“That would be perfect.”
Sosuke smiled slightly and took out the tender chicken for Tsunade.
“You bought this too?”
Tsunade’s eyes lit up.
Sosuke placed an oil-paper-wrapped package on the coffee table.
Opening the paper, several tender chickens were inside, still steaming, their skin roasted to a golden yellow.
“Yeah, I had some pocket money left over.
After all, Sister Tsunade is so good to me.”
Sosuke said without changing his expression.
This wasn’t entirely false.
His pocket money was indeed more than the cash Tsunade had on hand.
After all, Sosuke wasn’t burdened by debt.
Tsunade, on the other hand, was carrying an astronomical amount of debt, exactly equal to all the royalties Jiraiya had earned from his books.
Jiraiya would go on to be a best-selling author in the Land of Fire, with sales figures that ranked high across the entire Ninja World, and his works were even adapted into movies.
To have earned so much money, yet still owe an equal amount—one could only imagine how high her debt was.
Tsunade was stunned; she hadn’t expected this little brat Sosuke to be so filial.
Not bad, not bad at all.
The voluptuous Tsunade reached out and vigorously ruffled Sosuke’s hair, messing up his black locks until she was satisfied, then pulled her hand back, picked up a tender chicken, and took a bite.
Sosuke’s eyelids twitched as he watched; he couldn’t help but feel that two spheres were bouncing.
Honestly, Tsunade’s figure was supermodel-tier.
Not only did she have the 106 measurements certified by Jiraiya, but she also had curves in all the right places, without a single flaw.
“What are you looking at, brat?”
Tsunade noticed Sosuke staring at her after taking a bite of the chicken.
A faint sheen of oil on her soft lips made them look even more ruddy.
“Nothing.”
Sosuke shook his head quickly, lest he end up like Jiraiya.
“This tastes pretty good.
Where did you buy it?”
Tsunade commented.
When it came to eating chicken, she was a professional foodie.
“A new place that just opened by the school gate.”
“Alright, no need to cook tonight.”
Tsunade waved her hand grandly.
Seeing this, Sosuke breathed a sigh of relief inwardly.
This had been his goal all along.
In this house, Tsunade was the queen bee.
It wasn’t that she was bossy, but rather that she completely avoided housework; she was too lazy to even bend down to boil a pot of hot water.
So, chores like cooking basically fell to Sosuke and Shizune.
Shizune was the little maid, and he was the little manservant.
In the original story, Shizune followed Tsunade everywhere, serving tea, pouring water, and cleaning up messes, clearly destined for a life of toil.
Now, there was just one more person in this house to share the chores.
Being able to trade a few roast chickens for a night off from cooking was highly cost-effective.
…
Another half month passed.
The morning mist hadn’t fully dispersed, but there were already figures on the streets of Konoha.
Sosuke was jogging in circles, breathing evenly, his pace steady.
In the past half month, he had developed a new habit: he started training his body systematically.
Although the physique of the Senju Clan was naturally stronger than others, it was far from the point where he could just sit back and rely on talent.
Even someone as strong as Ashura, the son of the Six Paths Sage, was suppressed by Indra when he was young, and only caught up to Indra’s footsteps after going through arduous training.
Bloodline only determines the upper limit; the lower limit still depends on sweat.
Sosuke knew very well what the future meta would be.
Relying solely on fancy Ninjutsu might allow one to run rampant for a while, but in the end, those whose physical strength couldn’t keep up would be forced off the table in high-end games.
For example, with all the space-time Ninjutsu in the later stages, if one’s physical strength was insufficient, even if the Sharingan could see it, the body wouldn’t be able to keep up.
It was just like when Sasuke confidently thought he could handle Killer Bee with his Mangekyo Sharingan, only to get outplayed and nearly crash.
“Another beautiful day!”
Might Guy ran over from the other end of the track, hands raised high, his voice so loud it startled the birds in the trees.
The green bodysuit was particularly eye-catching in the morning light, and beneath his thick eyebrows were two rows of teeth that shone white.
Sosuke nodded at him.
“Indeed.”
[Detected collectible trait: Stamina Regeneration]
[D-rank trait: Stamina Regeneration]
[Effect: Slightly speeds up stamina recovery rate, increasing it by 20%.]
Sosuke raised his eyebrows slightly, feeling a gentle warmth spreading from his limbs to his bones.
“Hoo…”
Sosuke exhaled a breath of stale air, but he could clearly feel that the previously aching muscles in his legs suddenly felt much lighter, as if someone had relieved him of a small portion of the weight.
In this half month, he had persisted in morning exercises every day, and the number of times he met Might Guy on the track had increased.
He didn’t know if it was because Might Guy’s “youth concentration” was too high, or if his own training intensity had just triggered the system’s threshold, but this was already the second trait he had harvested from him.
The last one that dropped was [Muscle Durability], also a D-rank trait, which had the effect of preventing basic physical training from causing minor injuries.
Sosuke could clearly feel the benefits after these two traits stacked.
Before, after high-intensity training, his skin and muscles would inevitably have some micro-tears, which took time to recover.
Now that his training volume had increased, his body was paradoxically more wear-resistant than before, recovering to a lively state after just one night of rest.
Endurance, recovery, and wear resistance—these three elements combined meant he could train for longer periods and at higher intensities than others.
It was a miracle that Might Guy’s self-torturous physical training didn’t leave behind any hidden injuries.
Doing five hundred handstand laps, followed by five hundred push-ups; if he couldn’t finish the push-ups, he’d do five hundred finger-push-ups.
If a normal Ninja maintained Might Guy’s training volume every day, they would ruin their knees before becoming strong.
One had to keep in mind, this was just Might Guy’s daily training volume at six or seven years old.
This was actually Might Guy’s greatest talent.
A body that wouldn’t develop hidden injuries no matter how he trained, combined with a superhuman will, was the only way to master the final gate of the Eight Gates.
Such a person was born for Taijutsu.
However, Sosuke was also looking forward to this.
Your trait is very good, but now it’s mine.
Everyone’s traits would become Sosuke’s resources, and he didn’t even know himself just how strong he would eventually become.
After bidding farewell to Might Guy, Sosuke also stopped to buy breakfast on his way.
One portion for Shizune, and one for Tsunade.
A lazybones like Tsunade usually woke up late.
As for Shizune, she had followed Sosuke for a while at the beginning, but couldn’t keep up and eventually gave up.
Sosuke didn’t force her; after all, Shizune was a commoner by bloodline, though she belonged to a family that inherited secret techniques, possessing the “Spirit Transformation Technique”.
However, this technique was also related to the soul and spirit, and completely neglected physical cultivation, which led to Kato Dan being ambushed and killed while his body was completely defenseless.
…
Soon, it was time for another monthly exam.
This time, the monthly exam didn’t continue to use combat as the benchmark like the first one.
The Chunin instructors found that the gap in skill levels between students was simply too large, so they decided to start with theory.
“Almost first place.”
Sosuke looked at the ranking and stroked his chin.
The traits he had collected were paying off, allowing Sosuke to learn anything very quickly, which resulted in Kakashi being at risk of being surpassed by him.
And Kakashi, looking at this ranking, also felt the pressure.
[Detected collectible trait: Genius Crisis]
[D-rank trait: Genius Crisis]
[Effect: When a peer of equal genius appears nearby, one’s own comprehension is temporarily increased.]