Chapter 117: New Semester Begins

The next morning, Mu Yue detected some movement and immediately used a sensory ninjutsu, discovering that a person with not-insignificant chakra had entered his courtyard.

Mu Yue calmly rose and walked outside, where he saw a ninja wearing a Root uniform and a mask in the courtyard.

"The organization's latest orders," the Root ninja said coldly, handing two scrolls to Mu Yue.

After delivering the mission, the Root ninja did not linger even a second longer, vanishing in an instant.

【Name: Yamanaka Ryuya】

【Chakra: 6400】

【Skills: Mind Body Switch Technique (Proficiency: 1200/3000)...】

【Evaluation: A Jonin with decent support abilities】

The Root Jonin who had once made Mu Yue uneasy was now utterly outclassed by him according to the panel.

Mu Yue's chakra was more than twice that of Yamanaka Ryuya, and his skills were even more overwhelming—Mu Yue possessed multiple Mastery-level nature transformations and secret techniques, while Yamanaka Ryuya did not have even a single Mastery-level skill.

"Comparing myself to an ordinary Root Jonin like this is meaningless. What level would Danzo's panel be?" Mu Yue thought to himself.

If this were a cultivation world where Genin, Chunin, and Jonin were cultivation ranks rather than positions, he figured Danzo would be at the Kage level, yet not strong among Kages—nowhere near the likes of Sarutobi Hiruzen, the Third Raikage, or Onoki.

Mu Yue opened the scrolls. The first one contained Danzo's latest orders.

Danzo was quite satisfied that Mu Yue had been promoted to Tokubetsu Jonin on his own merit, but he reminded Mu Yue never to reveal his identity as a Root member and to continue working hard on missions from that foundation.

Mu Yue summarized the useful content; the rest was just brainwashing rhetoric, which he directly ignored.

He could sense that Danzo was somewhat surprised and pleased that he had managed to reach this point. Sending Mu Yue to the Ninja Academy was likely just a casual move on Danzo's part, since the original Mu Yue had been mediocre in all respects.

The other scroll was Danzo's reward—not a jutsu or money, but training pills.

Mu Yue burned the mission scroll and put away the pills.

He didn't dare take the pills Danzo gave him, but since they were valuable training pills, he didn't burn them either.

Today was Sunday, and the summer special training had just ended yesterday. Mu Yue had given the students half a day off—no training in the afternoon, only the morning session. In the afternoon, he would go teach Asuma.

"If we have the afternoon off, where should we go play?" Before training even started, Obito was already thinking about where to take Rin to play later.

"Sorry, Obito, but I need to study some materials at home today," Rin said apologetically.

Recently, she had been learning about medical ninjutsu and had no time to play with Obito.

"Obito, you could go play with Kakashi," Rin suggested.

"On second thought, I've been sensing the energy in my body more clearly lately. Maybe Flame Breathing is about to break through. I'll just train seriously this afternoon," Obito decided after some deliberation.

The last thing he wanted was to go find Kakashi alone; unless he had some achievement worth boasting about in front of Kakashi, only then would he bother telling him.

"Training is good too. We'll be graduating soon, and then we'll be ninjas," Rin said with a gentle smile.

Two semesters wasn't much time—about seven months including the holidays.

"A ninja... I'm so excited! Then I can do missions, earn money, stop relying on Grandma's allowance, and even buy her presents," Obito mused, letting his imagination run wild after hearing Rin's words.

"Earning money requires strength. The higher the reward, the harder the mission," Mu Yue tapped Obito's head, interrupting his fantasy.

Being a ninja was indeed a quick way to make money.

Leaving aside S-rank missions, which ordinary ninjas never get to take, the rewards for D-, C-, and B-rank missions were already considerable.

D-rank ranged from a minimum of 5,000 ryo to a maximum of 50,000 ryo; C-rank from 30,000 to 100,000 ryo; and B-rank missions could offer up to 200,000 ryo as commission.

That's why capable ninjas didn't become Chunin instructors—the monthly salary was only 100,000 ryo, and doing just two extra C-rank missions would net more than that.

Not every C-rank mission pits you against Jonin-level opponents; normally, C-rank missions don't involve enemy ninjas. If enemy ninjas do appear, then the mission rank rises to B or higher.

Ninjas earned a lot but also spent quickly—quality shuriken and kunai weren't cheap, advanced tools like explosive tags were pricey, and training pills were all extremely expensive.

With a fixed monthly salary of 100,000 ryo, you couldn't afford to spend on training; you simply couldn't sustain the costs of getting stronger.

However, for those who wanted to coast, being a Ninja Academy instructor was a decent option.

Because if you weren't strong enough to complete C-rank missions quickly, you wouldn't earn much in a month anyway, and you'd have to run around constantly without any comfort. It was far better to stay comfortably at the Academy earning 100,000 ryo a month, with bonuses for producing good classes.

And once you stopped ninja training, that 100,000 ryo could be spent entirely on enjoyment—a pretty comfortable life indeed.

Obito let out a couple of dark chuckles and began today's Flame Breathing training.

That afternoon, Muyue went to Sarutobi Hiruzen's house as usual to take Asuma away for instruction.

Muyue noticed that Asuma seemed to be in a bad mood, so he gently asked him what was wrong.

Since it was Muyue asking, Asuma told him what had happened the day before, even getting more and more worked up as he spoke.

"He's always like this, as if I'm completely useless in his eyes. When I ask about my performance, it's always not good enough, always too many mistakes—he won't even say 'not bad.' Was that fight really so terrible that I couldn't have done worse?"

As Asuma spoke, his voice gradually choked up, and his eyes became clouded with tears.

Muyue could only think that Asuma still had deep feelings for Sarutobi Hiruzen; otherwise, he wouldn't be like this.

"Don't worry about it. You did your best in that fight; it's just that Obito is a little stronger." Muyue patted Asuma's head to comfort him.

In fact, he could very well understand how Asuma felt right now, because in his previous life, his own parents had been equally harsh about grades.

Muyue's grades in elementary and middle school were pretty good—he often scored high in math and Chinese, and math was often a perfect score. But when he got a perfect score, his parents would tell him that the test was easy, or that the teachers graded leniently—in short, it wasn't because of his own ability.

But if he didn't get a perfect score, then it meant he hadn't studied hard enough and had regressed.

Over time, Muyue gradually lost confidence in himself. Later, due to an accident, he was left to his own devices for two years and completely fell behind, only waking up in his sophomore year of high school.

Did his parents not want him to do well? No—he could see that they loved him very much. It was just that they were very crude in the way they taught people. They were afraid that Muyue would become complacent and then fall behind, so they wanted him to maintain a humble and studious attitude.

"Teacher, you can see it clearly, so why can't he, a Hokage, see it?" Asuma was still quite resentful.

Luckily, Muyue had built up enough goodwill with Asuma. After calming him down for a while and saying a few things like "Sarutobi Hiruzen is waiting for you on the road because he's your father," he managed to stabilize Asuma's mood.

After venting and then spending the whole afternoon training, Asuma's mood clearly improved.

"Sarutobi Hiruzen, you'd better step up and not let me down," Muyue thought to himself. As a private tutor, he even had to help maintain family relationships—he had truly done all he could.

On Monday, Muyue went to the Ninja Academy to attend a faculty meeting.

I put a bit of personal emotion into writing this chapter—the protagonist's experience is exactly what I, the author, went through. How do I put it? It's quite melancholy.