The next morning, I was waiting at the gate for my team and client. I had an air-filled balloon in my hand and was trying to work out the last step of the Rasengan. For the third step, I had to do the second stage but keep the energy contained and make it denser.

At some point, it should be self-sustaining from its own rotation. The needed Chakra to keep it going will trickle down to a minuscule amount. With a better understanding and skill, I should be able to create the finished Rasengan faster and with that cheaper.

So far, I had managed to destroy half a dozen balloons. Each time I got closer to the finished Rasengan. Each time I was sure I got it but then some tendril of the Rasengan would escape and destroy the balloon.

Right after destroying another balloon Ariha and Kagami-sensei arrived at the gates. Both saw me and came over. “Morning Kenshiro-kun, what are you doing?” Greeted Ariha with a friendly smile. She took a look at the destroyed balloons on the floor and made a puzzled expression.

“Morning Ariha-chan and Kagami-sensei. It's a Chakra Control technique and an attack Jutsu, if I get it to work,” I replied before blowing and knotting another balloon.

“You of all people are having a problem with something that has to do with Chakra control?” Asked Ariha in wonder and disbelieve. My team knew that I have almost perfect, now perfect, Chakra control. They didn't question it, I did enough training and have the needed training methods for it.

“That's not it. I pretty much have it down, I only need to keep it active. The problem I have is with fine control. I know how I can do it right now, but it would be a crutch,” I explained and made a Shadow Clone.

I put my hand to the side and began to form the Rasengan, while my clone started to keep it contained. With us sharing the workload it became easy to form and sustain the Rasengan. Within seconds I had a perfect Rasengan in my hand and the clone left, the Jutsu is now self-sustaining and I only needed to keep it contained, but not fueled.

Congratulation, you 'invented' a Jutsu.

Rasengan; LV 1 (24%) Active; A-Rank

The Rasengan is a close combat attack Jutsu. It uses wildly and chaotically rotating Chakra to shred and grind anything it encounters into dust.

“The condensed Chakra inside this small ball is immense. You have it concentrated in such a small ball that it became visible,” noted Kagami-sensei with a slightly worried look. If that thing explodes it will do serious damage to my hand.

“Yeah, doing one of those alone takes half of my Chakra. But that will change with training. Getting it up takes the most Chakra, if I'm able to form it quicker it will be less Chakra intensive,” I explained and let the Rasengan disappear. It fizzled out into blue wisps.

“It looks pretty, but what can it do?”

I answered Ariha’s question with a mysterious smile. “You’ll see, I can’t tell you all of my secrets.” She pouted but didn’t argue. We were taught in the academy that knowledge and secrets are power. Someone who knows all your tricks and skills is dangerous to you. We were always advised to not tell too much about ourselves.

Sakumo was next to come. „Morning team, am I late?”

“No, just in time. I can see the merchant we have to escort. Wait here, I go over and tell him who we are,” answered Kagami-sensei. He then walked over to a man with a donkey-drawn carriage and started to speak to him.

Ariha skipped over to Sakumo, “Hey Sakumo-kun, Kenshiro-kun has made another one of his Chakra control exercises. This time it can even be used for combat, at least he says so. He doesn’t want to tell me more, do you know anything?”

Sakumo looked over to me, but I only grinned, he then looked back at Ariha. “No, he hasn't said anything. You know him, he likes to experiment with his Chakra. I can't keep up with all the things he has come up with.”

“That reminds me, did one of you ever had the idea to increase the difficulty of the leaf sticking exercise?” I asked. I know that the teacher told us to add more leaves but that was it.

Sakumo denied having thought about it, but Ariha nodded. “ Yes, I did once. Adding more leaves makes it a bit more difficult, but not by much. That's when I thought that I could stick other things to me as well. Leaf sticking isn't any different than water walking or tree walking, just that we stick ourselves to something and not the other way around. I tried to stick a piece of bark and then stone to my forehead. It was harder but manageable. Why?”

“Well, you both know how we use our Chakra and glue it to the leaf, wall or water. If we use too much we will get blown off and if used not enough we will slip off or the leaf will fall down.

We need a good or perfect balance to hold onto the surface. That's where I had my idea. What if we use the same principle for something slightly more difficult,” I explained and pulled a Kunai out of my leg pouch.

They looked at it and then at me. By now they were mostly waiting for me to finish before asking questions. I took the Kunai in my right hand and placed my left hand under the end with the ring. I then slowly lowered the Kunai down and balanced it on my palm.

“We all have at one point or another balanced something on our palm. Be it out of boredom or for reflex training,” I continued. Both nodded, I did train my reflex like this, juggling helped as well.

“And now we add Chakra,” I finished with a grin and wrapped my Chakra around the ring. The Kunai slowly rose up from my palm and wobbled for a moment before becoming still. It was now floating over my hand, held up only by my Chakra.

“I see, you're putting enough Chakra into it to lift the Kunai off, yet not enough to launch it away,” analyzed Sakumo correctly. I nodded and slowly spun the Kunai around while keeping it afloat.

“It becomes harder with less surface to work on. The tip of the Kunai is the hardest and Senbon are even harder. While spinning you have to constantly adjust the amount of Chakra to keep it afloat.

And then there is also this,” I said and moved the ring back over my hand. I then pointed my palm at a nearby tree and added a huge amount of Chakra into my hand. The balance was instantly broken and the new Chakra launched my Kunai off and with breakneck speed into the tree. With a thunk, it got stuck and kept hanging.

Ariha whistled in appreciation and pulled the Kunai back out, she had to use some force to get it out as well.

“I'm not sure how effective that would be in a fight, or how fast you can throw them after each other. However, if you fight with your Kunai in close combat and your enemy jumps back, then this might very well be quicker than throwing. Most will also be surprised when they get a Kunai into the face without seeing the arm movements for the throw.”

“Can you teach us?”, asked Sakumo. I nodded with a grin and pulled two more Kunai out of my pouch, but was stopped from showing them by Kagami-sensei. He waved us over to him and the client.

“This is my Genin team, Uchiha Ariha, Senju Kenshiro and Hatake Sakumo. Little Genin, this is our client, Haro-san. For the duration of our trip, he will be under our protection.

This is a simple escort mission, Haro-san is buying and selling cloth.” Explained Kagami-sensei once we were close. Each of us nodded to the middle-aged Haro Lee. He was already seated on his wagon and held the reigns for his donkey.

“A pleasure, if possible I want to leave now. Time is money and I am not exactly rich,” joked Haro with a deep laugh. None of us laughed, which made him stop as well. He huffed and began to encourage his donkey to walk forward. Within minutes we were out of sight of Konoha and on our way.

“Kagami-sensei, are we allowed to train on our way?”, asked Sakumo after half an hour of doing nothing but walking at a civilian pace.

“Think about it and tell me, are you?” Sakumo looked confused for a moment, but then did think about his own question. After some thoughts he came to an answer, a simple no wouldn't be enough for Kagami-sensei he wants to know why not.

“Well, no, it wouldn't be advisable to train while being on a mission. We have to be in top condition to keep our client save. Training will take energy and, more importantly, focus we need for our mission.

So, no, normally we wouldn't be allowed to train. But on the other hand, training will keep us in top condition, especially on missions that take a long time and don't have any action in their description.

Without training, we would quickly lose our skills. That's why I suggested switching our training. One of us can train and the other two will be focused on our surroundings.”

“Very well, I'll allow it on this mission. For the future, make sure to clearly think about the possible risks of doing something distracting while being on a mission.

This one too, it might only be a low C-Rank mission, yet can jump up to anything if something unfortunate happens. Remember, this is no game, but real life!” We all nodded to Kagami-sensei's lecture and advise. For me, it was a little hard to agree with his last words. It's not easy to not think of my life as a game if I can see the names of everyone over their head or get pop up windows that tell me something.

“So who starts first?” Asked Ariha excitedly, she already has a Kunai in her hand and was eager to start the new exercise I have given them. Her Chakra control was already at 45. Really high for a Genin. Tsunade was a genius in Chakra control and I was a cheat, so no comparison to us.

Normal academy students have a skill level from 5 to 10. Genin from everything above 8 and usually lower than 40. Chunin are around 40 to 60 and Jonin were at 65 to 80. There were but only a few with a higher level than 80. Most medical Ninja or Jonin women. Females have generally a higher Chakra control than males, but less to work with. Sakumo has a control of 25, it gets boosted if he adds it to his sword. And Kagami-sensei has one of 70. Of course, there are differences, but those are the general levels.

It really shows how much Chakra everyone wastes with their techniques.

“Kenshiro-kun?” I looked back to Ariha. “Yeah? I was in thought,” I replied with an apologetic smile.

“No problem, I asked who wanted to start training first.”

“Let Sakumo-kun start, he had the idea. You can go second and I'll be last. Don't use all of your Chakra, only a quarter,” I answered. She nodded in agreement, giving our all now would be stupid.

An hour later Ariha has stopped with her attempts on keeping the Kunai afloat and put it away. It was now my turn and I happily started to gather Chakra for a Rasengan.

The blue sphere was now coming quicker and with more ease than before. Having the Jutsu acknowledged by the system is a great help and makes using each skill way easier. I have learned that I can use every skill I have with almost no problem once I have it in my Skill/Jutsu library.

I had to wait for a minute to recharge my Chakra, after forming two Rasengan, but that was okay. Once half an hour has passed I asked Sakumo and Ariha if they wanted to start training again, yet both said they still had not enough Chakra.

I shrugged and continued and managed to level the Rasengan to level 2 just shortly before we set camp for the night. If we keep this up I will be at level 3 or 4 when we have finished with the mission.