"I'm back."
After an afternoon of training, Guy returned home, dragging his exhausted body.
Since he felt particularly good today, Guy trained more seriously and diligently than usual, resulting in even greater fatigue.
"Welcome home! It seems today was yet another day filled with youth!" At the door, Duy saw Guy's weary face and clenched his fists, tears streaming down.
Duy had trained in Taijutsu for decades and spent every day with Guy; he understood how strong Guy's body was at that moment. It wasn't the grueling training alone that could tire him out like this.
Although Guy was extremely fatigued, upon hearing Duy's words, he immediately broke into a radiant smile and gave his father a thumbs up.
"Today we need to replenish our nutrients properly. Guy, let's go grocery shopping together. Buy whatever you like; we're having a feast today!" Duy wanted to treat the tired Guy well.
When they had limited funds before, Duy did his best to support Guy's training. Now that he could take on missions to earn money, Duy felt it was necessary to spend a little more on food.
Guy nodded in agreement and went to the market with Duy.
On the way, Duy asked, "What kind of meat do you want?"
"Beef, I suppose," Guy replied without hesitation.
He didn't have any particular food he disliked; whether it was beef, lamb, fish, or pork, he could eat it all. But if he had to choose, Guy liked beef the most.
Among the common types of meat, beef was the most expensive. Before, Guy rarely had the chance to eat beef; most of the time, it was pork.
However, Guy liked beef not because he had eaten it less before; he simply felt that beef tasted better than pork.
"Alright, let's go buy some beef first," Duy said as he took Guy to a stall selling beef.
"How much is the beef per pound?"
"Two hundred and forty ryo."
"Will you sell it for two hundred and ten ryo? I'll take four pounds."
"I won't make any profit at two hundred and ten ryo. How about this: two hundred and thirty ryo?"
"Two hundred and twenty ryo. If not, I'll check other stalls." Duy pretended to leave.
"Fine, two hundred and twenty ryo it is," the vendor said helplessly as he began to chop the meat.
Duy showed a proud smile as if he had achieved a victory.
Although they weren't as short on money as before, Duy had managed to maintain his frugal habits from earlier.
"Even buying groceries, we must give it our all in this passionate youth!" Duy declared triumphantly while carrying the beef he had bargained for.
Guy acted as if he had learned something and spoke in sync with Duy.
Their highly recognizable outfits, combined with their unique youthful catchphrases, attracted the attention of some other Ninja shopping for groceries.
However, this time, no one mocked the two of them. After all, Duy was no longer a perennial Genin; he had already been promoted to Chunin, and Guy had made a name for himself during the Chunin Exams, being regarded as a Taijutsu genius with a promising future.
One would have to be quite unreasonable to mock a talented Ninja and his father for no reason.
"Why is that guy Duy able to raise a genius like Guy? I clearly provide more training resources for my child," someone even expressed jealousy toward Duy for having such a good son like Guy.
Although Duy had been promoted to Chunin, his long history as a Genin had left a lasting impression. Compared to Guy, who became a Chunin at nine and shone brightly during the Chunin Exams, Duy felt he was simply lacking.
However, such thoughts were only kept to themselves; no one would openly express them.
Duy was unaware of what others thought as he and Guy bargained for groceries, and in the end, the two of them returned home, laughing while carrying filled bags.
Guy found this meal particularly satisfying. Although Duy's cooking wasn't as extraordinary as Mutsuki's, it was something he could eat without getting tired of it.
After resting for a while post-meal, Guy and Duy practiced together.
This was initiated by Guy, as he was on the verge of breaking through with his Eight Inner Gates, and his father had been training in the Eight Inner Gates for decades, which meant he could provide a lot of help in this area.
"Stone Breathing, Total Concentration!"
"Eight Inner Gates, Gate of Opening, Open! Gate of Rest, Open! Gate of Life, Open!"
Guy focused his breathing to the utmost and opened the first three gates of the Eight Inner Gates, creating a powerful aura that stirred the fallen leaves around him without any wind.
Feeling the full force of Guy's energy at close range, Duy burst into laughter.
He was genuinely happy, proud of his son's excellence.
"Eight Inner Gates, Gate of Life, Open!"
Duy also opened the first three gates of the Eight Inner Gates and then launched an attack on Guy.
Bang! Bang!
The tall and short green figures quickly collided, and the force generated from their fists and feet caused the dust on the ground to shake violently.
"The power is incredible, and his punches are so hard!" Duy thought as he retreated five steps.
Although they were both only opening three gates, he seemed to be lacking in comparison to Guy in every aspect.
Whoosh!
As Guy darted towards him, Duy became even more certain of this fact, as he could not keep up with Guy's speed.
"Eight Inner Gates, Gate of Pain, Open!"
Duy opened the fourth gate without hesitation. Since Guy requested to be given pressure, Duy needed to be stronger than him.
After opening the fourth gate, Duy's strength increased once again, but he was shocked to find that even with the fourth gate open, he still couldn't defeat Guy, who had only opened three gates, and Guy hadn't even used Konoha Dragon God.
"Hahaha, Guy, your youth truly exceeds my expectations."
"Eight Inner Gates, Gate of Limit, Open!"
Duy excitedly opened the fifth gate of the Eight Inner Gates, and his aura surged dramatically.
Guy's expression became extremely serious; the pressure from Duy with five gates open was formidable.
The two figures darted back and forth, green silhouettes weaving through the forest, causing disturbances to the ground and trees due to their battle.
Boom!
Both of them focused their Chakra into their fists and executed a powerful frontal collision.
The immense power radiating from Duy caused Guy to retreat repeatedly, barely managing to stop himself by digging his feet into the ground.
Guy didn't use the advanced Ninjutsu he learned from Mutsuki and Chen-sensei; he only fought with the most basic Taijutsu against the five-gated Duy. Under this immense pressure, he recalled what he had realized during the day.
"Eight Inner Gates, Gate of Pain, Open!"
Guy focused his gaze and shouted, his aura suddenly shifting as he successfully withstood the intense barrage from the five-gated Duy.
Since Guy successfully opened the fourth gate normally, Duy quickly ceased his attack, looking at Guy with a sense of pride.
"Guy, you're growing really fast, much faster than I expected."
But as he smiled, Duy's expression became serious again as he asked, "Guy, you're getting stronger, but do you know what true strength is?"
Although becoming stronger is a commendable thing, Duy didn't want Guy to become so engrossed in power that he forgot his original intentions.
"Protect the important things to me until the last moment!" Guy answered without hesitation.
Guy really enjoyed battling Kakashi and found it quite pleasing to defeat him, but he believed that true victory wasn't about defeating someone; it was about protecting what mattered to him.
Now, Guy had a sufficient understanding of the Eight Inner Gates. He knew it was an extremely dangerous forbidden technique. The earlier gates were manageable, but opening the eighth gate, the Gate of Death, would undoubtedly lead to his demise.
However, if one day he faced strong enemies that even Kakashi, Obito, or Yumi-sensei couldn't handle, Guy would still resolutely open the Gate of Death and fight, even if it meant death.
"You're already an excellent Ninja," Duy remarked.
He felt that he could no longer teach Guy anything. Given that Guy could open the fourth gate in such a short time, he would master the Eight Inner Gates much faster than him.
With Guy's breakthrough, Mutsuki's panel also displayed new progress for Guy's life mission.
[Disciple Might Guy's strength has improved, and his reputation has risen as he has made a small advancement on the path of becoming the strongest in Taijutsu. Reward received: moderate increase in physique, any type of Ninjutsu or Taijutsu Extraction Scroll (Mastery level), Daytime Tiger (Mastery level).]
Once the progress exceeded 10%, the rewards for Guy's life mission were immediately settled.
With Transparent World and Byakugan, Mutsuki was highly sensitive to his own body, and the moment the rewards were settled, he noticed that his body had become stronger.
"I didn't expect it to directly enhance my physique," Mutsuki thought as he looked at the rewards.
This was the first time he had received a direct enhancement to his physique from the system; Mutsuki had thought the system didn't offer rewards that directly improved his physique at all.
Mutsuki roughly calculated and found that this moderate enhancement was indeed considerable, roughly equivalent to maintaining Stone Breathing Constant training for three months. If he didn't have Breathing Technique, it could even be counted in years, given that Mutsuki's physical talent was quite average.
The Mastery-level Daytime Tiger was nice, but what attracted Mutsuki's attention even more was the Ninjutsu Extraction Scroll. The Ninjutsu Extraction Scroll from life mission rewards was clearly different from ordinary Extraction Scrolls.
[Any type of Ninjutsu Taijutsu Extraction Scroll: Allows you to choose the type of Ninjutsu or Taijutsu for extraction, with a high probability of obtaining high-level Ninjutsu or Taijutsu.]
When Mutsuki opened it, many categories appeared, and it even supported typed searches.
After thinking for a moment, Mutsuki searched for the term "time."
If there were any abilities that could be considered the most bizarre, they would definitely be related to time.
Although it seemed that there weren't many time-related Ninjutsu in his impression of the ninja world, this was, after all, a system, and if there were any, it would be a huge gain.
[No such abilities available at this time.]
Mutsuki shook his head with some regret. There were definitely many time-related abilities in the vast multiverse, but this self-selected Extraction Scroll seemed to be tailored to the Naruto world.
Unable to extract time-related skills, Mutsuki chose Space-Time instead.
Since the system noted a high probability of obtaining high-level Ninjutsu, Mutsuki felt that it shouldn't result in something like Summoning Jutsu.
After making his selection, a large spinning wheel appeared in front of Mutsuki, and he clicked to start the extraction.
[Space-Time Ninjutsu Extraction Scroll consumed, obtained Space-Time Ninjutsu—Flying Thunder Formation Jutsu (Mastery level).]
Seeing the reward he had drawn, Mutsuki felt a bit speechless. Should he say that he had good eyesight? If his eyesight had been poor, he might have been delighted for a moment, considering that Flying Thunder God Jutsu and Flying Thunder Formation Jutsu were only one character apart.
Mutsuki had some impression of Flying Thunder Formation Jutsu. Minato intended to pass down Flying Thunder God Jutsu to his Hokage Guards, but they couldn't learn the Flying Thunder God, and in the end, they successfully learned Flying Thunder Formation Jutsu, which required three people to perform together for teleportation.
Due to the necessity of three people, it was clear that Flying Thunder Formation Jutsu couldn't be effective in combat; how could three people hold hands and still fight?
In fact, Mutsuki didn't mind if it couldn't be used in combat because his Perfect-level Thunder Breathing wasn't any slower than Flying Thunder God in battle. However, needing three people to perform it was quite a hassle; where was he supposed to find the other two?
As a large amount of memories flooded into Mutsuki's mind, his expression gradually changed. He realized that the Mastery-level Flying Thunder Formation Jutsu might not be as useless as he initially thought.
After sorting through the memories, Mutsuki immediately began to verify the abilities he had recalled.
First, Mutsuki marked his own Flying Thunder God Mark on his desk, then headed south until he reached a secluded forest.
"Shadow Clone Jutsu!" Upon entering the forest, Mutsuki quickly created two Shadow Clones.
Next, Mutsuki and the Shadow Clones joined hands, concentrated their Chakra, and together performed the Flying Thunder Formation Jutsu.
Whoosh!
The next moment, Mutsuki found himself back at his home in the main city.
"Although it was a bit of a hassle, I finally have the ability for long-distance instant movement," Mutsuki thought that the Flying Thunder Formation Jutsu was quite good.
He didn't want to learn Flying Thunder God for its combat abilities.
Mutsuki checked his personal panel and discovered an unexpected gain.
[Skill: Flying Thunder God Jutsu (Pre-Beginner: 10/100)]
Previously, he had zero proficiency, but now the Flying Thunder God Jutsu finally had a proficiency level, and it was not just one, but ten.
Mutsuki thought for a moment and connected this to past system rewards, leading him to a conclusion.
"I really don't have any talent for Space-Time techniques, but in order for me to use Flying Thunder Formation Jutsu, this reward seems to come with a bit of spatial talent."
Initially, most of Mutsuki's Chakra Nature Transformation came from the rewards he received for completing courses. If Mutsuki didn't know Water Release but received it as a reward, he would gain some knowledge of Water Release Chakra Nature Transformation.
Mutsuki believed the principles were quite similar; after all, despite studying hard and consulting Minato, he couldn't achieve any proficiency level, making it likely that he had little to no talent in Space-Time techniques.
The following discussions with Minato further confirmed Mutsuki's speculation.
After studying Flying Thunder God with Minato for two hours, Mutsuki's proficiency level in Flying Thunder God increased by one again.
Although the increase wasn't significant, it was still a huge difference from having zero proficiency before.
Now that he had acquired Flying Thunder Formation Jutsu, Mutsuki decided to learn Flying Thunder God casually and not spend too much effort on it. Instead, he planned to gradually level it up to Beginner status and then use proficiency level scrolls to boost it to Mastery.
During the time spent learning Flying Thunder God, Mutsuki focused on researching Breathing Techniques. He aimed to develop a Breathing Technique with a low training difficulty and a low upper power limit for training purposes.
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