Chapter 7: Might Duy

Shingo looked at the face before him, memories rushing through his mind in an instant.

Might Duy.

The eternal genin.

Might Guy's father.

The very man who, upon opening the Eighth Gate, the Gate of Death, burned his youth to ashes and kicked the Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist down to a trio of good-luck charms with a single blow.

The Duy standing before him was still quite youthful, his facial hair far from dense, yet those two instantly recognizable thick eyebrows, the green training bodysuit, and the red-blooded, passionate aura of youth left no doubt that there was not a second person in Konoha quite like him.

"Hello."

Shingo paused his steps.

"I'm Shingo."

"My name is Might Duy!"

Duy flashed his signature thumbs-up once more, his smile so radiantly brilliant it was almost blinding.

"Shingo-shōnen, would you like to train with me?"

The invitation came rather abruptly.

A man clad in a green spandex training suit had sprinted down the path on a handstand, only to invite a total stranger to train with him upon their very first meeting.

Had Shingo not known exactly who this was, he likely would have suspected he'd run into some bizarre eccentric.

Before Shingo could even reply, Duy quickly tacked on another sentence.

"Of course, if you're busy or inconvenienced, it's totally fine!"

He chuckled and scratched the back of his head, his tone remaining bright and hearty.

"I just saw how dedicated you looked while running, and I felt like you must be burning your own youth right along with me, so I couldn't help but come over and ask, haha."

Though Duy was smiling brightly, a trace of hard-to-detect disappointment lingered in the depths of his eyes.

As expected, I'm going to be turned down, am I? Duy thought to himself.

In the years following his graduation, he had participated in the Chūnin Exams a handful of times, but the results had never been favorable.

Before he could even reach the final practical combat evaluations, he would inevitably stumble and fail during the preliminary written exams or the intelligence-gathering tests.

This earned Might Duy no shortage of mockery and ridicule among his peers.

Layer that on top of his green spandex and his overly passionate training methods...

Many dismissed him as a passionate fool with zero talent, or even treated him as a circus freak begging for attention.

It wasn't that Might Duy couldn't hear the jeers; he simply chose not to care, treating such contempt as just another component of his youth-driven discipline.

Yet, always burning his youth entirely alone, it was inevitable that loneliness would occasionally creep in.

Even someone as passionately fiery as Might Duy had moments of emotional lulls.

He too wished for someone to train alongside him, to progress together.

That was why, upon seeing a strange boy pushing himself hard in the midday sun, he had stopped to pose the question.

The boy's pace clearly spoke of years of grueling, persistent training; this kid had to be a good-natured soul just as dedicated and hardworking as he was.

Shingo smiled as well, offering a straightforward reply.

"Sure."

The smile on Might Duy's face paused for a fraction of a second.

The next second, that grin unmistakably grew ten times more genuine.

"All right! Youth shines brightest when it's burned together with others!"

Duy's training for the day was already nearing its end, so after a brief exchange, he decided to tag along and check out Shingo's personal training grounds.

The two of them jogged side by side toward the forest.

"How does Duy-san usually structure your training?"

Along the way, Shingo asked out of curiosity.

He was only familiar with the routines of Might Guy and Rock Lee; he didn't know if the current Duy trained in the exact same manner.

"Just call me Duy!"

Duy replied enthusiastically as they ran.

"My training isn't actually all that complicated."

"Running, kicking, punching, push-ups, sit-ups, squats, and handstand walks."

"Though I generally set strict personal targets and penalties for myself. For instance, if I fail to complete a thousand push-ups today, the penalty is fifty laps around the village! And if I can't finish those fifty laps either, it's ten laps around the village on a handstand!"

So it really is identical.

Shingo calculated Duy's training volume in his mind.

Setting aside those staggering repetition numbers, and the weight loads Might Duy hadn't even bothered to mention, seeing as all these exercises were performed under heavy weights, just the targets and penalties alone were far more punishing than Duy made them sound.

Take push-ups, for example. Even if Might Duy was fully capable of knocking out a thousand, he would deliberately stop at nine hundred ninety-nine, turning that single uncompleted rep into the fuel that drove him forward the next day.

Shingo glanced at the faded, worn green training suit Duy wore; the areas prone to friction had been mended with patches several times over.

His ninja sandals and the weighted gear on his body, however, looked brand new, evidently swapped out recently.

As a genin specializing exclusively in taijutsu, Might Duy's regular income was actually quite modest.

Factor in his terrifying volume of training, which demanded immense caloric intake and frequent gear replacements, and his expenses had to be staggering.

Yet Duy clearly knew how to spend his money where it mattered most: clothing was patched and made to last, while footwear and weights were replaced without hesitation the moment they wore down.

Moreover, judging purely by this sheer volume of training, Might Duy, Might Guy, and Rock Lee could hardly be labeled as lacking talent.

If an ordinary person attempted to train like this, the question wouldn't be whether they could stick with it, it would be whether they broke their own bodies beyond repair in the process.

Then again...

Aside from clans with monstrous vitality like the Senju or the Uzumaki, rare indeed were those capable of enduring such long-term physical depletion.

Yet not only had Might Duy sustained this intensity for decades, but he had also pushed the Eight Gates up to the final gate.

How could anyone possibly call that a lack of talent? It was simply that his brand of talent differed from the shinobi world's conventional definition, leaving it unrecognized by the mainstream.

"What about you, Shingo-shōnen?"

Duy turned his head with an inquisitive look.

"How do you usually train?"

"More or less the same."

Shingo thought for a moment before answering.

"Weighted walking, pushing boulders, lifting rocks... and chakra control exercises like tree-climbing and water-walking. Oh, and recently I've started training inside a stream, which feels like it's yielding pretty good results."

"Training in the water?"

"Yeah."

Shingo nodded.

"Whether you're moving or throwing punches, the water resists your motion. Combine that with the slippery stones on the riverbed and the constant flow of the current, and it feels much more effective."

The idea had originally struck Shingo while practicing his water-walking exercises.

Since unstable water currents honed chakra control more effectively, applying that same principle to physical conditioning was bound to yield compounding benefits.

"Oh! That sounds fantastic, I'll definitely have to give it a try later."

Before long, the clearing Shingo had cleared out and organized as his training ground came into view.

Duy halted his steps, looking around the perimeter.

Grass, wooden posts, wooden racks, a crude makeshift shed, boulders of varying sizes, and the shallow stream flowing gently nearby.

Duy walked up to a wooden post, ran a hand over the impact marks carved into its surface, and then looked down at the beaten, hardened earth beneath his feet.

"How long have you been training here?"

"About three months or so."

What a remarkably steadfast kid, Might Duy affirmed inwardly.

He turned his head and gave Shingo a thumbs-up.

"Shingo, your training ground is fantastic. I can't wait to get started!"

After thoroughly warming up in place, Duy's attention was quickly drawn to the massive boulders.

He strode over to the largest one, squatted down, and prepared to hoist it onto his back.

"Hah!"

Accompanied by a low grunt, the boulder slowly lifted off the ground.

Duy wasn't entirely used to its irregular weight distribution at first, but he quickly found his center of gravity and began marching forward with steady strides.

Shingo usually used this particular boulder for pushing drills.

Lifting it onto his back was technically possible, but he couldn't manage more than a few steps before the awkward weight distribution ruined the training efficiency, making it far less effective than the slightly smaller boulders nearby.

Yet right now, Might Duy was marching steadily forward with the massive rock loaded onto his shoulders, all without removing the heavy weights he wore on his own body.

Through his Mind's Eye, Shingo clearly perceived Duy's muscle fibers tightening in successive layers under the immense load, his chakra circulation accelerating significantly to stabilize his body against the dead weight.

Duy paced back and forth along the stream bank for a spell before finally lowering the boulder back to the dirt.

Thump.

The stone settled, kicking up a small cloud of dust.

Might Duy exhaled a long breath, sweat already beading across his forehead.

"That is a brilliant training method!"

Duy brushed the dust off his clothes and praised:

"The weights are one thing, but the boulder is massive and irregularly shaped, forcing you to constantly readjust your balance as you move."

"Your shoulders, back, arms, core, and even your toes have to fire simultaneously. It takes a simple movement and forces every single muscle in your body to engage."

"As expected, youth shines brightest when shared with others!"

"I learned a trick today; sometimes, diversifying your training routines can work wonders for taijutsu. Looks like I'll need to brainstorm ways to optimize my own schedule later on."

Shingo nodded.

"My thoughts exactly."

Seeing that his reference to Master Roshi's training philosophy had won Duy's approval, Shingo was reminded of the muscle theory discussed by Kōetsuji Akisame.

"Duy, have you ever heard of a theory regarding muscle types?"

"They say human muscles are divided into three distinct categories."

"First are white muscle fibers: high explosive power, but low endurance, making them quick to fatigue."

"Second are red muscle fibers: high endurance, but low explosive power."

"And third are pink muscle fibers, which combine the advantages of both, though they require a much more balanced and grueling regimen to develop."

Might Duy rubbed his chin, falling into deep thought.

A moment later, he shook his head honestly.

"I've never heard of that theory."

"Still, the idea of balanced training is spot on. If your shortcomings are glaring, whether it's a lack of stamina or weak explosive power, you'll find yourself at a severe disadvantage in actual combat."

"If this theory is real, then what we need to do is simple."

"Burn our youth! Put in three times the effort of an ordinary person! Train all three muscle types to absolute perfection!"

Shingo smiled upon hearing that; it was so quintessentially Duy.

Lacking any academic or clinical theories, Duy possessed a near-instinctive, correct intuition when it came to physical conditioning, backed by unyielding willpower and an unquenchable inner fire.

Yet even someone like Duy only dared to speak of putting in three times the effort of an ordinary person; he truly was humble.

The training session that followed proved even more effective than Shingo had anticipated.

It wasn't that Shingo couldn't endure solitude.

However, much like working out in a gym, having a companion who trained seriously, communicated openly, radiated positive energy, and offered mutual supervision and encouragement made sticking to a routine infinitely easier. Your mood improved, your state of mind sharpened, and your overall training efficiency rose accordingly.

Once the basic physical conditioning wrapped up, Shingo began asking Might Duy for guidance on taijutsu.

Might Duy specialized in the Strong Fist style, a foundational discipline of Konoha-style Taijutsu.

His primary focus lay in various kicking techniques.

Moves like the Leaf Hurricane, the Leaf Great Hurricane, and the Severe Leaf Whirlwind.

He also knew close-quarters striking arts that incorporated punches and elbows, such as the Leaf Rock-Destroying Rise, though he used them far less frequently than his kicks.

After sparring through a few exchanges, Duy realized that Shingo was the exact opposite of him, concentrating his taijutsu around fist techniques rather than kicks.

Consequently, when teaching Shingo, Duy selected a few foundational punch techniques from the Strong Fist style to serve as their starting point.

Might Duy's taijutsu fundamentals were frighteningly solid.

Punches, kicks, evasive maneuvers, charges.

Tens of thousands of repetitions every day had rendered his movements standard, crisp, and imbued with an almost natural, effortless rhythm.

Duy initially intended to demonstrate various forms and kata within the Strong Fist style for Shingo.

Shingo, however, suggested that sparring directly would make the principles easier to grasp.

With that, Might Duy launched a Strong Fist assault on Shingo, intentionally slowing his movements just enough for Shingo to track them clearly.

Starting from imitation, Shingo gradually found his footing, absorbing the philosophy of the Strong Fist style, one that stood in stark contrast to the Gentle Fist.