"Ka-me-ha-me-HA!"
Standing in front of a giant rock, Naruto mimicked Goku's posture, attempting to fire a Kamehameha.
However, as soon as he thrust his hands forward, the blue sphere of light in his palms popped and vanished like a soap bubble.
"Damn it! Failed again!"
Seeing the Kamehameha fail once more, Naruto scrunched up his face in frustration.
He wasn't the only one. Not far away, Sasuke and Rock Lee were also frowning.
They had been practicing all morning, but none of them had successfully mastered the Kamehameha yet.
The key to the Kamehameha was to gather and condense all the body's energy, then release it all at once.
It sounded similar to the principle of a ki blast, but the difficulty level was far higher.
Even though they had been practicing almost non-stop, they still couldn't fully grasp it.
"We're back!"
Just then, Sakura, carrying a pile of firewood, and Goku, carrying a huge tiger on his shoulder, descended from the sky.
"Time for lunch," Goku announced.
"Wait a bit longer, Goku-sensei. I want to practice a little more," Naruto said through gritted teeth.
He wanted to try a few more times. Maybe after these few tries—no, maybe just one more try—he would master the Kamehameha!
Sasuke and Rock Lee shared his sentiment and said to Goku in unison, "Me too!"
However, Goku didn't indulge them. He looked at them seriously and said, "Have you forgotten what I told you?"
"When it's time to train, train hard. But when it's time to eat and rest, you must eat and rest properly. That way, our training will be twice as effective with half the effort."
In the past, Naruto and the others often wanted to do extra training. Aside from a few rare occasions where he felt they hadn't truly reached their limits and allowed it, Goku usually made them rest well to recharge before training again.
Today, they had been practicing continuously all morning. Both their mental and physical stamina had reached their limits. They needed a good rest.
Not to mention it was lunch time. Replenishing their body's energy was essential.
"That's right. You guys should listen to Goku-sensei. Come over and get ready to eat," Sakura said as she set up the grill and started the fire, trying to persuade them.
Hearing this, Naruto, Sasuke, and Rock Lee looked at each other. They then abandoned the idea of continuing their training and walked over to Goku and Sakura.
"Seriously, Sakura, it's easy for you to say," Naruto grumbled as he walked.
"If you hadn't mastered the Kamehameha yet like us, I bet you'd want to keep practicing too."
Sakura had been practicing the Kamehameha with them earlier.
But it had to be said, her talent for energy control was indeed higher than theirs.
After practicing for only half the morning, she had successfully mastered the Kamehameha.
"Hehe, I'm not a training maniac like you three. If I couldn't do it, I'd definitely listen to Goku-sensei and obediently eat and rest," Sakura said with a smile, then raised a fist to encourage them.
"Alright, let's eat first. I believe you'll all master it this afternoon!"
After butchering the tiger, large chunks of meat were placed on the grill, soon filling the air with a mouth-watering aroma.
"This is so good! It's my first time eating tiger meat!" Naruto exclaimed between large bites.
After two months of hellish physical conditioning, his appetite had grown far beyond what it used to be.
To compare it using Ichiraku Ramen: before, he could only eat one bowl at a time. Now, he could eat six!
The other three also had significantly increased appetites.
Sakura had once worried she might get fat, but it turned out her worries were unfounded.
With the intensity of their training, she not only didn't gain weight but actually became leaner.
Nom nom nom!!
Everyone devoured their food, their mouths glistening with oil.
In the end, with Goku consuming ninety-nine percent and the four students sharing the remaining one percent, the entire giant tiger was wiped out.
"Ha! I'm stuffed. Now, it's nap time!"
Rubbing his belly, Goku didn't care if the ground was dirty or not. He lay down right there, pillowed his head on his hands, and drifted off to sleep.
Naruto and the others were used to this. Without any hesitation, they also lay down on the ground to sleep.
Soon, everyone was fast asleep.
Z z z Z ~~
Z z z Z ~~
Shortly after they fell asleep, a grey leopard walked out of the nearby woods. Seeing these defenseless humans, its eyes gleamed fiercely, salivating at the prospect of a meal.
But when it saw the scattered giant bones around them and the massive tiger head thrown to the side, its neck shrank back in fear. It tucked its tail between its legs and fled as fast as it could.
Danger! Danger! Danger!!
That tiger was the boss of the nearby woods, and it had been eaten by this group of humans.
If a small fry like itself dared to target these humans for lunch, it would be like an old longevity god eating arsenic—tired of living!
While Goku and the others were napping peacefully, in a secret laboratory somewhere in the Land of Fire...
Orochimaru was looking at an experimental sample in front of him, a rare frown on his face.
This sample was taken from the giant snake killed by Naruto's team.
More precisely, it was taken from the part of the snake that had been hit by the ki blast.
During his fight with Naruto's team that day, he had noticed an energy in their attacks that was different from chakra fluctuations.
So afterwards, he had promptly cut off a piece of the snake's flesh that still contained a trace of that energy, intending to study this unknown power.
But even today, he still hadn't figured out what this energy was.
"It has some similarities to Yin-Yang Release, but there are other, different elements to it."
"What exactly is this stuff?"
He pondered hard for a long time but couldn't come to a conclusion.
He had a certain level of understanding of all energies in the ninja world, even things like natural energy that very few people knew about.
But now, an energy he had never known before had suddenly appeared, leaving him both puzzled and intrigued.
"I'm becoming more and more curious about you, Son Goku."
He licked his lips, his frown gradually relaxing.
If the appearance of this energy in Naruto's team was truly because of that man named Son Goku, then that man definitely held a great secret!
The question was, would he have the opportunity to explore this secret?
Whoosh~~ Whoosh~~
A gentle breeze blew across the land, brushing over the five humans sleeping soundly.
A pink and blue butterfly fluttered slowly from the distance. After circling above Goku and the others a few times, it somehow landed on the tip of Goku's nose.
"Mm..."
Goku wrinkled his nose subconsciously.
Startled by the movement, the butterfly instantly took flight again and flew away into the distance.
After it left, Goku woke from his dream, sat up, and stretched lazily.
"Ha! That was a good sleep!"
Just as he sat up, Naruto and the others woke up in unison, stretching in exactly the same manner.
A moment later, Naruto was the first to stand up, brimming with energy. "Yosh! I will definitely master the Kamehameha this afternoon!"