Focus on the basics [Training/Open]

Inuzuka, Kaito made his way directly from the simulation battle arena to the village's training grounds. He was upset and angry with himself.

How, after so many months of vigorous training, could he have lost his match during the second round of the exams? It didn't make any sense to him. Had he choked, or had Raiden really been that good? None of it really mattered, and the only way that Kaito was going to get stronger was through more training.

Not wanting to venture too far into the grounds today, the Inuzuka decided to stick with the First Training Ground. As there were not a whole lot of people there, practically all of the villagers flocking to watch the exams on the large observation screens that allowed them all to see the simulated battles, it was relatively peaceful.

"Good. I can train and focus in peace."

Kaito would sit himself upon the ground and cross his legs. He would then close his eyes and begin to meditate, trying to find some sort of inner peace and to come to terms with everything that had happened to him over the past couple of weeks. All went well for the first few minutes, but thanks to the boy's knack for sensory abilities, he could feel someone running in his direction at a jogging pace.

"Odd. I didn't think that anyone else would be here today..." The figure kept getting closer and closer, and with each step that the figure took, Kaito's heart would beat faster and faster. Fair enough, considering the fact that his parents had just been murdered by bounty hunting missing-nin who had been looking for him and Arantima.

Not able to deal with the pressure anymore, Kaito would jump into the air, spin in the direction of the figure behind him, and ready himself into his favorite battle position; an incomplete version of the Inuzuka Clan's favored fighting position; the "Imitation Beast Ninja Arts" style. His being incomplete, however, meant that he only bent forward at the knees, his shoulders brought backward to give more balance in the hunched position. He was ready for just about anything that would come his way, but what he was greeted with took him by surprise.

Before him stood a kid that he had never seen before, probably only a few years younger than himself. They had long pinkish-white hair and big red eyes, and Kaito blushed with embarrassment as he had allowed himself to get paranoid by the mere presence of them. One couldn't be too careful in the world of shinobi, however. Shaking his head and standing upright, Kaito would throw himself into a low bow.

"I apologize for that, really." He said before bringing himself back up to stand at attention. "The names' Inuzuka, Kaito, and again, I cannot apologize for enough about that. I'm just a bit... paranoid is all..."

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The kid seemed to simply brush off Kaito's potential as a threat, which put the Inuzuka at ease a bit. He still felt bad, however. It was not the first time that he had allowed his paranoia to get the better of him. How could he pay this person, who had introduced themselves as Uchiha, Kiyoharu, back for his rudeness?

"Nice to meet you, Kiyoharu." Kaito said with another bow. Upon raising himself back upright, Kaito could feel a bit of an awkward silence befall him like a shroud. He typically enjoyed meeting new people, but after having put his trust in his previous friendship with Arantima, and that very friendship coming back to bite him in the butt, he had a hard time getting to establish any connections.

It was for that reason that he had pushed away all of his friends within the village as well, including Raiden. That mistake too, however, had been a rather costly one. It very well might have cost him a promotion to Chūnin.

"So, uh..." He paused for a moment, his left arm arched with the hand placed on his hip as he scratched at his cheek with his right hand. "Wh-what ya training for? Whatever it is, I'd be happy to help with it..." He paused again for a second before continuing. "Some of the other Genin already call me a "teacher" or "sensei" anyway." He laughed a bit awkwardly, but patiently awaited the young Uchiha's response.

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Kiyoharu bowed in response to Kaito's bow before the moment of awkward silence shrouded them. Once Kaito mentioned that he would like to help with their training, however, the young one made it apparent that they were only still a student at the village's Ninja Academy. They explained that their brother had been the one training them the past few years before he had grown to be too busy, which didn't quite resonate with Kaito, but he would nod either way in acknowledgment.

He had always had his father to help in his training before the man's death a few days before, so he was kind of in the same boat as Kiyoharu.

With a nod, Kaito would smile.

"Well that settles it then, Kiyoharu. I'll be your teacher for today." Kaito would stretch out his body and continue speaking as he did so. "I want to start by commending you for keeping up with your fitness training. Sure, jutsu training is important, but you'll be surprised how many people only focus on that alone and don't continue keeping their body itself in top physical form." Flexing his finely toned muscles, Kaito would chuckle a bit. "Keep up your physical training and soon you'll have muscles like these." Once he finished his stretching, Kaito would then ready himself to jog. "How's about we jog another mile, then do fifty pushups, and then I'll teach you the techniques needed for your graduation exam, unless you want to do another training regiment?"

Kaito would await a response from Kiyoharu, and whatever it was they decided upon doing, the Inuzuka would smile, nod, and join them in doing it.

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Upon Kiyoharu's acceptance of Kaito's training regiment, Kaito nodded again.

"Alright. Lets get to it then!" He said enthusiastically.

Kaito took charge, but he had a bit of a hard time keeping his speed on par with that of his new students'. That would be something that he would have to work on. As they ran, Kaito focused on his breathing, but he also looked back on some conversations that he had with other people in the past. On more than one occasion he had been told that he would make a great teacher. The boy had typically just laughed off the thought of this, but now that he thought about it some more, he was genuinely beginning to agree.

And he had realized too that should he become a teacher, it wouldn't have to be solely at the Academy. He could very well become a Jounin sensei if he put in the work for it. A small grimace showed on his face as he remembered the rather laughable loss that he suffered during the exam only a little while earlier, but he had to do his best to look beyond that.

'There will always be next time...' He thought to himself, bringing a smile to his face. The smile, however, he could not tell was genuine or a fake one that he allowed to help in clouding his feelings on it all.

After a few more minutes of running around the lake and coming back to their original start position, Kaito would sigh a breath of relief and stretch his legs.

"How are you feeling after that mile? Your body should be feeling a bit looser now." Kaito would allow Kiyoharu a chance to rest and to respond before continuing. "Okay, now time for the pushups." Kaito would throw himself to the ground, catching himself with the palms of his hands and the tippy toes of his feet before busting out his fifty pushups in only a matter of a few minutes. They came relatively easy to the boy considering for the longest time he had been a "Taijutsu Specialist" as the village higher-ups called it.

These were just, as they should be to anybody, a warm-up.

Once finished with his push-ups, he would look over at Kiyoharu. They were still finishing up their set of reps as Kaito stood up and removed the flask from the pouch on the back of his right hip. He would open it up and fountain some of the water into his mouth to quench the slight thirst that came from the workout before offering some to Kiyoharu once they finished up. After they took Kaito up on the offer or not, he would replace the lid upon the canister and put it back into his pouch.

"Now for the fun part. To be honest, I know that you only need two techniques to help get your career as a shinobi started, but this world is a rough one. I don't tell this story to just anyone, but when I was about ten years-old, I lost my ninken, Kawomaru, in a horrible accident. I tried to save him, but we were going up against a band of missing-nin and I was too weak..." Kaito paused for a moment, relishing on all of the loss he had endured over the past three and a half years. "For that reason, however, I would like to teach you a few more techniques than the requirement for the academy graduation exam, that way you will always have them in your back pocket in case you ever need them. Those techniques include the "Substitution Jutsu", "Water Walking/Tree Climbing Jutsu", "Transformation Jutsu", "Clone Jutsu", "Genjutsu: Release", "Cat Eyes", "Fear Pull", "Fuinjutsu Breaking", the "Basic Medical Ninjutsu" technique, and the "Emotions On Your Sleeve" technique." Kaito would pause for a moment to garner the Uchiha's reaction to the list.

"I know that it may seem like a lot, but believe me, any one of those techniques can become aces when used properly. I'll let you decide on which ones you'd like to learn though and I'll be more than happy to teach them to you." Kaito would smile grandly as to reassure Kiyoharu of the promise that the young academy student had when it came to being a ninja.

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"Okay!" Kaito exclaimed excitedly as he rubbed his hands together in preparation. "Watch and learn, my young apprentice." He would look around into the woods surrounding them until he found a dead log that had long detached itself from the trees around it. "Bingo. Do you see that log? Watch me do these handseals and then look back at it." He raised his finger in the direction of the log before forming the "Tiger" -> "Boar" -> "Ox" -> "Dog" -> and "Snake" seals slow enough for Kiyoharu to see with ease.

As Kaito finished the hand seals, the log, which was no more than five meters in front of the duo, began to shape itself into a near-perfect replica of the Inuzka. It looked around itself and tried to walk around, but could not maneuver more than 1 meter away from where it spawned, almost like it was trapped in place.

"That there is called the "Substitution Technique"." Kaito instructed, showing a rather inquisitive look about him. "It's a basic enough technique to use and learn, but putting it into practice during actual combat is a different story. Should you pull it off, however, your opponents will be left dumbfounded and open for an attack." Kaito would remove one of the many kunai from his item pouch and throw it directly at the substitution. It didn't move and was met square in the face with the knife, but instead of writhing in pain or blood seeping through the wound, a puff of white smoke apparated out of nowhere as the log took back its initial shape.

Kaito would look down at Kiyoharu to garner their reaction before continuing his lecture.

"See what I mean, kid?" He asked with a smile. "While that technique was simple enough, for an experienced shinobi, it would be enough to gather not only an opponent's general location but also what type of attacks that they may have up their sleeves. This next technique can be used in almost the same manner..." The Inuzuka would for the "Ram" hand seal and expand his Chakra outwards. Four exact replicas of himself would appear in puffs of smoke to surround him and Kiyoharu. "This here is the "Clone Technique", which as the name suggests can create up to four exact clones of the user. What is different about these clones, however, is that they have no real substance to themselves." He would proceed to demonstrate this by walking in a circle around the clones, making sure to walk through each and every one of them to show that he could simply phase through them with ease.

Once Kaito finished walking through all of the clones and planted himself back at his starting position, he would dissipate the clones with another formation of the "Ram" hand seal.

"Now we've got only two more techniques that would be of utmost importance to mastering before your exams; the "Transformation Technique" and the "Water Walking/Tree Climbing Jutsu". I'm going to demonstrate these last two techniques before having you show me all of what you've learned thus far. Deal?"

Kaito would yet again await a response before nodding.

"Alright, now pay close attention to detail in this next technique."

Kaito would look Kiyoharu up and down a few times before closing his eyes and taking a deep breath. He would form the "Dog" seal and again allow his Chakra to expand outwards around him.

"Transform!"

Thanks to the boy's immense Chakra prowess, he almost instantaneously turned his outward appearance to that of Kiyoharu. He was able to match the Uchiha's appearance almost perfectly, including the clothing that they wore, but there would still be some imperfections such as the length of the hair, and the exact shade of the eyes, and there would be no vocal or Chakra signature replication. Kaito remembered back to his time at the Academy. He remembered how hard it had been for him to master this very technique, but now it came so easy to him. He would still not prefer it over one of his more powerful techniques, the "Body Mirror Duplication Jutsu", but that would be a demonstration for another day.

Kiyoharu was still only in the Academy, after all.

"This is the "Transformation Technique"." Kaito said, his rather deep voice not matching the appearance of his transformation in the slightest. "This is one of the more advanced abilities that they have students learn at the Academy, and rightfully so. It takes a whole lot of concentration to match the outward appearance of something like a weapon, let alone another human being." Kaito would then motion for Kiyoharu to follow him to the waterfront of the pond, releasing the transformation as he did so and reverting back to his normal appearance. Upon arriving he would kneel down to sit on his knees as he wafted his hand in the water below before bringing his now wet hand up to his face and rubbing the sweat from his brow and standing back upright. "Alright, last thing for now is the "Water Walking/Tree Climbing Technique". Unlike any of the other techniques I've shown you thus far, this technique does not require any form of hand seals. It only requires good enough Chakra control. Watch my feet."

Kaito would allow some of his Chakra to pool underneath his feet. It began to swirl around in all directions underneath the boy's weight, bringing him up from the ground by only a millimeter or so. Kaito would begin to walk backward into the water, seamlessly stepping on top of it and walking out 10 meters of the way into the water before stopping in place. Upon reaching his destination he would reach into his item pouch and remove from it 1,000 Ryō. He would show it off to Kiyoharu as a bit of enticement.

"Now, Kiyoharu. If you can perform all of those techniques on your first try, including walking all of the way out here without falling into the water, I've got 1,000 Ryō for you. You've just gotta come and get it..."

With that being said, Kaito would stand firmly in place above the water, watching intently at what the young Uchiha would show him. Kaito had no doubt in his mind, however, that he would be out of the money he was betting. He knew that this child had promise, and Kaito wanted to help them unlock their true potential. Even if it did resort to bribing them.

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