Training

The next morning, Houka woke up early, prepared breakfast for three, ate his own portion, and then grabbed the other two to run over to Uchiha Obito's house next door.

"Obito, are you up yet?!"

"Hehe, is that Houka? Come on in." Inside the house, a kind-hearted old woman walked out, hunched over, looking at Houka with a smile.

This old woman was none other than Uchiha Obito's grandmother.

"Grandma." Houka smiled and handed over the breakfast he was carrying.

"Hehe, thank you so much, Houka."

Seeing how filial Houka was, the old woman's face lit up with a happy smile.

Walking into Obito's house, Houka looked around and found that it was quite similar to his own.

"Houka, have a seat for a moment, I'll go call Obito to get up," the grandmother said with a smile.

"No need, Grandma. I actually came to ask if you have any training equipment here, like sandbags, to help with physical conditioning?" Houka asked directly.

The grandmother tilted her head to think, then nodded. "Ah, I remember that when Obito's father was young, he couldn't awaken his eyes, so he always practiced taijutsu. Later, after he awakened them, he threw all those tools away. I couldn't bear to part with them at the time, so I secretly collected them. They should be in the small storage shed in the backyard now."

It was called a small storage shed, but it was actually more like a doghouse. Houka squeezed his upper body inside and spent a long time digging out a pile of scattered equipment.

There were leg weights, sandbags, iron blocks, and bandages—there was quite a lot of stuff.

"Houka, are you planning to train in taijutsu?" The grandmother sighed from the side. "Our two families have always been neighbors, and even our fates are so similar. Awakening the Sharingan is truly too difficult."

Houka naturally wouldn't tell her that he had already awakened his, so he smiled and said, "Grandma, when taijutsu is trained to its highest realm, it is no less powerful than the Sharingan."

In the original story, during the final war, Might Guy opened the final Gate of Death of the Eight Inner Gates. His instantaneous explosive power was so great that even Six Paths Madara, who had awakened the Rinnegan, was screaming and nearly got KO'd by him!

"Houka, you are still young. When training in taijutsu, you must be careful with your body." The grandmother was truly kind and gentle, not at all like the typical Uchiha clan member.

"I know, thank you, Grandma."

After thanking her, Houka laboriously carried the pile of equipment home and began to arm himself.

He strapped one-kilogram sandbags to both of his legs to train his leg muscles.

Then, he strapped half-kilogram sandbags to his arms to train his arm muscles.

Once he put these items on, he immediately noticed the change. When walking, it felt as if gravity had increased, and when performing hand seals, it became even more difficult; his hands felt extremely stiff.

"This is just the beginning; I'll get used to it soon!"

Houka certainly wouldn't give up easily. From morning until night, he kept these weights on, wanting to get accustomed to them as quickly as possible.

Bang!

"Sss, that hurts!"

Falling from the tree once again, Houka rubbed his backside and struggled to stand up.

After strapping on the weights, even climbing trees, which used to be easy, seemed to have become foreign; his chakra couldn't maintain his balance at all.

As for walking on water, that went without saying.

"Sigh, am I being too ambitious?"

Logically speaking, since he had awakened his eyes, he should focus on developing the Sharingan. By relying on the Sharingan, he could completely reach the pinnacle of his life.

However, thinking of the monsters in the Fourth Shinobi World War, was it really enough to rely solely on the Sharingan?

As he thought, Houka's eyes gradually became firm. Since he had come to this world, he absolutely could not live a mediocre life. Even if he couldn't reach the pinnacle in this lifetime, he would die on the road to the pinnacle!

In the following days, apart from refining chakra and practicing hand seals, Houka stopped his tree-climbing and water-walking exercises and began to focus on physical training. Every day, he poured sweat into his small courtyard—push-ups, sit-ups, squats—he put every training method he could think of into practice with fanatical effort.

With such crazy training, Houka's body inevitably couldn't keep up, and since his daily meals were only enough to fill his stomach, he inevitably became thinner and weaker.

"Houka, your training is too hard; your body won't be able to take it!" Obito felt a pang of heartache seeing Houka get thinner by the day.

"It's fine, I'll get used to it."

Houka was cooking, and while speaking, he grabbed the iron wok and shook it a few times to distribute the heat more evenly.

He still had the weights strapped to his arms, but he acted as if nothing was wrong. On his thin arms, a trace of lean muscle was already beginning to appear.

After lunch, Houka chased away the incessantly nagging Uchiha Obito and continued his training.

After several days of crazy exercise, Houka had already grown accustomed to the weights. He then began to climb trees and walk on water again. Getting used to the weight made his control over his body increasingly handy, and his chakra also became more obedient.

Plap, plap, plap.

Houka walked on the small pond. Beneath his feet, ripples spread out, reflecting Houka's blurry little face.

Then, he began to form hand seals.

Snake-Ram-Monkey-Boar-Horse-Tiger!

"Fire Style: Fireball Jutsu!"

A violent force condensed in Houka's throat. With a flash of inspiration, he blew forward with his mouth.

Boom!

A fireball the size of a basketball erupted from his mouth, slamming straight into a withered tree trunk in front of him.

Crack, crack!

The fireball roared and detonated the instant it struck the tree trunk, blowing the tree to smithereens.

Houka widened his eyes, seemingly unable to believe it.

The last time he practiced this ninjutsu was a few days ago, and he had failed every single time; he never expected to succeed on the first try now!

Houka felt the power contained within his body and seemed to realize something.

"Ah!"

Suddenly, Houka's footing went soft, and he tumbled straight into a small pond. It turned out that because he had been distracted, the chakra in his soles had fluctuated slightly, breaking his balance.

"Sigh, still not professional enough."

Houka crawled out of the small pond, took a quick bath, and began adding weight to his body!

Previously, he had one kilogram of weight on each leg; now, he increased it to two kilograms, doubling it instantly.

His hands were the same, going from half a kilogram to one kilogram.

The weight doubling instantly made Houka's limbs feel heavy, followed by a sensation of stiffness, as if his blood circulation was being restricted.

Houka did not linger and immediately began running around the small courtyard; soon, the blood in his body began to steam.

"So tired."

After running for over ten minutes, Houka was already panting heavily.

"No, run for another ten minutes!"

Houka gritted his teeth and persisted, his eyes revealing determination.

One minute, two minutes, five minutes...

Finally, the ten minutes were up.

Thud!

Houka collapsed directly onto the ground—or rather, he was dragged to the ground by the weights on his hands and feet. The sweat on his body quickly soaked the weeds on the ground.

"Hoo... hoo... why does it feel heavier and heavier..."

With the world spinning, Houka's vision went black, and he actually fainted on the spot.