The Beginning of the Path of Endurance

Hyuga Hinata's bodyguard, Hyuga Tokukun, walked in at this moment.

Hyuga Tokukun looked at Hyuga Hinata nervously and spoke: "Young Miss, are you unhurt? The Clan Head heard you were lost and is very worried."

Hinata hurriedly waved her hands: "No, I'm not hurt."

"Then let us return. The Master and the others are waiting for you. It is almost time for dinner."

Hyuga Tokukun: "Thank you, Akimichi Clan Head. The Hyuga Clan will surely offer a generous reward later."

After the two left, Choza patted Denji's head and asked:

"Do you know who that little girl is?"

"You just said it, she seems to be from the Hyuga Clan."

"She said her name is Hyuga Hinata."

Choza looked at Denji with smiling eyes: "It doesn't matter, you can be friends with her."

In this way, relying on this connection, the resistance he would face when maneuvering to bring Denji back to the clan's inner territory would be reduced.

Denji rolled his eyes internally. This cheap father wouldn't be thinking of Hinata as a daughter-in-law, would he? He was smiling so lecherously.

"I will join you for dinner tonight. I heard your cooking skills are quite good. Your old man will cook with you."

Determined to repair their father-son relationship, Choza said this.

Denji nodded in agreement.

That night, the moon was bright and the stars were sparse; it was a peaceful evening, with no clan-extermination events about to occur.

At the Hyuga Clan.

Hiashi looked at Hinata, who had stopped eating after only half a bowl of rice, and asked in surprise, "You're done?"

Hinata nodded shyly.

Usually, Hinata would eat two bowls and Hanabi would eat one. He had always taught Hinata to have the manners of a young lady and eat a little less.

Had she finally become enlightened today?

Yet, he began to worry about his daughter's health.

"You are still growing, so you should eat a little more. Although I said before that you have a big appetite, you can still manage one bowl of rice."

Thinking of the ten bowls she had eaten at Denji's house, Hinata lowered her head. She had clearly already eaten plenty.

But she didn't dare tell her father about eating at someone else's house.

Besides, the food Denji made was better than what was made at home.

Hinata only shook her head: "I am really full, Father."

"Bring me ten more bowls."

The Akimichi residence was a different scene entirely.

Akimichi Choza sat at the dining table, devouring the food like a whirlwind.

Denji brought food out from the kitchen and looked at his big-bellied father speechlessly.

As the Akimichi Clan Head, a powerful figure in a top-tier Konoha clan, and a man of status throughout the ninja world, he was currently giving off the vibe of Ryoko with a bottomless stomach.

He lived by the principle: eat and drink, and if you have no money, put it on a tab. Don't take anything to heart, live as happily as you can, and act as joyfully as you please. Life is just two words: happiness and clothing.

But Choza's lack of composure was not entirely his fault.

Aiming to repair his relationship with his son and compensate for the years of neglect, Choza hadn't intended to put on airs. Tasting the food his son had personally prepared was simply an attempt at connection.

Most of the ninja world's diet consisted of staples like Ichiraku Ramen or Three-Color Dango.

Denji came from an ancient eastern country where gourmet food was abundant. He had simply used brine to braise pork knuckles, meat racks, and chicken legs...

The protein-heavy diet instantly captured Akimichi Choza's stomach.

It left him unable to stop.

"I didn't expect you to have this talent. Come to think of it, your mother's cooking was quite good too."

Akimichi Choza's eyes revealed a look of nostalgia as they exchanged simple pleasantries.

As for this cheap father, Denji didn't hold much resentment.

His predecessor hadn't had a good life in the Land of Rain, and his biological mother had died early during the reforms there.

Before she passed, she left behind a letter detailing her experiences and background, telling him to take the letter and seek help from his biological father—Akimichi Choza.

Even so, the distance between the Land of Rain and the Land of Fire was not something a six-year-old child could easily cross.

The hardships of that journey need not be mentioned; after arriving through great difficulty, the predecessor had developed a high fever and died prematurely.

That was how he had ended up in the body of Akimichi Denji.

It was no wonder this character didn't exist in the original work.

But such was the fate of a small person in this cruel era.

It can be said that the citizens of the small nations in the world of Naruto truly have no human rights.

To minimize their own losses, the Great Nations confine warfare to the territories of smaller countries, using them as strategic buffer zones between one another.

During the two Great Ninja Wars, while the Five Great Nations appeared to suffer significant damage, it was the small nations that bore the brunt of the devastation.

The Land of Rain was one such small nation; during the Second Great Ninja War, it was led by the Demigod of the Ninja World, who intended to elevate the Land of Rain to the status of a sixth Great Nation.

The war ended in failure, and the plight of the Land of Rain can well be imagined.

Trading children to eat and living in utter misery was no exaggeration; human lives were truly as worthless as blades of grass.

Now that the Akatsuki has taken control, life is slowly improving, but it is still far from ideal.

It is precisely for this reason that one must obtain the power to protect oneself in this world, so as not to become a weed of this era, harvested at will.

"Do you have any thoughts?"

Akimichi Denji looked up, his eyes gleaming: "I want to become a ninja."

Having transmigrated here, the path of the ninja was what he looked forward to most.

However, suffering from a lack of chakra refinement methods, he had yet to even enter the door.

Choza pondered for a moment and nodded.

"Since that is the case, I will teach you and make you a ninja of the Akimichi Clan."

A ninja of the Akimichi Clan?

Thinking of the uniform, big-bellied tank appearance of the Akimichi Clan, Denji couldn't help but twitch his mouth.

It didn't quite align with his aesthetic, but he knew this was caused by the Akimichi Clan's secret Multi-Size Technique.

"The source of a ninja's power comes from chakra. Only by possessing chakra can we perform the ninjutsu you have seen."

Choza condensed a mass of chakra in his hand; it was not the Rasengan from Denji's memories, but merely a ball of chakra convenient for demonstration.

Yet, Denji was mesmerized. This was "supernatural power."

Every young boy has once fantasized about mastering mysterious powers.

On an unremarkable afternoon, a crisis erupts at school—the nature of the crisis is unimportant—what matters is that he, sitting in the back row by the window, stands before everyone as armor coalesces around him. He leaves after the deed is done, hiding his merit and fame.

Or perhaps, while walking down the street, a helicopter descends, and men in black approach him, saying: "Please, Dragon King, lend us your aid." He simply waves goodbye to his classmates, knowing he can never return to his peaceful school life.

Unfortunately, none of these things happened, nor did the red-haired senior in high heels driving a red Ferrari ever arrive.

Fantasies are ground into dust by life and work.

Choza continued:

"A so-called ninja is someone who can use chakra to complete tasks that ordinary soldiers cannot.

And chakra, simply put, is the substance refined by mixing physical energy, extracted from the approximately 130 trillion cells in the body, with spiritual energy gained through training and accumulated experience.

Do you know why we of the Akimichi Clan can eat so much? And why we are all so fat?

It is because we need to convert food into fat to store as energy within our bodies. And during battle, this fat is converted into chakra, becoming tangible power."

"This is the foundation of our Akimichi Clan, our most unique secret family technique: the Multi-Size Technique.

This secret technique can be performed by anyone with the bloodline of the Akimichi Clan, and you are no exception."