The thing Zhengyi did most on the front lines was train his body.
At the very least, he couldn't be as kidney-deficient or lacking in stamina as Kakashi. That was his bottom line.
Another day without any fighting.
"Coach Duy, could you check whether I'm engaging my trapezius?"
"Oh~ Zhengyi, youth means constantly pushing yourself to the limit. They're all muscles in your own body, so what does it matter which ones you train?"
Zhengyi was still working out when Orochimaru arrived, bringing cart after cart of food and Protein Powder as supplies for the ninjas on the front lines.
"Sensei."
Zhengyi wiped the sweat from his brow and went to greet him. Might Duy felt a little regretful. It would've been great if Zhengyi had worn his jumpsuit. Even without it, Zhengyi attracted plenty of attention.
Zhengyi's love of exercise had sparked a fitness craze among Konoha's civilian ninjas.
They admired him from the bottom of their hearts. He had led them in cutting a swath through the Land of Lightning, and, like Orochimaru, he had come from a humble background and known hardship.
The ninja clans naturally wouldn't join them. They had their own inherited secret techniques and only trained in those. Some even looked down on people like them, who had no secret techniques or bloodline abilities and knew only how to train their bodies.
The bullying had been passed down through the generations.
"Brother Zhengyi, look what Sensei and I brought you!"
The carts held not only box after box of Protein Powder, but also bottles and jars on the lead cart. They weren't labeled, and Zhengyi couldn't tell what was inside just by looking at the glass bottles.
"Don't tell him, Sensei. Let me."
"This is Creatine." Mitaraishi Anko handed Zhengyi a small bottle filled with powder that smelled like peeling wallpaper.
"Holy shit." Zhengyi stared at Orochimaru in disbelief.
Was it what he thought it was?
The essential supplement for gym buffs in his previous life: creatine.
After Anko finished her proud explanation, Zhengyi was ready to get down on his knees and kowtow to Orochimaru.
"You inspired me, Zhengyi. I discovered a substance in the human body that I'd like to call ATP."
According to Orochimaru's explanation,
you could think of ATP as a backup battery for the human body. When you exerted explosive strength, you used up that battery.
And to recharge that battery, the body needed to have enough Creatine stored up.
It was difficult for people to get enough Creatine from their everyday diet—nearly impossible. It was even harder to get enough than protein.
So they needed to turn to science and take the Creatine he'd developed to replenish their body's stores, bringing them back up to a sufficient level.
Suppose you could normally grip a 100-kilogram stone weight. Once your Creatine levels were topped up, you could grip an additional 5 to 15 kilograms.
That was what Creatine did.
It was fine if you didn't understand. Orochimaru took it himself, so you could tell how valuable it was.
Taking this stuff could even sharpen your brain's reaction time.
That was the holiness of science!!
Zhengyi downed a heaping spoonful of Creatine. He felt like he could punch Hashirama to death—though, of course, that was just in his head.
At least half a month of taking a heaping spoonful like that would be needed before it had any effect.
As Orochimaru grew smarter, he realized something else. Now, he had Zhengyi take off his shirt and bask in the sun. "There's a substance in sunlight that our bodies need, too, though Sensei hasn't figured out exactly what it does yet."
Zhengyi could only give him a rough idea of what the substance did, speeding up Orochimaru's research. After all, this mad scientist wanted to figure out the exact principles behind everything, and he studied things in great detail.
For example, Zhengyi had once said that magnets repelled each other at the same pole and attracted each other at opposite poles. What Orochimaru cared about was why two magnets did that.
"Vitamin D3, you mean?"
"Once Sensei runs a few more comparisons, he'll know."
Orochimaru had a soft spot for Zhengyi.
After all, who wouldn't appreciate a student who made him feel good and knew how to handle things properly?
There was plenty of Protein Powder, but because production capacity was limited, he'd prepared only enough of the other supplements, like Creatine, for Zhengyi.
The others were lucky to get Yeast Protein Powder.
Yeast Protein Powder was another of Orochimaru's inventions. By fermenting yeast, he could rapidly grow and extract it. It was hundreds of times easier to produce than the Whey Protein Powder he gave Zhengyi. The downside was that the body absorbed and used it less effectively than Zhengyi's current kind, and it tasted awful—like drinking soybean pulp.
"You've done well lately," Orochimaru said, praising someone for once.
Everyone was stunned. Before, they'd only suspected Orochimaru had tacitly approved of Zhengyi killing Sarutobi Hayate. Now it was confirmed.
So Lord Orochimaru really did dote on his student?
According to Konoha law, only the Hokage had the authority to deal with Special Jōnin and Jōnin. Even when a Genin broke the rules, the village had to discuss it and decide on a response.
Zhengyi had completely overstepped his authority. Lord Hokage wasn't a figurehead, and this was a serious breach of protocol.
After delivering the supplies, Orochimaru left with Anko again. Well, he trusted his student completely now and didn't need to ask any questions.
As they looked at the supplies set aside for Zhengyi, the civilian ninjas of Konoha could only envy him.
Among them was a supplement tablet called zinc. According to Lord Orochimaru, it could replenish something in a man's body called testosterone.
High testosterone meant bigger muscles and more chakra.
High testosterone also meant better performance in that area...
As men got older, their testosterone production declined year by year, and that thing got worse year by year, too.
Ahem, they meant chakra endurance.
Anyway, there wasn't a man among them who didn't covet it.
"What are you looking at? I'm not giving it away." But Zhengyi was still fairly generous; he'd never keep all the credit for himself.
After keeping a month's worth of supplies, he shared out a portion of everything else among the ninjas there, except for the zinc tablets.
Recently, a scout from Kumogakure had spotted something from far away.
The Konoha ninjas had started working out in their camp.
Every day they were either running while carrying logs or running while carrying logs. You could smell their stench of sweat from a long way off.
The ninjas of the Inuzuka Clan had applied long ago to be transferred to the most dangerous battlefield, the one against Iwagakure.
They'd rather face Iwagakure's two mighty Jinchūriki.
"The Konoha people sure work hard." Darui, who had just graduated from the Ninja Academy, lounged lazily in a tree. From where he was, he could just about make out what was happening in the Konoha camp.
Recently, Kumogakure and Konoha had entered a brief period of peace.
The Fourth Raikage A held a grudge against the Third Tsuchikage, Ōnoki, for killing his father.
The Raikage's death had turned the whole village's hostility toward Iwagakure.
But A had just as many people keeping an eye on Konoha as before. He'd even sent out the children who had just graduated from the village's Ninja Academy.
The main thing was, A figured that if Konoha had so many young geniuses, like Zhengyi and Kakashi, then Kumogakure must have some, too. He just hadn't discovered them yet, so he wanted to give those geniuses a chance to step into the spotlight.
"Hm? Where'd that ox come from?" Samui, whose figure was beginning to take shape, stood in a tree. The ox was black all over, and it looked strangely familiar to her.
It looked a lot like the black cattle found only in their Land of Lightning.
"Maybe Konoha bought it from the Land of Lightning." Darui yawned. When the town had fallen earlier, Zhengyi had given everything away to the villagers and kept nothing for himself, so they could rule out the ox having been stolen or looted.
"Maybe." Samui still didn't think so.
She couldn't help but admire them.
Lately, the Land of Lightning had been plagued by workers' and farmers' uprisings, with people demanding better wages and working conditions.
The country was in chaos.
Lord A had to avenge his father, defend against Konoha, and put down the unrest at home.
How could you expect to have any strength if you couldn't clench all five fingers into a fist?
Before you continue