Chapter 27
Kazuo continued repeating the same movement and Jutsu over and over, it was only when someone came to tell him to head to the center of the camp that Kazuo stopped.
'Not enough time, the system hasn't even recognized it as a skill yet, this way all ill do is get the same result as last time, I need to at least achieve a level four in the Jutsu if I want to maintain my status as a prodigy.' Kazuo thought as he headed to the center of the camp.
He wasn't going to simply kill himself immediately however, he still had hours of available time to practice, until just before midnight when he would kill himself and return back to the early hours of the morning.
Arriving at the center, Shikaru was talking to the troops just like the previous turn.
He turned toward Kazuo and gave him the same scroll and soon enough the troops started their run toward the border.
Kazuo held the jutsu scroll in his hands for around ten minutes as he ran alongside the shinobi before he put it away and made the tiger hand sign.
*Poof*
The smoke was reduced by leagues and bounds from the first time that he had used the jutsu and the amount of chakra wasted was also lowered, that didn't mean that he had achieved a high mastery however, he was still only in the beginning phases of the technique.
Kazuo appeared a dozen meters in front of where he had previously been and continued running again, he had managed to make the jutsu useable, though not combat-ready.
'Im still far, too far away.' Kazuo thought.
However, the sight of him simply looking at a jutsu scroll for a few minutes and then performing said jutsu was astonishing to the surrounding shinobi who looked at Kazuo with wide eyes.
"Did he just?" One of the shinobi questioned, his words blurting out on their own as he stared at Kazuo.
Another next to him nodded his head slowly, his mouth slightly agape as well as they looked at Kazuo.
The Body Flicker wasn't a hard jutsu to pull off and most if not all chunnin already had decent mastery of it however being able to use the jutsu immediately and have at least some mastery over it so that you didn't crash was huge.
It was something in the realm of geniuses, whilst it wasn't something so extraordinary like what that hatake kakashi seemed to be able to do, it was in a realm above the normal still.
Shikaru who had been looking at Kazuo for a while now had his eyes slightly widen as well before a small smile appeared on his face.
'Not bad kid, it seems like it will take more than just that to bring you down a peg.' Shikaru thought as he turned around.
The run continued well into the die and just like the previous turn, Kazuo quickly found himself dead tired with his back covered in sweat however it was even worse this time.
Even his chakra reserves were on the verge of running out because of the continued use of the body flicker jutsu.
The shocked gazes of the shinobi around him had subsided some time ago and turned into confused stares instead.
Where was the genius talent that he showed? Did it just evaporate into thin air?
*Sigh*
Releasing a long-winded sigh, Kazuo thought.
'It's time, ah I want to kill you so bad Shikaru, I hope you remain a virgin your entire life you damned ugly bastard.' Kazuo thought as he took an explosion kunai from his ninja bag and plunged it into his abdomen just like the last turn.
*Boom*
With a loud explosion sound, Kazuo exploded and his body parts flew all around and fell to the forest floor.
*Huff* *Huff*
Waking up once more, Kazuo quickly got up, not having any thoughts in his mind, and headed to the training ground again.
It had been a while of just...
Using the body flicker again and again, over and over.
Going to the center of the camp, getting the scroll, and then running into the forest until he had to kill himself once more.
Each time, Kazuo managed to last a few minutes longer, managed to conserve his chakra and stamina more and more.
However, this jutsu wasn't as easy as he had assumed it would be, in fact, it was so hard that Kazuo felt like killing himself, ironic considering the reason of the fact that the jutsu was causing him to die so many times and that he was doing it out of his own volition.
Was it three times? Five? Ten? Fifteen?
'Twenty-seven' Kazuo thought, his mind had already lost a part of itself however if nothing else Kazuo was stubborn, it was a fact that had carried him through both in his wretched past life and in this even more harrowing new one.
He had long achieved level four of the shunshin jutsu and had it recognized by the system however even that hadn't been enough.
His physical attributes were simply too low and no matter how many turns passed they didn't increase.
'If I trained the jutsu for this long without the loops then I would have achieved higher mastery however all the bodily mastery, the instinct that gets ingrained through continuous practice is lost every single time that I use the time loop, causing my progress to be much slower than what it could have been.' Kazuo thought as he walked toward the center of the camp.
His already stoic face had turned even more into what people would call a perfect poker face.
Arriving to stand close to Shikaru, Kazuo listened to him giving the speech for what felt like the hundredth time.
'I didn't practice the shunshin jutsu this turn, this way no one would have been able to see me using it until after I read the scroll' Kazuo thought as he took the shunshin jutsu scroll for the 28th time.
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