Chapter 100: The Power of Eight Gates Plus Stone Breathing

Before leaving with Asuma, Mu Yue gave Hiruzen Sarutobi an appraisal.

He was curious about how rich the skills of the professor of ninjutsu, who was said to be proficient in all of Konoha's jutsu, would be.

【Name: Hiruzen Sarutobi】

【Chakra:】

【Skills: Combined Ninjutsu (Mastery: /), Fire Nature Transformation (Mastery: 6200/), Earth Nature Transformation (Mastery: 950/), Water Nature Transformation (Mastery: 200/)...】

Hiruzen Sarutobi's skill list was indeed long enough, a dense mass; Mu Yue roughly calculated and estimated there were over a thousand jutsu.

In terms of quantity, the title of Professor of Ninjutsu was well-deserved, after all, Hiruzen Sarutobi didn't have a Sharingan to copy, he had to practice each one himself.

However, the proficiency of most jutsu actually only stayed at beginner, not many at skilled level, and even fewer at mastery.

Mu Yue had thought Hiruzen Sarutobi's nature transformations would be mastery in all five elements, but actually only three were at mastery level, and the remaining two were close to mastery.

"It seems the system's mastery level is worth more than I imagined," Mu Yue thought to himself.

Just considering the level of fire and water nature transformations, he was higher than Hiruzen Sarutobi.

Of course, in an actual fight, he would be instantly killed by the current Hiruzen Sarutobi, because in chakra, taijutsu, combat experience, and even jutsu configuration, Hiruzen Sarutobi crushed him.

After seeing Hiruzen Sarutobi's status panel, Mu Yue understood what a truly all-round ninja was—ninjutsu, taijutsu, genjutsu, sealing jutsu, secret techniques, forbidden techniques, and a host of various jutsu could all be found in Hiruzen Sarutobi's skill list.

Regarding Hiruzen Sarutobi's panel, Mu Yue could only say it was hard to evaluate.

After finishing teaching Asuma, Mu Yue returned to the main area of Konoha, called Minato and Kushina, and showed them the entire process of making Magic Mapo Tofu.

Kushina and Minato finally got to see how soybeans turned into "meat".

Even after watching the cooking process and tasting it, Kushina still thought it was amazing.

"Mu Yue, how exactly did you think of making soybeans taste like meat?" Kushina couldn't help asking.

"A random stroke of inspiration," Mu Yue said after thinking for a moment.

He couldn't say these dishes were taught to him by someone else, as that would reveal even more flaws, so he had to shamelessly claim he developed them himself.

Next, Minato asked about Mu Yue's progress in training sealing jutsu, since it had been about a week since he last gave him sealing techniques.

Mu Yue shared some thoughts he had just had about the Five-Finger Seal.

"The Five-Finger Seal is much harder than the Three-Finger Seal. Study more sealing knowledge and practice diligently, and you can slowly learn it," Minato explained.

The Five-Finger Seal was different from the previous One-Finger and Three-Finger Seals; the difficulty increase was particularly obvious, and Minato worried that Mu Yue might doubt himself due to prolonged lack of progress.

Mu Yue nodded, and naturally steered the conversation to sealing jutsu, bringing up some problems he had encountered with sealing techniques.

Mu Yue did not ask about specific issues in training a particular sealing jutsu, but rather some questions about sealing knowledge.

If he had asked about the problems he was currently facing with the Five-Finger Seal, Kushina and Minato, given their level of sealing, could directly guess his actual training progress.

On weekend nights, the disciples didn't need to come train with him, so Mu Yue practiced alone in the Southern Border Forest.

"Five-Finger Seal!"

Mu Yue gathered chakra on the five fingers of his right hand and slapped it onto his own shadow clone.

Black sealing marks appeared on the shadow clone's body; the technique was successful.

"Next, I can train the Five Elements Seal," Mu Yue thought as he looked at the Five-Finger Seal that had reached beginner on his panel.

Having finished training the Five-Finger Seal, he could barely count as a sealing ninja, though currently a sealing ninja who knew no formal sealing jutsu.

But Mu Yue didn't care; he learned sealing not to expand his skill library, but to solve the problem of the Tongue-Catastrophe Seal.

Once he got the Five Elements Seal to beginner, he would directly use a proficiency scroll to raise it to skilled level, then learn the Contract Seal, and then raise that to skilled level.

With both sealing techniques at skilled level, his sealing knowledge would increase considerably, and then he could try to study the Root's curse mark.

While keeping his sensing jutsu active, Mu Yue walked deep into the forest; today he wanted to test how far his limit strength could go.

It had been a month since he obtained the mastery-level Rock Breathing.

Once a breathing technique is beginner, one can greatly enhance their abilities through Total Concentration Breathing, while the skilled-level Constant State maintains the body in a weakened version of Total Concentration Breathing 24 hours a day.

For Mu Yue, Constant State was very important, because it was equivalent to his body training all the time.

Over the course of a month, Mu Yue could clearly perceive his body gradually growing stronger, much more effective than when he practiced taijutsu on his own.

Moreover, because his body had grown stronger, his chakra's natural growth rate had even increased a little.

As his body grew stronger, Mu Yue prepared to try the combination of the Eight Gates plus Rock Breathing.

He had mastered the first three Gates of the Eight Gates; the first three Gates were the safe zone of the Eight Gates and would not place too much strain on the body.

"Gate of Opening, open!" Mu Yue did not have the mastery of the Eight Gates that Might Guy displayed in the story; he could only start from the first Gate and open them slowly.

With the use of the Eight Gates, Mu Yue felt a certain restriction in his body being broken open; the previously restricted chakra surged out, his body gradually grew stronger, and his strength and speed greatly improved.

When Mu Yue opened the third Gate, the Gate of Life, his body had already become flushed red, his chakra skyrocketed, and green energy emanated from his entire body.

Mu Yue performed an appraisal on himself in the third Gate state.

【Name: Yusheng Mu Yue】

【Chakra: 】

His chakra had directly broken through twenty thousand, but Mu Yue could sense that his chakra at this moment was extremely violent, preventing him from performing any fine manipulation or releasing ninjutsu.

However, Mu Yue had anticipated this; he took a deep breath, inhaling a large amount of oxygen into his body to enter the All-Concentrated Breathing state of Rock Breathing, and his physical attributes received another all-around boost.

Mu Yue casually threw a punch, and the air shockwave driven by the mere force of his fist toppled over a dozen large trees.

Without needing to use chakra reinforcement, rocks in his hands were as easy to break as tofu.

His running speed was as if he had used the Body Flicker Technique.

"Hoo." Mu Yue exhaled a puff of white air and deactivated the Eight Gates and All-Concentrated Breathing states; a wave of intense fatigue washed over him.

The combination of the Eight Gates and Rock Breathing indeed produced astonishing improvements; Mu Yue didn't dare use too much force, worried that the commotion would attract Anbu or Root ninja.

However, powerful as it was, the burden on his body was truly great; after just three minutes, Mu Yue already felt very tired.

This was still without using the Mark; Mu Yue felt that if he had activated the Mark just now, he might have fainted directly upon deactivation.

After this experiment, his hypothesis was proven: Rock Breathing indeed complemented the Eight Gates well and could raise the upper limit.

Having gained one more trump card for bursts of power, Mu Yue's sense of security increased slightly.

Now, aside from having insufficient chakra and lacking combat experience, he already had quite a few diverse methods in various aspects.

"The training plan is almost ready; I can let my disciple start training in the Breathing Techniques," Mu Yue thought to himself.