No Pain, No Gain!

This kind of basic training was the most tedious. At the age of five, few children could endure it. Though his body was five years old, Hikaru was not a five-year-old child. He knew what he needed to do.

Other children might be playing, but he could not. The hardship he endured now was for his future achievements.

Without effort, where would the rewards come from?

There was no such thing as a free lunch in this world. Even if there was, how many meals could you eat?

Push-ups, sit-ups, frog jumps—Hikaru went through a series of the most basic exercises before gradually moving on to other things. Basic taijutsu contained too little.

If an ordinary child had come to train like this, they would definitely have worn an unwilling expression. Yet Hikaru became absorbed in it. Again and again, he kicked, side-kicked, and punched. The wooden post was basically his training partner.

That Uchiha kid was really working hard.

Gradually, Hikaru's efforts drew the attention of many people. Most of them had already become official ninjas and never neglected their own training, but even they were stunned by Hikaru's persistence.

At first, everyone thought a child Hikaru's age would give up after a short while. Yet ever since he entered the Training Ground, he had kept working hard and persevering, despite how boring the training was.

Ordinary children would naturally train at the training grounds within the Uchiha territory, but Hikaru chose the public Training Ground in the village instead of training among the Uchiha.

The Uchiha did not have a very good reputation in Konoha. Hardly anyone liked them, whether they were children from the various clans or ordinary people. Of course, that did not include the fangirls obsessed with handsome Uchiha men.

Not only were the Uchiha indifferent toward outsiders, but unless you were acquainted with them, even members of the same clan might not bother with you. Hikaru did not want to be met with cold stares, so he chose the village's public Training Ground. It was free anyway, and he could train however he wanted.

"Phew... I really don't know how Might Guy managed to keep this up."

As night gradually fell, Hikaru felt as though his whole body was about to fall apart. Do not underestimate this basic training. As long as you put your heart into it and persisted, it could exhaust you half to death.

That was exactly how Hikaru felt now. He was tired as a dead dog and only wanted to hurry home, eat something, refine Chakra, and sleep.

He dragged his exhausted body home. It was the only property his nominal parents had left him, aside from a small amount of money. That was all.

As for ninjutsu, he had basically no hope of getting any. He could only rely on his own efforts to obtain everything, but Hikaru was already very satisfied.

Phew...

After casually wolfing down some food and taking a cold shower, Hikaru was exhausted to death and wanted nothing more than to lie down and rest. Still, he forced himself to sit up and began refining Chakra.

Gradually, Hikaru entered a focused state and maintained that posture until he could no longer hold on and fell asleep.

Refining Chakra consumed a great deal of stamina. Combined with the exhaustion from training, the two factors made Hikaru fall into a heavy sleep. At that moment, even thunder probably could not wake him.

Whether because he was too exhausted or because he had drunk the God-tier Evolution Potion, Hikaru refined Chakra extremely quickly, and in great quantities—far beyond anyone his age.

Even Tsunade might not have been able to refine Chakra faster than Hikaru now. The Senju Clan and Uzumaki Clan were famous for their Chakra reserves. Although the Uchiha were not much worse, they still fell somewhat short compared to those two great clans. More often, their Chakra was overshadowed by the overwhelming strength of the Sharingan.

When people mentioned the Uchiha Clan, most thought of the Sharingan rather than the clan's Chakra reserves. Though they could not compare to special clans like the Senju and Uzumaki, the Uchiha's Chakra reserves still far surpassed those of ordinary people. Unfortunately, what people always noticed about the Uchiha was the Sharingan.

The biggest reason children still in school found it difficult to use ninjutsu was the limitation of Chakra. With only that tiny bit of Chakra, what advanced ninjutsu did they think they could use?

For most people, being proficient in the Three Basic Ninjutsu by graduation was already good enough. They should forget about high-level ninjutsu. Never mind how they would obtain it—did they even have enough Chakra to cast such ninjutsu?

Hikaru slept very comfortably. By the time he woke up, dawn had arrived the next day.

"Haah..."

After yawning, Hikaru stretched his arms, then froze the next second.

After making a bet with Tsunade yesterday, he had gone to the Training Ground and worked himself to the point of exhaustion. Logically, when he woke up the next day, there should have been some aftereffects, such as soreness throughout his body. Unless a long time had passed and his body had adapted, such aftereffects were unavoidable.

Yet Hikaru was astonished to find that his body felt full of energy. There was not the slightest soreness, and he felt unbelievably good.

"Could it be because of..."

Hikaru could only attribute it all to the God-tier Evolution Potion. "It really was worth the half month's salary I spent on it."

Hikaru clenched his fists, filled with excitement.

What did ninja training fear most? Nothing more than the aftereffects of the body being unable to endure it, or even hidden injuries. If he could recover completely after one night's sleep, Hikaru could continuously intensify his training and make himself stronger.

He looked at himself in the mirror. The blood-red Sharingan was incredibly eye-catching, and paired with Hikaru's still somewhat youthful yet handsome face, he would definitely draw the attention of quite a few girls if he went out like that.

Taking a deep breath, Hikaru put away his Sharingan. He did not know when the Sharingan would become Two-Tomoe...