Like all newly graduated genin squads, Team Ten also began with the most basic D-rank missions.
By the river, Shizune and Kurenai carried bamboo baskets on their backs, carefully searching through the water, fishing out floating debris and the silted trash that had accumulated.
Shinichi, who should have been working alongside them, was instead sitting cross-legged beneath the shade of a tree on the riverbank.
The one busy in the river with the two girls was merely one of his Shadow Clones.
Not far away, Tsunade sat on a large, flat rock. She lounged leisurely with one leg crossed over the other, holding a can of drink in her hand.
Her gaze swept over the two girls on the river surface, then returned to Shinichi's original body on the shore, and she raised an eyebrow.
"I say, kid, are you really just going to sit there watching? Letting two girls work in the river while you slack off here?"
At this moment, Shinichi was completely focused on his right hand. He repeatedly made the motion of clenching his fist and relaxing it.
With every contraction, the muscles in his forearm instantly tensed and bulged. Pale-blue chakra surged along specific Chakra Pathways, wildly pouring in and flickering between the gaps of muscle and blood vessels.
As he slowly loosened his palm, the remaining chakra turned into tiny blue motes of light and drifted out through the gaps between his fingers. The bulging veins gradually subsided like a receding tide.
After watching for a while, Tsunade said, "Are you trying to gather chakra on your fist in a more stable and efficient way?"
"Yes, Tsunade-sensei." Shinichi nodded. "I'm trying to precisely, quickly, and safely gather and maintain chakra in specific force-exertion areas of the body, such as the arm and the fist."
"Oh, that." Tsunade lightly shook the drink can in her hand, speaking in a casual tone. "I happen to know a little about that."
She said it lightly, but in reality it was far more than just "a little."
The superhuman strength she had mastered was based precisely on compressing and condensing an enormous amount of chakra to an extreme degree, concentrating it accurately in a specific part of the body, and unleashing it completely the instant it made contact with the target to produce overwhelming destructive power.
The prerequisite for training that superhuman strength was reaching an extremely demanding level of fine chakra control.
It required compressing a massive amount of chakra—enough to shatter mountains—to the utmost limit, yet perfectly restraining it before the moment of release, revealing not the slightest chakra glow or leaking fluctuation.
Only at the exact instant when the attack truly struck the enemy would that power, suppressed to its limit, erupt explosively. Only then could one be considered to have stepped past the threshold of that superhuman strength.
And only when the gathering, restraint, and release of chakra in every punch thrown and every kick delivered could all be controlled at will, with not the slightest trace of deliberate charging in even the smallest movement—as if that mountain-shattering, rock-splitting power were itself just a part of everyday life, as natural as breathing—could it be said that one had truly mastered superhuman strength.
And Tsunade had long since trained this power to the highest realm, where she could unleash and withdraw it freely in every gesture, as naturally as instinct itself.
At this moment, as she looked at Shinichi's arm—its veins bulging and its glow flickering unstably from his forced chakra concentration—she shook her head.
Perhaps out of some sense of responsibility as a teacher, or perhaps simply like many women who could not stand seeing a man idle, Tsunade lifted her chin and gestured toward the river.
"Go. Get to work," Tsunade ordered. "Have your original body move too. Afterward, if I'm in a good mood, I might give you a few pointers."
Hearing this, Shinichi stopped what he was trying, glanced at the Shadow Clone working in the river with his two teammates, then looked again at Tsunade's seemingly casual yet non-negotiable expression, and nodded.
...
As the setting sun sank in the west, after finishing the day's mission, Shinichi said goodbye to the rest of Team Ten at the crossroads and headed home alone.
When he passed the familiar newsstand, he habitually bought the latest issue of Current Affairs Weekly.
As he walked forward at an unhurried pace, he casually opened it. The front-page headline that came into view was like a stone thrown into a calm lake, instantly drawing all of his attention.
[Three-Year Grand Event! The Taketori Festival Is About to Open in Splendor—His Lordship the Daimyō Personally Establishes the "Land of Fire Number One" Gourmet Competition!]
The title was printed in strikingly large characters, and the accompanying image showed the bustling, brilliantly lit scene of previous festivals, packed with people.
The article went on at great length, detailing this most ancient and grand celebration of the Land of Fire, as well as the brand-new segment of this year's event—personally proposed and hosted by the current Land of Fire Daimyō: the "Land of Fire Number One" Culinary Championship.
According to the report, the competition was open to the entire Land of Fire, including its subordinate towns and shinobi villages, and to anyone who considered their culinary skills outstanding, with the aim of discovering folk cuisine and promoting the food culture of the Land of Fire.
The final winner would receive, from the Daimyō personally, the title and certificate of "Land of Fire Special-Class Chef," and would also have the opportunity to enter the Daimyō's court kitchens for further training, or receive official support to open a restaurant.
Shinichi's gaze lingered for a long time on the words special-class chef, personally bestowed by the Daimyō, and nationwide attention. Without realizing it, his footsteps also came to a halt as he carefully read every detail.
With a slight movement of his thoughts, a corner of his personal panel appeared in his mind, and the description of the Big Eater Entry was projected:
[Big Eater (Green): Your digestive system and metabolic efficiency have undergone a qualitative transformation. Not only can you eat with astonishing speed and capacity, but you can also efficiently extract energy and nutrients from food, gaining far greater pleasure and stamina recovery from it than ordinary people. At the same time, your perception of food becomes exceptionally sharp, allowing you to clearly distinguish the subtlest differences in ingredient quality, control of heat, and balance of seasoning.]
Compared with the white-quality Foodie Entry, Big Eater not only further enhanced the body's efficiency in absorption and conversion, but also added a keen sense of taste discrimination.
After all, the label of having a large appetite did not leave a particularly deep or shocking impression on others—unless Shinichi truly turned into a gluttonous monster. Yet after obtaining the Big Eater Entry, Shinichi's appetite had not grown larger; instead, it had actually become a little smaller.
This made Shinichi realize that this Entry, upgraded from Foodie, might not simply create the impression of "being able to eat." Because a foodie was not merely someone who could eat, but someone who knew how to eat and understood food.
Thinking this, Shinichi continued to look at the newspaper. His eyes shifted slightly, and suddenly a bold idea emerged in his mind.
If the First Hokage's founding of Konohagakure had established the one country, one village system in the shinobi world and opened a new era—then the Sage of Six Paths, by founding Ninshū and spreading the methods of training in and using chakra throughout the world, laid down the very foundation upon which the entire world operated. From that moment on, the title Sage of Six Paths and the profession of ninja had become a shared understanding and long-standing habit of everyone in the shinobi world for a thousand years.
If I could also anchor the name Higashino Shinichi, together with something I created, into the cultural fabric and historical consensus of this world—just as the Sage of Six Paths anchored Ninshū into history—forming a kind of foundation of human civilization, a logic by which the world itself operates—or even more specifically, if people, in their clothing, food, housing, travel, cultural customs, festivals and celebrations, and even in the words they use in daily speech, unconsciously followed traces left by me in their everyday lives—then what would happen?
---
I will post some extra Chapters in Patreon, you can check it out. >> patreon.com/TitoVillar
---