Disguise

"Selling dumplings! Delicious glutinous rice dumplings! Anyone want some?"

On Konoha's shopping street, a short vendor in a rain cape sat by the roadside, loudly hawking his wares to passersby.

But the way he kept glancing around made him look extremely suspicious.

"Woof! Woof, woof!" As if he'd sensed something, Saye sniffed around in an alley, then ran over to the young man and barked three times.

That's right, the young man was Gu Qi, who had used the Transformation Technique to disguise himself as a passerby.

And of course, Gu Qi was here to get back at Anko.

When Gu Qi had thrown the ***, it hadn't just been to make his escape.

More importantly, he'd needed to get that smoke onto Anko.

The smoke had been carefully formulated by Gu Qi. To ordinary people, it was colorless and odorless.

But to the noses of specially trained Ninja Dogs, it smelled every bit as strong as **.

And once the smoke got onto someone, it wouldn't dissipate for at least a month.

So now, as long as Anko came within range of a Ninja Dog's search, Gu Qi could learn her location right away.

"Three barks? Looks like she's coming." As soon as Gu Qi got the signal, he sent Saye away and quickly put his mind to the situation ahead.

"Wow, those dumplings look delicious! Boss, give me ten red ones."

Before long, a female ninja in fishnet clothing stopped in front of Gu Qi's pushcart.

"Certainly. Please wait a moment," Gu Qi said, pitching his voice.

The Transformation Technique could change his appearance, but not his voice.

As Anko waited for Gu Qi to get the dumplings, she folded her arms and said, "I've never seen you before. Is this your first time doing business?"

"Y-yes, yes."

Gu Qi gave a few casual replies, then quickly handed Anko the dumplings. "Here you go, ma'am."

Anko took them and gave them a deep sniff. "They smell so good, I almost don't want to eat them. Boss, why don't you have one?"

Gu Qi's body stiffened. He knew he was in trouble.

But before he could run, Anko grabbed him by the collar and hoisted him up.

Bam!

A heavy punch to Gu Qi's stomach immediately dispelled his Transformation Technique.

"Cough, cough. How did you figure it out?" The blow to his stomach made Gu Qi retch, but he was still curious about what had given him away.

A sly glint flashed in Anko's eyes. "Want to know? Make me your boss!"

"Never!" Gu Qi wore an expression that said he'd rather die than be humiliated.

Anko sighed softly. "All right, then don't blame me."

With that, Anko picked up a dumpling and shoved it into Gu Qi's mouth.

"Damn it! Hachi, Las, help me!" Gu Qi panicked. He knew the dumplings had been laced with the super-invincible **** sauce he'd made himself.

The chili sauce had no pungent smell at all, but once it got into your mouth, you'd never forget it.

"Woof!" Hearing Gu Qi's cry, three Ninja Dogs shot out of the alley.

"Troublesome!" Seeing the three Ninja Dogs, Anko had no choice but to let Gu Qi go.

The three Ninja Dogs were still very young, but after spending so much time with Gu Qi, their personalities had grown stranger and stranger.

Even when they fought, they were exasperating.

For example, the three Ninja Dogs had actually started using the moving scent markers meant for tracking as an offensive jutsu.

At the thought of the three Ninja Dogs unleashing a veritable downpour of urine, Anko immediately got goosebumps.

"Consider yourself lucky today. Next time, you might not be so lucky!" Anko said, then calmly walked away.

Gu Qi didn't care about any of that. He rushed straight into the back room of a shop and plunged his head into a water tank, gulping down the clear water.

"Gu Qi, are you all right?"

Once the spiciness in his mouth had faded, Gu Qi lifted his head and realized he'd somehow run into a flower shop. And there was someone he knew inside.

"Oh, Ino! Sorry for scaring you," Gu Qi said apologetically.

Ino waved a hand and asked with a puzzled expression, "Gu Qi, what happened to you? Why is your face covered in bruises?"

Gu Qi sighed and told her what had happened.

"Haha! Of all the people for little Gu Qi to mess with, he picked that one." Just then, a hearty laugh reached their ears.

They looked toward the sound and saw that someone had appeared without them noticing.

"Hello, Uncle Inoichi!"

"Dad, what are you doing here?"

Inoichi Yamanaka patted Gu Qi on the shoulder and laughed. "Gu Qi, want to know what you did wrong with your disguise?"

"Uncle Inoichi, please teach me." Gu Qi's eyes lit up. He couldn't pass up a chance to learn from an experienced jonin like Inoichi Yamanaka.

"But," Gu Qi asked, tilting his head in confusion, "how did you know?"

Inoichi chuckled. "I happened to be passing by. At first, I thought some foolish spy was gathering intelligence in Konoha. I never expected it to be you, Gu Qi."

"Was my disguise really that bad?" Gu Qi was deeply shaken.

Inoichi had Gu Qi sit down, then asked Ino to make tea before continuing. "There was nothing wrong with your Transformation Technique, but you made some very basic mistakes."

Gu Qi sat up straight and said earnestly, "Please teach me, Uncle Inoichi."

Inoichi pressed a hand down. "Relax, relax. There's no need to be so stiff."

Then Inoichi began explaining. "First, your intentions were too obvious. The moment Anko appeared, you stared straight at her. Anyone with a little experience could tell she was your target."

"I see. Anything else?" Gu Qi realized that was true—he'd been staring at Anko the whole time.

"Then there's your disguise. It was terrible! You were trying to pose as a street vendor, weren't you? But I couldn't tell you were a vendor at all," Inoichi said.

"Uh!" Gu Qi awkwardly rubbed his nose. "Was it that obvious?"

Inoichi smiled. "Think about it. What vendor wouldn't greet a customer with a big smile? You were the only one looking distracted. Anyone could tell you were faking it."

"Of course."

Hearing that, Gu Qi couldn't help looking at the other vendors outside. Just as Inoichi had said, every vendor wore a smile when a customer came by.

"Finally, there's your presence. An ordinary person should seem harmless. But what I saw in you, Gu Qi, was a fearless warrior," Inoichi concluded.

"My presence? How do I fix that?"

Gu Qi scratched his head. The first two problems were easy enough to fix, but presence was something you couldn't see or touch. He had no idea how to deal with that.

Inoichi said mysteriously, "You might not know how, Gu Qi, but someone around you does!"

"Who? Kakashi?" Kakashi was the first person who came to Gu Qi's mind.

Inoichi smiled and nodded. "That's right. Go ask Kakashi. He'll tell you what to do."

"Thank you, Uncle Inoichi."

"Don't mention it. I'm looking forward to seeing how you do, Gu Qi," Inoichi said with a smile.

After saying goodbye to Inoichi and Ino, father and daughter, Gu Qi headed home with his three Ninja Dogs.

As he walked, Inoichi's words kept running through his mind.

"Looks like I still have a lot to learn!"

Gu Qi sighed softly. He felt like he'd been getting a little too full of himself lately.

Maybe it was because of the system, or maybe things had just been going too smoothly for him recently.

Making money from jerky, fighting a Cloud Ninja jonin one-on-one and surviving, creating new jutsu with the knowledge he'd gained from the system—

All of it had made Gu Qi think that being a ninja was easy.

But today, Gu Qi realized that being a ninja wasn't just about having strength and powerful jutsu.

More importantly, you had to make flexible use of what you knew and carefully observe your surroundings, among other things.

You never knew whether some tiny detail might cause your next mission to fail—or wipe out your entire team.

Gu Qi didn't think he could be like Naruto, relying on talk-no-jutsu or a burst of power to get out of danger whenever he ran into trouble.

After all, he hadn't maxed out his talk-no-jutsu skill, and he didn't have an ultimate cheat like the Nine-Tails.

"Hey, you're back?"

Kakashi's figure had appeared once more in Gu Qi's ninja tool shop.