Chapter 244: Victory in Battle

When Jiraiya and the others returned to the camp, the jonin at the camp came forward one after another to ask about the battle situation.

"The battle against the jinchuriki was a minor victory—only the Five-Tails jinchuriki was seriously injured; the Four-Tails jinchuriki is fine." Jiraiya did not exaggerate his achievements and reported the outcome of the top-tier battlefield.

"But overall, we have achieved a major victory!" Then Jiraiya smiled and said, as morale still needed to be boosted.

Hearing Jiraiya say that the Five-Tails jinchuriki was injured, the jonin all relaxed visibly. If the top-tier battlefield had suffered a loss, the advantages they had gained earlier would have been wiped out.

The good news that Jiraiya and the others had gained the upper hand in the battle against the jinchuriki quickly spread throughout the entire Konoha camp. The Konoha ninja who heard the news were all very excited, feeling they could see the dawn of victory in the war.

The enemy had deployed two jinchuriki and still failed to gain any advantage over Konoha, giving them the impression that Konoha had only exerted a fraction of its strength, and that was already the limit of Iwagakure.

Of course, most of those so optimistic were genin or young chunin; the jonin and experienced chunin all knew that neither Iwagakure nor Konoha had yet brought out their full strength.

Of the Legendary Sannin, only Jiraiya had come to the battlefield, and no other renowned strong ninja had been dispatched.

Although Iwagakure had sent two jinchuriki, they were only those two jinchuriki. Apart from them, the strongest was the Explosion Release jonin Kari, and they had not sent too many ordinary ninja either.

Muyue, who was familiar with the plot, knew even better that Iwagakure was brewing something big. The military strength currently on display was very likely a feint.

By putting himself in Ōnoki's shoes, Muyue could easily understand everything.

In this war, Ōnoki had sent two jinchuriki. From the perspective of other hidden villages, Iwagakure already attached great importance to this war by deploying two jinchuriki together on the battlefield.

But in reality, Iwagakure still had a large number of ninja hidden internally—tens of thousands of ninja troops, plus a batch of elite ninja like Kitsuchi.

If this battle failed, Ōnoki could cause other ninja villages to misjudge Iwagakure's strength, making them more wary of Konoha, which had been dominant in the war—for example, Kumogakure, which was also at war with Konoha, would let down their guard against Iwagakure and throw more power against Konoha.

If the battle succeeded, even better—it would prove Konoha was already weakened, and Ōnoki could directly launch a large army to invade the Land of Fire and strike at Konoha, snatching the title of the number one ninja village and proving his own strength to gain more missions and daimyo military funding.

Ōnoki would not lose either way, because with two jinchuriki deployed together, even if they couldn't win, they couldn't be forcibly detained.

"Muyue-sensei, are you injured?" When Muyue found his few disciples, Obito asked with concern first.

Although he didn't know how strong the jinchuriki were, the commotion from a Tailed Beast Ball was truly enormous. Just seeing the dazzling light of the explosion from afar, Obito could feel the terrifying power of the jinchuriki.

Kakashi and Might Guy also looked at Muyue.

"Do I look like I'm injured?" Muyue asked with a chuckle.

"No." Obito answered honestly. Apart from some dust on Muyue, even his clothes weren't torn.

"But it could be an internal injury that can't be seen from the outside," Obito explained.

"I'm not injured. Come with me—I'll treat you first." Muyue patted Obito's head and said.

Except for Might Guy's injured fist, both Kakashi and Obito had suffered minor injuries, though not as severe as Might Guy's.

Muyue led the group to a secluded place and began using medical ninjutsu to heal them.

His medical ninjutsu had not yet been cleared of suspicion, so he couldn't use it in front of other ninja.

Powerful ninjutsu could be explained by training, but neither Hiruzen Sarutobi nor Danzo had ever given him medical ninjutsu; he couldn't exactly say he had figured out the Mystical Palm Technique on his own.

"Muyue-sensei, who is stronger, a jinchuriki or the candidate Raikage?" Obito asked curiously.

"Hard to compare, but in terms of overall strength, the jinchuriki is stronger right now," Muyue said after some thought.

In fact, if the Fourth Raikage A and the Five-Tails jinchuriki fought one-on-one, Muyue couldn't even guess the outcome.

Apart from a Tailed Beast Ball, the main output method of the Five-Tails jinchuriki was also taijutsu, but a Tailed Beast Ball couldn't hit the extremely fast Fourth Raikage A. The Fourth Raikage A had a speed advantage, while the Five-Tails jinchuriki had more stamina and chakra.

Compared to the Fourth Raikage A, Minato at the present stage was somewhat lacking in dealing with tailed beasts or jinchuriki because he lacked powerful offensive techniques.

But against people, Minato was more efficient and better at maneuvering against powerful opponents.

"I wonder when I'll be as strong as you, Muyue-sensei," Obito said with a longing expression.

"Then start training right now! A passionate youth needs to seize every moment to strengthen oneself!" After being healed, Might Guy immediately began handstand running as training.

"I mainly think that if we three were as strong as Muyue-sensei, we should be able to end the war, and then not so many people would die," Obito spoke his mind.

Before, when he encountered enemies on missions, Obito hadn't felt much after killing them, because if he didn't kill the enemy, the enemy would kill him.

But on the battlefield, seeing so many people he didn't know die, Obito's heart was very unsettled.

In just a few hours, he had come to utterly hate the existence called war.

Obito's words made Kakashi look at him sideways—he hadn't expected Obito to say something like that.

"If you want to end the war, being as strong as I am now is not enough. You need to be stronger!" Mu Yue said, looking up slightly at the sky.

"For the ninja world to regain peace, either everyone fights until they're battered and retreats to restore their strength, or someone like Hashirama Senju suppresses others with strength surpassing everyone, making them dare not act."

"But to achieve long-term peace, even Hashirama Senju's strength might not be enough, because in the shadows there are Uchiha Madara, Black Zetsu, and the sealed Kaguya Ōtsutsuki."

"However, as long as you keep working hard, you will succeed one day." Mu Yue said with a gentle smile.

Stimulated by Mu Yue's words, Obito started training with Might Guy as if injected with chicken blood.

And Kakashi naturally couldn't just watch the two training without doing anything, so he joined in the training.

Because of a major victory and just as supplies arrived from the rear, the Konoha ninjas began to feast and celebrate the victory that night.

Mu Yue also showed off a little, simply making a few big pot dishes.

"Is it my imagination? I feel this dish is so delicious that I thought the enemy had ambushed us with genjutsu." A Konoha ninja exclaimed in amazement after tasting Mu Yue's cooking.

"Me too. I thought it was because victory made the food taste especially good." The nearby Konoha ninja echoed.

"You're lucky. This was personally cooked by Mu Yue. Not many people get a chance to eat it." Jiraiya said with a hearty laugh.

He was in a very good mood. If not on the battlefield, he would have wanted to drink.

Minato said nothing, silently and rapidly devouring his food. Since coming to the battlefield, he hadn't eaten Mu Yue's cooking, and he often dreamed of returning to Konoha to continue eating at Mu Yue's house every day.

"Minato, there's no need to be so fast at times like this." Jiraiya found that after just a few words, Minato had already finished two bowls of rice and eaten a lot of the dishes.

Without time to complain further, Jiraiya quickly joined in the feasting.

After dinner, they sat together and chatted.

Mu Yue told Minato about Kushina's situation in Konoha.

"Kushina misses you very much. My student Uchiha Obito happens to have a camera. How about letting him take a few photos for you to take back?" Mu Yue said with a smile.

Minato's eyes lit up. He thought it was a great idea and thanked Mu Yue.

"Let me take them. I'll definitely make you look as handsome as Teacher Mu Yue." Obito volunteered.

"Then thank you very much, Obito." Minato happily agreed and thanked him with a smile.

Then Minato stood still, with a serious expression, waiting for Obito to take a photo.

"Why aren't you smiling? I think you look better when you smile." Obito asked, holding the camera with a puzzled look.

He saw that Minato usually smiles a lot like Mu Yue, so why wasn't he smiling when taking a photo?

Minato forced the corners of his mouth upward, trying hard to maintain a smiling expression.

"Haha, I never knew you could be so humorous, Minato." Jiraiya couldn't help laughing loudly at Minato's expression, then quickly ran to Obito's side and took several photos of Minato.

Minato now gave him the impression of someone with a paralyzed face forcing a grin.

"It's probably because Minato takes it too seriously, deliberately smiling makes it look unnatural." Dekai analyzed.

"That damn white-haired old man, such a bad taste." Obito complained while looking at the picture of Minato.

"You're too young to understand. This is what it means to record happy moments." Jiraiya said with a proud smile.

"I'm not small. I've completed two A-rank missions, and today on the battlefield I also saved several comrades." Obito said defiantly.

"A-rank missions? I've done over twenty S-rank missions." Jiraiya said he had lost count of how many A-rank missions he had done.

"So strong?" Obito was amazed. S-rank missions seemed far away to him.

"Of course. I am Jiraiya, one of the Sannin, known as the Toad Sage!" Jiraiya puffed out his chest and introduced himself.

Minato watched Jiraiya and Mu Yue's student competing with each other, and couldn't help but show a helpless smile.

And Obito just noticed that; he ignored Jiraiya's words and seized the opportunity to capture this natural smile.

"What toad?" Obito turned back and asked.

"You little brat, it's Toad Sage, not toad!" Jiraiya corrected.

Watching the legendary Sannin and Obito comparing mission counts like kids comparing snacks, and even boasting about their titles, Kakashi couldn't help but feel a sense of celebrity disillusionment.

Although Kakashi didn't worship any of the Sannin, they were very famous in Konoha, and Kakashi naturally assumed the Sannin were extremely reliable ninjas, but the reality seemed not as he had imagined.

Today's words are also 8k.