Chapter 253: Idea of a Human-Style Tailed Beast Ball

Hearing Mizuki's words, Dekai and Ueyama Shuhei beside him also greeted Muyue.

They hadn't known each other before, but fighting alongside a jinchuriki meant they had risked their lives together, so over those few days they formed a good friendship.

"Mizuki, you're back. Is the fighting on the front line over?" Muyue asked with a slightly surprised expression.

"Not completely over. Iwa hasn't surrendered or signed a peace treaty, but we've driven Iwa's forces out of the Land of Grass. The war is basically done for now, and my mission is complete. Jiraiya-sensei told me to come back first." Mizuki explained with a smile.

"Their total defeat is just a matter of time. Konoha is still stronger." Dekai chuckled.

Several major victories over Iwa-nin had given him plenty of confidence.

"I see. Then you've worked hard. Successfully stopping the enemy outside the Land of Fire." Muyue nodded in praise.

It was about what Muyue had expected—the war with Iwa was temporarily over. Unless something unexpected happened, Mizuki would soon become Obito and the others' instructor.

"Haha, Muyue, aren't you part of the hard work too? We owe you for that fight against the jinchuriki." Dekai laughed and slapped Muyue on the shoulder.

Dekai was deeply impressed by Muyue's ninjutsu—his Fire Release nearly injured the careless Five-Tails jinchuriki, and he could briefly hold off the Four-Tails jinchuriki's Lava Release alone.

"It was everyone's effort that made it a success." Muyue said cheerfully.

"Hey, isn't that Mizuki? You're back!" A lively young female kunoichi with a single ponytail spotted Mizuki, her eyes lighting up as she happily greeted him.

Beside her were two other female kunoichi about her age, also smiling and greeting Mizuki.

"Mm, hello." Mizuki smiled back. Though he didn't know them well, he had to respond when greeted.

"Mizuki, you're amazing! I saw the latest Konoha News—you and Jiraiya-sama repelled the jinchuriki. You're a hero of Konoha." The ponytail girl's eyes seemed to sparkle as she looked at Mizuki with adoration.

"It wasn't just me and Jiraiya-sensei—a lot of people contributed." Mizuki corrected.

Besides him, there were also Muyue, Dekai, and Ueyama Shuhei, all of whom had faced the jinchuriki directly.

"Eh, you are...?" One of the three girls, a black-haired straight-haired girl, noticed Muyue's appearance.

"So Mizuki, do you have a brother? Which one of you is the younger and which is the older?" Comparing their smiles, the black-haired girl asked curiously.

"My name is Hanyu Muyue. I'm not Mizuki's older brother or younger brother—we're not blood brothers or even distant relatives." Muyue explained skillfully.

He had done it so many times he was used to it.

Mizuki remained calm, also accustomed to it.

"Hanyu Muyue—isn't that the ninja from the newspaper who fought the tailed beast alongside Jiraiya-sama?" The ponytail girl thought of the somewhat familiar name and immediately remembered, looking at Muyue in surprise.

"Yes, that Hanyu Muyue." Muyue nodded with a smile.

"You two must be tired coming back from the battlefield. How about we treat you to a meal?" A girl with wavy hair clasped her hands together and invited Mizuki and Muyue.

The black-haired girl and the ponytail girl gave their good friend a thumbs up behind her back—well done.

"Thank you for your kindness, but I still have things to do later." Muyue declined with a gentle smile.

If it were really just a meal, he wouldn't mind going anywhere, but if he went, it wouldn't be a simple meal—it would be chatting first, eating second, maybe even drinking. In short, a huge waste of time.

He wasn't a man without desires, but right now he wasn't in the mood. He had too many things to do. If it weren't for Shadow Clones, he wouldn't be able to keep up.

"Same here, but thank you anyway." Mizuki also smiled and declined.

Compared to restaurant food and his own cooking, he preferred Muyue's cooking. He had just reported his mission and was about to head to Muyue's place, then take Muyue's cooking to Kushina. He had no time to accompany a few unfamiliar female kunoichi.

"What a shame. Maybe next time we can eat together." The wavy-haired girl showed a disappointed expression but didn't press.

The three girls waved goodbye to Muyue and Mizuki and left.

"That Hanyu Muyue is kind of good-looking. How come I haven't noticed him before?"

"He is good-looking, but I still like Mizuki more. Too bad he didn't accept."

"I think Muyue-kun is better looking. Both are gentle and sunny, but he seems wiser and more refined."

Dekai and Ueyama Shuhei both stared at Muyue and Mizuki with death glares.

"Sigh, I shouldn't have stood with you two. Otherwise, maybe some girls would have come to talk to me." Dekai sighed.

Just now, three girls had come, and none of them paid any attention to him—they all chatted with Muyue and Mizuki.

"When have you ever been approached first? I'm the one actually affected by them." Ueyama Shuhei put his hand on Dekai's shoulder.

His skin was fair, and his features were well-proportioned. He wasn't so handsome as to be earth-shattering, but definitely counted as good-looking—though he looked ordinary standing next to Minato and Muyue.

"Getting hit on isn't necessarily a good thing. If Minato gets approached and Kushina sees it, she'll probably sulk unless he explains himself properly." Muyue mentioned to Minato what Kushina had talked about with him earlier.

Kushina had once asked Muyue about what went on at Minato's place when she wasn't around, and whether any girls came to see him.

Minato felt lucky that he knew how to turn people down. Kushina's anger wasn't just hard to soothe—it also pained him to see.

After chatting briefly, the four of them split up. Since Minato and Muyue were neighbors, they headed in the same direction.

When Minato got home, he sent out a Shadow Clone to clean and tidy up, while the main body went to Muyue's house to help cook.

"I've really been putting you out lately," Minato said, looking embarrassed as he washed the vegetables.

He couldn't even stay to eat, and still had to trouble Muyue to pack the food to take away—just thinking about it made Minato feel terribly awkward.

"We're friends. Let's just call it mutual help. After all, you two have helped me a lot with sealing techniques. Kushina even taught me the Four Symbols Seal recently." Muyue smiled, looking unconcerned.

"Only after learning it did I realize just how powerful that sealing technique is. If it weren't for Kushina, I probably never could have obtained a sealing technique of this level."

"The value of a technique lies in being taught. Muyue, you have that talent, and Kushina must have been very happy teaching you." Minato said seriously as he separated the vegetables one by one.

He was a bit surprised by Muyue's progress—he had even learned the Four Symbols Seal, which was already a top-tier conventional sealing technique.

To celebrate Minato's return, Muyue specially made Kushina's favorite braised pork belly, but that took a while, so the two chatted as they waited.

"Compared to us humans, tailed beasts are truly blessed. Not only do they have an enormous amount of chakra, they can also use jutsu like the Tailed Beast Ball with its terrifying power." Muyue sighed in admiration.

"Tailed Beast Ball…"

Muyue's words brought Minato's mind back to the battlefield. The dazzling white flash of the explosion and the deep crater it left were still vivid in his memory.

The reason Minato's memory of fighting the tailed beast was so vivid wasn't that the Tailed Beast Ball was too strong and traumatized him, but that his girlfriend Kushina was also a jinchuriki, and the tailed beast inside her was the strongest—the Nine-Tails.

Every time he thought about such a terrifying monster living inside his girlfriend, Minato couldn't help but sigh.

"Once the war situation becomes critical, the jinchuriki will definitely be sent to the battlefield." Minato was deeply worried.

It wasn't that Konoha was keeping Kushina hidden away for no reason now—it was only to let Kushina gain control of her tailed beast faster and become a controllable combat force.

Minato very well understood the significance of a jinchuriki to a ninja village. A jinchuriki wasn't meant to be carefully cherished; it was meant to deal with war.

In such an utterly chaotic situation, Minato couldn't guarantee that Konoha would remain strong forever. Perhaps one day Kushina would have no choice but to go to the battlefield.

Moreover, Kushina's opponents would never be ordinary people—they would either be other jinchuriki or the top-tier elites of enemy ninja villages.

"If only there were a jutsu with power comparable to the Tailed Beast Ball," Minato sighed at the thought.

The Tailed Beast Ball was so powerful that even his teacher Jiraiya, when activating Sage Mode, could only evade its full force. If Kushina ever faced a jinchuriki who could release a Tailed Beast Ball before she had mastered it, she would suffer a huge loss.

"Then why not just develop a jutsu that's on par with the Tailed Beast Ball?" At that moment, Muyue said with a smile.

Hearing Muyue's words, Minato was stunned.

"If you want a jutsu with the same power as some other technique, directly imitating it and developing or improving it should be the fastest way, right?"

"Of course, I'm just throwing it out there. The Tailed Beast Ball can't be easily imitated, I'm sure," Muyue said in a joking tone.

But Minato's eyes lit up, and he said excitedly to Muyue:

"I think your idea is completely feasible, Muyue. They're all jutsu. There's no reason only tailed beasts can use it—we can definitely develop a human version of the Tailed Beast Ball."

"Theoretically, it's possible," Muyue nodded.

"The Tailed Beast Ball is spherical, and from the looks of it, it probably isn't a nature transformation of any of the five basic elements. So we could start by making an ordinary chakra sphere to imitate, and then…"

Minato was suddenly bursting with inspiration, feeling more and more that a human crafting a Tailed Beast Ball by hand was also perfectly doable.

"The food is packed for you. Better take it while it's still warm." As Minato was lost in thought, Muyue handed him the packed dishes.

Minato snapped back to reality, remembering he still had to go to Kushina's. He quickly thanked Muyue and left her house.

Today was also 7k. Tomorrow morning, instead of mineral water, I'll drink hot water.