The elder said, "Kakashi, you are a wonderful shinobi, so we have all decided that you will be the next leader of the Hatake clan. What do you think? You can follow your father's legacy."
Kakashi closed his book and looked him in the eye. "My father's legacy? Did you all forget what you did to him? I have no plans to associate myself with this clan. You can choose another leader. This will probably be the last time you see me."
The elder's face twisted in outrage. "You are declining the leadership position? Are you stupid? It's the highest position in the clan."
Kakashi stood up. "As I said, I don't care about this clan, and I don't want to associate myself with it." He headed for the exit, but paused before walking through the door. "Oh, and this kid has a request to make."
Kakashi left the room, leaving the elders speechless.
One of the elders turned to Ryuma. "So, what is it that you want, kid?"
Ryuma stood his ground. "I want to learn the Hatake clan's secret techniques."
"You want to learn the techniques? Don't even try them, kid. It'll kill you. Only that man was able to use them, everyone else who tries pays the price," one of the elders scoffed.
Ryuma asked, "What price?"
"Those techniques put a huge toll on both the user's body and mind, so ordinary people can't use them," the elder explained.
"I don't care. I'll learn to take that toll and master them," he replied.
Another elder sneered, "Hey, why are you telling a genin so many things? Just throw him out of here already. He should at least be a jonin to make such demands. Guards!"
The two shinobi standing outside quickly came in and grabbed Ryuma by the arms. "Let's go, kid."
Ryuma's eyebrow twitched as he pulled away. "You old farts, you're the reason the clan is in this state."
Ryuma left the hall with those parting words. As he stepped outside, a familiar voice called out, "So, I assume that didn't go too well?"
Ryuma looked at the source of the voice and saw Kakashi standing there. He hesitated a little before saying, "No. They said I should at least be a jonin."
Kakashi took a scroll from his pouch and tossed it at Ryuma, who caught it clumsily. Kakashi said, "It's a technique of the Hatake clan. I'll visit you in a week. If you master it by then, I'll give you the rest."
Ryuma looked at him in awe and froze for a second before stammering, "Ah, thanks for this."
"See you in a week, then," Kakashi said, and flickered away.
Ryuma immediately headed for the training ground. Upon reaching it, he unrolled the scroll and saw two training methods detailed inside: the first for mental training and the second for physical training.
For the physical portion, a series of exercises were listed, but they had to be performed while wearing a weight seal. The training would only be considered complete when he could do all the exercises effortlessly with the weight seal set at 3,000 kg.
"Are you kidding me?" Ryuma muttered. "Do they think 3,000 kg is a joke? Well, I don't have the seals yet, so I'll just do it without them today."
Ryuma began doing the exercises one after another. He trained for hours until the sky turned dark, then finally went home.
That night in his room, he read the mental exercise section. It outlined activities regarding meditation to achieve a flow state where the user feels connected to the world and can sense everything around them without trying. The scroll also mentioned that this state served as an alternative to sleeping.
Ryuma sat in a lotus position and started meditating. Within an hour, he started feeling drowsy. After another hour, he fell completely asleep.
The next morning when Ryuma woke up, he was furious with himself. "Damn it, how could I let myself fall asleep?"
That evening, he went to a weapons shop and purchased a weight seal with a maximum capacity of 500 kg.
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