chapter 178 part 1
Chapter 178: Choose the Joker or Batman?
There's a classic question.
If you had to choose, would you choose to be the Joker's teammate or Batman's teammate?
One of them waits for his accomplice to load the money bags into the car, only to shoot him in the end and drive off into the sunset.
The other is an old schemer who, the more he knows about you, the more methods he has filed away to deal with you.
It seems like one is a superhero and the other is a supervillain.
But the things they do are more or less the same.
Bruce Ren looked at the Joker before him. "Why do you want to invite me to go with you? I don't even know how to drive."
The Joker cackled. "Give a monkey a banana and let the monkey be our driver. As for you, you just need to load the money bags into the car. It's just like… just like this…"
As he spoke, he made a very crude gesture of releasing energy.
"It's as simple as that!"
Bruce Ren interrupted, "Then here's the question. What's in it for me?"
"Ooh! That's a good question!" The Joker had clearly fried his CPU. He thought for a long time, pulling at his green hair. "Damn it! You're the kind of guy everyone despises! How could you ask me what the point of robbing a bank is?"
"Yeah, what is the point?"
"To get money, of course! You stupid neighbor!"
"And what do you do with the money? Buy a car? Buy a house?" Bruce Ren tilted his head. "Then why not just rob the things you need directly?"
"Ooh! A genius!" The Joker suddenly clapped his hands together. "Why didn't I think of that?"
Bruce Ren shrugged. "So what is it you want to get?"
The Joker licked his lips. At this point, he hadn't yet been crazy enough to slice his own mouth open. He pinched his chin, thinking seriously.
After a long while, he held up his index finger. "Hey! I've got an idea!"
"What is it?"
"I want Gotham in chaos! Plunged into… plunged into humanity's most primal state of disorder! You won't need money to buy things anymore—if you want something, you just take it! People won't need to work either! This way… this way…"
His level of education wasn't high, so Bruce Ren filled in, "This way, we can achieve a republic?"
"Ooh! Yes! That's it! That's that divine little idea!"
Bruce Ren scratched his head. "I don't know what's going on, but you managed to turn robbing a bank into a struggle… forget it. Do whatever you want."
The Joker rubbed his hands together, muttering to himself with constant fidgeting. "Let me think, who has the most money in Gotham? Ooh, right!"
He suddenly looked at Bruce Ren. "Someone with a name similar to yours, Bruce Wayne! Yes! It's him!"
Bruce Ren rubbed the back of his aching head. "Alright… I guess we're back to the main plot."
---
The Land of Snow was a country perennially covered in heavy snow, like a world of ice and snow draped in silver.
As far as the eye could see, everything was a vast expanse of white. A thick layer of snow was piled upon the earth as if blanketing the entire nation in a pure white quilt. The continuous, undulating snow-capped mountains towered into the clouds, the snow on their peaks never melting year-round.
Amidst this world of ice and snow, Might Guy, Kurenai Renhi, and Uchiha Ren were pressing forward with difficulty.
Might Guy, however, was completely undaunted by the cold. He did high knees in place while shouting excitedly, "The more you move, the warmer your body gets! Yosh!" His face was brimming with passion and vitality, as if the cold didn't exist for him at all.
Kurenai Renhi just helplessly covered her forehead, complaining with a look of disdain, "Guy, you have way too much energy."
Uchiha Ren, who had been walking in silence, suddenly spoke up to ask, "Guy-sensei, what was that jutsu you used during the great battle with Kakuzu last time?"
Hearing this, Might Guy's interest was immediately piqued. He declared proudly, "Hahaha, that's the Eight Gates Released Formation, an incredibly powerful taijutsu!" He cleared his throat and began to explain in detail, "Inside our bodies, there is a meridian system through which Chakra flows. From the head downwards, there are eight points where Chakra gathers: the Gate of Opening, the Gate of Healing, the Gate of Life, the Gate of Pain, the Gate of Limit, the Gate of View, the Gate of Wonder, and the Gate of Death. These are the 'Eight Gates'!"
"Under normal circumstances, the 'Eight Gates' limit the amount of Chakra flowing through the body. But the 'Eight Gates Released Formation' can use Chakra to forcibly bypass this limit, greatly increasing the user's power. The more 'Gates' you open, the stronger you become. However, this isn't a jutsu you can use casually, because it puts a huge strain on the body. The user themself might get injured, which is why it's classified as a forbidden jutsu!"
Uchiha Ren listened for a while, nodding thoughtfully. His eyes shone with a light of curiosity and desire. He made a direct request to Might Guy, "Guy-sensei, can you teach me?"
Hearing Uchiha Ren's blunt request, Might Guy couldn't help but exclaim, "Huh?!" He stared at Uchiha Ren with wide, astonished eyes, clearly having never expected the boy to be so straightforward.
In the Hidden Leaf Village, there was an established set of rules for how shinobi learned ninjutsu.
Generally, the clan played a crucial role in a shinobi's development. Those unique ninjutsu passed down through a clan's bloodline were all taught with great care by the clan elders, passing on the experience and skills accumulated by their predecessors from generation to generation.
The Ninja Academy, on the other hand, was more responsible for rudimentary education, teaching children basic ninjutsu like the Three Basic Jutsu to help them build a foundation. It was like in the world of crosstalk, where a training school is responsible for kindling the children's initial interest in the art.
But to truly learn profound, practical skills, there were only two paths.
Either the elders in one's family were already masters in the field, teaching by word and deed and passing on everything they knew; or, one had to find a proper, experienced shinobi and become their apprentice, studying diligently under their tutelage.
Furthermore, once a teacher was chosen, that relationship was relatively fixed within shinobi circles.
If one already had a master but went to apprentice under another, in the jargon of the trade, it was called "gate-hopping"—a highly taboo act.
Guy raised a hand and scratched his shiny, broad forehead, a troubled expression on his face. He chose his words carefully, "You're Kakashi's student. How can you learn from me?"
In his heart, he was bound by the Leaf's traditions and also concerned about Kakashi's reputation, truly at a loss as to how to respond to Uchiha Ren's sudden request.
"That's where you're wrong." Uchiha Ren was unhurried. He raised his chin slightly and suddenly launched into a long, eloquent speech, delivering a wave of grand principles.