Chapter 11. The Devil's Horn

With a thud, Guy felt as if he had kicked an iron plate. His entire shin was throbbing with pain.

"Ha!"

Unwilling to back down, he gathered his strength after landing. His punch was as powerful as a bamboo breaking through the air, causing an explosive sound as it hit the air, aiming for a heavy blow to Dan's back.

Even if Dan was as tough as steel, Guy was determined to send him flying.

But the result was unexpected.

Clang~

Guy's punch landed on Dan's back, but Dan didn't move an inch. Instead, a melodious bell sound echoed from within him.

His body seemed to have turned into a large bell. Any attack couldn't shake him at all, only leaving behind a clear and beautiful bell sound that lingered in the ears.

This was the embodiment of the Iron Body technique, a testament to Dan's peak physical strength.

What's going on?!

Guy's punch sent him reeling back instead. Half of his body was temporarily numb, and he was staggering, almost losing his balance.

At that moment, Dan turned around like a ghost, lowered his center of gravity, and took advantage of Guy's lapse to land a palm strike on his chest.

Guy was instantly lifted off the ground and sent flying backward.

Thud!

Guy collided with the wall. Instead of the expected bloody mess, he slid down the wall like a painting.

"Are you okay?"

Kakashi quickly helped Guy up, finding that he had only suffered minor injuries and was not seriously hurt.

Clearly, Dan had held back, controlling his strength just right.

Ever since he accidentally crushed a Rain Village spy's head with excessive force, Dan had been practicing controlling his punch strength and had made some progress.

This brief exchange was enough to show that Dan's strength far surpassed Guy's.

"I lost."

Guy said these two words to Dan with a bitter smile, finally lowering his head.

In fact, he still had the Eight Gates technique passed down from his father. He could currently open up to the sixth gate, "View Gate", and gain several times his own strength in a short time.

But as far as Guy knew, Dan had also learned the Eight Gates technique from his father, and his skill would only be superior to his own.

"Do you know why you lost?"

Dan suddenly asked, walking over step by step, his massive body exuding an oppressive aura.

Facing Dan's approach, Kakashi raised his left hand in a defensive posture, ready to lift his forehead protector at any moment to reveal his Sharingan.

But Dan completely ignored Kakashi.

He looked down at Guy and said, "Running hundreds of laps around the Leaf Village every day, doing ten thousand push-ups, ten thousand sit-ups, ten thousand squats... This kind of training seems passionate, but it's actually just a waste of time.

It's not efficient, not scientific.

Fitness isn't about passion alone. It's about continuous learning, thinking, and improving. Only then can you reach the peak of physical strength.

Look closely, this is what real muscles look like."

As he finished speaking, Dan raised his hands and pulled apart the black kimono covering his chest. The top slid down from his shoulders to his waist, revealing his perfectly sculpted upper body.

Under the surprised and doubtful gaze of Kakashi and Guy,

"Hiss."

Dan took a deep breath, expelling all the air from his abdomen. His abdominal muscles contracted and lifted, making his entire abdomen look hollow and his waist extremely slender.

Vacuum abdomen.

At the same time, Dan slightly turned to the left, raised his arms to shoulder height, bent his elbows, and pressed his forearms inward from both sides, causing his biceps to bulge.

This pose was reminiscent of Arnold Schwarzenegger's classic bicep flex.

But it wasn't over yet.

On top of the bicep flex, Dan further raised his hands, curled his fingers inward, and at the highest point, flipped his fists outward.

At that moment, whoosh.

The light in the room seemed to converge on Dan, cascading down from above, casting the most perfect shadows on his muscular lines.

With a devout gaze and face turned upward, Dan raised his monstrous muscular arms high, like...

A pair of devil's horns.

Seeing this, thump, thump.

Kakashi and Guy's hearts pounded violently, their pupils dilating as they felt an inexplicably strong impact.

They weren't bodybuilding enthusiasts, and they had no interest in men's muscles, but at this moment, they felt an unprecedented sense of power and beauty from the man before them, Uchiha Dan.

For a moment, they both stood frozen.

It wasn't until Dan lowered his arms, turned around, and left that they came back to their senses.

"See yourselves out," Dan said, returning to his cushion and sitting cross-legged again.

Creak.

The door opened on cue, and Samui stood at the entrance, gesturing again and saying coldly, "Please."

Kakashi gave Dan a deep look.

Then, supporting a dazed Guy, he slowly walked out of the gym.

Samui watched their retreating figures, then turned back to look at Dan, who was sitting quietly, and muttered, "The boss seems to be getting scarier..."

After leaving the Body Modification Department, Kakashi remembered that he had come to investigate the destruction of the surveillance cameras.

He had intended to find Uchiha Dan, but instead, Might Guy got beaten up, and Kakashi didn't say a word or lift a finger the entire time.

He felt like a bystander.

Feeling somewhat guilty, he patted Guy on the shoulder and comforted his friend, "Don't be discouraged, I'll treat you to ramen. Only with a full stomach can you have the strength to train and challenge Uchiha Dan again, right?"

"Kakashi!"

Guy burst into tears, hugging Kakashi tightly and crying like a child.

"Enough, let go..."

Kakashi looked helpless, fearing someone would pass by and see two men hugging in the alley, which would be too embarrassing.

Fortunately, the place was secluded.

It wasn't until evening that Kakashi leisurely returned to the surveillance station.

"Senior, where have you been? You disappeared for half a day."

Tenzō complained while applying eye drops. He had been staring at the screen monitoring Uchiha all day, and his eyes were about to go blind.

"Tenzō, don't take your work so seriously, just do enough," Kakashi tapped Tenzō's head, advising his subordinate to learn to slack off.

Itachi frowned.

The gym's surveillance hadn't been repaired, and Kakashi took so long to return, indicating that something had happened.

Sure enough.

"Itachi, the Third Hokage wants to see you. He asked you to go to his office now," Kakashi suddenly said.

"I understand," Itachi responded, slightly taken aback.

Half an hour later, Itachi walked out of the Hokage building, looking somewhat lost.

Just now, the Third Hokage had personally given him a mission to monitor his uncle, Uchiha Dan.

"Did the Third Hokage decide to assign me to monitor my uncle because of a conflict between Captain Kakashi and Dan, which raised the Anbu's alert level

for Dan?" Itachi wondered internally.

He didn't like this mission, but he couldn't refuse the Hokage's orders.

What troubled Itachi was that he didn't know how to approach his uncle, as Dan didn't seem to like him very much.

"Sigh."

He let out a sigh, walking alone towards the Uchiha compound in the glow of the setting sun.