Chapter 08: Chakra Control
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"Focus your chakra flow into the middle of your forehead whilst pressing a leaf against it," Akio muttered, holding a book in his hand.
"When you feel the leaf stick to it – let go and keep that same momentum until you can't hold it anymore."
He was currently reading the leaf exercise and how to execute it. It showed a good methodical approach to have before doing it – showing Akio what to expect as he knew there was going to be a struggle when doing this.
Picking up the leaf on his bed, Akio sat down and tightly held it against his forehead. He closed his eyes, concentrating his entire focus on the leaf, pinpointing where it was.
Slowly, he began rising up chakra toward the tenketsu points in his forehead. A few seconds passed and he mustered up all the chakra he could before directing it through the canals and storing it in his forehead.
However, just as he was about to hold it there, the chakra suddenly fell back… his eyebrows knitted together seemingly trying hard to direct it back but to no avail did it work. He had lost control, meaning all the built-up chakra had gone back into circulation. A failed attempt on his first time trying the method.
Although, he wasn't disappointed nor discouraged as he wiped off the sweat in between his brows and started the process again.
'Lead the chakra through each tenkutsu. Direct it toward the forehead, creating a build-up and immediately send it through whilst holding it at the same time.'
He said the steps inwardly whilst doing it, practically doing each of them with patience whilst failing time and time again. Still, he persisted, knowing that this was only normal – naturally – as time went he'd learn the skill.
He hadn't even reached the part of holding the chakra against the forehead; he was still stuck on controlling the flow of chakra which required multiple tasks.
This was normal – after all he had just learnt how to use it a day ago, unlike the clan kids who had years of honing it – controlling it like it was an extension of themselves.
This was the advantage of time… the more one had; the more beneficial.
Akio continuously picked up the falling leaf a dozen times, but even with his patience, he soon began tiring out. It had been a couple of hours – and his progress felt like a snail's pace. Akio guessed that it was his chakra innate chakra-holding ability which needed improving.
Only a few times did the leaf stick on his head, but it was only for a split second. Of course, it was a fluke but it still got his hopes up, trying again and again.
That was until he had enough, knowing that he still had other things to do. So, instead of spending more time, he got up and went to the kitchen to cook himself something.
Even though he wanted to survive and become stronger, he didn't neglect his health or leisure time to just train 24/7. He was human after all – and he needed his relaxation sometimes as it helped with his peace of mind. He enjoyed the feeling of getting stronger but that didn't mean he liked training; he just did it because it was necessary for his goals.
"Ah.." a refreshing sound came out of his mouth after downing a glass of water.
'Nothing beats a hearty meal after a hard day of training.'
These were the mundane pleasures he enjoyed indulging in from time to time. It was stuff like this that made him have some sort of joy in this world…
Friends?...he couldn't make any.
Akio was mentally twenty – conversing with five-year-olds was tiring and just weird. Nothing was interesting except chakra, training and food. Anything else was not worth his time.
After finishing up his breakfast, he made his way to the backyard where his father stood. In front of him was a table laid with shurikens and kunais – further in his vision stood a tree with a target board.
His dad was the first to speak up, "Now, I'm going to teach you how to hold your weapons and throw them. Basic things like these I will teach; the rest – do on your own."
Hagiro picked up a shuriken from the table and showed how to hold it to him – Akio intently listened to his father's teachers before he threw it straight at the board.
He heard the wind pierce as the shuriken cut through the air, landing straight in the middle of the board. It certainly looked easy but Akio knew it was far from it.
"That's all I'm going to teach you. I'm sure you've read the books already so do it on your own. Independence is key now that you've built up your body," Hagiro explained before walking off back into the kitchen.
He was right, Akio did learn the basics of tools and how to throw them – it's just, he hadn't put it into practice. Bodily training was important because of this too – needing control over your body was needed to be in control of weapons.
So, he tried throwing the shuriken first as he firmly held the shuriken, gaining a fair grip before spinning it technically through the air. He kept doing this for an hour, however, none of his shots could even dig into the board. Only a few lucky flukes allowed him to be on target but Akio knew this wasn't permissible.
After a few hours of target practice, the sun began to set… However, he hadn't stopped training yet as he had one more thing to do. Akio walked over the field and travelled until he reached a wooden dummy, stuck into the ground.
Before doing anything; he closed his eyes for a second and opened them again.
'The first Kata follows the diligent use of fists.'
He crouched down into a horse stance with an upright posture and struck the dummy with the best form he could muster. First came the left punch to the dummy's head – then the right. In a repeated notion he slowly performed these two actions to the best of his ability – the horse stance still in form with an upright posture.
Reading the taijutsu book given by his father, Akio was now putting that into practice since his body had come up to par.
All he could say was that doing Katas were painful…Extremely painful to the extent that he felt like giving up… but he didn't.
Every punch he struck caused a massive amount of shock to his receptors – however much he tried to ignore it; there was no use. So he took short breaks in between to soothe the pain.
Then with determination, he single-mindedly struck the wooden dummy until the pain was too much again and stopped – before starting again.
Although, he didn't slack off even with the pain– carrying on as tried his best to perfect the form – striking it at least a thousand times before going back inside.
Before he knew it, night had already come – causing him to not be able to see the blood trail formed on the grass as he walked home.
Inside, the light shone, showing the minor skin tissue of his knuckles and fingers tearing off. Dry blood was stuck inside his nails – probably from it trickling down too much. But Akio didn't feel pain seemingly from all that adrenaline – and because he had it so much; he had essentially become numb to it.
However, all that built-up pain was released whilst he took a hot shower – stinging his wounds as the water seeped into them, causing him to wince a bit. The shower was relaxing yet painful at the same.
'If pain was the price to gain proficiency in Taijutsu, I would gladly pay the price.'
This was who he was now… the idea of survival so ingrained in his mind that he was ready to pay any price for it. Whether that be a small or big one; anything that helped him in that goal will be used by him sooner or later.
He didn't like training… Did he care?
Practising Katas… did he like it? No, but it was necessary.
It didn't matter if he disliked or even enjoyed something… if any of them would hinder him; he would discard it in a matter of seconds. However, if it helped… he would gladly welcome it with open arms.
His resolve had already been decided since the moment he got here: there was no changing it; there was no going back and he certainly was not going to regret anything.
Losing his sense of family and friends had changed something in him…. He was in a world – alone – all by himself and he wasn't going to die again.
'In the end… Only my survival mattered.'
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