Training

Ninja Academy—home—Naruto—training. That was Ueno Kei's four-part routine after enrolling.

During his time at the Academy, he gradually got used to this life. He had no special talent, no unusual gifts, and no kekkei genkai. The only thing he could boast about was his quick mind and powerful memory.

Unfortunately, a good brain didn't help him much with learning the skills of a ninja. It only meant he remembered the theory well and earned high marks on written exams. When it came to practical tests, Ueno Kei was never among the top students.

He wasn't at the bottom of the class, either. He was simply average, managing to refine his first wisp of chakra and learn the Three Body Technique in the usual amount of time. He hadn't mastered it; he could merely use it, and sometimes he still failed.

There was nothing outstanding about Ueno Kei, but he wasn't the sort of student who gave his teachers trouble, either.

He didn't mind his mediocre talent at all. In truth, becoming a ninja was already more than enough for him. He wasn't especially greedy. How many people were there in this world, and how many of them could become ninjas?

So Ueno Kei was quite content. That didn't mean he was complacent; he simply wasn't the sort of person who complained about his lot in life.

As for becoming strong, Ueno Kei had never given up on it. He didn't believe that someone with mediocre talent couldn't become strong. Hadn't plenty of ordinary people become great in his previous life?

Ueno Kei never begrudged the sweat and effort it took. Now that he had come to this world and had the chance to become a ninja, he was determined not to give up even the slightest possibility of becoming strong, whether it was to avenge his parents or to find meaning in his life.

Ueno Kei didn't want to waste a single moment.

Six years! He had only six years at this school, and Ueno Kei didn't want to leave with regrets. This was the best time to train without a care in the world and steadily build his strength!

At dawn, the sun had just begun to rise. The morning mist slowly lifted, and the villagers of Konoha began to wake and prepare for the day ahead. At that hour, the sound of sharp shouts had already rung out from a mountain on the western outskirts of Konoha.

At that moment, beside a river in the back hills, a purple-haired boy was drenched in sweat as he desperately punched and slapped a wooden post. The mountain range was not particularly tall.

More than ten poles had been set up nearby, and over a hundred ninja weapons—Kunai, Shuriken, and the like—lay scattered beside them.

The boy was Ueno Kei.

Since enrolling six months ago, Ueno Kei had drawn up a detailed training schedule for himself. His talent was mediocre and he had no particular strengths, so the only way to make up for it was through relentless effort.

Ueno Kei understood this very well. Since enrolling, he had spent less and less time with Naruto, aside from the usual hours for school and rest.

He spent eighty or ninety percent of his remaining time beside the river in the back hills.

For a while, Naruto had been quite sulky about being unable to find Ueno Kei to play with. But soon he put it behind him. Naruto might not have been very clever, but he wasn't stupid; he knew why Ueno Kei was working so hard.

Naruto had once wanted to train alongside Ueno Kei, but after less than a few days, he gave up. He was still just a child, after all, and Konoha was enjoying a time of peace.

At least for now, Naruto's talk of becoming Hokage was only a dream, a way to earn other people's recognition. Making himself train day and night would have been far too much to ask of the young Uzumaki Naruto.

Not everyone was like Ueno Kei, with the mind of an adult despite being a child.

Ueno Kei hadn't forced Naruto to join him. After all, their mental ages differed by several years, and Ueno Kei treated Naruto very much like a child. In his previous life, children that age were meant to play and have fun.

With that perspective, Ueno Kei would never force Naruto into anything.

Of course, that might change once Naruto enrolled and later became a ninja.

Physical training, chakra refinement and use, throwing Kunai and Shuriken, and the Three Body Technique—for the past six months, Ueno Kei had been steadily learning these fundamentals.

Many children his age shouted in the classroom about learning A-rank or S-rank jutsu and becoming powerful ninjas. More than half the students treated the basics as a chore, content just to pass.

But in the eyes of Ueno Kei and some of the other students, these fundamentals were the most important things for them to learn at their age. That included top students in the class, such as Hyuga Neji of the Hyuga Clan.

Of course, Ueno Kei understood this more deeply than they did. Who had established the Konoha Ninja Academy? The Second Hokage, Lord Senju Tobirama. It was said that he had personally arranged the curriculum.

That alone lent the lessons official authority.

The students who understood this were mostly from ninja clans. Their parents or other relatives were ninjas, so even at a young age, they had learned the importance of the basics.

But Ueno Kei's understanding went deeper for reasons beyond his respect and admiration for the Second Hokage. Much of it came from his own thought.

Chakra was a ninja's source of power. Without it, no ninjutsu, genjutsu, or even powerful Taijutsu could be used.

The Three Body Technique looked like the simplest of jutsu, but in Ueno Kei's view, it was the foundation of all ninjutsu. How could a ninja who couldn't master these three techniques expect to master other powerful jutsu? (Of course, there were exceptions, like Naruto in the original story, who couldn't use the Clone Technique but could use the Shadow Clone Technique.)

Kunai and Shuriken were basic ninja weapons. A ninja who wasn't familiar with them and couldn't use them skillfully would be a complete joke.

After learning about these aspects of being a ninja, Ueno Kei paid particular attention to them.

Whatever the school required or the teachers assigned, Ueno Kei always adjusted it to suit what his body could handle, then did more—sometimes twice as much.

To build up his physical strength quickly, Ueno Kei gradually added weights to his body. Of course, since he was still growing, he didn't overdo it. He simply strapped a certain weight to each of his arms and legs. He would increase it gradually later. Other people must have trained this way, but among his peers, there couldn't be many who did.

What Ueno Kei didn't know was that there was already someone in this world who was incredibly extreme. At one year old, that person carried at least several hundred kilograms of weight all over his body.

Even if Ueno Kei had known, he wouldn't have tried to imitate him. Everyone's physique was different. Even by the time Ueno Kei reached that age, he probably would only be able to carry a little over a hundred kilograms.

Compared with some of the more powerfully built people, Ueno Kei was still rather thin and weak.

So Ueno Kei could lay an extremely solid foundation at this stage, and he had earned every bit of it with sweat and effort. Without that, he would definitely have been among the few students at the bottom of his class.