The back mountain was covered in lush vegetation, wild grasses, and towering trees. Sasuke stopped at the base of a small hill several meters high, where stones the size of human heads lay scattered.
Drawing his short sword, Sasuke practiced a few flourishes to get a feel for it before selecting a stone from the pile.
What Sasuke was about to do was sculpt—more precisely, sculpt using Chakra.
After his conversation with Sakura, Sasuke had rekindled his sculpting skills, a technique he had abandoned many years ago in his previous life.
In his past life, Sasuke didn't come from a family of sculptors. His father was just an ordinary Stone Mason in a rural village, earning a living by taking on commissions for tombstones, inscriptions, and decorative patterns.
His father was a rough, uneducated man who couldn't read a single character.
Even when accepting commissions for inscriptions, he would simply trace the characters provided by the client, copying them onto the stone with precise depth and lively, pleasing strokes.
Despite his illiteracy, Sasuke's father was the most popular and sought-after Stone Mason in the region.
His services were always in high demand until the advent of mechanized sandblasting carving machines gradually diminished his livelihood.
Just as butcher carved a cow with effortless precision, Sasuke's father had dedicated his entire life to sculpting.
Though he came from no famous carving lineage, had no noble lineage, and knew nothing of artistic movements, he wielded even the simplest stone with remarkable ease and skill.
In Sasuke's eyes back then, his father's creations were infinitely more beautiful than the works of so-called masters.
Despite his mastery of the craft, Sasuke's father had no intention of passing it down to his son. In his generation, studying and achieving academic success were considered the only respectable paths to advancement.
Sasuke lived up to his father's expectations, gaining admission to a prestigious university.
Yet, having grown up at his father's side, helping with his work from time to time, Sasuke was no stranger to stone carving. In fact, it was arguably the craft he knew best.
'All things are ways to train, and life itself is a form of practice.'
Integrating it into everyday life was precisely what Sasuke now sought to achieve.
Sculpting, as a traditional, purely manual technique, demands meticulous precision.
Whether carving characters or intricate patterns, even the slightest mistake could ruin the entire piece.
A single mistake or error could ruin the entire stone, wasting both materials and time, which is why the skill requirements for stone masons were so high.
Stone masons typically used tools such as diamond grinders, axes, saws, hammers, chisels, knives, and various other implements. Sasuke, however, intended to use only one:
The knife—the Chakra Metal short blade in his hand.
With this simplest of tools, he would carve out the stone's texture and patterns, revealing its inherent beauty and unique spirit.
After studying the stone's shape and texture for a moment, Sasuke prepared to begin.
His first step was to carve characters into the stone.
Channeling Chakra into the short blade, the blade instantly turned crimson red, emitting wisps of white steam and a faint hissing sound.
While most conventional weapons acted as semiconductors or insulators to Chakra, Chakra Metal weapons were practically superconductors with zero resistance.
Not only were these weapons far more durable than ordinary ones, but they also allowed for nearly unrestricted and unimpeded flow of Chakra.
'Crack!'
As Sasuke touched his short sword to the stone, preparing to carve the first character, the stone shattered instantly.
'Too much Chakra!' he thought to himself, mentally reviewing his mistake. He discarded the ruined stone and picked up another to continue carving.
Using Chakra to carve not only honed his Chakra control but also strengthened his wrist and blade skills—a triple win!
Time ticked by, from morning until noon.
Sasuke destroyed numerous stones, but his mastery over his strength grew increasingly refined.
Another stone. After using his short sword to trim the rough edges into a smooth plane, Sasuke prepared to carve the first character again.
'Hmm? Someone's watching.'
Sensing a gaze, Sasuke looked up. In the distance stood a girl no older than eight or nine, with delicate features, shoulder-length brown hair, a light-colored kimono over a mesh undergarment, and a sketchbook and palette in her hands, gazing at him with curiosity.
When Sasuke glanced her way, the little girl's cheeks flushed. "Excuse me," she said, "am I disturbing you?"
"No," Sasuke replied, shaking his head. Realizing she was just a young girl, he gestured for her to proceed as she wished and returned to his work, focusing intently on the stone tablet.
The girl carried her drawing board to a spot farther away, unfolded it, and began sketching. It seemed her purpose here was to draw from life.
As she sketched, she would occasionally peek curiously in Sasuke's direction.
'Could that be Uchiha Sasuke?' she wondered. 'Is he carving something? But isn't he supposed to be a genius at the Ninja Academy? Why would he be doing something like this?'
The girl's mind swirled with questions.
Sasuke remained oblivious to her curious gaze, his attention entirely fixed on the stone tablet.
He was completely absorbed in his task, unaware of the sweat trickling down his forehead and nearly dripping into his eyes. His short blade moved with practiced precision, as if it were an extension of his arm.
In that moment, Sasuke's control over Chakra became increasingly intuitive, and the blade in his hand moved faster and faster, blurring into a phantom-like dance across the stone. More and more characters were carved into the tablet.
From start to finish, a single, unbroken flow!
Time ticked by, minute by minute. By the time the sun hung high in the sky, Sasuke's blade finally came to rest.
'Huff!'
Sasuke exhaled deeply, wiping the sweat from his body.
He brushed away the stone fragments, revealing the carved characters—each stroke precise and measured—that now adorned the stone tablet.
'As expected, the result is excellent!'
At that moment, Sasuke realized he had made significant progress in his Chakra control.
Even his wrist strength and swordsmanship had improved considerably. If he continued practicing like this, his overall strength would undoubtedly increase significantly over time.
"Can I take a look?"
A little girl had quietly approached and asked softly.
"Sure, it's nothing special," Sasuke replied with a nod, stepping aside to give her a better view.
"Created by the late Emperor..."
The girl leaned closer.
After studying the inscription for a while, she found some characters she recognized, others she could vaguely understand, and still others whose meaning completely eluded her.
Her brow furrowed in confusion.
'Is this a secret ninja text?'
'Is this still Uchiha script?'
After pondering fruitlessly, the girl turned to ask, "Excuse me, what's this called?"
"'History (In English)!'"
"'History (In English)'," the girl murmured softly.
'Sigh, another word I don't understand.'
Noticing the girl's perplexed expression, Sasuke casually explained, "It's just something I wrote on a whim. Don't overthink it."
"Alright!" the girl nodded. After giving Sasuke another up-and-down glance, she asked, "You're Uchiha Sasuke, right?"
"Nice to meet you. I'm Kurama Yakumo."