Chapter 33

"That's already fast enough!"

Riku rolled his eyes and retorted, "If it weren't for my constant guidance, your decent physique and taijutsu foundation, and those improved medicinal baths I made for you every day, it would've taken you even longer."

"But compared to the benefits of reaching Bright Force, the time it took is nothing."

"Once you master Bright Force, your control over every inch of muscle and internal force will evolve dramatically."

"Your chakra and blood will also start to generate and circulate on their own."

"This brings great benefits for taijutsu training, enhances vitality, and increases your chakra reserves."

"So stop complaining!"

If Fugaku weren't his actual big brother, Riku wouldn't have even bothered.

And to think he hadn't even taught Minato and the others this stuff yet…

"Uh… Yeah, you're right! Hehe! I'll go train now. I'll reach Bright Force soon!"

With a sheepish grin and newly motivated spirit, Fugaku dashed off to one side of the yard to continue his training.

Meanwhile, Nobuhiko smiled and looked at Riku. "The surprise you mentioned earlier—is it that you've already created the training method for the next stage after Bright Force?"

He knew his son well.

After being stunned time and time again, he had grown numb to it. Nothing seemed impossible when it came to his son.

"Eh? You guessed it?" Riku blinked in surprise. "Nice! That's right. I've already created the next stage of guoshu—I call it Dark Force."

"This stage focuses on training the mind and the skin membrane—completely integrating bones, tendons, and skin to unleash Dark Force."

"But I won't say more for now. I'll teach it to you once you reach Bright Force."

No point in bringing it up too early.

"Alright then! I'll keep training—you should consolidate your breakthrough."

With a nod, Nobuhiko headed back to his training, while Riku returned to his own practice.

—

After breakfast.

"Mom! It's the weekend. No need to prepare lunch or dinner for me today—I'm going out for a cookout with some classmates," Riku called out.

"Oh?" Kokomi raised an eyebrow. "A cookout? With Minato and the others? Alright."

"But you'll need to buy ingredients, right? Do you still have enough money?"

Riku had already mentioned Minato and Shikaku to his parents before.

They both had been keeping an eye on these kids—seeing them as good people, worthy of their son's friendship.

"I'm good! Still got several tens of thousands of ryō. I'm off now!"

Riku slung his ninja tool pouch over his shoulder, stepped out of the house, and created a shadow clone.

"You head to the hospital and keep reading medical texts."

After giving his clone instructions, Riku made his way toward the shopping district.

Not long after, he spotted Minato and the other three already waiting at the corner.

"Riku! You're late today—we've been waiting for over ten minutes! Hurry up!" Shikaku waved from a distance.

"Hehe! Sorry, sorry!"

Riku ran over with a sheepish smile. "Had a breakthrough during morning training—lost track of time."

"Come on, let's go buy our ingredients."

He motioned to the others, and the group headed toward the large farmers' market in the commercial district.

"Another breakthrough in your taijutsu? Seriously, what kind of training do you do? You're a monster," Shikaku complained while shaking his head.

"Even with your help, we feel like we're improving quickly… but compared to you, it's nothing."

People really couldn't be compared like that.

Still, they felt incredibly lucky to have gained Riku's recognition and guidance.

Five days ago, all of them had already mastered Kage Bunshin no Jutsu (Shadow Clone Technique), and started using clones to attend class while the real ones trained with Riku during the day.

The improvements in just a few days had already created a noticeable gap between them and their classmates.

Even Inuzuka Claw and Aburame Shihui—who used to be on par with them—were now falling behind.

It was hard to imagine what the gap would be like after a few years of this, by the time they graduated.

Shikaku felt a bit excited just thinking about it.

—

Half an hour later, the group left the farmers' market carrying a mountain of ingredients and headed toward their secret training base.

Along the way, Choza ran home and came back with a full set of cooking tools—portable stove, bowls, and utensils—and regrouped with them at the base.

"Alright, let's start this morning's training!"

They didn't begin cooking right away. Instead, they jumped straight into training.

A few days ago, Riku had already taught his personalized version of body-strengthening techniques to Shikaku and the others.

They had now more or less mastered it.

Riku split off another shadow clone to continue teaching them while he himself moved aside to focus on ninjutsu practice.

Currently, he had mastered ninjutsu across Katon (Fire Release), Raiton (Lightning Release), and two Fūton (Wind Release) techniques.

But his main focus remained on fire techniques.

It couldn't be helped—after all, the Uchiha clan specialized in Katon.

The clan had numerous fire techniques of varying levels and a wealth of experience notes on them.

Now, techniques like Katon: Gōkakyū no Jutsu (Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique), Katon: Gōryūka no Jutsu (Fire Release: Dragon Flame), and Katon: Hōsenka no Jutsu (Fire Release: Phoenix Sage Fire) were already at a high level in Riku's hands.

He had also delved deeply into both form and nature transformation for fire, massively boosting the power of his fire techniques.

In terms of lightning, he had only learned Raikyū (Lightning Ball) and Jibashiri (Earth Walk).

As for swordsmanship, he had learned several styles preserved in the Uchiha archives.

Among them was Nin Kenjutsu (Ninja Sword Technique), particularly the Uchiha's Enyaku Sword style.

This had broadened his skill set significantly.

"Too bad I haven't gotten close to Sakumo yet…"

"If I could learn this world's swordsmanship from him, especially his ninja sword techniques, my progress would skyrocket."

Riku thought silently.

He believed it was crucial to master at least one powerful weapon-based offensive method.

Compared to ninjutsu, it consumed far less chakra and packed devastating power.

As his guoshu level rose and his body grew stronger, his sword techniques would naturally become more destructive as well.

Fortunately, he had studied swordsmanship in his past life too, and combined with the Uchiha's archives, his current skill was quite good.

The five of them trained fiercely for over two hours, until it was around 10 AM.

Riku stopped his practice and called out to the others: "Minato, Shikaku—you two come with me to hunt for some meat. Inoichi and Choza, you collect firewood and start prepping the vegetables and ingredients. Sound good?"

"No problem! Let's go!"

With everyone agreeing, they split into two teams—Choza and Inoichi stayed behind while Riku, Shikaku, and Minato used Shunshin no Jutsu (Body Flicker Technique) to dive into the forest, seeking out prey for their cookout.

...

(End of Chapter)

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