Chapter 108 - 107: The First Lesson

Chapter 108: Chapter 107: The First Lesson

"The pain of discipline weighs ounces; the pain of regret weighs tons."

— Jim Rohn

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"My name is Otis."

His deep voice carried effortlessly across the training ground.

"And from today onward..."

"...I’m your instructor."

Silence.

Thousands of students simply stared.

Otis raised one finger and slowly swept it across the sea of young faces before him.

"I’m not here to teach you theory."

"You already have teachers for that."

His gaze became colder as several students straightened instinctively under it.

"I’m here for only one reason."

"That is, to make sure you survive."

A murmur spread through the crowd.

Otis ignored it.

"Most of you will graduate by the age of fourteen."

"Some earlier."

"Some later."

"But eventually..."

"You’ll leave these walls."

He stepped off the platform.

His footsteps echoed as he walked directly into the crowd of students.

"You’ll leave your homes."

"Your village."

"Your families."

"The comfort you most certainly take for granted."

He looked around slowly.

"And the world outside won’t care what score you got on a written exam."

"It won’t care if you graduated first in your class or at the top of the Academy."

"It won’t care how talented your parents were, nor will it care about the clan behind you."

His eyes moved through the crowd.

Naruto.

Sasuke.

Hinata.

Sayuri.

Then finally to...

Sakura.

"When someone is trying to drive a kunai through your throat..."

"...nobody asks how many questions you answered correctly."

The entire field fell silent.

"Out there, you won’t have the luxury of losing and getting another chance like you do in the Academy."

"In the shinobi world..."

"You fail once."

"You die."

"And dead people don’t get second chances."

He folded his arms, letting that sink in.

A few seconds later...

"Okay. That’s all."

Otis turned around.

"Now follow me, all of you."

He started walking.

Almost lazily.

"Oh..."

He glanced over his shoulder.

"One more thing."

"If you can’t keep up..."

"...don’t expect lunch."

The students exchanged confused looks.

Naruto scratched his head.

"Huh?"

"That sounds easy."

Otis kept walking.

The entire class followed.

They left the Academy, crossed several streets, passed through Konoha’s outer districts, and then entered the forest.

The pace remained comfortable. So much so that the students chatted along the way. Some laughed, while others wondered what today’s lesson would be. Everyone thought it would be an ordinary walk.

Then...Otis took one slightly longer step.

His walking speed increased.

No one noticed at first until someone near the back frowned.

"...Is he walking faster?"

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Another minute passed, and the chatter died away. The students had begun walking briskly just to keep up with him.

After another five minutes...

They were jogging.

But Otis still appeared to be walking normally.

"What the Hell...?"

Naruto frowned.

"Why am I running?!"

The pace increased again.

Now everyone was sprinting.

Otis never broke into a run. He simply kept walking. Yet the distance between each of his steps somehow continued to grow, making it harder and harder for them to keep up.

(Pic)

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After an hour, most of the students were drenched in sweat. Many struggled to breathe, while some had already begun to fall behind.

Otis continued forward without even looking back.

Using Earth Sense to observe everything happening around him, he could feel every heartbeat, every footstep, and every fluctuation in chakra as he evaluated each student’s endurance, breathing, posture, and foundation, noting it all down in the little diary in his hand for the upcoming training.

Another hour passed...

Students began collapsing. Some grabbed trees to catch their breath, and a few even vomited.

Others simply fell to the ground, unable to move.

Iruka watched from afar with a horrified expression.

"...He’s trying to kill them."

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