Training Complete

Yashui slowly poured chakra into the miso soup that was cooling down. Before long, steam began to rise from it.

"Brother Yashui, how did your miso soup get hot?" Konohamaru was still young. Apart from playing with his kunai and trying to sneak up on the Third Hokage every day, he knew almost nothing about being a ninja.

"This is one of Brother Yashui's special tricks~" Yashui took the opportunity to show off in front of the clueless Konohamaru. "It's just that I still don't know how to make the miso soup boil."

"Make the miso soup boil?" The Third Hokage smiled. "That much heat won't be enough to make the soup boil. You need to turn up the heat."

Yashui stared at the Third Hokage, completely dumbfounded. He knew absolutely nothing about cooking.

"Your grandpa may not look like it, but he's actually a pretty good cook~" The Third Hokage continued explaining. "For example, after I make miso soup, I turn the gas stove down low while waiting for you to come home. That reduces the heat until it's just enough to keep the soup warm. But when I want to heat it up again, I turn the flame up high, so the miso soup gets much more heat in a short time. Naturally, it boils."

The Third Hokage's explanation sparked an idea in Yashui's mind. "That's right... It's the same principle as the training to make the rice wine boil..."

Yashui poured chakra into the miso soup again. This time, he used less than he had before, but he poured it in several times faster.

Just as expected, the miso soup boiled!

The Third Hokage looked at Yashui and nodded in satisfaction.

Yashui finally understood why the Three-Legged Golden Crow had made him complete this training, even though it knew he didn't have enough chakra to make the rice wine boil slowly. This wasn't training to increase his chakra reserves at all. It was training to increase the speed of his chakra output.

Only when his chakra output reached a certain speed would the rice wine heat up faster than it lost heat. Then it would boil!

After dinner, Yashui returned to his room and locked the door. He used the Reverse Summoning Technique once more.

"Poof!" Yashui appeared in front of the Three-Legged Golden Crow again.

"Yashui, why are you coming here so late? Your body should already be at its limit." The Three-Legged Golden Crow had a sharp tongue, but it still cared about Yashui's condition.

"Master, I've figured out the trick to making the rice wine boil—even when my body's already at its limit!" Yashui said, his gaze unwavering.

The Three-Legged Golden Crow narrowed its eyes and regarded Yashui with interest. "All right, then. Try it again in front of me."

With the Three-Legged Golden Crow's permission, Yashui sat down on the ground and began to refine chakra.

This time, unlike during the day, Yashui didn't refine a little chakra and then immediately pour it into the rice wine. He spent more than ten minutes just refining chakra.

"That should do it!" Yashui put both hands around the rice wine bottle and abruptly sent chakra into it.

He dumped all the chakra he had just refined into the rice wine at once. Its temperature rose rapidly, and in less than a minute, it was boiling.

He hadn't been able to complete the training all day, but now he'd done it in no time at all.

"That's great!" Yashui jumped up happily, only to clutch his aching muscles and roll around on the ground.

"Not bad." The Three-Legged Golden Crow seemed to be smiling. "How did you think of this method? Did someone give you a hint?"

"Sort of. At dinner, I wanted to heat up the miso soup, but no matter what I did, I couldn't make it boil. Then Grandpa Third explained how to use a high or low flame on the gas stove, and suddenly I had the idea." Yashui spoke excitedly.

"Third? Do you mean the Third Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi?" the Three-Legged Golden Crow asked.

"Yes." Yashui nodded.

"Hiruzen Sarutobi should have been an accomplice in the destruction of the Uchiha Clan. He turned a blind eye to what Shimura Danzō wanted to do. Why would he give you a hint?" The Three-Legged Golden Crow understood perfectly well that Yashui might not realize it yet, but the Third Hokage hadn't given him that hint by accident. He'd done it on purpose. If Yashui hadn't figured it out then, the Third Hokage would probably have directly taught him how to make the miso soup boil.

"Well..." Yashui scratched his head. "Actually, after the Uchiha Clan was wiped out, the Third Hokage adopted me. My name was changed from Uchiha Yashui to Sarutobi Yashui."

The Three-Legged Golden Crow sighed. "I never thought the Uchiha Clan would one day have to live under someone else's roof."

"Yeah. Life is unpredictable," Yashui agreed. Having been adopted by his enemy and taken that enemy's surname was a disgraceful thing to do.

If the Three-Legged Golden Crow had been a more hardline master, it might have told Yashui to cut ties with the Third Hokage immediately and reclaim the Uchiha name.

"I don't know what the Third Hokage intends to do, but for now, he's someone you can trust." The Three-Legged Golden Crow offered a warning. "You'll have to decide for yourself when to stop trusting him."

"Mm, thank you, Master." Yashui formed the hand sign for the Summoning Technique. "Master, I'll head back now. I'm a little tired today, too. I'll come again tomorrow!"

"Go on."

"Poof!" Yashui vanished from in front of the Three-Legged Golden Crow and returned to his room.

The Three-Legged Golden Crow had been right. For now, the Third Hokage was still someone Yashui could trust. He might already know everything about Yashui, but he hadn't said a word about it. Just like in the original story, he was a softhearted old man.

After taking a bath, Yashui soon fell asleep.

He woke again, and the second day of training began. After letting the Third Hokage know, Yashui immediately returned to the training ground from the day before. Just like yesterday, he planned to go to the Hundred Bird Nest from there.

Yashui had originally wanted to go to the Hundred Bird Nest from home. But first, he didn't know how to explain to the Third Hokage that he kept staying cooped up at home. Second, he figured that walking back from the training ground would be another kind of workout. Maybe it would improve his physical strength without him even realizing it.

When he reached the training ground, Yashui immediately went to the Hundred Bird Nest.

His body still ached a little from the previous day's training. But Yashui was young, and his metabolism was fast. It was no small feat that one night had eased his muscle soreness so much.

The Three-Legged Golden Crow treated Yashui a little better today than it had the day before. Perhaps completing the training the previous night had made it see Yashui in a new light.