Training Buddies

Everyone stared at the Destructo Disc above Itō Yuying's palm, dumbfounded. This-this definitely had the power of an S-rank ninjutsu.

Heavens!! How had he done it?

After soaking up a round of envious looks, Itō Yuying stopped showing off and swung his arm forward hard. The Destructo Disc vanished from everyone's sight. In the distance, a huge rock jutting from a cliff face was sliced apart in an instant, its cut surface so smooth that a little polishing would make it reflect an image. Everyone gazed at Itō Yuying's small yet upright figure with shining eyes full of admiration.

After soaking up another wave of admiring looks, Itō Yuying coughed softly, snapping everyone out of their daze.

Orochimaru spoke excitedly. "Yuying, could we learn a technique that powerful too?" His words reminded everyone, and Itō Yuying looked at their expectant gazes. "I don't know either. It'll depend on your aptitude, talent, and ability to grasp it."

"Then could you explain how this ability of yours differs from chakra?"

Itō Yuying pressed a hand to his forehead and gathered his words. "Hmm... how should I put it? Simply put, it's a kind of energy inside your body. All your cells, hair, and bones contain this energy. Through intense training, you draw it out, then slowly bring it into contact with nature. Once you find a balance, an entirely new energy forms. I call it ki. Once you have ki, you can learn the move I just used, or develop new moves yourself."

"Then how do we cultivate ki?" Uchiha Hanyue asked.

"Hmm... just train like your life depends on it. As long as the training doesn't kill you, keep exercising. Once you reach a certain point, you can start learning ki."

"Then what are we waiting for? Let's get training!" Jiraiya shouted. He went off to the side to exercise. The others quietly found places to begin training too.

In the dense woods some distance away, Konoha's pair of "geniuses" were eavesdropping. Sarutobi Hiruzen whispered, "Danzo, did you hear clearly?" "Hmm, we're a little too far away. I missed some of it. What about you, Hiruzen?" "Same here. We're too far away. I couldn't hear clearly either."

"Ah... forget it. Let's head back! I still have to copy the Will of Fire five thousand times. I'm leaving first." He turned and left. Shimura Danzō watched Sarutobi Hiruzen's retreating figure, chuckled, and left as well.

Hiruzen, I win this time. I'm going to train hard and surpass everyone. I'll climb to the top, step by step by step, and become Hokage. The people around Shimura Danzō saw his twisted expression and hurried away, afraid he might bite. Shimura Danzō looked at them and smiled disdainfully. Mortals, what the hell do you know?

He arrived at a training ground, ready to train, only to see Sarutobi Hiruzen and Tobirama Senju training desperately there. Shimura Danzō stood rooted to the spot like an idiot, some of the light fading from his eyes. Did I miss something?

Sarutobi, oh, Sarutobi. You're really something. Fine, fine, fine. Let's destroy ourselves together! Let the training race begin...

Then he began training too.

A month passed like that. Tobirama Senju, Sarutobi Hiruzen, and Shimura Danzō sat together, staring at one another. "This isn't right! Why hasn't anything happened?" The three of them had often eavesdropped while Itō Yuying taught his friends! Why was it still not working? Apart from their improved physiques, everything else was much the same.

"Did we miss something?"

Tobirama Senju knew a little about it. Back when he had asked Itō Yuying to teach him how to cultivate ki, Itō Yuying had told him that, to cultivate ki, he needed Itō Yuying to inject a trace of primordial ki into his body so he could quickly sense his body's energy. But the primordial ki in his body had dissipated while he neglected his training and busied himself with work. After that, he had stopped cultivating on his own. He planned to train properly for a while, then ask Itō Yuying to inject another strand of primordial ki into him. Looking at those two worried faces, Tobirama Senju felt rather pleased with himself. I, Tobirama Senju, will be Konoha's king of overtraining!!

Then he resumed training.

"Jiraiya, put some effort into it! Tsunade, hurry up and run! Orochimaru, don't use chakra! Sakumo, stop swinging your sword everywhere! I want you to draw out your energy! Hanyue, wake up, wipe the foam off your mouth, and keep moving! Yeyang, stop eating! Do you think

you're from the Akimichi Clan? Duy, not bad. Keep it up!" Might Duy flashed a mouthful of gleaming white teeth. "Yuying, my youth won't let me slack off! I'll do another thousand push-ups!"

"Good, I have faith in you..."

While Itō Yuying was scolding his slacking friends, Jiraiya crawled over, exhausted. "Yuying, we're all training together, so why do you have so much energy?" Itō Yuying glanced at Jiraiya, who was about to pass out, and thought, Can I tell you I eat Senzu Beans to recover?

Then he said, "I have a kind of Military Rations Pill that quickly restores stamina and heals hidden injuries." "What? You have something that good and you haven't shared it with us? That's so unfair!" Itō Yuying said helplessly, "I can't help it. There are too few of them. I even have to break each Military Rations Pill into ten portions to eat."

"Please, Yuying, think of something. If this keeps up, I feel like I won't live to see the next sunrise. We train for one day, then have to rest for two just to recover. At this rate, when will we ever learn ki? Please, pretty please," Tsunade pleaded sweetly. "All right, all right. I'll think of something."

"All right, everyone, let's stop training here for today. We'll continue tomorrow." Then he slowly rose into the air and, with a burst of ki, flew home.

Everyone watched Itō Yuying disappear into the distance, their envy plain to see. "I'm definitely going to learn ki! Aaah!" Jiraiya immediately began training furiously again. The others did the same.

Itō Yuying returned home and began thinking about how to solve everyone's exhaustion. He drank some water. What should I do? He looked at the water in his cup. Oh, I've got it. He took out two Senzu Beans and crushed them into powder in his hand, then went to the kitchen, boiled a large pot of water, and poured the powder in. Nothing beat a bowl of Mung Bean Soup for cooling off in the scorching summer-no, Senzu Bean Soup. Once the soup was done, he took a sip himself. Hmm, not bad. It's heavily diluted, but relieving pain and fatigue definitely won't be a problem.

The next day, Itō Yuying arrived early to begin the day's training. After he had waited an hour, the others began arriving one after another. He looked at their exhausted bodies; even the normally exuberant Might Duy was no longer shouting about youth. Hyuga Yeyang noticed the large bundle on Itō Yuying's back. "Yuying, what are you carrying?" Itō Yuying smiled slightly. "A drink for you-a miracle remedy that relieves pain and fatigue."

His words caught everyone's interest, and they all ran over to him. He took bottle after bottle of Senzu Bean Soup from the bundle. "Here, everyone, share these and drink up." Jiraiya was the first to snatch a bottle and start drinking. Before long, his whole bearing changed. He was full of energy and stood tall and proud. "I feel like I could pull ten rocks!"

Seeing Jiraiya like that, everyone began drinking. A little while later, the training ground grew noisy again. "Come on, get moving!" "I'm going to take on ten!" "Training dummy, take my punch!" "Youth is invincible..."