Rock Lee was running, panting heavily.
His sweat had long since soaked his clothes, and his fast run had turned into a jog.
Despite this, he had only run 1,100 laps, with 100 laps of his task still unfinished.
But he already felt extremely miserable, his feet feeling as heavy as if they were filled with lead.
“No, I can’t stop.
I won’t be able to beat geniuses like this.” Rock Lee kept cheering himself on, persisting step by step.
At this moment, he suddenly thought of Neji.
Neji was a typical genius who also trained hard, he had always wanted to surpass him.
“Right, I understand why I can’t compete.
Geniuses are already amazing, and if they train hard too, how can a fool like me ever win?” Rock Lee’s thoughts began to drift.
To win against these people, he would have to double, double, and double his training again.
However, training at such high intensity all the time wouldn’t work either.
As a Taijutsu Ninja, he knew that if his body broke down, his strength wouldn’t improve.
For instance, the condition of his arms.
Because they were injured too badly last night, he couldn’t train them today.
“What should I do?
If only I could recover while training.” Suddenly, Rock Lee thought of an animal.
A chicken.
Once, he had a mission to help catch a chicken, but he chased it for a long time and couldn’t catch it.
The reason was that this chicken not only ran fast and had great explosive power, but it also had incredible stamina.
Later, a grandma told him it was because this rooster stood on one leg every day, switching to the other when it got tired.
Over time, its strength became much greater than that of an ordinary chicken.
If he used this method to train, would it work for him too?
Acting on the thought, he immediately tied all his weights to his right leg and tried hopping through the mountain forest on one foot.
“So heavy.
But the effect should be good.” He could feel his left foot resting and recovering while his right foot was becoming twice as fatigued.
However, as long as it was effective, he would persist.
He decided that for the remaining 100 laps, he would complete them by hopping on one leg.
Thud…
Thud…
Thud…
Each heavy footstep sounded like a giant beast roaming deep in the forest.
Fortunately, this place was quite far from the village, so it didn’t cause any commotion.
However, by the time Rock Lee finally finished those last hundred laps, it was already afternoon.
Clutching his growling stomach, he planned to eat some instant ramen.
That’s right, Rock Lee had lost his parents at a very young age and lived alone in a simple small wooden hut.
And it was quite far from the center of the village.
His living expenses came from doing simple odd jobs for the village, earning a meager income.
It wasn’t until he graduated from the academy that he had the chance to go on missions with Guy and earn some commissions.
Because he had been frugal since childhood and needed to buy training equipment, he had always eaten poorly.
Green vegetables and white rice were common, instant ramen was a luxury.
As for BBQ, he only had the chance when Guy treated him.
However, just as he was eating his delicious instant ramen, several comments floated up again.
[Tsk tsk, with such high energy consumption, he’s eating instant ramen?
It’d be a miracle if he didn’t ruin his body.] [Yeah, he looks dirt poor, but he could go hunt wild animals.] [There are plenty of those outside.] [At the very least, there are fish in the river.
Even Naruto knows to go catch fish to eat.] [Catching fish with bare hands can practice hand dexterity.
Swimming with weights is equivalent to training physical strength.
Walking on water with weights can better control Chakra and balance.] [Training is everywhere, this guy is too stupid.] It seemed several people were watching him today, but they were all complaining.
But Rock Lee was enjoying it.
Because he found that these people were simply too smart.
Each novel training method opened his eyes.
It was said that someone even used ocean waves to train their swordsmanship, eventually becoming invincible in the world.
Truly amazing.
Thinking of this, Rock Lee also intended to give it a try.
He finished his meal in a few slurps and rubbed his stomach, saying, “Sigh, I’m still not full.
Just right, I’ll go catch a few fish to eat.
And I can practice walking on water while I’m at it.” He carried his fish basket and rushed to the riverside.
In order to train while catching fish, he specifically chose a shallow water area.
Then he tried to stand on the water’s surface with weights on one leg.
But in the next second, with a splash, he stepped directly into the water.
Not only did he fail to find his footing, but because his center of gravity suddenly shifted, he fell into the water and swallowed a few mouthfuls.
“Cough…
cough cough…” “Blegh…” Walking on water with weights was too difficult.
But only with difficulty would there be progress.
He decided he had to learn this weighted Water Walking and fish-catching today.
(Note: Rock Lee graduated a year earlier and has already learned basic Water Walking and Tree Climbing.) Falling into the water time and again, and starting over time and again.
Soaked through, he kept trying.
Even 100, 1,000, or 10,000 failures couldn’t defeat him.
However, the monotonous training didn’t seem to interest the mysterious text much.
Aside from the occasional “boring,” “nonsensical,” or “waste of time” floating by, no more useful information appeared.
Until late at night, the appearance of one line of text finally caught his attention.
[Sigh, as expected of Rock Lee.] [What a pity.
The Transformation Technique test was just yesterday, and tonight is the night Naruto steals the Scroll of Seals, but I can’t see that exciting scene.] Rock Lee was stunned on the spot.
Naruto was actually going to steal the Scroll of Seals?
How was that possible?
That was a forbidden item of the village.
With Naruto’s strength, could he steal something so precious?
Swish…
Swish…
Just then, the stationary Rock Lee heard the sound of people running in the forest, as if many people were chasing something.
He followed curiously.
He saw these people wearing Konoha Ninja vests, scattering to track someone.
Rock Lee thought to himself, ‘Did Naruto really go to steal the Scroll of Seals?
And are these people looking for him?’ At this moment, he didn’t understand the situation at all and only hoped the mysterious text could give him some information.
Unfortunately, no mysterious text answered him.
Finally, he decided to follow and see.
He moved carefully through the forest while also paying attention to the comment information.
Filtering out the lines of nonsense insulting him, a useful one finally appeared.
[These ninjas should be looking for Naruto, but unfortunately they don’t know that Naruto is waiting for Mizuki at the small wooden hut near Flower Street.] The forest near Flower Street?
A small wooden hut?
For Rock Lee, who had been training in the forest, this place wasn’t hard to find.
He immediately ran in another direction.
Sure enough, before long, he saw a small wooden hut in the distance, with a few old wires and a water tower on the roof.
Importantly, the sound of flying Kunai could be heard.
‘Has the battle already begun?’ Thinking of this, Rock Lee quickened his pace once more.