After Keiji's birth Kenshin received the third level and thought for a long time about where to invest the free skill point, eventually choosing "Formation Creation", raising the ability to the third level. At first Kenshin felt no changes, but waking up the next morning he discovered that his knowledge in the art of creating formations had improved slightly.
Kenshin now knew how to improve the efficiency of many "old" formations. He finally learned how to create a primitive formation of protection from physical impact, but he needed practice, so the next day after Keiji's birth he devoted almost entirely to practising the application of new knowledge, trying to apply the acquired knowledge in practice.
Ichiro spent almost the whole day stubbornly training his body. Aya took care of the baby and some everyday chores, and little Keiji crawled around and put everything he could reach into his mouth.
In the evening Kenshin went to bed with his wife and little son, having spent the previous night in the "barracks" with Ichiro on the next bed. He had completely unlearned to sleep alone and found it hard to fall asleep without his beloved girl, so ten minutes later Kenshin was already sleeping like the dead, not paying attention to restless Keiji who tried to climb on daddy and laugh loudly, spraying saliva.
On the second day after Keiji's birth Kenshin after breakfast called Ichiro to the gym and said: "You've probably heard about shinobi and chakra." Kenshin said and, waiting for an interested nod, continued: "Unfortunately I myself am deprived of the ability to interact with chakra, so I can't teach you anything specific, but I'll try to push you in the right direction. If it doesn't work out, no big deal, we'll earn money for a guide and make a shinobi out of you!" Kenshin declared with a laugh, then told Ichiro to sit in the lotus position.
For the next fifteen minutes Kenshin tried to remember everything he knew about chakra, urging Ichiro to concentrate, comprehend the energy flowing inside him, or light an invisible flame inside his stomach. Ichiro didn't understand how to do it, and the "training" stalled.
"All right, sit and try to feel the chakra. Today you're exempt from physical training, and if in six hours you feel nothing, we'll drop the idea of self-mastering chakra," Kenshin declared, then left the gym heading outside, wanting to strengthen the old concealment formation.
Having finished this task in about three hours, satisfiedly humming Kenshin returned home, pleased that now no random genin would wander into his territory but would intuitively choose another path or suddenly change his mind about going to this place. Unfortunately the formation wouldn't work on those genin who purposefully went into the formation's area of effect, but it perfectly turned away ordinary people purposefully heading to his territory.
By lunch Kenshin sat in the kitchen drinking coffee and playing a little with little Keiji sitting on Aya's lap.
"It worked, father!" he suddenly heard through the telepathic connection and almost spitting out coffee quickly headed to the gym.
"It worked?!" Kenshin asked excitedly approaching his son.
"Yes, it worked! For a long time I felt nothing, and then, as you said, in the stomach area I suddenly felt a small flame, it's still burning!" Ichiro declared enthusiastically.
"Good job!" Kenshin praised him and added: "Now try to direct the chakra throughout your body. I don't know how it all works, but there are invisible chakra channels in the body, try to influence your chakra and make it circulate through the body."
"All right, I'll try now," Ichiro said and focused on controlling chakra. For a long time nothing worked out for him, and Kenshin's enthusiasm subsided a little, but after half an hour Ichiro suddenly jumped up and shouted joyfully: "It worked!"
"Ha-ha-ha, good job! Come on, have lunch and get back to training. You haven't eaten since morning, your mother will skin me if she finds out you're hungry!" Kenshin said with a laugh and led Ichiro to the kitchen.
"Aya, our son finally managed to feel chakra!" Kenshin said joyfully entering the kitchen.
"What?!" the girl asked in surprise, then her eyes lit up and she added joyfully: "Oh god, Ichiro, baby, that's so great!"
"Well mom! Stop calling me baby!" Ichiro objected and blushed.
"Oh come on. For me you'll always remain a little boy!" Aya answered with a laugh, in a wonderful mood.
After lunch Ichiro returned to chakra circulation training, and Kenshin went for more rabbits and fish. Closer to evening the wine finally "matured" and Kenshin planned to go to Shukuba the next day, taking Ichiro with him.
After seven in the evening Kenshin decided to check Ichiro's progress and entered the gym.
"Well, how's it going?" he asked his son.
"Hm… I don't know, but it's already much easier for me to make chakra circulate through the body. Plus I seem to have become a little stronger… I don't know how to explain…" Ichiro muttered doubtfully.
"Stronger you say? Come on, punch the bag."
Ichiro stood up, put on gloves, and landed a fairly quick punch on the bag, making it swing noticeably further than before.
"Hm, indeed, your punch became about twenty percent stronger. Let's have a sparring session, need to check your strength in action," Kenshin declared, picking up a helmet and gloves.
For about a minute Kenshin withstood Ichiro's onslaught, but then took several punches. One of them was especially accurate and made Kenshin lose coordination and fall.
"Father!" Ichiro exclaimed, falling to his knees before him, helping him up.
"It's all right…" Kenshin muttered, waving off help. Then he stood up and said: "You've become incredibly strong, and now I'm definitely not your opponent. From this moment our sparring sessions are meaningless."
Kenshin was greatly impressed by Ichiro's strength and speed. He calculated that in a week even the strongest boxers from his previous world wouldn't be able to defeat this young man.
He wondered what caused the enhancement of Ichiro's physical characteristics, and besides the obvious fact that chakra was to blame, Kenshin had only one assumption.
"Perhaps chakra somehow nourishes the muscles, making them stronger and tougher? That bastard Koga had remarkably strong muscles, almost like steel, like a draft ox…" Kenshin thought. He couldn't confirm his assumptions until he found a competent shinobi. He became more and more convinced that he needed to come up with a plan to seduce a kunoichi. He had one idea, but he couldn't bring himself to do it for moral reasons.