The following month passed in the most ordinary and monotonous way imaginable.
Uchiha Mai often trained under Might Dai, learning kicking techniques while studying Jean-Claude Van Damme's legwork in depth. During his free time, he would beat up Guy - politely calling it "sparring."
The state of the ninja world was grim. The Third Great Ninja War was unavoidable. Even if one survived it, there would still be the Night of the Uchiha Massacre… and then the Fourth War.
These Uchiha eyes granted Mai nearly limitless potential, but they also dragged him into endless disputes and chaos. When the nest is overturned, no egg survives - there was no way he could simply let Konoha toy with the Uchiha clan until its destruction.
Should he place all his hopes in these eyes?
The Uchiha eyes were indeed absurdly powerful - but only once they reached the Mangekyō, Eternal Mangekyō, or Rinnegan. Mai couldn't guarantee that he would ever awaken the Mangekyō.
Besides, doing nothing all day and waiting for his eyes to "open" was pathetically stupid.
At the very least, he needed to learn something. He aimed to become a well-rounded ninja - morally, intellectually, physically, aesthetically, and practically developed.
Effort and sweat never betray you. The loneliness endured during training always comes back later, when it's time to show off.
As the saying goes: true masters are lonely. Strength is built from endless solitude. Those who can't endure loneliness will never become experts.
After a full month of intense training, Uchiha Mai finally mastered Might Dai's kicking techniques and fully comprehended Van Damme's leg style, integrating it seamlessly into his own system.
His Mai-Style Ancient Martial Arts, loosely plagiarized from the Yagami Ancient Style, also evolved further, developing new moves and becoming more refined.
During this time, after growing close to the Might father and son, Mai shamelessly asked to learn the Eight Gates.
He wanted to see if he could pull off something like "damage-free Eight Gates," "permanent Eight Gates," or even "reverse Eight Gates," just like other transmigrators.
After all, this was the technique that kicked Six Paths Madara to the brink of death. It was hard not to be tempted.
Might Dai didn't keep the technique to himself. After a few minutes of thought, he taught the Eight Gates to Mai.
No "family secret" nonsense - everything belongs to Konoha!
That was the beginning of Mai's collapse.
After carefully reviewing the technique, Mai's head nearly exploded. The Eight Gates were nothing like what he had imagined. The difficulty of training them far exceeded his expectations.
After some investigation, he finally understood why, in the original story, only the Might father and son had ever truly mastered the Eight Gates.
No one knows who originally created this ultimate technique - but it was almost certainly not Tobirama Senju. Before Might Dai obtained it, the Eight Gates were even more useless, practically impossible to cultivate.
It was like the Stellar Transformation Technique from Coiling Dragon - insanely powerful in theory, but suicidal in practice.
Might Dai spent over twenty years annotating the technique, correcting flaws, and filling gaps. Only then did the Eight Gates evolve from pure theory into something that barely had a chance of success.
Even so, it was still incomplete.
At this point in time, supplementary techniques like Front Lotus, Reverse Lotus, and Morning Peacock didn't even exist. For the Eight Gates to reach true completion, Guy would have to inherit his father's legacy and continue developing it.
Moreover, even if Guy perfected the Eight Gates to its Fourth War level, that didn't mean it would suit others.
Morning Peacock, Daytime Tiger, Evening Elephant, Night Guy - all of these were techniques created specifically for Guy's body and traits. They weren't universally compatible.
Rock Lee could already open five gates during the Chūnin Exams, yet later faded into mediocrity - likely because he lacked Guy's talent for developing techniques tailored to himself.
Mediocre. Completely mediocre.
Why was it that everything Uchiha Mai could learn turned out to be flashy but impractical trash?
After weighing his options, Mai abandoned the seductive idea of focusing on the Eight Gates. Like Kakashi in the original story, he chose to learn it casually.
His goal was simple - being able to open the Second Gate in the future would be more than enough.
Mai could endure loneliness and hardship, but the kind of training Guy underwent in the original story was genuinely terrifying.
Training the Eight Gates meant abandoning everything and investing 300% of one's life into cultivation - with no guarantee of success. And even if successful, it might only be usable a handful of times.
That wasn't a wise choice.
He had the Sharingan. He had external advantages. Whether in short-term or long-term returns, they were no worse than the Eight Gates. There was no reason to stubbornly pursue it.
Soon after deciding to treat it as a side skill, Mai encountered another problem. Logically, his physical strength and chakra reserves weren't inferior to Guy's, yet after countless attempts, the Gate of Life didn't budge at all.
Might Dai explained the reason: the Eight Gates require a resolve of "hundreds of deaths without regret."
It's not just about physical stats. Willpower and absolute determination are essential. Hardware alone isn't enough.
This technique is best suited for simple-minded, single-track people. You fight too intelligently - it just doesn't suit you.
Even more mediocre.
After fully understanding the Eight Gates, Mai completely lost interest.
Garbage like this - not even a dog would train it.
It's powerful, sure - but it lacks universality.
Shenxiu once said:
The body is the Bodhi tree,
the mind is like a bright mirror stand;
clean it constantly,
so no dust may cling.
Huineng said:
Bodhi has no tree,
the mirror has no stand;
from the beginning there is nothing -
where could dust arise?
The Fifth Patriarch judged Huineng's Buddha-nature superior and passed the mantle to him.
Mai liked this story, but didn't believe Huineng was necessarily better than Shenxiu. Clearly, Shenxiu's path was far more suitable for the world at large.
The Eight Gates were the same.
Learning the Eight Gates was like taking a single chip to Las Vegas and going all-in every time - betting big or small, thirty-two times in a row. Lose once, and you're dead on the spot.
You can quit midway, but you can't take your money with you. To leave with anything, you must win all thirty-two times consecutively.
You can't ignore the near-zero probability just because the final reward is outrageously high.
True card sharks know when to fold a hand that looks good but actually has terrible odds.
Uchiha Mai understood this - and acted accordingly. He wouldn't train the Eight Gates, nor was he suited to them.
Not long after abandoning the Eight Gates, graduation day arrived.
The Ninja Academy wasn't rigid or ceremonial at this time. There were no flashy graduation exams - after the ceremony, graduates were simply assigned to teams.
After graduation, they would take a few adaptation missions. Those who adjusted became ninjas. Those who didn't were reassigned as ordinary villagers. Anyone who still wanted to be a ninja could join the reserve forces and grind seniority.
After all, as a genin, talent wasn't that important - just endure long enough and you'd make it.
It was a festive day.
Clan Head Fugaku attended the ceremony as Uchiha Mai's elder. In addition, legendary figures like Hiruzen Sarutobi and Yūhi Shinku - names usually heard only in rumors - were also present.
After the ceremony, parents chatted cheerfully as they left the field and classrooms, heading home or to the offices.
Leaving behind a group of little brats in the classroom, waiting to be picked like cabbages at a marketplace.
Asking for a recommendation vote isn't too much, right? It's free.
(End of Chapter)