Chapter 186: Teaching Secret Arts

Early morning, Mu Yue gathered with his students at the training ground as usual.

"We won't take any missions these days. Focus on training and improving our strength." Mu Yue stood before Obito, Kakashi, and the other students and spoke.

The rewards for D-rank missions kept decreasing, and combined with the newly acquired powerful secret technique of Armament Haki, Mu Yue decided to let the students concentrate on training for a while.

Mu Yue quickly continued, "Today we won't train in the training ground. We'll change to another place."

Now that he had established a preliminary trust with Kakashi, Mu Yue planned to change the training location back to the Southern Forest.

Ever since Mu Yue started leading the interns, Rin Nohara and Shisui had not received the teaching bonus; Shadow Clones had been teaching them.

Since it was all training, Mu Yue certainly wanted to maximize gains by teaching everyone together and letting them all benefit from the teaching skill bonuses.

Kakashi had no objection; ninja training naturally needed to be done in different places. That was why Konoha had so many training grounds — to provide comprehensive training locations for ninjas.

"Where are we going to train? Outside the village? Are you going to teach us some powerful new jutsu?" Obito asked with curiosity sparkling in his eyes.

"Not outside the village. It's the Southern Forest. But I do have a secret technique to teach you." Mu Yue replied.

"What kind of secret technique? Is it that Fire Style you used before, Teacher Mu Yue?" Obito's interest was piqued.

"It's not Fire Style." Mu Yue shook his head.

Obito's interest waned a bit, but he was still excited, since Mu Yue said 'you', meaning he should be able to learn it too.

"Secret technique." Kakashi caught the key point in Mu Yue's words.

A secret technique was a highly confidential jutsu. Generally, any jutsu that could be called a secret technique was quite remarkable, because if it weren't strong, there would be no need to keep it secret.

Konoha had many ninja clans that passed down secret techniques, the most famous being the Ino-Shika-Cho.

However, rather than saying ninja clans were more likely to have secret techniques, it was more accurate to say that having a secret technique made it easier to form a ninja clan.

If he trained the sword techniques that Sakumo Hatake passed down to him to the same level as Sakumo, and then passed them to the next generation, over time they would also become secret techniques.

Kakashi was a bit curious where Mu Yue's secret technique came from; he hadn't heard that the surname Hanyu had any very strong ninjas.

"Could it be that Teacher Mu Yue created it himself?" A conjecture appeared in Kakashi's mind.

That wasn't impossible, because Mu Yue's strength was truly unfathomable. The enemies in the last skirmish were not weak in combat ability, but Mu Yue could easily handle them without even trying seriously, and even leave a few chunin for them to practice on.

In Kakashi's mind, even if Mu Yue's strength hadn't reached the level of the Sannin, it was not far off. For someone Mu Yue's age, that was already a super genius.

With this kind of strength at this age, even if he developed a secret technique capable of supporting an entire ninja clan, Kakashi wouldn't be too surprised.

"A secret technique? Should I learn it?" Might Guy scratched his head and asked Mu Yue.

Although Might Guy was confident, he was confident in his hard work and perseverance.

In terms of ninjutsu talent, Might Guy still respected the facts. His ninjutsu talent was indeed hard to describe; he admitted that. If he had good ninjutsu talent, he wouldn't have specialized in taijutsu.

"You have to learn it, and you must master it. It's very important for your future, just as important as Rock Breathing." Mu Yue said seriously.

For Might Guy, who specialized in taijutsu, Armament Haki was extremely important. Even just mastering the basics would raise his own upper limit.

Hearing this, Might Guy immediately grasped the importance of that unknown secret technique.

Might Guy, who had already mastered the basics of Rock Breathing, understood how much Rock Breathing had helped him — stronger training effects, stronger explosive power, and it could even be used in conjunction with the Eight Gates.

Then Mu Yue led his students to relocate to the Southern Forest for training.

When Mu Yue and the others arrived, Shisui and Rin Nohara were already training under the guidance of Shadow Clones.

"Teacher Mu Yue." Shisui quickly noticed the group who hadn't concealed their traces, stopped training, and greeted Mu Yue.

Mu Yue nodded and smiled in response.

Rin Nohara, who was practicing Monstrous Strength, heard Shisui's voice and also noticed Mu Yue and the others. After a punch that broke the large tree she had been practicing on, she revealed a gentle smile and greeted Mu Yue and the others.

Hearing Rin Nohara's "good morning" accompanied by the crash of the falling tree, and looking at the fallen tree and the slender arm Rin waved, Kakashi's pupils contracted.

"Was Rin's strength always this great?" Kakashi recalled his memories from school and found no relevant recollection.

Unlike the astonished Kakashi, Obito had become somewhat accustomed to it; seeing it so often made it seem normal.

"Good morning, Rin!" Obito greeted Rin Nohara with a simple-minded smile.

"That move just now was very youthful!" Might Guy gave Rin Nohara a thumbs-up and praised.

"The progress is not bad, but there are still many areas that can be improved." Muyue nodded and then gave some guidance to Rin Nohara.

Rin Nohara, who was listening attentively, quickly formed a mental image of Muyue's words in her mind, performing a mental rehearsal of the Strange Strength. Many points she hadn't understood before now gave her new insights.

"Thank you, Teacher Muyue. It suddenly feels much clearer."

Rin Nohara recalled the memory of the inspiration that had just struck, her eyes brightening a bit. She quickly thanked Muyue and then continued training.

Kakashi watched this scene with a thoughtful expression.

From the beginning, he found it strange. It was nothing for Shisui to call Muyue "teacher," since Muyue was a teacher at the Ninja Academy, but having two Shadow Clones of Muyue here was very odd.

Training within the village wouldn't require sending two Shadow Clones ahead to scout, since where to train would definitely be decided in advance, not on a whim.

Seeing how skillfully Muyue taught Rin Nohara, coupled with Rin's performance, Kakashi's doubts were resolved.

Shisui and Rin Nohara were probably additional disciples taken on by Muyue, so Muyue brought them here to train together.

Kakashi even formed a conjecture in his mind: perhaps Obito and Might Guy had also become Muyue's disciples long ago, which was why their strength had improved so rapidly.

After all, both sides were at the Ninja Academy, and maybe Muyue just took a liking to them and thus taught them.

"Shisui, set aside your current training for now. I'm going to teach a secret technique today." Muyue called Shisui to stop his training.

Shisui had already awakened the Sharingan, and with the aid of the Sharingan, learning Haki related to Yin Release was a natural advantage.

Shisui, who had been training, immediately stopped and walked over to Muyue's main body.

Muyue had no plans to let Rin Nohara learn Haki for now. Rin's current training regimen was already enough to keep her busy for a long time: the Mystical Palm Technique, Strange Strength, Chakra Scalpel. Once she had practiced those sufficiently, Rin could then learn Haki.

Because even if Rin Nohara learned Haki now, it would be useless—she didn't have enough chakra. Among Muyue's disciples, Rin had the least chakra, currently only seven hundred units.

There were multiple reasons for her low chakra. First, her chakra volume was inherently not very high—when Muyue first saw her, it was far lower than Might Guy and Obito. Second, Rin became a disciple one semester later than Obito and the others, and there was no Breathing Method suitable for her.

As for why he taught others: Might Guy was because learning it would bring a qualitative improvement, and Guy learned slowly, so the earlier he started, the sooner he would master it.

Shisui had already awakened the Sharingan and had good natural talent, so he would learn quickly. Moreover, Shisui was very skilled with shuriken and kunai. As for Obito, he was an Uchiha and would awaken his Sharingan sooner or later, and currently there was no skill with higher returns than Armament Haki.

Kakashi also had good natural talent and might learn quickly. Moreover, Kakashi's fighting style would greatly improve after learning Armament Haki.

In the early stages when chakra is insufficient, he could refrain from using Haki to enhance ninjutsu and only reinforce the White Light Short Sword, which would greatly increase his offensive capability.

"The secret technique I'm going to teach you is called Armament Haki." Muyue began to introduce.

Hearing this extremely unfamiliar name of the secret technique, Kakashi was even more convinced that it was a secret technique developed by Muyue himself.

"You should all know that besides the five basic nature transformations like Fire Release and Water Release, there are special chakra nature transformations called Yin and Yang. This Armament Haki belongs to Yin Release among them."

Might Guy was already starting to feel dazed. The five basic natures already seemed like gobbledygook to him; how difficult would this special chakra nature transformation be?

Shisui looked calm. He had already mastered Yin Release, and his level was quite good—not entirely thanks to the Sharingan, as he had previously been learning genjutsu from Muyue.

"Wow, it sounds awesome just hearing it—the name itself has 'Haki' in it!" Obito was looking forward to what this jutsu's actual effects were.

Muyue concentrated chakra into his right arm, and soon the entire arm rapidly turned black, as if clad in pitch-black armor.

"Armament Haki uses Yin Release nature transformation to produce a very special chakra that can be coated on a person's body, greatly enhancing both defensive and offensive capabilities." Muyue continued explaining.

"Shisui, take a kunai and stab my arm to test it." Muyue prepared to demonstrate the actual effect of Armament Haki.

A hint of hesitation appeared in Shisui's eyes, but trusting Muyue, he took a kunai from his ninja tool pouch, walked up to Muyue, and quickly stabbed at the arm covered with the unknown black substance.

The other three disciples focused their attention on the kunai and the arm about to be stabbed.

Then something astonishing happened: the sharp kunai left not a single mark on Muyue's shoulder, not even a white scratch, as if it hadn't been attacked at all.

"Use all your strength." Muyue said.

Shisui nodded, gripped the kunai with both hands, and stabbed down fiercely. The first strike had shown him that Muyue's secret technique was no ordinary thing, so Shisui felt reassured.

Clang!

A metallic clang rang out. The huge recoil force from the kunai caused Shisui's hand to tremble slightly involuntarily.

Everyone could see that Shisui had indeed used a lot of force this time.

And when everyone's gaze returned to Muyue's arm, they found it still unchanged—the smooth, pitch-black arm even reflected some light under the sun.

"Use chakra and Full Concentration Breathing, and continue." Muyue said further.

The use or non-use of chakra by a ninja are entirely two different things.

"Mm." Shisui responded while rapidly changing his breathing rhythm, entering the state of Flame Breathing, and concentrating his breath over and over to gain the strongest power.

With the power of the Breathing Technique enhancing him, Shisui then burst chakra in his hand to further boost his strength, and finally thrust with full force towards Muyue's arm.

Clang!

After the kunai struck Muyue's arm, before everyone could check whether his arm was injured, they saw the sharp tip of the kunai snap off and fall to the ground.

"This defense is just too strong!" Obito said with wide eyes and an incredulous look, staring at Muyue's still completely unchanged arm.

He felt that if this could cover the whole body, then combat would be incredibly safe, without any need to worry about injury.

Might Guy understood why Muyue said he must learn this secret technique.

If he mastered this secret technique, he would no longer need to learn weapons; he could just use Armament Haki to fight bare-handed against others.

Kakashi's eyes flickered. He still remembered Muyue's initial words about improving both defense and attack simultaneously; he was a bit curious about the upcoming attack demonstration.

However, Muyue did not end the defense demonstration there. He told the students to step back, then said to Shisui:

"Use Hosenka Tsumebeni with full force to attack me."

When it comes to impact, of course one must directly take a jutsu to the face.

"Fire Release: Hosenka Tsumebeni!"

Because Muyue said to use full power, Shisui did not use the one-handed single-seal kunai version; instead he performed the complete hand seals and then flung out a large number of shuriken.

The high-speed shuriken touched the flames spat out by Shisui, instantly turning into a dense swarm of small fireballs.

"At this age, he can actually use a jutsu of this level!" Kakashi was extremely surprised as he watched the might of the Fire Release Shisui used.

The first time he saw Shisui was when he was taking a walk with Obito and Rin Nohara at night; back then Obito said Shisui was a genius even more talented than himself.

Previously, Kakashi hadn't taken Obito's words seriously — after all, it was Obito who said them.

But now, after seeing the Fire Release Shisui performed, Kakashi thought it was hard to say whether he could surpass him, but he was indeed a very strong genius.

Seeing the fireballs about to strike, Muyue instantly burst chakra throughout his body to cover his entire body with Armament Haki, turning his whole body pitch black.

Boom!!!

The small fireballs continuously struck Muyue's body, causing a series of explosions, and the violent flames completely obscured Muyue's figure.

Obito strained to widen his eyes, hoping to see through the flames and spot Muyue inside, but unfortunately without a Sharingan he could only barely make out a silhouette in the fire.

Muyue waved his hand as if shooing away mosquitoes, instantly generating a powerful gust of wind that blew away the explosion smoke, revealing his completely unharmed body.

"He can actually withstand a Fire Release jutsu head-on so easily!" Kakashi also showed a surprised expression when he saw that the black substance on Muyue's body had not changed at all.

That Muyue could withstand it was something Kakashi already knew — after all, if he couldn't take it, why would Muyue let Shisui go all out?

But in Kakashi's imagination, Muyue's body should have shown some changes, such as leaving some marks on the black substance.

But in reality, Muyue's body had no changes at all; even when Muyue dismissed the Armament Haki, it could be seen that his clothes had not sustained any damage either.

It should be noted that this was a Fire Release combining both the sharpness of shuriken and the high temperature of flames; Kakashi felt that if this jutsu struck an ordinary person, it could blow them up directly.

"So cool, this is exactly the kind of jutsu I want to learn!" Obito stared at the shuriken falling around Muyue and Muyue's unharmed state, and became excited instantly, a fantasy forming in his mind.

He and Rin Nohara were on a mission; Rin was ambushed, and he activated Armament Haki to block the attack for Rin, then asked Rin if she was injured while remaining completely unharmed himself.

"Rin-chan is sure to be impressed by me too." Obito thought of Rin's look of admiration towards him and let out a goofy smile.

"This is the defensive capability of Armament Haki. As long as your Haki is strong enough, you can even block a ninjutsu head-on," Muyue said with a smile.

"Of course, before you have reached a certain level of mastery, don't use full-body Armament Haki to tank ninjutsu like I did. I did this because my strength far exceeds yours," Muyue reminded them.

Full-body Armament Haki, except for unavoidable special cases like the Eight Gates, is not recommended by Muyue under normal circumstances.

Concentrating on one point and reaching the peak is the correct development path for Armament Haki.

"All of you, come behind me and stay at a distance. I'm going to demonstrate an attack," Muyue then said.

He consumed chakra to generate Armament Haki, then began concentrating the Armament Haki onto his fist, preparing to throw an unadorned straight punch.

All four disciples stared intently at Muyue's fist, curious about how strong an attack enhanced by Armament Haki could be.

Also, I'm recommending a friend's book.

"I've Already Become an Immortal Cultivator, and You Want Me to Join a Horror Amusement Park?"

Blurb: Act like a coward in the cultivation world, but throw heavy punches in the horror amusement park!