“First place, Hanekawa.” Eiichiro couldn’t help but praise him.
“Hanekawa’s progress since entering the Academy is obvious to everyone.
You should all learn from him.” Kakashi Hatake subconsciously clenched his fists.
Even though it was just insignificant physical training, he still felt a trace of unwillingness to accept it.
After all, up until now, no matter the category, he had always been first place in the class.
“Argh!” Might Guy couldn’t help but clutch his head with both hands.
If it weren’t for a sudden stomach cramp right before the finish line, he might have won.
But it wasn’t a big deal.
Physical training was nothing.
To him, discovering a brand new rival was what truly made him excited.
“Kakashi actually lost?” Obito Uchiha felt worse than if someone had killed him.
“Dammit!
Kakashi is only allowed to lose to me!” Rin Nohara looked at the boy who, even though covered in sweat, was still incredibly handsome, and couldn’t help but blink.
Curiosity sprouted in her heart.
He was clearly a shinobi from a civilian background, so why was he so strong?
He had defeated Asuma Sarutobi, and now he had outrun Kakashi Hatake and Might Guy.
Could it be that their class was going to produce a civilian genius?
Rin Nohara thought of Minato Namikaze, who had been taken in as a disciple by Jiraiya-sensei.
“It’s just physical training.” Asuma Sarutobi said through gritted teeth.
In the next second, the petite figure in his line of sight stood up.
He suddenly wanted to go home.
He was exhausted.
“Hanekawa, you’re amazing!” Kurenai Yuhi trotted over to Hanekawa’s side and sat down right next to him.
She let out a breath, tucking her sweat-dampened hair behind her ear, revealing her fair forehead.
Hanekawa nodded weakly.
In order to surpass Kakashi Hatake and Might Guy at the very end, he had pushed himself into a ferocious burst of speed, and now his energy was completely drained.
But in his heart, he was still thrilling with excitement.
Two Traits, combined with a month of hard work, had actually given him the qualifications to catch up to them.
His cheat was truly overpowered.
Of course, that only applied to running.
Right now, there was no way he could beat them in a real fight.
With physical training over, school was dismissed.
Hanekawa told Kurenai to head home while he set off toward the north.
He had been training at the Fourth Training Ground all this time, so he had gotten a clear grasp of the surrounding area.
Further north of the Fourth Training Ground was the infamous Forest of Death, a spectacle created by the First Hokage, Hashirama Senju, using his Wood Style.
Hanekawa walked for a while before noticing the sound of footsteps coming from behind him.
He turned his head and saw Kakashi Hatake.
“Going to train?” Hanekawa asked.
Kakashi Hatake gave a slight nod.
He intended to put in some extra training today because he had lost in the physical conditioning.
“You’re going to train too?” Kakashi asked in return.
“Something like that.” Hanekawa thought about it and replied.
A normal shinobi wouldn’t do something like “Paper Bomb training.” Saying it out loud would only make people think he was stupid and had too much money to burn.
But he had the System panel, and he needed to grind his progress bar.
Upon arriving at the Fourth Training Ground, Hanekawa kept walking forward.
Kakashi glanced at him, a bit curious, but didn’t ask.
After a brief moment of thought, he started his running routine.
“Sorry, I had a mission today.
I’m a little late.” Half an hour later, Sakumo Hatake appeared.
Kakashi shook his head, indicating it was fine.
“Why are you just running today?” Sakumo asked, somewhat surprised.
“Warm-up.” Kakashi said with a calm face.
For some reason, he didn’t want to tell his father that he had lost to Hanekawa in physical training.
But now he had to admit that his old man’s eye for talent was extremely accurate.
Hanekawa’s rate of progress made him feel a trace of pressure.
Of course, he still firmly believed that he would be the final victor.
The Forest of Death.
The dense, overarching branches blotted out the sky, blocking most of the sunlight.
Even though it was broad daylight, it felt as though it were night.
Hanekawa’s eyes suddenly lit up.
He accelerated forward, and his field of vision suddenly opened up.
It was a very spacious riverbank.
Seeing this, Hanekawa took out a Paper Bomb and casually tossed it down.
Boom.
The ground was blown into a shallow crater, the soil left scorched and black.
Sure enough, you get what you pay for.
The high price wasn’t the Paper Bomb’s problem; it was his problem.
Hanekawa felt that the power of a 300-ryo Paper Bomb was even worse than the most basic Fire Style: Fireball Jutsu.
With a thought, he opened the panel and glanced at the progress bar.
It had gone up by 1%, proving that Paper Bombs were indeed counted as ninja tools, and this method actually worked.
Hanekawa continued his training.
Right now, he felt like he had returned to his childhood, playing with firecrackers during the New Year.
It was a pity that later in his past life, when he actually had money, he hadn’t had the chance to play with them anymore.
Before long, the ground was heavily cratered and uneven, and an invisible wave of heat rose into the air.
“Which bastard did this?!” Just then, a furious roar echoed, rapidly approaching from a distance.
Hanekawa looked toward the voice and saw a young woman with crimson hair.
“Did you do this?” When the red-haired woman saw him, her expression softened significantly as she asked.
“I was practicing with Paper Bombs.” Hanekawa blinked and said.
“Paper Bombs?” The red-haired woman curled her lips.
“No wonder I couldn’t catch a single fish.” Because he was just a kid, she didn’t lose her temper.
“Fish?” Hanekawa realized what was going on and said, “Hold on a second.” He took a few steps to the riverbank.
The nearby fish had all been scared away by his Paper Bombs.
This was rather embarrassing.
Hanekawa walked further upstream, quickly spotted a school of fish, and casually tossed a Paper Bomb into the water.
With a loud explosion, quite a few stunned fish floated to the surface of the river.
“Quick, come here!” Hanekawa waved at her.
“Using Paper Bombs to blast fish.
Only you could come up with something like that.” The red-haired woman glanced over and couldn’t help but laugh.
All the fish here combined probably weren’t even worth the cost of a single Paper Bomb.
With a casual wave of her hand, she formed a net out of chakra and pulled the entire school of fish ashore.
Hanekawa’s mouth twitched slightly.
What terrifying chakra control.
He had a pretty good idea of who this was; after all, red hair held a special significance in the shinobi world.
“Little guy, what’s your name?” The red-haired woman tossed the fish into the bucket she was carrying.
“I’m Hanekawa.” Hanekawa answered.
“I’m Kushina Uzumaki.” Kushina shook the bucket and offered an invitation.
“This is way too much fish for two people to finish.
Want to come over?” Two people?
Minato Namikaze?
As a fan of the original series, he naturally couldn’t miss out on this.
Hanekawa nodded.
“Follow me.” Kushina picked up the bucket and started walking out.
A few minutes later, Hanekawa saw a blond-haired young man busy cooking.
“Minato!
Look!” Kushina had a huge smile on her face as she beamed, “I bet there’s at least three or four pounds here!” Who asked you?!
A phrase suddenly popped into Hanekawa’s mind.
In his past life, he had a neighbor, an older man, who loved fishing.
Every time he walked past Hanekawa’s house, he would walk excruciatingly slowly, absolutely insisting on bragging about how many pounds of fish he had caught.
One time, he caught a seven or eight-pound fish and paraded it around the neighborhood three times.
“The smell of Paper Bombs.” Minato Namikaze sniffed the air and commented.
“An expert, I see.” Kushina said with a laugh.
“He blasted them using Paper Bombs.” Minato took the bucket, set it aside, and started preparing the fish.
Kushina pulled Hanekawa over to chat.
It was as if she hadn’t spoken to anyone in ages; she was incredibly chatty, completely dominating the conversation.
Hanekawa couldn’t get a single word in edgewise.