The Uchiha compound was on the east side of Konoha.
Guy followed Obito through several streets, and the path grew more secluded.
The houses on both sides gradually changed from ordinary residences to Japanese-style estates with courtyards.
A fan-shaped clan crest occasionally appeared on the walls.
“Your clan’s pretty big.” Guy looked around.
Obito curled his lip.
“So what?
Still get yelled at every day.” “Who yells at you?” “The clan elders.” Obito rolled his eyes.
“Saying I bring shame to the Uchiha, saying I’m the dead last of dead lasts, saying I’ll never amount to anything…” His voice trailed off as he spoke.
Guy turned to look at him.
Obito was staring at the ground, his steps growing slower and slower.
Guy reached out and patted his shoulder.
“It’s okay.” Obito looked up.
Guy gave a thumbs-up, teeth gleaming.
“When I become Hokage someday, you can tell everyone you’re the Hokage’s brother.
Then see who dares to yell at you!” Obito blinked.
His eyes grew a little red.
But he quickly looked down, rubbing his eyes with the back of his hand.
When he looked up again, his defiant expression was back.
“Tch.
Who wants to be your brother?
I’m going to be Hokage myself!” Guy grinned.
“Fine, fine.
You can be Hokage.
You can be Hokage.” They kept walking.
After several twists and turns, they finally stopped in front of a wooden door with peeling paint.
Above the door hung a wooden board with a few crookedly written characters: [Uchiha Forge] Obito pushed the door open and poked his head inside.
“Uncle!
Uncle, are you here?” The sound of CLANG CLANG CLANG came from inside.
No answer.
Obito turned to Guy: “Come on in.” They passed through the door into a modest courtyard.
In the center of the yard stood a shed, and inside the shed, flames blazed.
A middle-aged man with his shirt off was swinging a hammer, pounding it again and again on a red-hot piece of iron.
Sweat ran down his dark back, dripping onto the ground with a sizzle as it turned to steam.
“Uncle!” Obito called out.
The man didn’t stop swinging.
CLANG!
CLANG!
CLANG!
After finishing that round, he clamped the iron, flipped it over, and plunged it into a bucket of water.
HISSSSS— Steam rose.
Only then did he look up.
A face covered in stubble, thick eyebrows and big eyes—he looked a bit like Obito.
But his gaze was far fiercer, like a wild boar.
“This is my uncle, Uchiha Tōya,” Obito said quietly.
“What are you doing here?” Uchiha Tōya’s voice was rough as sandpaper on wood.
“Got into trouble again?” Obito pouted.
“No trouble!
I brought my classmate!” “Classmate?” Uchiha Tōya turned his gaze toward Guy.
He looked him up and down.
Green jumpsuit.
Bushy brows.
His expression shifted from curiosity to disdain.
“The Eternal Genin’s son?” Guy blinked.
Obito’s face flushed red.
“Uncle!” Uchiha Tōya waved his hand, setting the hammer aside and grabbing a towel draped over a rack to wipe his sweat.
“Alright, alright.
Everyone in the village knows.
So, what do you want with me?” Guy stepped forward and stood straight.
“Sir, I’d like to work here.” Uchiha Tōya’s wiping motion paused.
He stared at Guy with a strange look.
“Work?
You?” “Yes.” “How old are you?” “Seven.” Uchiha Tōya laughed.
A laugh of disbelief.
“Seven years old, and you want to work here?
Do you know what this place is?
This is a blacksmith shop!
It’s not a playground for kids!” He tossed the towel onto the rack.
“The work here—swinging a hammer, pulling the bellows, moving iron ingots—which of those can you do?” Guy didn’t answer.
Uchiha Tōya continued: “Your old man, that Eternal Genin—how much does he make in a month?
Probably barely enough to feed you, right?” “Wanting to make money is a good thing, but you have to be realistic.
Wait a few more years.
Grow taller, get stronger, and then come back—” “I can do it.” Guy cut him off.
Uchiha Tōya blinked.
Guy walked over to the edge of the shed, where a stack of iron ingots was piled up.
Each one was as thick as his waist and half as tall as a person.
He looked at Tōya: “Where to?” Tōya raised an eyebrow and pointed at an empty rack in the corner.
“Over there.
Move them one by one.
Then we’ll talk.” Guy walked over.
He crouched down.
Wrapped his arms around an iron ingot.
He lifted.
The ingot left the ground.
He straightened up, turned, walked to the empty rack, and set it down.
The whole process took less than ten seconds.
His face wasn’t flushed.
His breathing was steady.
Uchiha Tōya’s eyes widened a little.
Guy walked back.
Second one.
Third one.
Fourth one.
…
A stack of ten iron ingots—in less than two minutes, all moved.
Guy dusted off his hands and walked back in front of Uchiha Tōya.
“Moved.” Uchiha Tōya opened his mouth.
He looked at the neatly stacked ingots, then back at Guy.
Just how strong was this kid?
He was seven?
Obito was grinning beside him, his expression screaming “See?
Told you.” Uchiha Tōya cleared his throat.
“Well…
you’ve got some strength, I’ll give you that.
But a blacksmith shop isn’t just about strength.” “You need to know how to work the bellows, control the heat, know when to add coal, when to stop—” “I can learn.” Guy said the same thing again.
Uchiha Tōya was stumped.
He looked at Guy’s serious eyes and felt a little annoyed.
Why was this kid so stubborn?
“Fine, fine.
You can learn.
But do you know how to forge?” Guy shook his head.
“No.” “Then that’s that!” Uchiha Tōya waved his hand.
“You don’t know anything.
Why would I hire you?
This is wartime.
You know how many people are waiting for ninja tools?
I’m busy as hell.
I don’t have time to teach you.” Guy was silent for two seconds.
Then he spoke: “I don’t want pay.” Uchiha Tōya blinked, thinking he’d misheard.
“What?” “I don’t want pay.” Guy repeated.
“Just one meal a day is enough.” Uchiha Tōya blinked.
A deal like that?
But then he thought about it and shook his head.
“No pay or not, it still won’t work.
You don’t know anything.
You’d just be getting in the way.” “When I’m busy, you can’t help.
When I’m not busy, teaching you is a waste of time.
A meal costs money too.
Why would I—” “I can try out first.” Guy cut him off again.
“Just for today.
Let me work a full day.
If I do well, I stay.
If not, I leave on my own.
And you don’t have to feed me.” Uchiha Tōya looked at him.
This kid was dead set on it.
He turned to look at Obito.
Obito shrugged with an expression that said “Don’t look at me.
He insisted on coming.” Uchiha Tōya looked back at the neatly stacked ingots.
The kid had strength.
Plenty of it.
He thought for a moment, then pointed at the bellows in the corner of the shed.
“Fine.
You pull that for an hour.
No stopping.
We’ll talk after that.” Guy nodded.
He walked over.
Crouched down.
Grabbed the bellows handle.
Push…
Pull…
Push…
Pull…
The bellows began to work.
The furnace fire pulsed with his rhythm, brightening and dimming.
Uchiha Tōya watched from the side.
At first, he waited to see when this kid would start complaining.
Ten minutes.
Twenty minutes.
Thirty minutes.
Guy’s movements never changed.
His rhythm never faltered.
His face wasn’t flushed.
His breathing was steady.
He didn’t even blink.
Uchiha Tōya’s expression shifted.
From waiting to see a joke, to surprise.
From surprise, to seriousness.
He walked over and crouched beside Guy.
He reached out and felt the furnace fire.
The temperature was perfect.
The airflow was perfect.
The heat control was better than his newest apprentices.
“Kid…
have you done this before?” Guy didn’t stop, turning his head to look at him.
“I train every day.” “Train what?” “Taijutsu.
Kicks, push-ups, weighted running.” Uchiha Tōya fell silent.
Taijutsu.
He knew what that was.
Every kid at the Ninja Academy trained in taijutsu, didn’t they?
But training to this level…
He looked at Guy’s arms.
Those arms were thicker than any seven-year-old he’d ever seen.
Not fat—muscle.
Solid, real muscle.
He looked at Guy’s breathing.
Steady as if he were asleep.
This kid was definitely not ordinary.
An hour passed.
Guy stopped, stood up.
His legs were a little numb, but a few steps and he was fine.
He looked at Uchiha Tōya.
“Well?” Uchiha Tōya didn’t answer.
He walked to the other side of the shed and took a red-hot iron billet from the rack.
He clamped it onto the anvil.
Then he picked up a hammer and pointed at the billet.
“Watch closely.” CLANG!
One strike.
“Forging isn’t just about strength.
You need to know where to strike, when to strike, and how hard.” CLANG!
CLANG!
He struck as he spoke.
His movements weren’t fast, but every blow landed on the exact same spot.
The billet slowly took shape under his hands.
The rough form of a ninja tool.
The shape of a kunai.
Tōya clamped the billet and plunged it into the water bucket.
HISSSSS— The steam cleared.
He tossed the billet at Guy’s feet.
“Make ten of these, in this exact shape.
After that, we’ll talk.” Guy looked down at the billet.
Then at the hammer in Uchiha Tōya’s hand.
“The hammer?” Uchiha Tōya pointed at the wall.
Seven or eight hammers of different sizes leaned against it.
Guy walked over and picked up the smallest one.
He weighed it in his hand.
Too light.
He switched to another one.
Still light.
He switched again.
On the fourth one, he lifted it, tested the weight.
Mm.
About right.
Uchiha Tōya watched, his eyelid twitching.
That hammer…
was what his adult apprentices used.
This kid could lift it?
Guy walked up to the anvil.
He clamped a red-hot iron billet.
Set it in place.
Raised the hammer.
CLANG!
The first strike, and the billet went crooked.
CLANG!
The second strike, even more crooked.
Uchiha Tōya’s brows furrowed.
CLANG!
The third strike—completely off to the side.
Uchiha Tōya was about to start cursing.
Then he saw Guy stop.
Guy looked down at the crooked billet, silent for two seconds.
Then he clamped a new one.
Red-hot iron.
Set it in place.
Raised the hammer.
CLANG!
This time, it didn’t go crooked.
CLANG!
The strike was on target.
CLANG!
CLANG!
CLANG!
Strike after strike, the rhythm growing steadier and steadier.
Uchiha Tōya’s open mouth slowly closed.
He stared at Guy’s hands.
The way those hands held the hammer had been wrong at first.
But with every strike, he adjusted.
Three strikes.
Five strikes.
Ten strikes.
By the fifteenth strike, his form looked like he’d been practicing for years.
The billet slowly took shape under Guy’s hands.
The shape of a kunai.
Exactly like the one Uchiha Tōya had made.
CLANG!
The final strike landed.
Guy clamped the billet and plunged it into the water bucket.
HISSSSS— The steam cleared.
He tossed it at Uchiha Tōya’s feet.
It lay side by side with the one Tōya had made.
Identical.
Uchiha Tōya looked down at the two billets.
He was silent for a long time.
Then he looked up.
At Guy.
“Kid…
this is really your first time forging?” End of Chapter 19