Encounter

Other people's perspectives, other people's methods.

These illusory, unimportant things were never something Ueno Kei cared about. Just as he had never regretted becoming friends with Naruto and being ostracized by others, he had never looked back.

Day after day of training, training! Becoming a true ninja was Ueno Kei's unwavering goal.

"Hoo." Ueno Kei stopped his fists, which had struck the target hundreds of times, and let out a long breath where he stood.

He grabbed a towel from a nearby tree stump and wiped the sweat from his face, feeling an immediate sense of refreshment.

Ueno Kei then headed toward the nearby river. He took a deep breath at the bank and, with a splash, dove into the water. Every morning after finishing his training here, he would bathe in the river and catch a couple of fish for breakfast.

In Ueno Kei's view, no one else came here, the river was flowing water, and the direction this river flowed did not lead to the water used by the villagers of Konoha Village.

He didn't have to worry about polluting the water and affecting others; besides, no one had discovered him, or if they had, they hadn't cared enough to come and warn him.

Ueno Kei continued to go his own way.

Of course, this was only because there were no mandatory rules or prohibitions; Ueno Kei never overstepped the bans and mandatory regulations of Konoha Village.

Without rules, there is no order; Ueno Kei firmly believed in this saying.

The First Hokage, who founded Konoha and established its regulations and rules, had become a kind of spiritual sustenance for Ueno Kei. He might not be an object of worship, but he was at the very least the person Ueno Kei respected the most.

Ueno Kei highly approved of the title "God of Shinobi." When talking privately with Naruto, he had once enthusiastically praised the First Hokage and held the "Will of Fire" that he had passed down in high regard.

Naturally, Ueno Kei would never do this in public, or he would be seen as a wet-behind-the-ears brat who didn't know his place and was arrogant—that was not what Ueno Kei wanted.

As Ueno Kei swam in the river, he dove to the bottom to search for traces of fish. He calculated that since Naruto wanted to come over for lunch today, he needed to catch at least a few extra fish to supplement the meal, in addition to the two for breakfast.

Naruto hadn't come over to eat for several days. At the thought of Naruto, a smile appeared on the corner of Ueno Kei's mouth.

Just then, a large fish swam slowly past the upper left of Ueno Kei.

Ueno Kei's eyes lit up; it was about half as big again as the fish he usually caught. He immediately waved his hand and swam vigorously toward the large fish.

The fish seemed startled by Ueno Kei and darted away in a panic. Ueno Kei remained calm, refining the faint chakra in his body and controlling it to adhere to his limbs.

No one had taught Ueno Kei yet, but in his past training, his greatest gain was learning that focusing chakra on parts of his body could make those parts more agile.

Ueno Kei had once even thought about whether he could use this to stand on his head, climb trees, or walk on water. Of course, that was limited to his imagination; Ueno Kei had never succeeded.

Moreover, his pitifully weak chakra reserves were not enough for him to squander.

Ueno Kei followed closely behind the fish, not rushing to strike. He kept his eyes fixed on the fish without blinking. Suddenly, Ueno Kei's gaze sharpened.

He thrust his right hand out violently.

As luck would have it, the fish turned right and swam straight into his hand.

Ueno Kei's mouth curled slightly, and he prepared to surface to catch his breath and secure the fish.

Just as he was about to swim up, he noticed a faint glimmer in the depths of the riverbed. Ueno Kei paused for a moment, but at that moment, he felt a shortness of breath.

Without further thought, he surfaced and wiped the water from his face with his hand.

He turned his head to look around.

"It seems that chasing this fish took me quite a distance from my training ground," Ueno Kei muttered to himself.

"There was a reflection, so there must be something down there." Ueno Kei frowned and thought, "But what could it be? Judging by the reflection, it should be a metal object."

Ueno Kei swam to the shore, marked the spot, and ran back to his previous training ground to place the large fish in a bamboo basket he had prepared. He grabbed a kunai and hurried back to the spot where he had been.

Ueno Kei squinted, staring at the water for a while, until he finally spotted a faint, unusual glint on the ripples. Ueno Kei steadied himself and bit down on the kunai in his hand.

He dove into the water toward the spot with the glint.

After submerging, Ueno Kei adjusted his position, found the source of the reflection, and swam toward it with all his might.

Before long, he reached the riverbed where the reflection had originated.

Ueno Kei swam around in confusion, only to be surprised to find nothing there. This left Ueno Kei deeply puzzled; logically, if the reflection could be seen from above, the shiny object should be easy to find once he reached the bottom.

Ueno Kei refused to give up and searched again, but still found nothing.

With no other choice, Ueno Kei surfaced again. After climbing onto the bank, he clicked his tongue and scratched his head in thought.

"That's impossible. There must be something there; how could I not find it?"

Unable to think of anything despite his furrowed brow, Ueno Kei angrily lay down on the ground behind him. Suddenly, a look of realization dawned on his face.

"So that's it. It was me blocking the sunlight that stopped the object from reflecting."

Having found the reason, Ueno Kei dove back into the riverbed with excitement, determined not to repeat his mistake.

Ueno Kei dove into the water at a distance from the reflection, swam to the bottom, and crawled along the riverbed like a dog.

This time, after a short while, Ueno Kei found the spot. A look of joy appeared on his face. It was just as he thought.

A piece of something resembling a blade or a sword tip, or perhaps a needle, was protruding from the riverbed.

However, the exposed part was too small, just the very tip.

Ueno Kei immediately took the kunai from his mouth and began to dig vigorously into the riverbed.

When he ran out of breath, he would surface to catch it, then dive back down to continue digging. Unexpectedly, the riverbed here was very hard; if it weren't for the wrist strength he had gained from over half a year of training, it would have been too difficult to dig through.

Even so, Ueno Kei had to surface seven or eight times before he finally pried the object from the riverbed. It was just as Ueno Kei had guessed.

It was a very worn-looking blade, about seventy or eighty centimeters long, with a scroll tied to the hilt.

Ueno Kei carefully retrieved the two items. He climbed onto the bank, ran back to his training area, put on his clothes, and tucked the scroll into his chest, holding it tightly. He strapped the large blade, which was almost as tall as he was, to his back and tied it with a rope.

He picked up his bamboo basket and hurried toward his home.