A Few Casual Conversations Unraveled My Doubts

They say one minute on stage takes ten years of practice off it.

With all the preliminary preparations laid out as a foundation, the first mission of Yamada Soji's ninja career finally arrived as scheduled.

But compared to the calculated, masterful operations he performed while working behind the scenes, the gap in his base attributes finally began to manifest once he entered a state of active combat.

According to the arrangements made by the Nara commander, Team Five was placed in the relatively safe center of the marching formation.

As Motochika-sensei put it: "This is a deliberate arrangement to ensure that if an accident occurs, Team Five, possessing the strongest combat power, can promptly support the teammates at both the front and the rear."

As for how much of that was sincere and how much was favoritism, only the man himself knew.

At the very least, as the beneficiary, Soshi wasn't about to go looking for trouble by making idle comments.

However, what was embarrassing was that even in this position, which should have been the most comfortable, the boy's performance was still far from satisfactory.

Compared to the "fake" underachievers of the Naruto world—those who act like total losers on the surface but possess maxed-out combat instincts the moment they start fighting—Soshi was truly an "honest man" through and through.

Excluding the cursed "Bloodline Limit" brought by the system, almost all of his basic qualifications required for a ninja hovered right around the passing line.

Let alone close-quarters combat, which severely tests one's ability to adapt on the spot, Soshi was a cut below the others even in ordinary marching.

The soul from another world was likely accustomed to a grounded mode of movement; the parkour-like behavior of leaping and bounding, climbing walls and trees, nearly scrambled the boy's brains.

This directly resulted in Soshi, who suffered from motion sickness in his past life, appearing exceptionally clumsy in route selection and the use of ninja footwork, much like a novice who had just learned to drive.

On top of that, given the squad arrangement for this mission, Team Five, positioned in the center, had to constantly watch for hand signals from teammates and keep an eye on the movements of the other two squads, which objectively increased the boy's burden.

In the long run, he was essentially expending double the energy for the same distance traveled.

Consequently, whenever they stopped for a break, Soshi, whose chakra reserves were already quite limited, appeared far more exhausted than Todo and Erina.

"Are you okay, Soshi? Is something wrong with your body?"

The little chubby boy thoughtfully handed him a drink. Soshi smiled and nodded in thanks, then passed the drink directly to Erina, who was sitting on the other side.

It wasn't that the boy was stingy with supplies or trying to be generous with someone else's gift.

It was simply that, considering the break was about to end and there would be no chance to reorganize before reaching the next checkpoint, Soshi—whose efficiency was already half a step behind the others—didn't want to waste time dealing with personal hygiene issues caused by excessive drinking. Thus, he passed the beverage to Erina.

"I'm fine, it's just that my taijutsu has always been mediocre, and my chakra levels are quite concerning. I've let you all see a pathetic display."

"Hey~ it's fine, it's fine! People are only easy to befriend if they have a few flaws!"

Compared to the cautious Soshi, the true top student Erina didn't have so many hang-ups.

Her excellent talent allowed her to quickly get into the zone, and her well-proportioned physique greatly reduced the burden of using ninja footwork.

She tilted her head back and downed half the bottle to quench her thirst before leaning toward her two teammates with a grin: "Honestly, between the midnight raid and packing the combat supplies, you handled everything in such an orderly fashion! You're practically the second lead teacher for Team Five~ It's making me lose my own confidence!"

"Not at all... I just happened to know some inside information and played a few clever tricks."

Soshi shook his head slightly while taking a soldier pill he had prepared earlier from his ninja tool pouch and pressing it under his tongue: "It's the first day on the road; I probably haven't fully adapted to the rhythm of the marching formation yet. I believe things will improve after a while."

"That's good~ After all, if any accidents happen, we'll have to rely on your medical ninjutsu to get through the crisis!"

"Don't, don't, don't," before Soshi could respond, the little chubby boy Todo was already waving his hands from the side: "No accidents, no accidents! Arriving at Jingu Forest safely is the real victory!"

"What's wrong with you, Todo?"

"It's nothing... just that after I went home last night, Uncle Torifu gave me a lecture on the risks that the Multi-Size Technique might encounter in actual combat, and I'm a bit..."

The chubby boy's face turned pale, and he even subconsciously covered his mouth with his hand to suppress the urge to retch.

"Ugh, what exactly did he say? Is it really that terrifying?"

"...Very terrifying! I only drank a bowl of white porridge for breakfast today."

"I see, I can probably imagine it."

The Akimichi clan possessed secret techniques for storing energy by consuming large amounts of food in a short time. Therefore, they usually ate more than usual before a mission began.

Judging by that, the little chubby boy had indeed been thoroughly frightened by his clan elder.

But from Soshi's perspective, he was more interested in the name that had appeared in Todo's words for the second time.

"Speaking of which, Todo, I heard Motochika-sensei mention your uncle's name earlier. Could he be the comrade-in-arms of the Third Hokage, Akimichi Torifu?"

"Yeah..."

Todo smiled bitterly and rubbed his round belly, his face clearly expressing "joy."

"Actually, my uncle is usually very gentle, a good-natured man who almost never loses his temper. But as long as it involves things related to being a ninja, he absolutely never shows mercy."

"That's no surprise." Erina nodded, interjecting: "After all, Lord Torifu was once a member of Tobirama-sama's elite guard. Over the years, his personality must have been influenced by the Second Hokage."

"Maybe so. Uncle does often talk about the deeds of the Second Hokage, and sometimes he even quotes Tobirama-sama directly to educate us." With Soshi and Erina taking turns to distract him, Todo's state finally recovered.

He counted his elder's teachings on his fingers, even mimicking them for his two companions: "For example, 'The more painful the training, the more solid the power obtained,' and 'Releasing large-scale ninjutsu requires choosing the appropriate chakra release mode based on different situations,' and things like that. I don't fully understand some of it..."

"Chakra release mode?" Soshi, who was worrying about his chakra consumption, naturally caught the key point.

He repeated the end of his teammate's sentence as a probe, and the little chubby boy naturally continued.

"It's actually just about the order of use..."

You all know that the secret techniques of the Akimichi clan are often accompanied by a violent release of chakra, which actually shares a certain similarity with the Water Release that the Second Hokage excelled at.

Therefore, my uncle once instructed us that when releasing chakra, one can manipulate the sequence through inversion, reversing the conventional order of converting first and releasing later. In this way, when using techniques that do not require precise control, the activation speed will be faster than usual!

"Oh! So that's how it is, I've learned something new! By the way, Todo, have you already mastered this move? That's amazing!"

"I'm actually not very proficient at it yet..."

Upon hearing this, Erina's eyes lit up, and she performed a signature head-tilt on the spot.

The little chubby boy, Todo, blushed slightly at her words, his speech becoming hesitant and stuttering.

Meanwhile, Yamada Soji, who had been listening to the entire conversation, unexpectedly received a massive spark of inspiration!

Although the mechanism of action for Accio was still unclear, it was certain that Soshi did not perform much detailed subjective manipulation when using chakra as the energy source to drive the spell.

In actual practice, he always adjusted the specific effects after the technique took hold, coordinating it with other ninjutsu or items to achieve different goals.

From this perspective, the Inversion Chakra Conversion Method mentioned by Akimichi Todo seemed, perhaps, just maybe, capable of temporarily bypassing the restriction of "energy purity," breaking the shackles that had always confined Soshi!?