Chapter 238: Two Jinchuriki

"Muyue, sorry, I have to take my leave." Minato apologized to Muyue as he said goodbye; he had originally wanted to chat with her for a while, but the sudden situation forced him to act.

Not waiting for Muyue's reply, Minato disappeared before her eyes with a Flying Thunder God.

"What's going on? He just vanished like that—I can't even see where he went." Obito looked left and right but saw no trace of Minato, speaking in confusion.

Normally, even if speed made someone invisible, you could still detect movement from the extreme velocity, but Obito felt as if Minato had simply disappeared into thin air.

"It should be a type of space–time ninjutsu." Muyue explained to Obito to clear up his confusion.

"You can just think of it as a very powerful body flicker technique."

Although Flying Thunder God had other uses besides fast movement, Muyue simplified it for Obito's better understanding.

"Feels like he's a really strong person—no wonder you acknowledge him as a strong one, Muyue-sensei." Obito didn't fully grasp Muyue's words but still sensed Minato's strength.

He remembered that when he first met Minato, Muyue had said Minato was very powerful.

Obito thought that if even Muyue, who had strength above the candidate Raikage, said Minato was strong, then Minato must be extremely powerful—maybe even as strong as Muyue.

"So fast!" Kakashi also showed surprise when he saw Minato disappear.

"Muyue-sensei, what should we do now?" Might Guy looked at Muyue and asked.

Normally, seeing the signal meant they had to join the battle as well; the specific action would still depend on Muyue's arrangement.

"Help our comrades in the village defeat the enemy while protecting ourselves." Muyue thought for a moment and replied.

The highest-level alert signal had been launched; although they had only come to complete a C-rank mission, they had to join the fight now.

"Even though it's unexpected, it's also a rare chance to show off." Muyue planned his next moves in his mind.

Muyue intended to gradually reveal his strength, because in this ninja world, power speaks—the stronger the public perceives you to be, the easier it is to act.

If not for showing extraordinary teaching ability to be promoted to special jōnin, things like special training lectures and interns would never have been possible; an ordinary teacher wouldn't have the qualifications to propose them, and even if they did, they wouldn't be taken seriously.

Of course, displaying great power for no reason, unless that power was enough to ignore everything, would only invite suspicion and danger.

To make his strength seem more reasonable, Muyue had been laying groundwork for a long time—for instance, he had shown great talent in sealing jutsu in front of Minato and Kushina.

When teaching Asuma, Muyue not only demonstrated his proficiency in Water Release and Fire Release but also built a persona of being a quick learner—from initially not knowing Wind Release to being able to expertly use the powerful B-rank Wind Release jutsu.

His Root background further added legitimacy to his strength, after all, Root was even darker than the Anbu.

Normally, due to the special nature of Root, Danzō needed to have a good understanding of his subordinates' abilities, because Root missions were directly assigned by Danzō, unlike ordinary ninja who accepted requests; without knowing his men's capabilities, he couldn't assign tasks properly.

So Danzō established a rule: Root members had to undergo an ability test once a year, allowing him to learn more about his subordinates.

But members like Muyue, who were trained irregularly, could not be brought into the open after all; for concealment, those like Muyue who were not on the roster were tested once every two years.

Now Muyue had been out of Root under Sarutobi Hiruzen for half a year, meaning Danzō's intel on Muyue was from two and a half years ago. As long as Muyue didn't become absurdly strong, even if Danzō found out, he'd only be slightly surprised.

Because from Danzō's perspective, Muyue was in his prime growth period; two and half years was enough for him to grow a lot, and he might even have received training from Sarutobi Hiruzen after leaving Root.

Sarutobi Hiruzen regarded him as an elite of Root, a little-known genius ninja, while on Danzō's side he had enough blank period—one could say Muyue had considered all influences from both the light and dark sides of Konoha.

"Just as Kakashi said the opposite—this time we still have to fight." Obito stretched his body, ready for battle at any moment.

Kakashi couldn't find words to refute Obito; after four consecutive incidents of going wrong, this time even a war of the highest alert level had broken out—he himself was starting to lose confidence.

"Go, protect our comrades, defeat our enemies." Muyue silently activated his Byakugan and led his pupils to support the distant battlefield.

Even though Muyue was no longer the rookie who had just crossed over, having witnessed more than ten deaths and killed ninja himself, the cruelty of war still slightly surprised him.

The ground was messy, scattered with various severed limbs, broken stones, and fragments of wood; red blood stained the soil. Ninja, seldom seen on ordinary days, lay strewn across the ground—some from Konoha, some from Iwa.

Whether they were young, adult, or middle-aged, everyone was killing each other together. They might not have known each other before this battle, but on this battlefield, because of the different headbands they wore, they fought as if they bore a bloody grudge.

"So this is war..." Obito stared dumbly at the tragic scene before him; the kunai he had been gripping tightly loosened a little.

The cruelty of war exceeded Obito's imagination. In Obito's mind, war was just a fight, only with more people.

The large number of corpses on the battlefield, the body parts scattered everywhere, the bloodstains everywhere—all of it fiercely shocked Obito's nerves.

This was the first time Obito had seen so many dead people. In the brief moment he was stunned, he noticed a Konoha ninja not far from him about to be stabbed by a kunai.

"O—" Obito instinctively opened his mouth to warn, but didn't notice several shuriken hurtling toward him. By the time he noticed, the shuriken were already extremely close.

Clang!!

Mu Yue pulled out a kunai, swiftly deflecting all the incoming shuriken, and said to his disciples:

"In a chaotic war like this, you must carefully watch your surroundings and avoid getting hurt."

He had to display his strength and build his reputation, but he couldn't afford to pick up sesame seeds and lose the watermelon—for him, the disciples were still the most important.

The three disciples all nodded solemnly. There was no need for words now; just looking at the brutal scene was enough to understand the danger of war.

Because of the signal flare, Konoha ninjas kept joining the battle.

Thanks to the Byakugan, Mu Yue could observe the entire battlefield and clearly see the direction of the war. He could see the fights among low- and mid-level ninjas, and as long as the strong fighters were not too far away, he could also keep them within the scope of his Byakugan's observation.

"Both jinchuriki have actually gone into battle together—no wonder they fired the highest-level warning signal."

Seeing Jiraiya looking as if he was facing a great enemy, and then looking at the two Iwa shinobi not far from him who were emitting terrifying chakra auras, Mu Yue understood the top-level combatants on both sides of this battle.

Of course, Jiraiya had no intention of taking on both jinchuriki alone; he had several elite jonin including Minato by his side.

On the Iwa side, the jinchuriki were not acting alone either; they also had Iwa elites accompanying them.

They were too far away—Mu Yue could only see but not hear what either side was saying, but he could be sure that the Iwa side was very arrogant, while Jiraiya was consciously separating the top-level battlefield from the ordinary ninja battlefield.

"Worried about the Tailed Beast Ball?" Mu Yue could guess Jiraiya's thoughts.

Even if Jiraiya could activate Sage Mode, his sage arts were not strong enough to neutralize a Tailed Beast Ball; the residual waves of a Tailed Beast Ball could kill a large number of mid-level ninjas.

With the Byakugan having no blind spots in a 360-degree range, Mu Yue could clearly detect everything around him. He temporarily ignored the top-level battlefield and focused on dealing with the Iwa ninjas near him.

Reputation came from being talked about. With so many Konoha ninjas and Iwa ninjas here, as long as he displayed his strength, his name would be heard even in other countries in the future.

All these thoughts passed in an instant. From Obito's perspective, Mu Yue blocked the incoming shuriken for him, and then immediately flashed away to save a Konoha chunin who was in danger.

"Thanks." The saved Konoha chunin only had time to say two words before diving back into battle—there were too many Iwa ninjas on the field.

Mu Yue maintained the state of Rock Breathing, holding a standard kunai as he rapidly reaped the lives of every Iwa ninja around him.

Although each Breathing technique had its own special uses—whether it was Fire Breathing's enhanced flames or Lightning Breathing's lightning and explosive power—the one Mu Yue most frequently used in daily combat was Rock Breathing.

Rock Breathing didn't have the flashy special effects of other Breathing techniques, but its enhancement of physical ability was the strongest, and its effect on training the body was also the strongest.

Even Mu Yue, who didn't train much in taijutsu, gradually developed a taijutsu-ninja physique under the constant practice of Rock Breathing. Even if he used no other abilities and merely maintained the state of Rock Breathing while employing taijutsu, Mu Yue possessed strength surpassing that of an ordinary jonin.

The Iwa ninjas Mu Yue killed meant little to the overall war, but the Konoha ninjas around him noticed that Mu Yue was no ordinary comrade.

"Such speed and power."

"Which newly promoted jonin-sama is this? Feels like I've never seen him before."

The Konoha ninjas Mu Yue had rescued, and those whose pressure was relieved by his kills, all realized that Mu Yue's strength was extraordinary—just using taijutsu, he could wipe out a group of Iwa ninjas.

"Is there a jonin-sama here? We've got a tough enemy over here." Mu Yue heard a cry for help. He used the Byakugan to look over: an Iwa ninja with exposed arms was rapidly defeating several Konoha ninjas wearing chunin vests.

Mu Yue gave that Iwa ninja an appraisal and found he had over 5000 chakra, with his highest skill proficiency only at the 2500-point qualifying-jonin level, so he immediately charged over.

3k, today I'll try to write ten thousand.