Training Pitfalls

"No, I was practicing tree climbing. But unfortunately, I couldn't find a tall enough tree, so I used this cliff instead. It should be high enough, right?" Sarutobi Yashui curled his lip: "Also, my name isn't 'kid', it's Yashui, Uchi... Sarutobi Yashui!"

"From the Sarutobi Clan? No wonder." Might Guy gauged the height of the cliff face: "To be able to climb all the way to the top from here, you must have an exceptional amount of chakra or an incredible chakra refinement speed. An average student couldn't do that!"

"You flatter me," Yashui said indifferently: "Why are you here? Don't you Jonin usually have missions to attend to?"

"Jonin are the elite of the entire village. Even if we go on missions frequently, the village grants us extra leave so we can maintain our energy," Might Guy explained: "And during my leave, I just happened to be here chasing youth!"

"Chasing... youth?" Yashui recalled Might Guy's classic catchphrases.

"That's right!" Might Guy's teeth flashed with a star-like glint as he gave Yashui a thumbs-up: "My goal today is ten thousand one-handed push-ups. If I can't do that, I'll do two hundred round trips of one-handed rock climbing!"

"..." Yashui was speechless, silently labeling Might Guy as a cultivation fanatic in his heart.

"Yashui, although your 'feat' just now was quite impressive for a student, you won't be able to learn tree climbing this way~" Might Guy suddenly spoke up.

"Won't be able to learn tree climbing... what do you mean?" Yashui was confused and asked. He did feel that there was something wrong with his training just now. He had never experienced such an easy training session before.

"Let me demonstrate for you." Might Guy walked onto the rock face, his body remaining perpendicular to the cliff, parallel to the ground.

"You were doing it like this, right!" Might Guy confirmed.

"Yes." Yashui nodded.

"I thought so." Might Guy stood on the cliff face and said to Yashui: "During your climb just now, you were constantly using chakra to stick your body tightly to the rock. That can indeed complete the task of climbing, but if I were to do this..."

Might Guy performed a hand seal to refine chakra, and the cliff face beneath his feet immediately crumbled into stone fragments. Taking advantage of the moment, he leaped back to the ground.

"See that? You can climb this way because you're a student, and your chakra intensity isn't as strong as ours, the Jonin. If you had chakra as strong as mine, using that method would cause the rock to collapse," Might Guy said with a serious expression: "You must have felt it too; your method wasted a lot of chakra. If you didn't have exceptional talent, you would have fallen halfway up."

Hearing Might Guy's words, Yashui fell into thought. Might Guy was right. The difficulty of this training wasn't about attaching too much chakra to the soles of the feet, but rather the right amount.

To put it simply, a ninja might only need 10 units of chakra to walk on a vertical rock wall. If they used 8 units, the force wouldn't be enough to adhere to the wall; if they used 100 units, it would cause the rock to shatter.

If they used 50 units, the excess force wouldn't be enough to crumble the rock, and the effect would be similar to using just 10 units. It creates the illusion that one has "mastered vertical wall walking." Although the effect is similar, the chakra consumption becomes five times higher.

While 50 units of chakra wouldn't shatter a rock wall, it would be enough to cause significant damage to wood. If one gets used to walking on rock walls, the day they try to climb a tree vertically, the tree would be snapped in half.

Yashui refined some chakra and tried to walk onto a low shrub. To his surprise, as soon as he stepped down, he left a deep footprint on the plant.

After testing it out, Yashui returned to the ground. His previous training method was wrong. If Might Guy hadn't appeared, he would have fallen into a major misconception.

"Thank you, Uncle. You've been a huge help this time." Yashui bowed respectfully to Might Guy.

"You're a student about to take the Ninja Academy graduation exam, right? To be working this hard, you really suit my taste," Might Guy gave Yashui a thumbs-up: "Want to train with me?"

"..." Yashui shook his head and replied firmly: "No!"

"Hahaha..." Might Guy laughed heartily: "Alright, alright. Keep up the good work, and never forget the power of youth!"

"By the way, Uncle," Yashui asked: "Since you're so passionate about training, do you know of any place with taller trees? I'd like to go there to train."

"Oh, that..." Might Guy thought for a moment: "The Uchiha training grounds seem to have quite a few tall trees, but that area is a restricted zone of the village. Without permission, I wouldn't dare go in either."

Uchiha...

These three words were like a forbidden spell. Upon hearing them, Yashui's eyes felt a sharp sting again. Unable to bear the pain, Yashui pressed his hands against his eyeballs. He was terrified—what if the Sharingan manifested on its own right now?

"What's wrong?" Might Guy asked, noticing Yashui seemed uncomfortable.

"No, it's nothing." Yashui smiled, adjusted his sunglasses, thanked him, and headed toward the Uchiha training grounds.

After Yashui left, the Third Hokage jumped down from a tree.

"Lord Hokage. Since you wanted to correct his training errors, why didn't you guide him yourself?" Might Guy asked the Hokage.

"Heh heh... that's not an easy question to answer," the Third Hokage said with a wry smile. He did it to avoid Danzo thinking he was giving Yashui special treatment.

"I'm quite interested in diligent children like Yashui. He's very similar to Rock Lee in our class!" Might Guy gave the Third Hokage a thumbs-up.

"...I'll mark this mission as a D-rank for you. Remember to collect the reward for this one next time you pick up a mission," the Third Hokage's pipe puffed out thin wisps of smoke, as if to cover up the embarrassment on his face.

"That won't be necessary, youth doesn't require payment!" After saying this, Might Guy leaped onto the cliff face and disappeared in a few bounds.

"Youth, huh..." The Third Hokage looked up at the birds in the sky...

After Yashui left, he didn't go straight to the Uchiha training grounds. Before that, he had something more important to do—confirm the state of his eyes.

Returning home, Yashui rushed to his room and looked in the mirror, checking left and right. Fortunately, his eyes hadn't turned into the Sharingan this time. Only then did Yashui breathe a sigh of relief.