Chapter 234: Master-Level Taijutsu

"Gai really can't be underestimated. Although his only means of attack are taijutsu, this taijutsu is just too strong." Shiranui Genma remarked.

At first, he was more optimistic about Obito, because Obito's ninjutsu itself was already impressive, and now he had shown powerful taijutsu, leaving no weaknesses.

"Could Might Gai's father be a powerful taijutsu user? That would explain why he's this strong." Ebisu fell into deep thought.

Murmurs of discussion continued on site; the performance of Might Gai and Obito in that match was just too extraordinary for ordinary students.

"I didn't expect you, Gai, to have hidden a trick too," Obito said weakly.

After taking a full-powered kick combined with Total Concentration Breathing and an elbow strike from Might Gai, Obito felt that without Flame Breathing, he would have passed out by now.

"Haha, I never had the chance to use it before," Might Gai said with a big grin, showing two rows of white teeth.

He hadn't deliberately hidden it though; this was the first genjutsu he'd been under after learning how to dispel genjutsu.

Might Gai reached out his hand to Obito, and Obito grabbed it; then Gai helped Obito out of the combat area. There was still a match for the semi-finals to come.

"Obito, are you okay?" Rin Nohara asked with a gentle, concerned tone.

Hearing Rin's words, Obito seemed instantly healed; he no longer needed Gai's support and puffed out his chest, taking a few steps in front of Rin and said:

"I'm fine, what could happen to me? I just got hit a couple of times."

"Really?" Rin looked at Obito skeptically and poked him with her finger on the waist where he'd been elbowed.

"Hiss!" Obito suddenly felt a sharp pain, his eyes widening as he inhaled sharply.

"You say you're fine, but your face turned white from the pain," Rin said, staring into Obito's eyes with a stern expression.

"I watched your fight with Gai the whole time. When you were knocked down, it almost looked like the ground was about to crack. How could you possibly be fine?"

Obito remained silent, saying nothing. He wanted to be seen as a strong person in Rin's eyes, and a strong man couldn't admit to pain.

"Let me treat you," Rin said with a helpless expression, preparing to take Obito aside for healing.

"Gai, you come too. You must have been hurt by the Fire Style, right? It might affect your next fight."

Might Gai nodded. He wasn't yet at a level where he could withstand ninjutsu without injury; taking the Phoenix Sage Fire had still done some damage, though he could endure it with willpower.

Seeing this, Mu Yue didn't step in to treat them himself. He wouldn't stoop to competing with Rin over something this small.

The three of them avoided the crowd and began treatment beside a quiet large tree.

Green chakra light emanated from Rin's hands as she placed them on Obito's stomach.

She had been studying medical ninjutsu for over five months now and could use it for basic treatment.

"Thanks, I'm really sorry to trouble you, Rin," Obito said, scratching his head in gratitude.

Though it was a bit awkward having his pretended strength seen through, Obito was still very grateful to Rin.

Might Gai also expressed his thanks and gave Rin a thumbs-up, saying, "I'm back to peak condition in no time! Thank you so much!"

"I'm not like you two—able to use powerful Fire Style or incredibly fast taijutsu—but you can entrust healing to me," Rin said with a smile.

"Especially you, Obito. Don't push yourself too hard. If you need treatment, you must tell me. Or do you not trust my abilities?" Rin put her hands on her hips, puffed her cheeks slightly, and asked Obito.

"Of course not," Obito immediately denied.

Though he wasn't particularly good at making girls happy, he knew that this was definitely not the time to say yes.

"It's just that sometimes I really don't feel anything wrong," Obito said, unable to come up with a good answer, so he chose to be stubborn.

"You really are worrying," Rin said, helplessly pressing her forehead.

She was genuinely worried about what would happen to Obito after graduation. By then, neither Mu Yue nor she would be by his side, and his teammates might not be as reliable as Kakashi and Might Gai. What would he do if he got injured on a mission?

"Hehe," Obito couldn't help chuckling at Rin's words. Though they sounded like scolding, it just showed how much Rin cared about him.

After the treatment, the group returned to the examination ground.

Not long after, the last semi-final match ended, and the final round of the practical exam began.

However, by then, half of the observing students had already left, believing there was no need to watch—the winner would surely be Might Gai.

The remaining half who hadn't left also thought the victor would be Might Gai, but some of them figured since they had already watched the semi-finals, they might as well stay till the end.

"Might Gai wins!"

Things were exactly as they had imagined: Might Guy won, and he won very cleanly and decisively.

His opponent wasn't Obito, so Might Guy didn't even open the Eight Gates. As soon as he activated his Breathing Technique, he instantly took him down. The proctor had barely called "start" before they announced his victory.

"Today's youth is burning so passionately!" Might Guy, who had taken first place in his grade, gave himself a thumbs-up.

Another first place in his grade—he was steadily advancing on the path of his dream.

"Guy, congratulations on getting first place in your grade. You performed very well today." Mu Yue smiled in time to send his disciple his blessings, and gifted Might Guy a piece of calligraphy that he had written himself.

"Where there's a will, there's a way." Looking at the words, Might Guy felt as if he could sense Mu Yue's expectations for him.

"Teacher Mu Yue, rest assured! I will definitely train with the utmost effort, achieve my dream, and not let your teaching go to waste!" Might Guy shouted, tears streaming down his face as he clenched his fists.

"I believe in you. You will succeed and become the strongest in taijutsu." Mu Yue said with a warm smile.

【You gifted your disciple a personally written piece of calligraphy. The disciple was extremely grateful, triggering a Reward Great Critical Hit. You obtained the reward—Brick Break (Proficient).】

When he saw this reward, Mu Yue didn't react at first. He wondered what was up with Proficient-level Brick Break—was he just exceptionally skilled at splitting tiles?

Only when the system's skill training memories flowed into Mu Yue's mind did he remember which world this skill came from.

Brick Break is a Fighting-type move from the Pokémon world. Its specific effect is a downward chop with the hand blade, which deals decent damage and can also destroy Light Screen or Reflect.

After the system localized it, Brick Break became a taijutsu technique. Its specific effect is still attacking with a hand blade chop, but there are two attack modes.

One is melee Brick Break, which uses chakra wrapped around the hand to enhance penetration, then strikes with a hand blade.

The second is a long-range attack, consuming more chakra and dealing slightly less damage than melee Brick Break, but the advantage is that it can strike distant enemies, somewhat similar to the Vacuum Palm Technique (Hakkeshō Kūshō).

After briefly organizing the training memories, Mu Yue was quite satisfied with this reward, because this taijutsu not only had two attack modes but also boasted considerable power.

Although it was just a hand blade chop, it was clearly not the case that any random hand blade chop could compare with the system's Brick Break.

For instance, Tsunade's Monstrous Strength Fist looks like an ordinary punch, but in reality, it contains very technical chakra manipulation skills.

While Brick Break doesn't require as much manipulation as Monstrous Strength, it's not something you can just use casually. The key is to compress chakra, making it denser and stronger.

"Maybe I should change the name to 'Konoha Hand Blade.' Brick Break sounds a bit weird." Mu Yue felt that when teaching his disciples, he could change the name.

Besides congratulating his victorious disciple with a gift, Mu Yue also did not forget to comfort the defeated Obito. After the training session in the Southern Border Forest, he had a long talk with him. Although he knew that no reward could be triggered anymore, he still gave Obito a piece of his own calligraphy.

With the Ninja Academy exams over, his disciples' vacation also ended, and they resumed their previous training rhythm.

On the first day after the exams, in order to help his disciples get back into shape as quickly as possible, Mu Yue ramped up the intensity. Shisui and Obito underwent specialized problem-solving training, while a shadow clone of Kakashi and Mu Yue fought using Lightning Breathing.

"This time I'll try to keep the number of problems under thirty." Obito was full of fighting spirit; the number of problems he got in almost every training session had been decreasing.

"Just dodge the same as before." Shisui was also extremely confident in himself, because he had already succeeded in dodging Mu Yue's attack, and that was even without activating his Sharingan.

The training began. The two of them again separated and ran, pursued by shadow clones.

Shisui immediately activated his Sharingan to observe Mu Yue's shadow clone's movements.

Although he already had one case of successfully dodging, Shisui still didn't stubbornly wait for Mu Yue to make his move.

Because he knew that such a good state wasn't available all the time; to get hit less often, he still needed to reduce the number of times Mu Yue attacked him.

When it was time to dodge without choice, Shisui stopped in his tracks, his blood-red eyes fixed tightly on Mu Yue's fingers.

"I will accomplish what my grandfather failed to do. I will make sure the Uchiha clan no longer suffers prejudice. I am Teacher Mu Yue's first disciple. I can dodge this attack!" Shisui's expression grew more and more relaxed, but his gaze became increasingly determined.

"Flame Breathing, Full Focus Breathing!"

As his breathing focused more and more intensely, Shisui felt as if he could actually sense flames burning inside his body, providing him with an endless stream of power through that combustion.

In the end, Mu Yue's finger brushed past Shisui's hair—he had succeeded.

The corners of Shisui's mouth lifted slightly, and he immediately used the Body Flicker Technique to create distance and continue evading Mu Yue's pursuit.

"Obito was hit seventeen times, dodged twice, needs to do a total of thirty problems. Shisui was hit fifteen times, dodged twice, a total of twenty-six problems." After it was over, Mu Yue announced the training results.

"Only twenty-six problems!" Obito looked at Shisui with an envious face.

Although he too had improved, it was a bit less compared to Shisui's huge progress.

"It's only a difference of four problems." Shisui smiled and comforted Obito. He was very satisfied with his performance this time.

"That's a full four problems." Obito only felt that people's joys and sorrows were not alike; four problems could hardly be described with "only."

Smack!

Mu Yue's finger tapped Obito's head. Obito subconsciously dodged with all his might, but Mu Yue's finger still landed precisely on Obito's forehead as she said, "If you think there's too much to finish, you can pay in installments."

"No, no, I still want to try my best." Obito wanted to break that bad habit of installments.

The day after the exam ended, Obito didn't head directly to the Southern Border Forest after getting up in the morning; instead, he went to the Ninja Academy.

Because today was the day the Ninja Academy released results. Mu Yue said he could go check his scores first and then go to the Southern Border Forest to train. Obito looked forward to the expressions on those people's faces when they saw his scores on the mission record.