Hello, I am Kurama Yakumo

The mountain behind the village was covered in dense vegetation and wild grasses, home to various towering trees. Sasuke stopped at a small hill a few meters high, where stones the size of human heads lay scattered at the base.

Sasuke drew his short blade and spun it in his hand a few times to get a feel for it, then picked out one of the stones.

What Sasuke intended to do now was carving!

To be precise, he intended to use chakra to carve!

After a conversation with Sakura, Sasuke had picked up the carving techniques he had abandoned for many years in his previous life.

In his past life, he did not come from a family of sculptors; his father was just an ordinary stonemason in the countryside who made a living by taking commissions for things like tombstones, inscriptions, and decorative patterns.

His father was an uneducated man, and even when accepting commissions for inscriptions, he usually followed the paper provided by the client, carving the characters as if he were tracing them. The resulting inscriptions were perfectly balanced in depth, lively, and pleasing to the eye.

Despite being illiterate, his father was the most popular and busiest stonemason in that town, with work almost always in high demand, until the later emergence of various sand-carving machines caused his trade to slowly decline.

Much like the legendary butcher who could carve an ox with ease, his father in his previous life had dedicated his entire heart to carving. Although he was not from a lineage of sculptors, nor a descendant of a famous family, and knew nothing of artistic schools, he possessed a master's touch.

Yet, a simple stone could be handled with ease and precision in his hands. In his eyes at the time, his father's work was far more beautiful than the pieces of so-called masters.

Although his father possessed such a craft, he had no intention of letting him inherit it. In the eyes of people from his father's generation, studying was the most promising and respectable path.

Back then, he lived up to his father's expectations and successfully got into a very good university.

But having grown up by his father's side, influenced by what he saw and heard, and occasionally helping out, he was no stranger to the craft of carving. In fact, one could say it was the skill he was most familiar with.

Everything is a form of cultivation; life is full of opportunities for practice.

Integrating cultivation into daily life—this was exactly what Sasuke was trying to do now.

The traditional, purely manual technique of carving requires a high level of skill; whether it is lettering or patterns, not a single detail can go wrong.

A single mistake would ruin the entire stone, wasting both material and time, which is why the skill requirements for a stonemason are quite high.

A stonemason's typical tools include diamond grinders, axes, saws, hammers, chisels, and knives, but Sasuke only wanted to use one.

That was—the blade!

The chakra-infused short blade in his hand!

Using the simplest of tools, he would shave away the texture and grain of the stone to reveal its beautiful form and unique spirit.

After studying the shape and texture of the stone in his hand for a moment, Sasuke prepared to begin.

His first step was to carve characters onto it.

He channeled chakra into the short blade, and it instantly turned crimson, emitting wisps of white steam and a faint hissing sound.

If most standard weapons were semiconductors or insulators to chakra, then chakra-metal weapons were almost like zero-resistance conductors.

Not only was the weapon itself far tougher than ordinary ones, but it also allowed chakra to be channeled into it almost at will, without any obstruction.

Crack!

The moment Sasuke touched the blade to the stone, preparing to carve the first character, the stone instantly shattered.

Too much chakra!

Sasuke thought to himself. After summarizing the experience, he tossed the ruined stone aside and picked up another to continue carving.

Using chakra to carve not only trained his chakra control but also exercised his wrist strength and swordsmanship!

It was a triple-threat of benefits!

Time ticked by, from morning until noon. During this period, Sasuke ruined quite a few stones, but his mastery of the force required became increasingly proficient.

With a new stone, Sasuke first used the short blade to shave the edges and waste material into a flat surface, then prepared to carve the first character again.

Hm?

Is someone there?

Sensing that he was being watched, Sasuke looked up toward the source of the gaze. He saw a young girl, no more than eight or nine years old, with delicate features and shoulder-length brown hair. She was wearing a light-colored kimono over a mesh undershirt, and she was holding a drawing board and a palette, looking at him with curiosity.

Seeing Sasuke look over, the girl blushed and said, "I'm sorry, am I bothering you?"

"No."

Sasuke shook his head. Seeing that it was just a little girl, he made a gesture for her to do as she pleased and returned to focusing on his work.

The girl took her drawing board to a distance and set it up; it seemed her purpose for being here was to sketch.

As she drew, she would occasionally poke her head out to look curiously in Sasuke's direction.

Is that Uchiha Sasuke?

Is he doing some kind of carving?

But, isn't he supposed to be a genius at the Ninja Academy?

Why would he come here to do something like this?

The girl felt a bit confused.

As for her curious gaze, Sasuke himself seemed unaware. He kept his eyes fixed entirely on the stone, his mind completely immersed in the task. Even when sweat from his forehead nearly dripped into his eyes, he didn't notice, continuing to wield the short blade as if it were an extension of his own arm.

In that instant, Sasuke's control over his chakra became increasingly fluid. The speed of the short blade in his hand grew faster and faster, nearly blurring into a phantom, and the characters carved onto the stone grew in number.

From start to finish, it was done in one breath!

Time ticked by second by second, and it wasn't until the sun hung high in the sky that the blade in Sasuke's hand finally came to a stop.

"Hoo!"

Sasuke let out a long breath, wiped the sweat from his body, and brushed away the stone dust from the monument, revealing characters that were carved with precise depth and chisel-like strokes.

As expected, the results were excellent!

At this moment, Sasuke discovered that his chakra control had improved by a small margin, and even his wrist strength and swordsmanship had increased significantly; continuing this over the long term would undoubtedly lead to a marked improvement in his overall strength.

"May I take a look?"

Just then, the little girl approached slowly, appearing from out of nowhere, and asked softly.

"Sure, it's nothing all that important."

Sasuke nodded and stepped aside to make room.

"The late emperor founded..."

The little girl leaned in, but after reading for only a moment, she realized that while she could understand some of the characters and grasp the general meaning of others, there were parts whose significance she couldn't comprehend at all, causing her to knit her little brows.

Is this a secret ninja script?

Or perhaps the language of the Uchiha clan?

Unable to find an answer, the little girl turned her head and asked, "May I ask, what is this called?"

"Chu Shi Biao!"

"Chu Shi Biao..."

The little girl murmured the words softly.

Sigh, another term whose meaning she couldn't fathom.

Seeing the girl's troubled and confused expression, Sasuke explained offhandedly, "It's just something I wrote on a whim, no need to overthink it."

"Alright!" The little girl nodded, scanned Sasuke up and down once more, and then spoke, "You are Uchiha Sasuke, right?"

"Hello, I am Kurama Yakumo."