Location: Public Training Ground No. 118
Weather: Clear
June's air was dry, and the oppressive summer heat made people wish they could just stay home all day enjoying the cool breeze of air conditioning.
"Before the trial begins, I bought chakra nature test paper for you," Baixing said, raising the three white sheets in his hand. "Just infuse chakra into it, and you'll know your chakra affinity."
Uchiha Mikoto, born into a major clan, curled her lips. With her backpack on her back and black leather shoes on her feet, she kicked at the green grass below.
"I tested that ages ago."
"Fire and Lightning."
"Very good. You saved your teacher some money. Thank you."
"You're welcome, cheapskate!" Mikoto made a face.
Baixing didn't mind. He turned to the other two.
Yakushi Nono accepted one of the sheets. Instantly, half of the paper became damp, while the other half crumbled into fragments.
"Water and Earth," Baixing nodded. "You're well suited to being a support-type ninja. Your chakra control is also ideal for becoming a medical ninja."
"Yes!" Becoming a medical ninja had always been Nono's wish, and she couldn't help but jump with joy.
But in the next second, Baixing's words dealt her a blow.
"Unfortunately, I'm not a medical ninja. I don't know medical ninjutsu, and my medical knowledge is shallow at best. I can't train medical ninja."
"Eh—figures you can't expect much from a chūnin-failure fodder teacher like you~" Mikoto teased.
Baixing replied expressionlessly, "Don't forget—you're genin too."
Then his gaze shifted to Duy.
"Your turn."
"Me?! Am I even… qualified?" Might Duy looked at the chakra paper in Baixing's hand. Memories of past humiliation flashed through his mind, and he hesitated to take it.
"Of course," Baixing frowned slightly. This situation wasn't unusual—Duy was a lifelong genin who only knew taijutsu and couldn't even properly use the Three Basic Techniques.
Duy finally began channeling chakra. Blue chakra wrapped around the paper as everyone watched nervously.
"..."
After a full minute passed with no reaction at all, Baixing understood immediately—Duy's chakra intensity was simply too weak. His ninja bloodline had been diluted to the extreme.
"That's enough. You don't need to continue."
Hearing this, Duy didn't dare open his eyes. Nervously, he asked, "Th-then… what chakra nature do I have?"
Mikoto and Nono exchanged glances, unsure how to comfort him.
Baixing stepped forward and took the chakra paper from Duy's hand.
"All of them. No need to test further."
"What?! Really?!" Duy's eyes flew open.
The chakra paper that Baixing had just touched now showed five distinct reactions:
One corner ignited — Fire.
One split with cracks — Wind.
One wrinkled — Lightning.
One became damp — Water.
One shattered — Earth.
All five major chakra nature reactions appeared at once.
Mikoto and Nono stared at the paper in Duy's hand, then looked back at Baixing, who seemed utterly unconcerned.
—Things that should leak eventually will leak. Especially now that his chakra capacity and quality had increased, Baixing felt there was no point hiding it anymore.
"Alright, stop staring at that useless paper," Baixing said as he pulled props for the exercise from his backpack. Seeing Duy still grinning stupidly at the chakra paper, he called out sharply.
"We're taijutsu ninja—how can we obsess over something so pointless?!"
Baixing raised the three bells he'd bought from a general store that morning.
"Now, the exercise begins. Use everything you've got. Defeat me within one hour."
As long as ninjutsu still carried the risk of failure, and only taijutsu could be used with stable performance, he'd never qualify as a chūnin—right?
From today onward, he would train how to make it look like he couldn't even properly use the Three Basic Techniques—a high-difficulty act.
"Five chakra natures are useless?!" Mikoto snapped. She was shocked by Baixing's five-nature talent—something only a few people possessed. And yet this six-year genin was looking down on it?
As an Uchiha Fire Release ninja, she absolutely had to put Baixing in his place.
"Getting a bell counts as victory. You can gang up on me, or you can choose—"
"Single combat!" Mikoto dropped her backpack, crossed her arms, and lifted her chin high, trying to look down on the much taller black-haired youth.
"Let me, the Uchiha Fire Release genius, show you how important ninjutsu really is."
"Alright."
Baixing tossed his backpack against a tree. At his waist hung a plain ninja blade he'd bought for twenty thousand ryō—unused in front of others for nearly two years. He still wore his tight-fitting shirt and shorts, forehead protector in place, ninja pouch at his lower back.
"And you two?"
"No objections," Yakushi Nono said, pulling the dazed Duy back.
Duy was still muttering that this wasn't okay—he didn't want to see Baixing get beaten up by a younger Mikoto. That would be a devastating blow to Baixing's dignity as a teacher.
Soon, the area was cleared.
This wasn't inside the village. Drawing from instincts inspired by Observation Haki concepts from pirate anime—even though he hadn't reached that level—Baixing had developed a vague sixth sense.
That intuition told him there was probably no one monitoring them nearby. Besides, he'd been leading a team for a while now—if someone wanted trouble, it would've come long ago.
In ninja duels, the usual flow was taijutsu exchanges first, followed by a few kunai and shuriken clashes, with ninjutsu saved as the finishing move.
But Mikoto skipped straight to hand seals.
Snake – Goat – Monkey – Boar – Horse –
Tiger!
"Sorry, sensei," she said coolly. "I won't let a trash-tier teacher insult the value of ninjutsu."
"Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique!"
As Mikoto spoke, a roaring blaze erupted from her lips. The orange-red flames rapidly expanded, fire chakra smashing against the ground as the massive fireball shot toward Baixing.
The blazing light reflected in Baixing's eyes. After so long without real combat, he finally had the chance for a proper fight.
"But… too slow."
Baixing moved at extreme speed, his figure turning into an afterimage.
In Yakushi Nono's vision, the massive fireball instantly swallowed the black-haired youth's position.
In contrast, Might Duy—an expert in taijutsu—barely caught a glimpse of Baixing's movement.
Just a glimpse.
"So fast! That was the jōnin-level nin-taijutsu Body Flicker Technique… but did Baixing really use chakra?!"
At that moment, an absurd thought formed in Duy's mind—
That Baixing hadn't used chakra at all, and had performed a technique that normally required chakra purely through physical ability alone.