Chapter 143: Three Single Dogs
"Sensei, Ancestor, take care!"
Dressed neatly and wearing a joyous expression, Might Duy saw Masahiko and Kento-kun to the door.
At the entrance, Masahiko and Kento-kun exchanged glances, then suddenly sighed in unison.
After entering the truce period of the Second War, Konoha entered a phase of frequent weddings. Although Konoha held the advantage on every battlefield, war inevitably brought death. Thus, once the truce began, "creating the next generation" became Konoha's top priority.
Masahiko received invitations to quite a few weddings; basically, every clan, large or small, had members getting married. However, he declined all of them, having little interest in the weddings of the younger generation.
But because he was curious about what Guy's mother looked like, he accompanied Kento-kun to Might Duy's wedding.
The wedding was small, and the only invitees were Kento-kun and Masahiko. To Masahiko's disappointment, Might Duy's wife was just an ordinary civilian girl. Not only that, but the two of them were severely subjected to public displays of affection (dog food).
"Kento, even Might Duy found a wife. Why are you so clumsy?" Masahiko said, disappointed that Kento-kun failed to meet expectations.
Seeing Kento-kun's resentful gaze, Masahiko felt a twinge of guilt. He had to admit, he played a part in how the kid turned out.
"Sensei, do I have a mistress (teacher's wife)?" Kento-kun punched back.
Masahiko's face stiffened, and he immediately waved his hand. "You're young; you don't know. When your Sensei was young, I charmed thousands of girls. Unfortunately, I didn't fancy any of them..."
Kento-kun didn't speak, but his face was filled with disdain.
Masahiko's face darkened. Just as he wanted to explain a bit more, Nawaki-kun walked over not far away, his face bruised and swollen.
Masahiko glanced at him with a smile and teased, "Beaten up again?"
Nawaki-kun clenched his fists, then slowly released them, speaking through gritted teeth. "If he weren't four years older than me, I wouldn't have lost!"
"Great-Great-Grandpa, is there any way for my strength to surpass his quickly?"
Masahiko smiled and shook his head. "No. Just train hard."
The person who beat up Nawaki-kun was named Fugaku Uchiha—the father of the legendary Sasuke (Second Pillar).
The reason for the beating was easy to guess: naturally, it was because of Sasuke's mother, Mikoto Uchiha.
As the semi-heir of the Senju clan, Nawaki-kun had fallen for a girl from the Uchiha clan, and it was Mikoto Uchiha at that. Masahiko was also speechless about this; he didn't even know which side to take.
Emotionally, he should naturally stand on Nawaki-kun's side, but he was afraid that if Fugaku married someone else, they wouldn't produce Itachi and Sasuke.
So during this time, he had maintained a hands-off approach. Kenji didn't intervene either; after all, if it worked out, an Uchiha girl marrying into the Senju wouldn't be a loss for them.
But the Uchiha weren't happy, especially Fugaku. He had beaten Nawaki-kun several times recently, specifically aiming for the face. His attacks were neither too heavy nor too light, and Masahiko and the others were actually glad to see Nawaki-kun motivated to work harder.
"Little Nawaki, want to train together?" Kento-kun perked up.
"No need, I'll do it myself!" Nawaki-kun quickly ran away.
Recently, because Might Duy was busy with his wedding, even a simple-minded person couldn't train all day long, so Kento-kun was a bit "lonely." Previously, when Nawaki-kun was feeling down, he couldn't resist the "temptation" and was dragged along by Kento-kun. After a day of training, he was nearly exhausted to the point of collapse and refused to go again.
Watching Nawaki-kun walk away, Masahiko sighed. "This child has suffered too little hardship."
Masahiko slightly regretted not sending Nawaki-kun to the battlefield earlier. At worst, he could have just sent a clone to watch over him; it would have been a form of tempering. Now, he couldn't even handle the bitterness of training.
Time Flies
Time flew by. The truce began in April, and weddings in Konoha continued intermittently for half an year before finally coming to an end.
What reassured Masahiko was that Sakumo also married a wife, which actually wasn't strange. The Hatake clan had few members to begin with; if Sakumo refused to marry, the elders in his family wouldn't agree.
"Yuna..." Masahiko slowly practiced the Gentle Fist, muttering inwardly. "Yuna said a minimum of one year and a maximum of five. It's been over four years now; could something have happened?"
Masahiko was very worried, and so was Izuko-kun. During this time, she couldn't help but send several members of the Uzumaki Patrol to search secretly.
Of course, the characteristic red hair was very distinct, and their Transformation Jutsu wasn't at Masahiko's level. Once they went out, many ninja villages would get wind of it.
Fortunately, the lingering fear from Masahiko single-handedly wiping out the Hidden Cloud's elites still remained, so no one dared to try anything.
"Speaking of which, why is it that despite the details of that battle spreading, no one calls me the God of Shinobi?" Masahiko looked confused. "'Undefeated Whirlpool' would be fine too."
He didn't consider that his unreliable personality had already spread throughout the ninja world; how could anyone call him the God of Shinobi?
"Come on! Three hundred more!" Kento-kun's shout rang out; he was supervising Nawaki-kun doing push-ups.
Perhaps Mikoto's charm was infinite. After struggling for a few months, Nawaki-kun finally sought out Kento-kun not long ago for special training. However... now he was regretting it a bit.
"Great... Great... Grandpa... huff... huff," Nawaki-kun gasped continuously. "Why... can't I... learn your... Taijutsu?"
Masahiko smiled. "This is the Gentle Fist. You aren't from the Hyuga family, so how can you learn it? You don't have my kind of talent."
Nawaki-kun was speechless.
Over two hours later, the sun gradually set, and the arduous training finally ended. Nawaki-kun collapsed on the ground, limp.
"Continue tomorrow!" Kento-kun's words made Nawaki-kun feel a despair greater than death.
Masahiko shook his head. "No training tomorrow. Let Nawaki train by himself. We're going back to the clan tomorrow, Kento."
Kento-kun was startled. "Is there something happening in the clan, Sensei?"
Masahiko smiled. "New Year is coming soon. We're going back to prepare for the celebration."
"New Year?" Kento-kun looked blank. "Isn't there still two months left?"
"This time, I plan to make the New Year celebration big, so we need to prepare in advance."
"Is it the Mask Festival again?" Kento-kun wasn't interested in that.
"No, it's a formal celebration, held for me."
Kento-kun was stunned, and Masahiko continued, "Next year, Sensei will be one hundred years old!"
As he spoke, he sighed a little himself. Unknowingly, he had been in the Naruto world for nearly a hundred years.
"Really? Great-Great-Grandpa?" Nawaki-kun looked curious, climbing up from the ground.
"Would I lie about this?" Masahiko shook his head helplessly. "Your Grandma Mito is sixty-six years old, and she has to call me Second Grandpa!"
"Sensei, then haven't you been single for a hundred years?" Kento-kun held back for a long time, then blurted out this sentence. Who knew where he learned to be so black-bellied?
Masahiko's face stiffened.
"Get lost!"
Inwardly, he sighed. It might be one hundred and twenty-four years.
Masahiko felt low and glanced at the two again. "We're all single dogs; no one laugh at anyone else!"
An atmosphere of sorrow filled the entire Konoha training ground.
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