Before the Exercise

"Kakashi-sensei, please wait a moment."

Naruto raised his hand to ask, "Does being sent back to the academy mean that our newly registered Genin status will be revoked?"

"Correct."

Kakashi confirmed, "When you are sent back to the academy, your registration details will be deleted, and your forehead protectors will be reclaimed by the village until you register as Genin once again."

"That's too harsh!"

Sakura complained, "If that's the case, what was the point of the graduation exam?"

"The graduation exam was merely to filter out those qualified to participate in the survival exercise."

Kakashi explained, "It isn't that hard to understand—I am your lead Jonin, so regardless of what the other teams' lead Jonin do, when it comes to Team 7, I have the final say."

"..." x3

"It seems you understand."

Kakashi nodded with satisfaction, "Remember to bring your ninja tools tomorrow morning, and don't be late. I suggest you don't eat breakfast, as you might end up vomiting. That is all, dismissed."

With that, Kakashi went "poof," transforming into a cloud of white smoke and vanishing on the spot.

Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura exchanged glances, then looked down at the contents of the papers in their hands.

"Huh?"

Naruto noticed something and pointed at the text on the paper, "Aren't the requirements written here a bit strange?"

"It's not just the requirements on the paper that are strange; many of the things he just said are also worth pondering."

Sasuke remained calm, "Don't be late, and don't eat breakfast—those were both verbal instructions, not written into the requirements."

"You mean Kakashi-sensei is intentionally guiding us to do those things?"

Sakura expressed her confusion, "But for what purpose?"

"I don't know, which is why we need to think about it."

Naruto reached out to the two of them, "Give me the papers. You two dispel your clones, and I'll use the Flying Thunder God technique to send them back to the main bodies."

Sakura handed over her paper, "Space-time ninjutsu is certainly convenient."

Sasuke said nothing; after handing over his paper, he immediately dispelled his clone.

Sakura followed suit.

Naruto closed his eyes, and a few seconds later, he suddenly vanished.

In the woods on the outskirts of Konoha, Sasuke and Sakura, who were busy practicing tree climbing, suddenly received a massive influx of information from their shadow clones. Losing control of their chakra, they fell from the trees.

Fortunately, neither of them had climbed very high, and there was a thick, soft cushion of leaves on the ground.

"Even with a cushion, that still hurts."

Sakura gently rubbed her backside, "I think I've discovered another drawback of shadow clones—the clones don't know the situation of the main body, and transmitting information at an inopportune time could cause the main body to get injured."

Sasuke, too embarrassed to rub his injury in front of them, endured the pain, "When fighting, we must find a way to avoid having the clones too far from the main body."

"Don't worry, you're only affected because your chakra control isn't proficient enough yet. As long as you practice hard until it becomes instinct, you won't need to pay special attention. In the most extreme case, even if we were unconscious, our bodies would still be able to remain attached to the tree."

After Naruto's shadow clone moved over, it also dispelled itself immediately, but the main body remained standing steadily on the tree, "You've only been practicing for less than half a day; it's perfectly normal to fall."

"Fine."

Sakura stood up, "Regarding what Kakashi-sensei said, do you have any thoughts?"

"I don't think we need to doubt the authenticity of it."

Naruto stroked his chin, "But considering his suggestive remarks, I think it's best if we don't go too early tomorrow and make sure to eat a good breakfast."

"Agreed."

Sasuke said, "However, I think we should go a bit earlier tomorrow."

Naruto looked at Sasuke and immediately understood, "You want to set traps?"

"Exactly."

Sasuke affirmed, "Since it's an exercise, even if there isn't a direct battle, there will likely be other segments that require combat. Setting traps in advance will give us the advantage."

"Considering Kakashi-sensei has much more combat experience than we do," Sakura reminded, "just to be safe, we should set as many as possible."

"I actually think it's better not to set traps."

Naruto voiced his opposition, "When we encounter combat, the enemy won't give us time to set traps. Furthermore, we don't know if Kakashi-sensei has the ability to detect them. If the traps are turned against us, it will only make it harder for us to pass the exercise."

Neither Sasuke nor Sakura could refute this point.

The three continued to discuss for a few more minutes before finally reaching a consensus.

For the rest of the day until dark, Sasuke and Sakura maintained two shadow clones each to practice tree climbing, only stopping once their chakra was nearly exhausted.

With their chakra almost depleted and the additional mental fatigue caused by the shadow clones, the two, while not losing consciousness, were swaying as they walked and eventually had to rely on Naruto's shadow clones to send them home.

The next morning, 9:30 AM, Konoha Training Ground.

Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura arrived almost simultaneously.

Naruto: "As expected, Kakashi-sensei is late again."

Sasuke: "It seems he truly has a bad habit of being late."

Sakura: "I wouldn't call it late, exactly. After all, Kakashi-sensei never specified a time to begin with."

With nothing else to do, the three decided to chat briefly to pass the time.

"Naruto, besides tree-climbing, water-walking, and air-walking, did your master give you any other basic training?"

Sasuke asked with a relaxed expression.

Yesterday, after experiencing the efficiency boost provided by the Shadow Clone technique, Sasuke felt as though he could finally see a future where he defeated "that man." His pursuit of strength remained intense, but it no longer felt quite so desperate.

Hearing this, Sakura also looked at Naruto with an expectant gaze.

Although she hadn't cared much for strength before, learning of Sasuke's "ambition" yesterday and witnessing his training made her realize that if she wanted to be his wife in the future, she at least needed the strength to be of help to him.

"Of course there is."

Naruto nodded and said unhurriedly, "Master said that for us ninjas, chakra is the most fundamental and important thing. A ninja with a lot of chakra isn't necessarily strong, but one with little chakra is definitely weak. Therefore, training to enhance physical and spiritual energy is the foundation of foundations."

"Is that all..."

Sasuke felt a bit disappointed.

Mental training could be accelerated through Shadow Clones, but physical training could not, as Shadow Clones could not transfer the results of physical exertion back to the original body. Furthermore, the differences between various methods of physical conditioning were negligible.

"Don't be so impatient, I haven't gotten to the main point yet."

Naruto laughed, "The methods Master taught me for training the body and mind are completely different from what they teach at the academy. They are far more efficient and won't cause any damage to the body."

"Oh?!"

Sasuke immediately perked up: "Tell me more!"

Sakura also focused with all her might, terrified of missing a single word.

"Master calls that training method 'Qi Refining'."

Naruto: "This so-called 'Qi' is a form of physical energy that already exists within our bodies; it doesn't need to be refined like chakra. By focusing your mind and guiding the Qi within you to condense and increase, the process is called 'Qi Refining.' Our spirit will gradually strengthen during this process, and Qi, as a form of physical energy, can be used directly to refine chakra..."