The afternoon on the outskirts of the Konoha forest passed in a muffled silence, interrupted only by the sound of uneven footsteps on the packed dirt.
Taking advantage of a break in the Academy activities, Matsuri had snuck off to the same isolated clearing where, weeks ago, he had his first contact with the Uchiha prodigy. With the wooden replica of the Chakra Sabre in hand, he was trying to execute the axis spins of the Interception Style.
The result, however, remained frustrating. Every time he tried to spin his body to redirect the kinetic momentum, his legs felt locked.
"You're trying to push the air with your shoulders again, kid. Like that, even a newly graduated Genin could knock you down with a breath."
The voice sounded casual, coming from above.
Matsuri looked up quickly. Sitting on the branch of a tall oak tree, swinging his legs in a relaxed manner, was Shisui Uchiha. Dressed in ordinary civilian clothes over his ninja mesh, he looked just like a teenager enjoying his day off. It was pure coincidence: Shisui was taking a shortcut through the forest after a patrol route and had ended up crossing paths with the masked boy.
Shisui let out a short laugh and jumped down from the branch, landing on the grass without making a single sound. He crossed his arms and took a few steps around Matsuri.
"Your basic problem, besides your lack of height, is your footwork," Shisui explained, keeping his hands in his pockets as he watched Matsuri try to balance himself. "In the Kenjutsu and interception Taijutsu you're trying to invent, power doesn't come from your arms. It comes from the ground. If your feet are planted in the wrong place for a millisecond, the opponent uses your own momentum against you. Or worse, you fall on your own and save me the trouble of defeating you."
"What a relief to know I can die of embarrassment before I die from a stab wound," Matsuri muttered, his voice muffled by the dark mask, as he adjusted his stance, bending his knees and lowering his center of gravity.
"There. Keep your heels slightly raised," Shisui guided, taking short steps around the boy. "You try to solve your movements with civilian textbook reasoning. But in our world, physics doesn't dictate all the rules; chakra does. And that's why, for your style to work, we need to talk about the Body Flicker. The famous Shunshin."
Matsuri narrowed his eyes behind the fabric.
"Don't tell me you're going to teach me the Uchiha clan's legendary teleportation technique for free in the middle of the forest. My self-esteem can't handle being destroyed that fast today."
"Relax, sarcasm genius. Do you think the Shunshin is magic?" Shisui laughed, waving his index finger. "It isn't. It's just applied physics with a brutal injection of chakra to break the body's inertia. For a civilian like you, without absurd reserves of raw chakra, trying to do a long Shunshin right now would be the equivalent of sticking your finger in a socket and hoping to light up a bulb with your brain. Your pathways will inflame, you'll fry your nerves, and end up in the hospital."
"Great. I love hospitals. The smell of antiseptic alcohol brings me spiritual peace," Matsuri deadpanned, even though his mind was absorbing every syllable. He's describing the adapted mechanical base. Without the Sharingan to process the speed, an ordinary body would shatter if it tried to go too far too fast. Efficiency is the key.
"That's why we're going to focus on the Micro-Shunshin," Shisui continued, his gaze narrowing with sudden seriousness, though maintaining his lightness. "Movements of half a meter. A hyper-short route of energy. A blink of an eye to get out of the line of fire and appear on the enemy's flank. It's the perfect key for your Interception Style."
Over the next hour, the clearing turned into a hell of repetitions. Shisui demanded that Matsuri use his breathing to synchronize the micro-flow of energy with the exact moment his sole pushed off the earth.
Inhale... stabilize the core... exhale and explode the left heel to the side, Matsuri repeated mentally, focusing on his Nature Breathing.
He would advance half a meter, try to spin his axis using the principle of inertia, but ended up unbalancing his step, letting energy leak, and almost kissing the dirt again.
"Wrong! All the weight went to your big toe and the chakra dissipated!" Shisui corrected, suddenly appearing next to him without a sound, adjusting Matsuri's hip posture with two fingers. "You think too much, Matsuri. Your body needs to understand the physics and the flow before your head tries to explain it in an engineering manual."
Matsuri panted, sweat dripping down his forehead, but an ironic smile played on his lips beneath the mask.
"It's hard not to think when my brain insists on reminding me that I'm six years old and trying to defy the laws of ninja biomechanics..."
As they rested for a few moments, sitting on a fallen log under the orange light of the twilight, Shisui looked toward the horizon in the direction of the Uchiha district. The playful smile on his face vanished for a second, replaced by a subtle shadow of exhaustion and urgency that he quickly tried to hide.
Matsuri noticed. Sitting there next to the prodigy, the reincarnated man's stomach tightened. He is carrying the weight of the world on his shoulders all alone, Matsuri thought, observing Shisui's profile. He tries to be light, to smile, to help a random kid who crossed his path... but the rope around his clan's neck is already stretched to the limit.
"Shisui-san," Matsuri called out in a low voice, breaking the sudden silence.
"Huh? What is it, kid? Tired of getting beaten up?"
"Why do you do this?" Matsuri asked, his dark eyes fixed on Shisui's. "You have obligations to the clan, missions in the ANBU, the tension in the village... why waste time teaching something to a weird civilian who wears a mask at the Academy?"
Shisui blinked, surprised by the frankness of the question. He broke into a tender, genuine, and slightly melancholic smile, roughly ruffling Matsuri's pink hair.
"Because sometimes, looking at the problems of the adult world gives you a terrible headache, Matsuri. And seeing someone so young trying so hard to forge his own path... reminds me that there is still something worth fighting for." Shisui stood up, cracking his neck and recovering his light posture. "Besides, if you become a strong ninja in the future, I'll be able to tell everyone that I was the one who taught you not to fall flat on your face."
The Uchiha turned his back, walking toward the trail, but stopped for a second, looking over his shoulder.
"Since we had this encounter, consider this your homework: isolate that thin layer of constant chakra on the soles of your feet every day. Study the geometry of your steps. When we bump into each other again, I don't want to see you tripping."
Before Matsuri could retort with a sarcastic comment to hide the knot that had formed in his throat, Shisui's figure flickered in the air. With a whisper of wind and a flurry of leaves, the Uchiha disappeared into the twilight, leaving behind only the echo of his presence and a six-year-old boy with clenched fists.
Matsuri sat on the log for a long time, staring at the empty space where his friend had been.
He won't last much longer, Matsuri thought, with an icy grip on his chest. The clock is truly running out.
He stood up, dusted the dirt off his pants, and picked up his wooden sword. If Shisui's fate was a fixed point in the tragedy that he couldn't prevent alone, then every drop of sweat from that late afternoon training wasn't just for fun. It was the only guarantee he'd have that, when chaos descended upon Konoha, he would have legs fast enough not to be just another body in the mud.
[Author's Note]
Hello everyone, I hope you are enjoying Matsuri's journey! Writing and planning each chapter takes a lot of time, dedication, and effort (even more so dealing with hand pain from the keyboard!). If you like my work, believe in the potential of this story, and want to encourage me to keep posting frequently, please consider supporting me with any amount. Every bit of help makes a huge difference and motivates me a lot!
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