[System: What a shame, bro, she's totally green!]

After finishing his red bean paste pancake, he collected himself and headed to the backyard with his shuriken.

Under the moonlight, he began practicing Twin Swallow Rotation.

Once, twice, ten times...

The shuriken collided in midair, traced an arc, and then... fell to the ground.

"The angle's wrong." Izuna coached him in his mind. "When they collide the second time, turn your wrist inward by fifteen degrees."

"Your chakra coating is uneven," Tobirama added. "The left shuriken has three percent more chakra than the right, causing its trajectory to veer off."

Qingyu wiped away his sweat and kept practicing...

It was five in the morning, and the sky was still dark.

Qingyu was woken by someone knocking on his window.

It wasn't a gentle "knock, knock," but the kind of "bang, bang, bang" that said, "Open up, or I'll break the window down!"

He stumbled groggily out of bed and opened the window. Shisui Uchiha was crouching on the windowsill, his smile as radiant as the first ray of morning sunlight.

"Good morning, Qingyu! It's the first day of special training. Let's get out there full of energy!"

Qingyu glanced at the alarm clock by his bed: 5:03 a.m.

Senpai, are you sure you know what "morning" means?

Even the dogs aren't awake at this hour!

"You've got three minutes to wash up." Shisui hopped into the room and pulled a little notebook from his clothes.

"Today's training schedule: one hour of physical conditioning, two hours of advanced shuriken practice, one hour of ninjutsu coordination, and, oh, tactical simulations too..."

"Ah! Stop! Stop!" Qingyu raised a hand to interrupt him. "Shisui-senpai, I just got out of the hospital..."

"That's why it's recovery training." Shisui blinked.

"I've adjusted the intensity, so don't worry~"

Qingyu looked at Shisui's harmless, sunny smile, and alarm bells went off in his head.

From all his years watching anime, he knew that when a smiling schemer told you not to worry, that was exactly when you should worry the most!

Three minutes later, Qingyu was hauled to the Uchiha Training Ground 3.

The training ground was empty in the early morning, with only the mist drifting through it.

Qingyu yawned, his eyelids still fighting to stay open.

"Let's warm up first." Shisui handed him two sandbags.

"Tie them to your legs and run twenty laps around the training ground."

Qingyu took the sandbags, and his hands sank under their weight... Good grief, each one weighed at least five kilograms!

Twenty laps with these tied to his legs?

Was this a warm-up, or an attempt on his life?

But he didn't dare complain. He obediently strapped them on and started running.

The first lap was easy.

By the third, he was a little out of breath.

By the seventh, his legs felt like lead.

At the tenth lap, the muscles in Qingyu's thighs were burning with pain.

Every step felt like he was treading on knife points. Sweat trickled down his face, and his breathing sounded like a bellows.

"I'm gonna die!"

"Your breathing rhythm is off." Shisui had appeared beside him at some point. He kept pace without even turning red or breathing hard.

"Breathe in every three steps and out every two. Control your heart rate! Don't lose your rhythm."

Qingyu tried adjusting his breathing, and sure enough, it helped.

"Good. Keep it up." Shisui nodded.

"Running doesn't just build stamina. It also trains your willpower and sense of rhythm. On the battlefield, maintaining your pace is often more important than a sudden burst of speed."

Qingyu nodded between breaths, but inwardly he grumbled: Senpai, you're absolutely right, but could you let me catch my breath before explaining it all?

At last, he finished the twenty laps.

Qingyu sprawled on the ground, feeling like a piece of dried salted fish.

Dreams: lost.jpg

"Take a three-minute break." Shisui glanced at the timer. "Then we'll start shuriken practice."

Qingyu struggled to his feet, pulled out his water bottle, and gulped down a few mouthfuls. The two voices in his head started up again:

"You're already done in after twenty laps?" Izuna scoffed.

"Back in the Warring States era, marching thirty kilometers with full packs every day was nothing out of the ordinary."

"His recovery speed is impressive, though," Tobirama analyzed.

"His heart rate returned to normal within three minutes, and his muscle fatigue is lower than expected. It seems his breakthrough in that last battle had a significant effect."

Qingyu smiled wryly.

So all that hard work to improve only earned me a "not bad" from these two big shots?

Three minutes later, shuriken practice began.

What Shisui had brought wasn't an ordinary target, but... moving targets.

"These are mechanical training targets developed by the clan." Shisui pointed to several wooden puppets gliding along tracks.

"Their speed and trajectories can be adjusted. We'll start with the basic mode today: three targets moving at an average speed of five meters per second. Hit the bull's-eye while they cross paths."

Qingyu watched the targets sliding around and twitched at the corner of his mouth.

Was this really "basic mode"?

This would be a graduation exam at the Ninja Academy!

"Begin." Shisui pressed the switch.

The targets started moving!

The three wooden puppets raced along their tracks.

They crossed and separated, their trajectories seemingly random.

Qingyu pulled out three shuriken and took a deep breath, recalling the techniques from the scroll the Clan Head had given him.

"Twin Swallow Rotation... Angle, force, timing..."

He flicked his wrist and threw!

The three shuriken collided once in midair, changed direction, and shot toward the three targets!

Clang, clang, clang! All three hit! None struck the bull's-eye, but they'd all hit their targets!

"Not bad!" Shisui applauded. "That's a great hit rate for your first try. You've got talent."

Qingyu breathed a sigh of relief, feeling a little proud of himself.

"But," Shisui continued, changing the subject.

"Enemies on the battlefield won't move along fixed tracks. Next is random mode. The targets' speed and direction will change at any moment."

He adjusted the mechanism.

The next second, the three targets started darting around like they'd gone haywire!

They sped up and slowed down, veered left and right, and even stopped abruptly before changing direction!

Qingyu: "..." Am I practicing one-hit kills here or what?!

One-hit kill! Ahahahaha!

Nice, nice, nice!

This wasn't training anymore. It was torture!

Senpai, are you sure you know what "random" means?

Shouldn't this be called "brain-melting mode"?

But he could only grit his teeth and try.

On his first attempt, he missed every target.

On his second, he hit one.

On his third, he hit two.

By the tenth try, Qingyu could reliably hit two and occasionally land all three.

"You're improving quickly." Shisui nodded in satisfaction. "Next, we'll add obstacles."

He clapped his hands, and several wooden posts rose from the training ground, blocking some of the firing lanes.

Qingyu looked at the posts, close to tears.

Wasn't this a little too steep a difficulty curve? I've only just got the basics down!

Are you trying to make me take out the Tang Monk and his disciples?

"There are no ideal conditions on the battlefield," Shisui said seriously.

"You have to learn to find a shooting angle around all kinds of obstacles! Come on, give it another try!"

Qingyu gritted his teeth and threw again.

The shuriken traced an arc through the air, went around a wooden post, and hit the target... though it was still a little off.

"You could use a trickier angle." Shisui demonstrated.

He casually threw a shuriken, which seemed to come alive as it changed direction three times in midair. It dodged every obstacle and hit the bull's-eye dead center.

Qingyu stared, dumbfounded.

That move... was he cheating?!

If he wasn't cheating, I'll shoot an episode with the Doll Sister!

[System: What a shame, bro, she's totally green!]

Qingyu: So it really is...

"This technique is called Swallow Piercing Forest," Shisui said with a smile. "Once you've mastered Twin Swallow Rotation, I'll teach it to you."

Qingyu nodded firmly.

For a flashy technique like that, he'd give it everything he had!

The morning's training passed in a blur of pain and progress.

At lunchtime, Shisui actually pulled something out of his ninja tool pouch... a bento box?