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Chapter 120: Father and Son Sparring
Land of Lightning, Hidden Cloud Village.
Perennial rain clouds obscured the sky; only the occasional lightning tearing through the firmament illuminated the village surrounded by mountains with a pale light.
Rolling thunder echoed through the canyon, like the low growl of a giant beast.
Training Ground Seventeen.
This was an open rocky area halfway up the mountain. The ground was pitted and covered with scorch marks, medals left behind from years of being bombarded by Lightning Style ninjutsu.
Two figures, one large and one small, stood facing each other.
The large one was a burly man with dark skin, muscles bulging like granite, and pale yellow hair standing up like steel needles.
He was Yotsuki Burai, a Jonin of the Hidden Cloud Village and one of the elites of the current Yotsuki clan.
Opposite him stood a boy of about six or seven.
The boy also had dark skin and a head of messy black hair. Although he only reached the sturdy man's thigh, there was no childishness in his eyes that a child should have.
There was only beast-like excitement and an arrogance that made one's scalp tingle at a glance.
"Hey, Pops."
The boy—now named Yotsuki Raito, which is to say, Garp—picked at his ear impatiently.
"I really have no interest in going to that play-house game called the Ninja Academy."
Garp blew the earwax off his fingertip and grinned, revealing a mouthful of white teeth.
"I want to go to the battlefield!"
The veins on Burai's temple throbbed.
He took a deep breath, suppressing the urge to beat this unfilial son.
"Raito! Those are hand seals! They are the key to guiding chakra flow!"
Burai roared, his voice louder than the thunder in the sky.
"You brat! Despite having an amazing amount of chakra, you won't even learn the most basic Three Body Technique properly! All you know is swinging your fists around all day!"
"What's wrong with fists?"
Garp waved that tender little fist nonchalantly, creating a whistling wind sound.
"Simple, direct. As long as they're hard enough, what ninjutsu can't they smash?"
"Stubborn fool!"
Burai was thoroughly enraged.
As an elite of the Hidden Cloud, he would never allow his son to become a brute who only knew how to use brute force.
In this world of ninjas, lacking ninjutsu was like a tiger without teeth.
"Since you look down on ninjutsu so much, let your old man personally teach you what a ninja battle is!"
Burai tore off his Jonin flak jacket, revealing lean and powerful muscles.
"If you lose, you'll obediently go back to the academy tomorrow to study!"
Garp's eyes lit up.
In that instant, his aura changed.
His originally lazy stance instantly tightened, like a fully drawn strongbow.
"Just what I wanted, Pops."
Garp laughed loudly, assuming a strange starting stance.
It was the posture most suitable for exerting force, honed over decades in the Marines.
"But if I win, you aren't allowed to interfere with whatever I want to do from now on!"
"Win against me?"
Burai looked as if he had heard the biggest joke in the world.
"Stinking brat, you're only nine! Even if you are a genius, you're a hundred years too early to defeat a Jonin!"
Zzzzt—
Blue-white electric arcs instantly danced across Burai's body.
"Watch out!"
Before his voice faded, Burai's figure had already vanished from the spot.
So fast!
If it were an ordinary Genin, or even a Chunin, they probably wouldn't even have a chance to react before being blasted away by a punch.
But Garp was no ordinary person.
Although his body was that of a nine-year-old child, his battle awareness was that of a legend standing at the apex of the pirate world!
The moment Burai vanished, Garp's pupils contracted sharply.
No Observation Haki.
But the wild intuition of this body, coupled with his decades of life-and-death combat experience, allowed him to instantly capture the anomaly in the air current.
"Left!"
Garp didn't hesitate in the slightest. His small, thin body leaned sharply to the right in a posture that defied human biomechanics.
Boom!
A fist wrapped in lightning grazed the tip of his nose and smashed into the ground.
Gravel flew.
A large crater two meters in diameter was blasted into the ground.
"Dodged?"
A trace of astonishment flashed through Burai's eyes.
Coincidence?
No, this kid's movements... were too clean.
Before he could recover from his surprise, a black shadow had already scrambled up his arm.
Garp stepped on Burai's thick forearm, using the leverage to launch himself into the air. His tender fist clenched tight, smashing ruthlessly toward Burai's chin.
"Don't look down on me!"
Although there was no Haki, no monstrous strength.
But the blood of the Yotsuki clan flowing in this body contained berserk power in itself.
Added to Garp's perfect control over force exertion techniques.
This punch, carrying the sound of breaking wind, landed solidly on Burai's chin.
Thud!
The dull sound of flesh colliding.
Burai's head snapped back violently, and he staggered back two steps.
Although the Lightning Style Chakra Armor neutralized most of the damage, the impact still made him feel dizzy.
"This kid..."
Burai shook his head, his gaze changing completely.
That punch just now was definitely not a blind cat catching a dead mouse.
That judgment to strike precisely at a vital point, that technique of using the opponent's strength to counterattack.
Could a child who hadn't even graduated from the Ninja Academy really do this?
"Stings a bit."
Garp landed on the ground, shaking his slightly reddened fist, but his face wore a smile of extreme excitement.
"Is this the Chakra Armor? Hard as a turtle shell."
Burai wiped a trace of blood from the corner of his mouth, his expression becoming serious.
"Raito, I take back what I said."
"You are not a genius."
"You are a monster."
Zzzzt!
The lightning on Burai's body became even more dazzling, the crackling sounds endless.
He was getting serious.
No longer treating this as father-son guidance, but as a real battle.
"Here it comes!"
Garp—or rather the current Yotsuki Raito—felt his pupils shrink to the size of pinpricks.
It wasn't an image captured by his eyes, but a stinging pain perceived by his skin.
That was the mournful cry of the air before being torn apart.
Is this the ninja's Body Flicker Technique?
Interesting!
Without the anticipation of Observation Haki, Garp relied entirely on the beastly instinct tempered in countless life-and-death struggles. His waist and abdomen exerted force violently, and his forward-lunging body forcibly snapped backward, like a bent spring.
Whoosh!
A blue flash of lightning grazed almost right against the tip of his nose.
It wasn't just a fist; it was more like an iron hammer wrapped in high-voltage current.
Even without a direct hit, the overflowing Lightning Style Chakra still stung his face until it felt numb, instantly scorching a few strands of black hair yellow and curled.
Boom!
Where Garp had originally been standing, the rock ground exploded like tofu. Gravel shot out, and smoke and dust rose everywhere.
"He dodged it?"
Yotsuki Burai's astonished voice came from within the dust.
Although he held back power in this punch, the speed was absolutely Jonin-level Body Flicker.
How could a brat who hadn't even graduated from the Ninja Academy dodge it?
"Hahahaha! That was close!"
Garp rolled backward in a sorry state to open up distance. Although covered in dust and dirt, those eyes were frighteningly bright.
He reached out to wipe a streak of blood cut by gravel from his face, licking it in his mouth.
The taste of rust.
A long-lost feeling.
"Pops, your movements are too straight!"
Garp grinned and laughed loudly, legs slightly bent, assuming that stance Burai found baffling.
"Again!"
Burai walked out of the dust. The lightning on his body hadn't dissipated; instead, it grew even denser. Blue-white electric arcs danced on his dark muscles, emitting crackling explosions.
He looked at his son, who didn't know the immensity of heaven and earth, his face gloomy.
"Too straight?"
"Stinking brat, cut the boastful talk!"
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