Training Really Was Fun

"Hokage, Lord Hokage!" Umino Iruka jogged all the way into the Hokage's Office Building. After being announced, he opened the office door.

"Oh, Teacher Iruka. It's not time for reports yet, is it? The first-years only started school today. Shouldn't you be teaching the Chakra Refining Technique?" The Third Hokage held a scroll in one hand and smoked with furrowed brows.

Rather than being a powerful figure of high rank, the Hokage, as the village head, had to handle everything big and small. Even matters like Old Li with the buzz cut's pig running into Old Wang's field and rooting up his cabbages had to be dealt with by him.

But as if he had suddenly thought of something, the Third Hokage stopped writing. "Wait, could it be...?"

"That's right, a genius has appeared!" Umino Iruka excitedly handed over a file. "This student successfully refined chakra in just fifteen minutes after I taught the Chakra Refining Technique!"

"Hm?" The Third Hokage froze. "Wait, are you sure it was fifteen minutes, not one hundred and fifty?"

One hundred and fifty minutes was two and a half hours—only one shichen by the old reckoning!

Being able to refine chakra within one shichen already counted as a genius among geniuses!

"Lord Third Hokage, it hasn't even been one hundred and fifty minutes since school started!" Umino Iruka said.

"That's true!" The Third Hokage frowned. But fifteen minutes... that really was a little unbelievable!

He took the file and looked it over, quickly recalling who it was.

He might not remember ordinary civilians, but this family was somewhat special.

The Kamiya Family was a Shinto family that worshipped Inari in the Land of Fire. They had a Main Lineage in the capital of the Land of Fire, with Branch Lineages in other cities and villages.

This Kamiya Family had not originally come from a single clan. Rather, because they worshipped Inari, they had all adopted the surname Kamiya after a certain period of time. Before that, they had possessed all sorts of surnames.

Originally, the Kamiya Family and Konoha had stayed out of each other's affairs.

But because of the war, some villages had needed to relocate to other cities. After relocating, the Kamiya Family in one such village had become unnecessary. After all, the city already had a Kamiya Family, leaving no place for them. So that small family had followed the Konoha Ninja to settle in Konoha.

There were many such cases. Kamiya Keiyun's classmate, Kotetsu Hagane, was in a similar situation.

There were four people in this family: the father, Kamiya Hiromi; the mother, Kamiya Koromo; the older sister, Kamiya Sanyō, who had originally been the miko of the shrine; and finally, Kamiya Keiyun.

The Kamiya Family now made a living by farming. Kamiya Koromo had once been an herbalist and now worked as a nurse at Konoha Hospital. As for Kamiya Sanyō, she stayed at home with nothing to do.

Every year, Konoha tested children of the appropriate age. Some time ago, they had discovered that Kamiya Keiyun possessed the talent to become a ninja, and he had enrolled afterward.

A clean family background, clear connections, and a transparent history—those were what the Third Hokage valued most. Talent came second.

Well, although this child's talent was exceptionally good!

The Ninja Academy had always been in the habit of recommending geniuses to the Hokage. During wartime, outstanding Jonin would be assigned as team leaders for geniuses. During peacetime, geniuses would be kept in school longer and their graduation delayed, ensuring that they could grow up safely.

Orochimaru, Jiraiya, Minato, and Hatake Sakumo had all emerged from this system.

Now, there was one more: Kamiya Keiyun.

"Keep an eye on him," the Third Hokage said after thinking it over. "Report to me if you discover anything else!"

A genius from a civilian background whose history was thoroughly known—so long as his Will of Fire was sound, he was destined to become a staunch supporter of the Hokage's faction in the future.

But for now, all they knew was that he refined chakra quickly. In a sense, that represented his body's compatibility with chakra. But what if that was the only talent the child had? What if he was no good with Shuriken, no good at hand-to-hand combat, and unable to learn the Three Body Technique?

The possibility was small, but it still existed.

The Third Hokage could not make a huge fuss over this small display of talent. Keeping an eye on him was enough for now. They still needed to observe his later performance.

What troubled him now was something else.

Kamiya Keiyun had little interest in showing off. The people around him were all a bunch of five- and six-year-old brats, and there were even four-year-olds.

What was the point of showing off in front of them?

He might as well study chakra!

He knew little about chakra, but he knew quite a lot about internal energy, magical power, and similar things. By his own estimation, they should be roughly the same sort of thing.

Someone should have researched this stuff already, but Kamiya Keiyun was only an elementary school student and had no access to the relevant materials. He could only explore it himself first.

He discovered that after chakra was condensed, it did not remain unchanged. As long as he did not use it, it would slowly revert into the original two forms of energy before dissipating within his body.

"In other words, every time I want to use it, I have to refine chakra first with the Chakra Refining Technique?" Kamiya Keiyun pondered. Refining chakra took fifteen minutes. If there really were a fight, wouldn't he be dead before he could even refine any chakra?

"So why can't it be stored in the body like internal energy? Come to think of it, I've never heard anyone say they had decades' worth of chakra. Is it because chakra disperses?" Kamiya Keiyun thought for a moment and tried refining chakra again.

Perhaps because he had gained experience, it went much faster this time. The moment he finished forming the Hand Seals, he sensed the two energies gathering together, and chakra was born!

"Hmm, around three seconds. It looks like those fifteen minutes were only because it was the first time. Going from zero to one has always been the hardest part, and refining speed can improve with proficiency. If I keep practicing, maybe chakra will appear in my body the moment I finish the seals, with no delay." Kamiya Keiyun considered it. Using chakra this way was not bad, but it still could not compare to storing it like internal energy.

Because if I have to form it whenever I use it, that means I'll only ever have one day's worth of chakra. But if I can store it, I could have thirty years' worth of chakra!

I can try it later.

Kamiya Keiyun was not worried that he would fail to learn it. He had Heaven Rewards Diligence. This talent was equally effective when creating things. As long as Kamiya Keiyun wanted to create a method and genuinely put in the effort, he would definitely be able to create it!

He just did not know whether talent was stronger or logic was stronger. If talent was stronger, then Kamiya Keiyun could create skills that defied logic, such as a one-hundred-percent chance of catching a blade barehanded.

But if logic was stronger, then the skills he created would automatically conform to logic. In other words, what he created would be universally applicable: he could use it, and others could learn it too.

Those were matters for the future. Kamiya Keiyun did not even understand meridians yet, so he had no idea where to begin creating anything. He could only continue training for now.

There were two things he could train. The first was Hand Seals. Although he only knew one seal, going from empty hands to forming it still took time because he was unfamiliar with it.

The second was the Chakra Refining Technique. Even after forming the seals, there was still a three-second delay before chakra could be born. He wanted to train until there was no delay at all.

Ideally, he would be able to refine chakra without forming Hand Seals at all. Otherwise, the moment he formed seals, others would know he was about to use chakra and would surely be on guard.

He had thought it would be a slow process, but he did not know whether his talent was truly that good or whether Heaven Rewards Diligence was simply too powerful. In less than one minute, he had completely mastered the hand seal. In less than five minutes, after over one hundred and forty attempts, he could refine chakra with no delay at all.

After that, he followed that feeling and tried refining chakra without forming Hand Seals. This time still did not take long. In under ten minutes, Kamiya Keiyun could make chakra emerge with a single thought!

"Damn, training really is fun!"