The next day, Uzuki Yugao returned to the small woods where she had previously exercised with Ryōsuke.
She knew he came here to train at this time every day; perhaps the previous incident had just been a minor anomaly.
She had to figure out the secret behind her strength. If she didn't find out, she couldn't reconcile herself to just giving up like this.
This time, she raised her guard. She would never get that close to him again. She could sense his greedy desire for her.
'Detestable guy.'
She could tell just by seeing the way his eyes lit up as he looked at her.
'Getting close is extremely dangerous. This bad guy.'
Uchiha Ryōsuke hadn't expected to see Uzuki Yugao so early in the morning. This time, Yugao was wearing a white training suit.
Seeing her again made him feel quite happy.
"I didn't expect you to come today as well. Do you still want to train with me?"
As he spoke, he couldn't help but move closer to her, remembering her scent.
Yugao noticed his approach and couldn't help but step back. 'This bad guy wants to pull something again.'
She spoke up quickly.
"Of course. Let's hurry up and cultivate."
She had to entertain his attention and work up a sweat. That way, he probably wouldn't try anything on her.
Ryōsuke noticed her reaction and felt a bit dissatisfied.
"Didn't you say you liked me? Why do you seem so afraid of me?"
Uzuki Yugao forced a smile.
"How could that be? I just want to start training early, that's all. You're overthinking it."
'I am exactly afraid of you.'
Ryōsuke let out an "Oh."
"So that's how it is."
He didn't believe her, but it didn't matter.
In an instant, his feet moved, and he appeared right in front of Yugao.
He directly wrapped his arms around her waist, which was soft and slender enough to grip easily.
With a smile on his face, he said, "Since you don't hate it, let's start with a daily lover's greeting to strengthen our relationship."
Yugao was completely bewildered. She couldn't react to his speed at all and was hugged in an instant. She was still too close to him.
Immediately after, she felt her thick masculine aura, which made her momentarily dazed. Then his wandering hands crept in, giving her a strange sensation. She wanted to push him away, but she couldn't budget him at all.
Half an hour later, Ryōsuke finally let go of Yugao, looking satisfied.
"We've exchanged a friendly lover's greeting. Now, let's begin our training."
He didn't explain the training content any further. He had already explained it to her yesterday, so he simply started jogging around the small woods.
Yugao, left standing there, was flushed red and furious. Watching his receding back, she felt like she was going to explode with anger.
'This guy succeeded again. I thought I had kept enough distance.'
Before starting her plan, she had thought of many ways to avoid being taken advantage of, but none of them worked. It felt like all her preparation was in vain.
She had really suffered a huge loss this time. 'This guy is truly a beast.' Her mouth and upper body felt numb, making her feel a bit impure.
'I must raise my guard even higher. I must defend my final line of defense.'
Having suffered such a big loss, she was determined to observe carefully today, discover the secret of her strength, and escape this devil as soon as possible.
She moved her legs and chased after Ryōsuke, observing his movements as she ran.
'Maybe he has some special movements.'
Throughout the morning, the two of them completed three rounds of training.
By now, Yugao was soaked in sweat and panting heavily.
'He hides it so deeply.' She couldn't find any clues at all; it was just ordinary, mundane training.
Running, push-ups, squats, sit-ups. Compared to other more grueling training methods, this was even a bit plain.
It was just that the volume was relatively high.
She had once seen that taijutsu ninja who ran while dragging a huge stone tied to his waist.
That level of grueling labor was much greater than what she was seeing here.
'Did he discover that I'm a spy?'
She knew very well that her skills as a spy were not up to par.
Thinking of this, her expression changed. 'Is that really it?'
The more she thought about it, the more likely it seemed. That was why he was hiding things.
'This despicable guy.'
Immediately, she put on a slightly delicate and weak appearance, though her face carried a hint of anger.
"Ryōsuke, did you really become this strong just by relying on this kind of training?"
Hearing this, Ryōsuke realized she wanted to probe into why he became so strong. He spoke indifferently.
"Yes. By training hard like this every day, my body becomes stronger and stronger."
He wasn't lying. This was indeed his method of becoming stronger. As long as he trained every day, his body would gain attribute points. Once his body was strong, opening the Eight Inner Gates would make him even more powerful.
Although he now had other attack moves.
For instance, the Mangekyō Sharingan, which allowed him to activate Susanoo. But fundamentally, his strongest asset was the Eight Inner Gates.
And the Eight Inner Gates relied on the body's capabilities.
When facing future enemies—powerhouses possessing the Rinnegan—the Eight Inner Gates would still be effective.
To deal with such people, one had to use Senjutsu or Taijutsu; Ninjutsu and the like were useless.
This was the reason he persisted in exercising.
Hearing his words, Yugao didn't quite believe it in her heart. This was undeniably just ordinary training.
She had followed along with the training yesterday and today.
But she didn't feel like she was getting stronger at all, only the sensation of infinite physical exhaustion.
'This guy definitely isn't telling the truth.' She couldn't help but say angrily, "Ryōsuke, are you even going to lie to your girlfriend? This is useless."
Ryōsuke shook his head.
"Why would I disappoint you? I've always trained like this. Have you seen me doing any other kind of training?"
Yugao was helpless. He was right. According to his investigation, he really did train in these small woods all the time, almost every day.
But based on her practical test and common sense, this kind of training definitely couldn't be his secret. There had to be another method.
However, even if she asked him now, how could he possibly tell her such an important secret?
They had only known each other for two days; their relationship wasn't that closed yet.
She hesitated in her heart. Should she pay a greater price to strengthen the relationship between them?
But going anything further would cross her final bottom line.
That was absolutely unacceptable.
She felt incredibly conflicted.
Ryōsuke, having finished his cultivation and gained the attribute boost for his body, planned to head back as he had things to do in the afternoon.
But before leaving, he still wanted to tease her a bit.
"Yugao, are you interested in coming to my house to sit for a while? Ideally, to wash off the sweat from your body."
Yugao instantly became alert. 'This guy is at it again.'
Going back with him would be walking right into the lion's den. If this guy's beastly nature erupted, she would truly lose her integrity, so she absolutely could not go.
"Forget it. I can go home by myself."
Ryōsuke wasn't surprised by this answer at all. Instead, he slowly approached her.
Yugao didn't dodge. Since she was covered in sweat, she didn't believe he would dare to kiss her. However, the voice of a hellish devil reached her ears.
"Don't you want to complete the final step with me and join together as man and woman?"
Yugao's face changed drastically. 'Who wants to join together with this bad guy?'
Fearfully, she took a big step back and said hurriedly, "Training is over. I should go now."
Then, without waiting for Ryōsuke's response, she fled as if escaping for her life.
'He actually had such malicious thoughts. If he forcibly took me to his house... his strength is clearly much higher than mine.'
She wouldn't be able to resist; their strength wasn't on the same level at all.
Ryōsuke watched her fleeing figure, feeling happy. Sure enough, teasing someone like this was very nice and good for one's physical and mental health.
Although she didn't genuinely like him but came with an agenda to investigate the reason for his strength, the fact that she dared to harbor designs on him meant only the Third Hokage could be behind it.
'I didn't expect that old guy to try something.'
However, sending such a beautiful spy over... 'Truly worthy of the Third Hokage. Good on you.'
He thanked the Third Hokage for the beautiful girl he sent.
He would unreservedly use her to complete the missions of the Many Children, Many Blessings System.
There was no need to be gentle with spies. 'I'll take her down next time.'
It was getting late. He needed to wash up and rest. The five major clans should be coming over in the afternoon.