"Sasuke, I won't eat your food for free. Here, this is a Green Spinach Pill. Consider it payment for the meal. I'm sure you already know how to use it."
Akimichi Toribo took out a box, selected a green pill from among three differently colored pills, and tossed it to Umino Sasuke.
"I'm off. Don't forget our date tonight."
With a leap, Akimichi Toribo vanished into the forest, though his voice continued to echo through the trees.
"A Green Spinach Pill!"
Umino Sasuke was overjoyed. This Green Spinach Pill was a truly valuable item. Only Konoha's most elite jonin received limited allotments of it. It was the finest grade of Soldier Pill, something money alone might not be able to buy.
At present, the Soldier Pills issued by Konoha's Logistics Department were divided into four grades.
Ordinary low-level ninjas without any backing—those genin consumables—usually received inferior Soldier Pills for their missions. Those were the lowest grade of Soldier Pills.
Ninja clan disciples and Konoha's backbone forces, meanwhile, received Konoha's official genuine Soldier Pills for their missions: standard-issue Soldier Pills.
Konoha Jonin, on the other hand, received Enhanced Soldier Pills for their missions, high-end goods with twice the effects.
As for Green Spinach Pills, they were issued in limited quantities only for S-Rank Missions or under special circumstances. They were unquestionably a special supply.
Though called a Soldier Pill, the Green Spinach Pill was actually more like a secret medicine for explosive chakra output. Once consumed, it could raise the user's strength by at least threefold for a short period, making it perfectly suitable as a trump card.
Its side effects were somewhat severe, but compared to its effects, they were hardly worth mentioning.
Only someone as extravagant as Akimichi Toribo would casually give away something so precious. What other ninja wouldn't carefully hide such a treasure away as a life-saving trump card?
"If the Green Spinach Pill is already this powerful, I wonder how strong the legendary Yellow Curry Pill and Red Chili Pill are. Still, aside from those fat Akimichi, no other ninjas could probably use Three-Colored Pills more advanced than the Green Spinach Pill."
Umino Sasuke carefully tucked the Green Spinach Pill away against his body. He had gained a whole new understanding of Akimichi Toribo's gourmand nature. It seemed he absolutely had to serve this lord well tonight.
Even aside from secretly learning the Akimichi Clan's secret techniques, he had to treat this lord like an honored guest for the sake of that Green Spinach Pill.
"There's still plenty of time. I'll first see just how effective the Akimichi Clan's Digestive Technique is."
Umino Sasuke hurriedly activated the chakra in his body, imitating Akimichi Toribo and using chakra to stimulate the vagus nerve endings in his intestines.
This step might have been difficult for other ninjas, but for someone like him, who possessed infrasound-based internal vision, it was extremely simple.
Since it was his first attempt, he used only a small amount of chakra to stimulate his intestines, just in case.
Though he had used only that tiny bit of chakra, the results were astonishing. His intestines quickly began to wriggle, while stomach acid, bile, and digestive enzymes surged into secretion as if someone had pressed an accelerator. The food in his stomach was digested at rapid speed.
"Captain, have you already developed Fire-nature chakra?"
Seeing Umino Sasuke's entire body turn shrimp-red, with steam billowing off him as though he were in a sauna, Inuzuka Ryo assumed he had developed a second chakra nature. Only Fire-nature chakra could generate so much heat from within the body.
"Mm." Umino Sasuke neither confirmed nor denied it.
Umino Sasuke quickly told the admiring Tejudo and the other two to continue their own training, then raced alone to the surface of the river.
"Whew, whew, whew... It's too hot. There's way too much energy in my body. I need to digest it quickly."
Umino Sasuke felt his heart pounding wildly. His entire body brimmed with power, as if even his blood were boiling.
Umino Sasuke rapidly formed hand seals and immediately released a ninjutsu. "Water Release: Mist Technique."
"Huh?" Having just cast this D-rank Ninjutsu, Umino Sasuke discovered that the chakra he had consumed was recovering at a visible, astonishing rate.
In less than ten seconds, the chakra in his body had returned to its peak state.
"Excellent. I never expected such an unexpected windfall."
Umino Sasuke's eyes lit up with delight.
Using the Akimichi Clan's Digestive Technique just now had digested a large amount of food and generated an enormous amount of energy within his body. For the time being, he could not store that energy as efficiently as Akimichi Toribo could, but using it to replenish chakra and stamina was just right.
It could not fundamentally solve his severe lack of chakra, but for training, the effect was not merely tenfold or a hundredfold greater.
Even under extreme combat conditions, this ability would remain highly useful. Increasing the digestion speed of food and Soldier Pills to improve recovery was an extremely important means of enhancing battlefield survival ability.
"Water Release: Mist Body Flicker!"
Umino Sasuke immediately used Mist Body Flicker. As expected, the chakra in his body quickly recovered to its peak state, and the physical strain brought by the high-intensity Body Flicker Technique instead released the excess energy he had been unable to vent, making him feel incomparably refreshed.
"I flicker!"
"I flicker!"
"I flicker..."
Relying on the powerful chakra recovery rate and abundant energy within his body, Umino Sasuke repeatedly used Mist Body Flicker.
In the past, after using Mist Body Flicker around ten times, more than half his chakra would be gone and his stamina would fail him. Now, however, he had used it nearly a hundred times in succession and was still full of vigor.
"Why not try expanding the range of Water Release: Mist Technique and see how it goes?"
Very quickly, the Mist Technique's area of effect rose from its original sixty-meter diameter directly to one hundred meters, and it continued spreading. Only when it neared two hundred meters did the chakra recovery rate in his body fail to keep up with the consumption required to maintain such a large-scale Mist Technique.
At that point, Umino Sasuke did not rush to further expand the Mist Technique's range. He simply maintained it at two hundred meters and continued training without pause.
In just half an hour, he had used Mist Body Flicker nearly a thousand times. With such extensive practice, Mist Body Flicker grew faster and faster.
He also became increasingly proficient at maintaining the Mist Technique's two-hundred-meter range.
"Urgh? The energy's already been used up?!"
Umino Sasuke finally felt the chakra in his body recovering more and more slowly, while his energy was no longer as abundant as before. Clearly, in merely half an hour, he had completely exhausted the energy in his body.
"When it comes to converting food into energy, it seems I'm far inferior to Akimichi Toribo. I need to keep learning from him."
Umino Sasuke had finally recognized the drawback of this Akimichi Digestive Technique as well: it consumed an enormous amount of food supplies.
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