Chapter 8 - One Look (1/2)
Itachi looks at Itsuki, his eyes filled with determination and expectancy. Itachi thinks about it for a moment and recalls his talk with Itsuki back in Rukongai on why he wanted to get stronger.
”Ok I can train you.” Itachi replies to Itsuki. Itsuki's face brightens with excitement.
”We can start right now.” Itachi points to an open area of the training field. The two walk to the center and Itsuki gets into his fighting stance. Itachi looks at Itsuki's form.
”Your feet are too wide apart. Your shoulders are too tense. Remember what was told to us in class.” Itachi points out. Itsuki nods and fixes his stance.
”Now attack me whenever you're ready.” Itachi says to Itsuki.
Itsuki runs at Itachi and winds his arm back to throw a punch. Itsuki throws the punch and Itachi grabs his wrist.
”You're leaving yourself wide open and making it obvious what moves you are going to do.”
Itachi lets go of his wrist and Itsuki takes a couple steps back. He goes for Itachi again with a kick but Itachi takes a step back and dodges it.
”Okay I see the main problem. His execution is passable but he lack the proper body strength and speed even with his reiatsu augmenting it…” Itachi thinks to himself while Itsuki tries to land several more blows on Itachi but misses each one. An idea pops into Itachi's head as he dodges a few more strikes. ”If I remember correctly, Might Guy had an unorthodox method of strengthening his body by constantly wearing weights. This might work with Itsuki to get his body much stronger and faster in a short time.” Itachi thinks as he catches one of Itsuki's punches. The two continue sparring for another twenty minutes.
”Okay that's enough.” Itachi lets go of Itsuki's wrist.
”We're done already?” Itsuki questions.
”For now. I have another method for you to get stronger much faster. Come with me.” Itachi signals Itsuki and Itsuki gives him a confused look before following. They leave the training field and walk across the courtyard to the training hall storage area. They hear noise coming from inside one of the sheds and they go to check it out.
Inside the shed is a man sorting through various training equipment. He notices Itachi and Itsuki walk up to him and smiles.
”Can I help you two?”
”Do you have any weighted clothing we could use?” Itachi questions. The man thinks for a moment then responds.
”We do have different weighted gear you can use. Give me one second.” The man goes to the deepest part of the shed behind some shelves. A minute later he comes out dragging a bag across the floor. He makes it to where Itachi is standing and pants.
”In these bags are old training equipment the omnikitsudo donated to us years ago. The academy had plans to involve them in the curriculum but they were forgotten about.” The man reaches into the bag and pulls out what appears to be ankle weights.
”If you wish for beginner weights, then these would be best. A lot of these weights were donated by the Omnikitsudo.” He pulls out some weights showing them to Itachi and Itsuki.
Itachi holds them in his hands to test the weight. ”These are too light. Are there any pieces of gear with adjustable weight that we can use?” Itachi asked.
”Hmm. Adjustable weight, huh. There is something that comes to mind. One moment.” The receptionist reaches into the bag to pull out some dusty ankle weights.
”Here, you can try using these. They were a prototype made by Urahara Kisuke about a hundred years ago. The more reiatsu you release into them, the heavier they get. They don't really get checked out that often since they are a bit difficult to use. Without proper control, they can be a bit tricky. I don't mind giving a couple pairs of these to you. Just be careful with them.”
Itachi takes the weights from the man. They were very light as they had no reiatsu activating them. Itachi thanks the man and he and Itsuki walk outside the shed.
”Put these on.” Itachi says to Itsuki as he hands him the weights. Itsuki takes the weights and is visibly surprised by how light they are. He wraps them around his ankles. Itachi also puts them on. He pours some reiatsu into the weights and he feels them get heavier. Itachi tries to raise one of his legs but struggles to get his foot more than ten centimeters off the ground. As he places his foot back onto the ground, the concrete below him cracks. Itsuki stares at Itachi wide eyed at what he just saw and looks back at his weights, scared to pour any reiatsu into them. Meanwhile Itachi reduces the reiatsu going to his weights and tries to walk. ”I understand now why these were considered hard to use. If you don't always precisely control the amount going into them, you'll be unable to move.” Itachi looks back at Itsuki.
”Put just a tiny amount amount of reiatsu that you can control into these and keep it like that.” Itachi says to Itsuki. Itsuki looks back down at his weights and focuses just a small amount of reiatsu into them. Immediately he is shocked by how heavy they have become and he tries to take a few steps. Itsuki walks to Itachi slowly.
”I'm supposed to wear these all day?” Itsuki questions as he looks down at his legs.
”Wear them all day except for when you sleep. If you feel like they are getting too heavy you can always lower the reiatsu going to the weights. They also strengthen your ability to control your reiatsu and be able to multitask.
”Ok, what's next?” Itsuki asked.
”For now let's go to the cafeteria and get something to eat. After that just get some rest for the day.” Itachi says.
Itsuki nods in agreement and the two of them head towards the cafeteria.
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The next day, Itachi and Itsuki head to class with Itsuki out of breath by the time they made it to the door of the class.
”You're letting your reiatsu leak too much into your weights. Lower it again.” Itachi tells Itsuki as they walk into class. They take to their seats and watch as the rest of the class fills with students. The instructor walks in and does his morning greetings then proceeds with a short lecture on Soul Society history.
”Today's class will focus on Kido and Hoho. Kido is the advanced spells that all Shinigami are able to use. There are two distinct styles of kido that will be taught. The first will be Hado which will focus on destructive spells. The second will be Baukudo which will focus on supporting spells.” Ounabara introduces before explaining the differences between hado and bakudo. After the lecture he makes an announcement.
”First we will be focusing on Kido. By the time you graduate from the academy, you are expected to be able to do Hado 31 without incantation and Bakudo 30. Now class, we will head to the kido training field.”
Ounabara signals the class to get up and they all move to the training field. They arrive to an open area with 10 training dummies lined up. Ounabara stands in front of one as the class stands behind him.
”The first spell i will show you will be Hado 1: Sho” Ounabara says before point towards a dummy.
”Hado 1: Sho!” Ounabara yells out as a burst of reiatsu towards the dummy. An invisible force kocks the dummy back. After a few moments the dummy recovers back to its previous state.
”Next is Bakudo 1: Sai” Ounabara introduces the spell before point a dummy once again.
”Bakudo 1: Sai!” Ounabara yells while keeping his finger raised towards the dummy. The dummy's arms are then restrained by an invisible force. A brief moment later, the binding releases and the dummy recovers to its original state.
”These are the two spells you will be practicing today. You are all part of the advanced class so I expect good things from you. Now get into single file lines in front of the dummies. Every 10 minutes I'll have you swap places with the person behind you. Begin!”
The students scramble to line up behind the dummies. Daiki, Akemi, Taro and several others line up in front of the dummies.They raise their arms up, point towards the dummy and shout.
”Hado 1: Sho!, Bakudo 1: Sai!” Akemi, Daiki, and Taro are able to perform the hado and bakudo with ease. With prior knowledge from their respective families. Basic hado and kido were drilled into them long ago. Akemi's hado was the strongest, as it sent the dummy back over 5 meters before it recovered. Her Bakudo restrained the dummy arms while making creaking noises.
The class was not to surprised Akemi's skill, since she was considered the most talented in the class by her peers.
Ounabara nods as he watches the students pick the technique quickly. ”As expected of the nobles, they already have prior knowledge in basic kido techniques.” He guides a few of the students in line by correcting their reiatsu control.
Itachi was standing in the back silently. He had already activated his sharingan when the teacher performed the techniques. He continued observing the students and picking up the technique. ”These techniques are similar to jutsu.” He thinks to himself before closing his eyes and deactivating his sharingan.
10 minutes passes and the next set of students line up in front of the dummy. Itachi, Itsuki, Daiyu, Kenta, and the rest of the students line up in front of the dummies. With the exception of Itachi, the rest of the students raise up their arm and point towards the dummy and shout.
”Hado 1: Sho!”. The noble students are able to perform the technique with no trouble. After a few tries Itsuki is also able to get the hang of the technique as he starts firing it with relative ease.
Ounabara looks through the students and watches them perform the technique. He nods before looking over to itachi who remains standing. ”Hmm, is there something he did not understand?” Ounabara thinks to himself before making his way over to Itachi.
Itsuki is very happy with his success as he looks over to Itachi. ”Why is he just standing there, there's no way he doesn't understand this right?” Itsuki thinks confused looking at Itachi standing still.