Self-Edumacation [plot]

[Yasuhiro]

If there was anyone more irresponsible than Yasuhiro in the world, it was Hyūga Hiatari. The man - younger than even Hiro's brother - simply refused to show up. Weeks had passed by without the team making any progress as a whole, and Yasuhiro was tired of it. Even a lazy kid needs some sort of movement in his life.

This wouldn't do. If Hiro spent any more time just idling around then Shindama would get milestones ahead of him. Nope. Won't allow that. He had to impress Akemi. He had to beat Shindama. And he had to catch up to Sōra. One way or another, he was going to rise to the top - a very uncanny thing for a slacker like him to say, but he did have the motivation.

He was going to improve his shinobi skill by himself, little-by-little, but not before educating himself first. Without a second thought, he embarked on a self-surpassing quest that would take a lot more effort than he's ever given anything in his life. It was time to hit the books.

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Having chosen a suitable spot on which to sit at the base of some tree, Yasuhiro looked at the titles of the books he had checked out of the library earlier. Chakra For Dummies. How befitting. He was a fresh amateur after all. Another went A Basic Guide To Chakra, and the third, Beginner Improvement. That last one was actually a general shinobi arts book, so he was probably going to end up using it more than the other two.

He sat down and began reading; at first he saw familiar stuff he had learned back at the academy. Physical energy, spiritual energy. Exercise and strengthen the mind - your chakra pool shall grow. Aside from that, there were some simple exercises one could do to improve control over chakra, but nothing that seemed as efficient as the methods taught at the academy.

Chakra For Dummies was no good. A Basic Guide To Chakra, however, had some useful information. In it he came across some interesting methods he'd never seen before, but he decided to start off with a warm-up exercise he knew about from the academy. Even though he already knew how to do it, the book elaborated on how exactly one could improve their chakra control through it.

Yasuhiro stood up to get a leaf from the tree and sat back down in a meditative position. He removed his goggles, closed his eyes, placed the leaf upon his forehead, and then his hands on his knees. Chanting 'Ommmm...' repeatedly, he would then channel of his energy into focusing on his chakra, but more precisely, on himself.

The leaf would stick on Hiro's forehead, his chakra adhering to it like glue. With this the boy had achieved a state of near-complete focus. Such was the true goal of the leaf exercise: focus. Although it helped improved one's control over chakra, it would take incredible concentration to achieve the exercise. Yasuhiro was now in a different state of awareness than normal.

He felt at peace. Continually chanting the same tranquil sound enabled him to think clearly about things. Maintaining his chakra fixed in one location on his person allowed him to channel his energy into a single, linear train of thought. It's as if he could suddenly understand things better, or learn how to analyze more skillfully. Heh, not that it made him genius-level brilliant. But it was a start.

He kept it up for a while. In all honesty, he felt completely in control of his energies and thus himself, but not like he had made any big improvement. Relaxation and whatnot were his thing, but he just felt a bit more upbeat than that. This was sort of... Boring him. It would be best to get up and get moving. With that thought in mind, he would instead focus on physical training for a while.

Once he got up, he realized that he would have to train against imaginary opponents. How would anyone improve that way, right? Yasuhiro just figured he'd exert his body as much as he could. When pushed to the limit, one somehow improves. Or so he thought.

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words: 717
dialogue: a45a52