After returning home to burn incense and take a bath, Uchiha Maí opened the dog system's lottery interface.
Strike while the iron is hot - don't cling to hollow reputation like some would-be overlord. Tonight's gains had been substantial, so he might as well press his luck and enjoy a draw.
One hundred fashion points were deducted. The half-star prize pool began to spin slowly, and a few seconds later, a card flashed into view.
[Karl Malone's Basketball Skills]
Karl Malone, a renowned basketball player who played power forward, was one of the superstars of the same era as Michael Jordan. He was selected for the NBA's 50 Greatest Players and inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame.
After use, the user may learn all of Karl Malone's basketball skills.
Uchiha Maí: "..."
It was time to drag this dog system out and behead it as a sacrificial offering to the heavens.
A half-star skill being knowledge-based was expected, so that part was fine. But basketball skills? What the hell was this supposed to be?
If he'd transmigrated into a modern urban world - or hadn't transmigrated at all - this draw would've been an absolute jackpot.
Maí didn't really understand basketball. Before transmigrating, he'd been a sports fan, but a football fan. As for basketball, aside from a few big names like Jordan, LeBron, and "dunk king" Curry, he couldn't recognize most players.
Basketball players - especially superstars - earned far more than combat athletes, and with nowhere near the same level of danger.
If he'd drawn this skill before transmigrating, it honestly would've been more useful than boxing or grappling techniques.
Tall enough with a good wingspan? Head to America, enter the draft, play in the NBA. As for being a football fan playing basketball - easy answer: born for basketball.
Making money wasn't shameful.
Even without the ideal build, he could still play in college, show off a bit, charm some girls, and maybe become the campus version of a certain legendary Canadian heartbreaker.
And since the skill came from the system, if it said he could learn all of Karl Malone's basketball techniques, then he really could learn them all. That much was unquestionable.
Unfortunately… this was the Naruto world.
What use were basketball skills here?
Basketball and street dancing both sounded like distractions from proper work, but the latter at least helped Maí harvest fashion points from young girls.
The ninja world had always had various forms of dance. Maí had simply "created" a new style on that foundation. The visual impact of street dance was powerful enough to leave people stunned.
Basketball, on the other hand, emphasized physical confrontation and teamwork - things that overlapped heavily with ninja training. It was doomed to go nowhere.
Street dance competed with other dances. Basketball competed directly with the ninja system itself. Especially in an age of constant warfare, it was impossible to popularize.
Maí shook his head. Debuting as a duo with Killer B? What kind of deranged thought was that? If he were going to debut, he'd learn singing and rap on his own and go solo.
At this point, he might as well consider those 100 fashion points fed to the dog. It was only 100 - nothing to cry over.
Uchiha Maí chose to accept the reward.
Every time he'd accepted a reward before, images would appear in his mind, guiding him to learn and imitate.
Watching Karl Malone play basketball wasn't bad either. After all, he was a system-certified superstar from Jordan's era. He could treat it as nostalgia - something to remember his past life by.
But the moment Maí casually glanced at the first clip, he froze on the spot.
What the hell - this is basketball?!
In the footage, Karl Malone - towering, thick with muscle, forearms as thick as an ordinary man's waist - leapt up to shoot.
As he came down, he naturally swung his elbow.
Smack.
The elbow smashed into a nearby opposing player's head, slamming him to the floor and knocking him unconscious for several minutes.
In the next clip, Malone was protecting the ball. Once again, a casual backward elbow - this time straight into the opponent's face - leaving him covered in blood and carried off to receive over forty stitches.
…
Shooting, shielding the ball, driving, clashing - clip after clip showed Karl Malone swinging his elbows, his iron elbows dominating the entire NBA.
Every strike carried fierce momentum.
Every strike felt like a lifetime apart.
Was this really basketball? This was clearly a brawl that just happened to involve a ball.
Maí watched, completely entranced. From a professional perspective, Karl Malone's elbow techniques were outstanding.
So outstanding that even Jean-Claude Van Damme - an action star trained in Muay Thai - would fall far short of Malone in pure elbow technique.
Dog system… I wronged you.
Basketball skills? Pah. What Karl Malone was playing was clearly mixed martial combat. Those elbow techniques were nothing short of breathtaking.
From utter despair to overwhelming joy - it all happened in an instant.
Inspired, Maí immediately rushed into the courtyard, practicing his self-created Mai-Style Ancient Martial Arts and trying to integrate Karl Malone's elbow techniques into it.
Boxing (Mayweather), grappling (Cooking Fish Feast), fantasy "traditional martial arts" (Master Ma), taekwondo, karate, Muay Thai (Jean-Claude Van Damme), supreme elbow techniques (Karl Malone)…
Add to that the Konoha Strong Fist style he'd learned from Might Duy, and his taijutsu system was becoming more and more complete, his offensive power stronger by the day.
Every part of his body was a lethal weapon.
After several rounds, Maí fully incorporated Karl Malone's elbow techniques into his Mai-Style Ancient Martial Arts.
The style was still in its infancy, with plenty of room for refinement and revision. And unlike other taijutsu schools, Malone's elbow techniques weren't overly complex - there was no need to discard excess.
Mai-Style Ancient Martial Arts had advanced another step. With just a few more days, he could develop new, powerful moves based on these elbow techniques.
This time, Maí wanted to go even further.
Pure taijutsu techniques were no longer enough to satisfy him.
Phoenix Qilin: Asura, Iron Mallet, Crushing Axe - and several other unrevealed moves - he already had more than enough conventional taijutsu.
What Maí wanted now was to take a single leap forward: to develop ninjutsu-taijutsu hybrids, fusing taijutsu with Fire Release.
With his goal set, Maí took another bath and rolled back into bed to sleep.
No motivation today. Tomorrow, he'd work hard. jpg
The next day, Maí finished breakfast early and headed to the meeting spot he'd agreed on with Master Minato.
There were still over ten minutes until nine o'clock, but Might Guy and Kakashi had already arrived.
Guy was as energetic as ever, dressed in his green jumpsuit, hopping like a frog around the small lake while shouting slogans - clearly having trained for quite some time already.
Kakashi, short blade in hand, was likewise drenched in sweat, practicing the Hatake blade style. Even when he heard footsteps, his movements didn't pause in the slightest.
Not bad. I didn't expect to be the last one here - not even Kakashi, who's always late in the original storyline, arrived after me.
After a brief moment of surprise, Maí began his own daily routine. He leapt onto an ancient tree, spread his legs wide, and casually sat on a branch.
Both elbows rested on his thighs, fingers interlocked beneath his chin, his face arranged into a deadpan, world-weary expression.
The morning breeze stirred his cloak, and for a fleeting moment, he looked like a lonely master - perfectly recreating Bu Jingyun's classic pose from Storm Riders.
Work hard in private, show off in public - that was Uchiha Maí's way of doing things. If he didn't put on a show every day, how was he supposed to earn fashion points?
Please vote with power stones
(End of Chapter)