In the end, the blade stopped just one centimeter above Tamura Zairo's head—so close it was nearly touching his scalp.
"Huff… huff…"
Tamura Zairo gasped violently. Sweat beaded on his forehead, his face flushed red, and his heart was pounding nearly twice as fast as normal. Both arms that had been holding the blades were trembling slightly.
This was the backlash from his earlier burst.
Even though he had pushed his chakra control to the absolute limit of his current stage with the help of enhanced comprehension, sustaining such high-intensity output for that long still placed a heavy burden on his body—bordering on actual injury.
On top of that, Fukai's explosive power was simply too terrifying. Every clash was a brutal test for his arms. He could already feel multiple muscle strains in both arms.
"Teacher is too strong. Even at full burst, I couldn't force you to take a single step back."
After catching his breath, Tamura Zairo sealed the twin blades back into the storage formulas on his bracers and spoke with genuine admiration.
Whether it was strength or speed, his teacher completely outclassed him. Just now, Fukai hadn't even used ninjutsu—he had relied purely on chakra-enhanced physical power and still calmly neutralized Tamura Zairo's relentless assault.
After more than a hundred strikes without inflicting even the slightest injury, the counterattack had crushed him like rotten wood.
Worthy of being a jōnin who specialized in nin-taijutsu.
Worthy of being a future Eight-Tails Jinchūriki.
Of course, the main reason was that he himself was still too weak.
Right now, his combat power was roughly comparable to Rock Lee during the Chūnin Exams—without opening the Eight Gates.
And that had been during a burst state. It wasn't sustainable.
From the start of the fight to the end, not even a full minute had passed.
He couldn't even last three minutes!
The main issue was chakra depletion. Without chakra, relying on pure physical ability alone, he had no way to contend with Fukai.
Fukai glanced at his own ninja blade, whose edge now looked like a tiny saw, and silently sighed. Still, he was extremely satisfied with this student.
"Your burst just now was very strong—enough to go head-on with a taijutsu-specialized chūnin. To have this level of strength at ten years old is very rare.
"Choosing such long blades to partially compensate for your lack of long-range ninjutsu was also a wise decision. Especially against opponents like puppet masters with mechanisms all over their bodies—fighting this way is much safer."
At ten years old, possessing such strength could already be called genius-level.
If not for his chakra quantity holding him back and preventing prolonged bursts, he would already be a bona fide chūnin-tier combatant.
Of course, combat strength was only one part of rank evaluation. For chūnin, tactical command ability was even more important—and that couldn't be judged yet.
"I had to put in several times more effort than ordinary people to reach where I am now."
Tamura Zairo shook his head, his tone helpless.
This was the gap in physical aptitude—something that couldn't be endlessly overcome through hard work alone.
In this world, talent and bloodline determined the upper limit. Effort only decided the lower limit.
Without Ōtsutsuki bloodline, one didn't even qualify to become the Ten-Tails' Jinchūriki.
"Your age is still too young. Your body hasn't fully developed yet, so it's not suitable to focus on pure strength training.
"Moreover, your blades and sword style emphasize thrusts, with slashes as support. This makes you more suited to prioritizing speed-based bursts.
"Later, I'll guide you in Lightning Release nature transformation. Once you succeed, you can use lightning chakra to stimulate your nerves and muscles, greatly boosting explosive speed.
"Speed-based stimulation places far less strain on the body than strength-based bursts, making it much more suitable for your current age and build.
"After that comes real combat. You have almost no actual battle experience. Your sword fundamentals are solid, but somewhat rigid—you'll need extensive real combat to truly bring your blade techniques to life."
Fukai offered his advice, forming a rough plan for Tamura Zairo's training in the near future.
"See? I told you, A-Zairo is a rare genius."
At that moment, a figure flashed over beside them—it was Yotsuki A.
He had arrived long ago and watched the entire fight.
Though it had lasted barely a minute, it had held his interest and even surprised him.
He knew this junior brother was talented, but before, he had thought that talent lay mainly in weapon and ninja-tool development—or rather, in novel ideas.
Who would have thought that his cultivation and combat talent were also this outstanding?
He had watched the fight carefully. It was obvious that this junior brother was improving during combat. Even when facing Fukai's active offense later on, his responses had become increasingly smooth.
If not for the massive gap in strength—and the fact that his chakra had run dry—he might have lasted even longer.
"Brother A!"
Tamura Zairo greeted him.
"Come on. I've already prepared medicinal baths for you, along with medicine and medical-nin."
Yotsuki A slung an arm around Tamura Zairo's shoulders and led him out of the training ground.
He had come specifically to take this junior brother for a medicinal bath.
Fukai followed along as well. He still wanted to talk more with this student about future training plans—especially to understand how he envisioned his own path.
"…Isn't this the Yotsuki clan's secret medicinal bath?"
Standing beside the three massive tubs and staring at the liquid inside, Fukai was deeply shocked.
He had used the Yotsuki clan's body-refining medicinal baths before. They were extremely effective for physical training and could even repair hidden injuries.
But he had only enjoyed them fewer than ten times.
The reason was simple—they were outrageously expensive. One tub cost a million ryō. Even with his family's wealth, they couldn't afford frequent use.
More importantly, this was a secret inheritance of the Yotsuki clan, later improved by the Second Raikage after integrating many secret medicinal formulas from other Kumogakure clans.
It was priceless—a closely guarded secret of the Yotsuki clan and the Raikage lineage.
Yet now, Yotsuki A had brought this child here to use such a bath.
Something was very off.
"This is even more advanced than the ones you used back then. It's what our Yotsuki clan uses to temper the hand blade.
"My father's Hell Stab was also trained with the long-term assistance of this medicinal bath."
Yotsuki A spoke with pride.
This was the true perfected version. The full-body refinement baths used in the past were only simplified variants.
The problem was cost.
These three massive tubs each cost ten million ryō. In the past, they could only afford small-batch versions to temper their hands while cultivating the Yotsuki clan's secret hand-blade technique.
The core secret art of the Yotsuki clan was to undergo bone-shattering tempering to forge a lightning-sharp hereditary hand blade. Only then could Lightning Abuse: Level Chidori Dance become truly unstoppable.
That was why, despite being only a C-rank technique, Lightning Abuse: Level Chidori Dance rivaled even S-rank ninjutsu in power—capable of piercing even a tailed beast's defenses.
On that foundation, his father had further developed the even stronger Hell Stab, using it multiple times to suppress rampaging Eight-Tails and Two-Tails.
Now, Yotsuki A had extravagantly used ten times the usual medicinal bath dosage—enough to temper the entire body.
"A-Zairo, this is our Yotsuki clan's secret medicine. Just the cost price of one of these big tubs is ten million ryō—three tubs is thirty million.
"The medicinal power that seeps into your body from a single bath lasts for a month. You can take one bath per month.
"Can you handle it?"
Yotsuki A turned his gaze toward Tamura Zairo, who was staring feverishly at the three massive tubs, and placed the future benefits squarely in this junior brother's hands.
In other aspects, this junior brother was impressive—but his money-making ability was truly outrageous.
His current income was already terrifying. In the future, it would only skyrocket further. Surpassing the village's total revenue was merely a matter of time.
After discussing it with his father, they had come up with this bold plan.
They would use this junior brother's money power to maximize the growth of all three of them—at the very least, pushing their physical conditioning to the limit.
In the past, due to limited finances, the Yotsuki clan could only use this precious medicinal bath to temper their hands and cultivate the hereditary hand blade.
But now, they could go a step further—tempering the entire body.
Once their bodies were refined to the absolute extreme, the power of their nin-taijutsu would become utterly unimaginable.