Effort Shows, Keep It Up, Naruto

At night,

Naruto usually lay in bed, holding Nine-Tails. One hand stroked Nine-Tails' smooth fur, but strangely, he could only stroke from Nine-Tails' head down to his waist. The moment he tried to stroke farther down from the waist, Nine-Tails would stick up his butt and bare his teeth.

In his other hand, he held a book about animal husbandry and read it carefully.

Of course, while Naruto read, Nine-Tails was also holding a book. It was none other than Become a Five-Star Chef in One Month.

During the day, Naruto went to the Back Mountain to practice the Indestructible Body. He could not overtrain the Indestructible Body, or it would harm his body.

So Naruto divided his time sensibly. Whenever he could not practice the Indestructible Body, he practiced the two skills, "Body is Weapon" and "Thousand Jin Embrace."

And so the days passed.

As time went on, Naruto's progress steadily increased. As for his animal husbandry venture, after Grandpa Third allocated the Back Mountain to him, Naruto also borrowed some startup funds from him.

Afterward, he made use of Nine-Tails' abilities to fence off the Back Mountain and brought in a herd of cattle and sheep.

One day, a group of yellow cattle were happily grazing on the grass when a figure suddenly rushed in, startling them.

But the cattle quickly grew angry.

Lowering their heads, they charged at the person.

That person was Naruto. He wore a red cape and assumed the Indestructible Body Fifth Form. The Indestructible Body Fifth Form contained forty-five variations, and Naruto was currently using the fortieth variation.

By the Fifth Form, Naruto's body had become incredibly resilient. His flesh and skin were only slightly inferior to those of cattle.

The method of wearing a bright red cape and entering the herd to provoke the cattle into goring him with their horns had naturally been taught by the system. It claimed that this could speed up the toughening of his flesh and skin, while also aiding his Indestructible Body training.

"Shake your major tendons and muscles to redirect the force of the horns' charge," the system reminded Naruto in his mind.

"Crackle..."

In an instant, Naruto's major tendons and muscles rapidly trembled. A cow's horns were sharp, concentrating force into a smaller area. If he did not disperse and redirect that force, Naruto would definitely be pierced by the horns.

But now, with his body rapidly shaking, more than half the force was deflected, leaving the horns unable to hurt Naruto.

Not far away, Nine-Tails watched with a disgusted expression. "What an idiot. Why fight a bunch of cows?" After complaining, Nine-Tails lowered his head and continued studying the cookbook in his paws.

The herd charged together, yet Naruto remained as immovable as a mountain. In fact, taking advantage of the uneven force from the cattle surrounding him, whenever force struck from, say, the east, Naruto's body turned slightly eastward.

Gradually, Naruto began spinning like a top, faster and faster.

Whenever the cattle's force landed on the spinning Naruto, they felt as though they could not exert any strength. After butting him a few times, their heads began to feel dizzy.

Finally, one yellow cow shut its eyes and collapsed to the ground.

Seeing this, the other cattle stopped wasting their effort and fled the area. They were helpless against that idiot.

"Naruto, stop it quickly..." The system's panicked voice rang out in Naruto's mind.

Naruto hurriedly leaped away from that calf.

"System, what's going on?" Naruto asked, his face flushed as he looked at the calf in the distance, which was radiating an adorably dazed aura as it wandered about without any sense of direction.

"Naruto, you nearly fell into the Evil Abyss just now," the system said solemnly.

"The Evil Abyss?" Naruto was confused, but he knew it should be related to that calf.

"Yes, the Evil Abyss." Seeing Naruto nod, the system continued,

"Evil used that calf as a medium to open the gate leading to the abyss. Once it opened, you would fall into the Evil Abyss and never be able to escape."

"After falling into the Evil Abyss, you would gradually lose your fighting spirit bit by bit, waste away, and accomplish nothing for the rest of your life."

Listening to the system's grave words, Naruto's face filled with terror, though he also breathed a sigh of relief. Fortunately, the system had stopped him in time. Otherwise, he would have fallen into the Evil Abyss, and his path of Hardening would have been cut off. Naturally, he would never have made any friends.

That was terrifying.

Glancing once more at the calf in the distance, which had lowered its head to graze, Naruto asked nervously, "Then, should I...?"

Naruto made a throat-slitting gesture.

"That won't be necessary. Evil merely used it as a medium. Once its scheme was exposed, the evil dispersed into nothingness. Let it grow a little first. It barely has any meat on it right now."

Since the system had said so, Naruto did not insist. Instead, he walked over to the unconscious yellow cow.

The cow's eyes spun in circles without focus. A few spinning stars flickered above its head, while its hooves were raised stiffly in the air, completely motionless.

"Kurama, this yellow cow has heatstroke. It's done for. Get over here!" Naruto shouted toward Nine-Tails.

"I'm coming, I'm coming!" Nine-Tails answered excitedly.

A moment later, Nine-Tails came hopping over happily, dressed in a chef's uniform with a chef's hat on his head and an apron tied around his waist, a knife in his left paw and a ladle in his right.

"Ah, how did it get heatstroke? Summer isn't even here yet." Nine-Tails looked puzzled as he reached toward the cow's nostrils. Then he cried out, "Oh no, it's not breathing."

The moment he withdrew his finger, the grass beneath the cow's nose stirred in the wind.

Naruto and Nine-Tails exchanged a glance, then both turned away and pretended not to see it.

Naruto waved his hand and took off his red cape. "Nine-Tails, make lunch a little more lavish today. I'm going to train."

"Don't worry." Nine-Tails waved the ladle in his paw. "Go train already. I'm getting started. This is a major project."

"Mm."

Naruto left, handing the matter over to Nine-Tails. After walking about a hundred steps, he heard a miserable "Moo!" from behind. Turning around, he saw Nine-Tails fiercely smack the cow's head with a ladle. The yellow cow, which had just gotten up, fell back down with a bang.

"Is it okay?"

"It's nothing. That was a final burst of life, a final burst of life..." Nine-Tails gave an awkward laugh and began butchering the cow.

"Heatstroke... Nothing could be done about it," Naruto sighed helplessly, then walked over to several trees.

Before him stood three trees whose fibers had been compressed and broken at about chest height from being unable to bear the strain. Naruto had broken them a few days ago while practicing Thousand Jin Embrace.

Thousand Jin Embrace.

Hug a tree, and the tree breaks.

Nothing more than that.