Naruto: Becoming a master taijutsu using martial arts.

It has been two months since the shuriken incident. It's been four months since I began my journey as a student and things were getting better. The theoretical lessons had improved a bit. I still wasn't the best at reading and writing, but compared to two months ago, my progress was honestly kind of miraculous.

Writing was still confuse and I sometimes mixed up a few symbols, but now I could actually understand some of the stuff we read in class.

My personal training was going pretty well too. I had gotten a lot better with shurikens and kunais and now I could hit the bullseye 7 meters away every attempt.

I wasn't sure how I'd do with moving targets, but I was feeling good about it.

I had even started practicing chakra control and I could keep a leaf stuck on my head for up to 10 minutes. I'd also begun climbing trees with just my feet—well, in my case, it was climbing the wall of my room.

I was still a little paranoid about practicing too much chakra-related stuff outside my house.

Taijutsu was going as well as it could, considering I didn't have a sparring partner. My flexibility had improved to an acceptable level, and thanks to my daily exercises, I felt like my endurance, strength, and agility were better.

I spent most of my free time after class and on weekends working on martial arts techniques from my past life. All of that had led to this very moment.

Today, we were finally going to start practicing taijutsu at the academy! And man, I was excited. This was the moment I'd been waiting for to really show what I could do.

We were all gathered in the academy's training field and Bekkou-sensei stood in front of us.

"Today, we're going to start learning taijutsu. Jimei! Can you tell me what taijutsu is?" Bekkou-sensei's gaze landed directly on Jimei, who was standing next to me.

I could feel Jimei's nerves skyrocket while he stared back at Bekkou's intense eyes. I wasn't gonna judge—Bekkou was a bit terrifying, especially for a kid like Jimei.

"Taijutsu… Taijutsu is… uh… It's the art of fighting using your body… without weapons or chakra…" Jimei's answer was super shaky and he quickly looked away.

Before Bekkou could respond, I heard an annoying voice mutter under its breath.

"It's the art of fighting using your body… Wow, who knew? Looks like the poor orphan figured out that water is wet." Takuma snickered and started laughing.

Takuma's laughter got a few other kids around him to chuckle, and I noticed Jimei's face turned bright red from embarrassment.

"Very good, Jimei. Taijutsu is, in its essence, exactly that." Bekkou-sensei's praise seemed to lift Jimei's spirits a little. "Taijutsu is essential for any ninja. Remember, even a ninja who's a master at ninjutsu can be beaten by someone who specializes in taijutsu."

When Bekkou said that, I couldn't help but think of a certain green-suited ninja who was always yelling about youth.

"Alright, since we've unlocked our chakra, we shinobi have bodies that are way stronger than normal, and today, we're going to start exploring what those bodies can really do." Bekkou-sensei said seriously. "Here in Konoha, our taijutsu is based on powerful attacks, using firm punches and a solid stance. A solid stance is key to both attacking and defending. Watch closely, and try to copy my stance."

Bekkou-sensei spread his feet to shoulder width, his left foot stepping slightly forward and his knees bent just a little. His posture was straight as a board and he raised his right hand with a clenched fist to his waist while his left hand was raised to shoulder height, angled slightly to the right.

"This stance is for balance. With your front hand, you'll defend like this," he demonstrated by moving his arm down and up. "And you'll attack with your fist at your waist, like this."

Bekkou-sensei's punch was fast and looked pretty strong. His stance didn't remind me of anything I had seen before, not in this life or my past one—at least, not the arm positions. His legs were kind of like some karate stances I'd seen in my past life.

After that, we all started trying to position ourselves like he showed us. The first thing I noticed was that I hated this stance.

It was stiff and uncomfortable. I felt like I was trying to hold a pose for a statue, not a ninja. Some kids from certain clans with their own taijutsu styles were also making faces. Takuma looked like he'd just bitten into a lemon and another Inuzuka kid looked like he was about to fart.

"Kenshin, tilt your left arm more. Kumio, lower your hips more." Bekkou's corrections snapped me back into focus, so I adjusted my stance. "Now, you'll try to attack and defend. At my signal, you'll punch, then defend. One, low defense."

I felt like I was back in my school martial arts classes, but with a seriously uncomfortable stance.

If I'd known it was going to feel like this, I wouldn't have been so hyped. When was I finally going to punch someone?

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Sup, I wasn't planning to update a chapter today, but changed my mind. This chapter is basically to keep the day from going by without anything and to make the next one a bit shorter. Plus, we have Takuma making another appearance. In the next chapter, we'll have a small "friendly" fight. See you tomorrow at the same time!