Chapter 392 - 389 ~ Lesson No 1 Taijutsu

Chapter 392: Chapter 389 ~ Lesson No 1 Taijutsu

The voting was done, Ryu had won, the elders’ hands were forced up, and Danzo’s solitary refusal was the only crack in a verdict that had otherwise gone exactly the way he wanted. Naruto was in the hands of a loving family now.

"Thank you, Lord Daimyo," Ryu said. "Have a pleasant rest of your day. And I’ll send you the next prototype holographic projector and video conference system when it’s ready."

Daimyo nodded and said, "Thank you for the amazing gift... see you next time."

Then the column of light folded back into the black sphere, the seams sealed over, and the device went still on the council table.

Ryu pocketed the sphere. He looked at the elders and smiled like a brat who had won after a tantrum: mouth curved and eyes flat.

A hand settled on his shoulder.

"Go on ahead," his grandfather said, low, for the two of them alone. "Kaori, Kohinata — stay with him. I have a word to trade with Hiruzen alone—I’ll catch up later."

Ryu studied him for a heartbeat, then nodded. He left the chamber, Kaori and Kohinata falling in at his back, the heavy door swinging shut behind them.

They stepped out and walked towards the exit from the Hokage’s office building. But he was stopped right at the door. People watching from other buildings. Council members, passing jonins who knew about the meeting and wanted to know the outcome, a few ANBU assigned to Hokage and Ryu and those close with Ryu. The council members had seen Koharu waiting for Ryu at the door, and they had guessed Koharu was up to something. So they had waited, quietly, to see how it unfolded.

Koharu stood at the centre of the door, arms folded, her four chunin fanned out behind her and a single jonin at her shoulder.

"You brat, you’ve had your fun," she said as Ryu approached. Her voice was low, almost pleasant. "You enjoyed it, I’m sure. Brought the Daimyo into this place, humiliating us elders in front of our own council. You think you can humiliate us and walk out like nothing happened."

Ryu walked near her and stopped a respectful distance away.

"That’s politics. You’ll survive it. I am sure you are well versed in it," Ryu said.

"Politics." She said the word like it tasted of ash. "You think because you’ve got the Daimyo’s ear, you’re untouchable. That your big mouth and your disrespect carry a cost—one you’ll have to pay, and the Lord Daimyo won’t be able to save you from it."

"I’m not hiding behind the Daimyo," Ryu said.

"No?" Koharu studied him, then smiled. "Then prove it. Whatever comes next, you face it alone... Step out into the open. Show me how brave you are on your own two feet."

Ryu did not argue. He smiled back.

That was answer enough. "Good." She raised her chin and addressed the five guards in a voice that filled the plaza — sharp, public, and unmistakably an order.

"Understood," the jonin said. The chunin echoed it.

"Don’t worry, I will take full responsibility," Koharu finished, to anyone listening, to no one in particular.

Ryu watched her step back toward the tower doorway, folding herself out of the way.

Ryu thought, A lesson. Fine. I could give them all a lesson.

Ryu meant not just the five in front of him — but also those he’d felt the moment he stepped out. Four small signatures packed into the bushes on the plaza’s far side. They were his classmates, the ones who had followed him from the council. Ryu recognised their chakra very well.

These kids have never seen a real fight, Ryu thought. Only kids’ spars and training yard bruises. This could be a learning opportunity for them — a real one.

On the rooftops, Inoichi caught the same four signatures, and the rest of the watchers registered them too — the Hyuga’s gaze also caught them. So did Aburame’s insects and Inuzuka’s nose.

Inside the bushes

"What’s going on?" Saya Uchiha asked, crouched low behind the leaves, eyes wide. "Why was he called to the Hokage’s office? And why does it look like a fight’s about to break out?"

"I don’t know," Fumi hissed back, barely audible. "But let’s keep watching."

"Ryu must have angered someone high up," Shikanoboru whispered. "But he should be safe in the village — they must be testing waters with him."

"He’s facing five shinobi in the open, with everyone watching," one of the kids muttered, not quite to the others. "That’s not a drill. They’re punishing him for something. What’s his grandfather doing?"

Back to the plaza

Ryu smiled and thought, Better than training these kids with words alone. Let’s give them a good show.

He glanced toward the bushes, then turned back to the guards — and, in the half a heartbeat it took to settle into his stance, ran the internal list.

Ryu thought, I need to limit myself in order to make this a digestible lesson. Also, I need to keep my secret jutsu away. So no fuinjutsu. No ninjutsu. No genjutsu. No doping jutsu. For the start of this fight, only academy taijutsu and no advanced version or special jutsu. I will use them only if I want to end the battle.

He shrugged out of the overcoat and let it fall from his shoulders, away high up in air. The heavy fabric unravelled the instant it left him, coming apart into motes of light-dust that were drawn back into a hidden fold of his white suit, gone before they could touch the floor. His diamond rings stayed locked on his fingers. He dropped his weight, low and centred, and his shaded glasses caught the plaza’s light.

What the hell was that? - Many people thought at the same time.

"Whenever you’re ready," the jonin said after coming back to his senses and seeing Ryu absorb his overcoat into his body and crack his neck.

"Bitch, I was born ready," Ryu shot back with a grin. "Time for a lesson..."

Ryu smiled and declared, "Lesson No 1 ~ Taijutsu."

The opponent chunins moved fast — coordinated, with no wasted flourish. Two forward chunin broke wide in a flanking pincer while a third closed straight at his centre, each man angling to pin him from a different side.

Ryu did not brace. He did not try to be harder than the blow.

He let it come — took the punch on the armguard near the elbow, then rolled with the force instead of fighting it, letting the impact slide him back.

Somewhere near the courtyard edge, Asuma’s eyebrows lifted. "That’s academy-style taijutsu," he murmured to Kurenai, "but that is not enough to keep chunin at bay, not five of them." She gave a small nod in reply.

In the bushes, Fumi’s eyes widened slightly at the deflection. "Wow, he took that very easily," she whispered. Beside her, Shikanoboru leaned closer, watching the body mechanics. "He absorbed the impact with his moves," he murmured.

The chunin recovered, reset, and came again, and the second one closed from the side. Ryu moved inside it, too close for the longer reach to matter, and spoke dryly to the jonin who was hanging just off the engagement, directing and watching.

"Don’t bore me by holding back," Ryu said dryly.

The jonin’s expression didn’t change. But something behind it did — a recalibration, a quiet revision of the threat estimate. On the first impact he’d expected the boy to take the hit.

’Interesting,’ the jonin thought. ’The rumours are true — he’s not just a genius in tech. He’s a genius in ninja ways too.’

The fight continued. Ryu was stretching their coordination past its breaking point, forcing each to adjust to a target that wouldn’t stay still. His body had been conditioned to its limits, and his fighting style had been optimised for exactly this — to keep going long after they’d started to tire.

Ryu fought like he was showing someone how it was done. Short elbow guards kept the chunin’s wide swings. using his small size to dodge fast and not tank hits but to absorb them using his lower weight through side-rolls and manoeuvring efficiently at the moment of impacts.

The chunin tried to flank. Split one way and then the other, aiming to come at him from two sides at once.

Ryu stepped into the open angle — the one gap in their timing — and turned their numbers against them. One clash, one-on-one. Then the other closed in, and he’d already pivoted, forcing that engagement to be singular too. Every time they tried to combine into a single crushing pressure, he was somewhere they weren’t, dividing their coordination into a string of individual fights. It was as if Ryu was making them dance on his instructions.

His size stopped mattering. A bigger body needs room to swing; a smaller one only needs to not be where the swing has the lowest possible impact.

On the rooftop above, Inoichi exchanged a glance with Fugaku. Textbook academy fundamentals — elbows, rolls, angles — but executed with a precision that made them lethal. The kid was deliberately refusing the one-against-many, chopping it into one-against-one by positioning.

"He’s using basics deliberately," Inoichi murmured. "Those brats hiding in the bushes — he’s teaching them."

Fugaku watched a moment longer. He knew better than most how much was hiding. He’d seen that calibre he had shown against Itachi. He said nothing, but Itachi, standing beside him, gave a small nod.

"Look at that," Itachi said quietly. "He is having fun."

In the bushes, Takeshi watched the body-angle shifts with total focus. He and others recognised it from academy classes and were amazed that those worked against real ninjas.

"He’s making every small encounter into a one versus one," Shikanoboru explained, leaning in. "Even when it’s five against one, he splits them to take advantage... Keeps watching..."

Takeshi nodded and said. "I want to be able to move and fight like this too. Now I know why he said to focus on basics and body conditioning."

The fight was far from over. But the lesson had already begun — not for the guards, still chasing a target that refused to stand still, but for four small hearts in the bushes. No lecture could have taught them as much as an actual battle with real ninjas.

A/N:

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