The moment my eyes opened, the first thing I noticed was that the room was still dark.
The weight on my limbs tells me my seals are still active, pushing my body just enough to ensure every movement strengthens me.
Weighted seals, another small advantage of fuinjutsu in the making.
After studying the chakra suppression seal, I realized something: the suppression seal didn't just block or contain chakra, they could also redirect it and repurpose it.
By adjusting the suppression seal's formula, I re-engineered it into something else entirely; A Resistance seal.
Instead of stopping chakra flow, it applied a controlled counterforce against it.
Think of it like gravity on command.
The seal creates a thin field of opposing chakra around the body, light enough to allow free movement but dense enough to simulate added weight.
Right now, each seal added the equivalent of ten kilograms of resistance, evenly distributed across my body.
Not just on my wrists or ankles, everywhere. The seal layers that pressure perfectly, forcing my entire muscular system to adapt as one.
Every step, stretch, and punch required slightly more effort than normal, forcing my muscles and chakra pathways to adapt under strain in real time.
The best part? It scales automatically. As my strength and chakra output grow, the resistance adjusts proportionally, keeping the training effective without risk of overstrain.
Unlike traditional wrist and ankle weights, which throw off balance and strain joints, this seal distributes pressure evenly across my body, forcing my muscles to work harder while improving chakra control.
It's a passive yet constant form of training, adaptable to my growth, the kind that no one can see, but your body never forgets.
I sat up and took a deep breath as I immediately sat in a lotus position before delving into my meditation.
My chakra pulsed quietly beneath my skin. It was sluggish at first, then steadier as I guided it through my pathways.
Meditation had become as essential to me as breathing. With each slow inhale, I directed chakra through my tenketsu, noting the subtle friction caused by the resistance seal.
Every point of resistance was like data, feedback on where my control could still improve.
The seals strained my chakra flow just enough to make the process harder, forcing me to maintain precision even under pressure.
And that was the entire point.
Chakra control isn't something you switch on and off during battle, it's built into every breath, every heartbeat.
Just like the organs in the body: the heart and lungs for example. It works whether you think about it or not.
That's the goal. To make chakra flow as natural and automatic as breathing, something that doesn't need conscious effort to maintain.
Because if you have to think about controlling your chakra in the middle of a fight… you've already lost a step.
After thirty minutes of stillness, I roll my shoulders, dispelling the sluggishness that clung with the sleep.
Time for physical training.
A quick glance at the clock and I knew it's earlier than most academy brats would bother waking up, but I don't have time to waste feeling good about myself.
I quietly slip out of the room, making my way downstairs and to the small training area I've set up in the backyard of the academy.
I started off with basic stretches to loosen my muscles. Then I moved into movement training, specifically, refining my Body Lightening Technique.
The Body Flicker Technique(Shunshin no Jutsu) is a technique every shinobi dreams of mastering at one point in their lives, but to me, it's inefficient.
Sure, it's fast, blindingly fast depending on your mastery of it, but it's also clumsy. Once you commit to a direction, that's it. You can't correct mid-motion.
One wrong step, one misjudged burst of chakra, and you're either off-balance or exposed or worse of all skewed by a perfectly timed trap.
Speed without control… is just a faster way to die.
That's why I've been focusing on something different, what I call Body Lightening, though it's closer to controlled chakra-weight manipulation than raw propulsion.
The principle is simple: Instead of pushing chakra in one explosive burst like the Flicker, I circulate it evenly through my legs, core, and spine, thereby reducing the body's weight by adjusting the chakra pressure beneath my feet and around my joints.
Qi-gong masters in the world of martial arts would describe it as moving the flow of energy to move the body, not the other way around.
When done right, each step becomes lighter, smoother, and faster, not because I'm forcing movement, but because I'm removing resistance.
It's like controlling gravity's grip on me.
While it would still look like I'm teleporting, I'm not, instead, I'm flowing.
While moving at that speed, I can shift direction, slow down, or accelerate without halting the technique.
That's the difference.
The Body Flicker is a cannon; it is powerful, but one-directional.
What I'm building is a network of fine-tuned engines, smaller bursts, constant adjustments, total control.
If I get this right, I'll be able to move through combat like wind through leaves, invisible, unpredictable, and completely untouchable.
And unlike the Flicker, I won't need hand seals or chakra smoke for theatrics.
Just control.
Pure, absolute control.
[A/N: if you're also thinking that this is the birth of Flash Step, then you're absolutely correct.]
Each motion needs to be deliberate. The goal isn't just to move fast, but to master how chakra flows through every muscle, every tendon, and every nerve to make me fast.
Speed means nothing without control.
If your chakra surges unevenly, your center of gravity breaks, and you stumble. If it's too light, you lose traction.
And with the weighted seals active, the challenge is doubled.
Every dash feels like moving through water, chakra pushing forward while gravity drags me down. But that's the point. To train my body and chakra to cooperate under strain.
If I can move flawlessly under pressure, then in a real fight, when the seals are off…
I'll move like lightning itself.
…
After completing my movement drills, I moved to my full-body workout routine.
Push-ups first, one hundred, done at a slow and deliberate pace. No matter how many times I've done this, my arms still tremble under the compounded weight acting against me.
Each rep forced my chakra to circulate harder, reinforcing my torn muscles while keeping the flow steady.
After that came sit-ups, one hundred more, each rise tightening my core as the weighted seal pressed down from all angles, forcing every breath to count.
Most people didn't know the importance of this particular exercise but I did.
Aerodynamic Movements.
People like Madara, Itachi and Sasuke were shown to be experts in aerial combat and while that may be attributed to their uchiha bloodline, there was more to it than genetics.
In combat, precision, balance, and control of one's center of gravity were learned, honed, and reinforced through exercises like this that most shinobi would dismiss as mundane.
Squats followed afterwards, one hundred again.
As a previous gym enthusiast, I know that strong legs are the foundation of everything. Every sprint, jump and kick starts from the ground.
Pushing through the weight acting against my body made my thighs, glutes, and calves stronger, giving me more power with each rep.
Stronger legs also meant faster movements; the harder my muscles worked now, the quicker I could spring off the ground later.
Endurance, speed, and explosive force all began here, in the burn of a hundred squats.
…
Next up, combat training.
No sense having strength if I can't use it. I go through my katas, refining every movement.
I visualize opponents, imagine counterattacks, feints, weaknesses to exploit. I may not have formal instruction in advanced taijutsu yet, but I'm already thinking ahead.
I am someone who has been privileged to have watched a couple hundred anime and read over a thousand novels and manhwa, all of which martial art and cultivation were the majority.
I have seen a lot of combat techniques and although those were all fiction, there was still a lot to learn from them and that was how my own self created combat technique was born.
It was a series of punches and kicks following a certain rhythm. So far, there were a total of 27 movements, all of which I had carefully refined to maximize efficiency, balance, and flow.
Each strike led naturally into the next, each kick set up the following punch, each step positioned me perfectly for both attack and defense.
I didn't just memorize the sequence, I visualized it, felt it, ran it in my head against imaginary opponents with different styles, speeds, and strengths.
I conjured up imaginary opponents, some charging recklessly and some who circled, baiting me into mistakes and others who fought me like experts.
With every repetition, I tested the sequence against those possibilities, tweaking angles, timing, and transitions.
There were no flashy jumps or unnecessary spins. Just 27 movements, pure and practical, each one honed to exploit weaknesses and defend against common attacks.
This was the foundation of my personal style.
By the hundredth run-through, my arms ached so much that it felt like it could fall off and my legs were no better as they burned in such a way that even walking hurt.
My mind however, was sharper than ever as I reviewed the fight in my head. I wanted the rhythm of the kata to become instinct.
Strength without precision is meaningless, but strength with intent?
That's dangerous, and that's the edge I was chasing.
…
And finally, Fūinjutsu.
My real weapon.
After taking my bath and freshening up, I quickly made my way to my workspace in the store.
I've long since memorized the structure of the most common storage seals, so I experiment, trying to push beyond the basics.
Storage seals are the bread and butter of sealing techniques, but I'm not satisfied with the basic designs. I needed to be innovative and unique.
As I finish a test scroll, I lean back, tapping my brush against the table.
The deeper I delve into this branch of chakra utilization, the more I realize that Fūinjutsu is underutilized. Not in the shinobi world, every competent ninja knows the value of storage seals, explosive tags, and barrier formulas, but in civilian life? Almost untouched.
That was an opportunity waiting for me to grab.
I roll up my latest prototype and smirk. Why should I limit myself to shinobi contracts when there's an entire civilian market ripe for the taking?
The shinobi villages monopolize combat-use Fūinjutsu, but everyday applications?
There's no widespread civilian sealing industry. Sure, a few merchants here and there use storage scrolls, but they're either imported from high-level seal experts or ridiculously expensive.
Which means that if I step in, I control the market.