What's a genius?

Most people would think of people with an immense amount of talents - youngsters, who despite being younger, often outmatch their seniors and learn anything at a shocking speed!

But it's not only talent that makes a genius.

Often they have also a sharp mind and intellect which sets them apart from their peers!

Currently, Hayate was eating dinner at Ichiraku Ramen with one of those geniuses.

Her name is Yugao Uzuki, she joined the Anbu when she was only in her childhood, trained later kenjutsu under Hayate, and is also his lover.

"Hey, I heard you are teaching some brat now?"

"Well, at the start I only wanted to teach him the basics, but honestly watching him train is fun so I keep teaching him."

"Hooo, so he must be special if he caught your eyes, right?"

"Koff, well it's hard to say. His talent is the definition of mediocre, not even comparable to you. So he isn't really a genius and his personality is a bit rotten..."

"Rotten?"

"Koff, he is pretty shameless and has a rude demeanor. He really knows how to get on people's nerves..."

"Then why are you teaching him?"

"Hmm, the thing is, even though his talent is mediocre his progress is still shocking for his age...I think the best way to describe why would be because of his mindset. When it comes to training, he somehow gets serious and shows some kind of professionalism. What I mean by that is, that he focuses on mastering the fundamentals instead of trying to jump straight into flashy techniques and he also trains efficiently: He doesn't train too much where it becomes detrimental instead. But most importantly, his standards when it comes to strength are pretty high..."

"What do you mean by that?"

"Koff, well most would consider Chunin to be relatively strong while Jonin would be something unfathomable, the elite, right? Well, I can see it in his gaze, that what he considers to be strong, goes even beyond Anbu level!"

"Ohh, so he is a dreamer? Well, that's certainly good, since if your expectations aren't high, no matter how unachievable they are, this will only limit one pretty heavily. So shooting for the stars is a good habit."

"Koff, I agree...that's why it's so fun to see him grow. Someone who is mediocre, but still has a shocking growth speed similar to geniuses - a budget genius."

"A budget genius? Oh dear, you sometimes come up with really strange ideas, well that's a part I love about you though."

It's now around two months since I started kenjutsu training around Hayate.

He showed me a one-handed sword style because of my injury.

I already have understood most of the basic stuff when it comes to kenjutsu, partly because his teaching style was more or less learning by doing.

Means a lot of sparring - A LOT.

I don't mind though since it IS the best way to get a feeling about what you are supposed to do.

So I can proudly say that I'm already a swordsman!

But that's only for pure kenjutsu without the use of chakra.

He told me starting next week he will teach me how to implemented chakra into kenjutsu.

To be honest, I think he somehow forgot that he only wanted to teach me the basics...not that I mind though.

Other than kenjutsu training, I kept training my chakra manipulation - I even started to try the Tree Climbing Practice...but let's just say the results aren't as good as I hoped...

When it comes to the acceleration technique...I have to postpone it for now since I already have a full training-regimen and after using chakra for the Tree Climbing Practice, I just don't have enough chakra to do it.

But overall things progress smoothly.

To smoothly!

A wise man once said if life seems peaceful Truck-kun will come to get you when you least expect it!

Good thing that there are no trucks in this world...

Anyway, I somehow have the feeling I forgot something this whole time...

At the park where Eiji and Tenten trained.

There, a super angry Tenten threw a barrage of weapons towards practice dummies which had all faces of Eiji drawn onto them.

"I can't believe he forgot about me..."