Might Duy was still marveling inwardly when Yakushi Nono, standing off to the side, let out a sharp scream.
"Sensei Baixing!"
Her cry startled Uchiha Mikoto, who had been continuously pouring Fire Release chakra into her technique. Mikoto instinctively halted her attack. The flames at her red lips gradually dispersed, and her jet-black eyes fixed on the fireball slowly breaking apart ahead.
At that moment, Uchiha Mikoto seemed completely unaware of a figure accelerating in from the left side of the scorched ground.
Baixing lowered his gaze and caught sight of Mikoto forming the hand seal for the Substitution Technique. Going with the flow, he used high-speed movement and casually flung out three shuriken. The change in movement caused the afterimage effect from his speed to disappear.
Only then did Yakushi Nono finally spot the black-haired youth appearing on the opposite side.
Baixing was less than fifty meters from Uchiha Mikoto now, and at the same time, Nono saw three black arcs approaching Mikoto from three different angles.
"Watch out, Mikoto!"
When strength was lacking, children tended to panic easily.
Might Duy, on the other hand, watched calmly. Yet in his heart, he raised Baixing's strength evaluation by several levels.
With strength like this, Baixing could absolutely qualify as a special jōnin!
But then… why?
Thunk! Thunk! Thunk!
Three crisp sounds rang out.
They struck Uchiha Mikoto's "body" perfectly. For a split second, the substitution dummy looked almost exactly like Mikoto herself, pierced by three shuriken, wearing a face of utter despair.
However, Baixing—who had already seen through Mikoto's movements—knew very clearly that she had used a substitution to accelerate away, executing a high-level feint. She had already repositioned herself to a tree on his right, suppressing her breathing as she prepared to strike again at the right moment.
At this speed, it was ordinary in the eyes of a jōnin—but to genin, it was blindingly fast.
People like Might Duy and Yakushi Nono couldn't fully follow the exchange at all. Nono was especially tense. From this distance, she couldn't tell whether the sound she'd heard was the thunk of shuriken hitting wood—or the wet thud of flesh being pierced.
Puff.
White smoke burst forth. The black-haired girl vanished, replaced by a wooden substitution log with three shuriken embedded in it.
Baixing didn't continue his attack. Instead, he spoke to the two observers.
"Come together. If it's just Mikoto alone, it'll be a bit difficult."
As he spoke, he casually touched the three small bells hanging at his waist, producing a light, scattered jingle.
"Damn it! You're looking down on me!"
Hidden among the leaves high in a tree, the girl clenched her fists and ground her teeth.
That speed was truly fast. And if Yakushi Nono hadn't shouted earlier, she wouldn't even have noticed that Baixing-sensei had already flanked her.
Was this really a genin?
If someone said he was a jōnin who specialized in the Body Flicker Technique, she'd believe it without question!
"…Looks like I can't hold back anymore."
"This is our third time fighting, Baixing. You're not the same as you were two years ago."
Might Duy stood up from where he'd been watching. Yakushi Nono checked her ninja pouch to make sure everything was in place, then rose alongside him.
"Then don't blame us for ganging up on you."
"Mm." Baixing nodded calmly.
"Go ahead. Let me see how well you've coordinated after doing D-rank missions for so long."
"Don't be too shocked!"
A rustling sound came from the leaves of a tree to the right as Uchiha Mikoto dropped to the ground, hands on her hips.
"While you were slacking off and napping, we actually got to know each other pretty well. Our teamwork won't be a problem at all!"
Baixing remained indifferent. He was already a team leader—taking more pay and doing less work was perfectly normal, wasn't it?
"I'll give you one minute."
"Okay!" ×3
The three immediately began whispering tactics right in front of Baixing.
"Baixing's way too fast! I knew his taijutsu was strong before, but I didn't think it was this strong! Duy, you liar!" Mikoto puffed her cheeks angrily.
Might Duy scratched his head awkwardly. "The last time I fought Baixing was two years ago. Even back then, he barely beat me…"
"So I really didn't know he'd become like this."
"There's also something else," Yakushi Nono added. "Sensei said his chakra nature was Fire, but just now there were five elements. Could he have awakened some kind of bloodline limit?"
Might Duy: "?"
"Isn't that… mine?"
The two girls rolled their eyes hard in unison.
As if.
A guy who couldn't even properly use the Three Basic Techniques having five-element chakra talent? Dream on.
Seeing their looks, Duy finally realized—Baixing had deliberately comforted him earlier by doing that.
Baixing had always kept a low profile. For him to reveal something like that now, just for Duy's sake…
"This… this is youth!"
Might Duy's spirit ignited. "Then I can't keep hiding it either!"
He decided to tell his teammates about a nin-taijutsu he had been developing—one that wasn't fully perfected yet.
"I've actually been researching a technique that lets taijutsu specialists become stronger. It's called the Eight Gates…"
The explanation quickly ran over a minute, but Baixing didn't interrupt. He was a bit of an airheaded teacher anyway. Letting the three communicate more and build stronger bonds wasn't a bad thing.
Before long—
"Discussion over. Move according to the plan."
"Mm!" ×2
The three instantly split up. Two vanished into the open training ground, while Might Duy moved to the tree where their bags and miscellaneous items were placed. Baixing watched as he removed all the weights from his body.
"Getting serious, huh? Last time we fought was two years ago. I wonder how much you've improved."
"Compared to you, Baixing, my improvement is probably small," Duy said as he shed his training weights, feeling lighter all over. He turned back, eyes serious.
"But I've developed a taijutsu that'll definitely surprise you!"
"Eight Gates…"
"First Gate—Gate of Opening, open!"
If one had the Byakugan, they'd see a surge of violent blue chakra erupting from Duy's brain as his body entered an overdrive state—boosting strength, speed, and overall performance.
Baixing was genuinely surprised.
"What a chance!"
At that very moment, the girl hiding in the nearby bushes seized Baixing's moment of shock and hurled a kunai straight at his side.
Baixing glanced at the incoming kunai and sidestepped it effortlessly.
Duy seized that split second of distraction, kicked off the ground, and charged in.
"Leaf Whirlwind!"
A powerful low sweeping kick came crashing in. Baixing hopped backward to evade it.
Immediately after, Duy pressed forward again—
The two launched into a brutal, close-range exchange—fists and kicks colliding again and again.
...
Performance, too, was a kind of skill.
When you stood on a higher level and looked down, many things became easy to accomplish.
For example—accidentally being struck by a Might Duy who had temporarily opened three gates, crossing his arms defensively as he was knocked backward, his boots carving two dusty trails across the ground.
"Impressive. So this is your Eight Gates?"
Baixing analyzed calmly. With three gates open, Duy could easily crush an ordinary chūnin—
Unfortunately, he could only maintain it for a short time.
As the third gate closed, Duy felt his entire body go limp, strength draining away.
But his objective had already been achieved.
"Nono!"