Have you ever seen training this crazy?

When Hatake Ziyan heard the system's words, he stumbled just as he opened the door, and the three people outside saw it.

Konan hurried over and supported his arm. "Lord Sword God, are you all right?"

Hatake Ziyan felt so embarrassed that he could have dug a three-bedroom apartment into the ground with his toes.

This was only the second time he had been this embarrassed. The last time had been decades ago, when he fought at Ichiraku.

Hatake Ziyan feigned a couple of coughs. "I'm fine!"

"Lord Sword God, have you been researching some powerful ninjutsu these past few days while you've stayed inside?" Konan asked. "Nagato said he could see a special kind of natural energy entering your room! But no matter how powerful the ninjutsu is, you still need to rest. Your body won't hold up if you don't eat or drink!"

Hatake Ziyan froze at her words. A few days without going outside? It only felt like a few hours had passed.

Then he said to Konan, "I have been researching a ninjutsu lately, but it's rather difficult, so I lost track of time!"

"Lord Sword God, you're already so powerful, and you're still researching ninjutsu?" Yahiko asked in surprise.

"Yes. I'm not all that strong. At the very least, I know quite a few people stronger than me!" Hatake Ziyan thought of the members of the Ōtsutsuki Clan who appeared in Boruto: Naruto Next Generations. They were indeed somewhat stronger than he was now!

"What? Stronger than you? Why haven't I heard our teacher mention them? Master Jiraiya said you should be the strongest person in the shinobi world right now!" Konan asked in astonishment.

Hatake Ziyan nodded in satisfaction and awarded Jiraiya another point in his mind. You've got promise, kid!

"Jiraiya is too weak. It's only natural that he hasn't come into contact with them. But you don't need to worry. Those people stronger than me won't be appearing in the shinobi world for now!" Though Hatake Ziyan gave Jiraiya points in his mind, his words still belittled him outright.

The three standing before Hatake Ziyan were stunned. Jiraiya could already be counted among the shinobi world's elite, yet this man called him too weak. Wasn't that a little disrespectful?

But when they recalled what Jiraiya had told them about this lord's exploits, his words seemed fair enough. Compared to him, Jiraiya really was weak.

For the next four years, Hatake Ziyan remained there, devoting himself to training.

At first, Hatake Ziyan stayed indoors for days at a time. Whenever he emerged, he looked as though he only had a few days left to live.

Konan and the others initially worried that something might happen to Hatake Ziyan while he was staying with them, but later, they realized they had worried too soon.

After half a year of this, Hatake Ziyan stopped staying indoors for days at a time.

Instead, he came out every day and dragged them along. First, he brought out a wooden club as thick as an arm and had them strike his body with it.

At first, all three refused. They figured that being powerful didn't mean every part of his body was tough. If he told them to hit his head-or his other head (you know what I mean ๑乛◡乛๑)-they could easily send him to his grave.

But they couldn't hold out against Hatake Ziyan's insistence, so they began hitting him. They soon discovered that they really didn't seem capable of doing him any serious harm, and started cooperating with him.

After three months of this, however, the wooden club was replaced with an iron one.

They found it difficult even to hold the thing, and now he wanted them to strike Hatake Ziyan with it. They felt that their Lord Sword God wasn't training in ninjutsu-he was courting death!

Still, they did as Hatake Ziyan asked. After all, the choice between getting beaten up by Hatake Ziyan before hitting him and simply hitting him was an easy one.

There was a little incident along the way, too. Yahiko wanted to secretly try Hatake Ziyan's training method, so he asked Konan to hit him with the wooden club.

Naturally, Yahiko had no chance of succeeding. Konan nearly sent him to his grave with a single blow!

After all, shinobi had high offensive power but weak defenses. A direct blow to the head with a wooden club as thick as an arm could easily kill one. (Jiraiya, who had undergone special training, didn't count ๑乛◡乛๑.)

If Hatake Ziyan hadn't noticed in time, Hanzō might not have been the one to kill Yahiko.

At the beginning of his third year of training there, Hatake Ziyan discovered that ordinary blows no longer had any effect on him.

So Hatake Ziyan switched to another method.

Hatake Ziyan first taught Konan and the other two the monstrous strength technique, then taught them how to apply it to weapons.

Then he spent a considerable sum having the organization buy him an iron rod containing chakra-conductive metal!

And so a new round of training began. Perhaps the method was too extreme, or perhaps Yahiko was too reckless and took Hatake Ziyan's demand to use his full strength at face value. The first time, Hatake Ziyan nearly died, and it took him a full week to recover.

This was also the third time Hatake Ziyan had been so embarrassed in front of others.

This training continued into the fourth year after Hatake Ziyan's arrival.

"Lord Ziyan, it seems this method of striking you can't hurt you anymore. What should we switch to next?" Konan asked, her eyes shining as she looked at Hatake Ziyan.

The look in Konan's eyes gave Hatake Ziyan the creeps. Have I led this girl astray? In the original story, she ended up as a cool, aloof goddess. She isn't going to become a violent woman like Tsunade, is she?

At that thought, Hatake Ziyan couldn't help shivering.

"Konan, there's no need to change anything this time. I've made some progress with the ninjutsu I've been researching, so we'll stop for now!" Hatake Ziyan said.

"Oh?" Konan replied, looking rather disappointed.

Hatake Ziyan's eyelid twitched at her response. He felt that Konan's whole image was about to change. Instead of an ethereal goddess making her entrance amid a sky full of paper, she was turning into a violent woman who carried a huge iron rod in one hand, planted the other on her hip, and went around picking fights.

Hatake Ziyan quickly shook his head, banishing all those ridiculous thoughts from his mind.

"I'm leaving!" Hatake Ziyan said.

"Ah! Lord Ziyan, why are you leaving so suddenly?" Konan asked, sounding crestfallen.

Hatake Ziyan looked toward Konoha. "I've been away for four years now, and the nations are falling into chaos again. I promised someone I'd take good care of another person, so I have to go check on them. I'm worried!"

Konan suddenly sounded a little sad. "Oh, so you have someone you need to look after? I thought you hadn't started a family yet."

As soon as Konan finished speaking, her face turned red, and she hid behind Yahiko.

Hatake Ziyan rubbed his head. "I haven't started a family. This person is a descendant of an old friend. You could call them a student of mine now!"