The next morning, Higashino Makoto woke up on time.
Last night, he had repeatedly extracted chakra for several rounds, and while in a spiritual-body state, he had drawn in natural energy and resisted its disintegration force. It could be considered a rather eventful night.
He had been wondering whether he would feel mentally fatigued today.
Unexpectedly, when he woke up in the morning, not only did his body feel light and strong, but even his mental clarity was somewhat sharper than usual.
Clear-headed and refreshed.
In other words, did that filtered, white mist–like natural energy have a nourishing effect on both the body and the mind?
That would require careful observation and experience over time to reach a conclusion, but judging from the current situation, it did not seem bad.
His parents, who had drunk too much alcohol the previous night, were still asleep. Higashino Makoto did not disturb them. As usual, he simply reheated the boiled eggs, bread, and milk that were routinely kept in the refrigerator, ate a nutritious breakfast, and then headed straight to the training ground.
Whether there was sunlight in Los Angeles at four in the morning, he did not know.
But in Konohagakure, there was none at five in the morning.
Things had gone a bit late last night, and he had not actually slept a full eight hours like usual, yet he felt no drowsiness or fatigue at all.
Very good—full of energy.
It seemed that with the nourishment of natural energy, there would no longer be a need to worry about lack of sleep affecting his body. The time available each day for training and study had increased by quite a lot.
If this were his previous life, it would practically be a naturally born beast of burden physique.
No—wait. I've already awakened extraordinary power. Why the hell should I work like a beast of burden for you people?
I'm not working myself to death for anyone!"
Very soon, Higashino Makoto began his daily physical training. The difference from before was that now he was a probationary ninja capable of refining and using chakra.
He sat in meditation, hands forming the unsealed hand sign. Mental energy and physical energy smoothly merged, forming chakra, which then flowed into his chakra pathways.
When he stood up again, he immediately felt as if he had entered a new world.
His body became much lighter, his dynamic vision was enhanced, and the leaves drifting down from the trees seemed to fall a bit more slowly.
Higashino Makoto reached out with lightning speed, catching a leaf that had just flown in front of him, holding it in his hand as he examined it absentmindedly.
The veins of the leaf were clearly visible. Its complete form was imprinted into his mind, and both his vision and instantaneous memory capacity were strengthened.
After thinking for a few seconds, he walked up to the large tree, planted his foot, and kicked it squarely. The tree did not break, which showed that he had not yet trained to the level of snapping a tree with a single kick; he was still just a novice who had only just learned how to use chakra.
However, his strength had indeed increased quite a bit. The tree shook violently, and fallen leaves drifted down like snowflakes.
Higashino Makoto struck out repeatedly with both hands, quickly grabbing two handfuls of leaves, his reaction speed also having increased noticeably.
After experiencing the comprehensive amplification chakra provided to the body, Higashino Makoto became extremely excited and immediately began running laps. In an instant, his body was like an arrow loosed from the bow, sprinting across the training ground, much faster than usual.
As he ran, he felt his lightened body seemed about to take flight. However, this was only an illusion—Earth's gravity would tell him that wanting to fly was impossible.
He couldn't fly, but he could jump. What ninja ever walked properly? Didn't they all jump around at high places?
While running, Higashino Makoto lifted his head and saw the branches of a large tree ahead.
He bent his legs and exerted force, leaping upward in a single bound. His entire body shot into the air, the target landing point rapidly approaching in his vision.
"Huh? No, that's wrong—I used too much force. I'm dead, I'm dead! Ah!"
Higashino Makoto flew past the selected branch and, with a miserable cry, crashed straight into another tree farther ahead, as if a painting had been pasted onto it.
He then fell to the ground, lying on the grass and staring blankly at the treetop canopy in midair.
That collision and fall took quite a while for him to recover from. After standing up, his left hand touched his face while his right hand rubbed his back, baring his teeth in pain.
It was his first powerful flying jump. He had not properly grasped the amount of force or the distance, and he had directly rammed into a tree.
He looked around at the large trees surrounding the training ground, their branches crisscrossing everywhere. After thinking for a moment, he jumped in place more than a dozen times in various directions, feeling out the comparison between the force he used and the height he could reach.
Once he had a rough sense of things, he carefully jumped onto the branch of a nearby tree. Then he looked toward the next foothold, estimated the distance, exerted force with his legs, and quickly jumped over.
A miscalculation—insufficient force—but this time he did not crash into a tree. Higashino Makoto quickly wrapped both hands around a branch, used the momentum to flip himself up onto it, and continued jumping toward the next point.
Within the gaps of the forest, the small figure was like a long-tailed leaf monkey that had just learned to move through the woods, slowly shifting positions among the large trees. It seemed that before each jump, he had to calculate in his head how far he needed to leap and how much force to use.
As time passed, his speed while maneuvering among the trees grew faster and faster, and the distances grew longer and longer.
After the extracted chakra was exhausted, he immediately sat cross-legged on the tree and began extracting chakra again.
However, the amount extracted the second time seemed far less than the first.
The sky grew fully bright, and the sun leapt above the horizon.
Finally, during yet another bounding jump, Higashino Makoto suddenly felt his body go weak, his footing slip, and his entire body drop straight down as if it had lost all power.
Bang!
He did not fall onto the grass. Instead, he landed in someone else's arms.
Higashino Makoto glanced over. It was his father, who had arrived at the training ground at some unknown point.
Seeing his son panting heavily, Higashino Jirō led him out of the forest and set him down in the open area of the training ground.
Seeing this precocious little brat—who had always been confident in everything he did and never embarrassed himself—now bruised and battered, his heart bloomed with delight. After all, like this, he finally looked like a child who had just gotten a new toy.
He could not help teasing him. "Did you crash into a tree?"
Feeling the faint warmth of the spring morning sunlight, Higashino Makoto did not admit it. Instead, he asked, "Mr. Higashino, did you crash into trees when you were little too?"
"Ahem!" Higashino Jirō likewise refused to admit it and shifted the question to another angle. "Do you feel like your chakra has decreased? Last night you could extract it repeatedly several times, but today you couldn't even manage two extractions before running dry?"
It seemed he had been hiding off to the side and peeking for quite a while.
Higashino Makoto knew why this was. "The chakra extracted last night eventually dispersed back into my body, so it allowed me to train multiple times. Today, the chakra I extracted was used up. That's how it is, right, Father?"
"You've grasped your basic knowledge pretty well. That's indeed the case. Although in my view you really are a genius and started out with a decent amount of chakra, you're only four years old after all. That amount is only relative to children your age, or those two or three years older than you."
"Overall, it's still too little. Don't mess around like this anymore. Excessive extraction will affect your physical health. Right now, everything should be focused on growth and development. Do you understand?"
"I understand, Father. Thank you for the reminder!" Higashino Makoto had indeed gotten a bit carried away today.
"As long as you understand. I'll take you back."
Lying on Higashino Jirō's back, they walked out of the small forest and entered the streets.
On both sides, the shops had already opened. Food stalls sent up billowing clouds of steam, and pedestrians moved along in small groups—ordinary people as well as ninja. Some were eating breakfast, others buying groceries, the whole scene filled with the lively bustle of everyday life.
All of this made Higashino Makoto feel as if he had crossed lifetimes, reminding him of when he was young in his previous life, when his father used to carry him on his back to the market.
Just like now, both of them had a broad back.
After returning home, Higashino Megumi had already prepared breakfast. She seemed to know that something would happen today, and had made a noticeably larger amount than usual.
After washing up, Higashino Makoto did not even bother to change out of his dirty clothes and immediately started eating.
He truly was starving.
Higashino Megumi smiled and placed her hand on her son's face, a faint green light emerging.
After a short while, she began treating the bruises on his back.
Medical ninjutsu—the miraculous and efficient method of healing in the ninja world.
The advantages of transmigrating into the ninja world with both parents alive, and with one of them being a medical ninja, were now evident. There was someone to teach him when learning things, and when injured, there was no need to even go to a hospital.
It even came with a built-in happiness buff, far more useful than any all-powerful buff.
After finishing the treatment, Higashino Megumi looked at her son seriously and said, "Injury and pain are the best teachers. They let you know that becoming a powerful ninja isn't that easy. Even if you're a genius, you can't be willful or arrogant—you need to move forward step by step."
"They really are good teachers. Don't worry, I'll be more careful from now on, Mom."
Higashino Jirō smiled slightly and ate his breakfast without speaking.
Every ninja goes through this. Sometimes words alone are useless; only after tasting pain does the lesson truly take root.
No matter how miraculous chakra is, it cannot achieve everything in a single leap. It requires sufficient time to master and use it.