Training Mentor Tahm

The next morning.

When Tahm carried Hinata here, he found that Naruto and Sakura had already arrived early and were chatting happily together. Ino hadn't come, after all. She didn't have time to go out wandering every day. She had to help her family run the flower shop, as well as train in the clan's secret techniques under her father's instruction. Besides, with access to excellent training resources, she wasn't particularly interested in this chance to train under Tahm.

After exchanging greetings, Tahm got to the point. "Today, I'm going to teach everyone how to control their chakra."

"Control? How do we train that?" Sakura asked. Of the three, she had the strongest grasp of basic theory.

"Tree climbing and water walking."

The three of them looked at one another in confusion. Only Hinata spoke up. "I heard my father mention this before. Isn't it a technique that can only be learned after becoming a genin?"

Naruto and Sakura didn't understand, but when they heard that only ninja were qualified to learn it, their eyes immediately filled with anticipation.

Tahm began explaining how to attach chakra to one's hands and feet in order to walk up trees. Although Tahm himself had never mastered it before, there was no denying that his theoretical foundation was extensive. In the past, driven by his curiosity about ninjutsu, he had even coaxed many training methods from Sage Fukasaku and Jiraiya. If he mastered them all, becoming a jonin would be well within his reach.

After explaining everything, Tahm asked, "Does everyone have any other questions?"

Naruto said awkwardly, "Boss Tahm... but I've never trained my chakra before..."

"What!" Tahm was stunned. Only then did he remember that Naruto was a wild child who had never had the chance to come into contact with chakra refinement methods before entering the Ninja Academy.

"Hehe..." Naruto gave an embarrassed smile. "Boss Tahm, could you teach me how to refine chakra first?"

"You really know how to make things difficult!" With black lines practically hanging over his head, Tahm rummaged through his Storage Scroll for a long time. From among the huge pile of flashy ninjutsu scrolls he'd conned from his senior brother Jiraiya, he finally pulled out the scroll Sage Fukasaku had given him when he was just starting out. "Take this scroll and look it over first. If there's anything you don't understand, I'll teach you later!"

Then he said to Hinata and Sakura, "Let's begin training."

"Wait..." The studious Sakura immediately focused on the key point. "Mr. Tahm, your explanation was very thorough, but could you demonstrate it for us too? It would make things more straightforward."

Now it was Tahm's turn to feel awkward. He could only laugh dryly twice before saying, "Actually, I haven't mastered it either. I'm here to train this time too... haha."

Hinata had never seen Tahm lose face like this before. In her eyes, Tahm had always been like a great tree shielding her from the wind and rain. This time, she couldn't help letting out a sweet laugh. "So Tahm doesn't know how to do it either!"

The training finally began. He first had the two girls try climbing the tree. It was Hinata's first time attempting it as well. She gathered chakra beneath her feet and managed to take only two steps up the trunk before tumbling heavily downward. The Tahm-brand cushion, prepared in advance, caught her securely in his arms and kept her from getting hurt.

Hinata slowly climbed out of Tahm's arms and said a little sheepishly, "Tahm, I don't think I'm very good at this."

Tahm showed no sign of disappointment. "That's a perfectly normal result for your first try. I did even worse when I started. Otherwise, I wouldn't still be unable to do it now."

But Sakura soon used her actions to make a mockery of that consolation. Even though it was her first time training, she calmly circulated her chakra and steadily walked up the tree a distance of two or three stories before she finally ran out of strength and fell.

Tahm caught Sakura's falling body in one motion and couldn't help praising her. "Sakura, your talent for chakra control really is astonishing! You'll definitely become a powerful kunoichi in the future." Sakura had never received such recognition for her abilities before, much less praise from someone known as a "Sage of Mount Myoboku." Naturally competitive, she was so thrilled that she forgot she was still being held in Tahm's arms and giggled smugly.

Hinata, watching from the side, once again felt that inexplicable sensation from the previous day. She stared somewhat angrily at Sakura in Tahm's arms, as if someone had taken half of her most precious possession. Hinata walked over and, because of her height, could only pat Tahm's belly to get his attention. Only then did Tahm notice that her little face was bright red. Yet this seemed different from her usual shyness. Did she look a little angry?

"What is it, Hinata?" Tahm still had no idea what had prompted her strange behavior. In his eyes, both Hinata and Sakura were merely six-year-old children. A generation gap in their thinking was perfectly normal.

"It's nothing!" Hinata denied it, though her voice still carried a burst of determination. "Let's keep training!"

Tahm was completely baffled. But when he saw the relieved look in Hinata's eyes, he finally set Sakura down and continued the training.

It was Tahm's turn to train. Since he had been exposed to it before, he climbed more than twenty meters up the trunk in one breath. Unfortunately, the good times didn't last. Tahm's chakra control was nowhere near strong enough to keep his enormous body free from gravity for very long. A few breaths later, his foot slipped and he began to fall. But Tahm had prepared for this. He abruptly shot out his long tongue, wrapped it around the trunk, and slowly slid down. The posture wasn't particularly dignified, but he still landed successfully.

Hinata and Sakura couldn't help laughing aloud. Only then did they discover that Tahm had such a hilarious side. A fat toad dangling from a tree trunk with its tongue wrapped around it was already excellent comedy without any embellishment.

The two girls and the toad continued training. Before they knew it, more than three hours had passed, and each of them had attempted tree climbing over a hundred times. The two girls didn't need to worry about stamina. After Tahm acquired the Starcall skill, he became even more like an all-purpose training aid. Perhaps because chakra was supposedly a combination of physical and spiritual energy, Tahm discovered that when Starcall was used on others, it could not only restore their bodies but also replenish a certain amount of chakra. Under this "infinite stamina, infinite chakra" advantage, Hinata and Sakura made considerable progress within just a few hours.

Unfortunately, the skill couldn't be used on himself. Moreover, once he activated data-based combat mode, his body could no longer experience the sensation of training. Thus, Tahm could only proceed steadily, enduring his physical fatigue while playing the game of a toad climbing a tree. Fortunately, Tahm had tremendous stamina, and his cheat could restore his chakra simply by having him stand still, so he wasn't far behind.

After a morning of training, Tahm hadn't made much progress. Hinata and Sakura's improvement, however, was visible to the naked eye. Sakura stood out in particular. In just one morning, she had nearly caught up with Tahm's progress.

At that moment, Naruto came running over and announced loudly, "Boss Tahm, I've refined chakra!"