Hokage, no one knows better than me how to cultivate talent.

"This is youth!" After finishing a thousand push-ups, Xiao Li jumped up from the ground and just in time to hear Qiu Shui's instructions. He immediately shouted with tears in his eyes.

Teacher Qiushui's method of punishing students according to the number of mistakes is exactly the same as Teacher Kai's method of rewarding students with 500 push-ups if they don't finish running a thousand laps.

Since the other three people under Teacher Qiushui were his age, he even felt that the training atmosphere under Teacher Qiushui was better than that under Teacher Kai, and he was full of expectations for the training to come.

After grading everyone's papers, Qiu Shui picked up the report card and began announcing today's reward list.

"Hinata, you got 87 points, not 90." Qiushui glanced at Hinata. "You'll get 1,000 push-ups as a reward. You're 3 points short of 90, so I'll give you an extra 300 push-ups. You'll do a total of 1,300 push-ups today. Tomorrow, you'll do 53 questions."

Hinata nodded seriously and silently memorized the numbers.

"Sasuke, 85 points." Qiu Shui flipped through the test paper. "Add 1,500 push-ups today, and do 56 questions tomorrow."

Sasuke frowned slightly, not entirely satisfied with the score.

"Naruto, 65 points." Shusui looked at Naruto. "You did an extra 2,200 push-ups today. Do 65 practice problems tomorrow."

"Teacher Qiushui, what about me?" Xiao Li quickly stepped forward, her eyes full of anticipation, afraid of being left behind.

"You." Qiu Shui glanced at him. "Your goal is to achieve an average score of fifty. You got forty-seven questions wrong today, which means you need to do a total of five thousand seven hundred push-ups. You'll also need to do ninety-seven more questions tomorrow."

"Thank you, Teacher Qiushui, I will definitely finish it seriously!" Xiao Li was not discouraged at all after hearing this. Instead, he was excited as if he had been injected with chicken blood. He immediately ran to the side and started doing push-ups, shouting slogans such as "youth" and "passion".

Sasuke, Naruto, and Hinata, seeing Lee's energetic demeanor, all had the same thought: this guy's brain circuits seem to be a bit abnormal.

They could handle two or three thousand push-ups, but after doing nearly six thousand push-ups, they'd probably have to lie on the ground.

"By the way, Akisui-sensei," Naruto said, creating three shadow clones that stood beside him, "they're my clones, so their laps should count, right?"

Just as Shusui was about to answer, Sasuke spoke up first: "Shusui-sensei, I don't think it's fair to the three of us to use shadow clones instead of training. We should only calculate the data of the original body to ensure fairness and impartiality."

"Sasuke, you bastard!" Naruto's face darkened, he glared at Sasuke through gritted teeth, then looked nervously at Shusui, his eyes screaming, "Don't listen to him!"

"I think Sasuke has a point. Naruto, if you use Shadow Clones, your training volume will double," Shusui said after thinking for a moment.

Naruto glared fiercely at Sasuke.

How come I never noticed this guy was so wicked?

Sasuke's mind was clear. Even if Naruto's body recovered quickly and he had Shusui's healing technique, he certainly wouldn't be able to maintain his energy level forever. After all, everyone has their limits.

Then he can take advantage of Naruto's fatigue to improve rapidly.

"Naruto, would you like to learn more powerful ninjutsu?" Shusui called Naruto over and asked gently.

"I wanted to, but I didn't perform as well as the other two this time," Naruto said, putting down his test paper and scratching his head.

"Naruto, it's okay if you don't perform as well as them, it's okay even if you do poorly on the test, and it's even better than last month. In the teacher's opinion, you shouldn't reward people based on their performance, so don't have that kind of thinking in the future." Qiu Shui patted his shoulder and said seriously.

"Shusui-sensei..." Naruto said, his face filled with emotion.

In his mind, rewards were always given for doing things well, but Qiu Shui's approach was completely different, which made him feel like his understanding had been shattered.

"The ninjutsu I'm teaching you is called the Multiple Shadow Clone Technique. It's the same as the Shadow Clone Technique you learned before; both of them can create shadow clones."

Naruto had thought it was some kind of powerful ninjutsu, but when he heard that it was similar to one he had learned, although he was a little disappointed, he didn't show it on his face.

"But this ninjutsu is much more powerful than the Shadow Clone Technique. The number of clones you can create is no longer limited to twenty. As long as you have enough chakra, you can create hundreds or even thousands of clones."

Naruto's eyes lit up immediately.

Although he never used hundreds of clones, just twenty clones were enough for him to defeat everyone in his grade, and he only narrowly lost to Sasuke in the end.

If you learn this Multiple Shadow Clone Technique, hundreds of clones can rush into battle together. Let alone unleashing ninjutsu, just throwing shuriken and ganging up on Sasuke would be enough to leave him bruised and battered.

"This is about how to train this ninjutsu, along with some of my training experience." Shusui took out a booklet from his person and handed it to Naruto.

Although Shusui currently possesses over 100,000 chakra, he still dares not use this ninjutsu rashly.

He figured he needed to gain at least another 50,000 chakra before he dared to actually use it; otherwise, his body would collapse as soon as he used it, which would be truly ridiculous.

Naruto is different. Although he was twelve years old when he first used this ninjutsu, and his chakra was definitely much more than it is now, the most important thing is that Naruto does not rely entirely on his own chakra to use ninjutsu.

The Bagua seal that Minato left on him is constantly stealing the Nine-Tails' chakra. Even if he uses it now, his body won't have any problems, since he has the Nine-Tails as a backup.

"Thank you, Akisui-sensei!" Naruto said earnestly as he took the booklet.

"Don't be shy. Next, you should organize the key points of this ninjutsu. If you have any questions, just ask me." Qiu Shui patted his shoulder and said gently.

[You have gifted Naruto Uzumaki - A Manual for Cultivating a High-Quality Talent with a Level 3 Relationship - Multiple Shadow Clone Technique]

[Naruto was deeply moved by the high-quality talent, triggering a fifty-fold critical hit.]

[Reward Obtained - Wind Release: Vacuum Wave (Intermediate)]

"It's this kind of ninjutsu?"

Qiu Shui was overjoyed to receive the reward.

Although Wind Release: Vacuum Wave is only a B-rank ninjutsu, it is one of the most lethal wind-style techniques.

The user transforms chakra into an extremely high-pressure airflow, causing it to spin rapidly, and spews out a straight, sharp wind blade from their mouth, capable of easily cutting through hard objects such as rocks.

Shusui had a particularly deep memory of this ninjutsu, from the battle where the kind-hearted citizen Sasuke cared for the elderly Shimura Danzo.

Danzo refused to accept help, but Sasuke insisted on helping. As a result, Danzo, enraged, launched a long-range attack with his Vacuum Wave, even severing the ribs of Sasuke's Susanoo's initial skeletal form, forcing Sasuke to defend with all his might.

Qiu Shui watched Naruto practicing the Multiple Shadow Clone Technique not far away. Perhaps because he didn't have the same sense of crisis as when he faced Mizuki later, he didn't use the Multiple Shadow Clone Technique all afternoon.

As darkness fell, Qiu Shui called the three people to her side, quickly formed several hand seals, and gathered a soft, pale green light in her palms, which she then placed on the shoulders of the three individuals.

"Alright, that concludes today's training."

"Huh? Why do I not feel tired at all?" Naruto was stunned for a moment, then suddenly jumped up, looked his hands up and down, and shook his arms vigorously, his face full of disbelief.

Although his physical recovery speed is far beyond that of ordinary people, he still feels tired after each training session and needs to rest for a whole night to recover.

Hinata and Sasuke didn't react as dramatically as Naruto, but they could feel that most of their fatigue had dissipated and their stamina had recovered by nearly a third. They looked at Shusui with curiosity.

"This is a healing ninjutsu that your teacher has just learned. You won't have to worry about not being able to recover your physical condition the next day. But don't do anything reckless because of this. I will arrange the training intensity gradually," Qiushui explained.

Sasuke was overjoyed to hear this. What he envied most during this period was Naruto's ability to train hard one day and be energetic and carefree the next day.

Hinata, on the other hand, was determined to recover better after each training session so that she would have more energy to play with Hanabi when she got back.

Recently, Hanabi has been pestering her with questions, but she often has to give only perfunctory replies because she is too tired, which makes her feel a little guilty.

Li, who was so exhausted that he collapsed on the ground, was instantly revitalized, exclaiming in amazement, and prepared to continue training.

"Xiao Li, that's enough for today's training. Otherwise, your body won't be able to keep up with tomorrow's training." Qiu Shui stopped him by saying that he would likely get even more questions wrong and receive even more rewards tomorrow.

-

Inside a casino on Tanbata Street.

"Lady Tsunade, please stop!"

Kato Shizune stood beside Tsunade, her face extremely grim, and earnestly advised, "You've already lost almost all of the three million taels you borrowed last time in the past three days. If this continues, we won't even be able to afford tonight's dinner and tomorrow's lodging."

As soon as she finished speaking, the other guests at the gambling table looked up and stared at Tsunade nervously, afraid that she would really stop.

After all, Tsunade's reputation as a "big fat sheep" resounded throughout the entire ninja world. She was seen as a money-spending machine by all gamblers. If she left, the money that was delivered to their door would fly away.

However, gamblers don't listen to advice; otherwise, there wouldn't be the saying that nine out of ten gamblers lose.

"Shizune, trust me one more time," Tsunade said confidently. "I feel like we'll definitely win this time, and then we'll definitely win back everything we lost before, plus interest. When that happens, don't even mention food and lodging, I'll take you to a luxury hotel and have a lavish meal."

"I'm betting big this round, 200,000 taels." Tsunade pushed all the chips in front of her and went all in.

Fearing that Tsunade might change her mind, the dealer immediately lifted the dice cup.

"One, one, two, small."

"hateful!"

Tsunade slammed her fist on the gambling table. Her slender, white fist contained a terrifying strength that was completely incongruous with her appearance. A dull thud resounded, and several deep cracks appeared on the table.

The guests at the table remained calm, some even taking a sip of their tea, clearly unfazed by the scene.

"It's over..." Shizune's eyes were glazed over, her lips trembled slightly, and her face was filled with despair. "I'm going to have to live a life of hunger and homelessness again..."

Tun Tun poked her head out from her arms and let out a mournful whimper.

"Boss, lend me another 500,000." Tsunade showed no intention of getting up and turned to the casino owner who had been watching coldly from the sidelines at the main table.

"Lady Tsunade, please don't lend it anymore." Shizune's face showed a panicked expression. She hurriedly stepped forward and grabbed Tsunade's sleeve, her voice already trembling with tears.

"Shizune, trust me one more time." Tsunade turned around, looked into Shizune's eyes, and said earnestly, "I'm sure we'll win this time."

Mute: Do you think I would believe what you're saying?

You've said this to me at least a thousand times. Besides, you can only fool yourself with this, why are you trying to fool me?

I am no longer the naive girl I once was.

"I'm sorry, Lady Tsunade, you haven't repaid the three million taels you borrowed before, so we can't lend you any more for the time being," the casino owner said.

He really wanted to lend her the money, since Tsunade had a reputation for always losing at gambling. Lending her money would be a sure thing, much better than any other business.

However, in recent years, it has become increasingly difficult to collect debts, and debt collectors are often tricked by her in various ways.

Their casino is small and can't withstand such turmoil, so they can only control the amount of loans to avoid making the debt collection process too difficult in the end.

"What? Lady Tsunade, when did you borrow another three million?" Upon hearing this news, Shizune felt a wave of dizziness, her body swayed, and she almost fainted on the spot.

A fleeting look of guilt crossed Tsunade's face. She had secretly sneaked into the casino last night to borrow the money after Shizune fell asleep.

She had planned to quietly pay back the money she won, but she ended up losing it all again.

However, she was a seasoned veteran with exceptional mental fortitude, and her expression quickly returned to normal, as if nothing had happened.

"Then lend me another two hundred thousand." Tsunade looked at the casino owner with unwavering determination. "Two hundred thousand, just for the last round."

Silently holding her breath, she stared nervously at the boss.

Please don't lend it... If you lend it again, you really won't be able to afford food...

The casino owner remained silent for a moment, then slowly shook his head.

Mute breathed a sigh of relief.

"You're so stingy. It's not like I'm not going to pay you back," Tsunade muttered discontentedly, standing up and dusting off her clothes.

But having run out of bargaining chips, she had no choice but to stop for the time being; she couldn't very well just rob someone outright, could she?

Kurenai Yuhi has been traveling at full speed for the past two days so as not to miss Tsunade.

Fortunately, Baishui Town is not too far from Muye Village, and at her speed, she arrived just in time for the next day at 6 p.m.

Upon entering the town, she didn't bother to rest and headed straight for the casinos she remembered.