Morning Training

The next morning, when Sasuke jogging, he coincidentally ran into two girls— Sakura Haruno and Hinata, who were also jogging and wearing tank tops and shorts.

"Good morning, Hinata and Sakura." He caught up with them and greeted them.

"Good morning, Sasuke," the Byakugan girl replied energetically.

"Good morning~" Sakura Haruno's reply sounded a bit weak, "We're on our sixteenth lap, are you just starting?"

"Hmm." Sasuke nodded, glancing at the slightly panting girl. He noticed fine beads of sweat forming under her nose, and compared it to Hinata, who looked like she hadn't even warmed up and couldn't even break a sweat. He understood immediately. Ninjas specializing in Taijutsu indeed possessed extraordinary stamina.

However, Sakura's physical fitness is quite good. A ninja's morning run isn't the kind of leisurely exercise; it involves running at high speed. A Taijutsu expert like Lee can run twenty laps around Konoha at Bolt's speed without even breaking a sweat. Ninjas, whose abilities are constantly enhanced by Chakra over the years, seem like superhumans to ordinary people.

"By the way, Sakura, have you finished writing your mission report? The three thousand-word one."

"Heh heh," he chuckled awkwardly, feeling a pang of embarrassment just thinking about Sakura. "I barely finished writing it. I haven't written anything in years, I've forgotten how!"

I had such a wonderful time soaking in the hot springs last night that I didn't remember I had to write a report until very late.

The key point is that when they later talked about Hinata helping Sakura Haruno lead the class, Ino just said, "Punching is punching, why do you need to teach such a simple thing for so long? I don't really understand you guys who practice Taijutsu."

For a ranged, Secret Technique- based ninja like Ino, the essence of Taijutsu lies in the unity of the waist and stance in the punch, clean and crisp movements, and adding a Chakra to increase the power of the punch. There's nothing more profound about it. If Taijutsu is scored out of 100, Ino would only score around 70, placing her in the lower-middle range among female ninjas. Compared to Hinata, she's definitely a poor student, no higher at all.

Hinata was mocked by the underachieving student, was very indignant and insisted on explaining the essence of Taijutsu moves to Ino —so she dragged Ino ashore naked to have a demonstration.

"Could you two please put on some clothes first?" Sakura Haruno was utterly speechless. Although the scene wasn't exactly cringe-worthy—on the contrary, the sight of two fair-skinned, beautiful girls with slender waists, bright eyes, and perfect figures posing confidently in front of her was truly breathtaking, especially since there were only the four of them there— Sakura Haruno still felt a tremendous visual shock...

"You can't see the muscles moving when you're dressed," Hinata waved her hand dismissively, then said to Ino, "The true Taijutsu is not as superficial as you think! The difficulty of Taijutsu lies in precisely controlling the movement of each muscle, making them work together to create force, thus making punches and kicks faster, stronger, and more accurate!"

"Let me give you a proper lesson, listen up, Ino Pig! The human body has 69 muscles and 6 billion muscle fibers. A basic straight punch might just be a simple twist of your waist and a flick of the wrist for you, but a skilled Taijutsu expert uses more than 80% of their muscles to assist in generating power, from the toes and arches of the feet to the legs and thighs, then the hips, waist, and shoulders, and finally the arm! Such a punch can easily deliver several times the power of your simple punch!"

Hinata demonstrated two different punching techniques while writing.

In comparison, Ino's punches are clearly weak and lack power; on the contrary, when Hinata punches seriously, the wind whistles, and when she punches at high speed, it's as if the air becomes a wall that the girl punches through, with a sharp and powerful whistling sound.

Ino watched intently, speechless for a moment. She realized she was actually quite perceptive of the profound aspects of Taijutsu. As a traditional girl with little interest in strength and combat, Ino had never been particularly interested in training, at most diligently completing her family's Secret Technique. She would avoid Taijutsu training that would leave her drenched in sweat, which was why she had made a fool of herself in front of Hinata.

Of course, another reason is that while the knowledge Hinata explained wasn't a closely guarded secret of the Hyuga Clan, it wasn't basic knowledge that could be learned at the Ninja Academy either. In fact, the Yamanaka Clan specializes in Yin Release Secret Technique, and their understanding of Taijutsu might not be as extensive Hinata's, a single girl. As for Ino having so many powerful friends but not learning a few moves from them, that's her own problem.

"Whether it's Strong Fist or Gentle Fist, the key is to generate power from the root. The power from the soles of the feet is very important, so I'll start with the power from the feet." Hinata lifted her foot to show everyone, striking an awkward pose, and continued, "The little toe generally doesn't participate in generating power. The muscles it connects to with the fourth toe are involuntary muscles, which are difficult to control by willpower, so beginners don't need to worry about them."

"So you only need to learn how to exert force with the first three toes. This mainly involves the movement of two muscles, scientifically known as the extensor digitorum brevis and the extensor hallucis brevis. Watch my movements..."

After that Hinata couldn't hear Sakura Haruno anymore. Hinata's posture was a bit impolite, but her unseemly actions only drew more attention... uh, cough cough... anyway, Sakura's attention was completely diverted from Hinata's words...

In short, by the time she remembered she still had a report to write, it was already midnight, with the stars shining brightly and the full moon high in the sky.

Then, by the time she rushed home and finished writing the report overnight, it was almost dawn—and you have to understand, she's no longer the man from her past life who could write 15,000 words a day!

Fortunately, staying up half the night was nothing for Sakura Haruno.

Sasuke didn't think much of it. He had also struggled quite a bit with writing those three thousand words. Seeing that Sakura, who was usually a model student, also had the same toothache expression, he immediately felt much better.

After running a few laps, Sakura Haruno and Hinata finished their morning exercise. The pink-haired girl went home, took a shower, casually tied up her wet hair, and headed straight for the Hokage Building.

When she arrived at the Hokage's office, Sasuke was just handing in his mission report.

Tsunade took Sakura's report scroll, not in a hurry to read it, and casually placed it on the shelf beside her. "Perfect timing, Sakura, I just received your letter."

"My letter?" Sakura Haruno was taken aback, but quickly realized that only Naruto would write to her these days. She took it and saw that it was indeed a letter from Naruto, several pages long, with a very valuable and powerful sealing scroll attached.

Sakura Haruno smiled faintly, unfolded the letter, and was about to read it when Sasuke leaned over, trying to peek. "What did Naruto say to you? He wrote three whole pages!"

"What's it to you..." Sakura glared at him irritably, nudging his chest with her elbow; then, out of the corner of her eye, she noticed that the letter in Sasuke was only one page long, and immediately chuckled—yes, that's what "chuckle" meant.

That's right, he must be jealous that she receives more attention from Naruto!

Tsk tsk, that's a dangerous sign, Sasuke.

Sasuke felt uneasy under Sakura Haruno's inexplicable gaze.

"Alright, you two, stop blocking the office and obstructing others. Go outside to read the letter." Tsunade waved them away. "By the way, Sakura, be careful with your safety precautions when opening the scroll."

"Huh?" Sakura Haruno was taken aback.

As she left the office, she already had a pretty good idea of what was inside the scroll.

"I'm going to train now, see you later!" the girl said eagerly, waving goodbye and disappearing outside the Hokage Building.

"So eager, could it be...?" Sasuke gazed thoughtfully in the direction she disappeared.

Congratulations to the French team on winning the championship!