CH_69

Having made up his mind to go for promotion in the upcoming Chūnin Exams, Tōji suddenly started pushing himself hard.

Though the jutsu passed down by the Kazamatsuri clan didn't include any particularly offensive techniques, Tōji had his own path to follow.

He'd train hard in taijutsu, then use Earth Clones or Water Clones to multiply its effectiveness.

The 【Earth Clone Technique】 and 【Water Clone Technique】 had a unique trait—each use consumed a fixed ten percent of the user's total chakra. Apart from the drawback that the clones didn't have much chakra, everything else was an advantage!

These weren't Shadow Clones—they were solid clones that didn't transfer damage or fatigue back to the original. Other than lacking chakra reserves, they perfectly copied all of the user's physical attributes.

That meant, no matter how many jutsu Tōji learned, these clones wouldn't have enough chakra to use them anyway. And Tōji hadn't exactly had the chance to learn many jutsu…

Taijutsu, however, was a different story—these clones could inherit it perfectly. And no matter how badly they got beaten, none of it would be transferred back to Tōji.

Tōji wasn't sure if the Kazamatsuri clan's versions of these two techniques were any different from the "standard" ones on the market. After all, many families with a bit of reputation would tweak ordinary jutsu and turn them into semi-secret techniques.

For now, though, he figured this was the most efficient approach.

As for his trump card—he still only had Exploding Tags… and a little poison, but he couldn't actually develop any decent poisons himself. The ones he'd scavenged from the battlefield would run out with no way to restock.

Still, that wasn't too bad—most of his exam opponents would be between eleven and fifteen.

Older genin were almost non-existent—after all, the war had been dragging on for years.

With only about a month until the Chūnin Exams, Tōji's taijutsu training had merely been extended by half—nothing special.

Even if he deliberately tried to become Might Guy's sidekick now, there wouldn't be enough time to learn anything useful anyway.

Tōji's taijutsu advantage had always been speed. But before, his training had focused on how to flee fast. Now, his goal was to make his attacks fast too.

So these days, Tōji would get up at dawn and go swimming in a secluded spot in Konoha. That's right—his foundation for taijutsu was basically one thing: swimming. He'd learned from experience.

After all, whether it was Earth Release or Water Release, all the escape-oriented techniques involved "swimming" through the ground or water.

As for actual combat moves—he only had the basic Academy-taught Konoha-style taijutsu foundation… which was about as good as having no techniques at all.

But that didn't matter—he wasn't following Lee's path anyway.

What suited you best was what was best!

Over time, the natural reactions honed through actual combat would eventually become the best moves you had.

Peaceful, productive days were always easy to break. Tōji hadn't gone looking for any of his teammates, but his closest teammate—Natchi—came looking for him.

One evening, Tōji was walking home after his swimming training, less than half a kilometer from his house…

"Tōji—finally found you. You weren't home this morning." Natchi called out from a distance and quickened his pace toward him.

"Long time no see, Natchi. Sorry—I've been pretty busy lately, so I haven't come looking for you." Tōji said it like he was apologizing, but he really wasn't.

"Ah, no worries. So—are you preparing for the Chūnin Exams?" Natchi walked up to him, and under the dim streetlight, he could see the fatigue on Tōji's face.

"Yeah—I've been at the hospital during the day, learning medical techniques. Early mornings and evenings are the only time I have for my own training." Tōji tilted his head, gesturing for Natchi to come over to his place.