Training

"Time to eat." Minato brought a bowl of porridge over to Ye Wuji, his tone carrying a hint of coaxing.

"Mn." Ye Wuji grunted in response, sitting up from the bed. The look he gave Minato was laced with a trace of resentment. It was all because of this guy in front of him that he had been stuck in bed for two days.

After successfully refining chakra that first time, Ye Wuji had passed out. By the time he woke up, it was already the afternoon of the next day. It was only then that he learned from Minato that refining chakra wasn't an overnight process. Even in Konoha, very few people could succeed in a single day. After all, it was difficult for a child to maintain focus from morning till night, though generally, it took about seven days to succeed. Of course, there were exceptions, and some people required much longer—even up to a year.

A normal person usually takes about seven days from learning how to refine chakra to actually producing it, and these people typically come from ninja families, so they know exactly what to do.

Put that way, chakra refinement sounds simple enough, and that's true—anyone with a bit of perseverance and the right knowledge can do it. However, chakra is formed by combining energy from the body's cells with spiritual energy. This means that when chakra is first refined, the body experiences a massive energy deficit that must be replenished from external sources. In short, being a ninja isn't a hobby for the poor.

From this, Ye Wuji realized it was much like the martial arts from his previous life; he had often heard the saying that "literature is for the poor, martial arts are for the rich," which seemed to carry the same meaning.

Another aspect of spiritual energy is the ability to control this power. If one cannot control it, it's usually not a major issue for a normal person, provided they aren't mentally deficient. Take Lee and Guy, for example; they can refine chakra, but their spiritual energy is insufficient to control it well. This is why they appear unable to use ninjutsu—they can perform the techniques, but they can't control the chakra flow to manifest them. Of course, with enough effort, they can still pull off some basic ninjutsu.

Ye Wuji still remembered Naruto's graduation exam, where the test was the Clone Technique. Since Lee managed to graduate, it proved he could perform the Clone Technique. However, these were only basic ninjutsu, which is why Lee and Guy specialized in taijutsu. Since chakra can be used to strengthen the body, if you can't use ninjutsu, you might as well use that chakra to enhance your physical prowess. Otherwise, it would be impossible to explain how Lee and Guy became so formidable; if they had no chakra at all, it would be too exaggerated. Besides, throughout the entire Naruto series, there are only a few people who focus exclusively on taijutsu. If one could be that strong without chakra, there would surely be more of them—don't talk to him about perseverance; surely there are more than just those two who have it.

Simply put, starting to refine chakra is somewhat dangerous. In major ninja villages, whether at the academy or within ninja clans, someone is always there to supervise when a person first refines chakra to prevent accidents. Just like in Ye Wuji's case, if Minato hadn't been there, even if he had successfully refined chakra, he might have suffered from the sudden, massive energy depletion. At worst, he could have starved to death; at best, he could have suffered severe physical damage.

Minato only explained these things to Ye Wuji after he woke up, though he only touched upon the dangers and a few other taboos.

It was fortunate that Minato was by his side. As a disciple of the Sannin Jiraiya, Minato held a high status in Konoha, which gave him access to medicinal herbs that were highly beneficial to the body. Thanks to Minato using these herbs to brew porridge to replenish his energy, Ye Wuji didn't suffer any lasting complications.

However, because Ye Wuji's body had previously belonged to a commoner, even with Minato's meticulous care, he had still been bedridden for two full days.

But these dangers only existed during the initial refinement process; once you possess chakra, it's no longer that dangerous.

So, Ye Wuji now understood that being a ninja required money. Only with money could one provide the body with enough nutrition to refine chakra better and train more effectively.

This was why Ye Wuji had complained to Minato the moment he woke up. If he had known, he could have prepared better, and with Minato's careful conditioning, his body would have been in better shape, avoiding such a dangerous situation.

Moreover, because Minato hadn't explained things clearly at the start, Ye Wuji had almost fallen into despair and given up.

That was why, even though Ye Wuji had been lying in bed for the past two days, he hadn't paid much attention to Minato, who simply dismissed it as a child throwing a tantrum.

Even so, seeing the look in Ye Wuji's eyes, Minato scratched his head in embarrassment and said, "Don't look at me like that. Didn't I already apologize? This is my first time teaching someone, and I assumed you knew some of the common knowledge. I forgot you didn't grow up in Konoha. Haha!" Minato laughed a few times.

Seeing the dignified Fourth Hokage, Minato Namikaze, apologizing to him so sincerely, Ye Wuji couldn't stay angry. After all, even though Minato had forgotten, it was precisely because of that ignorance that Ye Wuji had been able to refine chakra. If Minato had explained everything clearly from the start, Ye Wuji wouldn't have had the "burn the bridges" determination. Once a person has a way out, their mindset is entirely different.

After the meal, since Ye Wuji hadn't fully recovered, Minato decided to wait until he was completely healed before continuing his training.

"Clang! Clang!" With a few sounds, Ye Wuji used the kunai in his hand to deflect the incoming kunai, then quickly darted behind a large tree. Ye Wuji, now dressed in simple tight-fitting gear, scanned his surroundings with sharp eyes.

Starting from the third day, Minato began training Ye Wuji strictly. Every morning was spent training chakra, the afternoon was dedicated to physical conditioning and stealth training, and in the evening, Minato taught him about medical ninjutsu. Minato only knew the basics of first aid and simple chakra-based healing—he wasn't an expert, as this was knowledge he'd picked up from Tsunade, another of the Sannin.

About half a month passed this way. During these two weeks, Ye Wuji's body had completely transformed. Whether it was the nutrition or the chakra, he had grown quite a bit taller. With his snow-white hair, he looked like a handsome young man—or more accurately, a cute boy.

At first, Ye Wuji had considered using the physical training methods from Earth, which had been proven by many experts and scientific studies. Unfortunately, after seeing Minato's teaching methods, he gave up on that idea. While the basic training was similar to Earth's, the higher-level techniques were completely useless. Ye Wuji eventually realized that this world wasn't the feudal society he had imagined; it was essentially a high-martial-arts world. The methods that worked for ordinary people on Earth were utterly ineffective here.

Thus, Ye Wuji put those thoughts aside and temporarily set aside his pride as a transmigrator. After all, most of his knowledge from Earth was self-taught from the internet; as for formal schooling, that was a joke—even if a school had accepted him, he wouldn't have had the money to attend.

Seven days after he began training, the schedule changed: morning was still for chakra, but the afternoon was now dedicated to sparring with Minato.

It wasn't until he started sparring with Minato that Ye Wuji realized the biggest difference between himself and this era. In this world, whether adult or child, people seemed to have no qualms about killing. Ye Wuji came from an era that, despite its dark sides, had never exposed him to such things as an ordinary person—he had only ever seen them on the internet.

This meant that this era had developed a set of highly effective combat theories, while Ye Wuji was limited to "talking on paper." He had only ever fantasized about how he would fight if he had ninjutsu, but the reality was different. In their first spar, while Ye Wuji was still stunned, Minato's kunai was already at his throat.

Ye Wuji realized his combat awareness was abysmal, which was why Minato changed the training method. Minato had seen his deficiency early on—it wasn't just a lack of skill; it was a total lack of understanding.

This was their fifteenth day of sparring. Ye Wuji had spent the first seven days training, and the last eight had been entirely devoted to combat awareness. In Minato's words, Ye Wuji's vigilance was too poor. This wasn't something that could be compared to ninjutsu proficiency; for people like Minato, even when facing a close friend, they could react in an instant—it was a physical instinct.

Therefore, the time spent on combat training far exceeded that of ninjutsu. Sometimes, when Ye Wuji was sleeping at night, Minato would sneak up on him; if he failed to react, he would be left hanging upside down from a tree for half an hour.

Thanks to Minato's targeted training, Ye Wuji could now trade a few blows with him. Although Ye Wuji knew that in a real fight, he would likely be killed by Minato in an instant, he was still happy to be able to hold his own for a few rounds.

Hiding behind the tree, Ye Wuji was observing his surroundings. Just as he turned his head, a kunai flew toward him instantly. Before he could even react, the kunai struck him. "Poof!" Upon impact, Ye Wuji turned into a cloud of smoke and vanished.

On a hidden branch, Minato watched the disappearing Ye Wuji without a hint of surprise. "Clone Technique," Minato muttered to himself. "Still, he's finally got the hang of it. My teaching hasn't gone to waste. In that case, I suppose I can head back soon."

As Minato was talking to himself, a "whoosh" sound echoed, and three kunai flew toward him in a triangular formation.

"Interesting, you found me?" Minato mused, then vanished, leaving the three kunai to hit empty air.

As expected of the Fourth Hokage. At such a young age, his speed has already reached this level. Could it be that he's already developing the Flying Thunder God Technique? Ye Wuji, hiding in a nearby bush, wasn't surprised to see Minato vanish. In his mind, missing was normal; hitting him would have been the anomaly. However, seeing Minato's speed, Ye Wuji was still shocked. After all these days of training, he was no longer a clueless rookie, yet he was still stunned by Minato's speed.

Ye Wuji was certain that was the real body, not a clone. Even so, he hadn't been able to see how Minato moved.

After scanning the area and finding nothing, Ye Wuji felt something was wrong and prepared to move. Just as he was about to shift, a hand pressed down on his shoulder and threw him off the tree.

As he fell, Ye Wuji looked up at Minato, flipped in mid-air, and landed on the ground. He then put away his kunai. While falling, he sighed internally, It's a pity that so far, I've only learned the Transformation Technique. Among the Three Basic Techniques, that's the easiest one. If I had learned the Substitution Technique, I might have been able to escape just now.

Speaking of the Three Basic Techniques, Ye Wuji felt like crying. With two lifetimes of experience, he didn't lack spiritual energy, and while his chakra wasn't vast, it was decent after these days of training. He possessed all the prerequisites for these ninjutsu, so why was he learning so slowly?

Whenever he thought about this, he wanted to weep—it was all the hand signs' fault. Aside from refining chakra, Ye Wuji had spent these days practicing hand signs. He had initially thought the twelve zodiac hand signs were simple, and they were, but performing them during a technique was a different story. He knew the signs, but he was too slow. Ninjutsu required not only chakra but also speed in forming the signs. Ye Wuji always exceeded the time limit. So far, he could only complete the Clone Technique within the required time. Thinking of Itachi's rhythm of six signs per second, Ye Wuji was full of tears.

As for the Substitution Technique, he always failed because he was too slow. One had to realize that the Substitution Technique was a life-saving skill, and the execution time was extremely short. People like the Fourth Hokage could even perform it without any hand signs.

Ye Wuji's hands were swollen from practicing signs these past few days. It was fortunate that the Fourth Hokage knew some medical ninjutsu, or he wouldn't have been able to keep up with the training schedule.

Standing below, Ye Wuji looked up at Minato and said, "It's always like this, Brother Minato. You're cheating! You always bully me by relying on your speed."

As for calling him "Brother Minato," Ye Wuji didn't have much of an issue with it. Although his mental age might be older than Minato's, his current body was that of a child. Originally, Ye Wuji had wanted to acknowledge Minato as his teacher, but Minato had said he wasn't in a position to take on disciples yet, though he could accept him as a younger brother. He also promised that when he met his own teacher, he would ask him to take Ye Wuji on as a student. Ye Wuji thought that becoming a disciple of Jiraiya, one of the Sannin, wouldn't be bad at all, so he didn't insist.

With a "whoosh," Minato appeared in front of Ye Wuji and tapped him on the head. "Stop talking nonsense. In a ninja battle, do you expect your opponent to go easy on you? Is that what I taught you?"

"Heh heh," Ye Wuji chuckled, thinking to himself, There probably isn't anyone in the entire ninja world faster than you.

But Ye Wuji only kept those thoughts to himself.

"Alright, that's it for today. Let's head back. I have a surprise for you tomorrow." After saying this, Minato walked off.

Is he leaving? Ye Wuji was a normal person, and he knew that Minato staying with him for half a month was likely the limit. It was about time for him to return to Konoha.