The Gentleman Strives for Self-Improvement

"Yo! Not bad, you actually guessed that the second stage of the Water Walking technique also requires weighted training."

Shimura Kentei said with a smile as he found the two young girls practicing their Water Walking technique by the river in the Death Forest.

At this moment, the two girls were each holding a wooden beam and standing on the water. Due to the immense weight of the beams, they were struggling to maintain a stable Water Walking state, causing ripples to spread across the water's surface.

"We're not idiots!"

Uchiha Mikoto, standing on the water, rolled her eyes adorably. With the second stage of the Tree Climbing technique already established, how could they not guess what the second stage of Water Walking would be?

"Hmm? You're injured?"

Shimura Kentei, about to say something, suddenly sniffed the air and his gaze fell upon the two girls.

He smelled the scent of ointment, clearly indicating that these two girls were likely injured.

His gaze finally landed on Uchiha Mikoto's left calf, which was wrapped in bandages, and he could roughly guess how she got injured.

"Didn't I tell you only to use weights up to a hundred kilograms?"

With his sword-like eyebrows furrowed, Shimura Kentei disliked those who didn't follow his orders.

That hundred-kilogram limit was determined based on the girls' physical condition. Exceeding it would inevitably cause damage to their bodies, with the ankles being the most vulnerable.

After all, climbing trees required one to walk sideways. According to the principle of leverage, anyone could guess the immense pressure on their ankles. It would be a miracle if they didn't get injured.

Stared at by Shimura Kentei's sharp gaze, Uchiha Mikoto turned her head away, refusing to admit she had made a mistake.

"Stop. Rest for three days. After three days, I'll teach you the true second stage Water Walking technique."

Shimura Kentei ordered coldly and turned back towards the cliff face where their camp was located.

He strongly disagreed with the overloaded training methods of Might Guy and Rock Lee from the original story, especially training when extremely fatigued and heavily injured.

Doing so could easily lead to numerous irreparable hidden injuries, or even cripple them.

Of course, if one possessed the monstrous regenerative abilities of Senju Hashirama's Body, they could push themselves to their limits.

It was clear that Uchiha Mikoto did not possess such monstrous regenerative abilities, and continuing like this might turn her into a cripple in the future.

"Isn't the second stage Water Walking technique trained like this?"

Blinking her bright eyes in a dazed manner, Hyuga Suzune looked at the wooden beam she was holding and then at the river water beneath her feet, feeling like it was correct.

"Let's go back and see what he says!"

Casually tossing the wooden beam onto the riverbank, Uchiha Mikoto leaped ashore. However, as soon as her feet landed, her eyebrows furrowed slightly, the throbbing pain intensifying.

"Let me help you!"

Noticing her best friend was not in good condition, Hyuga Suzune quickly stepped forward to support her and walked back to the cliff face where their camp was.

"Apply this, and practice the Bone Forging Technique and Muscle Tendon Changing Technique simultaneously!"

Shimura Kentei tossed a small medicinal bottle over and instructed.

It was an ointment developed by their Shimura Clan specifically to complement the Body Strengthening Technique, capable of slightly increasing training efficiency.

Of course, this was genuinely developed by the Shimura Clan, and it had nothing to do with him.

Although she was reluctant to accept it, Uchiha Mikoto had no choice but to take the bottle of ointment as her own supply had run out.

Taking off her shinobi shoes and unwrapping the bandages, Uchiha Mikoto looked at her swollen ankle and realized the seriousness of the problem.

She had used up that bottle of ointment over the past two days, and not only had it not improved, but it seemed to have worsened.

"Tsk tsk... it's swollen like a pig's trotters!"

Shimura Kentei clicked his tongue as he looked at the girl's swollen ankle.

"You're the pig's trotters!"

Mikoto glared at him indignantly, popped open the bottle cap, poured out the viscous ointment inside, and applied it to her ankle. The cool sensation significantly reduced the swelling and pain.

"Tsunade-sensei is too stingy. You're injured like this, and she still hasn't shown up to treat you. I really overestimated her capacity before. In the end, she's just a woman!"

Shaking his head slightly, Shimura Kentei felt dissatisfied.

"You little pervert, didn't anyone tell you it's rude to talk about people behind their backs? And it's not that I don't want to treat that girl, I just want her to learn her lesson and take better care of her body in the future, so she doesn't act so recklessly again."

Tsunade's shadow clone appeared, also clearly displeased.

"Are you saying you didn't show up for so long without any prejudice against the Uchiha, wanting that girl to suffer a bit more?"

Shimura Kentei shot her a sideways glance. He no longer needed to be polite to this woman. He had already secured the favor of Miss Uzumaki Mito, making this woman's value plummet. He only needed to find an opportunity to copy her bodily data and then he could kick her to the curb.

"I..."

Tsunade opened her mouth, unsure of how to respond. In all honesty, she had indeed thought about letting that little girl suffer a bit more. After all, her own grandfather's death was related to Uchiha Madara, and she harbored an instinctive hatred and aversion towards the Uchiha Clan. While she wouldn't go so far as to take it out on this little girl, making her suffer a bit more was acceptable.

Tsunade's silence made Uchiha Mikoto feel dejected. She lowered her head, gently massaging her swollen ankle, allowing the ointment to penetrate faster.

However, Shimura Kentei's next words made her glare at him again, almost making her form hand seals and unleash a Great Fireball.

"Even if you want to teach her a lesson, you have to consider who she is. Is someone from the Uchiha clan, with their nature, someone who learns from hardship?"

Shimura Kentei sneered, he understood this point very clearly. The girl's future second son, Uchiha Sasuke, was known as "the sunny helper," someone who didn't learn from hardship but rather pressed forward against difficulties.

Most members of the Uchiha clan were like this. This was related to their extreme nature and the negative influence of the Sharingan, and it was basically unchangeable.

"You'll definitely die because of that mouth of yours someday!"

Rolling her eyes in annoyance, Tsunade crouched down, placing her hand on Uchiha Mikoto's swollen ankle. While using Medical Ninjutsu to heal her injuries, she apologized, "I'm sorry, it was my fault as your teacher. It won't happen again."

"It's okay. That man was indeed in the wrong back then, but we Uchiha have already drawn a line with him. We will always be the Uchiha of Konoha!"

After a slight moment of stunned silence, Uchiha Mikoto broke into a smile, her small face filled with determination.

"Girl, that's a dangerous way of thinking!"

Shimura Kentei silently grumbled from the side. He remembered that in Naruto, Uchiha Itachi had said that no matter how dark the village was, he would always be the Uchiha Itachi of Konoha.

And based on that thought, he personally killed his father and mother and massacred his entire clan.

Of course, the girl's thinking wasn't wrong, it was just that she lived during the era of the four incompetent leaders of Konoha's F4, and then the Uchiha were ruined by them.

"Kid, come here, I have something to ask you."

Seeing that Uchiha Mikoto's ankle swelling had mostly subsided, Tsunade stood up, gestured to Shimura Kentei, and walked towards the nearby woods.

Some things were not suitable for Uchiha Mikoto and Hyuga Suzune to know.

With a smile on his lips, Shimura Kentei stood up and followed.

He had guessed before coming that Tsunade would definitely be unable to resist asking about the Flower Tree, and he had already prepared his response.

"I'm sure you've already guessed what I want to ask. Tell me!"

Crossing her arms and leaning against a large tree, pressing her pair of the ninja world's most formidable weapons even more aggressively, Tsunade got straight to the point.

They were all smart people; there was no need to beat around the bush.

"It's nothing much, just that I discovered the petals and pistils of the Flower Tree contain pure life force. If used to make medicine, it can greatly improve my body."

Shimura Kentei said casually. He wasn't entirely lying; the pistils of the Flower Tree did indeed contain pure life force, and even the entire flower possessed that life force.

"Is that all?"

Tsunade stared intently at the little pervert in front of her, trying to see if he was lying.

"What else do you want? Do you think the First Hokage will grow out of that Flower Tree? You've checked that thing before, you should know better what it is."

Shimura Kentei rolled his eyes, showing no signs of guilt.

As the child of darkness, his face had long been trained, and lying had become instinctual.

"Little pervert, I've noticed you seem to have no respect for my grandfather!"

Seeing that Shimura Kentei was making fun of her great-grandfather's name, Tsunade's expression turned displeased. This little pervert was asking for a beating.

"To be precise, I have an opinion. I strongly disagree with his idea of mutual checks and balances. Only through complete unification can the ninja world achieve peace.

It's not like we've already had one Shinobi World War, and the Second Shinobi World War is probably coming soon, with a scale far exceeding the Warring States Period."

He didn't hide anything about this. He no longer needed to please this woman; all he needed to do was cling to Miss Mito's leg, so there was no need to be polite.

"What's the point of unification? Human nature's flaws cannot be changed. Look at the situation in the Land of Fire's Daimyo's mansion, and that's even with many external enemies.

Once the ninja world is unified and there's no pressure from external enemies, it will inevitably and quickly descend into darkness, bringing greater disaster to the ninja world."

Tsunade shot him a cold glance, still adhering to her great-grandfather's philosophy. This was already the best system at this stage.

Shimura Kentei shrugged, not intending to argue further.

The other party was an adult and a person with a firm will, making it too difficult to persuade her.

He estimated that it would only be possible to convince her after experiencing the significant blows of losing many clan members, the decline of her clan, and the subsequent deaths of her brother and boyfriend, as in the original story. It was better to give up for now.

However, he truly disagreed with Senju Hashirama's theory. It was like the nuclear deterrence of his previous life; world peace was built upon world-ending weapons of mass destruction like nuclear weapons.

Although the state of nuclear deterrence prevented major powers from initiating war lightly, once war broke out, it could easily escalate into a world-ending nuclear war.

A great man once said that he didn't know what World War III would be fought with, but World War IV would definitely be fought with stones. This showed the terror of nuclear war.

But he thought this statement was not entirely accurate, as there might not even be a World War IV.

The nuclear arsenals of various countries in his previous life were not enough to break the Earth apart, but they were sufficient to completely destroy the surface. Under the influence of massive nuclear radiation, no living thing could survive, and humanity would be directly extinct, even more thoroughly than the dinosaurs in the prehistoric era. It was even enough to turn the Earth into a dead planet.

And there were similar hidden dangers in Naruto. The Tailed Beasts and the Ten-Tails God Tree were one aspect, and the second was the ninja themselves.

After all, the Cloud Village would eventually develop a super cannon capable of destroying the moon in the future, which could be called a star destroyer.

It could be foreseen that the power of the major ninja villages in the future would become increasingly terrifying. Once another Shinobi World War broke out, it could directly destroy the planet they stood on.

Therefore, in the Naruto world, that strategy of checks and balances was not feasible; only unification was the true future.

As for the issue of internal corruption due to the lack of external enemies, that was not a problem either, as there were still external enemies here, and they were quite powerful enemies, the world-destroying demon king kind.

And only by integrating the power of the ninja world could they develop themselves at the fastest pace and deal with those external enemies.

After all, they couldn't place all their hopes on the Otsutsuki family, those overpowered beings. For humanity to truly grow, they must strive for self-improvement and achieve overall enhancement. Relying solely on the strength of a few individuals does not constitute true strength and prosperity!

As the ancient saying goes, "As Heaven maintains vigor through movement, a gentleman should constantly strive for self-perfection!"