Taiichi stood at his front gate with Kurenai right beside him. A few steps down on the path, Asuma waited with his arms crossed, staring up at him. There was challenge in his eyes, a hint of awkwardness, and a whole lot of quiet judgment.
Taiichi frowned. The guy was supposed to be here to train, not size him up like some shady deal was about to go down. And showing up empty-handed on his first visit? Zero manners. Kurenai at least brought a gift the first time.
Still, he had already taken the Hokage's favor. No point making a scene over small shit.
Kurenai broke the tension first. "Asuma, what are you doing standing down there? You came to train with us, right?"
Asuma startled, face flushing. "Ah—yeah. Yeah, I did." He forced himself up the steps and muttered, "Taiichi… I'll be counting on you from now on."
Taiichi laughed and slung an arm around his shoulders, giving him a hard clap on the back. "Relax. The Hokage already filled me in. I'll get you stronger."
Asuma winced at the strength behind the pat and the casual mention of his father. What the hell had the old man said about him?
Taiichi didn't care what Asuma was overthinking. He waved both of them inside.
Unlike Kurenai's first visit—when she had looked around the big house with open curiosity—Asuma's eyes stayed locked on Taiichi the whole way in. He still couldn't picture how this guy had acted when he first met the Hokage and Tsunade. In Asuma's memory, Taiichi had always been confident to the point of arrogance. Even back in the Academy, facing the Hokage's son, he never bowed or scraped.
Taiichi suddenly turned around. "Asuma, you've been staring at me since we started walking. Something wrong with my face?"
Asuma froze. He couldn't exactly say he was trying to figure out how Taiichi kissed ass for favors. That would get him punched.
"I was just… wondering what you're planning to teach us today."
Taiichi gave him a long, skeptical look, then smirked. "Something that'll actually satisfy you."
They reached the training ground. Taiichi pointed at Kurenai. "Red, you're working genjutsu with my shadow clone inside the house today."
She blinked. "A shadow clone? Are you sure that's okay?"
One of Taiichi's clones was already walking over, grabbing her hand and tugging her toward the door. "Of course it's fine. You trained against one yesterday and didn't even notice, right?"
Kurenai's eyes went wide. "Wait, seriously? I had no idea. Taiichi, that's actually impressive."
Their voices faded as they disappeared inside.
Now it was just Taiichi, Asuma, and two shadow clones still drilling ninjutsu in the background.
Taiichi snapped his fingers in front of Asuma's face. "Earth to Asuma. She's gone. You can stop staring at the door."
Asuma's face went red again. "I wasn't—! I was just thinking about how you two train genjutsu. Why inside?"
Taiichi waved it off. "I'm not your dad. You don't have to explain yourself to me." He got straight to business. "We're not wasting time. Attack me with everything you've got. I need to see where you actually stand."
Asuma's eyes sharpened. He pulled a kunai and dropped into a combat stance. "Don't blame me if you get hurt."
Taiichi just smiled and extended one empty hand, palm up, inviting him forward. He didn't even draw his short sword.
Asuma charged. His kunai flashed in quick, vicious arcs aimed at vital points. Taiichi didn't move his feet. He just slapped the attacks aside with one hand—calm, precise, and completely dominant. It wasn't just speed or power. It was experience and technique crushing raw effort.
After a while Asuma realized taijutsu alone wasn't getting him anywhere. He leapt back, hands flying through seals.
Fire Style: Great Fireball.
A huge fireball roared toward Taiichi.
Taiichi didn't even bother with seals. He flicked his wrist. A violent gust of wind slammed into the fireball and knocked it off course. It exploded harmlessly to the side.
Asuma didn't hesitate. He went straight into the next jutsu.
Wind Style: Great Breakthrough.
A roaring wall of wind and blades tore across the ground.
Taiichi answered with a single hand seal and a massive golden fireball—easily three times the size of Asuma's. The wind did nothing. The blades vanished into the flames. The fireball kept coming.
Asuma had to dive out of the way. The explosion shook the training ground. The defensive barrier around the yard flared to life, swallowing the blast and the scattered flames.
Asuma stared, breathing hard. Same jutsu. Completely different league.
Taiichi dusted off his hands. "That's enough for now."
Asuma walked back over, quieter now, the earlier attitude gone.
"You only know Fire and Wind Release so far?" Taiichi asked.
"Yeah."
Taiichi nodded. "Reaching a second nature transformation at your age already puts you ahead of most people. That's solid."
Asuma's mouth twitched. He wanted to snap that Taiichi was still younger than him, but he swallowed it. The guy had just made his jutsu look like kids' toys.
"Still," Taiichi continued, "right now your ninjutsu is small-time. I'm going to show you what real power actually looks like. Give you something to aim for."
Asuma's head snapped up. "Here?"
Taiichi glanced around the yard and shook his head. "Too small. The barrier won't hold what I want to show you. We need more space."
Before Asuma could answer, Taiichi threw a Flying Thunder God kunai to the ground, grabbed his shoulder, and the world twisted.
They reappeared beside a wide river more than twenty kilometers outside Konoha.
Asuma immediately bent over and started dry-heaving. "What the—ugh—what the hell was that?!"
Taiichi rubbed the back of his neck. "Teleportation sickness. Happens to some people the first time. It's normal. I puked the first time too."
Asuma wiped his mouth, still pale. He finally looked around and froze. "This… this isn't anywhere near the village."
"About twenty kilometers out," Taiichi said cheerfully, pointing. "Konoha's that way."
Asuma's face went through several shades of panic. "Leaving the village without permission is considered rogue-nin behavior. You know that, right?"
Taiichi grinned. "Who saw us leave? You planning on reporting me?"
Asuma looked torn between outrage and common sense.
Taiichi laughed. "Relax. We're only out here for a bit. Nobody saw anything. Village won't care if nobody complains."
Asuma gave up arguing. He was starting to realize Taiichi played by his own rules when it suited him.
Taiichi walked to the riverbank. "Watch closely. I'm going to use the same two jutsu you just threw at me—but done right."
He formed the seals for Great Fireball.
A massive golden sphere, easily three meters across, exploded from his mouth and slammed into the river thirty meters away. The blast was deafening. The riverbed cratered outward in a huge circle. Mud, water, and steam rained down. A wind barrier Taiichi casually threw up kept the worst of it off them while still letting them see everything.
When the chaos settled, a wide, deep pit sat where part of the river used to be, already starting to fill with water again.
Asuma's mouth hung open.
Taiichi didn't give him time to recover. He turned toward the forest behind them and formed new seals.
Wind Style: Great Breakthrough.
The blast that came out was violent enough to make the air itself scream. Trees in a wide fan shape were shredded from the front. The first ten meters looked like they had been put through a woodchipper. Even twenty meters back, nothing was left untouched.
Silence fell over the riverbank.
Taiichi clapped Asuma on the shoulder. "Want to know why the difference is that big?"
Asuma's eyes were still wide, but they were focused now. Hungry.
"Yeah," he said, voice rough. "Teach me."
Taiichi smiled, satisfied. The cocky attitude was gone. Asuma was actually listening now. That made everything easier.
He grabbed Asuma's shoulder again. "Let's head back first."
The world twisted.
Back in Taiichi's yard, Asuma was once again bent over, trying not to throw up on the stone table between them.
Once he could sit upright without his stomach flipping, Taiichi got serious.
"Three things make ninjutsu actually strong," he said. "First—how well you can actually cast it. That just takes repetition. Second—having enough chakra. That takes time and training. Third—and this is the biggest one—how deeply you've mastered the nature transformation itself."
Asuma leaned in, listening hard.
"Most people think if they can use the jutsu, they've already mastered the nature change. That's bullshit. Being able to cast it just means you unlocked the door. How much power actually comes out depends on how far you've walked past it."
He tapped the table. "That's what we're training from now on."
Asuma's eyes were bright. For the first time since he walked through the gate, he looked genuinely motivated instead of defensive.
Taiichi stood up. "Next, we start the first phase of your special training—"