Their conversation was brief but revealing …
Guy now had a better idea about who young Jay-kun was and what the future could hold for him …
Prodigies weren't something that grew on threes … Some might consider Guy one, but Guy disagreed …
‘Prodigies’ like Maito Guy weren't born, they were made …
***
Maito Duy was considered a joke by many … He was called the wandering loser, a man with a tattered reputation of challenging his betters and then cowardly surrendering or fleeing …
But there was a method to that madness …
Each loss provided Maito Duy with clues about the secrets behind their martial arts …
Maito Duy internalized and improved after each loss, creating a style, the Strong Fist … a bastardized and mixed version of everything he learned about every other martial school … something that would have him killed if it ever got out …
Maito Duy arrived in Konoha with his son, Guy and his tattered reputation …
But Maito Duy cared not for the lack of opportunities to grow … Maito Duy focused on his own legacy … his son, Guy …
Konoha was simply a means to an end … One of the few organizations where ‘power’ was less entrenched …
Maito Duy used all of his knowledge about the body and psychology to make his great legacy, to make a ‘monster’ that people would remember …
Maito Guy was that ‘creation’ …
As soon as Guy could remember, he ‘played’ with his father, always training, always moving, always learning the ‘art of the body’ …
… anytime Guy got hurt, his father laughed and gave him an ‘artisanal homemade herbal youthful candy’ … A narcotic drug pill with just the right mix of herbs to combat the addiction and aid in the body’s recovery …
Poisons, Venoms … Maito Duy made sure his legacy was resistant to them …
Long days fueled by the ‘youthful’ narcotics as Guy’s own body broke down due to the toxins …
Over the years Guy just stopped feeling pain normally as his body got used to the pain and constant inflow of drugs … a conditioning done only in the most desperate of war times …
The body's limiters, broken through with methodical precision and grueling effort …
Maito Guy loved his father … his infancy is still remembered fondly … the training, the learning, the attitude … it was FUN … it still is …
But he also knows that his father made that life for him … Maito Guy's father molded him into his legacy, into ‘Maito’ legacy … the Monster of the battlefield, the ‘Green Beast’ …
Maito Guy would forever respect his father, especially because everything he did to Guy, Maito Duy did with himself, even when Duy knew his adult body couldn't adapt, even when he was quite literally killing himself …
He bore through it all because if he would subject his son through it, he would subject himself …
Maito Duy died early into Guy's life, a little after Guy made chunin and the third war began in earnest …
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Maito Duy’s death didn't make waves, his reputation as the ‘wandering loser’ never changed, his overwhelmingly positive personality never appreciated, his legacy forgotten by all but Guy …
***
But Maito Guy made them know the MAITO name … Maito Guy made them know the Strong Fist … Maito Guy would carry the youthful torch and pass it on to those that showed promise.
Because while prodigies were born … they could also be made.
*** *** ***
Lee ran up to his sensei.
[Lee] - Kouhai Jay-kun broke his nose on a tree … -
He said before taking a recovering breath.
Yūgao just groaned in her hands.
[Maito Guy] - Well, it seems you both started on your training on the Dash Kata them -
[Lee] - Yes Guy sensei, although Jay-kun doesn't know the youthful Tree Walk, he was learning that … -
Yūgao groaned harder.
[Maito Guy] - Well, let's not waste our youth waiting forever, come on Lee, show us the PATH ! -
Guy did a magnificent manly pose to his apprentice.
[Lee] - YES GUY SENSEI, YOOOOSH -
Lee immediately ran back where he came, Guy's booming laughter right behind him as Yūgao simply shook her head before following.
*** *** ***
When Lee went to get the adults, Jay spent the next few moments trying to imitate what Lee just did …
Jays theory was sound and his control precise … but his body couldn't keep up with what he was demanding.
When trying to perform faster, Jay felt that his chakra was lagging behind what his mind demanded … like chakra had an ‘inertia’ to it …
It was something Jay had to adjust …
Jay looked up at the tree, muttering to himself.
[Jay] - This annoying delay is throwing me off … there is just no way to adjust things on the fly like this and I need to make those adjustments as I'm moving … this can't be all about practice, I must be doing something wrong … Hmm to fix this ? … -
The chakra's inertia was a problem, but how to get around it ?…
[Jay] - … making it go from a dead stop takes too long … -
Turning his head to the side, Jay tried to think a bit more over what Lee showed him and what he saw other ninjas doind … there was the normal buildup and use of the chakra, but they also kept their chakra constantly moving …
Jay thought it was a weird quirk of their training but now it made sense …
[Jay] - … They are keeping their chakra primed for movement by always moving it in a ‘aura’ around them, it wastes a bit of energy but the response should be dramatically improved … -
Jay turned as he heard Lee running towards him, with Guy-san laughing right on his heels and Yūgao-san a bit further away.
[Lee] - Yooooush, Kouhai Jay … your nose ? -
Lee paused seeing that Jay's nose wasn't bent anymore.
[Jay] - I put it back into place, I generally heal fast but I like to make sure someone checks to see if I didn't heal anything wrong -
Lee nodded his head with stars in his eyes.
[Maito Guy] - Don't worry young Jay, from what I can see you put it back in place beautifully -
Jay saw Guy give him a thumbs up before Yūgao arrived with a hand glowing slightly as she touched Jay's nose.
[Yūgao] - You put it back properly, now, what made you miss your step Jay-kun ? You know how to tree walk … -
[Jay] - Yes, but the ‘youthful tree walk’ is quite a bit faster, my chakra keeps lagging behind, so I was trying to fix it -
Jay saw Yūgao turning her head in confusion.
[Yūgao] - You just flow your chakra faster Jay-kun … -
Jay rolled his eyes.
[Jay] - I didn't know that -
Now it was time for Guy to look at him like he grew a second head.
[Maito Guy] - Young Jay, did you learn to wall walk before learning to flow your chakra ? -
[Jay] - No, I learned to flow my chakra, I just didn't do it because I thought that was just a chakra control exercise … Now I figured that its actually to help make the chakra respond faster … -
[Yūgao] - Wait, you learn to do everything else without flowing your chakra ? -
[Jay] - Yup, now I’ll probably have a much easier time doing things … -
[Maito Guy] - Well said young Jay, why don't you show us your breakthrough ? -
Jay gave him a thumbs up before focusing on his chakra … taking a deep breath and visualizing it flowing like blood in his veins …
It was something that should be second nature by now but as always hindsight is 20 - 20 …
*** *** ***
Lee watched his Kouhai run towards the tree and execute a mighty leap … rising and then … a second step and leap … then a thrid … a fourth … soon enough, Jay was at the top of the three.
[Jay] - Yep, this is way easier … -
Lee felt a pang of jealousy … Lee himself took an entire week to master the exercice and his Kouhai didn't even need a day …
Lee shook his head.
[Lee] - Beautifully done Kouhai, Yoooooosh now we can practice the Dash Kata -
Lee gave a thumbs up.
***
Maito Guy watched, amused as the young prodigy had to deduce something everyone though he already knew …
It was refreshing to see that not even a prodigy like young Jay knew everything …
But it was also quite revealing as to why Yūgao-san felt a bit scared by him … in just a few minutes after failing at a task, young Jay uncovered why he failed, what needed to be done to correct it and how to correct it …
Maito Guy could see that Jay didn't keep mindlessly practicing until he got it … he seeked to understand everything about the task first before giving into mindless repetition as the solution …
Maito Guy just shook his head, amused at the scene of Jay trying to imitate Lee dashing all over the place …
***
The Kata itself was quite simple to execute it you knew how to do the ‘youthfull tree walk’ … Unlike running, your feet were kept close to the ground, ready to change directions …
But the simplicity of this Kate was what made it so foundational to most forms of chakra enhanced movement.
To move forwards while not going ‘up’, you needed to stick yourself to the ground, not only that, you needed to create enouth ‘grip’ for your foot without putting ‘weight’ on it … you were going ‘fowards’ and not ‘up’ … the lack of vertical force made the foot simply slip off the top soil if you didn't secure your grip deep into the ground, and you had to do it in the brief moment your feet touched the ground …
***
Watching young Jay learn all of that in real time was almost a lesson into how to approach problems …
The ground they were in was packed dirt with some grass and some sand due to the river close by.
Maito Guy saw young Jay looking at Lee dashing … Jay paused to check on the ground, then chaneled his chakra there, figuring out the correct ‘feel’ for it before meticulously adjusting his normal running form to the correct form of the Dash … and only then he started using his chakra too boost his movements …
It was a slow, methodical and carefully crafted way of learning something, like solving a puzzle piece by piece …
Maito turned to look at Yūgao who was simply watching the boys run around.
[Maito Guy] - Quite a genius hmm ? -
Maito Guy smiled and shook his head at how ‘easy’ his job teaching the boy would be …
***
