"Hoo—"
A small training ground.
Neji leaned against a tree, sweat dripping from his face.
After following Shinji, although he had trained, it had never been this hard.
Looking at his trembling hands and feet, Neji couldn't help but look at Guy, who was still doing push-ups in the field.
"No wonder sensei said Guy-sensei is very strong."
There were no missions today, and Shinji had just left the village and hadn't returned, so Neji thought of coming to train with Guy. Guy was very happy to hear this and said he wanted to unleash his youth with Neji.
Now, after Neji completed a full set of training, he almost collapsed from exhaustion. But Guy was still as energetic as ever, and he wasn't using Chakra to assist his training. It was entirely based on physical function and willpower.
"Four thousand nine hundred ninety-nine..."
"Five thousand!"
Guy stopped when he reached five thousand push-ups.
"Whew—this is youth!"
As he spoke, he seemed to reach the peak of his life, emitting a dazzling light.
Neji, standing nearby, couldn't help but twitch his lips. This Jonin Instructor was good in every way, except that he was a bit silly sometimes.
"Yo! Neji! Have you finished your training?" After Guy stopped, he saw Neji sitting on the side and asked with a grin.
"Yes." Neji nodded.
Although it was very difficult, he still persevered with his willpower. Otherwise, he wouldn't be sitting here now, unable to move.
"I didn't expect you to be so fast, Neji. It seems I, your teacher, still need to improve."
Guy was very annoyed. As a Jonin Instructor, his training time was so much slower than his student's.
"Uh... Guy-sensei —"
"No! I need to do extra training!"
Before Neji could finish speaking, Guy cheered himself on and started doing squats again.
One thousand and five thousand are completely different concepts!
Neji looked at Guy, who was already doing squats not far away. Although he was a bit speechless, he couldn't help but feel admiration.
He could see that Guy hadn't truly reached his limit yet. That meant Guy had already surpassed this amount before.
The current training was just to give himself a challenge and self-discipline, even if it was a bit absurd.
"Is this why sensei said Guy-sensei would be a very good Jonin team leader?"
Neji fell silent. He really didn't like Guy much before. His behavior didn't seem like a Jonin at all, but after this period of time, he had to admit that Guy had taught him a lot. Whether it was his own training or executing missions, he did everything he could.
Thinking of this, Neji stood up. He felt that staying idle for too long next to Guy was a sin.
Guy, who was doing squats, saw Neji's appearance and gave him a thumbs up.
"Neji! Let's work hard together! How about we run around the entire village on our hands later?"
"I refuse!"
—
Ninja School, fourth-grade floor.
"Alright, that's all for today's lesson."
On the podium, Shinji's Shadow Clone said with a gentle expression, then picked up his materials and walked out of the classroom.
"This course is so hard!"
Kiba waited until Shinji's figure disappeared, then scratched his head and complained.
Akamaru, beside him, licked his front paws, occasionally barking twice, as if agreeing with Kiba.
"Kiba, the harder parts are still to come." Shino, sitting next to Kiba, closed his textbook and said indifferently.
"This... I know that without you telling me." Kiba was speechless, looking up at the sky. He didn't need Shino to remind him of this.
Kiba complained for a while, then turned to Naruto behind him and asked, "Oh, by the way, Naruto, what did you guys do during the holidays?"
Naruto, who was staring blankly as if at an incomprehensible text, heard this and looked up to reply, "Didn't do anything."
"Just trained every day, sometimes went for walks, that's all."
"Training?"
Kiba looked at Naruto with some suspicion. Although he knew it was like this, Naruto and the others always disappeared right after class or during holidays. So, Kiba didn't know what Naruto and the others were actually training for.
Shino's gaze swept over Naruto, Sasuke, and the others. The insects in his body were very afraid of Naruto and Sasuke. And the reason for this was that his strength was too far behind Naruto and the others at the moment.
"Oh, right!"
Kiba seemed to remember something and asked the people around him, "Did you know that someone from last year's fifth grade applied for early graduation?"
"Really?"
"That amazing? Who is it?"
The students who heard this gathered around, asking Kiba questions all at once.
Naruto and the others exchanged glances and remained silent.
"It's that genius who was always a year ahead of us. Neji." Kiba waited until everyone's curiosity was piqued before he spoke proudly.
"It's him?"
"Then it's not surprising."
Everyone nodded when they heard this.
After all, Neji's reputation as a genius was almost undisputed in their generation.
"Sasuke, don't you have any thoughts?" Kiba looked at Sasuke.
After all, when it came to the top student of their generation, although there were occasional changes, Sasuke had been at the top of the list most of the time. After all, while Naruto's theoretical grades weren't bad, they were still holding him back.
"I'm not qualified yet." Sasuke replied without hesitation.
After all, after Neji returned from missions, Shinji would always have Neji explain things to them.
After hearing it so many times, Sasuke no longer had those thoughts he had before.
He truly wasn't qualified yet. Not just him, even Naruto, who was usually so carefree, hadn't mentioned it recently.
"Eh!"
This statement shocked Kiba.
Even Shino couldn't help but take another look at Sasuke. This was completely different from the usual Sasuke. At least, Sasuke wouldn't have said something like this before.
"Becoming a ninja isn't that easy." Naruto nodded.
He hadn't understood before, but now he somewhat understood what Shinji meant by him and Sasuke still needing to grow.
The things Neji encountered on missions, if it were them, they definitely wouldn't be able to solve them like Neji did. They might even cause trouble for their Jonin Instructor.
This time, no matter how shocked Kiba was, he had nothing to say.
What's going on? It was just one holiday, why are the two most troublesome geniuses in the class so rational now?