Chapter 217: Unexpectedly Many Gains

【Disciple Uchiha Obito trust level increased, current trust level four】

【Disciple Uchiha Obito's emotions were too intense, the Six Paths bloodline was activated, awakening the two-tomoe Sharingan, strength improved, reward obtained — Byakugan purity increased】

【Disciple Uchiha Obito chakra +500, disciple's training rebates to teacher, teacher gains chakra +2000】

Obito's outburst directly brought a series of system notifications to Muyue.

After Muyue's Byakugan purity increased, Muyue found that he could see further and his observation ability had also become sharper.

Although the Byakugan doesn't have levels like one-tomoe or two-tomoe in the Sharingan, not all Byakugan have the same level of ability. The Byakugan's power can also be improved through training, and purity is also one of the influencing factors.

Muyue was fairly satisfied with this. The Byakugan is indeed a very convenient ability, and when combined with the Transparent World, it can also play a significant role in combat.

Besides the improvement in the Byakugan, the chakra boost from Obito awakening the Sharingan also gave Muyue a pleasant windfall, directly refunding two thousand points of chakra.

Although Kakashi and Might Guy didn't trigger any system notifications, Muyue could tell that they had both made considerable progress. With a bit more training, they might trigger the improvement reward.

Seeing that his disciples had all broken through and defeated their enemies, Muyue decided not to waste time with the Fourth Raikage and the others.

"Water Release: Hidden Mist Technique!"

After forming hand seals and spewing out a massive amount of thick fog, Muyue immediately used Thunder Breathing to vanish before the Fourth Raikage and his men, charging toward the forest.

He had already achieved his goal, and his chakra was running low. It was safest to take his disciples back to Konoha as quickly as possible.

The thick fog blocked the Fourth Raikage and his men's view. The Fourth Raikage frowned, feeling that Muyue's identity was even more suspicious.

"Isn't this a Water Release ninjutsu from the Hidden Mist? Could it be that he's actually a Hidden Mist shinobi disguised as a Hidden Sand shinobi, and the Hidden Mist also wants a piece of the action?" The Fourth Raikage kept guessing in his mind.

Kakashi and the others were not too far from him. With the extreme speed of Thunder Breathing, Muyue appeared before his disciples just as they had finished their battles, before they could even exchange a few words.

"Muyue-sensei!" Seeing Muyue's figure, Obito excitedly rushed up and hugged him.

Then Obito asked with a worried expression: "Muyue-sensei, are you okay? Did you defeat those Cloud ninjas?"

Might Guy saw that Muyue was unharmed, drained his last bit of strength to stand up, slowly walked toward Muyue, gave him a thumbs-up, and showed a genuine big smile:

"As expected of Muyue-sensei! No matter how strong the enemy, you can still defeat him!"

Kakashi flashed over to support Might Guy, looked at Muyue. Obito and Guy had already said what needed to be said.

"I'm fine. Though I wouldn't call it a complete victory, I did have the upper hand. You can trust your teacher more. I told you I'd come find you." Muyue said with a smile.

Then Muyue sealed the body of the beheaded Cloud jonin into a scroll, beheaded the unconscious Cloud chunin as well, sealed his head into a scroll, and used a summoning technique to call out Kuroha.

"Summoning Technique!"

A puff of white smoke flashed, and a huge black eagle appeared before them.

"Get on, quickly. It's dangerous here. Let's return to Konoha first." Muyue said swiftly.

The three of them had just experienced a brutal life-and-death struggle, so they knew this wasn't the time for idle talk. They quickly jumped onto the giant eagle's back.

"Kuroha, fly in that direction." To make sure this newly summoned beast didn't get lost, Muyue specifically pointed the way.

Kuroha let out a loud eagle cry in response to Muyue, then flapped its wings and took off, flying toward Konoha.

On the broad eagle's back, Muyue used the Mystical Palm Technique to treat his disciples' injuries.

Among the three, Obito was the least injured, only a few scratches and bruises from falling. Next was Kakashi, who had a sword wound on his left leg. The most serious was Might Guy, with severe muscle damage to his right leg, chakra exhaustion, and extreme physical fatigue.

"Guy, you're not to do any intense training for the next week. I'll arrange special recovery training for you." Muyue said.

"I have to rest for a whole week!" Might Guy exclaimed in surprise.

Smack!

Muyue tapped Might Guy's head with two fingers and said, "That's the minimum. Do you want to bargain with your teacher?"

This operation of Guy's placed too much strain on his body. Using breathing techniques to forcibly activate the Eight Gates is like stepping on your own foot to fly into the sky—and he actually managed to do it.

The improvement was huge, but after releasing it, it was like falling from the sky, causing great damage to the body. If not for the training medicines, in normal circumstances Guy would need at least a month to recover from these injuries.

"Youth requires a balance of work and rest!" Guy quickly changed his tune.

"Muyue-sensei, who exactly was that big dark guy? For even you to only have a slight upper hand." Obito asked curiously.

After his battle with the Cloud jonin, Obito realized how tough a jonin could be, and that Muyue could easily handle one—his strength was clearly a notch above.

"He's the Third Raikage's son. Barring any surprises, he should be the next Raikage," Mu Yue replied.

Actually, at this point in time, the Fourth Raikage A already had quite a reputation, but Kakashi had only become a ninja recently, and Obito and the others hadn't even become ninjas yet, so they didn't know who the Fourth Raikage A was.

"Ah, the next Raikage! Doesn't that mean you gained the upper hand in a fight against a Raikage, Mu Yue-sensei?" Obito said, looking shocked.

Although Mu Yue the Sage was all-powerful in his mind, hearing such explosive news still surprised Obito.

Even if he was only a candidate Raikage, he was still a Kage—a truly impressive ninja.

"So he was a candidate Raikage. No wonder he had that expression on his face." Kakashi nodded to himself. He had always believed Mu Yue's strength was unfathomable, but since his opponent was a candidate Raikage, it made sense that Mu Yue would be so cautious from the start.

"You're jumping way ahead. His strength is decent, but he still has a long way to go before he reaches the Third Raikage." Mu Yue ruffled Obito's head and said with a smile.

If he had been up against the Third Raikage this time, Mu Yue wouldn't even have wanted to fight—he would have just run away.

"Mu Yue-sensei, you didn't see it—we worked together and beat a Kumogakure jonin!" After Mu Yue finished talking about his own opponent, Obito couldn't help blurting out their achievement.

Mu Yue smiled and made a show of listening.

"That guy was really tough. The three of us ganged up on him and still couldn't take him down easily. Luckily, I awakened the Sharingan..." As he spoke, Obito activated his Sharingan, his eyes turning blood-red.

Maybe because Kakashi had taken a sword strike for him, Obito didn't mention Kakashi's earlier desire to give up; he only said that Kakashi was injured and couldn't move.

"You all did very well. Defeating a jonin is no easy feat. If you told people, they might think you were boasting." Mu Yue said with a cheerful laugh.

This really was an unimaginable feat. After all, apart from Might Guy, Obito and Kakashi hadn't even turned nine years old yet.

Even though it was a joint effort to kill a jonin, it was still an astonishing achievement. This was a jonin, and according to the stats, that Kumogakure jonin was one of the stronger ones among jonin.

If Might Guy and the others were placed on the same team after graduation, Mu Yue felt that when their instructor did the bell-snatching exercise, he would be absolutely stunned. If the instructor was an average jonin, he might even end up being taught a lesson by his students.

But given their strength and performance, Mu Yue felt that even if it wasn't Minato who taught them, the instructor wouldn't be just an average jonin.

"No matter what other people say, it can't change the fact that our youth is burning ever brighter." Might Guy said passionately.

Even though his injuries were the worst, Might Guy didn't regret his actions. On the contrary, he was very happy, because he had used his own strength to protect what he wanted to protect—he had achieved a true victory.

Mu Yue glanced at the stat panels of his disciples. Might Guy's Rock Breathing proficiency had reached forty points at the Beginner stage, Obito's Fire Breathing proficiency had reached one hundred thirty points at the Beginner stage, and Kakashi's Lightning Breathing proficiency had reached fifty-four points in the Uninitiated stage. All of them had made considerable progress.

Besides the increase in skill proficiency on the panels, there were also invisible improvements, such as combat experience.

Apart from Kakashi, Might Guy and Obito didn't have much combat experience. After going through that bitter struggle, their weakness in combat experience had been severely trained.

"When I get back, I'm going to show little Rin my Sharingan." Once Obito had completely relaxed, he started thinking about what to do after returning to Konoha.

This time, he had defeated a jonin. Obito could already picture Nohara Rin's surprised and admiring expression.

"And I'll challenge Kakashi." Obito thought of something even more important.

Now that he had the Sharingan, even if Kakashi had mastered some Lightning Breathing, Obito wasn't afraid. He could even see through the movements of a Kumogakure jonin—how could he possibly be afraid of Kakashi?

Kakashi held a very special place in Obito's heart. Kakashi was the genius he admired back when he was dead last, and also his good friend. Realizing that he was gradually catching up to Kakashi made Obito truly happy.

It was precisely because he felt this way that seeing Kakashi slack off and give up made Obito especially angry. That was his goal—the genius Kakashi!

"This time, it's your turn to catch up to me!" The moment he imagined Kakashi losing to him, Obito couldn't help the smile creeping onto his face, and his body involuntarily trembled.

"Stop grinning like an idiot and shaking." Kakashi said with a face full of exasperation. Black Feather wasn't especially large, so although the four of them weren't sitting pressed together, they were still fairly close.

"Who's grinning like an idiot? Darn Kakashi, just wait till we get back to Konoha—I'll show you." Obito's smile reined in a little, and he glared at Kakashi.

"If you're not sure whether you're being an idiot, just ask Guy." Kakashi said calmly.

"Guy, you be the judge. I trust what you say." Obito looked at Might Guy.

Might Guy looked at Kakashi, then at Obito, recalled Obito's smile just now, and said seriously:

"Obito, you really did smile a little bit goofily just now."

As he spoke, Might Guy gestured with his thumb and forefinger.

"Ah, you too, Guy." Obito's eyes widened. He hadn't expected his comrade, who had just fought alongside him fiercely, to stab him in the back.

"Just a little bit." Might Guy said, going against his conscience.

"Just how many favors did Kakashi do for you?" Obito put on a pained expression, adamantly refusing to admit that his smile could be goofy.

"If you don't believe me, you can ask Mu Yue-sensei." Watching Obito's reaction, Kakashi revealed a hint of a smile and said.

"Teacher Muyue, I trust you the most." Obito looked at Muyue with hopeful eyes.

Muyue looked up at the sky. Riding the summon beast flying in the sky really did make for a nice view.

Silence was louder than words at that moment. Although Muyue didn't speak, it seemed everyone had the answer, and Obito didn't press further.

After flying into the Land of Fire for a while, Muyue had Kurohane descend, then took his disciples hunting and cooking a hot meal.

The four people and one bird feasted heartily.

After eating and drinking their fill, Muyue didn't waste Obito's current high spirits and began teaching Obito genjutsu.

【You taught your disciple Demonic Illusion: Tree Binding. Due to the disciple's immense gratitude, you received a super critical hit reward: Fire Attribute Chakra Nature Transformation (Perfect Level).】

A flood of Fire Style training memories continuously emerged in Muyue's mind. His understanding of fire reached a whole new level.

Another reward explosion brought a smile to Muyue's face. In his view, Perfect-level Fire Attribute Nature Transformation was in no way inferior to the other two perfect skills.

It raised Muyue's upper limit for Fire Style extremely high. Even those Fire Styles he hadn't practiced much could display considerable power under the boost of Perfect-level Nature Transformation. It also added more possibilities to his flames. Previously, Muyue hadn't understood flames like Amaterasu, but after receiving the Perfect-level Nature Transformation memories, he understood a bit.

"His mood is this high now; on his birthday, he probably won't explode a Perfect-level skill." Muyue thought to himself.

The gains from this mission exceeded Muyue's expectations. Originally, he had wanted to solve Kakashi's problem and stimulate Obito to awaken his Sharingan at the same time, but he hadn't expected their trust level to increase directly as well.

The disciples had improved a lot on this mission, but Muyue's strength had improved even more. Besides, Obito's training mission rewards were about to be settled.

Although Obito triggered his mission late, it also settled late. Muyue felt the reward should be about the same as Might Guy's—another two thousand chakra points plus a Master-level skill.

"Don't tell anyone about encountering the Acting Raikage. Just act like we only met a Jonin and a Chunin." Muyue reminded them before returning to Konoha.

He didn't want to work hard on disguise only to have it exposed by an unintentional slip from his disciples.

"Why, Teacher Muyue? You didn't lose," Obito said, puzzled. If he had achieved such a feat, by the time he returned to Konoha, it would spread throughout the entire village on the same day, and throughout the Land of Fire the next day.

"Teacher Muyue doesn't want to be famous," Kakashi speculated. With achievements like these, once word got out, Muyue would instantly become famous.

"I don't want others to know my strength for now." Muyue nodded in agreement.

After coordinating the mission experience with his three disciples, Muyue led them back to Konoha.

This chapter is 4k words. I don't know if it's eye fatigue or another reason, but my eyes feel swollen. I have to rest after writing for a while. Today, I can only say I did my best.

Also, I'd like to recommend a friend's King of Fighters fanfiction.

Title: Starting from King of Fighters to Control Time

A fairly rare fanfiction; if interested, feel free to check it out.