The physical exercise had a refreshing effect on the mentally drained students. The girls ran, when they saw Ino and Ryoshi outside, waiting for them. Shinry launched herself at Ino for a hug.

“Oi, oi. What’s this? Shouldn’t you hug your brother first? Said Ryoshi, without any bite in his tone. Only for Ino to stick out her tongue at him. Much to his surprise a lot of the ice between them had melted over the sparring session. Even at her young age was incredibly charismatic, they were bantering back and forth very quickly. She had proven to be more adaptable to her strange situation than him, perhaps a perk of being a kid still. He kept thinking though, maybe the influence of the eldritch creature went beyond just making them stick close to each other. As harrowing as those thoughts could be, there was no use wasting energy thinking about it.

“Sorry, nii.” Shinry said as she let go of Ino and hugged her brother. “I was just worried, because Ino wasn’t in school today. Also her father said, you had something important to tell us.” She said expectantly.

“Alright, let’s all go inside before we start talking and sit down.” Ryoshi said, as he ushered the children inside to the same room where they had their slumber party. They had all gathered in the dingy room when Ino spoke first.

“I will not be attending the academy anymore. Because I have graduated!” She said excitedly. Making the room fall silent, with just gaping looks in her direction. All the positive things the boy was thinking about Ino’s natural charisma and eloquence went out of the window at that moment. Even he stood frozen, at the sudden bomb drop.

“What the hell Ino-chan! You can’t just drop a bomb like that, you need to ease people into big news.” Ryoshi exclaimed but he got completely ignored as Ino spoke again.

“Oh yeah, I am also moving in with Ryoshi-san!” She chirped happily. Almost bursting into giggles at the dismayed looks her friends gave her. Ryoshi just face palmed and stayed silent.

“What!? Why?” Shinry yelled, her voice uncontrolled in her surprise.

“Well, a lot has happened this morning. I will explain.” Ino said as she started going over the events that had bound her mental health to the proximity of Kobayashi Ryoshi.

“Isn’t that dangerous? You will be part of a genin team already.” Sakura asked, concerned.

“Yeah, I’ve been told I need to train extra to catch up.” Answered Ino.

“Okay. Yes excellent reminder Ino, everyone get up. We will train.” Said Ryoshi getting up from his seat.

“My sister needs to be punished for not giving me a hug first and I’ve seen you girls have been slacking in taijutsu training. We can’t have that. Come on, up up up.” He said, clapping his hands. Groans were the responses but they obeyed nonetheless. The quiet Hinata had not asked any questions nor had she complained at all.

“To be honest, I was planning to teach a secret technique to my sister, but then Ino is now kind of part of the family, so I have to teach her as well. Then you too showed up as well, so consider this your lucky day.” Ryoshi started when they were outside.

“First of all this is a taijutsu style of my own making. What this means is that I don’t want to step on anyone's toes by making you prioritise this over stuff they teach you at the academy. It is up to you if you want to focus on training like this or stick to what you already know. With the disclaimer out of the way.”

“Wait, if this won’t make our grades better, why are we learning it.” Asked Sakura, clearly looking for excuses to stray away from the group.

“Excellent question, Sakura-chan. Because my goal with teaching you is to broaden what you know, rather than improve on things you are already learning. Knowing various things sharpens the mind and opens it to more possibilities.” Answered Ryoshi and continued his explanation.

“So I call this style, the way of the intercepting fist. I know it’s a mouthful but you don't have to worry about the name, it is there to point at the concept and goal of this style. The idea is simple, you move and hit an opponent who is mid attack, intercepting their attack, to accomplish two tasks in one motion. To attack while defending. Do you understand what I am trying to say?” Asked Ryoshi. The girls nodded.

“I know this sounds too good, that’s because it is, but the drawback is the difficulty of such a task. You need to be precise, fast and very observant. As well as having practices sufficiently to have efficient movement, otherwise you can’t keep up with your opponent. Keep this in mind as we practice, it should help learn and adapt to the movement better. So let’s start with a simple move. Left foot forward a comfortable distance, at the same time shifting your body sideways by moving your right shoulder back and raising your left hand for a quick jab.” Ryoshi demonstrated the movement as he explained them and the motioned the girls to also do the movement. He set them to do repetitions as he observed and tried to correct their moves to be more efficient as much as he could. He did see a lot with his Byakugan.

This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

“Hinata-chan.” He spoke as he got closer to the girl. “I know as a Hyuga you also learn Gentle Fist, I don’t want you to get in trouble. If this introduces flaws to your style, perhaps reconsider practising it. Although I have faith you can learn both, maybe even gain improvements in both styles. It might be difficult to do so and I don’t want you to think that you have to or must learn this. Think of this more as a fun activity to do with your friends, there are no obligations or anything to burden you.” Ryoshi gently smiled at the timid girl who was now uncomfortable at his closeness.

“T-thank y-you. R-ryoshi-san I will keep that in mind.” She answered stuttering.

“Let me tell you something else as well. I knew someone that stuttered.” Spoke Ryoshi calmly and in a low voice so only she could hear. The girl looked down and sad as her flaw was pointed out.

“I told him to say what he wanted once before in his mind and think of it as practice before actually saying it out loud. This way, since you already did it once you know you can do it. It helped him stutter less, of course it's not a perfect solution. But at least you tried, right? That’s all I can ask for.” She nodded in acceptance. Ryoshi couldn’t help but feel protective of the timid girl.

“I hope you understand, I just want to help you, Hinata-chan and not to hurt you in any way.” He said smiling gently, trying to assuage the girl from feeling bad.

“Yes. Ryoshi-san.” She said a little bit more confidently now.

“Atta girl.” He said as he patted her head. “Now aim higher, you are a bit shorter than the rest of your peers.” She nodded, blushing slightly.

“Okay, I think that was a nice first day. Let’s call this move the jab, I think your forms are fine for now. Perhaps later we will iron out more kinks, but for a first day not so bad.” Ryoshi nodded to himself with some pride as the girls stopped their movements.

“What are you doing!? Nobody told you to stop, keep going. Gotta do the jab a thousand times.” He raised his voice urging the girls to get back into motion.

“What!? A Thousand! That’s too much!” Complained, Ino.

“That’s plus a hundred for Ino-chan.” Ryoshi said, completely apathetic to the complaint.

“But I was already tired from the sparring!” She complained some more, trying to excuse herself from getting more repetitions.

“That’s 1200 now.” Ryoshi said nonplussed. So Ino shut up and kept doing the simple jab.

“Also Shinry you will do plus 100 for not hugging me first.” Ryoshi added slightly smirking.

“That’s so unfair!” She yelled.

“Life of a ninja is rarely ever fair, little one. That’s another 100 by the way.” Ryoshi said, now fully holding a shit eating grin. Her eye burned in anger, as she primed up to shout once more, but managed to hold herself back. For the next hour Ryoshi basked in the little sunlight coming through the canopy, as little fists pierced the air a few feet in front of him. Even though he wasn’t facing them he still observed them with his Byakugan, trying to focus and defocus as practice. Unfortunately he realised he didn’t have the time to explore the ninja world learning all the jutsu he was interested in, when he first saw them in the manga. He had no choice but to focus on his strongest options, which currently was the Byakugan. So that is what he would try to improve to a satisfactory level, outside of just general ninja combat and taijutsu, which he would train with his team starting tomorrow. Perhaps even jutsu related to his chakra natures a bit later down the line. Surprisingly he had no time to do that yet even though he was in this world for more than 3 months already.

“I hope you are keeping count. Because you gotta start over if not.” Said Ryoshi, without looking back.

“If I catch anyone stopping before the correct number of jabs, they will do double next time.” He said smiling as if it was a pleasant exchange of greetings. As he heard more than one voice start counting, he was pleased with himself and started thinking. Why did these kids even listen to him in the first place? Perhaps because they felt grateful for the rescue last night. Maybe he was slightly older than them, an authority figure because he is an actual genin and not an academy student? He did not know. He was pleased about it nonetheless. It would help them in the future, of that he was certain. He wasn’t even sure why he decided to teach them in the first place. He decided to live this life with no regrets so he did, because he felt like doing so.

“Good gods, why do you look so exhausted? It was just some simple jabs.” Ryoshi said with a mock confusion on his face after they had finished the task. The girls just silently glared at him from the ground where they sat. Well Ino and Shinry did. Sakura was horrified and Hinata looked pleased.

“Good job everyone, you are free to do as you wish. I think I got a guest.” Ryoshi said to his new disciples as Kakashi appeared out of nowhere. With his hands in his pockets, the man looked like he was out for an afternoon stroll.

“Hey there.” He said casually. “Whatcha doin?” He questioned.

“Had a day off, and an opportunity to help my dear sister and her friends, so I did.” Ryoshi answered in the same casual tone as the silver haired Jounin.

“I see.” He said not impressed. “Why does the pink one look horrified?” He asked, pointing to Sakura. Ryoshi made a show of turning his head towards her then just shrugged.

“I didn’t think I had another appointment with Morino-san. I hope you are not here to take me away, Kakashi-san.”

“Ah, yes. I knew I had a reason for coming here.” He said, making a show of widening his eye as he remembered something. The girls looked on in confusion at the exchange between the two men.

“I am afraid you have been summoned by someone much worse.” Kakshi explained and he paused for dramatic effect.

“It was Hime-sama, she is waiting at the hospital, oh btw I was supposed to get you half an hour ago.” Still completely unbothered, Kakashi spoke.

“I see, very well. Come on Ino-chan. Apparently we gotta visit Tsunade-sama.” Ryoshi answered keeping up the casual tone.

“Urgh… I can barely stand and the hospital is so far away.” She complained.

“It’s fine, I got you.” Ryoshi said as he kneeled before her and motioned for her to climb on his back. She did so but not before she complained a bit more.

“This is embarrassing… but I’m so tired I don’t care.” So they headed towards the hospital, rather quickly.