On Sunday, Aoba got up basically on schedule.
He said “basically” because he still liked to laze in bed for a little while—it was good for the body and soul.
Afterward, he whipped up a wonderfully nutritious, hearty breakfast.
Love life, love oneself, and grow up healthy and happy.
He had truly learned to take things in stride.
In his past life, the rat race had been brutal: school meant endlessly grinding test questions, and work meant grueling 996 hours.
Of course, the returns had been generous—his wealth and social standing were steadily rising—only for an unexpected disaster to strike right during his career’s meteoric ascent.
Forget never having a girlfriend; he hadn’t even gotten around to spending his money!
He hadn’t enjoyed a single damn thing.
What a massive waste.
Either way, Aoba had broadened his horizons now.
Eat when it was time to eat, drink when it was time to drink, and train diligently when it was time to train.
Above all else, inner peace was his priority.
After breakfast, a bit of light exercise was in order to aid digestion and nutrient absorption.
Changing into his training clothes, he grabbed a cloth bag and headed out the door.
Stepping past the entrance, Aoba formed the Ram seal with one hand and vanished from the spot.
He reappeared dozens of meters away atop a roof, his figure flickering out of sight once more an instant later.
At the edge of the Forest of Death, Aoba materialized upon a tree trunk.
Glancing back toward the village, data instantly projected across his retinas.
[Speed per Second]
[Chakra Consumption Ratio]
[Accuracy]
[Stability]
…
“Body Flicker chakra consumption is reduced by a third on average, and explosive burst speed has increased by fifty percent…”
Seeing such stellar metrics, Aoba felt reasonably satisfied.
*This speed should match a chunin’s by now.
If I burst chakra with everything I have, it might even reach jonin level.*
Of course, that was only comparing it against standard baseline speeds.
Aoba wasn’t arrogant enough to believe only he possessed special tricks while everyone else was a scrub.
“Next up is throwing practice.”
Aoba picked up a handful of small pebbles from the ground, stuffed them into his cloth bag, and walked into the woods.
Naturally, he had no intention of venturing too deep, keeping his activities strictly to the outer perimeter of the Forest of Death.
“Found one.”
Before long, Aoba located his target.
It was a massive killer bee hive.
Each killer bee was roughly the size of a chicken egg; a single sting would leave an ordinary person paralyzed, and without medical treatment within half an hour, it would prove fatal.
“System, engage aim assist.”
Following Aoba’s mental command, the killer bees were locked on one by one across his vision.
“Alright, here they come!”
With a burst of chakra beneath his feet, Aoba leaped high into the air.
Several pebbles flicked from his fingers, instantly knocking down the closest killer bees.
As killer bees fell in rapid succession, the hive was finally alerted, and a dense swarm surged toward Aoba.
Aoba leaped and dodged continuously through the trees, snapping pebbles at intervals to strike down incoming bees.
At normal speed, he was roughly tied with the killer bees, but whenever the swarm closed in, Aoba used the Body Flicker to pull away.
Ten-odd minutes later, Aoba stood beneath the hive, breathing a slight sigh of relief only after no more killer bees emerged.
Drawing a kunai, he cut a small opening into the hive.
“Huh?
There’s actually honey?!”
Originally, Aoba had just wanted to see what the queen bee looked like, not expecting such an unexpected bonus.
Dabbing some on his finger, he popped it into his mouth.
It was pretty sweet.
[Beep!
Analysis complete.]
Food item.
Type: Honey.
Components: Sugars, moisture, organic acids, enzymes…
Contains multiple enzymes and rich organic acids suitable for host absorption.
Consuming XX milliliters daily can promote physical growth and development.
Aoba’s eyes lit up.
This was the second food item after Cloud Valley beef that could aid his growth.
The reason he was so obsessed with growing taller was that, at this stage, physical growth was his fastest avenue to getting stronger.
More cells meant more chakra.
Normal physical maturation naturally drove the increase of chakra capacity.
That was also why many ninja could no longer remain ninja after losing limbs; beyond impaired mobility, the primary factor was that lost body mass caused chakra reserves to plummet drastically, preventing them from properly executing ninjutsu.
Squeezing chakra out of an underdeveloped body too early stunted growth.
That was part of why the Konoha Ninja Academy only taught the basic three academy jutsu.
Beyond the danger of powerful jutsu and the fear of students running amok, even ninja clans waited until their children graduated before formally instructing them in secret clan arts.
Chakra exhaustion was profoundly perilous.
For a concrete example, one only had to look at Kakashi’s first clash with Zabuza during the [Land of Waves Mission] in the original timeline—Kakashi had been bedridden for an entire week from severe chakra depletion.
Aoba gathered a few broad leaves and used his kunai to carefully carve an opening in the hive, scooping out the honey bit by bit.
Since the hive produced honey, Aoba naturally wouldn’t kill the goose that laid the golden egg.
Carefully wrapping the honey, Aoba flickered away without delay.
Shortly after Aoba left.
Two masked figures appeared beneath the hive.
Looking at the corpses of the killer bees on the ground and the footprints left on surrounding trunks, they deduced it was the work of a shinobi using the killer bees for training.
One of the Anbu picked up a pebble.
“They were brought down by pebbles.”
The other Anbu touched the footprint left on a trunk.
“A kid.
Probably an upperclassman from the Academy.”
“Then file a standard report.”
“Yeah.”
…
The next morning.
Aoba woke early to make breakfast and prep lunch bentos.
Compared to before, however, he now had to prepare two bentos for lunch.
The reason was that after tasting Aoba’s new bento, Kurenai Yuhi had made a habit of mooching off him every time.
Resigned, Aoba had no choice but to pack an extra serving for her each day.
The two lunchboxes were one large and one small—the large one being his.
On top of that, his own appetite was expanding, which caused his honey supply to deplete much faster than anticipated.
His remaining honey would only last about a month.
*Sigh, I was too ruthless last time.
If I’d known, I would’ve spared a few more.*
Aoba felt a twinge of regret.
He had taken a detour during his walk yesterday to check up on them, only to find the swarm had recovered by a mere dozen or so bees.
At that rate, it would take months to bounce back.
*The effects of Cloud Valley beef are gradually diminishing, too.*
Finding new, stable “food” was becoming an absolute necessity.
Aoba pondered in silence.
…
Academy classes were dull and dry.
The skills a ninja needed to master were far more extensive than anything ever shown in the anime.
Stealth infiltration across different terrains, close-quarters combat and apprehension techniques when encountering enemies, intelligence analysis, trap setting, team formations, and more.
Making a bunch of naturally restless children sit through all of it was practically torture.
Even the students of the elite class couldn’t stand it.
*No wonder Naruto ended up the dead last.*
Aoba glanced at Kurenai, whose eyes were spinning in dizzy spirals—even her honor student buff had been utterly wiped out.
With Naruto’s personality, it was no surprise he couldn’t take it.
Just as the brats were groaning in despair, the ninjutsu instructor announced the addition of another course—ninjutsu class!
“Ughhh…”
“Wait, what?
Huh?”
The classmates, who had looked ready to drop dead of boredom moments earlier, instantly perked up with excitement upon hearing the words.
“Alright!
Since we’re going to learn ninjutsu, what is the indispensable element required to activate a technique?
That’s right—hand seals!”
…