Chapter 48: Picking Up Trash
Senju Compound
When Yamamoto Ryusei woke up, it was already noon the next day. He lay in bed and saw his immobilized arm and the bandages wrapped all over his body. When he tried to sit up, his body ached with pain.
"Ryusei, you're awake?" Komiya Yuki, who was beside him, quickly helped him sit up. "Are you hungry? What do you want to eat? I'll go make it."
Having not eaten for a whole day and night, Ryusei was ravenous. He nodded. "Just get me some porridge for now."
"Okay," Yuki nodded and ran out.
A short while later, Yuki, Senju Miyuki, and Mito Uzumaki all came in. Mito looked at Yuki feeding Ryusei porridge and couldn't help but tease, "Ryusei, you're really lucky to have found such a good girlfriend. Your arm is broken, and you still have someone to feed you."
Yuki's face instantly turned red, but she continued to feed Ryusei. Ryusei, being fed by someone else, smiled with some embarrassment.
Mito looked at the bruised but still grinning Ryusei, and a wave of anger washed over her. She stepped forward, grabbed his ear, and twisted it forcefully. "You still have the nerve to smile! Why did you fight that giant toad without any regard for your own body? You clearly knew you couldn't win, yet you didn't surrender!"
Ryusei endured the sharp pain and retorted, "B-but I won!"
Unexpectedly, Ryusei dared to talk back. Mito was stunned for a moment. She then thought of the move he had used to win, and her anger grew even more. She twisted his ear with a force that seemed like it would tear it off and scolded, "You still dare to argue?! Look at what kind of dirty trick you used to win! And do you think Gamasen was going all out? He didn't even use ninjutsu! Otherwise, one jutsu would have been enough to kill you!"
"Ow, ow, ow, ow... Lady Mito, I was wrong! Can you please let go first?" Ryusei begged for mercy.
Senju Miyuki quickly pleaded for him. "That's right, Lady Mito. Ryusei already knows he was wrong. Please let him go for now."
Mito looked at the pained Yuki, then at the pleading Miyuki. Recalling Miyuki's entanglement with Liu Maoxing, she felt her own trigeminal nerve ache. She gave Ryusei's ear another hard twist before finally letting go.
Ryusei rubbed his swollen ear and continued to be fed by Yuki. He asked Mito, "Lady Mito, how long will I have to lie here with these injuries?"
Mito shot him a fierce glare. "How long? A few months, probably. Who told you to act tough and get your own arm broken?"
"Actually, it won't take that long. The injuries on your body will allow you to get out of bed in three to five days. As for the arm, that will indeed need two months," a voice came from the door.
Hashirama and Tobirama came in, bringing with them the bruised and swollen quartet of Hiruzen, Kagami, Danzo, and Torifu to visit Ryusei.
Uchiha Kagami looked at the bedridden Ryusei with a guilty expression and bowed deeply. "I'm sorry, Ryusei. I never thought things would turn out like this."
Ryusei shook his head. "You don't need to apologize. I was very satisfied with that battle. Besides, you and Gamasen didn't get off lightly either."
Kagami shuddered at the memory of Gamasen's violation and said urgently, "Ryusei, please don't use that Thousand Years of Death in the future. We can't handle it."
Hiruzen, Danzo, and Torifu all nodded vigorously. Danzo thought for a moment and added, "It's best not to hit the face either. No matter how much you hit Hiruzen's face, it's still just as ugly. But Kagami and I still have our handsome looks to maintain. We can't be disfigured."
Ryusei looked at Hiruzen, who was gritting his teeth but forcing himself not to make a move. Yep, it's confirmed. The scar on Danzo's chin is definitely Hiruzen's doing. No doubt about it.
Hashirama laughed heartily. "Then the six of you will be my and Tobirama's disciples. Because I am the Hokage of Konoha, I have many things to attend to and will be very busy. So, from now on, we will take turns teaching you."
Tobirama gave Hashirama a deep look. You're busy? I'm the one who does all the work. What are you busy with?
Hashirama looked at his six new students. Only Komiya Yuki was unharmed; the rest were either bruised like pigs or injured. He lost the mood for conversation. "You can all go home for now. Rest well today. Tomorrow, gather at the mission hall. We'll take on a few missions to get you familiar with things."
After Hiruzen and the others left, Hashirama looked at the bandaged Ryusei. "You should focus on recovering for now. Join the squad after your injuries have healed. When you're better, I have a surprise for you."
After saying that, Hashirama left with Tobirama and Mito. Ryusei said to Yuki, "Yuki, go to my house, to the second drawer in the bookshelf in my room, and find a scroll that says 'Sealing Jutsu' on it for me."
Yuki nodded and ran off to get it.
Ryusei recalled his battle with Gamasen and found that there were still quite a few problems. First, his chakra reserves were far from sufficient. He hadn't used many ninjutsu yesterday, but just using Monster Strength to unleash slashes had completely drained his chakra. His reserves were completely inadequate. But to increase his chakra, besides slowly growing up, the only other way was to become a jinchuriki.
Second, he lacked the ability to deal with large creatures. This point was easy to solve; he just needed to continue practicing his slashing techniques.
Third, he had no aerial advantage. Although Geppo allowed him to move in the air, its speed was less than half that of Soru, and it was extremely taxing on his stamina, making it not worth the cost. This was a problem he had to think carefully about.
A few days later, Ryusei stood upwind on a riverbank, watching his teammates pick up trash. The river was Konoha's sewage drainage river, so there was a lot of garbage. But some of the larger pieces of trash couldn't be carried away by the river and needed to be cleaned up manually. His teammates were all covered in grime and reeked. The smell had already made Komiya Yuki vomit several times.
Seeing Ryusei smugly eating snacks while watching them work, Shimura Danzo finally couldn't take it anymore. He said to Hashirama, who was standing nearby, "Teacher Hashirama, Ryusei isn't working and is even eating snacks! He's completely distracting us!"
Before Hashirama could reply, Ryusei took over the conversation, waving his injured arm. "Danzo, I'm an injured person. I can't work. And after suffering such a serious injury, what's wrong with eating something to replenish my nutrients?"
"Can't work? Your shadow clone can feed you, but it can't help you work?" Danzo said, pointing at the shadow clone that was feeding Ryusei.
"Then you can have your shadow clone do it too."
Danzo's face turned red as he said in a small voice, "I don't know how."
Ryusei looked at him, speechless. "Then ask Teacher Hashirama to teach you."
The other five immediately looked at Hashirama with shining eyes. Hashirama, seeing that they had basically adapted to the environment and that there was little point in keeping them there any longer, nodded. "Alright, you can all come over. I'll teach you the Shadow Clone Jutsu first."
Yuki, Danzo, Kagami, and Torifu all gathered around to listen to Hashirama's lecture. As for Hiruzen, he already knew the technique.
Hiruzen created a shadow clone to pick up trash while his main body came over to Ryusei's side to eat his snacks. Ryusei's snacks were made by Liu Maoxing, and they were exceptionally delicious.
Half an hour later, the others had all learned the Shadow Clone Jutsu. They all used their clones to pick up trash while their main bodies fought over Ryusei's snacks. Before long, all the snacks were gone.
Yuki remarked, "This Shadow Clone Jutsu is so useful! Someone else does the work, and your clothes don't even get dirty."
Hearing this, Hashirama advised, "Although the Shadow Clone Jutsu is useful, its side effects are also significant. When a clone disperses, its fatigue and memories are transferred back to the main body. So if you make too many, the backlash of fatigue and memories will be enough to kill you. Therefore, you should not create more than two shadow clones at once."
Hiruzen pointed at Ryusei and asked with confusion, "Then why can Ryusei make seven or eight?"
Hashirama said as if it were a matter of course, "That's because Ryusei's physical constitution is better than yours. In this ninja world, some people are born with better physical bodies and larger chakra reserves, like our Senju clan and Mito's Uzumaki clan."
Hiruzen looked at Ryusei with some envy, a look that made Ryusei's skin crawl.
Uchiha Kagami asked with curiosity, "Then, Teacher Hashirama, how many can you make? And how many can other ordinary Jonin make?"
Hashirama said with some pride, "I can probably make over a hundred. But I don't use shadow clones often. Other Jonin can probably make a dozen or so."