A Terrifying Speed of Adaptation

Under Tenten's gaze.

Chiba took off his jacket, revealing a set of white clothes underneath.

After putting on the vest and wrist guards, he felt considerable strain.

By Chiba's estimate.

The vest alone weighed as much as four hundred kilograms.

As for the wrist guards, the two together weighed roughly another four hundred kilograms.

By comparison, the leg weights were much lighter.

Together, they weighed only two hundred kilograms.

"This is a bit much."

Chiba barely managed to stand before Tenten.

"Y-you can actually handle this much weight?!"

Tenten's face turned a little pale.

A thousand kilograms was a weight she could scarcely imagine.

Even Rock Lee would need a long period of training before he could switch to weights like these.

Yet Chiba could actually bear the full load.

Most importantly, judging by his expression, he didn't seem to be struggling much.

What she didn't realize, however, was that Chiba was suffering in silence.

As he was now, he could only manage to walk normally.

Increasing the intensity of his training was out of the question.

As for fighting, that was even more of a pipe dream.

"I can barely walk."

Chiba told her the truth.

The sight before her dealt Tenten a tremendous shock.

During their previous fight, she had thought Chiba was a ninjutsu genius.

But now it seemed that Chiba was even more gifted at taijutsu.

At the same time, however, a new concern arose.

"Chiba, did you sign up for the Chunin Ninja Exams too?"

Tenten asked tentatively.

Chiba didn't hide anything. He nodded and said:

"Yeah, we've completed enough missions."

"Kakashi-sensei applied for us to take the Chunin Ninja Exams."

"Here, this is my Candidate Certificate."

With an innocent girl like Tenten, deceiving her once was enough to prick Chiba's conscience.

He doubted he could bring himself to keep deceiving her.

Tenten took Chiba's Candidate Certificate, her face growing even paler.

Given the situation, what would she do if they faced each other during the Chunin Ninja Exams?

She didn't think she could bear to see either of them get hurt.

Just as she wrestled with that thought.

A warm hand rested on her hair.

"Don't worry about the Chunin Ninja Exams. I'll be there for you!"

His warm, confident gaze instantly melted away the gloom in Tenten's heart.

After meeting his eyes for barely three seconds, Tenten abruptly lowered her head.

From where Chiba stood, he could see her ears burning red.

"Mm."

Her voice was still barely louder than a mosquito's hum.

After saying goodbye to Tenten, Chiba returned to his little courtyard.

To be precise, this was the residence Jiraiya had arranged for him.

He barely managed to open the gate and walk inside.

"Hiss!"

Chiba sucked in a sharp breath.

"This really is a strain!"

His physique was exceptionally powerful.

But suddenly adding so much weight inevitably took some getting used to.

"It'll take at least three days to adjust."

Chiba had a rough idea of his own physical capabilities.

"I'll put intensive physical conditioning on hold for now."

He had his own training plan.

"Maintaining my usual level of training will be enough."

For those three days, Chiba trained alone in his little courtyard.

Aside from the members of Team 7.

Tenten was the only one who came to visit Chiba.

She had learned where he lived from Chiba himself.

According to Tenten.

She wasn't worried about Chiba's health at all, only about whether her Weighted Training Gear might have a problem.

Looks like she's a bit of a tsundere!

Watching Tenten leave, Chiba rubbed his chin thoughtfully.

It seems our few encounters have awakened quite a trait.

Three days later.

Chiba had grown accustomed to the Weighted Training Gear.

Fighting might still be a little difficult.

But his daily training posed no problems at all.

Boar-Dog-Bird-Monkey-Ram!

As a smear of blood appeared on Chiba's finger, he successfully performed the Summoning Technique.

Nekomata's enormous body immediately appeared in the courtyard.

Only three days had passed, but Nekomata seemed to have grown considerably.

Judging by height alone, Nekomata already stood over three meters tall.

"Not bad!"

Chiba praised Nekomata. "Looks like those silvervine-flavored Military Rations Pills are working well."

To help Nekomata grow stronger.

He had gone out of his way to visit the Akimichi Clan's Military Rations Pill shop and order custom silvervine-flavored Military Rations Pills.

He had also ordered catnip-flavored ones.

As a result, Nekomata had given up silvervine and catnip.

And switched to Military Rations Pills instead.

They tasted a little strange, but the easygoing Nekomata didn't care about that.

"How's your ninjutsu training going?"

Chiba asked about Nekomata's progress.

Nekomata adopted an ingratiating expression and said:

"Chiba, I've already finished the ninjutsu goals you set for me."

"As for taijutsu, I'm still practicing."

Chiba nodded in satisfaction.

That showed Nekomata had considerable talent as well.

Without that lack of resources, perhaps the Shinobi World would already have known the name of the two-tailed cat.

But there was no need to worry about that now.

With Chiba providing a steady supply of resources, that day would surely come!

The day the two-tailed cat made a name throughout the Shinobi World!