Training weights

Tenten had been feeling rather irritable lately.

It had nothing to do with anything else. A certain figure simply kept lingering in her mind.

"Damn it."

"He's just a brat who only just graduated."

Tenten stabbed the Kunai in her hand into the doll she was holding.

"Why is he so strong?"

"And he even..."

She stopped there, a blush spreading across both cheeks.

"Damn it!"

"Miss Tenten, is something bothering you?"

Chiba suddenly appeared in front of Tenten.

"You can always come to me, Chiba!"

"I cure all your worries at a fair price!"

As Tenten looked at the figure before her, the blush on her cheeks quickly spread until it covered her entire pretty face.

"I-I'm not worried about anything."

"I was just thinking about... about the Chunin Ninja Exams."

She seemed to have found a suitable excuse.

She sounded quite certain of herself.

"I'm glad nothing's bothering you, Tenten."

Chiba's expression grew somewhat dejected.

"But I've run into a little trouble myself, so I'll need to call in our earlier wager."

Tenten composed herself and said:

"What is it?"

Chiba gave her the answer he had prepared before coming.

"Actually, I ran into someone wearing a green bodysuit while I was training."

"He preached to me about the so-called passion of youth and showed me the results of his training."

"I learned from him that he trains with weights every day."

At this point, Chiba looked even more troubled.

"I wanted to try weight training too, so my new friend wouldn't leave me too far behind."

The more Tenten listened, the more familiar it sounded.

"The person you're talking about wouldn't happen to be Rock Lee, would he?"

Chiba looked surprised.

"How did you know?"

Tenten pointed at herself with a hint of pride and said:

"Rock Lee and I are on the same team."

"I'm the one who supplied his Weighted Training Gear!"

Hearing that, Chiba immediately brightened.

"Then do you have any more Weighted Training Gear?"

After all that talk, they had finally reached the point.

In truth, Chiba knew perfectly well.

Rock Lee's Weighted Training Gear wasn't easy to get hold of.

Otherwise, he wouldn't have needed to go to so much trouble.

Tenten was his only way in.

As the owner of Tenten's Ninja Tool Shop, she naturally had her own suppliers.

After hearing Chiba's request, Tenten fell into thought.

"It's not that I don't have any Weighted Training Gear."

"It's just..."

She hesitated, as though there was something she found difficult to explain.

Chiba sighed. "Looks like I was too hasty."

With that, Chiba turned to leave.

"Hey, wait!"

Looking a little anxious, Tenten called him back:

"I do have some Weighted Training Gear, but Teacher Kaido set it aside for Rock Lee."

"Rock Lee needs a new set of Weighted Training Gear every so often."

"The Weighted Training Gear I have left is for the next stage of his training."

Seeing Chiba about to leave, Tenten held nothing back.

"But if you need them..."

Tenten's little face showed her indecision. "I can lend them to you for a while!"

She gritted her teeth and offered the greatest concession she could.

Weighted Training Gear wasn't something you could pick up just anywhere.

They were expensive to make. Even the entire Ninja Tools shop only had a few sets.

The kind Rock Lee used were the finest of the lot.

Not only were they compact, they were also extremely heavy.

The two leg weights alone weighed a thousand jin!

That was why his strength had placed him among the very best during the Chunin Ninja Exams.

Although there were only a few days left before the Chunin Ninja Exams.

Chiba still felt he needed to make an effort.

"Really?"

Chiba abruptly turned back, stepped up to Tenten, and clasped her small hands, his face full of gratitude.

Feeling the warmth from the boy's hands.

Tenten's face turned bright red again.

At that moment, she was just like Hinata when she got close to Naruto.

Although Tenten was much more outgoing than Hinata.

This was still the first time she had encountered anything like this.

"Y-you should let go of me first..."

Tenten's voice was as faint as a mosquito's buzz.

Had Chiba's hearing not been exceptional, he probably wouldn't have caught what she said.

Chiba sheepishly let go of her, his smile looking utterly guileless.

After several deep breaths, Tenten finally regained her composure.

"Come on. The Weighted Training Gear is in the storeroom."

Following Tenten, Chiba entered the Ninja Tools shop's storeroom for the first time.

The dazzling assortment inside was a truly extravagant sight.

Kunai, Senbon, Shuriken, chain hammers, Tachi...

Anything you could think of could be found here.

"The Weighted Training Gear is over here."

Tenten pointed behind the crates of Kunai.

A white vest, a pair of wrist weights, and a pair of leg weights lay piled there.

Chiba eagerly stepped forward and tried picking them up from the floor.

Tenten lowered her little head and said softly:

"These weigh two thousand jin altogether. You can try just some of them fir..."

Before she could finish, the sight before her left her stunned.

"H-how is that possible?!"