***
Maito Guy spent time eating the breakfast young Jay-kun brought over to the training grounds …
While Guy wasn't one to ever assign malice to one's actions, he was also an experienced ninja and as such, he could recognise manipulation quite well, especially after seeing young Jay put the Professor in a philosophical trap to get his name changed …
The fact that Yūgao-san kept glancing at the boy with the subtle hint of a grimace … Well, that was making Guy curious.
Seeing that everyone finished eating …
[Maito Guy] - LEE ! … -
Guy said, standing up with a striking pose, pointing at his apprentice…
[Lee] - Yes Guy sensei -
Lee said, immediately getting up and standing at attention.
[Maito Guy] - Why don't you start our morning routines with young Jay ? Guide your little kouhay well … -
Guy struck a signature ‘nice guy’ pose that made Lee's eyes mist over from sheer wholesomeness.
[Lee] - Yoooush, I will not disappoint Guy sensei … Jay-kun, ready for our morning routine ? -
Jay observed the scene and how Guy subtly focused on Yūgao.
[Jay] - I'll be in your hands Lee-senpai -
Jay gave a small bow to the enthusiastic boy.
[Lee] - Yooooush, we will run around the training ground in ten minutes or less, if we can't we will do a hundred sit ups, then we will swim through the lake in twenty minutes or less and if we can't do it, we will do a hundred push ups and finally we will perform the dash Kata … are you ready Jay-kouhai ? -
Jay only smiled at the boy's enthusiasm …
[Jay] - Right behind you Lee-senpai -
[Lee] - Yooooooooooooouth !!!! -
Jay had to shake his head at how fast the boy dashed ahead … The times offered were probably assuming Jay wasn't trained …
*** *** ***
As the boys ran away to the start of their warm-up, Guy approached Yūgao …
[Maito Guy] - Yūgao-san … -
[Yūgao] - Guy-san … -
Yūgao kept her expression neutral, but she might as well be an open book for someone as well versed in body language as Maito Guy was …
[Maito Guy] - I couldn't help but notice you are more tense around young Jay than yesterday at the Hokage tower … Anything you could share ? … My task as his youthful tutor will be greatly helped by knowing more about young Jay besides the reports Hokage-sama gave me … they seemed out of date, compared with the … youthful new boy that named himself … -
***
Yūgao could only try not to tense her muscles in preparation, as one of Konoha's monsters, politely but firmly, asked her about her charge …
After she was pulled from AMBU to guard the young jinchuriki, Yūgao couldn't help but think that her talents were being misused.
But after a few weeks watching the young prodigy soak up knowledge like a dry sponge, she had to reframe her perception …
At the time, before his name change, Jay was considered a reclusive prodigy … In times of war, he would have been pushed up the ladder and deployed in combat as soon as Kakashi was …
But as they were in a fragile time of peace, it was decided to not push him too fast … not that it mattered …
Before yesterday, the boy was almost a puppet, chunins tasked with training him reported that when trying to see where Jay's current limits were … the boy did just that … every single time, no complaints, no nothing …
Run until exhausted ? Jay would run until he blacked out …
Push ups until you no longer can ? Jay would do until his muscles literally locked in place …
After being asked to punch with everything he had, Jay snapped his arm by doing exactly as asked …
After seeing the boy give himself a fracture and still show little reaction but ask for medical aid … Yūgao was put on this long term mission that was close to ending … The academy would start and the instructors there would be the ones dealing with Jay …
But everything changed after yesterday …
Jay's new ‘show’ of emotions and incredible rationale was … frankly speaking, scary … before he was odd, a cold puppet learning and performing as asked …
But seemingly out of nowhere, the boy now had an emotional intelligence that scared Yūgao …
Kakashi-senpai might have been a Jounin as a teen … and though a genius, he still showed hints of being a teen that grew up too fast …
Jay … Jay had none of that, his conversation with Yūgao on the night before showed that the boy was extremely aware in a way that felt mature but at the same time alien … like he was genuinely learning about how ‘people’ worked … or in the case of their conversation, how she worked …
***
Guy listened with rapt attention as Yūgao shared the new information about young Jay …
[Yūgao] - He knew what to ask, when to ask, where to push … Jay could make deductions based on such tiny pieces of information that I had to replay the conversation in my mind many times later that night to find where he got that information … From simply what I choose to say and body language alone, he correctly implied my relationship with Kakashi-senpai and my likely affiliation with the AMBU … I'm almost one hundred percent sure he already knows about his ‘furry tenant’, from the pointed questions he made about Konoha's past and the times before that … -
Maito Guy’s eyes narrowed slightly.
[Maito Guy] - And you sure about his chain of logic ? No chance for it to be … -
Guy saw Yūgao huff.
[Yūgao] - He has been watched since birth, every moment of his life is cataloged … I also asked him about how he arrived at his conclusions … He didn't make leaps of logic, nor instinctive reasoning, he explained step by step … everything, even how he analyzed me … -
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Yūgao shook her head with a small smile.
[Yūgao] - He was the picture of politeness, offering me tea and biscuits while interrogating me … I felt like I was back at the AMBU selection, having my background and every thought scrutinized … -
*** *** ***
Lee dashed ahead with enthusiasm before remembering that Jay might not be ready for such a high pace …
Looking back, Lee could see his young Kouhai running after him at a constant and steady pace … Lee gave it a little bit of thought and instinctively knew that they were more than fast enough to complete the run before their time was up … that is, if young Jay maintained the same pace.
Lee reduced his own speed to match Jay's, deciding to run in place and talk with his Kouhai.
[Lee] - Kouhai, can you keep up this pace ? -
[Jay] - Correct … I can keep this pace … for our youthful … morning exercises -
Lee noticed that Jay controlled his breathing to speak without losing any air intake.
[Lee] - Yooooush, then let's complete our warm-up … -
Jay saw Lee once more dashing ahead …
[Jay] “ I hate having to rely on my physiology … I can't wait to know enough about chakra to start changing this inefficient thing … “
Jay huffed at his own body's limitations and the slow way of overcoming them …
*** *** ***
Kurama dreamt of … something …
His awareness was sucked into a beating pulse that he never felt …
He followed that pulse, feeling it spread out through … through something, a place of sorts …
There were tiny channels where Kurama could feel something pulsing and flowing … his awareness flowing with it …
Blood … something informed him … Kurama was feeling blood, flowing, pulsing and spreading with each beat of a heart …
Kurama's awareness focused on the heart now that he thought about it …
The contractions, the timing, the rhythm … A timed wave of ‘something’ provoking the pulling of tiny tiny fibers in the heart …
Kurama's attention went deeper … each tiny fiber working in conjunction … energy being extracted from a tiny spark that was not a spark …
Kurama watched in awe as he felt each small piece working together flawlessly … such a complex chain of events all to simply make blood flow …
Kurama awareness went back towards the blood … the feeling was reduced now, almost an afterthought … but Kurama could still feel the louder pulses … and something else … there was a feeling of freshness in the blood, something that the body took and used … Kurama watched as that freshness lessened as the blood flowed …
Kurama felt deep inside him a sensation of … of … something inside of him supplied … breathlessness …
Kurama took a deep breath … feeling something expanding on his chest, his blood coursing through it and being refreshed as it passed … receiving that freshness and cycling back towards the rest of the body … to keep it all flowing and working … but how about that tiny tiny spark ? …
Kurama felt the sensation of the blood going back to the background as his attention went ever deeper …
Kurama could see the freshness of the blood going inside a very small place … it was used, fused with something else … the process making a flow of … something supplied him once more … specks of lightning … Those specks flowed, guided towards turning … something … each turn producing one of those tiny sparks that went on to power everything else …
Kurama followed the process back … the fusion of the freshness with … something … nutrients the strange knowledge provided …
Kurama watched the breakdown of food in reverse … all the way back to the mouth where the pieces were physically smashed into tinier chunks by the teeth …
Kurama remembered that he was supposed to experience the taste of food …
His attention snapped …
The food touched the tongue … the tiny, tiny things present in the food ‘interacted’ with other tiny tiny things in the tongue … cells something supplied …
The cells made a wave, almost like what Kurama witnessed in the heart … synapses, the information was supplied …
Kurama followed that wave making its way into something dense, full of threads that intermingled between themselves in a dissing complexity … what was that … the brain Kurama was informed once more …
Kurama watched in awe as the ‘signal’ made its way inside that chaotic mix of threads and paths that was the brain …
It was split, turned, changed, fused, read, re-read … Kurama couldn't keep up with it … but at the end, there was a place that lit up …
Something was released from there and as it flowed through, Kurama felt everything else lighting up … Kurama felt his attention backing away … the new sensation hit him like a storm … the end result of that chaos was a pleasant sensation spreading through …
From the tongue to the brain to the rest of … him …
The joys of eating, the reason for that joy, how everything connected together … things so small working towards something bigger … was that how a body felt ? … What else could it feel ? …
Kurama's attention took another step back … like the blood and freshness before, it all went towards the background … only nebulous details and the end result of that whole chain of events were left … but Kurama still experienced it …
Kurama wanted more …
The spell broke as Kurama woke up back into the mindscape …
But there is a distinct difference now … Kurama felt something new … something he could focus on … A tether constantly sending him signals and experiences … Kurama only had to pay attention to those …
Kurama closed his eyes and focused solely on that experience …
His heart beat loud in his chest, his blood pumped, his body felt warm and ready, each breath carried the sensation of energy spreading through him …
The refreshing cold gust of wind blew over his damp skin …
Kurama slowly let himself hear and see …
He was in front of a lake, the sounds of leaves moving in the wind … the same wind coursing around him … Kurama felt the need to take a deep breath … but he couldn't, the body wasn't but he wanted it, he wanted it so much, he needed to take a deep breath to feel the Air filling his lungs … if he could just …
The body did it a few moments later …
Kurama closed his eyes, letting the sensation wash over him … a deep rumble of pleasure coming unprompted out of his throat.
[Jay] “ Hey there Kurama, how are you feeling ? “
Kurama heard the question mentally asked, the body now bending and stretching … the sensations filling Kurama with a deep sense of comfort … to the point he forgot what was asked …
[Jay] “ Wow, you really didn't have a good time with your energy form did you ? … Well, let's start slow on the sensations, I don't want you addicted as soon as I eat a sweet treat or a slice of bacon … Alright ? -
Kurama, still rumbling as the stretches continued, agreed immediately, lest the sensations stop …
[Jay] “ You have it bad … oof … note to self … do not try my hand at drugs or sex before you are remotely used to basic pleasure … “
Kurama only grumbled, deciding to ignore the annoyance in favor of focusing on the feeling of refreshing the wind …
*** *** ***
[Lee] - Kouhai, ready for our training with the basic dash kata ? -
[Jay] - Ready to follow your lead senpai -
[Lee] - Firstly, Kouhai, can you youthfully wall walk ? -
Jay gave a small laugh at Lee.
[Jay] - I can wall walk, senpai, I don't know if I do it youthfully … Can you show me ? -
Lee gave him a thumbs up and turned in the direction of a tree.
[Lee] - Yooooush … -
Jay watched as the ‘youth boy' channeled his chakra as he approached the tree … his feet came into contact with the trunk and with a perfectly executed jump, Lee rose up parallel to the trunk, his next step had him bending his body like a sprinter on the starting line … releasing the same jump carrying him parallel to the tree and up the top of it …
Jay scratched his chin lightly as Lee jumped back to the ground, Jay could feel the chakra in his legs acting like springs in conjunction with his muscles to absorb the impact flawlessly …
Jay gave him a little clap … compliments go a long way after all.
[Jay] - That was impressive -
[Lee] - Youthful tree walk … -
Lee did a nice guy pose to Jay, shining with pride.
[Lee] - Now you try, Kouhai-kun -
Lee posed and exuberantly pointed at the tree.
***
Instead of running like Lee did, Jay calmly approached the tree …
From what he watched Lee do, doing a vertical jump using a horizontal surface was the key to the challenge …
And that required some extra thinking from Jay …
Wall Walking was a challenge to the core strength of the body and simple focus on sustaining the chakra while switching with feet the chakra was focused on …
Running like Lee did required explosive strength … with the capability of quickly sticking and releasing your hold on the trunk, not only that, but you had to actually soak the trunk with your chakra or else the small point of contact with your feet and the force of your jump would rip the bark apart …
It was an intensely complex and quick action …
Jay was sure that mastermind it would take a while … Those kinds of actions needed to be ingrained in the body and he was far from knowing enough about chakra to try his hand at modifying his body … So there was no convenient way for Jay to bypass the need for raw training and practice until the motion felt effortless …
His head gently pulsed, fatigue previously alleviated by Yūgao's medical ninjutsu resurfacing, reminding him that he shouldn't be overthinking things after all …
[Lee] - Go on KOUHAI, YOU CAN DO IT !! -
Jay smiled at the exuberance of his ‘senpai’ and did as told.
[Jay] “ Nothing like mindless practice because the body needs its sweet time to learn anything … “
Jay put a foot in the trunk, having mentally mapped the motions … he focused his chakra until the attraction locked in place, grounding his foot in the bark … Jay then did the same thing with his calves, feeling the musculature pulling with more strength than normal.
[Jay] - Here goes nothing … -
Jay sprung up, like he was launched from a spring …
Jay rose halfway through the trunk of the tall tree … when he went to take his next step, Jay's chakra wasn't able to soak up properly into the wood, his next step ripped off the bark and made him stumble into the tree … hugging it face first.
***
Inside Jay's mindscape, Kurama abruptly removed himself from the immesion and roared in pain holding his own snout as if that would do anything.
The flash of blinking pain and fresh moisture in his eyes were still as real as anything else …
That single moment was almost as bad as the torture he suffered under that whore Kushina’s seal …
[Kurama] - WHAT IS THIS ?! -
[Jay] “ A little bit of pain … sorry about that … I just missed a step … “
Kurama winced as the sensation slowly faded away into the memory it was.
[Kurama] - How was it that bad ?! -
There is no way humans felt that on a daily basis …
[Jay] “ You're not used to it, after a while you learn to ignore it, don't worry … -
Kurama grunted, annoyed at the pain but still craving the rest of the experience … being imprisoned was dreadfully boring … the current prison being better than the last ones just meant Kurama could actually sleep … but now that he had other things to do …
Kurama eyed the connection to the meat form …
[Kurama] “ If he can do it so do I … “
Kurama growled, closing his eyes and focusing back on the sensations …
*** *** ***
Lee saw his young Kouhai preparing to jump at a stand still … Guy sensei taught him to do it from a running start, but Guy sensei also said young Jay was a genius …
Lee … wasn't quite sure what to think about it …
On one hand, he was jealous and worried Guy sensei would think that Jay was a better apprentice than Lee … on the other, Jay-kun was incredibly polite … he even made breakfast for them …
Lee shook his head to banish such un-youthful thoughts, Lee should trust his sensei more … Guy sensei even arranged a med-nin just to help Lee in his training … The arrangement made Jay-kun Guy sensei’s student … Guy sensei wasn't looking for another apprentice … and Jay-kun himself said that Lee was his senpai … they were learning together, improving together … SUCH YOUTH !!
Determination burned in Lee’s eyes as he cheered on for Jay.
[Lee] - Go on kouhai, YOU CAN DO IT !! -
Watched and prepared to offer assistance if needed …
Jay took a step into the trunk and moments later he rose up, an almost perfect jump on the first try.
Lee shed a manly tear for his talented KOUHAI … then he saw Jay miss the next step and rip off the bark of the tree … colliding face first with the trunk before arresting his fall by hugging the tree …
[Lee] - YOU'RE OKAY IN THERE KOUHAI ? -
[Jay] - All good, I think I'll try to do this with a running start … Senpai, can you get Yūgao-san ? I think I broke my nose … -
Lee blinked numbly before turning and dashing towards where Guy sensei and Yūgao-san were.
***
Seeing Lee leave, Jay slowly made his descent from the tree as his calves were now tender from the effort …
[Jay] “ Well, at least you help out in this regard, with the fast healing I think I can shape this body very quick … How is the pain ? “
Jay felt Kurama rumbling in his mindscape …
[Kurama] “ Shut up … “
[Jay] “ Word of warning, this will hurt “
Jay put his finger on his bent nose …
[Kurama] “ What ? “
And pulled …
[Kurama] “ !!! … SON OF A WHORE, YOU WORTHLESS MORTAL I’LL … “
[Jay] “ There, there, it's over, just calm down, I'll give you a treat later … something sweet and a warm bubble bath … “
Jay waited but Kurama was still silent.
[Jay] “ I'm open to suggestions too … “
Jay offered.
[Kurama] “ I'll think about it … “
Jay heard Kurama grunting before going back to ignoring him …
[Jay] “ Adolescence will be a ride for you, I'm sure of that … “
Jay almost laughed out loud at the image that popped into his head …
Yeah, he would have some fun with the Fox, it's not like he was in any hurry …
***
