Hello, I'm Kurama Yakumo

The back mountain was covered in thick vegetation and wild grass, with all kinds of towering trees growing there. Sasuke walked to a small hill several meters high and stopped. At the foot of the hill lay stones as large as ordinary human heads.

Sasuke drew his short blade and twirled it in his hand a few times. After getting a feel for it, he selected one of the stones and picked it up.

What Sasuke needed to do now was carve.

More precisely, he would use Chakra to carve.

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

He had not come from some family of sculptors in his previous life. His father had merely been an ordinary stonemason in the countryside, earning enough to support the family by taking commissions for gravestones, inscriptions, and patterns.

His father had been an illiterate roughneck. Even when taking commissions to engrave steles or words, he usually just followed the paper provided by the client and carved the characters onto the stone as though copying a drawing. The inscriptions he made had just the right depth and looked lively and pleasing.

Though he could not read a single word, his father had still been the most popular and busiest stonemason in that town, with more work than he could handle. It was only after all kinds of sandblasting engraving machines appeared that his trade gradually declined.

Like Butcher Ding carving an ox, his father in that previous life had devoted his entire life to carving. He had not come from a family of sculptors, nor had he been born into any famous lineage, and he knew nothing about artistic schools.

Yet even a simple stone could be handled with ease in his father's hands. Back then, Sasuke had thought his father's work looked countless times better than those so-called masters' artworks.

Although his father possessed such a craft, he had never intended for Sasuke to inherit it. To people of his father's generation, studying was the most promising and respectable path.

At the time, Sasuke had lived up to his father's expectations and successfully gotten into a very good university.

But having grown up beside his father, learning by observation and occasionally helping out, he was no stranger to carving. It could even be said that carving was the craft he knew best.

All things could serve as methods of cultivation; cultivation was everywhere in life.

What Sasuke needed to do now was integrate cultivation into life.

This traditional craft of hand-carving demanded a great deal. Whether carving words or patterns, not a single detail could go wrong.

Once a mistake was made, the entire piece of stone would be ruined, wasting both material and time. Thus, it placed fairly high demands on a stonemason's skill.

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

That was—the blade!

The Chakra Metal short blade in his hand!

Using the simplest tool, he would shave away the stone's texture and grain, revealing its graceful form and unique spirit.

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

His first step was to carve words onto it.

He poured Chakra into the short blade. It instantly turned scarlet all over, releasing wisps of white vapor and faint sizzling sounds.

If most standard weapons were semiconductors or insulators when it came to Chakra, then Chakra Metal weapons were practically equivalent to having zero resistance.

Not only were they far tougher than ordinary weapons, but Chakra could also be poured into them almost at will, without the slightest obstruction.

Crack!

Just as Sasuke brought the short blade into contact with the stone and prepared to carve the first character, the stone instantly shattered.

"Too much Chakra!"

Sasuke silently reflected. After summing up the lesson, he tossed the ruined stone aside, picked up another one, and continued carving.

Using Chakra to carve could not only train his Chakra control, but also strengthen his wrist and blade skills!

It truly killed three birds with one stone!

Time passed second by second. From morning until noon, Sasuke ruined quite a few stones, but his control over his strength grew increasingly proficient.

With another new stone, Sasuke first used his short blade to shave away the excess corners around it, gradually flattening it into a smooth surface. Then he prepared to carve the first character again.

Hm?

Someone?

Sensing someone watching him, Sasuke looked toward the source of the gaze. In the distance stood a little girl no more than eight or nine years old. She had delicate features, shoulder-length brown hair, a light-colored kimono over a mesh undergarment, and carried a drawing board and a box of paints. She was watching him curiously.

When she saw Sasuke looking over, the little girl blushed and said, "Sorry, did I disturb you?"

"No."

Sasuke shook his head. Seeing that she was merely a little girl, he gestured for her to do as she pleased, then continued focusing on his own work.

The little girl carried her drawing board farther away and unfolded it. It seemed she had come here to paint from life.

As she painted, she would occasionally poke her head out and glance curiously in Sasuke's direction.

He seemed to be Second Pillar?

Was he carving?

But wasn't he supposed to be the heaven talent of the Ninja Academy?

Why had he come here to do something like this?

The little girl was somewhat confused.

Sasuke seemed utterly unaware of her curious gaze. His eyes were wholly fixed on the stone stele, his mind completely immersed in it. Sweat from his forehead was nearly running into his eyes, yet he did not seem to notice. He continued wielding the short blade as naturally as an extension of his arm.

In that instant, Sasuke's control over Chakra became increasingly effortless, while the short blade in his hand grew faster and faster, nearly turning into a blur as it carved more and more words onto the stone stele.

From beginning to end, it was completed in one fluid motion!

Time passed second by second. Only when the sun hung high in the sky did Sasuke finally stop the blade in his hand.

"Phew!"

Sasuke let out a long breath. After wiping away his sweat, he brushed the stone fragments off the stele, revealing rows of characters with just the right depth, as though they had been cut with blades and chiseled with axes.

Sure enough, the results were excellent!

At that moment, Sasuke discovered that his Chakra control had improved by a small notch. Even his wrist strength and carving skill had risen considerably. If he kept at it, it would surely provide a noticeable boost to his strength over time.

"Can I take a look?"

At some point, the little girl had slowly walked over and asked softly.

"Sure. It's nothing special."

Sasuke nodded and stepped aside.

"The late emperor founded..."

The little girl leaned closer. After looking for a while, she found that she could understand some of the words, roughly grasp the meaning of others, while some were utterly incomprehensible to her. Her little brows furrowed.

Was this a ninja cipher?

Or the writing of the Uchiha clan?

Unable to figure it out, the little girl turned and asked, "May I ask what this is called?"

"Chu Shi Biao!"

"Chu Shi Biao..."

The little girl softly repeated it under her breath.

Huh, another term whose meaning I don't understand.

Seeing the little girl's troubled and puzzled expression, Sasuke casually explained, "It's just something I made on a whim. There's no need to dwell on it."

"Alright!" The little girl nodded. After looking Sasuke over from head to toe once more, she said, "You're Second Pillar, right?"

"Hello, I'm Kurama Yakumo."