Yuya's face twisted like he'd just swallowed a lemon. Sure, his ninjutsu talent sucked before, but come on—he wasn't that pathetic. He was still miles away from being a total freeloader, okay?
Fuming with frustration, Yuya stormed back into his room. But instead of crashing into bed, he dove right into another round of intense training.
One hundred twenty-six, one hundred twenty-seven...
Two hundred thirty-one, two hundred thirty-two...
He counted silently in his mind, sweat pouring down like a damn waterfall. The floor beneath him was soaked in it.
His arms were getting stiff, heavier by the second, like they were turning into concrete blocks. He could barely keep himself off the floor.
But in his mind's eye, he saw the Great Ninja War raging on… and flashes of his past life, full of mediocrity and ending in some dumb accident.
His arms were completely numb now.
He was running purely on willpower, squeezing every ounce of strength out of his body, grinding his way through his physical limits.
Last time, he maxed out at two hundred seventy-six.
This time, gritting his teeth, he powered through to three hundred twenty.
And then his arms finally gave out.
He tried to hit three hundred fifty. Made it to three hundred forty-five before he hit the floor like a sack of bricks.
Flat on the ground, gasping for breath.
But still—he'd gone far beyond his last record.
He'd broken a limit.
"Nice... next goal—add another hundred... If I don't train like a lunatic, there's no way I'll ever catch up to the monsters like Guy in the original story."
His arms were completely useless at this point, but Yuya's eyes held no despair. If anything, they burned even brighter with determination.
After a short break, he forced himself upright again and moved on to squats.
"I'm doing one hundred more squats than last time too!"
With that target locked in, Yuya began the cycle of squatting down and pushing back up, over and over.
He had no idea how much he was sweating.
In the end, he cranked out one hundred sixty more squats than his last session—crushing his goal.
Totally drained, his body done for, Yuya stood up one last time, stumbled toward the bed, and collapsed right onto it.
Out cold until the next day.
Because he constantly pushed himself with extreme training like this, even when his body felt wrecked the day before, he could usually bounce back by morning.
After all, this was a world of ninja. Even if his chakra control sucked and his ninjutsu talent was trash, he did still have chakra in him.
"Looks like hitting two limits yesterday actually made my body a bit stronger."
Yuya clenched his fists and felt a bit more power than usual, a slight grin tugging at the corners of his mouth.
If only he could break through like that every single day...
Then again, it might not be just the training. He had just gotten the Tremor-Tremor Fruit, and now had the Quake Release bloodline limit—maybe that was feeding back into his physical strength.
The Quake Release bloodline limit added shockwave power—allowing him to punch the air itself, or more precisely, punch space. The effect ranged from air shockwaves to earthquakes that could shake the land or trigger tsunamis.
"Let's try that air shockwave again."
Excited, Yuya clenched his fist, bent his arm, and threw a punch at the air next to him.
BZZZ!!
A faint white light shimmered for a second—and then boom! It exploded in the air like a flashbang.
Yuya hadn't hit anything solid, but it looked like his fist had slammed into a sheet of glass.
CRACK!!
That 'glass' shattered—like space itself had splintered under his punch. The cracks spread out just a little before freezing, forming thin spiderweb-like lines in the air.
"Yup, definitely stronger now."
Yuya pulled his fist back, a satisfied look on his face.
At this point, his shockwaves could probably be stopped only by weapons that had chakra nature transformations—like kunai or shuriken infused with elemental chakra.
"Still... too bad the shockwave range isn't that far."
What bugged Yuya a little was that the air shockwave didn't cover much ground—barely a meter out.
That was tied to the power level. If he boosted the power of the quake, the reach would naturally grow.
For now though, his fists were still stuck in close-combat range.
But when it came to long-range attacks, Yuya wasn't totally helpless either.
He grabbed a kunai and gripped it tight in his fist.
BZZZ!!
A ring of soft white light flared up at the tip of the kunai.
Then, without warning, Yuya chucked it toward a big tree in the distance.
CRACK!!
The kunai buried itself deep into the trunk—and the shockwave burst out on impact, spreading out a little and shredding a layer of bark off the tree.
"Even though throwing it like that loses some of the shockwave's force, it still gets the job done."
"Most genin or even chunin can't attach chakra nature changes to their kunai to increase penetration, after all."
He walked over and yanked the kunai free, inspecting the damage it had caused.
Not bad. He nodded with approval.
Remembering there was a combat test today, Yuya decided to skip his usual morning training to conserve energy.
After a good breakfast, he headed out to the Ninja Academy.
The Ninja Academy had been founded by the Second Hokage as a place to train up future shinobi. At this point, it had only been around for about ten years, so it wasn't as developed as it would be in the main story timeline.
At this time, the Senju Clan had just started to decline—they weren't gone yet, but their days of glory were fading.
Meanwhile, the Uchiha Clan was still at its peak.
As for the Hyuga Clan… they were kind of off to the side, not really making waves right now.
Not that it mattered. Yuya couldn't get involved with any of these clans anyway. He wasn't even from the village. Even if he'd been born in Konoha, all he could do in front of giants like the Senju, Uchiha, or Hyuga was stare from a distance.
"Yuya! You're here!"
As soon as he stepped into the classroom, he heard Kushina calling out to him.
Probably the only person who ever actually talked to him.
The other students either ignored him completely or shot him a quick sneer before turning away like he wasn't even worth noticing.
"Yeah." Yuya gave her a small smile and headed to his seat.
Kushina looked at him with mild surprise. "You didn't bring the ointment I gave you last night?"
"Uh... I think I forgot."
"How can you be so careless? What if you get hurt later?!"
Kushina puffed up her cheeks, clearly annoyed, and glared at him.
Yuya: "..."
Pfft!
What the hell? Why did she sound so sure he was gonna get hurt?!
Couldn't she at least pretend to believe in him?!