chakra and Nature Energy was perfect, and he could enhance every part of his style with Nature Energy at this point.

He had also managed to notice that whenever his body ran out of Chakra, it tried to expel the Nature Energy at an increased rate, trying to forcefully balance out the powers in his body.

During one of those times, when Ken decided to experiment and attract more Nature Energy while continuing to consume his Chakra, something interesting happened.

Ken felt scales grow on his body a few seconds after depleting his chakra, and he noticed that his senses and strength sharpened greatly thanks to those mutations, somehow even greater than usual.

So, when in a pinch, he could basically use up all of his Chakra and enter that second form, where several changes happened to his body.

He grew scales that seemed to give him protection against bladed weapons and blunt attacks. It wasn't a lot, but it was a lot better than regular skin.

His fingers turned into claws sharp enough to cleave through rock and trees like hot knives through butter and teeth sharp enough to bite through a normal sword with ease.

The best part had to be the tail though. In that form, he grew a long and pointy tail with an extremely sharp end that seemed capable of piercing through rocks like they weren't even there.

Ken liked that form quite a lot, as it made him stronger in some aspects and allowed him to use moves that were even harder to predict.

But it didn't last for too long, although he could somewhat extend the time by meditating and attracting more Nature Energy into him.

It was also a bit dangerous, as Ken once tested it out and turned into a statue, rendering him completely immobile... Thankfully his form reverted whenever his chakra recharged slightly.

But he was basically left helpless there for a few minutes, which wasn't exactly acceptable was he in the middle of a fight.

So for now, his scaled form was to be kept for emergency situations only. It was better to keep it as a trump card in the first place.

The year he had spent training was extremely fruitful... But Ken knew that he didn't have a lot left to improve on.

He already knew what Shinobi were supposedly capable of in that world. He knew that some could spit fireballs, some could raise huge steam clouds that completely took away vision from others.

So, Ken knew that he had to get his hands on some of those techniques.

Especially the ones that took away sight from his opponents, as he knew that if he managed to do that, then he'd most likely be able to assassinate even the toughest of opponents.

So, Ken washed his red samurai armour and his tattered rags and left them out to dry in the sun for a few hours, before getting dressed and taking all of his belongings.

Strapping his bag on his back, as usual, it was full of supplies(boiled lake water/slightly burnt monster meat) and projectiles(shurikens and Senbos).

He also strapped his large blade on his back once more, tying it tightly so it wouldn't slide off while he ran at high speeds through the forests.

He also had one more katana strapped to his belt, as the other one had been broken during training.

He was now standing at a healthy 1.3 meters tall(4.27 ft), and his body was well defined, excessive training had gotten rid of any baby fat he might've had left.

So, at the age of 9, people would hardly be able to tell whether or not he was a child or a really short adult.

Ken was still nowhere near tall enough for his blade though, which was still around 1.6 meters(5.25 ft) in length. Well, it was around 1.78(5.84 ft) meters if one counted the hilt as well.

But at this point, Ken was able to use it so smoothly that its length was no longer even an issue.

So, with confident steps, Ken walked down the mountain as a smile rose on his face, putting on his mask and whistling a cheery tune.

He had high hopes for his journey, he knew what he wanted to achieve for now, which was learning some Jutsu that he would actually be able to use.

He had a long way to go before actually getting to a city though...

__________________________________________________________________

Hope you liked the chapter! Managed to write one before going to bed :))

If u want to support me look up VeganMaster on Patre_on, you'd also get 4 chapters in advance (or 2 depending on tier)