After three weeks of starting academy.
Kazeo who was trying to increase his chakra field, also began experimenting with chakra coating simultaneously. And as expected, It… didn't go well. He tried coating his kunai and shuriken with chakra, hoping it would increase sharpness, maybe even punch through a tree trunk. But when he slashed at one nearby? Nothing. The chakra layer was weak, barely visible, and it didn't even leave a scratch deeper than usual.
Frustrated, he visited the village library to find books on chakra flow. But there was nothing helpful, just vague scrolls on "focus your intent" or "let your chakra guide the weapon." Useless. That night, lying on his bed, his mind spinned… he remembered something. Hunter x Hunter. A memory clicked into place—a technique similar to chakra flow. The Nen trick.
So the next day, he tried replicating it. He stood in the middle of the training ground, closed his eyes, and pushed his chakra outward, forming a thin layer across his entire body. A chakra cloak. Then, he tried extending that same chakra into the kunai in his hand. It didn't work and his chakra drained fast—fifteen minutes in, and he collapsed to his knees, panting. His control wasn't enough. Worse, he could only try this twice a day before he can't regenerate chakra for the day.
He practiced daily, first coating his entire body, then just his hands, then only the kunai. After 13 days, he succeeded. The chakra coating actually enhanced the blade's cutting power.
So he adjusted. For the rest of the day, he practiced taijutsu katas and meditated, just enough to help him recover chakra. Then, once he was ready again, he'd try the flow technique a second time.
He repeated this cycle for three days straight, but due to academy classes, he shifted training to his home. Finally, after persistent attempts, he managed to successfully coat both his body and his kunai in chakra. It was unstable, flickering like a candle in the wind—but it worked.
He refined it further.
Instead of coating his entire body, he narrowed it down, only his hands and then extended the chakra into the kunai. Four more days, and he had control. Eventually, he cut the body part out altogether, channeling chakra directly into the kunai from his palm. That took five days more. But it paid off.
When he tested the coated kunai on a tree, it sliced deeper than before. The blade didn't dull. His control still needed work, but the results were undeniable: stronger cutting power and durability.
------
Kazeo sat in his secret training ground, eyes fixed on the clear sky above. 'It's been three months since we started training in those chakra resistance rooms.' he thought. 'The sting from the wind vents still hurts, but it's nowhere near what it was on the first day. I never even considered chakra resistance or affinity before… but if I want to grow stronger, I need to deepen my connection with wind.'
He smiled a little. 'Good thing I'm in the top ten. Otherwise, I would've missed out on those crystals.'
Whenever he consumed one of the small crystals, he could feel his control over wind chakra improve, just a little. In three months, he'd already consumed three, out of the twelve assigned to him. Maybe it was the crystals, maybe it was the daily grind either way, progress was progress.
After the first month of the academy, they started teaching elite class how to skin and prepare animals in the name of 'survival class.' They didn't make them kill anything yet. They did it themselves and then gave the kids the corpses to clean—meat, fur, bones. His thoughts darkened. 'I think they're trying to normalize killing. First, desensitize us to flesh and blood then, removing fur by hand using basic equipment. Third will probably be killing animals ourselves… and after that? Bandit hunting, maybe. Probably once we're Genin. Maybe they're trying to dull our fear of blood, flesh and death through these exercises. And in theory classes, they keep saying that killing is justified — "as long as it's for the village, self-defense, or to protect someone". They're not just teaching us how to fight.'
He thought bitterly. 'They're teaching us how to believe "it's okay." '
He let out a long, heavy sigh and pushed the thoughts from his mind.
"Whatever" he muttered under his breath, his voice barely louder than the rustle of leaves. "This much rest is enough."
Kazeo pushed himself up from the ground, brushing off a few dried leaves clinging to his uniform. His fingers reached down to the thin metal wire snaking across the earth, its end tied taut to a nearby tree. As he picked it up, a faint shimmer caught the sunlight—barely noticeable, but enough for a trained eye.
He closed his eyes, focused, and began sending pulses of chakra down the wire. It was subtle, but his aim was to make it vibrate, sing with the hum of his chakra. A few feet away, his two clones were mimicking the same motion, all three linked by a common goal. Being a sensor helped him sense the chakra flow better but when it came to vibrating weapons, most of his early ideas had failed.
Originally, he'd thought about using different weapons like kunai, shuriken or even sword but they were too bulky. After two weeks of trying and failing, he finally decided to use something light and thin, something that could vibrate easily. So he went to the blacksmith.
The shop was hot and smoky, the smell of molten metal thick in the air. The blacksmith was a burly man with arms like tree trunks and eyes that narrowed when Kazeo made his request. The teen had asked for something more—stronger wires, capable of withstanding intense and continuous vibrations.
"I don't keep that kind of wire in stock." The blacksmith grunted, folding his arms.
"It needs to be custom-made."
Kazeo just shrugged and said. "Money isn't an issue. Make me four wires with the strongest metal you've got. If it's good enough, I'll buy all my future weapons from you."
The man raised a brow, interested now. "Titanium with chakra metal alloy, it'll cost you. Four ten meters wire… that's around 1,50,000 ryo."
Even Kazeo blinked at that number. That much… for just ten meters? He asked why, only to be met with a smirk and a simple explanation "It conducts chakra. And it's near unbreakable with vibrations."
Still, that price tag could turn heads and not in a good way. So when it came time to pay the advance, Kazeo tilted his head and offered a sly grin. "Put it on the Hokage's tab."
The blacksmith's face hardened. "Kid, jokes about the Hokage aren't funny."
"You can check if you want." Kazeo said calmly, slipping 2000 ryo onto the counter. "Go to the Hokage's office. Mention the name 'Tanaka Kazeo.' Either the Hokage or his secretary will confirm it."
There was silence. But the man took the money. Whether it was the confidence in Kazeo's voice or the extra ryo, something made him agree. "If you're bluffing, I'm keeping this."
"Fair." Kazeo had said, already walking away thinking. 'Man acting as rich kid sure feels good.'
Kazeo could have paid from his own pocket.
He had the funds but that could raise questions, especially for such a large transaction. But putting the bill on the Hokage? That created a perfect loophole. He could just claim it was a reward, something granted to him for ranking first in his year. Transformation Jutsu was out too, he didn't know how to change his voice and he didn't wanted to be too much cautious everytime. But what he didn't know that expensive weapon transactions were closely monitored by the police, ANBU and even by Root. Unknowingly, he avoided serious trouble.
Kazeo could have tried with normal metal wires. But he didn't. There were two reasons.
First, he had money. His philosophy was simple. If I have the means, why should I settle for less, especially for something that might one day save my life? This wasn't some hobby. He was forging a new technique—something that could influence how he fights in the future.
Two, as an engineering student in his past life, he understood that every material has a limit. Especially when dealing with kinetic energy. Normal metal would vibrate… until it snapped. So he'd deliberately asked for something better, metal with high vibration endurance.
While waiting for the custom-made wire, he practiced chakra flow more. After three weeks he made his way to the blacksmith's shop.
When he passed chakra through the new wire for the first time, his eyes widened slightly. It flowed perfectly—smooth and sharp, like water through silk. Compared to his kunai, this wire was miles ahead. Tens of times better in chakra conduction. As he chatted with the blacksmith, he learned something amusing. Apparently, the Hokage had haggled with the guy, bringing the final price down to 1,20,000 ryo.
Kazeo didn't know why the Hokage even bothered to bargain but he made a decision right there: From now on, every single money-related problem? Straight to the Hokage. That little trick not only saved him 30,000 ryo, but it also gave him something else—reputation. To the blacksmith, Kazeo wasn't just some rich brat anymore. No, now he was someone who knew the Hokage personally.
------
Back in the present, Kazeo stood silently in the training ground, the wire in his hand glinting under the sun. Sweat clung to his brow as he concentrated, trying to send pulses of chakra into the wire with short bursts, like an On/Off signal—to vibrate the wire. Initially, he'd aimed higher. He had wanted to send the chakra in smooth sine waves, a graceful oscillation that would allow the wire to vibrate in a continuous flow. But after five days of effort, he realized he simply didn't have that level of chakra control, yet. He could barely hold the oscillation for less than a second before the flow destabilized.
So, he changed tactics. Instead of chasing perfection, he focused on raw function. Sharp chakra pulses. On. Off. On. Off. And it worked.
After another week of training, he managed to make the wire vibrate. At first, it was faint, just a soft hum. But it was enough to cause an accident. The moment the wire began vibrating, the side he was holding quivered as well. A sudden sting shot through his palm. He looked down and saw a thin, red line—blood.
He stared at his hand, stunned. If I had started with high-speed pulses… His fingers curled instinctively. I might've lost a finger or worse.
From that day on, he added a crucial step. First, coat the hand in chakra. Then begin sending pulses. It wasn't perfect. Coating his hand took more chakra and required steady concentration, but at least it gave him a buffer, a way to train without ending up in the hospital.
Still, the incident had given him something valuable—proof that he was on the right track. The wire's cutting power had visibly increased. And the humming? It grew louder the faster he sent the pulses. Encouraged, he trained for another week. Not to refine the wire's cutting power, but to reduce the sheer mental strain it took to maintain those precise chakra pulses. Unfortunately, it didn't improve much. It still took near-total focus just to keep the vibrations steady for thirty seconds.
The worst part?
Even the smallest lapse in concentration made chakra usage spike dramatically. Even after weeks of practice, reducing the concentration needed for chakra pulses wasn't easy. The chakra usage was in between of using a E and D-rank jutsu per minute. If his focus slipped even slightly, chakra drained faster. So, Kazeo thought about the most logical thing. He dumped the task to his shadow clones. The ones at home, practicing calligraphy after he goes to academy. And decided to only focus on increasing the speed of sending chakra pulses.
After exhausting his remaining chakra, he sat down to meditate and recover before transforming into another kid and leaving the training ground quietly.
His days continued in the same way until, three weeks later, he stumbled upon something shocking.