"Those three hammer blows just now were my first try."
Guy told him the truth.
Uchiha Tao Ye's mouth twitched.
He'd learned it in three blows?
He looked into Guy's eyes.
Those eyes were bright but calm, with no smugness, no showing off.
It was as though he'd just done something perfectly ordinary.
Uchiha Tao Ye suddenly remembered something Obito's mother had said.
"A true genius isn't born knowing how. He just learns faster than anyone else."
He looked at the ten blanks.
Each was better than the last.
The final one was better than what many apprentices could forge after a year.
He looked at Guy again.
This kid was only seven!
"Uncle?"
Obito sidled over and asked cautiously, "Um... can he stay?"
Uchiha Tao Ye ignored him.
He looked at Guy.
"You said you don't need wages, just one meal?"
Guy nodded.
"Right."
"Any other conditions?"
Guy thought for a moment.
"Three."
Uchiha Tao Ye raised an eyebrow. "Let's hear them."
"First, I'll come after school every day. I'll have dinner here."
Uchiha Tao Ye nodded. "Fine."
"Second, let me practice my blade here once I've finished the work."
Uchiha Tao Ye paused. "Practice your blade?"
Guy nodded.
"That's right. Those rejected pieces will do. Scrap you aren't using for forging is fine too."
Uchiha Tao Ye glanced at the heap of scrap in the corner.
That stuff usually got thrown out as trash.
The kid wanted that?
"Fine. It's all getting thrown out anyway. You can have it."
"Third."
Guy looked at him.
"Let me work for a month as a trial. After a month, if you think I'm good enough, I'll keep working. If not, I'll leave."
Uchiha Tao Ye was silent for a few seconds.
Then he smiled.
It was the kind of smile he hadn't worn in a long time.
"All right. It's settled."
He held out his hand.
Guy held out his.
Smack.
One large hand and one small hand clasped together.
Watching from beside them, Obito suddenly remembered something.
He opened his mouth to speak.
But after a glance at Guy, he closed it again.
Forget it.
It's only a month, anyway.
At worst, he'll only lose a month's worth.
That evening.
Guy sat in the corner of the shed with a large bowl in front of him.
The bowl was filled to the brim with rice, topped with two pieces of grilled fish, a pile of pickles, and a large ladleful of miso soup.
He picked up his chopsticks.
And dug in.
Uchiha Tao Ye sat beside him, wiping away sweat as he watched him eat.
The first bowl.
Thirty seconds.
The second bowl.
Forty seconds.
The third bowl.
One minute.
The fourth bowl.
The fifth bowl.
The sixth bowl.
Uchiha Tao Ye stopped wiping his sweat.
He looked at the stack of empty bowls, then at Guy's stomach.
That stomach... how was it still flat?
"Uncle."
Obito sidled over and spoke quietly.
"Um... I forgot to tell you something."
Uchiha Tao Ye turned to him.
"What?"
Obito swallowed.
"Guy... eats a lot."
Uchiha Tao Ye blinked.
"I know. Isn't this perfectly normal? He worked for half the day, so six bowls..."
Before he could finish.
The seventh bowl.
The eighth bowl.
The ninth bowl.
Guy picked up his tenth bowl.
Uchiha Tao Ye's mouth fell open.
He looked at the pile of empty bowls, then at Guy, who was still chewing.
Suddenly, he felt a little sorry for himself.
This kid...
In one meal, he could eat enough to feed three people for a whole day?
Guy finished his tenth bowl and set down his chopsticks.
He looked up.
And saw Obito's uncle's frozen expression.
He grinned and gave him a thumbs-up.
"Thanks for the meal!"
Uchiha Tao Ye's mouth twitched.
He wanted to say something.
But looking into Guy's sincere eyes, he swallowed his words.
Forget it.
He'd agreed to provide a meal.
It was only a few extra bowls.
He looked down at the pile of empty bowls.
Ten bowls.
This kid...
He could really eat.
After school the next day.
Guy arrived at the shed right on time.
The third day.
The fourth day.
The fifth day.
He came every day.
Once the work was done, he practiced his blade.
He dug broken ninja tool fragments out of the scrap heap and went through the movements of the Precept-Breaking Blade over and over.
Sometimes he practiced until midnight.
When Uchiha Tao Ye finished work and headed home, he could still hear the whoosh of something cutting through the air in the backyard.
And so it went.
Another month passed.
That evening.
Obito wandered over after school.
He pushed open the door.
The yard looked just as it always had.
Flames roared in the shed, and the clang, clang, clang of forging rang out deafeningly.
He poked his head inside.
Guy stood bare-chested in front of the anvil, swinging a hammer.
His frame, which had still looked a little scrawny a month ago, now showed clearly defined muscles.
That was what proper nutrition did.
Sweat ran down his back and dripped onto the ground, sending up white wisps with a hiss.
The iron blank beneath his hands was slowly taking shape.
It wasn't a rough Kunai blank.
It was the beginnings of a short blade.
The edge was an even thickness, the blade was straight, and the taper at the hilt was smooth and rounded.
Obito's mouth fell open.
That thing... he'd forged it?
Clang!
The final hammer blow fell.
Guy lifted the short blade with his tongs and plunged it into a bucket of water.
Hiss—
White steam rose.
He picked up the blade and examined it under the light.
He nodded in satisfaction.
Then he turned and spotted Obito.
"Hey, you're here?"
Obito blinked.
"That blade... you forged it?"
Guy tossed him the blade.
"Just finished it. See what you think."
Obito scrambled to catch it.
He looked down.
The blade was smooth and its edge sharp, with even the nonslip grooves on the handle carved in neat rows.
He tested the edge with his finger.
"Hiss—" A cut appeared on his finger.
Guy grinned.
"Careful. It hasn't been sharpened yet, but it can still cut."
Obito looked at the cut, then at Guy.
One month.
Just one month.
This guy had gone from knowing absolutely nothing about smithing to making something like this?
"Where's my second uncle?" Obito asked.
Guy pointed toward the backyard.
"He's sorting scrap out back."
Obito went around to the back.
The backyard was small, piled high with all kinds of scrap.
Broken ninja tools, ruined blanks, and heat-warped lumps of iron.
Uchiha Tao Ye crouched there, holding a Kunai that had just been ruined during forging.
He turned it over and over, examining it.
"Uncle?"
Uchiha Tao Ye looked up.
"Oh, Obito."
He stood and dusted off his hands.
"Here to see your classmate?"
Obito nodded and pointed toward the front yard.
"So... how's he doing?"
Uchiha Tao Ye fell silent for two seconds.
Then he looked toward the front yard.
Through a gap in the shed, they could see Guy.
He was picking up another iron blank to start his next piece.
His movements were as practiced as if he had been doing this for years.
"That kid..."
His uncle spoke.
Obito pricked up his ears.
"He sure eats a lot."
Obito nodded.
"Right, that's what I wanted to say..."
"But—"
Uchiha Tao Ye cut him off.
"The work he turns out is damn good, too."
Obito blinked.
Uchiha Tao Ye handed him the ruined Kunai.
Obito took it and examined it.
It had been scrapped because a small piece of the edge had chipped off.
But everything else was astonishingly neat.
"Do you know what he's making now?" Uchiha Tao Ye asked.
Obito shook his head.
"Ninja tool blanks," Uchiha Tao Ye said.
"Kunai, shuriken, short swords. All finished blanks that other smiths can use straightaway."
He paused.
"We used to hire Genin for this work. Twenty thousand a month per person, plus room and board. Anyone who could forge three hundred blanks a month was considered good."
Obito blinked.
"What about Guy?"
Uchiha Tao Ye looked at him.
"That kid forged eight hundred in one month."
Obito's jaw dropped.
Eight hundred?
That was almost three times what a Genin could do!
"And what's more—"
Uchiha Tao Ye pulled a sheet of paper from inside his clothes.
It was covered in closely packed notes.
"Take a look."
Obito took it.
Dates were written on the paper, with numbers beside them.
Day 1: 27 (crooked)
Day 2: 35 (fewer crooked ones)
Day 3: 42 (acceptable)
Day 4: 48
Day 27: 88
Day 28: 90
Day 29: 93
Day 30: 97
At the bottom was a line written in red ink:
[Total: 824. Acceptance rate: 97.3%.]
Obito's hands trembled a little.
A ninety-seven percent acceptance rate?
So out of the 824 blanks Guy had forged, only twenty-something had been scrapped?
He looked up at Uchiha Tao Ye.
Uchiha Tao Ye was watching the front yard.
That green-clad figure was still hard at work in the shed.
"How late does he work every day?" Obito asked.
Uchiha Tao Ye was silent for a while.
"It was eleven when I left yesterday. He was still here."
"What about the day before?"
"Midnight."
"And the day before that?"
"One in the morning."
Obito stopped asking.
He suddenly remembered what he had thought a month ago, standing off to the side.
It's only a month anyway.
At worst, we'll only lose a month's worth of money.
Now that month was up.
He looked at Uchiha Tao Ye.
"So... are you keeping him?"
Uchiha Tao Ye didn't answer.
He turned and headed toward the front yard.
Obito followed.
The two of them walked up to the shed.
Guy had just finished a blank and was about to pick up the next one with his tongs.
Uchiha Tao Ye spoke. "Might Guy."
Guy stopped and turned to look at him.
"Yeah?"
Uchiha Tao Ye looked at him in silence for a few seconds.
Then he spoke.
"Come back tomorrow."
Guy blinked.
"Didn't you say it was a one-month trial..."
"The trial's over," Uchiha Tao Ye interrupted. "You passed."
Guy froze for a moment.
Then he grinned.
He gave him a thumbs-up.
"Thanks!"
Uchiha Tao Ye waved a hand.
"Enough chatter. Get back to work. This batch is urgent."
Guy nodded.
He turned back to his work.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
The sound of hammering rang out again.
Uchiha Tao Ye stood nearby and watched for a while.
Then he took a cloth bundle from inside his clothes.
He tossed it to Guy.
"Catch."
Guy caught it with one hand and opened it.
Inside was a short sword.
Not a blank.
A real sword.
Its edge gleamed coldly, and black hemp cord was wrapped around its handle.
"This is..." Guy looked up.
Uchiha Tao Ye had already turned to leave.
He spoke as he walked.
"A reject. Usable, but it won't fetch much. Just right for your sword practice."
He paused at the doorway.
"That way, you won't have to sneak over to practice every morning and disturb my rest."
Then he pushed the door open and left.
Guy looked down at the sword in his hand.
There was indeed a small dark mark on the blade, a flaw left during forging.
But compared with those scraps, this sword was far better.
He tightened his grip on the handle.
He gave it a few swings.
It felt right.
Obito leaned over to look at the sword.
"This sword... isn't really a reject, is it?"
Guy grinned.
"I know."
"Then why..."
Guy gave him a thumbs-up, his teeth gleaming.
"I can't let your uncle's kindness go to waste!"
With that, he went back to forging.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
Obito stood beside him, watching his back as he swung the hammer.
Then he looked toward the backyard again.
He suddenly felt a little envious.
This guy...
Wherever he went, there were people willing to help him.
He remembered how, a month ago, Guy had said he wanted to work here.
He remembered Guy showing up every day after school over the past month.
He remembered the firelight still glowing in the shed late into the night.
Maybe it wasn't that people were willing to help him.
It was that he deserved it.