Kazama gave two dry coughs and quickly brought the topic back on track.

"Alright, now I announce the rules for this training:"

"After everyone ties the stones, keep your legs together. You are not allowed to walk or run, you can only hop forward! Whoever lands with their left and right feet apart will not get any dinner today."

Naruto was extremely disdainful of this: "Kazama-sensei, this is too simple, is there anything harder?"

Kazama kicked Naruto in the rear: "Stop showing off, you are not allowed to take off your weights."

"Tch, even without taking off the weights, I can still be better than them!"

Naruto immediately picked through the stone pile, choosing the two largest ones to tie to his calves.

After tying them, Naruto deliberately hopped twice in front of Sasuke: "Sasuke, look closely! I am the man who is going to be Hokage, this little weight is just a drizzle to me."

Sasuke let out a soft sneer: "Idiot, all you know how to do is talk big."

He walked over to the stone pile, picked and chose among them, and finally found two stones about the same size as Naruto's, tying them to his legs.

Naruto let out a tch: "Smug Sasuke, don't push yourself! Don't collapse after walking two steps!"

Too lazy to bother with him, Sasuke took the lead by keeping his legs together and hopping out toward the dirt road ahead.

Refusing to show weakness, Naruto yelled and closely followed behind.

Sakura picked two smaller stones to tie on, and with a bitter face, joined the hopping army.

What somewhat surprised Kazama was—

Haku, who had just recovered from a serious illness, also walked up to the stone pile, picked two medium-sized stones, and prepared to wrap hemp rope around his legs.

At this moment, Zabuza came over to stop him: "Are you crazy? Your internal organs were only sutured a few days ago."

Haku raised his head, his eyes firm: "Lord Zabuza, I also want to become stronger, and I don't want to keep hiding behind you as a burden."

Zabuza still did not compromise: "But you can't mobilize Chakra right now, besides, what's the use of this kind of training method?"

Hearing this, Kazama was not happy: "What do you mean this training method is useless? Have you forgotten how you were defeated by my subordinates?"

"Uh…" Zabuza looked at Kazama somewhat awkwardly.

"And some guy who constantly talks about others being tools, how come he is starting to show such warm concern now?"

Kazama curled his lips: "Things like tools, of course, the more they are polished, the sharper they get. If they are blunt, you grind them; if they are broken, you fix them and keep using them."

Zabuza was choked up by Kazama's words.

Taking advantage of the time the two were talking, Haku neatly tied the stones, kept his legs together, and hopped forward following Team 7.

Zabuza glared at Kazama, having no choice but to follow along helplessly.

At the very front of the team, the contest between Naruto and Sasuke also reached a conclusion.

Naruto's stamina was superior to ordinary people, coupled with the special Chakra healing inside his body, he was still full of vigor after hopping around with big stones for most of the day.

Sasuke's side was miserable.

In less than an hour, his thigh muscles began to ache and cramp.

In order not to lose face by collapsing from exhaustion, Sasuke slowed down his pace and gradually fell behind the team.

Naruto stopped in front and turned back to shout: "Sasuke! Are you failing already?"

"You're the one who can't make it, you brute! I am just saving my stamina to deal with enemies that might appear at any time."

"Hahaha, Kazama-sensei was right. With that stubborn mouth of yours, even if the world is destroyed, your mouth will still be there."

"I'll kill you, you bastard Naruto!"

"Come, come, come, catch up to me first before you talk." Naruto shook his rear at Sasuke.

...

At dusk.

The group hopped all the way to a canyon area on the border of the Land of Fire.

The four youngsters were completely numb, relying entirely on one breath to hold on, and their speed slowed down a lot.

Even Naruto, who had undergone Might Guy's hell training, began to beg Kazama for mercy:

"Kazama-sensei, let us rest a bit, my legs are about to break, or at least let me take off the weights!"

Hearing this, Kazama criticized them with grief and indignation: "Rest? How do you even have the nerve to ask me for a rest?"

Kazama assumed the posture of a head teacher lecturing: "Calculate how old you are this year! Twelve or thirteen-year-old lads, this is the golden stage of being full of vigor and enduring hardship!"

"At your age, how can you have the cheek to talk about resting? Back in my day, this amount of training wouldn't even count as a warmup!"

Sakura curled her lips aggrievedly from the side: "But teacher…"

"But what but! Don't make excuses for your lack of hard work!"

Kazama didn't give Sakura any chance to interrupt: "Do you think tying these stones is for practicing for me? You are practicing for yourselves!"

"If you shed one more drop of sweat today, you will shed one less drop of blood on the battlefield tomorrow!"

"When you encounter powerful enemies in the future, when people already have a Kunai held against your neck, can you say to the enemy, 'Wait a minute, I want to take a rest'?"

Kazama sighed and said very disappointedly: "Young people nowadays really cannot endure any hardship at all. You are definitely the worst batch I have ever led!"

"Naruto, if you can't keep going, forget it. I am quite familiar with Teuchi, so it's fine to send you to his shop to sell ramen."

Naruto blushed red: "Who… who said I'm going to sell ramen! I refuse to take off my weights! This Great One can still jump! I will definitely jump further than that guy Sasuke!"

Finished speaking, Naruto acted like he had been injected with chicken blood, enduring his aching legs, howling, and hopping forward again.

Led by Naruto, Sasuke, Sakura, and Haku also followed suit.

Kazama looked at their backs from behind, and stroked his chin in satisfaction: "Tch, this set of rhetoric is really so useful in any world."

...

Ahead of the canyon, a long string of torches suddenly lit up, and a well-equipped caravan was rushing toward them.

The few caravan guards walking in the front just turned the corner, and through the firelight, they clearly saw the scene before them.

On the dusty dirt road, dust was flying everywhere.

Four figures with pale faces were hopping up and down toward them like that.

"There are dirty things here!"

"I remember this kind of thing is called a zombie, right?"

"Eh? Isn't that something from the Dragon God Country? How did it come to our side?"

The guards fell into chaos, pulling out their Ninja Blades one after another, but no one dared to step forward.

The caravan boss was a pot-bellied middle-aged man wearing an exquisite silk robe.

Seeing this eerie scene, instead of being afraid, the boss's eyes lit up.

He pushed away the guards blocking the front and ran a few steps to the only person walking normally, Kazama.

"Sir, may I ask if you are the legendary corpse driver who can command the dead?"

Kazama was stunned for a moment: "What the heck?"

The boss leaned closer and said in a low voice:

"Stop pretending, I can tell! These four corpses are hopping stiffly, you must have cast a Secret Technique!"

The boss began to pour out his grievances, saying that a batch of special goods they were transporting had been targeted by a group of rogue wandering ninja.

Being hunted all the way, more than half of the guards were killed or injured, and they were about to not hold on anymore.

"To tell you the truth, I am in urgent need of talent like you!"

The boss stuffed the money pouch into Kazama's hand: "As long as you can use these corpses that don't know pain and never get tired to block in front as cannon fodder to cover us in transporting goods, I am willing to give you some more money!"

Kazama weighed the gold coins in his hand and almost laughed out loud.

Not far away, Naruto was so tired that stars appeared in his eyes, and he happened to hear the words "corpse" and "cannon fodder".

This Great One is training to death, and is being treated as a corpse? And going to be cannon fodder?

Naruto's anger burned, he forced a breath and scolded: "This Great One is not a corpse! You fat man, are you looking for a beating?!"