The Shuriken competition didn't show much growth, as many had already performed well last year.
In the Taijutsu competition, among the top few, only Uchiha Rai and Shimura Shin made significant progress.
Considering the above, Feng Zheng speculated that his outstanding performance in the Leaf Concentration exam might have caused everyone to pay close attention to improving this skill.
However, the Inuzuka Clan performed much better and more aggressively than last year.
Due to the poor exam results of the three Inuzuka Clan members, their family subjected them to "special" training to prevent further disgrace to the clan.
During one of the matches, an Inuzuka kid shouted.
"I will defeat you no matter what! I never want to go through that kind of training in the clan again."
Hearing this, the other two Inuzuka students also frowned.
Feng Zheng vaguely understood something and thought to himself.
"This world desperately needs laws against child abuse!"
Sadly, the Inuzuka Clan boy was still mercilessly knocked down by Shimura Shin, making everyone feel sorry for the poor child.
However, the Taijutsu competition did provide Feng Zheng with the ultimate opportunity to test his progress. He was very satisfied with the results.
After the Sealing Jutsu was released, his body moved much faster, and his strikes were heavier.
He drew with Senju Teru in the match.
After the first week, Feng Zheng walked into the Library and entered Section D. He thought to himself.
"I've practiced the Substitution Technique over a thousand times. I still can't reduce the required Hand Seals. Honestly, if it requires so many Hand Seals, this Ninjutsu is almost completely useless for a Ninja. Even an ordinary Genin can recognize the Ninjutsu and become vigilant."
However, Feng Zheng believed it might still be effective against ordinary bandits.
Anyway, Feng Zheng thought he might need a few more years to reduce the number of Hand Seals required.
So, he decided to continue learning new Ninjutsu.
He quickly found the Ninjutsu he wanted to learn. He was very excited to learn this Ninjutsu, as it was one of his favorites.
After finding it, he softly muttered.
"Body Flicker Technique."
He found a place to sit down and began reading the scroll.
After reading the analysis, he concluded.
"Well, this technique is both simple and complex."
It's simple because it only requires one Hand Seal—the Tiger seal. So, the Chakra shaping method is very straightforward.
It's complex because actually performing this Ninjutsu is very difficult.
He had to concentrate a large amount of Chakra in his legs to move at such high speed.
According to the scroll, initially, one could only flicker a few meters.
Only when one could flash over a hundred meters away was the Ninjutsu considered learned.
The scroll also mentioned using smoke or leaves before using this Ninjutsu so that enemies couldn't judge the direction of your flicker.
Additionally, it was very important to ensure you didn't collide with people or objects when using this Ninjutsu.
Feng Zheng felt that his abilities as a Sensor Ninja might help him in this regard.
However, there wasn't a so-called maximum flickering distance, but rather the duration one could maintain this Ninjutsu.
Feng Zheng had originally thought that if he wanted to escape using this Ninjutsu, he would need to learn to flicker multiple times consecutively.
But in reality, it's about how long you can maintain the Ninjutsu. So, if you can flicker a hundred meters in one second and maintain the Ninjutsu for ten seconds, you can cover one kilometer.
Feng Zheng thought this was good. It was more convenient than flickering again and again.
After learning the entire process from the scroll, Feng Zheng left the Library.
He transformed into an unfamiliar 13-year-old child and appeared in an empty alley. Then he ran into a nearby small forest.
He ran around in that small forest, trying to sense if there was any Chakra present. Then he thought to himself.
"Alright, this forest is clear. And I'm in disguise. So I can start training."
"Although a forest isn't the best place to train the Body Flicker Technique, since my initial flickering distance is short, it shouldn't be a problem. However, once I start flickering long distances, I'll need to find an open area to train."
Then he began training this Ninjutsu.
Feng Zheng spent the past few months peacefully. His physique continuously improved due to the Sealing Jutsu training he imposed on himself.
He used to increase the pressure of the Sealing Jutsu by 0.1%.
At school, Genshu began teaching the Transformation Technique.
Feng Zheng experimented and found it easy to fake Hand Seals without shaping Chakra.
But he felt it was a waste... So, he tried another trick.
He began faking the first Hand Seal, but when transitioning to the second Hand Seal, he tried to shape the Chakra for the first Hand Seal without the aid of the first Hand Seal.
In this way, he practiced performing these Ninjutsu with one less Hand Seal.
As expected, Senju Teru and Uchiha Rai were the most talented in Ninjutsu. They competed for the top 2 positions.
No matter how hard Shimura Shin tried, he could only rank third.
Hyuga Hodaka, Hyuga Hana, and the Aburame Clan child competed for positions 4-6.
Feng Zheng kept his Transformation Technique ranking at tenth, Clone Technique at seventh, and Substitution Technique at eighth.
Although he learned how to shape Chakra within three days, it took him a month to learn the Body Flicker Technique.
Even so, he could only flicker a few meters.
In the following month, instead of trying to increase the flickering distance, he focused on improving the speed of performing the Ninjutsu and successfully achieved this without using any Hand Seals.
Within that month, he practiced thousands of times to be able to do this.
Next, he began to focus on increasing the range of the Body Flicker Technique. It took him 4 and a half months to reach a body flicker of 100 meters.
Then he started focusing on maintaining the Body Flicker Technique for longer durations.
It was at this time that the incident of the Hidden Cloud Village attempting to kidnap Hyuga Hinata and the death of Hizashi occurred.
The next day, Hyuga Hodaka and Hyuga Hana were both very serious.
To accurately assess his progress, he bought a stopwatch.
Six months later, he could flicker 400 meters in less than 4 seconds. Then he thought.
"My initial plan was to start learning elemental Ninjutsu now, but the Body Flicker Technique really has more applications I want to explore. Alas, I'll stick with it. Training the Body Flicker Technique to a higher level will be very important for future development."
He continued his Body Flicker Technique training. By the end of the second year's exams, Feng Zheng could successfully maintain the Body Flicker Technique for 12.76 seconds and had successfully traveled 1.9 kilometers.
He could also change direction mid-flicker, although he couldn't do it often yet.
And he could also flicker through the forest while avoiding hitting trees.
He was very satisfied with his progress.
At school, he had successfully reduced the Hand Seals required for the Transformation Technique and Clone Technique by 1, and the Substitution Technique was close to being reduced by 2.