Ryoko sat firmly on top of the students piled together like a mountain of flesh, pressing down until the people underneath cried out in pain.
"Do you yield? Still want to pick a fight?"
A muffled, tearful plea for mercy came from beneath him.
"We yield, we yield! Big brother, we were wrong, we won't dare do it again. Please get up, I... I can't breathe..."
In the Ninja world, strength is the only thing that matters.
After witnessing Ryoko's overwhelming strength firsthand, the resentment they felt out of jealousy instantly transformed into fear and submission toward the strong.
"Hmph, that's more like it."
Only then did Ryoko slowly stand up, brushing off his clothes which showed no sign of dust, his eyes gleaming with a shrewd light.
"Fighting you guys took a lot out of me. I'm hungry."
"Go, bring me all the bentos you brought. Consider it compensation for me. It's only fair, right?"
He held out his hand righteously.
To be honest, bickering with these brats was a pure waste of time; his main goal was to eat their lunches legitimately.
After all, the allowance the Clan Head gave him wasn't much, barely enough for him to scrape by.
To eat more, he had to find his own ways.
The students who had just been beaten into submission didn't dare say no; they helped each other up and dejectedly presented their carefully prepared bentos.
Looking at the several fragrant bentos before him, Ryoko's eyes lit up. He sat on the ground without ceremony, opened the boxes, and began devouring the food, completely ignoring the shocked gazes around him.
Seeing this, Akimichi Chen Dong wore a "just as I thought" expression and quietly pushed the snacks hidden deep in his drawer even further back.
He knew it! This crafty Ryoko's true motive was never the fight; his target was always the food!
Terrifying, simply terrifying!
Under the stunned gaze of the entire class, Ryoko devoured five hearty bentos in one go, like a whirlwind sweeping away clouds, leaving not even a single grain of rice.
That horrific appetite once again redefined the understanding of the entire Class A.
A few children from Ninja Clans who were quite knowledgeable, such as those from the Hyuga and Uchiha families, now had very solemn expressions.
They realized that this newcomer, Ryoko Akimichi, was incredibly powerful and would definitely be a formidable rival in the class in the future.
Meanwhile, in the Hokage Office.
Hiruzen Sarutobi watched everything in the classroom through a crystal ball and couldn't help but shake his head.
"These children's skills are still too ordinary; they can't test his true depth or abilities at all."
He blew a smoke ring, his gaze focusing on Ryoko's actions as he quickly emptied the bentos.
"However, this kid... certainly eats a lot."
Watching Ryoko finish five people's worth of food in the crystal ball without a change in expression or physique, Hiruzen Sarutobi was also secretly alarmed.
It seemed the rumors about him draining Root's budget were likely not groundless.
"Mm, not bad, not bad. I've finally recovered a bit of stamina."
After finishing the five bentos, Ryoko patted his still-flat stomach with lingering satisfaction and returned to his seat to continue his nap.
He could clearly feel the food being digested and absorbed at an unprecedented speed, transforming into currents of warm energy that continuously nourished his body and caused his strength to grow slightly.
Although he didn't understand the specific principle, as long as it benefited him, he was happy to let it be.
The day's school hours quickly slipped away while he slept.
The basic theories taught at school were incredibly dull to him, making him feel drowsy.
However, thinking about how he got five free bentos, it wasn't a total loss.
On the way home from school, the scents of food wafting from the restaurants and houses on both sides of the street constantly stimulated his sense of smell, and the hunger that had just subsided surged back again.
"I'm so hungry. I want to eat something..."
He rubbed his growling stomach with a troubled face.
Thinking about how the small allowance from the Clan Head couldn't even afford one full meal, he felt a wave of despair.
It really lived up to the saying: a single penny can stump a hero, and it can certainly starve a big eater.
"It looks like tomorrow at school, I'll have to find a few more 'enthusiastic' classmates to contribute their bentos."
He was already calculating the sources of tomorrow's "meal tickets."
"But... what about tonight's meal? It's not like a meat pie will just fall from the sky." He muttered to himself as he walked aimlessly.
Suddenly, his gaze swept over a dense forest nearby and the Naka River shimmering in the sunset, and his eyes lit up.
"I've got it! I can do it myself and be well-fed!"
He was, after all, someone who had mastered Chakra Extraction and some of the Akimichi Clan's secret techniques, and he had even undergone practical training in Root; his strength was no longer what it used to be.
Hunting or fishing should be a piece of cake, right?
At that thought, he perked up and plunged into the forest, eyes wide as he searched for prey like wild rabbits or pheasants.
Unfortunately, despite his strength and Chakra, he lacked actual wilderness hunting experience. After wandering in the woods for a long time, he couldn't even find a single hair of any prey.
However, his intense craving for food kept him from getting discouraged.
He immediately changed his target and ran to the banks of the Naka River.
Looking into the clear river water, he could see many plump fish swimming leisurely.
"Haha, tonight will be a grilled fish feast!"
Ryoko grinned, rolled up his sleeves, and without caring about the cold water, jumped directly into the knee-deep shallows and began trying to catch fish by hand.
The fish in the river were very slippery. Ryoko scrambled and splashed for a long time without touching a single scale, instead getting himself soaked, which made him jump with frustration.
"Damn it, these slippery guys are so hard to catch!"
In his desperation, he held his breath, clenched his fist, and smashed it hard against the water's surface!
Boom!
With a dull thud, water splashed everywhere, and the immense force even caused the river surface to briefly cave in.
A few unlucky fish were dazed by the sudden impact and were knocked out of the water, flopping helplessly on the grass by the shore.
Ryoko was stunned at first, then overjoyed: "Eh? So that works? That's great!"
It was like he had discovered a new world. He immediately gave up the inefficient hand-catching and began to swing his chubby but incredibly powerful fists, unleashing a barrage of strikes against the surface of the Naka River.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Loud noises echoed one after another, and water shot into the sky time and again as more and more fish were stunned or blown onto the shore.
Just as he was getting into it, having harvested over a dozen fat fish and preparing to keep going, a voice stopped him.
"Stop right there, kid! What are you doing?"
Two Konoha Patrol Ninjas who had heard the commotion stood on the bank, looking helplessly at him and his "spoils of war."
After receiving a brief lecture from the patrol Ninjas about "not damaging the public environment and not overfishing," Ryoko dejectedly picked up his pile of fish, ready to go home.
"Sigh, seriously," he grumbled in a low voice as he walked, "how come the protagonists in novels never get in trouble for catching fish in the river? I only caught a few and got lectured..."
As he was walking home with the fish, a loud explosion suddenly came from deep within the nearby woods, followed by a pillar of orange-red fire shooting into the sky, which gave him a start.
"Whoa! What's going on?"
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