Chapter 359: Minato is Back

After weighing the pros and cons, Mu Yue began writing a reply to Shimura Danzo.

The opening didn't need any substantive content—just a show of loyalty, to give Shimura Danzo the feeling that Mu Yue still regarded him as his leader in his heart and still considered himself a member of Root.

After expressing loyalty, he started talking about difficulties, but here he couldn't say how hard things were for him or why he couldn't help; instead, he had to write from the perspective of considering Shimura Danzo's interests, worrying that if he, as the deputy principal of the Ninja Academy, secretly went to Root for special training and was discovered by Sarutobi Hiruzen, it would then bring blame upon Root's leader, Shimura Danzo.

Mu Yue felt he could go to Root to conduct teaching, but only on the condition that Sarutobi Hiruzen was definitely informed.

If he held special training at Root without Hiruzen's knowledge to help improve Root's strength, when Hiruzen found out, the punishment might not be severe, but the mark of Root on Mu Yue would be restored, and Hiruzen would subconsciously consider Mu Yue one of Danzo's men—a result Mu Yue did not want to see.

What Mu Yue wanted was to appear as a staunch member of the Hizuren faction in Hiruzen's eyes, while in Danzo's eyes, he was a loyal and reliable member of Root.

That way, Mu Yue could move freely in Konoha; as long as he didn't touch certain interests, whatever he did would receive support.

This part was indeed quite difficult to handle, because Danzo was not an easy person to talk to, so Mu Yue didn't mention his own hardships or difficulties, instead discussing the potential negative impacts from the perspective of Danzo's interests.

Then he casually fabricated a bit about Obito to reduce Danzo's hostility toward him, and at the end, he expressed loyalty once more to finish the reply.

After writing, Mu Yue checked it over and then nodded.

After passing the civil service exam, he had thoroughly studied the ways of the world, never expecting that instead of using it in the office, he would use it in the Naruto world.

After finishing, Mu Yue used Root's secret contact method to notify a Root member to come pick up the reply.

After eating dinner, Mu Yue spent two hours studying the Sealing Technique, another hour developing the Breath of Wind, and finally two more hours studying the Flying Thunder God.

When he got into bed, Mu Yue glanced at his panel; the proficiency in the Sealing Technique he had learned from Kushina had increased considerably, but the Flying Thunder God still hadn't made a breakthrough from zero.

Mu Yue didn't think too much about it and quickly closed his eyes to sleep—his plan was to study for a month and he would do exactly that, no changes.

The next morning, as Mu Yue was making breakfast, a knock came at his door.

Mu Yue immediately activated his Byakugan for a quick look, and upon seeing who it was, a smile appeared on his face.

Even though he already knew who it was, Mu Yue still walked over to the door, opened it, and put on a surprised expression: "Minato, you're back? Is the war at the front over?"

The person knocking was none other than Minato Namikaze, who had previously taken on an important war mission.

"Not yet. Something happened to the Eight-Tails Jinchuriki over at Kumogakure, so the situation at the front looks great now. Plus, the mission I was responsible for is already complete, so I came back." Minato Namikaze explained with a smile.

Kumogakure had already been fighting a two-front war; with the Eight-Tails Jinchuriki dead, suddenly losing such a powerful combat force forced them to pull back their strength to ensure homeland security.

Hearing Minato's words, Mu Yue recalled some of the Naruto storyline—he remembered this incident seemed to be Orochimaru's doing: unsealing the Eight-Tails Jinchuriki, separating the tailed beast from the jinchuriki, causing the Eight-Tails to rampage unconsciously, and finally Orochimaru took a sample of the Eight-Tails' horn, leaving Kumogakure to clean up the mess of the Eight-Tails' rampage.

"I just happen to be making breakfast. Come in and have some—you must not have had breakfast rushing all the way here." Mu Yue smiled and invited Minato inside.

Mu Yue felt Minato's arrival was perfect; if even Minato, with his master-level Flying Thunder God, couldn't help him break through the zero proficiency barrier, then it would prove he truly had no talent in time-space ninjutsu.

"That's true. Then I'll trouble you, Mu Yue." Minato showed a slightly embarrassed smile and walked into Mu Yue's home.

Actually, his arrival at this time was no coincidence but inevitable.

Minato had calculated on the road: if he traveled at full speed, he could just make it back to Konoha in time for breakfast and mooch a meal from Mu Yue.

Having been on the battlefield for so long, Minato often dreamed of teaming up with Kushina to eat at Mu Yue's place, and he missed both Kushina and Mu Yue dearly.

"No need for your help today, Minato. Breakfast isn't that troublesome." Mu Yue stopped Minato, who was already familiar with heading toward the kitchen, and gestured for him to just sit and wait to eat.

Minato nodded and sat down at Mu Yue's dining table, smelling the fragrance slowly drifting from the kitchen, a nostalgic expression on his face.

He really hadn't eaten Mu Yue's cooking in a while, and it had been a long time since he and Kushina had eaten together at Mu Yue's place.

"Kushina..." Thinking of Kushina, the Nine-Tails Jinchuriki, Minato let out a slow sigh.

If he had a choice, he wouldn't want Kushina to be a jinchuriki—it was simply too dangerous, both because of the Nine-Tails inside her and the hostility from enemy villages toward jinchuriki.

But he really had no choice; at his level, he could know the reason Kushina came to Konoha—from the moment she arrived, her fate as a jinchuriki was sealed.

As time passed, Mu Yue brought one dish after another of breakfast to the table.

"So lavish." Minato praised as he looked at the rolled omelette and grilled salmon on the plate.

Minato picked up a piece of grilled fish with his chopsticks, put it in his mouth along with some rice, and then took a sip of miso soup. He felt warm and comfortable all over, a blissful smile spreading across his face.

This breakfast was actually Mu Yue's way of catering to Minato's taste—he himself didn't like eating rice in the morning, preferring porridge instead.

"I feel like your cooking has improved again, Mu Yue. After eating, I feel totally refreshed." After finishing, Minato earnestly shared his review.

"It's probably just because you haven't had my cooking in a long time, Minato. Eat a few more times and you'll find it hasn't changed much from before." Mu Yue replied with a smile.

After eating, the two chatted while cleaning up the bowls and chopsticks on the table.

Since it was time for teaching, Muyue created several shadow clones, some to teach students in the Southern Border Forest and one to attend class at the ninja school.

After finishing the housework, Muyue took the opportunity to mention that he was learning the Flying Thunder God.

"If you don't practice, you never know how difficult the Flying Thunder God is. I've never encountered this situation with any other jutsu. I've been studying for a long time and feel like I haven't made any progress."

"The Flying Thunder God Technique—although I didn't encounter any difficulties learning it, according to Jiraiya-sensei, it is indeed an extremely high-difficulty jutsu, among the hardest of all Konoha's jutsu." Minato said after thinking.

When learning the Flying Thunder God, Minato didn't feel it was much different in difficulty from other jutsu; he could only perceive its difficulty through what others said.

"If you don't mind, Muyue, I can share my learning experience with you." Minato continued.

He really hoped Muyue could learn the Flying Thunder God, because it was truly powerful.

How powerful was it? Minato could massacre enemies on the battlefield using only the Flying Thunder God and a certain number of kunai without any other jutsu.

So Minato rarely used other jutsu in battle—not because he couldn't, but because they were useless. He couldn't just use Flying Thunder God to teleport and then stand there making hand signs for Wind Release or Fire Release; that would be too silly.

If Muyue could learn the Flying Thunder God, even if he wasn't as proficient as Minato, his survival ability on the battlefield would be greatly enhanced.

"Of course I don't mind, in fact I'm really looking forward to it." Muyue said with a smile. He had been waiting for Minato to say that.

After hearing Muyue's reply, Minato didn't waste time and immediately asked some questions to determine Muyue's progress in learning the Flying Thunder God.

"I see. Then I'll start from the very basics." Minato briefly rehearsed in his mind and then began teaching.

"First, you need to know that the Flying Thunder God is a space-time ninjutsu—a technique that transfers from one point to another through spatial movement, not a technique that enhances speed to the extreme and moves quickly to another point."

As he spoke, Minato also took out a kunai to demonstrate.

Minato placed a Flying Thunder God kunai in the kitchen, then used the Flying Thunder God to flash over there, and then used the Body Flicker Technique to return to Muyue's side.

Muyue nodded to show understanding.

The convenience of the Flying Thunder God was just that. At close range, Muyue's full-powered Lightning Breathing was not slower than the Flying Thunder God, but over long distances it was different—the Flying Thunder God was still just as fast, while he consumed a lot of chakra and couldn't get there in time.

"Has Minato's teaching improved recently? Or is Kushina just bad at understanding?" Muyue recalled his previous conversations with Kushina and thought that Minato's explanation seemed pretty normal.

"Good. Next is how the Flying Thunder God achieves spatial transfer." Seeing that Muyue could understand, Minato continued teaching.

"First, we need to sense the space, then place a Flying Thunder God mark on a kunai or any object, and finally, whoosh, use chakra to move to the object with the mark."

Minato's eyes were focused as he continuously spoke words related to the Flying Thunder God.

Muyue could tell Minato was teaching seriously, but he couldn't help wanting to put a question mark.

He hadn't dropped his pen, picked it up, or spaced out, so how did he suddenly not understand a single word?

If Muyue had to describe Minato's teaching, it was like, "You've already learned that one plus one equals two, now let's start learning calculus."

Muyue decided to take back his previous thought. Kushina was indeed right—Minato's explanation basically amounted to "whoosh" and it was over.

"Muyue, have you gained any inspiration for learning the Flying Thunder God?" Minato looked at Muyue expectantly.

Looking at Minato's expectant face, Muyue's emotions were complicated. He could see that Minato was really trying to teach, but the specifics were hard to describe.

But there was another possibility—it wasn't Minato's problem; the Flying Thunder God was just that big of a leap.

"No. Minato, could you explain a bit more detail? There's a lot I don't understand, especially regarding sensing space." Muyue shook his head.

Regardless of where the problem lay, he really hadn't learned anything; his proficiency in the Flying Thunder God still hadn't broken zero.

"Mm, then I'll speak slower and more carefully." Minato considered his words and then continued teaching Muyue the Flying Thunder God technique.

Three hours later, Muyue was still completely confused.

He could feel that Minato was trying to explain in detail, but the jumps were still too big for Muyue—basically equivalent to learning elementary school math and immediately jumping to advanced math.

"Minato, regarding that technique you were imitating the Tailed Beast Ball, I've got some ideas. Would you like to hear them?" Muyue decided to reciprocate and talk to Minato about the Rasengan.

Although he hadn't learned anything from Minato's explanation, it wasn't Minato's problem—it was his own problem.

"That would be great." Minato nodded with a pleased smile.

Muyue directly extended his hand and gathered chakra. A chakra ball with no particular nature appeared in Muyue's hand.

Minato looked at the chakra ball in Muyue's hand with surprise, feeling that it perfectly matched his conception.

Muyue led Shuimen out of the house, then smashed a Rasengan into a large tree beside the road.

Bang!

The large tree shook violently, and a pit appeared in the trunk, but it did not completely penetrate the tree.

"The power is very small, but it's almost perfect." Shuimen said after glancing at the destructive force.

With the amount of chakra Muyue just used, the destructive power couldn't be this little—the jutsu hasn't been fully developed yet.

"That's right, it's still missing a crucial step, but I have no more ideas." Muyue said, brushing off the wood chips from his body.

He had essentially developed the Rasengan by himself following the original work's approach, so he could easily use the incomplete Rasengan.

After the demonstration, Muyue told Shuimen the process of how he had reached this step.

Although he was building an image of a genius ninja, he wouldn't go so far as to steal the copyright of Shuimen's Rasengan.

"So that's how this part works! Muyue, you've been a great help." After listening to Muyue's explanation, Shuimen felt a sense of enlightenment, and many previous development difficulties were resolved.

Thinking about how Muyue had gained nothing from his explanation of Flying Thunder God just now, Shuimen felt somewhat ashamed, and thought to himself that he would definitely sort out his thoughts properly when he got back and try to explain learning Flying Thunder God clearly.

"If the development succeeds, this jutsu's name must be—'Muyue Strikes Tree Inspired Joint Development Ball'!" Shuimen got excited and started naming the jutsu.

Hearing this bizarre and ridiculous name, Muyue's mouth twitched, and he quickly stopped him, saying, "How about we decide on the name after the jutsu is completely finished?"

If the Rasengan actually became that name, that would be too fucking awful.

"Muyue, what you said makes sense too." Shuimen silently noted down this name as a backup.

He felt this name was quite good—it both indicated that this jutsu was jointly developed by him and Muyue, and also recreated the real scene of developing the jutsu.

At noon, Shuimen did not eat with Muyue. He had returned to Konoha and hadn't had time to go see Kushina yet. He said sorry to Muyue and took the food to Kushina's place.

Before leaving, Shuimen said that he would be relatively free during this period and that they could discuss jutsus, Flying Thunder God, and the Rasengan or something together in the evening.