When school ended that day, Uchiha Mai was once again stopped by Might Guy.
To be honest, Mai had been a little surprised that over the past few days, Guy hadn't continued pestering him with relentless challenges.
"Mai, fight me!"
Dressed in his bizarre outfit, Might Guy lifted his thick eyebrows, pointed his thumb at himself, and said excitedly:
"I actually wanted to challenge you a few days ago.
But my dad rarely gets time off from missions, so I stayed home training with him for several days straight.
When my dad heard that a young Uchiha genius also values taijutsu cultivation, he was greatly encouraged too!"
Guy's dad?
Wouldn't that be Might Duy—the man who kicked the Seven Ninja Swordsmen into the legendary Auspicious Trio?
Uchiha Mai's interest was instantly piqued.
"Is your father still in the village right now?" Mai asked.
"He is! Is something wrong?" Guy scratched his head, confused.
"Nothing. I've just run into some issues while training taijutsu lately and wanted to consult a true expert," Mai replied.
Most of the boxing techniques he'd obtained from Mayweather focused on punching mechanics and psychological combat.
Jujutsu focused primarily on joint locks.
There was an old saying—arms can't overpower legs.
Leg strength far surpassed that of fists and palms.
However, modern boxing had scoring rules, and in close combat, lifting one's leg too high could easily cause loss of balance.
As a result, boxing contained very few kicking techniques.
The shinobi world was different.
Because ninjas possessed extraordinary agility, balance was far less of a concern.
Thus, taijutsu across the great villages overwhelmingly emphasized kicks.
Whether it was Konoha's Strong Fist or Kumogakure's Nintaijutsu, all followed this principle.
Uchiha Mai urgently needed to learn the most brutal and stylish kicking techniques of the shinobi world to compensate for the shortcomings in his own fighting system.
Don't ask why a "fist style" needed legs—
Konoha's Strong Fist was packed with kicking techniques anyway.
When Guy heard that Mai wanted to learn taijutsu from his father, he became even more excited, tears immediately streaming down his face again.
"If my dad knew that a Uchiha genius wanted to learn taijutsu from him, he'd definitely be overjoyed!
I'll take you to see my dad right now!
My dad is the strongest taijutsu ninja in Konoha—no, in the entire shinobi world! You'll definitely learn a lot from him!"
With that, Guy completely forgot about challenging Mai and dragged him straight toward his house.
Mai froze briefly.
He realized he had underestimated the weight carried by the surname Uchiha.
In this era, where the smoke of war had yet to fully dissipate, the name Uchiha possessed deterrence that dominated the entire shinobi world—matched only by the Senju.
Setting aside the Three-Tomoe Sharingan—
Any Uchiha who awakened the Sharingan would almost certainly reach Two Tomoe upon adulthood.
With some experience and time, paired with the Sharingan, an elite jōnin would naturally emerge.
A jōnin was the backbone of any village.
Even at Konoha's peak, the total number of jōnin never exceeded three hundred.
Yet within the Uchiha clan alone, there were at least forty shinobi with Two Tomoe or Three Tomoe Sharingan.
That meant thirty to forty potential jōnin.
And most of those had no ninja registration numbers.
Only ninja who graduated from the Academy received official numbers.
That was why Konoha's registered ninja count barely exceeded ten thousand—yet during the Fourth Great Ninja War, the Five Great Villages could still assemble a seventy-thousand-strong Allied Shinobi Force.
Thirty to forty jōnin—
More than one-tenth of Konoha's elite force.
In weaker villages like Sunagakure, the total number of jōnin likely barely passed a hundred.
This was the foundation of a clan that once stood alongside the Senju as the strongest in the shinobi world.
The Uchiha were shinobi nobility.
So noble that in the early stages of Shippuden, even though Sasuke's talent appeared fairly ordinary, he still became the focus of the Chūnin Exams.
In the shinobi world, the Uchiha fan crest was more effective than any royal banner.
As for Might Guy and Might Duy—
Because they could barely learn ninjutsu and devoted themselves solely to taijutsu, they had never gained recognition from other ninjas.
They lived at the bottom of Konoha's hierarchy, enduring endless disdain.
More than anyone, they longed for acknowledgement.
Now—
A young Uchiha had heard that Might Duy's taijutsu was powerful and wished to learn from him.
Was that recognition?
It absolutely was.
The Uchiha had taijutsu too—otherwise, how would Uchiha Madara have earned the title Battlefield Rose?
Guy dragged Mai all the way home without stopping.
He shoved the door open and shouted loudly:
"Dad! I'm back!"
In the slightly run-down courtyard, a man who looked much like Guy—just older—sat beneath the shade of a tree on a small stool, sewing weighted leg wraps for his son.
Hearing Guy's voice, he put down the needle and looked up sharply.
"You're back so early? Didn't you say you were going to challenge a classmate today?
Uh… and who is this?"
Why did he bring someone home?
Might Duy glanced over—and suddenly noticed the fan crest on Mai's clothing.
His pupils shrank.
"Mr. Duy, hello. I'm Guy's classmate—Uchiha Mai."
Mai bowed slightly, polite and composed.
Duy was even more shocked.
Since when were Uchiha this well-mannered?
Was this a fake Uchiha?
The Uchiha he usually saw all walked with their noses in the air, looking at people from their chins.
But since he had come to ask for guidance, courtesy was necessary.
Guy pulled Mai closer to his father and eagerly introduced him:
"Dad, he's the Uchiha genius I told you about before—the one who's very interested in taijutsu and already very skilled!
He said he's run into some problems with taijutsu training and wants to consult a ninja who truly understands taijutsu."
"B-But… I'm just a genin…" Duy said hesitantly, suddenly losing confidence.
The Uchiha name was intimidating.
Mai smiled and lied smoothly:
"I've heard about you from elders in my clan.
They said that although Mr. Duy is only a genin, your true strength is exceptional—especially your understanding and mastery of taijutsu, which ranks among the best in Konoha.
If not for being unable to master the Three Basic Techniques, you would have long since been promoted to chūnin."
Ah… this…
An Uchiha actually thought so highly of him?
Might Duy froze for a moment—
Then suddenly burst into tears, hugging his son tightly as he sobbed:
"My taijutsu… my taijutsu has finally been acknowledged by the village…
I, Might Duy, am not useless.
I am also a powerful ninja!"
"Of course you are, Dad! Taijutsu isn't something only failures train in…"
Father and son completely forgot Mai existed, clinging to each other as they poured out years of bitterness and hardship.
Uchiha Mai: "..."
So this tendency to cry at the drop of a hat—
Was something the Might lineage had inherited from the previous generation?
He really had to be careful not to get infected.
If he mastered the most stylish and brutal leg techniques, only to become a walking joke who could no longer farm Fashion Points—
That would truly be a tragic loss.
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