Training Bottleneck

The next half year passed uneventfully. Every day, Tahm attended basic ninja classes with a bunch of elementary schoolers, passing the time in boredom. The special courses taught at the Ninja Academy, such as ninja psychology, were the only ones that managed to pique his interest, giving him a good look at how Konoha brainwashed elementary school students and taught them to kill without hesitation.

At Naruto and Sakura's insistence, Tahm's extracurricular training class continued to flourish. Ino was even persuaded to join, and every day after school, they all went to the edge of a deserted forest to train.

Ino's father, the daughter-obsessed Yamanaka Inoichi, felt somewhat uneasy about his daughter never coming home after school. He once secretly came to check on the class, only to discover that this toad's teaching skills were actually quite good. With the Hyuga heiress accompanying her as well, he was reassured. Even more bizarrely, despite being a veteran jonin, he was discovered by Tahm while observing from the sidelines. Being dragged out in front of his daughter had cost him every bit of his dignity.

After several months of training, Hinata, Naruto, and the others had all made tremendous progress. With Tahm's Starcall providing unlimited recovery, his human-body ninja-technique testing device, and their own decent talents, their improvement was naturally rapid.

On top of that, Tahm held nothing back. He was not bound by any confidentiality agreements and kept teaching the children, who had only just entered the Ninja Academy, techniques and knowledge that even ordinary chunin could not learn, all from the complete ninja manual he had coaxed out of his senior fellow disciple Jiraiya.

Sakura's chakra control was exceptionally strong, and she had long since become Tahm's top student. She had already mastered more than ten Water Release techniques, and Tahm was planning to find a way to get his hands on some medical ninjutsu to teach her as well. Even Naruto had been taught the Shadow Clone technique by Tahm, and with his cheat-like chakra reserves, he had become the undisputed master of human-wave tactics ahead of schedule. Hinata and Ino were steadily training in their clans' secret techniques, but with Tahm's assistance, their progress was already far beyond that of their counterparts in the original story.

Tahm's own training, however, seemed to have run into a bottleneck. During the first few months, he could see himself improving every day, but later, no matter how he trained, his attributes and strength barely changed. The only thing worth celebrating was that after several months together, Ino's affection for him had reached 80 points, the close-friend level, allowing Tahm to draw a new skill—Cure for Scurvy from Gangplank the Saltwater Scourge: when used, it dispelled all negative effects from the body and restored a certain amount of health.

After his previous training, Tahm's overall stats had reached the following level:

Health: 1,620 (average chunin level: 1,600), regenerating 16 points per second.

Chakra: 823 (average chunin level: 1,000), regenerating 8 points per second.

Available skills: Mount Myoboku Style: Tongue Lash, Passive: An Acquired Taste, Devour, Alpha Strike, Starcall, Cure for Scurvy, Riftwalk.

Overall combat power: 138 (average chunin overall combat power: around 120)

Judging from the data, Tahm had completely surpassed the level of an ordinary chunin. In actual combat, with his digitized body and his causal-law-like, unavoidable targeted attacks, he might not necessarily be helpless even against a jonin.

But Tahm was not satisfied with this level of strength. Being able to fight jonin might be an impressive feat in most people's eyes, but in reality, a few years later, even jonin would only serve as high-level cannon fodder on the battlefield. If he continued to stagnate, let alone anything else, the several little disciples he was currently teaching would soon overwhelm him one after another. How could he fulfill his promise to protect Hinata for the rest of her life?

That afternoon, Tahm sat beneath a large tree in the forest. After letting his little followers run wild, he racked his brains over ways to become stronger. Going around in circles day after day reminded him of his past life as a wage slave, working overtime every day without ever seeing any hope.

No! I can't keep being an old salted fish in this life!

Tahm roared inwardly, yet he could not find any way to break through his bottleneck. He could only idly toy with his long tongue, plucking it like a harp string to produce strange sounds. Ever since transmigrating into Tahm, this was what he liked to do whenever he was bored or troubled.

Observant Hinata had noticed this little quirk of Tahm's long ago. Whenever she saw him idly "playing the harp," she knew he was troubled again. She temporarily stopped training and ran over to Tahm. Paying no mind to her delicate, slightly upturned nose, damp with sparkling beads of sweat, she gently comforted him with her little hand and asked, "Are you still troubled by your training, Tahm?"

"Yeah." Tahm rarely displayed such a dejected, powerless expression. "It's been two months, and there hasn't been the slightest improvement."

Hinata comforted him, "I believe Tahm can definitely do it. Just like when Tahm helped me before."

Moved by the worried expression on the little girl's face, Tahm forced himself to smile optimistically and replied to Hinata, "That's right! I'll definitely do it. I can't lose to you, Hinata!"

Sensitive and understanding, Hinata could tell that Tahm did not mean what he said. She simply leaned against him quietly, resting her head gently against his chest. Neither of them said anything more, simply enjoying the peaceful moment together in perfect understanding.

I can't sink into depression anymore. For the sake of my promise. Looking at Hinata beside him, Tahm gradually felt his courage return.

Just as Tahm was about to stand up and continue training, he suddenly heard Naruto's pig-like scream from the other side: "Boss Tahm! A huge bear just came out of the forest!"

"Idiot! You've been studying ninjutsu for so long, and you're still afraid of a bear?" Tahm replied with some displeasure.

"But this bear is a little different!" As soon as the words left his mouth, a thunderous crash of splintering trees and rocks rang out. A gigantic bear at least three meters tall and eight meters long suddenly burst out, chasing Naruto all over the place.

Ino trembled with fear, but she still quickly threw several kunai at the bear, hoping to inflict some damage. They sank deeply into its fur and vanished from sight.

Seeing that Naruto was about to be caught, Sakura forced herself to calm down and completed the hand seals. She used the Water Release: Water Dragon Bullet she had just mastered. A dragon-shaped mass of water formed out of thin air under Sakura's precise control, then struck the giant bear's head with a roar. Unfortunately, Water Release techniques inherently required a large enough quantity of chakra to produce sufficient destructive power. Sakura's technique was impressive, but it only caused the bear to stagger for a moment. Instead, it enraged the beast, which opened its massive paw and slammed it toward Sakura.

Sakura was stunned. Having never experienced actual combat, she lacked a measure of composure. In her panic, she could not even perform the Substitution Technique.

In the blink of an eye, Naruto suddenly threw himself beneath the bear's paw and instantly summoned several Shadow Clones, which huddled together to take the blow head-on. Under the tremendous force, the Shadow Clones exploded on impact, while Naruto flew away like a kite with its string cut, blood spraying from his mouth.

Sakura strained to catch Naruto. Seeing him lying in her arms as if dead or alive, she immediately broke down in tears, crying out his name in an attempt to wake him, completely forgetting that the bear was still watching them menacingly.

The giant bear raised its paw again. Another blow capable of shattering mountains and splitting rocks was about to fall!