Mika was numb. In less than half a day, her son had mastered every ninjutsu taught throughout the entire Ninja Academy curriculum. He was still lacking in some areas—he had no skill in Taijutsu or ninja tools—but when it came to ninjutsu alone, he was already good enough to graduate from the Ninja Academy.
Then she suddenly realized she had no more ninjutsu to teach her son. After all, she was only a medical ninja, and Medical Ninjutsu was what she used most of the time.
Aside from Medical Ninjutsu, the only techniques she knew were basic ninjutsu. And Uchiha Cheng had already mastered every one of them.
What would she do if her son asked her to teach him a new technique and she had nothing left to teach? Wouldn't that be awkward?
At that thought, Mika told her son to practice on his own, then hurried away.
For some reason, as Uchiha Cheng watched Mika leave, he had the feeling his mother was running away from something.
Maybe it was just his imagination.
Fortunately, he could handle the rest of his training by himself.
As a Naruto manga fan, how could he not know about the classic Tree Climbing and Water Walking exercises?
By gathering chakra in the soles of his feet, a ninja could walk on trees and water, training their chakra control. It was one of the classic training scenes in the original Naruto series.
It was also said to greatly increase one's strength. As chakra control improved, the amount of chakra needed to perform the same ninjutsu would decrease.
And once he learned Tree Climbing and Water Walking, he could fight without worrying about the terrain. Cliffs, dense forests, treacherous shallows, rivers, and oceans could all become battlefields.
Uchiha Cheng knew all about this. He had even gone out of his way to master the Shadow Clone Technique, a training cheat.
The Shadow Clone Technique could transfer a clone's training memories and experience to the original. That meant he and his clone could practice ninjutsu at the same time, gaining twice the experience. Naturally, this greatly increased the speed at which he could learn all kinds of knowledge and ninjutsu.
However, the technique was no help with Taijutsu training. Shadow Clones were made of chakra, not actual flesh and blood. A sufficiently powerful blow would make them disappear, so they were completely unsuited to Taijutsu practice.
Still, with the experience gained from his Shadow Clones and a natural talent no weaker than the protagonist's in the original story, he was confident he could master Tree Climbing and Water Walking in half a day.
So he began practicing, step by step.
Yet just a few seconds later, he began to question his life.
It seemed Uchiha Cheng had underestimated his own talent.
In just a few seconds, he had mastered Tree Climbing and Water Walking.
He hadn't needed to learn at all. It was as if he'd been born knowing how, like an instinct.
"Was that really so easy? I went to all that trouble to learn the Shadow Clone Technique, and now it's completely useless!" Uchiha Cheng couldn't help complaining.
Even the Shadow Clone Technique had been more difficult than this so-called Tree Climbing and Water Walking.
Uchiha Cheng suddenly felt deflated. This was nothing like what he had expected.
It was like a hero who set out to kill the goblins at the edge of his village, only to go out of his way to defeat the Demon King and claim the Demon Sword. When he returned, he found he could have killed the goblins with a single kick, and the sword he'd taken was completely useless. What had he gone to all that trouble for?
But it was his own fault, too. He'd trusted his memories of the manga from his previous life too much and overlooked common sense. Although the Shadow Clone Technique was everywhere in the manga, it was still a B-rank technique, one practiced at the Jonin level.
As for Tree Climbing and Water Walking, even though the manga had shown the training in detail and the protagonist had been full of passion, making it seem difficult, it was ultimately just part of a Genin's training.
"I never thought being too talented could be a kind of pain."
Uchiha Cheng sighed sincerely.