No Pain, No Gain

This kind of basic training is the most tedious. At the age of five, very few children can endure it. Although his body is five years old, Hikaru is not a five-year-old child; he knows what he needs to do.

Other children might be playing, but he cannot. The hardship he endures now is for the sake of his future achievements.

Without effort, where would the rewards come from?

There is no such thing as a free lunch in this world, and even if there were, how many meals could you eat?

Push-ups, sit-ups, frog jumps—Hikaru performed a series of the most basic exercises before slowly moving on to other aspects. Basic Taijutsu contains too little.

If an average child were brought here for this kind of training, they would certainly look displeased, but Hikaru was immersed in it. The monotonous repetition of kicks, side kicks, and punches—the wooden stake was essentially Hikaru's training partner.

"That Uchiha kid is really hardworking."

Gradually, Hikaru's efforts drew the attention of many. Most of these people had already become official ninjas. No one ever slacks off on training, but even they were shocked by Hikaru's persistence.

At first, everyone thought that a child of Hikaru's age would give up after a short while, but ever since he entered the training ground, he had been working hard and persisting, even though such training was very dull.

If he were an average child, he would naturally train within the Uchiha territory, but Hikaru chose the public training ground in the village instead of the Uchiha grounds.

The Uchiha are not well-regarded in Konoha; almost no one likes them, whether they are children of various clans or ordinary people—excluding, of course, the fan girls obsessed with handsome Uchiha men.

Not to mention their cold attitude toward outsiders, members of the Uchiha Clan, unless they are acquaintances, might not even bother with you even if you are from the same clan. Hikaru did not want to be met with cold stares, so he chose the public training ground in the village. It was free, anyway, and he could mess around as he pleased.

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

As night gradually fell, Hikaru felt his entire body was about to fall apart. Do not underestimate these basic exercises; as long as you put your heart into them and persist, they can leave you exhausted.

That is exactly how Hikaru felt right now—tired like a dead dog. He just wanted to get home quickly, eat something, refine Chakra, and go to sleep.

Dragging his weary body back home, this was the only property his parents had left him, along with a small amount of money—nothing more.

As for Ninjutsu or anything of the sort, there was basically no hope; everything had to be earned through Hikaru's own efforts. However, Hikaru was already very satisfied.

Hoo...

After casually gnawing on some food and taking a cold shower, even though Hikaru was exhausted to the point of death and just wanted to collapse and rest, he still insisted on sitting up to begin refining Chakra.

Slowly, Hikaru entered the state, maintaining the posture until he could no longer hold on and drifted off to sleep.

Refining Chakra consumes a great deal of energy, and combined with the fatigue from training, these two factors caused Hikaru to fall into a deep, heavy sleep. At this moment, even a thunderclap probably wouldn't be able to wake him.

Whether it was because of his extreme exhaustion or the God-tier Evolution Potion he had consumed, Hikaru's speed in refining Chakra was incredibly fast, and the volume was vast, far exceeding all his peers.

Even Tsunade might not necessarily refine Chakra faster than Hikaru. One must know that the Senju Clan and the Uzumaki Clan are famous for their Chakra reserves. Although the Uchiha are not far behind, they are still somewhat lacking compared to those two great clans, and their reserves are often overshadowed by the dominance of the Sharingan.

When people mention the Uchiha Clan, most think of the Sharingan rather than the Uchiha Clan's Chakra reserves. While they cannot compare to special clans like the Senju and Uzumaki, the Chakra reserves of the Uchiha are still far beyond those of ordinary people. Unfortunately, what everyone notices about the Uchiha has always been the Sharingan.

The biggest reason why children still in school find it difficult to use Ninjutsu is the limitation of Chakra. With only that tiny bit of Chakra, what kind of high-level Ninjutsu could you possibly hope to use?

For most people, being proficient in the Three Basic Ninjutsu by the time they graduate is already quite an achievement. As for high-level ninjutsu, they might as well save their breath; not to mention how difficult they are to acquire, does one even have enough Chakra to cast them?

Hikaru slept very comfortably and didn't wake up until dawn the next day.

"Haaa~~~"

He let out a yawn and stretched his arms, but the next second, he froze.

Yesterday, after making a bet with Tsunade, he had gone to the training ground and worked himself until he was as exhausted as a dead dog. Logically speaking, waking up the next day should have come with some aftereffects, such as muscle soreness. Unless one had been training for a long time and the body had already adapted, such aftereffects were unavoidable.

However, Hikaru was shocked to discover that his body felt incredibly energetic. There wasn't a hint of soreness; his condition was better than ever.

Could it be because of...

Everything, Hikaru could only attribute it to that God-tier Evolution Potion: "Something that cost me more than half a month's salary—it really is impressive."

Hikaru clenched his fists, feeling very excited.

What is the most feared aspect of ninja training? It is nothing more than the body being unable to withstand the resulting aftereffects, or even hidden injuries. If he could return to normal just by getting a good night's sleep, Hikaru would be able to continuously intensify his training and become stronger.

He looked into the mirror. The blood-red Sharingan was quite captivating. Paired with Hikaru's still-youthful yet handsome face, walking out like this would surely draw the gaze of many girls.

Taking a deep breath, he deactivated his Sharingan. Hikaru did not know when his Sharingan would evolve into a Two-Tomoe.