A few minutes later,
Takao stood in front of his students, "Well, that wasn't bad for genin. The three of you are skilled by the village's current standard, but you need to be stronger. So strong that victory is assured whether the enemy is weak or strong." Takao firmly said,
"Our training sessions will be on all days except those that we have missions and rest days after difficult missions," Immediately Enya groaned, "And begin at 7am sharp until 13h00 pm with breaks in-between.
You can consult with me after training sessions on personal jutsu and learning new specializations after training sessions. Let's finish here for today." Takao vanished, leaving team 5 brooding alone.
Just as Enya and Ai were about to leave, "Stop." "What is it?" Ai asked with mild irritation, "Let's go get a meal. We are a team now, so we need to get along." Kudo spoke, smiling gently. "Fine." They began walking in the direction of the village center in naked silence.
At Yakiniku Q,
"It's my treat," Kudo said, walking into the restaurant with the smell of grilled meat wafting in the air. Their stomachs grumbled in protest, and they immediately made their way to a table. Since it was daylight, the restaurant wasn't full, but it was busy.
"What do guys want to order? Just so you know, I don't eat innards, so beef, pork, and poultry that's me." Kudo shivered at the thought of innards.
" Hmmn, I will take beef, pork, and some rice." Ai spoke, turning to Enya, "I WILL TAKE THE SAME, THANK YOU!" Drawing gazes, "Not so loud." Ai covered his mouth.
While waiting for the meat, "So, Enya, you are not good with people, are you?" Kudo asked in a mischievous tone.
Enya's eyes widened, and then, "Yeah, I'm not. I grew up with my mom, and it was just her and me, so I'm not comfortable in crowded spaces or talking to strangers. And now, that we are officially in the Yamanaka clan, it's gotten worse." Enya replied,
"Why haven't you changed your family name to your father's?" Ai asked, "Yeah, I'm curious as well." Kudo encouraged.
"It's just that the clan wants to pay reparations or something like that, and I needed to be a genin at least for them to do the official welcoming ceremony," Enya spoke, taking a plate from their server and beginning to grill their meat.
"Ok." Ai and Kudo nodded, also frying their meat. "Wha-sh about you?" Kudo spoke of cooling the meat.
"Hey! Don't talk while eating, it's gross." Ai poked him, "Anyway, there is not much to tell. I come from a mid-size clan, the Sarutobi clan, and my granduncle is the Hokage." She smirked, "So, you better obey me or else." "Hahaha." Kudo chuckled at her threat and didn't take her seriously, feeling danger, he came to their stares on him, "Okay, I come from a merchant family, and my dad worked for the Blue Dragon merchant group. My mom currently works there." Kudo said, "What's with becoming better than the second Hokage?" Enya asked, curious.
"Huh? I mean, he is the foremost expert in water nature in the village, so if I become better than him, then won't I be the best?" Kudo spoke with his gaze directly on his teammates.
"Whatever, you will still be weaker than me. I will be the strongest Kage and Kunoichi, more renowned than Lady Tsunade." Ai smirked in defiance.
"My goal is not to be limited by the Yamanaka path; I want to be able to fight and not depend on the Ino-shika-cho. I want to be a stand-alone shinobi." Ai and Kudo could see and feel his ambition as he was direct in his gaze.
"That's good. Defending an unconscious teammate can be a great weakness." Ai and the others quickly finished their food and left, each heading home.
At training ground 7,
Kudo stood, steadying his breath, and he focused his chakra, channelling it into his arms and legs.
"Hooh." Inhaling deeply, he shot forward, going over his taijutsu forms; his figure flashed along the lakes as he kicked and punched furiously, letting loose some tension.
After the warm-up, he took out a scroll, and an empty basin appeared in front of him. The basin could hold 200 liters of water. His task was simple: to fill it up.
It was something he started doing in his sixth year to master his water nature transformation and increase the volume of water he could produce in one go.
His hand flashed fast, then, inhaling deeply, " Water style: water geyser." A torrent of water shot into the container as minutes trickled by, and water crashed into itself, filling up the basin little by little. After 10 minutes, the flow of the jutsu had grown weaker and stopped around 15 minutes.
" Haa-haa," Out of breath, Kudo's hands on his knees as he turned to the basin, the pit was 50% full. He still hadn't managed to fill it in one go, but he had come far; this was his 5th container, and he had yet to move up to the 6th, a natural basin of a dried-up river, and his throat dried up whenever he thought about it.
30 minutes later,
After he had recovered enough, he stood still, his focus on his palms as little by little a drop materialized. "Wooshx4." He abruptly shot punches with the drop adhering to the backhand. As he circulated his chakra, the drop moved along his skin firmly intact. His chakra control exercise had gotten stale; there were only so many leaves he could use, and he was proficient in tree-walking and water-walking. He got into another taijutsu session, trying to keep the drop dispersing while doing arcs, backflips, and mid-air techniques. He hadn't yet looked at his great-grandfather's taijutsu.
Kudo focused intensely on taijutsu as his now-adapted schedule required him to focus on a maximum of two disciplines per day instead of doing multiple things. This allowed him to have deep sessions where he could think about challenges and solutions to advance his strength.