After a night of idle grinding.
Gua had gained a certain degree of proficiency with shuriken.
When he returned to the Uchiha clan's back mountain the next day, his performance exceeded Shisui's expectations.
"Not bad, Gua!"
Shisui looked at the three one-point hits on the target and praised him repeatedly.
Actually, calling them three one-point hits wasn't quite accurate. One had lodged diagonally into the target's outer edge, which was arguably quite a difficult shot.
Still, it scored no points!
Seeing that all three shuriken had hit the target, Gua nodded quietly, very satisfied with the success of his idle grinding.
Whatever the case, yesterday he hadn't even known how to throw a shuriken. Today, he could hit the target.
Surely that deserved an award for improvement, at least?
"Keep up the good work, Gua!"
Shisui gave Gua a thumbs-up. At the same time, he seemed to feel that his conclusion yesterday had been too hasty.
Perhaps Gua wasn't bad at shuriken after all.
He simply needed a little more time to learn than other people.
Some people were geniuses who understood things with the slightest hint, like Itachi.
Others were geniuses who built up a foundation before blossoming, like Gua!
Yes! That's it!
Shisui nodded, approving of his own assessment of Gua.
Gua picked up on something in Shisui's gaze. After hesitating for a moment, he explained,
"I'm actually not a genius."
I'm just cheating.
Shisui nodded emphatically. "A humble genius, too."
"But Gua, you must not have gotten much rest yesterday. Were you practicing shuriken all night? Otherwise, you couldn't have improved this much."
Gua blinked.
Shisui sure had a vivid imagination.
"Look at those dark circles around your eyes. Clearly, you didn't sleep well. Skip training today and get some rest. Even hard work needs limits."
Shisui walked over to Gua and pointed at his eyes with complete seriousness.
Gua: "..."
I slept ten hours yesterday. What damn dark circles?
But Gua didn't argue.
He seemed to have long since gotten used to this way of life.
If his father thought he was tired, then he was tired. If his mother thought he was cold, then he was cold. Now that Shisui thought he hadn't rested well, he might as well take a break.
It wasn't doing any harm, anyway.
His guiding principle was that being alive was fine. Not being alive... was fine, too.
And so, the day once again became Itachi diligently practicing shuriken by himself while Gua idle-ground on the sidelines.
Another entire day passed in idle grinding.
The sun rose in the east and set in the west.
Evening came again.
Gua could tell that Itachi was putting particular effort into his training today. He guessed that Itachi had noticed how "hardworking" he was and refused to fall behind. Even a genius like Itachi had to work hard!
But how was I supposed to tell him I really wasn't working hard?
I just had cheats, bro.
If you kept training this hard, how many lifetimes would it take before I could crush you and assassinate you?
Gua worked out the timeline.
They were both six now. There were still seven years until the clan massacre at thirteen.
He had plenty of time.
Still-
I had to work harder at idle grinding!
His three idle slots needed frequent adjustments. He had to put new things in and remove skills he felt had been ground enough.
The skills he could currently idle-grind were,
[Taijutsu] [Eyesight] [Perception] [Chakra extraction] [Shuriken]
But he only had three idle slots.
They were currently grinding,
[Taijutsu (10× boost active)] [Eyesight (10× boost active)] [Shuriken (10× boost active)]
There was nowhere to put the remaining two.
"Ah... this system still takes way too much micromanagement."
After lamenting how difficult idle grinding was, Gua headed home on his own.
His father wasn't home that day.
Only his mother was there.
It was already very late when his father, Dashan, returned and finished dinner. Dashan said that shinobi had been disappearing frequently lately and told Gua to be careful.
Gua roughly worked out the timing and had a pretty good guess about what was going on.
That bastard Orochimaru was probably conducting his human experiments.
That night, Gua lay on his tatami mat.
He stared at the ceiling.
I just wanted to idle-grind.
But the Shinobi World was full of bastards.
At this point, someone might say, "Oh, come on! Orochimaru's a scientist! If you made him Hokage, the Shinobi World would've had short videos ages ago."
All Gua wanted to say was, "Once he straps you to an operating table, short videos will be the last thing on your mind."
Orochimaru probably wouldn't target me. After all, he ought to go after geniuses. Like Uchiha Itachi. Go grab him.
Gua silently made a wish for his entire clan to remain alive and whole.
Then he drifted into a deep sleep.
The idle-grinding system flickered, its light brightening and dimming.
First line: Awake, I idle-grind; asleep, I idle-grind. I really do have a system.
Second line: Awake, I train; dreaming, I train. I really am a talent.
Heading: I'm cheating.
Gua had a dream. In it, it was New Year, and he was putting up couplets with his mom and dad.
The two days off passed in the blink of an eye.
Early in the morning, Itachi and Gua arrived at school together.
At first, Gua had been very reluctant to be around Itachi. But as they spent more time together, he began to grow more tolerant of him.
At least until he could absolutely crush Itachi, he still had to get along peacefully with him.
There weren't many children their age in the clan to begin with, and Gua and Itachi were only five days apart. To everyone else, it was only natural that the two of them would play together.
When they reached the school gates, they ran into their classmate, Uchiha Izumi.
As usual, Izumi had brought two skewers of her favorite Three-Color Dango that morning.
"Itachi!"
Izumi waved from far behind them.
Gua and Itachi turned around to see Izumi running over with two skewers of Three-Color Dango.
Then she shoved one skewer of Three-Color Dango into Itachi's hand.
Itachi accepted the Three-Color Dango in bewilderment.
Izumi strode off.
Itachi: "..."
"Gua, was this meant for you?"
Holding the Three-Color Dango, Itachi addressed Gua awkwardly.
Gua turned to look at Izumi's retreating figure.
"Was she unhappy after idle-grinding at home for two days?"
Gua remembered that before the break, she had said something about idle-grinding at home, too.
Was idle-grinding at home not fun?
Gua didn't understand.
Idle grinding was so great. Why would Izumi be unhappy after doing it for two days?
Was it because she didn't have a system?
Having been a hardcore homebody for two lifetimes, he couldn't fathom what girls were thinking.
Gua walked into the school.
Itachi stood there alone, holding the Three-Color Dango, at a loss for what to do.
"Hana Inuzuka."
"Huh?"
"Here, have some Three-Color Dango."
"What's this about?"
"Never mind. Just eat it."
Itachi shoved the Three-Color Dango into the hands of Hana Inuzuka as she passed, then turned and hurried after Gua into the school.
Hana Inuzuka held the Three-Color Dango, not understanding what that had been about.
"Awooo~"
But Hana Inuzuka certainly wasn't going to stand on ceremony. "Can't let a classmate's kindness go to waste."
There were three dumplings on the skewer. She ate two, and her dog ate one.
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