In the third session, Shinra was being trained by Yogi in the basics of Kenjutsu, since Shinra didn't possess a sword Yogi gifted him one.
Yogi had him slash, thrust, and draw his sword with the correct form, each one for a total of a thousand.
Shinra looked at Yogi and thought, 'If having to do only a thousand of each, it would have been fine, but resetting the count when I have incorrect form makes it ten times harder.'
On the side, Inumaki was trying out his new jutsu, while Hyori was being taught a new style of taijutsu by Yogi.
They continued training in the same style for three more days. On the fourth day, Yogi was late by an hour.
Inumaki asked, "Is this another test?"
Shinra, who was still swinging his sword, said, "I don't think so. He might have an urgent situation that he couldn't inform us about."
Shinra stopped swinging his sword and said, "I haven't asked this before, but it could help us in our teamwork. What are your affinities? Mine's lightning. Inumaki, yours is earth, right?"
He nodded his head.
Hyori looked at them with surprise and asked, "How do I find out my affinity?"
Inumaki answered her question. "There is a special kind of paper that reacts to chakra; each affinity causes a different reaction. They are slightly expensive, but they are a one-use consumable, so you can find them in many places."
Hyori seemingly recalled something and said, "Oh, I think we might have some of them lying around in the warehouse."
Shinra listened to the conversation, his face turning dark. 'Some of them lying around? I had to spend almost half of my inheritance to buy one.'
Hyori asked, "So what's your idea?"
Shinra replied, "I wanted to see if any of us had elements that can complement each other. For example, lightning and water. Water can easily conduct lightning, which can spread it over a wider range. Same with wind and fire."
Both Inumaki and Hyori nodded. Their relationship, while still not at the level of being friends, had definitely improved since the academy. This could be attributed to their personalities.
Seeing that their sensei still hadn't shown up, they decided to spar against each other instead. This time it was a full spar, not a taijutsu-only fight. However, the result of the spar was a bit different from the graduation exam.
The fight started with Shinra immediately forming a shadow clone. Seeing that, Hyori activated her Byakugan and rushed forward to fight both of them in close combat. However, one of the Shinras formed hand signs and coated his hands with lightning.
On seeing that, Hyori sped up her approach and started using an awkward mix of Gentle Fist and a different style that she had been practicing for the last few days. Shinra, who was on the receiving end of the barrage, kept dodging under pressure, but managed to get a few hits in due to her awkward positioning.
While Shinra and Hyori were fighting, the clone had been helping from the other side. Naturally, Hyori's Byakugan was able to see Shinra encroaching from behind. 'At this rate, I will end up surrounded from both sides.'
Hyori tried to reposition herself so that both Shinra and his clone would be in her line of attack. Unable to do so, she decided to try out a Hyūga technique that she hadn't fully learned.
Before both Shinra and his clone could land a finishing blow, Hyori emitted chakra from all of her body's tenketsu and started spinning around. Shinra's eyes widened, clearly recognizing the technique being used. 'Revolving Heaven.'
Shinra was flung away into a nearby tree, and his clone was instantly dispelled. Hyori, who should have had a perfect opportunity to win the spar, was also repelled by her own technique. Her situation was quite different from Shinra's, with blood seeping out of her orifices.
Inumaki quickly arrived at their position and judged that Hyori's situation seemed worse. Yet when he tried to help her, she refused and wiped the blood away before simply staying underneath the broken tree.
"I leave you guys alone for a bit and you start killing each other. You are hopeless." A voice broke the silence as Yogi finally showed up.
"Where were you, sensei?" Inumaki asked, followed by a bark from Yoshimaru.
"My bad. I forgot to inform you that I had a very secret mission that I had to perform without telling anyone."
'Who goes around saying that they were performing a secret mission?' Shinra thought as he stared at his sensei while sitting underneath a tree.
"So, what did you guys do while I was away?" Yogi asked, looking at the three of them.
Shinra started, "I kept practicing the sword until I finished my quota, and then we decided to do individual spars. Things got a little intense."
Yogi looked at him and grinned. "A little intense, hmm? Can you move around?"
Shinra stood up with some difficulty and said, "No problem. I can still train. You should probably check on Hyori instead."
He thought, 'I didn't expect to see Revolving Heaven this early, but I guess that's to be expected sooner or later since it's a main family technique. She clearly hasn't managed to master it, or I would have been out early on.'
Looking at Hyori's state, she indeed needed some medical help. Although she wiped the blood away, her face was extremely pale. 'Looking at her, it appears to be chakra exhaustion. Did she release all of her chakra in a single move?'
Yogi then looked at Shinra, who appeared to be fine but was clearly roughed up.
He looked at Inumaki and said, "So, since you were the only one who didn't have a spar today, I will have you spar with me."
Inumaki looked at his sensei and nodded.
"Good. Since you two are considered done with your training, you can leave or continue watching my spar with Inumaki."
Yogi saw that both of them remained seated to watch and smiled before turning back to Inumaki.
"How far have you reached in your earth release?" Yogi asked.
Inumaki answered, "I can't use Earth Release: Great Mud River at long distance, only at short range. As for Earth Dome Wall, I am still unable to use it."
[Great Mud River is a short-to-long range B-rank jutsu that makes the ground turn into mud, sucking the opponent like quicksand. Earth Dome Wall is a defensive C-rank jutsu that encloses the user in an Earth Dome.]
Looking at Inumaki's downcast expression, Yogi said, "You are already making good progress. It has only been a few days since you started learning them. Such progress is already good. Unlike your hiding-like-a-mole jutsu and earth spike, these are B- and C-rank ninjutsu. It's obvious they are going to take much longer. Continue doing your best."
Inumaki nodded his head and said, "Thank you, sensei. I will do so."
Yogi smiled and started the spar between them. Unlike Shinra's and Hyori's spar, which looked uncontrolled, this spar focused on pushing Inumaki to his limits.
After the spar was finished, Inumaki was breathing heavily. Clearly, Yogi had been drawing out the match, which tired him out rather quickly.
Yogi looked at the kids and said, "Inumaki, Shinra, take Hyori to the hospital to check for any internal injuries, and make sure to rest well. Tomorrow is going to be your first mission."
The trip to the hospital was rather quiet. It appeared that Hyori wanted to ask Shinra something, judging by how frequently she glanced at him.
Shinra, already very sensitive to others' stares, felt the need to address her. "Is there something you need?"
Hyori replied, "…How did you improve your chakra control to such an extent?"
'She is able to see my chakra pathways. It makes sense that my chakra control level was seen through.' If Shinra were to rank what improved his chakra control the most, it would be the Rasengan training. Next would be leaf concentration rather than tree climbing and water walking.
"Do you know how to tree climb using only your feet and walk on water?" Shinra asked.
Hyori and Inumaki seemed surprised and shook their heads.
'I really don't understand why they wouldn't officially teach such things in the academy. Having these things in the library and not being taught is a waste.' Shinra's progress was heavily attributed to the academy library. It held general ninja concepts of many different types.
He then broke off from the path and walked to the nearest tree. To the shock of his teammates, he began walking up the tree with just his feet until he reached the top.
Hyori looked at him and asked, "How did you do it?"
"By releasing chakra from the bottom of your feet in a specific amount, you can stick to the tree. If you use too much force, the bark will break, and if you use too little, you will slip."
Inumaki looked impressed with the feat and asked, "Where did you learn this, if you don't mind sharing?"
"In the academy library, of course." Shinra replied, receiving a weird look from both of them.
Being from ninja clans, both of their training had already been planned from a long time ago. What their parents focused on most were clan techniques, so they didn't bother much with the academy library.
"I wouldn't recommend you starting right away, since tomorrow is going to be our first mission. You should rest well. And we still need to go to the hospital." Shinra said this as he jumped from the tree and landed next to them.