Tree-Climbing Training? I'll Watch the Scenery from the Treetop

In the early morning forest of the Land of Waves, dew slid down dark green leaves and dripped onto the damp soil.

"Yo, looks like everyone's in good spirits."

Leaning on a cane, Kakashi limped over. Though his face still bore the weakness of excessive indulgence... ah, no, excessive Sharingan use, he was much better off than yesterday, when he had been lying there like a corpse. Ye Tian's Qi-Replenishing Pill was indeed potent—it had forcibly nursed back a kidney that had nearly run dry.

Before him stood three eagerly waiting Genin, along with Ye Tian, who was clutching a thermos and dumping goji berries into it by the handful.

"Kakashi-sensei, what are we training today? Is it some super ninjutsu that goes boom and blows people away?" Naruto asked excitedly, still savoring yesterday's Lung Capacity Technique.

"Well, it is training."

Kakashi pointed at the ancient tree soaring into the clouds behind him. "But before you play with those fancy tricks, you need to learn control—tree climbing."

"Tree climbing?" Naruto's face fell. "I could do that when I was three."

"Without your hands. Just your feet."

Kakashi demonstrated, using Chakra to adhere to the soles of his feet as he walked straight up the trunk. At last, he hung upside down from a branch like a slab of dried cured meat.

"Control your Chakra and maintain the adhesion. If you can't do that, fighting on water later will be like wearing roller skates on an ice rink."

Kakashi tossed down several Kunai. "Go mark your heights and see who can climb the highest."

Naruto charged in first. With a smack, he crushed the bark beneath his foot and landed flat on the ground, limbs spread wide.

"Too much force," Kakashi commented.

Sasuke's gaze turned solemn. After a running start and a sprint, he barely made it five or six meters before his footing began to slip, forcing him to flip down to the ground.

Sakura, on the other hand, looked completely relaxed. Like a nimble cat, she dashed all the way up to a high branch in one go.

"Very good. Sakura has the best control," Kakashi said with an approving nod, before turning toward Ye Tian, who had yet to move.

Ye Tian leaned against the roots, gazing gloomily at a cloud on the horizon. Steam rose from the cup of goji water in his hand.

"Ye Tian, aren't you going to try? This kind of basic control should be..."

"Ah, Kakashi-sensei." Ye Tian sighed and slowly set down his cup. "High-intensity aerobic exercise like tree climbing is really not very friendly to someone like me, whose lungs leak air."

He walked up to the tree and casually patted the trunk, wearing an expression that said, Since you're begging me, I suppose I'll give it a try.

Actually, anyone at the second level of Qi Refinement could handle this. Chakra control in the world of the Hokage was essentially using energy as glue, whereas a Cultivator's use of Spiritual Power was called "Unity of Heaven and Man."

"Up."

Ye Tian's fingertips trembled slightly as Spiritual Power circulated through the soles of his feet.

But he did not fly straight up. That would have looked too fake. He deliberately put on a strained expression, leaning forward as though his feet were stuck to the bark, stumbling crookedly upward.

One step.

His body wobbled, and Sakura cried out from above, "Careful!"

Two steps.

Ye Tian's left foot slipped, and just as he seemed about to fall, he twisted back at an odd angle.

Like a gecko that had drunk bad liquor, he slowly but steadily swayed his way to the treetop a hundred meters above, under Sasuke and Naruto's astonished gazes.

There, he chose a horizontal branch with the best sunlight and clearest view, plopped down, and pulled out a small blanket to cover his stomach.

"The air down there is too damp. It could trigger my asthma. I'll recuperate up here for a while. Remember to call me for dinner."

With that, he actually closed his eyes, crossed one leg over the other, and went to sleep.

Sasuke below: "..."

Naruto below: "..."

Kakashi narrowed his dead-fish eye, his thoughts churning wildly. That kid... he didn't use Chakra adhesion at all just now. He relied purely on terrifying bodily coordination and tiny adjustments to his center of gravity. That's a hundred times harder than using Chakra. Is he really frail, or is he pretending?

"Damn it!"

Watching the figure leisurely sunbathing atop the tree, Sasuke nearly broke down. Why could that sickly weakling, who got winded just walking, go up there and sleep while he, the genius Uchiha, could only eat dirt down here?

"I refuse to lose to a worthless loser!"

Fire blazed in Sasuke's eyes as he charged at the tree trunk once more. Naruto was unwilling to be outdone as well, and the two began a brutal performance of repeatedly crashing into the tree.

Meanwhile, at the treetop.

Ye Tian was not asleep. With his eyes half narrowed, he held a handful of Five-Spice Spirit Sunflower Seeds exchanged from the system shop.

Crunch.

A sunflower seed shell drifted down and landed precisely on the head of Sasuke, who was exhausted below.

Sasuke touched his head and looked at the broken shell in his palm, veins bulging on his forehead. That bastard... was he eating snacks up there?!

Time slowly passed. The two cheaters below were already tired as dogs, their clothes soaked through with sweat.

Ye Tian watched from above and shook his head. These two kids—one was too reckless, while the other was too impatient.

He turned over and pretended to talk in his sleep, his voice neither too loud nor too soft, just enough to reach the ears of the two below.

"Focus your intent on the soles... let emptiness and solidity give rise to each other... don't force it. Imagine the energy as flowing water..."

Sasuke, who was struggling against the trunk, suddenly froze.

"Flowing water?"

He instinctively adjusted his Chakra. Rather than desperately forcing it into the bark, he let the energy circulate through the soles of his feet.

Tap, tap, tap.

A sense of balance unlike anything he had felt before arose naturally. Sasuke's eyes lit up, and he rushed all the way to fifteen meters in one breath!

"So that's how it is..." Sasuke looked up at the treetop.

Giving guidance even in his dreams? Just how much was this guy hiding? Playing the fool while possessing great wisdom... no, he was simply unfathomable!

Naruto did not understand all that stuff about emptiness and solidity, but his instincts were incredible, and his movements became lighter as well.

Watching the two boys below act as if they had been injected with stimulants, Ye Tian secretly curled his lips on the treetop and cracked another sunflower seed.

"This is the fun of setting the pace. As long as I teach them well, these two meat shields can take all the damage in the future."

He looked at the glittering sea in the distance and thought, The Land of Waves dungeon is actually pretty interesting.