Chapter 20: Echoes Across Time

Finally, Mito focused on Yujin. Due to the Nine-Tailed Fox, she was highly sensitive to emotions, allowing her to immediately sense how calm the man in front of her truly was.

He appeared concerned, but it didn’t seem to affect him much, as if the emotions he was feeling at that moment didn’t impact his body or actions. That was the impression Mito had of Yujin.

As someone of importance, even though Mito kept herself isolated in her mansion, she was always informed about the village’s events through intelligence reports delivered to her.

Therefore, she knew many things that Yujin had done since arriving in the village.

It could be said that even before meeting him, Mito already had an understanding of him, and that’s why she only needed one encounter to better grasp the existence of this person.

When he noticed Mito’s attention on him, Yujin stepped forward and greeted her. He made his right hand into a fist and placed it in front of his body horizontally. The other hand, he placed over the fist. Leaning forward 30 degrees, he closed his eyes and spoke.

“Greetings, madam. My name is Yujin, a close friend of Tsunade. Pleasure to meet you.”

Mito smiled gently in response to his greetings.

“Strange way to greet someone. I’ve never seen anything like it before. What do the fist and palm signify?”

Yujin realized that when he raised his fist and palm, some presences around the room seemed ready to move. They were analyzing every move of his with extreme caution. Perhaps because of this, Mito wanted to know more about Yujin’s unusual way of greeting, maybe to reassure the bodyguards nearby.

“This is called Baoquan Li, and this greeting has many different meanings. It is commonly used by people from my homeland as a sign of respect among Martial Artists. One of the meanings is that the fist represents the strength, power, the Martial Arts skills of the person doing the greeting, while the palm covering the fist signifies control over that strength. It means that, no matter how strong our Martial Arts might be, we must always have control over it because uncontrolled strength is a danger to people.”

Mito seemed surprised by the explanation, curiosity evident on her face. She asked interested.

“Baoquan Li? Interesting, I’ve never seen anything like that before. What other meanings could this gesture have?”

“Another meaning is how the fist signifies your skills as a fighter, and the palm signifies your knowledge. It indicates that the more knowledge you have, the more you learn, the greater control you will have over your skills. Therefore, this greeting is a respectful way to greet someone. Other meanings include Yin and Yang, and the necessary Harmony to keep them under control.”

Mito observed Yujin’s hands carefully and could understand the profound meanings behind this greeting, which fascinated her.

“Even at this age, and on the brink of death, I learn new things, fascinating.”

She smiled gently, surprising Tsunade. She did not expect that just a few words from Yujin could make the elderly woman so happy. She was once again amazed by Yujin’s wisdom.

The old woman spent a few seconds digesting the new knowledge before finally turning her attention back to Yujin and speaking.

“You are special. I don’t know exactly what is special about you, but I can feel something from you that I’ve never felt from anyone in my entire life. Where are you from?”

Yujin expected this question, so he answered smoothly.

“I cannot answer that question, I apologize. I have spent the last few months pondering exactly that. I come from a place entirely different from here, so I don’t know if it’s another world or still within this world, but in other lands. Although the language is the same, the writing is completely different.”

Mito was surprised again, not expecting this response. For a few seconds, she wondered if Yujin was lying, but after analyzing his and Tsunade’s expressions, she believed what he said, although not entirely.