Children, the author cleverly devised a series of schemes to successfully retrieve the phone from the homeroom teacher. By using a clever deception, the teacher believed that I had left school and gone home, so she gave me the phone back.
If I lived at school, they would have taken my phone away after half an hour. To avoid having my phone taken away, I took it out openly after confirming that my homeroom teacher had left school, and now I'm hiding in my dorm.
Hmm... I only took my phone, not the charging cable (sad). I only have 34 bars of battery left, and I haven't saved any drafts yet!
Never mind, let's get to writing.
Before dawn, Konoha was still enveloped in a quiet, bluish-gray atmosphere, carrying the scent of dew. When Shira arrived at the agreed-upon training ground just in time, Rock Lee was already there.
He stood straight under the old cherry blossom tree at the edge of the training field, like a small pine tree that had not yet fully unfurled but already exuded a sense of resilience.
He was still wearing the same training uniform, his hair slightly damp from the morning mist, strands clinging to his forehead. When he saw Shira appear, his eyes lit up instantly, and he waved his hand vigorously without uttering a sound, but his gesture seemed to cleave the air from a great distance.
" Shira! Good morning!" As Shira approached, Rock Lee Li suppressed his excitement and greeted her, his voice particularly clear in the quiet of the early morning.
"Good morning, Li." Shira nodded, glancing at him. "Have you been waiting long?"
"No! I just arrived too!" Rock Lee shook his head, but the fine, still-damp beads of sweat on his nose and temples betrayed him.
Shira didn't expose him, but she felt that this kind of enthusiasm was exactly the same as when she was practicing extra in the dark at the Sunagakure training ground.
"Shall we begin?" Shira stretched her shoulders; the soreness from yesterday hadn't completely subsided, but her bones were already itching, yearning to move.
"Mmm!" Rock Lee nodded vigorously, but didn't start running immediately. Instead, he scratched the back of his head a little embarrassedly. "Um... Shira, I... I asked the school for leave today."
"Not a buddy? Taking leave?" Shira was taken aback. Ninja Academy class—could you just skip it like that?
"Yes!" Rock Lee's eyes shone even brighter, as if he had made a major decision, and he clenched his fist. "I've made up my mind! Shira can only stay in Konoha for a short time, this is a rare opportunity!"
"I'm going to use this whole week—no, every day, every minute—to train with Shira at the highest intensity! Theoretical knowledge can wait!"
Rock Lee spoke with absolute certainty, as if asking for leave was the most natural thing in the world.
Looking at the two small flames burning brightly in his eyes, Shira felt happy. She couldn't have been happier to find such a hardworking training partner.
Suddenly, he remembered that when the girls were talking about Rock Lee yesterday, they seemed to have mentioned something like "being at the bottom of the class in theory classes".
"Um, is it okay to take leave?"
Shira carefully chose her words, trying not to dampen enthusiasm, "I mean, theoretical knowledge is quite important too, isn't it? Won't it cause delays...?"
Before he could finish speaking, he saw Rock Lee suddenly freeze, as if a pause button had been pressed.
"Theory, knowledge...?"
Rock Lee repeated the word, speaking very slowly, uttering each word one by one.
His face, slightly flushed with excitement, froze and went blank at a visible speed, then gradually became tinged with confusion.
His thick, dark eyebrows slowly furrowed into a knot, and his round eyes blinked repeatedly, the small flame burning within them flickering and swaying as if blown about by a strange wind called "theoretical knowledge."
He stared at Shira with his mouth slightly agape, his eyes seeming to say: What are you talking about? What is that thing? Is it edible? Or some kind of new ninja tool?
Time seemed to stretch out at that moment. Only the early birds chirped twice on the branches by the training field, making Rock Lee's silence all the more deafening.
Your silence is deafening.
Shira found his expression both amusing and exasperating. Haha, good heavens, he completely disregarded "theoretical knowledge" as an "important matter"!
It took a good five or six seconds before Rock Lee seemed to finally pull the concept of "theoretical knowledge" back from some distant world full of Taijutsu and sweat.
His brows remained furrowed as he pondered the matter intently for a moment, then shook his head vigorously, as if trying to shake off his confusion.
"Theoretical knowledge? It's very important." He admitted it solemnly, but then his tone shifted, and he clenched his fist again. "But, Shira! For me, this is more important right now!"
He pounded his chest hard, making dull thuds, "My body! My fists! My legs!"
He spoke faster, with that stubbornness that once he made up his mind, nothing could sway him. "I have absolutely no talent in Ninjutsu or Genjutsu, that's a fact."
"I'm already far, far behind everyone else at the starting line! If I can't even train my Taijutsu with all my might, if I can't burn every single second, then... I really won't be able to catch up!"
He took a deep breath, his eyes burning with renewed intensity, even brighter than before. " Rock Lee knowledge can be acquired later! The textbooks are there, they won't disappear! But physical condition, the timing of training, the flame of struggle—these can't wait! They must ignite now, immediately, right now! This is my Ninja Way!"
After he finished speaking, his chest heaved slightly with excitement, and he stared intently at Shira, as if waiting for her judgment, or perhaps trying to make his "fallacious argument" more convincing.
Shira looked at him. The morning light gradually brightened, giving Rock Lee's earnest face a faint golden edge.
There was sweat, perseverance, and an almost naive, unwavering belief in the path one had chosen.
It seems... there's no way to refute it.
Isn't he the same way? In Sunagakure, besides mastering the essential ninja knowledge and tactical theories, he devoted a lot of time to Taijutsu, breathing techniques, and melee weapons.
Theoretical knowledge? Enough is enough. Becoming stronger, surviving, and protecting the people and things you want to protect are the real priorities.
Rock Lee's "health first" theory, although it sounds a bit extreme, does make a lot of sense when you think about it carefully.
"Understood." Shira finally nodded and said nothing more. He stepped forward and stood side by side with Rock Lee on the training field track, looking at the trees in front of them that were still shrouded in a thin mist.
"Then what are we waiting for? Let's run! Let's see how fast we can run in the morning in Konoha!"
A bright, carefree smile instantly bloomed on Rock Lee's face, and the brief blank and lingering doubts about "theoretical knowledge" were immediately forgotten.
"Oh--!!! Shira, charge! Charge! Charge!"
Rock Lee let out a short, powerful shout, and his body shot out like a taut bowstring! His footsteps slammed onto the dirt track, making a solid, powerful "thump-thump" sound, like the beating of a war drum.
Shira also took a deep breath, the rhythm of the Seven Heavens Breathing Method quietly flowing, her leg muscles awakening their memory and following closely behind.
Two figures, one in front of the other, quickly moved side by side, blending into the gradually awakening morning light of Konoha.
Footsteps, breathing, and the burning fighting spirit of the young people became the first sounds that rang out on the training ground that morning.
As for theory classes? Heh, what are those?
At this moment, their world consists only of the road stretching endlessly ahead and their like-minded companions by their side!
We'll talk about the rest later.
The battery was running low; when I had only 29 bars left, I had no choice but to sneak into our teachers' dormitory to charge it with a charger.
When I recharged to 32, the geography teacher appeared at the door! Oh my god, that scared me to death!
Well, the author does understand social etiquette; before even thinking of borrowing the teacher's charger, he had already brought several bags of food. It's Friday, 7:49 PM, and I'm typing away in the teacher's dorm while charging my phone. The geography teacher is watching videos next to me, and I even heard Brother Shenying yell "Get out!" ⌓‿⌓