MTLNOVEL Chapter 35 – No Warning Before the Flip
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"Finally, some peace and quiet!"
After wrapping everything up, Nagi finally had a chance to enjoy his bowl of Ichiraku ramen.
"Nagi-sama, the Hokage requests your presence."
Smack!
Nagi slapped the table hard.
That damn old man again—couldn't he even eat a simple bowl of ramen in peace?
Annoyed, he turned around and saw a head of violet hair.
Gotta admit… kinda charming. Does violet even have charm?
"Let me finish my ramen first."
Nagi had been holed up at home training for a full week. He was finally out and just wanted a proper meal.
The ANBU before him, however, didn't press him at all.
And so, under her watchful eye, Nagi slowly finished his ramen.
Afterward, he casually tossed ten thousand ryo onto the counter.
"Teuchi-san, keep the change."
Ever since looting that huge pile of dirty money from Gato, the smallest bill Nagi carried was ten thousand ryo.
He didn't even give Teuchi time to respond before following the purple-haired ANBU toward the Hokage's office.
"Hey… you're Uzuki Yugao, right?"
Nagi's sudden question caught the ANBU off guard.
"No."
A crisp voice responded.
"I'm Nightingale."
Behind the mask, no one could tell what expression she wore.
"Oh come on, don't pretend you're not Uzuki Yugao."
Nagi didn't know many ANBU—just Kakashi, Yamato, and Yugao.
That familiar crisp voice, the purple hair, and the name "Nightingale"… how could she not be Yugao?
"Hmph… kid, I don't think we've met before?"
After a long silence, Yugao basically admitted it indirectly.
She couldn't recall ever meeting this sharp-eyed, black-haired young man.
"Just because we haven't met doesn't mean I haven't heard of you."
"Anyway, what's the old man want with me?"
Yugao automatically filtered out the "old man" part.
In the whole of Konoha, who else had the nerve to refer to the Third Hokage that way?
Only someone like Nagi—the number one prodigy under Hiruzen's protection—could get away with that.
"Forget it, you probably don't even know."
Nagi looked at her deadpan silence and figured she had no clue either.
Whatever. He'd find out once he got there.
Soon, under Yugao's lead, Nagi arrived at the Hokage's office.
"Took me long enough to get you out of your house!"
Hiruzen gave a small sigh of relief when he saw Nagi.
He'd never seen a genius shut himself away for a whole week like that.
If he hadn't heard Nagi was spotted outside today, he'd have sent someone in to check if the kid was still alive.
"I was working on new jutsu."
Nagi rolled his eyes.
"New jutsu, huh?"
The Third nearly dropped his pipe.
He was once called the "Professor" of the shinobi world, but at Nagi's age, he was still busy fighting with Danzo over girls.
Meanwhile, Nagi was already researching new jutsu?!
Truly, the next generation was terrifying.
"Do you need anything? I can offer Konoha's full support."
Hiruzen had asked just to be polite. He fully expected Nagi to say, Nah, I'm good.
After all, what help could an old man offer to someone creating his own jutsu?
"Actually, yeah. I do need something."
But Nagi didn't play by the rules.
"Er…"
The Third wanted to slap himself.
But since he said it, he couldn't go back on his word—not as Hokage.
"I need the Eight Gates jutsu scroll."
Nagi's request nearly gave Hiruzen a heart attack.
"He even knows about the Eight Gates?!"
The old man stared at the boy who had grown up right under his nose.
He genuinely couldn't see through him anymore.
"How do you even know about the Eight Gates?"
Nagi cut him off impatiently.
"Are you giving it to me or not?"
Of course, Nagi didn't actually need the technique—he already had it.
What he needed was an official excuse to use it, so that when the time came, no one would question him.
There was another way, too: he could've gone to Might Guy and learned about the "power of youth."
But compared to that, the old man didn't seem so annoying now.
"Nagi, you have to understand—the Eight Gates comes with a massive cost."
The Third tried to reason with him.
To a genius like Nagi, it was only a matter of time before he reached the top of the shinobi world.
So why take on such an extreme, self-harming technique?
Seeing how stubborn the Third was being, Nagi dropped the act.
"Forget it. I was planning to come up with a way to remove the drawbacks of the Eight Gates anyway…"
"I'll get it right now!"
The Third performed a textbook-level face-turn right before Nagi's eyes.
Seriously—why didn't you just say it was for that?
He didn't doubt for a second that Nagi could succeed.
The Third knew Nagi would never try something he wasn't confident in.
So, the Third personally rushed off and fetched the Eight Gates scroll.
"Took you long enough."
Nagi accepted the scroll casually.
"By the way, what did you actually want me for?" he asked, suddenly remembering the original reason he was summoned.
[End of Chapter]