Chapter 40: A Tie and a Twist
Facing Haku—Han—in the penultimate match, Kakashi immediately raised his hand before a single blow was exchanged.
"I surrender."
This decision carried the tacit approval of Konoha's jonin leadership. Kakashi's strategic forfeit set the stage for the final showdown: Kirigakure's Han versus Konoha's Liumu.
"Are you sure about this?" Kakashi asked Liumu as he prepared for the finale.
"Stop stuffing your face, I'm talking to you!" Kakashi added, seeing Liumu distracted by a rice ball.
Liumu: "Huh? Oh."
"I'm a bit… hesitant when it comes to fighting beautiful women," Liumu admitted, watching Haku take her position. "But I'm also not the type to just roll over and surrender. This puts me in a bit of a bind."
"The final match: Konohagakure's Liumu versus Kirigakure's Han!"
At the proctor's announcement, Liumu sighed and trudged into the arena, a picture of reluctance.
Looking at the dust-streaked but poised kunoichi before him, Liumu offered an embarrassed smile. "How about… you just concede? We've both basically made Chunin anyway. This last fight doesn't really matter, does it?"
In Liumu's mind, this was the perfect solution. He didn't want to lose, so if she surrendered, problem solved.
Haku's expression, however, only grew frostier at his suggestion. "Why don't you concede?"
"Because… well, it's our first time fighting," Liumu reasoned awkwardly. "I'd prefer it if you took the initiative."
"Why should I take the initiative for a first time?" Haku retorted, a faint blush of irritation on her cheeks. "Unless you defeat me fairly, I will not concede."
"Tch…" Liumu shook his head in resignation.
"BEGIN!"
The moment the proctor gave the signal, the audience watched in bewilderment as Liumu simply… walked forward.
No ninjutsu hand seals. No genjutsu flicker. No tactical maneuvering.
He just strode directly toward his opponent, utterly straightforward, without any apparent foreplay.
Seeing this, Haku's hands flew into a series of fluid seals. "Ice Release: Demonic Mirroring Ic—"
Her incantation was cut off. Liumu, now less than half a step away, reached out and clamped his hands around her wrists, interrupting the seal at her abdomen.
Haku's eyes widened in shock. She felt a terrifying, vacuum-like pull at her chakra coils. Her energy was being siphoned away at a frantic rate. The warm exhale from Liumu's nostrils washed over her face.
Suddenly, Liumu released her right wrist. His open palm shot upward in a short, sharp arc.
Thwack!
A crisp sound echoed. His palm connected precisely with the back of her head—not enough to cause serious injury, but with a stunning, precise force.
"Ungh…!"
A pained gasp escaped Haku's lips. Her legs instantly turned to jelly, all strength draining from them.
To the astonishment of everyone present, the five-year-old Liumu caught Haku as she slumped forward, hooking an arm around her waist. He then began walking, step by deliberate step, toward the edge of the arena, carrying her.
"You're… a little heavy," he grunted, looking down at the dazed kunoichi in his arms. "Remember to watch your weight when you get back."
"You…!" Haku wanted to retort, but overwhelming fatigue and dizziness sealed her words.
When Liumu reached the boundary line, everyone expected him to unceremoniously toss her out of the ring. Instead, he simply… stepped over the line himself, still holding her.
???
???
???
"What are you… doing?" Haku managed to force the words out through her disorientation.
"It's a draw," Liumu stated simply, as a team of concerned Kirigakure ninja rushed over. "You wouldn't concede. I wouldn't concede. So, a draw it is."
"Han!"
"Han-san!"
The Kiri ninja carefully took Haku from Liumu's arms, immediately checking her for injuries.
"Don't bother checking too much," Liumu called after them. "She just needs to rest." Then, as an afterthought, he added, "And remember what I said about the weight thing. Seriously, I could barely hold her up."
"That's… it?" Kakashi walked over, his visible eyebrow arched. "That was… fast."
"Pah!" Liumu spat lightly. "Watch your mouth, kid. You're the one who's fast."
Ding. Congratulations, Host, on completing the Chunin Assessment Mission. Timely rewards have been distributed. Please check at your earliest convenience.
The sudden electronic voice in his mind made Liumu's heart skip a beat. During his first major mission, the system had been infuriatingly slow, only finally granting rewards after he'd gotten his Konoha forehead protector. Why was this broken system so prompt and unreserved this time?
Tuning out Kakashi's subsequent chatter, Liumu focused inwardly to examine his rewards.
As previewed, the rewards consisted of: One use of the Destiny Roulette and Five access passes to the Time Chamber.
Since the system's awakening, Liumu hadn't yet used the Time Chamber function. He decided then and there to find an opportunity to train inside. Ninjutsu wasn't the absolute priority, but he was a ninja now—a Chunin, no less. Not knowing a single respectable technique was starting to feel downright embarrassing.
But the choice of what to learn gave him pause.
The Eight Gates? Vetoed immediately. The Saitama template already provided overwhelming physical power. The severe side effects of the Gates weren't worth the risk.
The Dead Demon Consuming Seal? Absolutely not. A suicide technique? He intended to live a long, healthy life, thank you very much.
The Flying Thunder God Technique? Liumu's eyes lit up. This had potential. What man didn't crave speed… no, wait, that didn't sound right. He meant mobility. While the Saitama template maxed out raw speed, the spatial-jumping nature of time-space ninjutsu held a unique allure.
Most of Konoha's forbidden or high-level jutsu were locked away in sealed scrolls. If Liumu wanted to learn them, he'd have to find a way to "borrow" such scrolls unnoticed, then spend what felt like a decade or two studying them in the Time Chamber's accelerated space.
"Liumu?"
"Liumu!"
"Are you deaf? LIUMU!"
"...Huh?" Liumu, snapped from his scheming reverie by Kakashi shouting in his ear, blinked blankly. "What? Am I having a baby or something?"
"Having a—? No!" Kakashi frowned. "The team leader just told us to gather at the residence. He said there's something important to discuss."
"Oh. Right. Let's go."
After Minato's lightning-fast rescue of Kui, Liumu had confirmed the identities of the three disguised shinobi. With Jiraiya still away at Mount Myōboku, his student, Minato, had taken his place alongside Tsunade and Orochimaru. But their exact purpose here still eluded Liumu.
"First of all, this Chunin Exam has proceeded exceptionally well for Konoha," the jonin team leader announced, standing before the assembled genin in their Kumo residence. He launched into an enthusiastic debriefing.
Meanwhile, Liumu had quietly squeezed himself to the very back of the group. With the meeting as cover, it was the perfect time to claim his roulette reward.
Initiate Destiny Roulette draw?
Yes.
The spectral wheel materialized in his mind's eye, spinning with a mesmerizing, multi-colored glow. It gradually slowed, and a pale yellow card, shimmering with a soft light, dislodged itself and floated into Liumu's waiting mental grasp.
"What kind of card is this? It doesn't look very serious," he thought, examining it.
[Borsalino. One of the Three Admirals of the Marines. Codename: Kizaru. A strong contender for 'Best Supporting Actor.' A user of the Logia-type Pika Pika no Mi (Glint-Glint Fruit). Possesses an enigmatic, nonchalant personality and adheres to an ambiguous sense of justice. Represents one of the highest combat tiers of Marine Headquarters.]
"Your mother—! Are you kidding me?!" A herd of mental alpacas stampeded through Liumu's mind.
"What the hell is this supposed to mean?" He focused on the card's icon and gave it a tentative mental poke.
"Ooooh, so scary~. I'm just the man who wants to support the young master in becoming the Pirate King."
A languid, deeply unimpressed voice drawled in his head, accompanied by a sensation of overwhelming, lazy power.
Liumu: ??? "Stupid system! Explain!"
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