Might Duy

The sudden attack instantly prompted Liumu to activate Taotie's Gluttony. Just as he was about to absorb the ninjutsu outright, he spotted a green figure rapidly approaching.

Taotie's Gluttony was somewhat similar to the Preta Path of the Six Paths of Pain, capable of absorbing an opponent's ninjutsu. But Liumu did not want too many people to know about the ability Taotie had left him. With the situation in Konoha in turmoil and all the trouble he had stirred up, he was better off being cautious.

So, before the figure arrived, Liumu immediately suppressed the crimson glow around him.

With a whoosh of wind, the newcomer grabbed Liumu around the waist and swiftly carried him clear of the Great Fireball Technique.

"Who's there?!"

Uchiha Izumi shouted sharply at the sight.

By now, his chakra was completely depleted, and even simply standing was extremely difficult.

"You're Liumu, right?"

The newcomer set Liumu down and smiled, his rough, square face lifted. "I saw you at Guy's enrollment ceremony."

Guy?

Liumu frowned at the name. Only when the moonlight revealed the man's appearance and his simple, trademark watermelon-green outfit did Liumu immediately recall who he was.

"Might Duy, you're Might Guy's dad?"

Might Duy gave him a thumbs-up and smiled. "You got it."

In his previous life, Liumu had not known much about Might Duy's deeds. After all, as a character who only appeared in flashbacks, that old scoundrel Kishimoto had hardly written much about him.

His most glorious feat was probably opening the Eight Gates and sacrificing his life to reduce the Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist to just three survivors.

But as someone who had remained a genin for decades, Might Duy was not particularly talented. On the contrary, as ninja went, he belonged among the especially untalented.

Yet who could have imagined that someone like him had secretly spent over a decade learning a Konoha Forbidden Technique: the Eight Gates Released Formation?

Might Duy glanced at Uchiha Izumi, who was gradually losing consciousness, then turned to Liumu and asked in confusion, "Why are you two having an unauthorized fight here so late at night?"

"An unauthorized fight?"

Liumu immediately denied it. "No, no, we were just sparring. How could good kids like us get into an unauthorized fight?"

Unauthorized fighting was forbidden in Konoha, just as students at the Ninja Academy were not allowed to fight without permission. If the village patrol caught them, they would definitely be locked up in solitary confinement.

Liumu had no intention of letting that label stick to him.

"Sparring?" Might Duy spread his hands in bewilderment. "Sparring left him like that?"

Might Duy pointed at Uchiha Izumi, who had already passed out...

"Kids these days work so hard!" As Might Duy spoke, his eyes suddenly lit up as though something had occurred to him, and he grinned. "Even kids stronger than Guy are working this hard. When I get back, I'm doubling Guy's training!"

Liumu was not very good at dealing with "simple-minded" people, so while Might Duy was getting fired up on his own, Liumu prepared to leave.

"Hey, why are you leaving? What about him?"

"Just leave him here. It's so hot out, and this place is nice and cool." Liumu glanced indifferently at Uchiha Izumi on the ground. "Maybe when he wakes up later tonight, he'll want to practice taijutsu here."

With that, Liumu vanished from the spot in a puff of smoke with a pop.

Might Duy scratched his head and looked at Uchiha Izumi beside his feet, muttering to himself, "Just what you'd expect from an Uchiha. Practicing ninjutsu until he passes out is one thing, but he's going to practice taijutsu when he wakes up, too. Looks like talent isn't the only thing separating Guy from a genius like him."

Having said that, Might Duy had already secretly decided to double Guy's training when he got back.

"One times two, then times two again. Right, four times!"

Back home, Liumu lay down again, only to find himself worrying about something else.

As he recalled, aside from its ability to copy techniques, the Uchiha Clan's Sharingan could cast incredibly powerful genjutsu once it reached Three Tomoe.

Liumu's strength came from inheriting Saitama's template, but this simple, straightforward power had one fatal flaw in the ninja world: it could not resist genjutsu.

Uchiha Izumi had already awakened Three Tomoe, so he must have had some knowledge of genjutsu. Liumu's victory tonight was certain, but it had also been fortunate.

Because if Uchiha Izumi had used genjutsu against him instead of Fire Release, which dealt damage more directly, Liumu would definitely have been the one to suffer.

"Looks like I need to look into my weaknesses."

Liumu considered how his Time House could transport his body, but he did not know whether he could still open it in time after falling under genjutsu.

What was more, opening the Time House required completing the corresponding System Mission, a restriction Liumu found particularly frustrating.

The next day.

Watching the sun quietly emerge over the horizon outside his window, Liumu felt no sleepiness despite having stayed awake all night.

He simply got up and did a little cleaning, then planned to find Jiraiya and ask him how exactly to break out of genjutsu.

"Keep going, Guy! Keep going, three more laps!"

At Konoha's Training Ground, Liumu stood on the riverbank, watching two figures running along the track in the distance, the corners of his mouth lifting slightly.

Might Duy was running beside Guy with a paper megaphone, constantly encouraging him. Looking at Guy, whose back was already soaked with sweat, Liumu suddenly felt a flicker of admiration.

Geniuses existed, but genius was not set in stone.

Might Duy and Guy, and even Rock Lee later on, clearly could not be counted among the geniuses. Yet strangely, people like them could inspire admiration in many others, even true geniuses.

If you lacked talent, work hard. If hard work was not enough, work twice as hard.

Even if the future was not as beautiful as expected, surely even a single fleeting burst of fireworks would be enough to amaze everyone.

"Keep going, Guy, last lap! Keep going!"

How could Liumu have known that Guy, whose daily training originally required only a hundred laps, had quietly had that number raised to four hundred today, all because of the few words Liumu had said last night?

"Work hard, Might Guy, you future king!"

As he spoke, Liumu clenched his fist encouragingly, then turned and left.

Liumu did not even need to think to know where an old lecher like Jiraiya would turn up. It was just that...

Standing outside a shop marked "Baths," he ultimately decided not to go inside.

After all, he had watched plenty of adult movies from the Land of Neon in his previous life, so he naturally understood that many places like this had mixed bathing. If he went in and happened to run into a female acquaintance, that would be... utter social suicide.

"Hehe, this isn't good! Not good!"

"Liumu? What are you doing here?"

Just then, a voice suddenly rang out behind him, startling Liumu, who had already reached out and lifted the curtain marked "Baths." He turned toward the voice, only to find Rin Nohara holding a bouquet of lilies and staring at him in surprise.

"It really is you, Liumu! When did you get back to the village?"