Chapter 18: Water Nature Transformation Mastery

The moment Muyue announced the start of the exam, Obito began to retreat quickly, forming hand seals to perform jutsu as he moved backward.

He knew Might Guy was very skilled at taijutsu, so naturally he wouldn't try to fight Might Guy head-on in close combat.

"Clone Jutsu!"

Puff! Puff!

After the jutsu was completed, two identical clones appeared beside Obito.

The three Obitos kept crisscrossing and switching positions as they ran, trying to confuse Might Guy.

"Leaf Hurricane!"

But Might Guy's speed was faster than Obito had imagined; he caught up in an instant and delivered a lightning-fast spinning kick, dispelling the two clones immediately, while Obito's real body was also knocked back more than a meter.

"That's a lot of power." Obito's arm trembled uncontrollably a couple of times—he had blocked the kick with his arm, and now his arm was throbbing with pain.

Might Guy pressed his advantage relentlessly, immediately closing in and forcing Obito to continue fighting at close range.

But in pure taijutsu combat, how could Obito be a match for Might Guy? He quickly fell into a disadvantage.

"Who do you think will win?" The watching students began to discuss the final victor.

"Might Guy, I think. Feels like Uchiha Obito is about to lose soon," a student analyzed based on the current situation.

"It's not certain either. Earlier, when Uchiha Obito fought Uchiha Tekka, he also fell behind in taijutsu exchanges, but in the end he won with Fire Release," another student said, believing that Obito, who possessed powerful Fire Release, just hadn't unleashed his full strength yet.

After all, Obito had convincingly defeated the former top student, Uchiha Tekka, so his track record was quite impressive.

"Teacher Muyue, who do you think will win?" Kimura Shito suddenly asked.

"Might Guy, I suppose," Muyue replied after thinking for a moment.

"Yeah, although that Uchiha Obito has mastered a powerful Fire Release, this exam venue isn't suitable for him to show his best," Kimura Shito agreed.

Muyue nodded. In truth, the two were evenly matched in strength.

But Obito was like a turret mage who lacked close-combat ability and couldn't cast spells without chanting—on this flat, small open ground, it was very hard for him to beat Might Guy, a high-speed warrior.

Sure enough, the next instant, Might Guy caught Obito off guard and sent him flying with a Leaf Hurricane.

"Might Guy wins." Muyue announced the final result of the exam.

The student who had thought Obito would win couldn't help but cover his forehead—he felt that Obito never failed to disappoint when it came to being disappointing.

Just when you thought he would lose to Uchiha Tekka, he won.

Just when you thought he would beat Might Guy, he lost.

"Might Guy, you're amazing! How do you train?" A classmate couldn't help asking Might Guy for tips on getting stronger.

"How do I train? I guess I get up at 5:30 in the morning, run around the Leaf Village until class, then practice taijutsu on a wooden dummy all evening, and on weekends..." Might Guy thought about his daily schedule and replied.

"I'm out!" The student who asked was already deeply impressed when he heard about getting up at 5:30 in the morning, and after hearing about training on a wooden dummy all evening, he didn't want to hear any more.

He thought that even regular ninjas probably didn't train like that every day.

"Obito, are you okay?" Rin walked over beside Obito and asked with concern.

Obito brushed the dust off his clothes and said lightly:

"Of course it's nothing. I barely lost this time; next time I'll definitely win."

In front of the girl he liked, even if something was wrong, he had to act like it was nothing.

But Nohara Rin wasn't so easy to fool. She grabbed Obito's arm, rolled up his sleeve, saw a few bruises, and glared at Obito, saying:

"Do you think acting tough will help? Injuries won't heal just because you act tough. Hurry up and go to the medical room to get some medicine."

With that, Rin pulled Obito toward the medical room.

Obito said "no, it's fine," but didn't resist and followed Rin.

His mouth was a bit rebellious, but his body was indeed honest.

And so ended the practical exam held the day after determining the class's top student.

Tomorrow's exam will have the top two students from each class face off in a practical exam to decide the year's top student.

After the exam ended, Might Guy prepared to thank Muyue and say goodbye before heading home; he wanted to share this good news with his father, Might Dai.

Might Guy could already imagine the scene of his father crying tears of joy and shouting about youth.

However, Muyue didn't let Guy leave immediately. Instead, claiming he had something to give him, Muyue led Guy to a secluded spot, smiled, and said:

"Guy, congratulations on taking first place."

With that, Muyue took out a small booklet and handed it to Might Guy.

"I wrote this taijutsu training manual recently when I had nothing to do. It also contains some of my ideas for further developing the Wood Whirlwind. Consider it a gift for being the top in your class."

Might Guy looked at the manual, but he also noticed Muyue's hand that was holding it.

Muyue's hand looked clean on the surface, but the sharp-eyed Might Guy spotted a few very faint gray smudges on his palm—like traces of ink that had been scrubbed hard but not completely washed off.

Glancing at the contents, Might Guy instantly understood everything.

This was hardly something casually written in spare time. It must have cost Muyue tremendous effort and deep thought to write it for him. Even if he hadn't gotten first place, Muyue would have found another reason to give it to him.

The ideas for the subsequent development of the Wood Whirlwind inside felt tailor-made for Might Guy. There was no way he would believe that hadn't taken time.

"Sensei Muyue, I will definitely not let your hard work go to waste. I will become the strongest taijutsu ninja someday!" The emotionally moved Might Guy burst into tears on the spot.

Muyue took out a piece of paper, wiped away Might Guy's tears, patted him on the shoulder, and said with a smile:

"It's great that you can think that way. For a teacher, the best reward is seeing his student grow stronger."

As he said these words, Muyue's expression was extremely sincere.

"Mm!" Might Guy nodded firmly. At that moment, his conviction to become stronger grew even more steadfast.

Watching Might Guy walk farther away, Muyue glanced at the system messages and a smile appeared on his face.

【You have gifted a taijutsu training manual to your disciple. Because the disciple is extremely grateful, a reward super crit has been triggered. You have obtained Water Release Chakra Nature Transformation Mastery.】

【Disciple Might Guy's trust level has increased. Current trust level: three.】

"Lucky me." Feeling the newly added memories in his mind, Muyue was in a very good mood.

Generally, the rewards from teaching a disciple are related to what the disciple excels at. For example, Shisui and Obito tend to grant Fire Release, while Guy tends to grant taijutsu. But occasionally there are surprises—sometimes unrelated rewards appear.

Compared to some taijutsu proficiency mastery, a chakra nature mastery was undoubtedly much better. Muyue was very satisfied—if he could gather enough of these, he might even be able to develop a Kekkei Genkai himself.

As for the trust level increase, that was an extra surprise.

Muyue felt that in the future, when giving away high-quality items, he should plan carefully to maximize the emotional impact, so that better things would be more likely to drop.

For instance, if he had just casually handed this to Might Guy on an ordinary day, he'd probably only get a small crit—maybe some proficient-level ninjutsu or taijutsu.

But by giving it right when Might Guy had won first place and was excited, letting him inadvertently notice the ink stains on his hand that couldn't be washed off, and then adding some inspirational words—the effect was completely different.

Giving the gift at the moment of taking first place made Might Guy recall Muyue's teaching grace: without Muyue's guidance, could he have won first place? This initially stirred up emotion.

Then letting Might Guy see the ink stains on his hand, understanding the effort behind this gift, imagining Muyue's hard work—that amplified the emotion. Finally, a little inspirational speech, and the emotion exploded instantly.

"After tomorrow's exam, the results should come out in two days." Muyue was still wondering if the system would issue exam rewards.

Logically, if a student performed so well, the teacher ought to be rewarded.