Time flew.
In the Land of Fire, at the Valley of the End.
A green figure wearing heavy weights was climbing the statue of the First Hokage.
Because the statue was built into the mountain and stood nearly a hundred meters tall, the figure appeared incredibly tiny.
The climbing figure was none other than Rock Lee.
Back when Guy learned that Lee would be reducing his mission frequency, as his teacher, he could only choose to support his student.
He gave him a new set of weighted leg wraps as encouragement.
Now, Lee had not failed his expectations.
In just two short months, he had already adapted to the new weight.
That was moving forward with a load of 1400 kilograms.
With a weight sheet tied to each of his hands and feet, Rock Lee climbed the giant statue.
As he neared the summit, a victorious smile couldn’t help but cross his lips.
“Today’s 287th climb, finally…” Whoosh!
Before he could celebrate, he felt his bloodied hands suddenly lose strength, and with a sharp sound, he fell.
Everything around him became a blur.
The wind whistled past his ears, the sound so sharp it was terrifying.
Even worse, his body tumbled and crashed repeatedly, adding new injuries to his old ones.
Thud!
Rock Lee was like a bomb dropped into the bottomless pool of water.
The resulting waves constantly slapped against the stubborn rocks on the shore.
He struggled to crawl up along with the spray of the waves.
“Whew…” Burdened by the weights, Rock Lee could only lie on the shore, panting incessantly while thinking helplessly, ‘The training task of 300 climbs to the summit every day…
I still can’t complete it.
After 200 trips, I basically have to fail several times before succeeding once.’ Today, his arms had reached their limit.
If he continued, it would affect tomorrow’s training.
So he could only give up on climbing, struggle to stand up, and move the weights from his hands to his feet.
He said solemnly, “As punishment for not finishing the climbing task, I must perform 10,000 weighted leg kicks.” Thud…
Thud…
Thud…
Rock Lee walked into the shallow water area and kicked the stubborn rocks in the water one after another.
Washed by the current for ages, these stones had become both slippery and hard.
Against the resistance of the water, it took all of his strength just to hit them.
This was also one of Rock Lee’s mandatory lessons now.
In this Valley of the End, the stones, trees, rivers, and high mountains were all props for his training.
Some methods were suggested by the comments, and others he thought of himself.
When tired, he would find a tree and hang upside down to rest.
When sleepy, he would return to the cave to sleep.
When hungry, he would catch fish, hunt bears, gather mushrooms, and pick fruit.
As long as it was edible, he wasn’t a picky eater.
“However, I need to go out and buy salt tomorrow.
The salt I brought is almost gone.” Thinking of food, Rock Lee noticed that his table salt was nearly depleted.
His training volume was huge and he sweated a lot, so he couldn’t go without salt.
So he planned to go to the village tomorrow to buy more salt.
— Konohagakure.
Under the blue sky and white clouds, Rock Lee sped along the shaded paths.
Swish, swish, swish…
After two months of bitter training, Rock Lee’s physique had undergone a significant change.
His muscle lines had become more defined, especially in his upper body.
The muscles on his arms bulged slightly, revealing a sense of power.
His chest muscles had also become thicker.
Although his abdomen still had a slightly soft touch, traces of exercise were visible, and the lines were gradually tightening.
His leg muscles had also become firmer due to continuous exercise, making his stride steady and powerful.
Especially while wearing his skin-tight suit, the muscles exuded a very obvious masculine aura.
Consequently, Rock Lee was a bit unaccustomed to it for a moment, feeling quite tight.
(Note: He usually takes off his clothes during weighted training.) However, this feeling was quickly diverted.
Because as he was running, he happened to spot Naruto and the others heading out of the village for a mission.
He shouted, “Naruto, Sasuke, are you going on a mission?” Hearing the voice, Naruto said happily, “That’s right, we finally took on a big mission this time, hahaha…” Clearly, for Naruto, who often performed missions like catching cats and pulling weeds, this mission was very rare.
Hearing this, Rock Lee quickly ran over.
When the group saw him, they were dumbfounded.
“Wow, Rock Lee, you’re so buff, how did you do it?” This display of muscles was too much of a shock for Naruto and the others.
Rock Lee proudly struck a bodybuilding pose and said modestly, “It’s nothing, as long as you persist in exercising every day.” Although his clothes felt tight, he was very satisfied with these muscles.
He was even starting to like the feeling of bitter training.
Even Kakashi’s eyes narrowed slightly.
As a Jonin and a friend of a Taijutsu specialist like Guy, he knew very well what these muscles represented.
This was power.
Don’t be fooled by Guy usually keeping a low profile.
His physique was actually quite good.
But Kakashi remembered clearly that even Guy hadn’t reached this level at the age of twelve.
‘Is Rock Lee really a genius?’ Kakashi pondered in his heart.
Regarding this student his old friend often mentioned, he was stunned for a moment.
After meeting Naruto and the others, Rock Lee once again noticed important content mentioned in the comments.
[Wow, Kakashi is so cool.] [Is this Team 7 assembling?
Looks like they’re going to the Land of Waves.
I really want to see Haku.] [It’s a pity we won’t see the famous scene of Team 7 fighting Zabuza and Haku.
It’s so exciting for Naruto and the others to face a Jonin lineup for the first time.] [Please, follow them, I want to see the love between Haku and Zabuza.] [Forget it, person above.
Rock Lee is a training maniac, he won’t go.
Besides, he can’t see what we’re saying.
Begging is useless.] There was a lot of information here, so Rock Lee was a bit confused.
But he noticed the two most important points.
First, he shouldn’t be able to see these mysterious words.
Although he didn’t know why he could see them, he felt it was better to pretend he couldn’t.
Second, Naruto and the others would be fighting a Jonin named Zabuza this time.
This second point in particular made Rock Lee, who wanted to become stronger, feel a bit tempted.
His current dream was no longer just to prove that one could become a ninja using only Taijutsu.
It was to surpass the Hokage and save Guy-sensei in the future.
He immediately went to Kakashi and pleaded, “Kakashi-sensei, can you take me along?
I want to experience a C-rank mission.” Kakashi looked at the mission client, Tazuna, and said, “The employer has to agree to this.” Tazuna was a typical old craftsman, wearing cloth clothes and a sweat towel.
After gulping down a bottle of sake, he said, “You can go, but there’s no commission, okay?” Rock Lee happily agreed, “Thank you so much for agreeing to this request.
I don’t need a commission, I’ll just tag along.”