Chapter 250: Hiruzen's Surprise

On the fifth day after returning to Konoha, Muyue's permit for the Ninjutsu Hall came through, and he went to the Ninjutsu Hall to select techniques.

He could freely choose ten techniques; if chosen well, they would greatly enhance his outward strength.

He had few good techniques he could openly use; the ones he typically used were traceable—Great Dragon Fire and Fire Dragon Flame Bullet were given to him by Danzo, and Vacuum Sphere was a reward from Hiruzen Sarutobi.

Moreover, he had legalized some ordinary techniques through various opportunities, such as using Water Wall and Water Dragon Bullet while teaching Asuma; because he was observed by the Third Hokage or the Anbu, those two techniques would go on his record, and he also used a Water Shockwave in a battle against a Tailed Beast.

However, this method only worked for very common ordinary techniques; Hiruzen Sarutobi wouldn't care about knowing such techniques.

Konoha's control over techniques mainly targeted high-level and forbidden techniques; after becoming a ninja, learning ordinary techniques was not difficult.

Moreover, in combat, ordinary ninja could actually only use a few techniques; most relied on taijutsu and ninja tools for damage—learning too many was useless, as they didn't have that much chakra.

If Muyue used Water Severing Wave, that wouldn't be okay, because it was a high-level Water Release developed by Tobirama Senju; ordinary people couldn't learn it, not even Root members.

Muyue didn't know if the Ninjutsu Hall had Tobirama's Water Severing Wave; if they did, he would definitely choose it—Water Severing Wave was very difficult to learn, and being able to learn it would prove his Water Release talent.

At first, Muyue thought the Ninjutsu Hall would be hidden in some concealed place protected by a barrier, but after going, he found it simply wasn't above ground; it was built underground, with ninja guarding the entrance.

Muyue showed his permit; the guard looked at it carefully, then nodded and opened the door.

Inside the door, there was another middle-aged ninja on duty; Muyue handed his permit to him.

"You can freely choose ten techniques from all the techniques regardless of rank, but I suggest you pick some that suit you, rather than just looking at the technique rank." The middle-aged ninja took the permit and reminded him.

Usually, few people could obtain ten free-choice opportunities at once, and he saw that Muyue was very young, so he gave Muyue a special reminder.

The assessment of technique rank actually wasn't based on power, but on the learning difficulty of the technique; so the higher the rank, the harder to learn. Picking a bunch of high-level techniques—whether you could learn them and how long it would take were all problems.

Of course, that didn't mean high-level techniques weren't powerful; in fact, high-level techniques were generally quite strong. The reason they were harder to learn was because they incorporated high-difficulty nature transformation and shape transformation, along with various profound technique knowledge; thus, the power of high-level techniques wouldn't be poor. The main problem was that they were still very hard to master and might waste a lot of time.

"Thanks for the reminder," Muyue replied with a smile.

Although this advice didn't apply to him, it was appropriate to say thank you in response to someone's kindness.

Muyue scanned the entire Ninjutsu Hall; the layout was similar to Konoha's library, just much smaller.

Bookshelves two meters tall were filled with various technique scrolls; in front of each technique scroll was a small sign with a brief introduction of that technique.

Muyue first went to the nearest Water Release technique area; among the five basic natures, what he could currently openly use were Wind, Fire, and Water—these three had slightly higher priority.

Muyue browsed for a while and actually saw Water Severing Wave inside; the small sign directly marked it as extremely difficult, and recommended that only ninja proficient in Water Release and skilled in shape transformation should choose it.

Muyue directly took down the Water Severing Wave scroll, then continued browsing; he also saw other Water Release techniques developed by Tobirama, but Muyue didn't choose them. Carrying the Water Severing Wave, he walked out of the Water Release area and entered the Fire Release area.

Muyue searched for a while and found that there was no Headhunter here, so he directly went to the Wind Release area; his openly usable Fire Release techniques were sufficient.

Perhaps Wind Blade was unique to Sunagakure; Muyue didn't see it here, but he saw Cyclone and directly picked it up.

He had come across Cyclone twice during class; it was more useful than Great Breakthrough, whether for combining techniques or using alone.

Next, Muyue chose a Lightning Release: Thunderclap, then an Earth Release: Earth Flow Wall, and then he also selected Mystical Palm Technique and a series of other techniques.

Being able to openly use Mystical Palm Technique was quite important to him; he wouldn't have to treat his students secretly, and he could approach Tsunade as a medical ninja.

After selecting, Muyue went to the door and registered with the duty ninja.

Looking at the ten techniques Muyue had chosen, the middle-aged ninja couldn't keep his composure. Among the ten techniques, there were six different chakra nature transformations, and all were B-rank or higher high-level techniques.

"Are you sure you want to choose these? You can still swap them now, but if I register them, you can't change them," the middle-aged ninja gave a final reminder.

"I'm sure. Thank you for your trouble," Muyue said with a smile and nodded.

Seeing Muyue nod, the middle-aged ninja said no more and helped Muyue complete the registration.

After selecting techniques, Muyue went to the Southern Forest to continue teaching his disciples; in addition to teaching, Muyue also practiced the Water Release: Great Waterfall Technique that Hiruzen Sarutobi had given him.

To better establish his image as a genius technique ninja, he would go to Hiruzen Sarutobi to consult on techniques, and then use the techniques that Hiruzen taught him right in front of him.

Perhaps because he had proficient-level Water chakra nature transformation, plus many memories of training Water Release in his mind, Muyue's training progress was quite fast—much faster than his impression of the original owner's training in Fire Release. He managed to get the Great Waterfall Technique started in about a week.

At 7 PM on the evening of the day he started it, Muyue went to Hiruzen Sarutobi's house.

"Teacher Muyue!" Asuma immediately showed a smile and greeted Muyue when he saw him.

"Teacher Muyue, why are you here? It's so late; it shouldn't be for tutoring, right?" Asuma asked curiously.

He hadn't trained with Muyue for a long time, and he missed it.

"Muyue probably came to consult me about ninjutsu." Sarutobi Hiruzen, seated in his chair, said calmly.

Before Muyue could reply, Asuma looked at Sarutobi Hiruzen skeptically and said:

"You're going to teach Teacher Muyue? Really? What can you teach?"

Feeling his son's distrust, Sarutobi Hiruzen couldn't help but darken his expression. He was the Third Hokage, renowned across the ninja world, a professor of ninjutsu who had mastered over a thousand techniques. Teaching a young jonin like Muyue was more than easy.

"Lord Third Hokage is going to teach me the Shuriken Shadow Clone Technique and the Water Release: Great Waterfall Technique. Both are A-rank ninjutsu with considerable power. Among them, the Shuriken Shadow Clone Technique was created by Lord Third himself." Muyue spoke with a smile at this point.

Sarutobi Hiruzen glanced at Asuma, his look seemingly saying, "Even the teacher you respect so much respects me like this."

Asuma immediately felt a surge of irritation and said, "Is that Shuriken Shadow Clone Technique really that powerful? I've never even heard of it. The First Hokage's Wood Release, which he developed himself, is famous across the ninja world—everyone knows it."

Sarutobi Hiruzen was speechless. Comparing the Shuriken Shadow Clone Technique to Wood Release was pointless; it was just an offensive technique derived from the Shadow Clone Technique. How could it possibly compare to Wood Release?

"It certainly can't compare to the First Hokage's Wood Release, but you'll see its power soon enough." Sarutobi Hiruzen decided to teach Muyue while also showing Asuma something impressive.

Sarutobi Hiruzen led the two to the backyard, then tossed a shuriken into the air.

"Shuriken Shadow Clone Technique!" Sarutobi Hiruzen rapidly formed hand seals after the shuriken was thrown.

*Swoosh swoosh swoosh!! *

The shuriken split into two, then four, and in the blink of an eye, a single shuriken became over a thousand shurikens, all slamming fiercely into the ground.

As the thousand shurikens struck together, the ground sprayed up a mass of green grass and mud, leaving the area covered densely with shurikens.

"How about that?" Sarutobi Hiruzen stroked his small mustache, looking at Muyue and Asuma with a smile.

This technique was one of his proudest creations, with tremendous power.

The shuriken thrown by a ninja was on a completely different level from an ordinary person's thrown projectile. For a ninja of his caliber, a thrown shuriken could pierce through boulders, and the Shuriken Shadow Clone Technique could turn one such shuriken into a thousand or ten thousand, making it hard for enemies to dodge.

"The power is indeed decent." Asuma had to admit that this seemingly unimpressive technique was actually quite formidable.

"Muyue, have you looked at the ninjutsu scroll I gave you these past few days?" Seeing his son stunned by the power of his technique, Sarutobi Hiruzen showed a satisfied smile, then asked Muyue.

"Mm, I've already started learning. I can use it in a basic form, but I'm not as smooth as you, Lord Third." Muyue thought for a moment and replied.

"You can already use it? Then show me a demonstration." Sarutobi Hiruzen was slightly surprised.

The Shuriken Shadow Clone Technique was even harder than the Multiple Shadow Clone Technique, because creating shadow clones from a physical object like a shuriken was more difficult than creating clones of oneself. It was among the more challenging A-rank techniques.

If Muyue could learn it in half a month, Sarutobi Hiruzen would already be impressed. But mastering it in only a week—he couldn't help but be astonished.

Muyue pulled out a shuriken, quickly threw it, and immediately gathered chakra to form hand seals.

"Shuriken Shadow Clone Technique!"

*Swoosh swoosh swoosh!! *

The shuriken rapidly split into clones, quickly becoming dozens of shurikens before piercing into the ground.

Sarutobi Hiruzen puffed out a stream of white smoke from his pipe, his gaze toward Muyue growing more appreciative. Originally, he had only thought that educating talents in Root was useless, but he had unexpectedly uncovered a ninjutsu genius.

"Amazing! You learned it in just a few days? As expected of Teacher Muyue." Asuma said happily.

*Cough, cough. * Sarutobi Hiruzen, who was smoking, choked on Asuma's words.

He himself had created over a thousand shurikens, and that was only "decent," but Muyue making a few dozen was "amazing"? Whose son was this?

"Asuma, go back to the house and take a bath." With the thought of "out of sight, out of mind," Sarutobi Hiruzen shooed Asuma back inside.

"Teacher Muyue, keep it up! When you've mastered it, come teach me. The old man has no idea how to teach." Before leaving, Asuma cheered Muyue on and took a jab at his own father.

"Muyue, excuse the rudeness." Sarutobi Hiruzen rubbed his forehead in slight headache, speaking to Muyue with a helpless expression.

He, the esteemed Professor of Ninjutsu, had been told to his face by his own child that he didn't know how to teach.

"At Asuma's age, children tend to be rebellious and say one thing while meaning another. I think deep down he still respects you a lot." Muyue said with a smile.

In fact, based on Muyue's judgment, it was almost inevitable that Sarutobi Hiruzen and Asuma would have a rift in childhood—there were too many contributing factors.

The conflict between Asuma's personality and Sarutobi Hiruzen's, the pressure of being the Third Hokage's son—there were too many points that could lead to discord.

Sarutobi Hiruzen was indeed a skilled politician, but as a father, his performance was quite average.

"I know he's still young, so I don't take it too seriously. Once he grows up, he'll understand everything I've done for him." Sarutobi Hiruzen took the pipe out of his mouth and showed a faint smile.

Then Hiruzen Sarutobi began teaching Muyue the secret to stably producing more shuriken with the Shadow Shuriken Jutsu.

"Muyue, what do you think about working at the Ninja Academy?" Hiruzen Sarutobi suddenly asked Muyue.

"If you don't want to work at the Ninja Academy, I can make you a supervising jonin, and you can keep the same student for the trainee team."

Now that Muyue had demonstrated the ability to defeat Kari and also shown extraordinary ninjutsu talent, Hiruzen Sarutobi had thoughts of giving Muyue focused training.

Compared to teaching at the Ninja Academy, being a supervising jonin gives more flexible teaching hours, allowing you to decide your disciples' training schedule yourself, giving yourself more time to improve your strength, and you can earn a lot of money by completing missions to buy cultivation resources.

Muyue shook his head and declined the Third Hokage's kindness, explaining with a smile:

"Thank you for your kindness, Third Hokage-sama, but I really enjoy the feeling of teaching at the Ninja Academy, and I also like the students there. Teaching at the Ninja Academy sincerely makes me feel relaxed and happy."

"However, Third Hokage-sama, please rest assured. Aside from teaching, I am also earnestly improving myself. The more knowledge I master, the better students I can teach."

Hiruzen Sarutobi wanted to say that teaching Ninja Academy students really didn't require someone as skilled as you, but when the words reached his mouth, they turned into encouragement instead, after all, this was Muyue's own choice.

He guessed that perhaps Muyue had seen too much darkness while in Root, which was why he liked the Ninja Academy filled with innocent children so much.

"Danzo, you nearly ruined a genius." After congratulating himself on pulling Muyue out of Root, Hiruzen Sarutobi thought that after the war, he would strengthen control over Root.

Besides demonstrating the learned Shadow Shuriken Jutsu, Muyue also asked Hiruzen Sarutobi some questions about the Great Waterfall Technique, laying the groundwork for the next water release demonstration.

The next day at noon, after completing the morning training, everyone began to rest. Muyue selected some of Shisui's problems to explain, and had all the students come over to audit and learn.

4k. Maybe I've been staying up too late writing recently, always writing until one or two in the morning. Today my condition is a bit off, my brain feels sluggish. Probably won't hit 10k today, maybe around 7k, to avoid sudden death.