NRaO Chapter 24

“Sensei! Please let us take a break!” Ami yelled as she ran the track again. “What are you talking about? We’re only on our fourth hour of running. How are you going to escape from enemy nin if you can’t even run for two days in a row.” They kept going around and around in the circle. They must have expected the fighting training to have started already but they needed to learn the chakra cycling technique before anything else. Gin walked off the path and began to vomit.

I cheered him on. “Good job Gin! Gin just earned everyone a five-minute break.” Everyone walked off the road and fell to the ground. Breathing in heavily I came up and swatted Hiami on the back of the head. “Keep cycling that chakra!” Everyone breathed in deep lungfuls of air while they had the chance. Each had been worn down evenly as they were given more and more breaks the longer we went. 

It had already been a week since we made the squad. Our days consisted of cycling chakra and eating for the first few days and that was it. Ami and Hiami, I just realized their names are pretty much the same, were practically starved as orphans. They needed to build up a bit of fat before we did anything more serious than running. I could at least see Hiami’s face because she changed out of her jacket into something better for long-distance running.

She looked cute. I wasn’t going to try and have sex with her but it was a curiosity of mine that went answered. Both girls were cute, who knew if they’d grow up to be beauties but both probably had multiple boys in their classes hounding them for their attention. I think Ami might grow into a beautiful woman but Hiami would always stay tiny and cute.

I clap twice. “Alright, it seems like everyone is recovered. Back to running.” Ami moaned out again. “Ahh sensei! I knew it. You’re trying to kill us aren’t you!” I ran along with them. “Of course! If you die here you’ll be less likely to die on the battlefield.” I laughed as this process was the easiest part. When we got to the actual endurance training then they’d really wish they were dead.

“S-sensei… I can’t. I can’t kee-.” A smack on the back of the head with the paper fan led Ami to spot being such a deva. “We just started running again thirty minutes ago. You can’t be tired already.” All of them cried out in unison. “Yes, sensei!” I breathed a sigh. “Alright then. We’ll take a quick food break when we finish this lap.” All five of them hit the tables like the last ounces of energy were squeezed out of them.

Gin shoveled the food into his mouth without lifting his head from the table. Hiami tried to maintain her prim attitude but it quickly folded as she too put her head down on her arm to make lifting the food to her mouth easier. Fugaku and Nawaki didn’t want to let the other see how drained they were so both ate like normal people as Ami laid on the ground complaining. “Sensei. Put the food into my mouth and manipulate my jaw to chew it please.”

I laughed as I picked her up and put her at the table. “Come on. We only have another three hours of this before we call it a day. That’s not that much longer.” All five groaned out in unison as Ami spoke for the group. “Sensei is really trying to kill us!” I chuckled and explained again. “Like I said. I’ll kill you as many times as I need to here for you to not die on the battlefield. We have medic nin here. Go ahead and die whenever you want to, we’ll be sure to bring you back.”

We ate for another two minutes before Gin broke the silence. “Mm-good. What are these things called sensei?” I carefully opened mine up and added more hot sauce. “Tacos. We have them on special sale Tuesdays at my restaurant.” He just hummed in agreement. After ten minutes were done I yelled at them again. “Alright then! Back to running everyone. We got to catch our shadows to leave early.”

Ami fell to the ground. “I got mine! Look sensei I got my shadow! Can I please take a break?” I picked her up again, putting her back on her feet. “No, your shadow is right in front of you. You can’t just catch it by falling down.” She muttered under her breath. “Sensei I hate you…” I responded. “I know Ami. And you’re allowed to hate me as long as you do what I say.”

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Almost a month had passed of just training to cycle chakra using my method. Soon enough they could stay on their feet all day while cycling. We could move on to the next step finally. “Alright, everyone. I know we haven’t done anything but learn how to run but now we’re going to learn the first and most important jutsu! This is called the shadow clone. With this, you can gain more time to train outside of training. You can double-train with shadow clones!”

All five gave me an evil look which made me laugh. “If you want to attack me then attack me but there will be retaliation. Do you all remember what happened to Ami when she tried to get everyone to mutiny?” The four besides Ami spoke in unison. “You shaved her head…” I smiled as I responded. “That’s right! So if you come for me make sure you aim to kill! Alright, so the hand seals for this jutsu are ram, serpent, tiger.”

I quickly showed them the hand signed in slow motion but they should know the signs by now as I continued to explain. “As you do so, start separating your chakra into however many clones you want to produce. I would recommend just making a single clone for now and building it up. Doing more than one might injure you if you’re not ready. After visualizing the clone you have to shout out the name of the move. For these high-ranked jutsu, it’s easier if you verbalize the command but after you get good at it you’ll need fewer hand signs and won't need to say the name.”

I went through the basics again slowly as I shouted. “Shadow clone jutsu!” Another of me is around. Then I quickly perform a single one-handed sign and make another clone without verbalizing to demonstrate. After some attempts, they all seem to get it down except for Ami. Her chakra pool isn’t large enough to make a clone. I thought that might be a possibility but it won't be for long. “Alright, Ami you’re going to need to do an extra step as you have less chakra than everyone else. When you go to split them try and control how much you put into the clone. It should be much harder but with your chakra control it should still be possible.”

I watch as she struggles to get it right. Finally, she manages to get a clone out and I clap. “Great job, that’s a better version of the clone jutsu you’d need to learn to graduate. Now with everyone being able to make clones, we can start the actual training of skills, not just muscles.” I make a clone for all my student's clones and branch off separating them. Learning with half as much chakra as normal isn’t that big of a deal as I was going to stick with fundamentals for a few days. Slowly they’d get more comfortable with suddenly learning new information throughout the day.

“Alright! With that done all of your real bodies will be going back to running for now.” All five in unison complained. “Noooo!”