For the next several days, Shin-chan obediently trained with Might Duy and Guy after school every day.
Calling it "training" was, in Shin-chan's opinion, really just running laps around the village every day, with Duy occasionally dragging him into all kinds of weird exercises—handstands, push-ups, frog jumps.
But Duy was growing more and more confused.
This child named Nohara Shinnosuke ran with them every day and did all those basic exercises every day. He was always shouting things like "I'm so tired," "I'm going to die," and "Can't we take a break?"
But no matter how carefully Duy observed him, he still couldn't find Shin-chan's limit.
With handstands, he could hold out until Guy couldn't anymore.
With running, he kept alternating between running and stopping, stopping and running—but his total distance always ended up being greater than Guy's.
How was he supposed to bring out the hidden potential inside this child's body?
Might Duy scratched his head in frustration.
"Father, what are you thinking about?" Guy asked in confusion.
"Nothing." Duy shook his head and stopped dwelling on it. Then he flashed his gleaming white teeth. "Today, we're going to train in Konoha's back mountain."
"The back mountain?" Guy's eyes lit up.
"There's a cliff there. We can practice climbing."
Shin-chan yawned beside them. "Climbing? You mean climbing walls?"
"Even better than climbing walls. Climbing cliffs."
Shin-chan thought about it and asked, "Are there any pretty big sisters on the cliff?"
Duy's smile froze. "No."
"Then I don't want to go."
"Youth doesn't get to choose the location!"
"But places with pretty big sisters are where youth exists," Shin-chan said with perfect seriousness. "Burning needs fuel, and pretty big sisters are the fuel for my youth."
Duy opened his mouth, only to find that he somehow couldn't argue with that.
But in the end, the three of them still headed toward the back mountain.
Konoha's back mountain was a stretch of rolling hills covered in dense trees.
Duy led them to the foot of a steep rock wall.
"This is it." He pointed at the nearly vertical cliff face. "Today's training goal is to climb to the top."
Guy looked up at the towering cliff, and fire immediately blazed in his eyes. "It's so high—but youth means challenging high places!"
Shin-chan looked up too, then swallowed hard.
"Mister, how high is this?"
"About thirty meters, I'd say."
Shin-chan was silent for a while. "Mister."
"Yeah?"
"I don't think this training is suitable for me."
"Why not?"
"Because I'm still little. If I fall, I'll die."
Duy thumped his chest. "Don't worry. I'll catch you from below."
Shin-chan put both hands behind his back, still clearly hesitant.
"Father, Shin-chan, look over there!" Guy suddenly pointed toward the cliff and shouted.
Duy and Shin-chan followed his finger.
There was a boy around the same age as Shin-chan clinging to the cliff face—silver hair, mask covering his face.
He was gripping the rock with only one hand, his other hand tucked behind his back. His body clung to the cliff like a lizard as he moved upward bit by bit.
Shin-chan blinked. "Isn't that Kakashi?"
"Kakashi? He's training here too!" Guy looked surprised.
Might Duy gave a thumbs-up. "Amazing. That child is so young, and he can already climb a cliff like that with one hand."
Kakashi kept climbing, his movements smooth and steady, until he reached the top.
Then he slowly came back down from the other side.
Guy clenched his fists. "I can't lose. I'm climbing too."
With that, he charged at the cliff, grabbed onto the rock with both hands, and started climbing.
But after only two meters, his grip slipped.
Smack.
He hit the ground.
Guy scrambled back up, brushed the dirt off himself, and charged again.
This time he climbed three meters, then his foot missed its hold.
Smack.
He fell again.
"Youth must never give up!"
Guy rushed at it a third time.
Shin-chan stood to the side, watching with his mouth hanging open in a perfect O.
"Guy, doesn't that hurt?"
"It does." Tears wobbled in Guy's eyes. "But youth must never surrender!"
Guy climbed again.
This time he got higher.
Then—smack.
He fell even harder.
Shin-chan swallowed and looked up at the towering cliff. "Is this really something a five-year-old is supposed to climb?"
Hesitantly, he walked up to the rock wall and looked up.
The stone was hard, the cracks were tiny, and there didn't seem to be anywhere to grab at all.
Shin-chan cautiously reached out, hooked his fingers into a tiny crack, and lifted one foot.
Thud.
He fell right back to the ground.
"Ow." Shin-chan sat there rubbing his butt.
Kakashi's voice drifted down from above. "Use chakra."
Shin-chan looked up and saw that Kakashi had already come down the other side of the slope.
"Chakra?" Shin-chan tilted his head in confusion.
"If you concentrate chakra in your hands and feet, you can stick to the cliff." After saying that, Kakashi began another round of training without adding a single extra word.
Shin-chan looked at his hands, thoughtful.
Chakra.
That warm thing that swirled around in his stomach.
He pressed a hand against the cliff and tried hard to recall how it had felt to refine chakra that day. Very quickly, that warm current rose from his stomach again and flowed toward his palm.
Then he pressed his hand against the rock wall.
It stuck.
Shin-chan froze for a moment, then cautiously put his other hand on the cliff.
That one stuck too.
He hesitated for a few seconds, then began climbing.
He was slow, clumsy, and awkward. He had to think for a long time before every step. His hands didn't know where to reach, and his feet didn't know where to land.
But he really was climbing.
"Father!" Guy shouted excitedly. "Shin-chan is climbing!"
Duy stood below the cliff with his head tilted back, watching that tiny red figure inch upward bit by bit. The expression on his face grew more and more complicated.
And so Shin-chan climbed ten meters.
"So tired." He stopped, looked down, and called, "Mister, can I come down now?"
Before Duy could answer, Shin-chan let go with both hands and feet and jumped straight down.
"Shin-chan!" Duy lunged forward, trying to catch him.
But Shin-chan landed perfectly on the ground, then stood up, dusted himself off, and looked completely fine.
"It's too high. I don't want to climb anymore."
Guy ran over and threw his arms around him. "Shin-chan, you're amazing! You really climbed it."
Up on the cliff, Kakashi had actually been watching them the whole time.
From the moment that little red figure failed the first time, to the moment he successfully climbed the second time, Kakashi had seen all of it.
The first time refining chakra, he only needed one class.
The first time using chakra to climb a cliff, he only failed once.
That guy...
"Kakashi!" Shin-chan suddenly waved at him. "Thanks for teaching me."
Kakashi pulled his gaze away and kept climbing, but his voice drifted down. "Don't mention it."
Shin-chan didn't care much either. He turned back to Duy and asked, "Mister, do I really have to climb all the way to the top?"
Duy was silent for a long time before finally placing a hand on Shin-chan's shoulder.
"You are a true genius."
Shin-chan tilted his head and thought for three seconds.
"What's a genius? Can you eat it?"
Duy: "..."
Under the setting sun, the three of them stood before the cliff.
Guy looked at Shin-chan with eyes full of admiration.
Duy looked at Shin-chan with eyes full of complicated thoughts.