As everyone walked out of Kohaku's house and went their separate ways, Kaiji walked with Hiroshi, Ren, Ryū, and Renji, whose ways were in same direction.
The others went in different directions.
While walking casually, Ren suddenly remembered something and asked, "By the way, Renji, what about Taichi? He used to compete with you during the Academy. I haven't seen him since graduation."
Ryū chuckled upon remembering Taichi and replied, "He still has a rivalry with Renji. He comes once, every few weeks and challenges Renji to a duel."
Hiroshi asked, "And what's his win ratio?"
Ryū chuckled again and said, "He still hasn't won a single match against Renji. Though he has grown stronger, but he's still no match for Renji."
Renji felt a little embarrassed by the praise and said, "No, I'm not that strong. I still have more to learn myself and grow further. I'm still a Genin like all of you."
Ren corrected him and said, "Genin? Yes. But elite in that category. You might even go toe-to-toe against a newly promoted Chūnin."
Hiroshi added, "But man, after watching Kaiji and Ryū's spar today, I feels that I also should focus on training more."
Ren also nodded and said, "...Me too..."
Kaiji looked at Renji with curiosity and asked, "Renji, you said my chakra reserves are just lower than yours among us, but what's the exact difference?"
Renji put his hand on his chin, thinking, and then spoke, "If I have to tell you in percentage, you could say mine is approximately 25-30% higher than yours."
Kaiji tilted his head, surprised by Renji's estimate.
He narrowed his eyes at him and said, "Wow, that's really unexpected. Are you even telling me the truth or just joking?"
Renji immediately shook his head and said, "No, I'm not lying. In fact, I'm really curious about what kind of training you've been doing by yourself to grow this much."
Ryū also nodded and said, "I'm curious too."
Ren and Hiroshi also looked at Kaiji.
While they knew his usual training pattern, it was still hard for them to believe that his strength had increased this much.
Kaiji told them with a shrug, "As I told you before, I've done physical training with weights usually, and meditation before sleeping. This is usually my routine, with includes of Kenjutsu training for the last few months."
He, however didn't spoke about Seven Heavens Breathing Technique and Medical Ninjutsu training he done.
They afterall are also the main reasons of his fast growth in strength, with other usual training routine of his.
Renji nodded and stated, "Pakura-sensei mentioned it to us once, that to grow chakra, both physical and mind training are needed, as chakra is a combination of both."
Hiroshi was confused and asked, "What do you mean by mind training? Is that even really useful?"
Ren lightly smacked him and said, "He isn't talking about anything superficial. Mind training means meditation and such. It might even increase a ninja's Genjutsu prowess as well."
Hiroshi nodded, making an 'O' look with his mouth, understanding properly.
Suddenly, Renji's steps halted, followed by Kaiji and the others.
All took a few steps back, feeling an instinctive chilling sensation and unease.
They felt an unsettling dread, a bad vibe.
They understood that something was wrong, but they couldn't pinpoint... What?
Only Renji understood it and reflected, 'A Silent Killing Intent? Who? Where?'
His mind raced, his instincts screamed as he looked around to find the ninja's location.
Just then, a figure appeared in front of them.
He had short, mousy red hair and wore the Suna flak jacket with a sleeveless undershirt, bandages around both arms, brown pants with an attached holster where he kept his puppet summoning scroll, and brown shinobi sandals.
This was Sasori.
His grayish-brown eyes were dull, giving off strange vibes around him.
Everyone's eyes widened upon seeing him, but Renji and Kaiji were more shocked; for different reasons.
Renji wasn't sure why Sasori, a well-respected Special Jōnin, even known as the Genius Modeling Specialist of the Puppet Brigade, was leaking Killing Intent openly in village.
Kaiji on otherside, feels that the near future of the Third Shinobi War was even closer.
Sasori's expressions were a clear sign for him.
But he was also surprised why Sasori had stopped in front of them.
Everyone glanced at Sasori warily because the suppressed, subtle Killing Intent they felt was still around them, making them instinctively stay on guards.
Tension was palpable in surrounding.
Silence fell for a few minutes, broken by Sasori.
He asked in hoarse voice, "Where is Reeku-sensei?"
The rising tension suddenly changed to confusion.
They all thought the same thing, 'Why is he trying to intimidate us for such a simple question?'
Ren stepped forward and said, "Sensei is still at Kohaku's house."
He pointed toward the direction of the house.
Sasori nodded and slowly walked toward Kohaku's house.
No one moved until Sasori was far away from them.
Hiroshi sighed deeply and asked, "What's wrong with that person, and what was he even doing? I felt intimidated by him."
Renji answered his question, "That's called Silent Killing Intent."
The three of them nodded, though they didn't know exactly what Killing Intent was.
But Kaiji got confused and asked, "I know a little bit about Killing Intent, and from my knowledge, Killing Intent is usually silent. Why are you referring to it specifically as Silent Killing Intent?"
Renji nodded and replied, "You are correct, both are actually the same, but normally Killing Intent is a strong aura of dread, almost like a heavy pressure..."
Hiroshi interrupted him and said, "Oh, that sounds quite powerful. I also want to learn this Jutsu."
Kaiji chuckled and said, "It's not a Jutsu or a technique that uses chakra in the traditional sense, but rather a display of a Shinobi's will to kill the enemy."
Renji nodded and said, "He is right. It's not a Jutsu you can learn directly, but with practice, it can be possible to use. However, it requires a higher level of mental strength and focus. It's not something any ninja can just 'turn on' to use."
Hiroshi and Ren nodded in understanding.
Ryū asked, "Did you learn about it from your sensor ninja sensei?"
Renji nodded.
Kaiji reminded him, "Well, you were telling us about the difference between Killing Intent and Silent Killing Intent!"
Renji rejoined, "Oh right. It's not actually a big difference. Just that Silent Killing Intent is a suppressed form of Killing Intent which isn't like a heavy, strong aura."
Kaiji listened to him and thought, 'What do you mean by not a heavy aura? But whatever the case, it's also quite useful, especially when used on weaker opponents, like Orochimaru did on Team 7 and Sasori used on us.'
Killing Intent's main use is to scare opponents, making them freeze, become confused, and even imagine their own deaths, like a Genjutsu but different.
This can create an opening in a fight and stop a weaker opponent from acting.
It can break an opponent's will to fight, making them question their abilities or even causing panic.
Kaiji felt that this might actually be useful to learn and use in the future.
But his mind once again drifted back to Sasori and the unavoidable future, which he could only try to survive.
He calculated and thought, 'If Sasori takes action within this week, then at most I can say I have 3, or if got lucky, 4 weeks.
Whatever the case, I need to tighten my grip and train even harder.'
...
3 days passed in the blink of an eye.
Kaiji's predictions came true.
Sasori might indeed take action within this week.
He learned from Ren that their Jōnin Sensei, Reeku, had gone missing the very next day after Kohaku's birthday.
Tension within village arose because of this.
A Jōnin level shinobi gone out from village and no one knows anything.
Kaiji assumed that maybe Sasori was collecting and making strong puppets for use, when he would go against Satei.
Though he might obviously use cheap tricks like poison during Satei's sleep...
But he might still have to fight him, if he fails in his surprise attack.
Kaiji understood the need for strength.
He trained further in the Seven Heavens Breathing Method, trying out 'Second Activation' and Earth Wall Jutsu while in the activation state.
Plus, he got four Fūinjutsu scrolls from Takeshi, who said he could only give him these.
They included Gravity Seal, Storage Space Seal, Explosive Tag Seal, and Silencing Seal.
While useful, these were considered Mid-level Fūinjutsu techniques.
Above them were Sensory Barrier Seal, Binding Formation, and Containment Seals used for holding Bijuu and such, which Kaiji knew were not available to him.
Though he was confused on why Binding Formation was considered a High-level sealing technique.
However this all was a way for him to improve his Fūinjutsu skills.
So, that in future, he could create his own Containment Seal, which didn't even need to be at the level of the Four Symbols Seal, let alone the Eight Trigrams Seal.
Just usable enough for him.
But he didn't dwell on it for now.
He just continued his training, also Mystic Palm Jutsu and for Fūinjutsu, he started with the Gravity Seal first.
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