Clack—Clack—
Slurp.
Hatake Shūsaku took a sip of water as he watched the two figures sparring in front of him. Once again, he couldn't help but notice the vast difference in talent between Uchiha Seiji and Hatake Kakashi.
From the very beginning, Kakashi's natural gifts had been inferior to Seiji's.
Even when Seiji barely seemed to train at all during the day—completely unaware of his Shadow Clone training in secret—the gap between them only grew wider.
And now, with Seiji throwing himself into rigorous training, even though Kakashi had doubled down and pushed himself harder than ever, the distance between them just kept increasing.
Clang! Clang!
Seiji and Kakashi each gripped a wooden sword, their strikes colliding in rapid succession.
Unlike Kakashi's desperate and unyielding effort, Seiji moved as though he were simply toying with him.
No matter how fierce Kakashi's attacks became, Seiji's casual swings brushed them aside with ease, knocking him back every time.
This had been their reality for three months now.
Bang!
"Ugh—"
With a powerful strike, Seiji sent Kakashi's wooden sword flying from his grip.
"That's enough for today. I'm tired. I'll head back and rest."
"Hey—!"
Kakashi tried to protest, but Seiji had already waved goodbye to Shūsaku and walked off.
"Let her go, Kakashi," Shūsaku said, smiling faintly as he watched Seiji leave. "She might really be exhausted. Best to let her rest."
"So that means… she's finally recovered?"
"Mm… probably." Shūsaku nodded. In truth, Seiji's frenzied training these past three months had been downright terrifying.
Day and night, without pause, she trained relentlessly.
She even used Shadow Clones to multiply her efforts. Shūsaku still remembered the first time she dispelled a batch of clones—Seiji collapsed on the spot. Yet within just an hour or two, she got back up and resumed her training.
Not even Konoha's memorial services or festivals could pull her away.
No one could dissuade her either.
She had only just stopped today.
In Shūsaku's mind, this was proof that she had finally begun to recover from the death of her kind mentor, Kato Dan.
"Yeah…" Kakashi clenched his fists. "Father, tell me—what do I have to do to catch up with her?"
"…I don't know." Shūsaku gave a wry smile. "This kind of genius… I've never seen anything like it. You know, don't you? Your own talent is already top-tier among your peers. But with her… all you can do is work harder. Still, she can't keep this pace forever. Once her training slows down, that'll be your chance to close the gap."
"…Alright. Then, Father! Train my swordsmanship!"
"Very well." Shūsaku chuckled, picking up another wooden sword from the ground and engaging his son in practice.
"Phew… I'm exhausted…"
Seiji trudged along wearily.
In recent days, she had been training to the absolute limit. Every day she relied on her strange energy to wash away fatigue and restore stamina, pushing herself through endless cycles of training, day and night, until she felt sick of it.
It was different from her old way of using Shadow Clones.
Before, she had increased the number of clones gradually, little by little. Each time she dispelled them, the resulting fatigue left her drained—but over time, her endurance grew with it.
But recently, she had gone all out. Instead of adding clones one at a time, she had ramped it up in bursts of ten at once.
Her training had escalated into full-scale Multi-Shadow Clone practice.
And just now, she had received a system notification that forced her to stop training.
The reason was simple…
Her chest had finally developed fully into an A-cup!!