Life went on like this.
Boring, monotonous, yet fulfilling.
Every day, he got up at dawn and ran ten kilometers to the back mountain.
He went to school, listened to lessons, and sat through class.
After school, he went to Uchiha Forge and hammered iron until nightfall.
After dark, he ate.
Then he practiced his swordsmanship.
After that, he went to the waterfall, stood under it for an hour, and poked at the rocks.
Finally, he went home and fell straight into bed.
Day after day.
Month after month.
Another two months passed.
The Ninja Academy had a day off.
Guy didn't go to the Blacksmith Shop.
Early in the morning, he headed into the back mountain and made his way to the waterfall.
It was the first time he'd taken a day off in two months.
It wasn't because he was tired.
It was because he felt—
He was close.
Just a little more.
Vajra Finger had been stuck at 999 points of proficiency for nearly three months.
Ever since he kicked Ninja Bear flying that night, he'd known that what this finger technique needed wasn't more training.
It needed him to break through that final barrier.
But he'd been trying to break through it for three months, and still hadn't managed it.
Guy took off his shirt and stepped beneath the waterfall.
Autumn had arrived, and the water was already a little chilly.
But to him, that chill was nothing.
He walked directly under the waterfall and stood before the rock he'd poked countless times.
It hardly looked like a rock anymore.
Its surface was riddled with holes, deep and shallow, new and old, big and small.
Some holes were wide enough for a finger; others were no bigger than a dot.
The deepest one was from last night.
He'd poked his finger in so far that it disappeared completely.
Guy took a deep breath.
He raised his hand.
And began poking.
Once.
Twice.
Three times.
The waterfall crashed down on his head, making his shoulders ache.
But after these past few months, he was used to it.
Two thousand times.
Three thousand times.
Five thousand times.
His fingers had gone numb long ago.
But the warm current from Yijin Jing kept circulating, easing the numbness and giving him fresh strength.
He kept poking.
Seven thousand times.
Eight thousand times.
Ten thousand times.
The sun rose to its peak.
Then slowly began to sink westward.
Guy had lost count of how many times he'd poked.
His mind grew emptier and emptier.
All that remained was the sound of the waterfall.
Guy suddenly remembered something Uchiha Tao Ye had once said.
"There's no trick to forging. You just hammer away, again and again. Hammer until the iron remembers you, and you remember the iron."
He looked down at the rock.
The rock remembered him.
And he remembered the rock.
Then...
What about his fingers?
Guy raised his hand.
He looked at his index and middle fingers.
Three months ago, they'd been swollen like carrots.
Now, the swelling was gone.
But his knuckles were a size thicker than they'd been three months ago.
The pads of his fingers were covered in calluses, thick as tree bark.
No matter how much he washed them, there was always rust and stone dust beneath his nails.
These were his hands.
A six-year-old's hands that looked like they'd done twenty years of hard labor.
Guy stared at those two fingers.
A thought suddenly flashed through his mind.
Forging was hammering.
Poking a rock was poking.
Then...
What if he used the strength of a hammer when he poked?
He raised his hand.
He pointed it at the rock.
He didn't exert any strength.
He just slowly reached out.
The moment his fingers touched the rock—
A low hum rang through his mind.
Every hammer blow, every poke, every drop of sweat, every breath he'd taken over the past three months—
They all surged through him.
"Pfft."
A soft sound.
His fingers sank into the rock.
It was like poking into a block of tofu.
Guy froze.
Then that force surged outward along his fingers.
He couldn't stop it.
And he didn't want to.
Guy whipped around and pointed behind him.
Golden light burst from his fingertips.
A phantom finger suddenly swelled in size.
Ten times larger.
Twenty times.
Thirty times.
A gigantic golden finger appeared in the waterfall, perfectly matching the movement of his own.
The golden light was blinding.
The waterfall—
Split apart.
In that instant—
The water crashing down from above was stopped dead by that finger.
It held back the entire waterfall for a full second.
Then the golden light faded.
The water came crashing down again.
Guy slowly lowered his finger.
He looked down.
They were still the same two fingers.
But they felt different now.
As though they were heavier.
And yet, somehow, lighter.
[Vajra Finger—Mastery of Perfection]
The system's notification rang in his mind.
Guy froze for two seconds.
"I broke through!!!!"
He roared the words aloud.
His shout echoed through the forest and sent a flock of birds flying.
"I finally broke through!!!"
He raised both hands toward the waterfall, the sky, and the setting sun.
"Three months!!! Three whole months!!!!"
After he finished shouting,
he stood in the water, panting.
The waterfall poured over his head, icy cold.
But his whole body was burning hot.
Three months.
A full three months.
No battles, no opponents, no sudden moment of enlightenment.
Just poking every day, practicing every day, repeating the same thing over and over.
At last—
He'd broken through.
[Congratulations, host. The low-grade secret art Vajra Finger has reached perfection.] [Obtained a random martial arts gift pack.] [Open it?]
"Open it!"
Golden light burst forth.
An ancient manual appeared in his mind.
Three large characters were written on the cover.
[Golden Bell Shield] [Low-Grade Secret Art] [Defensive martial art. Once mastered, it allows the user to gather true energy around the body and withstand attacks.]
Guy blinked.
"Golden Bell Shield?"
He scratched his head.
"It's only low-grade?"
He was a little taken aback.
The Golden Bell Shield was quite renowned among the Shaolin Seventy-Two Arts.
Iron Shirt and Golden Bell Shield were the signature techniques of hard-body training.
And the system rated it low-grade?
But then he thought about it.
Yijin Jing was high-grade.
Precept-Breaking Blade was mid-grade.
So maybe it made sense for Golden Bell Shield to be low-grade.
Besides, low-grade was still fine.
It was a defensive technique!
Exactly what he was lacking!
Guy's eyes lit up.
For the past few months, he'd been thinking about one thing.
His attacks were strong enough.
His Vajra Leg was perfected. One kick could send Ninja Bear flying ten meters into the air.
His Vajra Finger was almost perfected, too.
He was also practicing Precept-Breaking Blade.
But what about defense?
What if he ran into someone fast one day and couldn't dodge?
What if he got surrounded by a group and couldn't hold them off?
Now he had an answer.
Golden Bell Shield.
It might only be low-grade, but at least it was a proper defensive technique.
"How do I train it?"
He opened the detailed description of Golden Bell Shield.
[Golden Bell Shield: Condenses a phantom golden bell from true energy to protect the body. The stronger the true energy, the stronger the defense.] [Training method: Endure blows each day and guide true energy to circulate over the body. The more attacks endured, the faster proficiency increases.]
Guy read it and grinned.
He could train by taking hits?
That was perfect for him.
He'd been getting tired of poking rocks every day.
Now he could poke rocks, then have people hit him.
Perfect.
He was about to climb out of the water and test how to train Golden Bell Shield.
Suddenly—
"Guy!!!"
A voice came from the edge of the woods.
It sounded urgent.
Guy turned his head.
Kurenai came running out of the woods, panting heavily, her face flushed.
Her curly black hair clung to her forehead, and her clothes were soaked with sweat.
She saw Guy standing beneath the waterfall and paused in surprise.
Then, without worrying about anything else, she shouted:
"Guy! Hurry! The school's calling everyone in!"
Guy stared at her, stunned.
"Calling everyone in? It's a day off."
"I know!"
Kurenai ran over and stopped by the water.
"Teacher Umino sent people door to door to notify everyone! All the students have to go! Right now!"
Guy stepped out from beneath the waterfall and picked up his clothes.
"What's so urgent?"
Kurenai shook her head.
"I don't know. But the person who came to notify us said we had to go. No exceptions."
Guy dried himself off and pulled on his clothes.
A thought suddenly flashed through his mind.
It was the weekend.
The school was closed.
An emergency assembly.
Every student had to attend.
Could it be... that thing?
He looked at Kurenai.
She was looking back at him, worry in her eyes.
"Guy, do you know what's going on?"
Guy fell silent for two seconds.
Then he shook his head.
"I don't know."
He tied his shoes and stood up.
"Let's go."
The two of them ran out of the woods.
They headed toward the school.