The following month was spent in a routine that was as ordinary as it was grueling.
Uchiha Mai frequently trained with Might Duy to learn kicking techniques, obsessively studying Jean-Claude Van Damme's legwork. In his spare time, he would give Guy a sound thrashing—purely for the sake of "sparring," of course.
The current climate of the ninja world was deteriorating rapidly. The Third Ninja War was inevitable. Even if he survived that, there was the Uchiha Massacre, and eventually, the Fourth War...
His Uchiha bloodline offered near-infinite possibilities, but it also dragged him into a vortex of conflict. As the saying goes, "When the nest is overturned, no egg remains unbroken." He couldn't simply let Konoha play the Uchiha to death.
Could he pin all his hopes on his eyes? The Sharingan was legendary, yes, but the truly terrifying powers belonged to the Mangekyō, the Eternal Mangekyō, and the Rinnegan.
Mai couldn't guarantee he would awaken the Mangekyō. Besides, sitting around doing nothing but waiting for an eye upgrade felt pathetic.
Effort and sweat were the only things that wouldn't betray him. The loneliness endured during training would be repaid tenfold during future moments of glory. True strength is built upon a foundation of endless solitude; those who cannot endure it can never become masters.
After a month of bitter practice, Mai finally mastered Duy's kicking techniques and fully integrated Van Damme's style into his own system.
His "Mai Style Ancient Martial Arts"—originally a bootleg of the Yagami style—had developed several new moves and become significantly more refined.
During this time, having befriended the Might father and son, Mai shamelessly asked to learn the Eight Inner Gates. He wanted to see if he could be like other transmigrators and develop a "zero-damage" or "permanent" version of the gates.
After all, a technique that could kick Six Paths Madara to the brink of death was too tempting to ignore.
Might Duy didn't hoard his secrets. After a few minutes of thought, he taught the technique to Mai. In his eyes, there was no "clan secret"—everything belonged to Konoha.
That was the beginning of Mai's frustration.
After studying the details, Mai's head felt like it was going to explode. The Eight Inner Gates was nothing like he had imagined.
The difficulty of cultivation far exceeded his expectations.
He soon realized why, in the original story, only Duy and Guy ever truly mastered it. It was a "tasteless" technique—high cost, low practicality for most.
It likely wasn't created by Tobirama Senju; before Duy got his hands on it, it was almost entirely theoretical and practically impossible to train. Duy had spent twenty years adding annotations and fixing flaws just to make it a possibility.
Even now, it was a half-finished product. Iconic moves like Hidden Lotus, Morning Peacock, or Daytime Tiger didn't exist yet.
Those would require Guy to inherit Duy's mantle and continue the development. Moreover, even when perfected, the technique was highly individualistic.
Rock Lee, who could open five gates during the Chunin Exams, eventually faded into the background because he lacked the specific talent to develop his own companion techniques.
Tasteless! Why is everything I can learn so flashy yet impractical?
After weighing the options, Mai gave up on making the Eight Inner Gates his primary focus. Like Kakashi in the original series, he decided to learn just enough to be useful—perhaps opening two gates if needed.
He could handle loneliness and hard work, but Guy's level of training was simply terrifying. It required 300% focus, effectively abandoning all other skills for a technique you might only use a handful of times.
"The Eight Inner Gates requires a determination to face death without regret," Might Duy explained to a struggling Mai. "It's not just about physical hardware; it's about willpower. It's a technique for 'simple' people—one-track minds. You fight too intelligently, Mai. You're too smart for this."
Even more tasteless. Mai understood the logic. Training the Eight Inner Gates was like going to Las Vegas with one chip and betting everything on "Big" or "Small" thirty-two times in a row.
If you lose once, you're executed. You can't let the astronomical final payout blind you to the fact that the probability of success is nearly zero. A true gambler knows when to fold a hand that looks good but has a low win rate.
Shortly after he set the Gates aside, it was time for the graduation ceremony.
In this era, the Academy didn't have flashy exams. After the ceremony, graduates were simply assigned to squads. You'd take a few "acclimatization" missions.
If you could adapt, you became a ninja. If not, you were sent back to be a civilian or a reservist.
The day was festive. Clan Leader Fugaku attended as Mai's guardian. Figures like Hiruzen Sarutobi and Shinku Yuhi—names usually only heard in rumors—were also present.
Once the speeches ended, the parents left for offices or homes, leaving the "little brats" in the classroom to be picked over like cabbages at a wet market.
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