บท 9: Progress Report

The days kept flowing, like the rivers that wind throughout our village, and I kept progressing in my training. Day after day, I went out to do my morning training and throwing exercises, getting better with each passing day. Honestly, I had no idea how much longer my body could keep growing like this, but I wasn't about to question it.

After a year and a couple of months, I decided that I wanted to test myself and get feedback on what my dad thought about the results.

"Dad, I was thinking about testing my progress," I announced

"Oh? How are you going to test it?" He inquired

"I want to spar with you. Even though I don't have any experience in fighting, I really just want to test my body and get your opinions on how much I've grown over the past year."

My dad chuckled while wearing a bemused smile.

"You really are something else, kiddo, to want to challenge the clan head so early in life. I almost feel proud," my dad remarked, jabbing me with his elbow repeatedly.

I had nothing to say and just gave him the flattest look that I could muster up.

Still smirking, he accepted the proposal and told me to meet him in our backyard.

Nodding, I got ready and excitedly ran out to our backyard to show off the fruits of my labor.

Both my mother and father followed after me, my mother carrying a very curious 1-year-old, Kushina.

"Alright, so here's how this is going to go. Since you do not have a combat style yet and this is just a progress report, I want you to put all you can into every punch and kick. Even when you're running, you better be using your full strength, otherwise, I won't have any option but to knock you out to save us both the trouble. Understand?"

Nodding my assent, I got back into my typical running stance that I've developed from the year of training.

My right foot was slightly back, my arms close to my chest, and my body slightly lowered, so my center of gravity was in a better area.

Dad, seeing this, nodded his head and beckoned me forward.

As soon as I saw his hand move, I shot forward, not giving him a chance to complete his whole hand motion before I was in front of him.

I saw his eyes widen just the slightest bit, as if surprised by how fast I was able to move already, at 3 years old.

I threw my right hand forward to punch him, and he stuck his hand up and blocked my fist with an open hand. Internally, Haru was surprised at the amount of strength that his son was emanating out of his small body at this moment, but he couldn't outwardly show it as he had with his speed.

Haru, blocking the left hook coming for his face, thought back to the amount of burst and speed he had seen from his son. 'That speed is abnormal for a 3-year-old; it was at the level of an academy graduate already, which is just absurd, even if our bodies possess incredible physical prowess.'

While Haru was thinking about these things, Shiran was focused on showing the fruits of his labor.

'I just have to go faster. If I can get more speed behind my punches and kicks, I should be able to increase the power of each of my strikes.'

With this thought, I threw three more punches in quick succession: a left cross, a right hook, and finally finishing with an uppercut coming from my left.

Every single move was blocked by his outstretched open hand.

'Faster, I have to go faster so I can generate more power.'

I dashed to the side and looked at my father in the eyes. His clear, bright purple eyes matching mine, looked back at me with some pride but also what looked like excitement.

As I was sprinting forward, I started to think about how I could enhance the force of my punches.

'Could I boost my speed anymore? No, I don't have chakra to augment myself in this situation. If I put all my weight into a punch, could I get more force? It's possible, but what difference would my small body make in that situation? Then it hit me, what if I try to move around him and target one of his weak points? That could work, I think.'

All the while, my brain was firing on all cylinders; I was still charging at my dad. As I was going to throw another punch at him, I feinted, ducked under his outstretched palm, and hopped over to his right side. This caught him a little off guard, so he was just a little behind on the reaction.

I knew that even if he was behind by a little, I wouldn't be able to target any major weak spots, like the kidneys or knees, but there was still the wrist that was close and not too far out of range to land a hit, especially since we've been engaged in hand to hand the entire time.

As he turned his body towards me to block the incoming fist, I changed my hand trajectory just a little and ended up hitting him squarely on the wrist.

~~~~

Haru stood there a little stunned; since the beginning of this little 'spar,' if you will, Haru decided to only be at around a genin-level defense with no offense. This is because he only wished to see how much his little Shiran had grown in the past year, but out the gate was stupefied by the speed he had seen.

'That was at least academy graduation speed, if not full-on genin speed.' Haru mused

Then came the subsequent punches after the first burst of speed. The first punch Shiran threw was much more reasonable but still very hard for a kid his age. Everything after that didn't really surprise Haru; it felt like Shiran was just trying to test and get a feel for what his new level of strength was.

Little did Haru know that he had a couple more surprises headed his way. The first of which was when he used his Mind's Eye of Kagura ability and sensed Shiran's mind going through what felt like an accelerated thought process as he was charging toward him.

The second was when Shiran threw a feint Haru's way so he could have an opening to duck and slide to his right-hand side. The cherry on top of that whole sequence was when he diverted his punch to target a natural weak spot on the human body, where a cluster of small bones were.

Haru's hand snapped back a little from the force of the impact, but he quickly corrected it and blocked the hand that came straight for his face. As he held Shiran's fist, a delighted smile came to his face.

~~~~

I stood there as my dad started smiling at me, making just the slightest bit of cold sweat build up on my brow while my spine grew chilly.

Before I had a chance to back up, my dad spoke up.

"I can see your progress, and I must say I'm beyond proud. Your hard work has paid off," he praised.

I looked over at my mom and saw a warm smile on her face that spoke volumes about what she was thinking at the time.

My smile returned to my face, and I felt a weight get lifted off my chest, mostly out of the relief and comfort of knowing that I didn't let my mom or dad down.

'This is a good start, but I need to keep going; even an academy student could mess me up, and I'm not very fond of that idea.'