Fire Release Chakra

"It's him!"

In the shadows, a white-haired boy with a short sword on his back and a crane-patterned mask over his face watched Liumu feasting with ink-black eyes, murmuring in surprise.

"Who?"

The burly man behind Kakashi leaned down and asked.

At the question, Kakashi recounted everything about Liumu, and a flicker of surprise crossed the burly man's face as well.

But...

"There are people from Root here. The Third Hokage told us not to provoke a conflict with them. Withdraw first!"

Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh.

Figures flashed, and the group vanished in an instant.

Toward evening, seeing that Jiraiya was still nowhere to be found, Liumu went alone to the dense woods by the village entrance. He had intended to practice the Clone Technique, but unexpectedly ran into Kakashi there.

"Heh, I didn't expect you to be the one watching me."

Liumu looked at Kakashi's distinctive getup. Even with the mask on, he recognized him at a glance.

"Why are you here?" Kakashi asked directly, doing nothing else.

"Traveling." Liumu spread his hands, and that very gesture let Kakashi see his ninja forehead protector.

"Were you the boy who appeared in the Land of Rain a few days ago?" Kakashi stared into Liumu's eyes, his words devoid of emotion.

"Hmph!"

Liumu snorted coldly. Faced with that interrogating tone, he could not even be bothered to answer.

Kakashi knew he was no match for Liumu. Having sneaked out to meet him this time, he was not confident he could get anything out of him, either.

Seeing impatience gradually rise on Liumu's face, Kakashi sighed and abruptly changed the subject. "After this mission, I should be starting preparations for the upcoming Chunin Exams. You..."

At that point, Kakashi stared at Liumu, his eyes full of anticipation.

"I hope you can come back then and take the exams with me."

Kakashi had graduated from the Ninja Academy at five and become a chunin at six. Faced with his invitation now, Liumu sighed and smiled. "I refuse."

Kakashi: ???

"Why?"

Kakashi did not understand. As a ninja, who would not want everyone's recognition, to become a ninja, a chunin, or even a jonin?

Liumu was considerably strong, without a single rival among his peers. Kakashi simply could not think of a reason for him to refuse.

But how could Kakashi know that people had long passed around a famous saying about Konoha: when jonin fought, heaven and earth trembled; when genin fought, heaven and earth were truly destroyed.

Strength was not determined by ranks like chunin and jonin. Ultimately, it came down to actual power.

Liumu had no interest in titles, and disdained competing for such status.

He could simply stay a genin. What was the point of fighting over all that nonsense?

Liumu did not answer Kakashi's question. Listening to the rustling in the surrounding woods, he told Kakashi, "As an ANBU member, you've already broken the rules. Go. Don't let anyone get something to hold against you."

With that, Liumu prepared to turn and leave. Before leaving, however, he thought for a moment and still said to Kakashi, "The people of the Land of Rain only hope for peace. As for who gives them that hope, it doesn't matter. That's all..."

"Then I'll tell you something, too. We're not the only ones watching you. Root is, too. Don't let them get anything to hold against you either, or even the Third Hokage won't be able to protect you."

With that, Kakashi turned into a cloud of smoke with a poof and vanished from the spot.

Watching the smoke disperse, Liumu murmured with a playful smile, "What's this supposed to be? Returning the favor?"

"So that's how it is!"

Late at night, inside the inn.

Seeing that Jiraiya had fallen fast asleep, Liumu stealthily pulled a copy of Make-Out Paradise from the bundle.

It was a new work his teacher had created after just finishing gathering inspiration. The moment Liumu opened the book, he saw one blood-stirring image after another.

"Ooh, impressive."

"Whoa, that's possible?"

"Wow, you can even do it like that!"

Though it was a specialty of the Land of Neon, Jiraiya's artwork took the opposite approach, without so much as a single irritating blank patch censoring anything.

Beneath those sketched lines, Liumu even discovered several moves he had never seen before.

"No wonder even someone as thoroughly proper as Kakashi grew up to be like that after reading this book." Liumu laughed, and after finishing it, quietly slipped the book back into Jiraiya's bundle.

Only after making sure he had left no trace did Liumu return to his own tatami mat.

There was no need to even mention an ability as talent-dependent as genjutsu, but ninjutsu had always been Liumu's weak point.

On the Attribute Panel the system had given Liumu, his talent score of fifty-nine already showed that learning ninjutsu would take him several times, or even more than ten times, the effort it took an ordinary person.

Moreover, using ninjutsu depended on what chakra nature a ninja possessed, with the corresponding ninjutsu then practiced in accordance with that chakra nature.

For example, Sasuke's lightning and Naruto's wind.

Even Sakura, who always thought she could handle things, had initially been given a talent for genjutsu by Kishimoto.

But whether Kishimoto forgot later or not, he changed Sakura into a Strongwoman type.

"Looks like I'll have to ask Jiraiya-sensei to take a look tomorrow."

Taotie's gluttony had multiplied the amount of chakra in Liumu's body. Even if he used it all up, it could rapidly replenish in a short time, making it practically a game-breaking supplier of unlimited chakra.

When Jiraiya checked Liumu's chakra nature at his request, even he was startled by the chakra inside Liumu.

"Is something wrong?"

Looking at Jiraiya's blank stare, Liumu asked in bewilderment.

"Oh, no!" Jiraiya gave Liumu a long look before returning to normal, picking up a leaf from the ground and placing it in Liumu's hand.

"Try gathering your chakra into this leaf."

"Oh?"

Seeing Jiraiya's testing method, Liumu suddenly recalled the scene from his memories where Yamato taught Naruto to learn Wind Release: Rasenshuriken.

Just like in that scene, if Liumu's chakra nature was fire release, the leaf infused with chakra would burn. If its nature was wind release, the leaf would split, and if it was lightning release, the leaf would crumple.

Water release would erode the leaf, while earth release would rejuvenate it.

Different natures would produce different effects, so once Liumu gathered his chakra, a pale blue flame rose from the leaf in his palm.

The moment Liumu saw that flame, he recognized it as the Three-Flavour Divine Fire Taotie had left in his lower abdomen.

"Looks like it's fire release."

Jiraiya smiled faintly. "In that respect, you're somewhat like me."

"Tch!"

Liumu pulled his lips back, because before the test, he had already considered every possibility.

And fire release was the one he least wanted to see.

Because according to the smoke effect, whenever a huge cloud of smoke appeared in battle, it was basically certain that the opponent was unharmed.

As far as he remembered, there was barely a single decent fire release ninjutsu, and that left Liumu considerably disappointed.