How did one get stronger? The question ran through Takuma's mind more than it had ever. His previous answers to the questions had been: follow whatever Maruboshi taught… observe others' combat style in basic training and thus learn how to counter them more effectively… train to improve at his ninjutsu arsenal… and add more jutsu into his repertoire.

But now those answers seemed ineffective. He no longer trained with Maruboshi; both he and his teacher had their lives and couldn't follow their daily training; no matter how much Takuma would've loved to continue, he couldn't ask Maruboshi to adjust to his schedule. Yoshio's mandatory sparring sessions in basic training were no longer available; he could spar with Ai, Nenro, and Masaaki (Taro refused to spar), but their schedules seldom matched. He continued to train his ninjutsu, but he didn't have mission points to get more.

Even his total training time had reduced. During basic training, he would train by himself in the morning and then train more under Yoshio— but now, while he trained in the morning, he worked the rest of the day. On average, with the varying type of D-rank missions, he worked four to five days a week; he had tried to reduce that number, but it proved difficult when the choice of mission wasn't in his hand.

And when he wanted answers, Maruboshi was again out of the village on a C-rank mission, escorting some business caravan somewhere.

He thought about ways to get more powerful on his own, using his esoteric knowledge about this world to his advantage— but nothing seemed viable to him. He could snatch a Sharingan or Byakugan, but that would get him killed immediately. He could steal the Forbidden Scroll of Seals stored at the Hokage's Residence like Naruto did— but the chances of getting court-martialled were inevitable. Every scenario he thought ended up in a dead-end.

Takuma sighed as he sipped the cold lemonade he bought from a food stand inside the Genin Corp complex to beat the scorching summer heat. He had just got a D-rank mission that would have him work the night shift as a security guard at a state food warehouse. He absolutely hated work at night— it wrecked his sleep cycle and disturbed his regular schedule of things.

"That's not a sigh due to the weather, is it?"

Takuma looked up and, to his surprise, it was Ebisu sitting down on the neighboring bench.

"No, it is not," said Takuma, making small talk.

"Would you like to share? Many times, simply speaking things out to someone resolves the problems."

Takuma chuckled, "Is this a way to get me to visit your counseling? I'd speak about my problems to you, you'd say some words to me, I'd feel better— and you're hoping that I'd be impressed enough that I would come visit your office for a session. I didn't know you worked as a salesperson, counselor."

Ebisu smiled, "If you think about it, everyone's a salesman. All of us are putting up a version of ourselves in front of others to make them find us appealing in some way. We do it in front of our peers, friends, partners, bosses, and even strangers. Some do it poorly, others do it well, but everyone does it whether they see it so or not. And as to answer your other question, I'd be delighted to have you visit my office for a session."

Takuma glanced at Ebisu. He had a much different image of Ebisu in his mind. A stricter, no-nonsense, more straightforward man— but this one was somewhat of a talker.

"You know, I wouldn't mind a session with you," said Takuma, "unfortunately, you take mission points, which I can't spare. If you took ryo, I'd probably already be in your office planning my shinobi career with you."

While the counseling session with Ebisu didn't cost nearly anywhere close to a D-rank jutsu, they cost mission points nevertheless. Even if they cost a fraction of a mission point, he wouldn't use them for a counseling session when he could save that fraction up for a jutsu.

"I'm sorry, but I didn't get your name," asked Ebisu.

"Takuma."

"Well then, Takuma, it's nice to meet you. How about I give you a quick session here without charge, and you decide whether an official one is worth the mission points or not," said Ebisu with a smile. "What do you say?"

Takuma thought about it for a moment before getting up from his bench and taking a seat beside Ebisu.

"I will take that as an agreement," Ebisu put aside his beverage and sandwich plate.

"How do I get stronger?" Takuma opened up the conversation. If this was going to be a free quick session, then he was going to be direct and blunt to get the most out of it.

Ebisu took a moment of silence before replying, "It would depend on your skill set. I'm assuming you're talking about your overall skill set and not just physical strength." Takuma nodded. "I will need to know more about you to give a useful answer," said Ebisu.

"Doton(Earth Release) affinity, completed basic training, I don't specialize in anything, but I know a C-rank Doton jutsu. Other than that, I know two more D-rank ninjutsu," he gave Ebisu the names of the jutsu, "I consider taijutsu as my weakness…. That's about it, I guess," said Takuma.

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"You know your affinity; that's extremely helpful," Ebisu looked pleasantly surprised.

"Yeah, but I don't have the mission points to buy more jutsu," sighed Takuma.

"Progress takes time, Takuma— but I understand your plight," Ebisu fell silent for a moment. "If we were to focus on the bigger picture, given that you know your affinity and already have a C-rank jutsu, learning more ninjutsu seems like one path for you. But if we are to look at what you can do right now… hmm, which sounds better to you: cover your taijutsu weakness with something, or do you wish to eliminate taijutsu as a weakness?"

Takuma was baffled by the question. "Isn't eliminating taijutsu as a weakness a better option? I mean, if I had a choice, why would I keep a weakness at all?"

"People aren't made equal. Everyone has their own strength and weakness, their own talents and shortcomings. Elemental affinity is an example. Sometimes it's better to further nurture your strengths than to pointlessly bash your head against a mountain," Ebisu pushed up his glasses. "Do you think taijutsu is something like that for you? Of course, I'm not saying to stop taijutsu training altogether, but you need effort management."

Did Takuma think that his taijutsu had reached a dead-end and that he needed to cover it up with something else? His spars and fights passed through his mind. From the day of his first spar to his first win against Airi to his blood-splattering wounds in basic training to his wins in the tournament…. Did he think he couldn't improve anymore?

No, he didn't think that.

"What would I use to cover up my taijutsu," he asked.

"You can work towards becoming a ninjutsu specialist and add an aspect of distance or range to your combat. Or, perhaps work on your bukijutsu— weapons are an important part of combat and add much to your combat style, and there's a chance they might add what you're missing to your close-ranged combat."

Takuma sighed. He had three jutsu. If he could use Raiton: Shokku like Nenro, he would've definitely tried to find and create opportunities to pick his opponents out from a distance. Suiton: Kirigakure Jutsu would also work well to keep people away, but there was a caveat that he himself couldn't see in the mist— Takuma had to rattle Nenro to ensure he didn't move so that he could nail him with the kunai.

As for weapons… Maruboshi used a sword. His teacher had a prosthetic leg with a sword inside; it was one of the scariest things that Takuma had seen. He didn't have plans for picking up kenjutsu, but if he ever did, he would like it to be with Maruboshi.

He turned to Ebisu and asked, "What about… genjutsu?"

Ebisu hummed, "Genjutsu isn't like ninjutsu, Takuma. Sure, you can pick up a genjutsu scroll and learn it— but if you genuinely wish to learn genjutsu, you must learn several basics and theories. In many ways, genjutsu is closer to iryo-jutsu. That's the reason why we have so few true genjutsu users in the village. It takes a lot of time and effort to learn genjutsu to a functional level. Integrating it into your combat is another undertaking. However, once you know those, you have the freedom to create whatever you're capable of.

"My advice for those looking towards genjutsu has always been that if you aren't ready to commit yourself to properly learn genjutsu, then learning individual genjutsu from scrolls is a waste of time and resource."

Takuma licked his lips as he wondered if he wanted that level of commitment. He was vaguely aware of how much effort it took to become an iryo-nin— it was quite similar to becoming a doctor back in his world.

He was aware that genjutsu didn't work properly on him, but Takuma didn't know if that would translate to his learning ability. He never had a chance to check that out. He had enough to buy a D-rank jutsu, but he didn't want to use those hard-earned mission points on an experiment. His experience with Raiton: Shokku hadn't been pretty. Takuma knew his primary affinity, and it made sense to go towards his strength than do something risky. Six months was a long time.

"I will continue working on my taijutsu," said Takuma. The next time he had mission points to spare, he would buy a genjutsu scroll to test it out. Until then, Doton was the way to go.

"Well, if it's like that, then taijutsu is your answer," Ebisu smiled as he showed a clenched fist. "Out of every skill in a shinobi's reach, taijutsu shows the most visible improvement. The more you use your body, the more your physical energies make the body stronger. You become faster, stronger, reflexes and senses improve, your endurance rises— not only that, your body becomes more resilient to damage.

"A shinobi difficult to kill is the worst enemy. Taijutsu is what raises that difficulty for most shinobi."

Takuma wholeheartedly agreed with that statement. Currently, the person he thought was the hardest to kill in the village was Might Gai, the monster of taijutsu. The chapters in which Gai fought the Jinchuriki Madara were his favorites; it was also one of those scenes for which he had seen the anime clips. Even from personal experience, Masaaki was the hardest to get down in their group. Despite not seeing it with his own eyes, he had heard enough to know how much damage Nenro had to do to put Masaaki down.

"There are jutsu that integrate with taijutsu, but you can invest in them later; for now, you can refer to the Hidden Leaf Kata from the general archives and start practicing," advised Ebisu. "Meet with your friends and spar with them…"

Takuma could do that. The Hidden Leaf Kata was free for him to refer to, and it was an entire style of taijutsu available to every shinobi. If he worked out a system with Masaaki, Ai, and Nenro, he could alternate reliably between the three and maybe even get Taro in the mix to spar with one person daily.

"…because the best way to improve taijutsu is to, put it simply, fight…"

Takuma's mind went blank as the words echoed in his skull.

"… the more you fight, the more your body will learn. For taijutsu, doing is the only way to learn…"

When he looked back, it was clear to Takuma that the basic training spars and the final tournament were more valuable to him than his year at the academy and his spars with Maruboshi. The fear of bleeding and broken bones made him improve drastically more.

"… Thank you, counselor."

He had a decision to make.

———

.

"Have you come to a decision?"

Takuma had called Shady Guy with an answer in mind, and as he stood in front of him, he thought about it once more…

"I will participate," he said.

If he could get stronger and get more resources to get even stronger. If he could get more mission points, he would be able to save up for his genjutsu experiment. Taking one risk to take another risk… didn't sound like a great deal, but it was his decision.

A smile stretched up on Shady Guy's face. He stepped out of the dark street and stood closer to Takuma with an outstretched hand.

"Then I must say, merry cooperation."

Under the moon's silvery light, Takuma shook the hand and sealed the deal.