Yuya wore an expression full of grievance.
Even if his talent for ninjutsu was terrible, being told to live off someone else was still crossing the line, wasn't it?!
Carrying that pent-up frustration, Yuya returned to his room. Instead of resting, he threw himself back into brutal training.
"One hundred twenty-six… one hundred twenty-seven…"
"Two hundred thirty-one… two hundred thirty-two…"
He counted silently in his head as sweat poured down his body like rain.
The ground beneath him grew dark and slick from sweat.
His arms became increasingly stiff, heavier with every movement, as though they could no longer support his weight.
Yet in front of his eyes, he seemed to see scenes of the great ninja wars—
and flashes of his former life, ordinary and meaningless, ending abruptly in death.
His arms were completely numb now.
At this point, only sheer willpower drove him forward—forcing his body to squeeze out every last bit of strength, to shatter its own limits by force.
Last time, his maximum had been two hundred seventy-six.
This time, gritting his teeth, Yuya pushed all the way to three hundred twenty.
By then, his arms had lost all sensation.
He tried to force himself to reach three hundred fifty—but collapsed at three hundred forty-five.
He lay sprawled on the ground, gasping for breath.
Still—
This was far more than before.
He had broken through his limits once again.
"Good… next time, I'll raise the target by another hundred."
"If I don't train like this, I'll never catch up to people like Might Guy."
Despite his arms being nearly useless, there was no trace of discouragement in Yuya's eyes—only growing resolve.
After a brief rest, he forced himself upright and began doing squats.
"Squats—one hundred more than last time!"
With his new goal set, he repeatedly lowered himself and stood back up.
Over and over.
Sweat flowed endlessly.
In the end, Yuya completed one hundred sixty more squats than before—far surpassing his target.
Finally, completely drained, he staggered to his feet one last time, collapsed onto his bed, and fell asleep instantly.
When he woke the next day—
Because he trained at his limits so often, even extreme exhaustion didn't prevent him from recovering by morning.
After all, this was the world of ninjas.
Even if Yuya struggled to refine chakra and had terrible talent for ninjutsu, chakra still flowed within his body.
"Looks like breaking through two limits yesterday really did strengthen my body."
He clenched his fist, sensing a slight increase in power, and smiled.
If only he could break through his limits every day.
Of course, it was also possible that after awakening Vibration Release, the Kekkei Genkai itself was subtly reinforcing his physique.
Vibration Release granted him the ability to add vibrational force to his attacks—
striking the air itself (air shock), shaking the earth (ground shock), and, in theory, even causing massive waves.
"Let's test the air shock again."
A spark of excitement flashed across Yuya's face as he clenched his fist and swung it sharply to the side.
Buzz—!!
The white glow around his fist was slightly brighter than before, exploding outward in the air.
His punch struck nothing—yet it felt as though he had slammed into solid glass.
Crack!!
The "mirror" shattered.
It looked as if space itself had fractured under his blow.
The cracks were faint, spreading only a short distance before stopping.
"As expected—the power of the air shock has increased too."
Yuya withdrew his fist, clearly satisfied.
At his current level, the vibrations from his punches should be able to neutralize most ordinary attacks—
so long as they weren't weapons enhanced with chakra nature transformation.
"Still, the range is too short."
The only regret was that his air shock extended no more than about a meter.
Of course, that was tied directly to power.
As his vibration strength increased, so too would its effective range.
For now, his fists were still limited to close combat.
But when it came to long-range attacks, Yuya wasn't without options.
He picked up a kunai and clenched it tightly in his fist.
Buzz—!!
A faint white aura wrapped around the tip of the kunai.
In the next instant, Yuya hurled it toward a distant tree.
Crack!!
The kunai buried itself deep into the trunk. The vibrational force spread outward, shattering a layer of bark around the impact point.
"Using it this way for ranged attacks does lose some power," Yuya murmured,
"but it's more than enough."
"Most genin—and even chūnin—can't infuse chakra nature transformation into a kunai to increase its penetration anyway."
Walking over, Yuya pulled the kunai free and examined the damage.
He nodded in satisfaction.
Remembering that there would be a practical combat assessment today, Yuya decided not to train further that morning. Preserving stamina was more important.
After eating, he headed straight for the Ninja Academy.
The Ninja Academy had been founded by the Second Hokage (Tobirama Senju) to train future shinobi. At this point, it had existed for barely over ten years, and many aspects were still far from refined compared to later generations.
This was a period when—
The Senju clan had only just begun to decline, not yet fading away completely.
The Uchiha clan was at the height of its prosperity.
As for the Hyūga clan, they were still playing a secondary role.
But no matter the clan, Yuya could only look on from afar.
As an outsider—even if he had been born in Konoha—he would still be nothing more than a small figure standing beneath giants like the Senju, Uchiha, or Hyūga.
"Yuya, you're here!"
The moment he entered the classroom, he saw Kushina waving at him.
She was probably the only one who would greet him at all.
The other students either ignored him completely or cast a brief, disdainful glance before turning away.
"Yeah."
Yuya smiled faintly at Kushina and went to sit down.
She looked at him in surprise.
"The medicine I brought you last night—you didn't bring it?"
"Uh… I think I forgot."
"How can you be so careless? What if you get hurt later?"
Kushina puffed out her cheeks, glaring at him in frustration.
Yuya: "..."
…Why does it sound like I'm definitely going to get hurt?!
Can't you have just a little faith in me?!