Chapter 399: Reinforcement Plan for Disciples

After returning to Konoha, Mu Yue gave his disciples a day off as usual, and went to the Hokage's office to report on the mission.

Normally, this kind of B-rank mission wouldn't require a separate report to Hiruzen Sarutobi, but the unexpected encounter they had was quite unusual.

Knock knock!

Mu Yue knocked on the wooden door of the Hokage's office.

"Enter."

Hearing Hiruzen Sarutobi's voice, Mu Yue immediately pushed the door open and entered. "Lord Third Hokage, there may be ninja from other villages disguised as Konoha ninja attacking Sunagakure ninja."

"Mu Yue, give me the details." Hiruzen Sarutobi's expression turned serious.

Three of the five great ninja villages had already declared war on Konoha, and Hiruzen Sarutobi did not want the last one that hadn't—Sunagakure—to also declare war on Konoha.

"It's like this: I took a escort mission in the Land of Rain. On the way, we were surrounded by a Suna squad led by Yegara. They attacked us under the pretext of an investigation." Mu Yue began recounting the cause and course of their encounter with Yegara.

"Yegara." Hiruzen Sarutobi looked thoughtful.

Yegara was not an unknown figure in the ninja world; Hiruzen Sarutobi had heard a bit about her name. She was a powerful Kekkei Genkai ninja.

"Mu Yue, you didn't kill any of those Suna ninja, did you?" Hiruzen Sarutobi asked after a moment of thought.

In terms of reputation, Yegara was a famous strong ninja across the ninja world, while Mu Yue was only somewhat known within Konoha. But in terms of strength, Hiruzen Sarutobi didn't think Yegara could defeat Mu Yue.

Mu Yue had mastered the five nature transformations of chakra, possessed the Ice Release Kekkei Genkai, had learned the Flying Thunder God Technique, knew many high-power ninjutsu, and had the advantage of intelligence. There was no way Yegara could beat Mu Yue.

So Hiruzen Sarutobi wasn't worried about Mu Yue getting hurt; he was only worried that Mu Yue might have failed to control his strength and killed some Suna ninja.

If that happened, no matter which side's ninja actually killed the earlier Suna ninja, Sunagakure would lump it all on Konoha.

"I was forced to counterattack and fought them to the point where we could talk properly. No casualties were inflicted." Mu Yue replied.

"Afterward, Yegara admitted it was their mistake and said they would reinvestigate."

With his current strength, fighting Yegara and her Suna squad was pure stomp; no unexpected accidents would occur that he didn't want.

"Mu Yue, you handled it very well." Hiruzen Sarutobi smiled and praised. "I will arrange for the Anbu to investigate next."

This mission allowed Hiruzen Sarutobi to see Mu Yue's ability to handle affairs. Not just in teaching and ninjutsu, but Mu Yue's abilities in other areas were also excellent.

"Good thing I dug him out in time; otherwise Mu Yue would never truly unleash his potential." Hiruzen Sarutobi gave himself a mental thumbs-up and also took a jab at Danzo Shimura.

In Hiruzen Sarutobi's view, a genius like Mu Yue could never remain obscure forever. It must have been the darkness of Root that had suppressed Mu Yue.

Hiruzen Sarutobi felt a great pity about this. If Mu Yue had shown such talent earlier, perhaps he would have taken Mu Yue as his disciple directly.

Currently, Hiruzen Sarutobi's top candidate for the Fourth Hokage was Jiraiya, followed by Tsunade. But what frustrated Hiruzen Sarutobi was that neither of them wanted to become Hokage.

Hiruzen Sarutobi had tried many times to pave the way for Jiraiya, but Jiraiya simply gave up, practically carving the words "I don't want to be Hokage" on his face.

As for Tsunade, it goes without saying. Jiraiya at least showed some respect to Hiruzen Sarutobi; Tsunade couldn't be bothered to even acknowledge him.

Another of Hiruzen Sarutobi's disciples, Orochimaru, had the intention of becoming Hokage, but Hiruzen Sarutobi happened to not want Orochimaru to become Hokage.

Because Orochimaru had changed too much. As a child, Orochimaru was only somewhat withdrawn and cold, but now, Orochimaru gave Hiruzen Sarutobi a feeling of gradually losing his humanity.

Someone like Orochimaru could become a high-ranking Konoha official, but not the Hokage.

After the report, Mu Yue went straight home.

This time, Hiruzen Sarutobi didn't give any special reward; he just gave some ninja training resources.

After all, Hiruzen Sarutobi had already rewarded Mu Yue with the permission to freely borrow ninjutsu scrolls, so Mu Yue had enough in terms of ninjutsu.

In terms of position, Mu Yue was already serving at the Ninja Academy, and he was already the vice-principal. Hiruzen Sarutobi couldn't very well fire himself and give the principal position to Mu Yue.

"There are many rogue ninja, many ninja organizations, as well as ninja from other great villages." After returning home and organizing the intelligence on the Land of Rain, Mu Yue found that the situation in the Land of Rain fit his disciple-recruiting plan perfectly.

Mu Yue's plan was this: first, he would leave a deep impression on Yahiko and Nagato of the Akatsuki organization, then become famous in the Land of Rain, establish a superior image, and attract Yahiko and the others to recruit him again.

But Mu Yue still wouldn't agree immediately; he would refuse again and continue to gain fame in the Land of Rain. When the time was right, he would set up some tests or something and naturally become their mentor.

As for how to become famous, Mu Yue would definitely choose the method with the greatest benefits.

The way to both build a reputation and gain rewards for Mu Yue was undoubtedly teaching—he could earn teaching rewards.

By then, all the many ninja in the Land of Rain would be Mu Yue's teaching targets.

【】

Muyue was not worried that no ninjas would come to listen to his lectures, after all, he had been validated many times in this field.

When the time came, Muyue would briefly demonstrate his strength, and those ninjas would scramble to attend his classes.

After the dismissal, Kakashi did not immediately go to train, but went to the Konoha Library to look up information on the Rinnegan.

It wasn't that Kakashi didn't trust Muyue; rather, Kakashi was curious about more details.

However, to Kakashi's disappointment, he did not find any records about the abilities of the Rinnegan; there were only some myths and legends.

With the mindset of "since I'm already here," Kakashi searched for information on tailed beasts again, but still got nothing; he still couldn't figure out why the tailed beasts went berserk.

After leaving the library, Kakashi went to find Might Guy.

After returning from Loulan, Kakashi had gone to find Might Guy, but that time Might Guy was just out on a mission, so Kakashi didn't find him.

"My dear friend, could it be that you want to challenge me? I've been waiting for this day for a long time!" Might Guy asked, his face full of excitement.

More than half a year had passed since he last defeated Kakashi, and Might Guy had long wanted to fight Kakashi again.

During these six months, Might Guy had never relaxed; he had always persisted in training. He had a feeling that he was only one step away from the Fifth Gate.

"I'm not here to fight you; I have something to discuss with you," Kakashi shook his head and replied.

He wanted to tell Might Guy about the future intelligence, so that Might Guy could work with them to change the future.

Upon hearing Kakashi say he wasn't there to fight, Might Guy's expression instantly changed from excitement to disappointment; he had already thought about how to start the fight.

"If you really want to be challenged, I suppose it's not impossible," seeing Might Guy so disappointed, Kakashi thought for a moment and said.

"As expected, we still need to have a battle full of youth and passion!" Might Guy laughed and gave Kakashi a thumbs-up, his two rows of big white teeth exceptionally bright.

"But only rock-paper-scissors," Kakashi added.

Might Guy, who had been fully revived, seemed to be hit by a one-hit kill skill again; his whole person was like a wilted cabbage.

"Rock, paper, scissors!"

Although Might Guy was a bit disappointed, he still took this rock-paper-scissors challenge seriously.

"You win," Kakashi said, raising the scissors in his hand.

Might Guy looked at his own fist and sighed; he still wanted to have a real fist-to-fist battle with Kakashi, winning that way would be satisfying.

Silently adding this victory to the total wins against Kakashi, Might Guy followed Kakashi to a remote small grove.

"We accepted the mission to investigate the minister of Loulan and encountered ninjas from the future..."

Kakashi first briefly explained the beginning and process of meeting Naruto Uzumaki and the others, and then immediately explained the future intelligence in detail to Might Guy.

Not only the future intelligence, but also the latest information on the Akatsuki that they obtained in the Rain Country, Kakashi told all of it to Might Guy.

Regarding the matter that Kakashi and the others could encounter future ninjas, Might Guy was very surprised, but he directly believed Kakashi and did not raise any doubts.

"In order to change the future, we need your strength," Kakashi said seriously.

"This is exactly the meaning of my training to become stronger!" Might Guy replied with a bright smile.

Teacher Muyue, Obito, and Rin Nohara were all companions recognized by Might Guy, and Might Guy would do everything to protect them.

"Don't tell this matter to anyone outside of us," Kakashi reminded.

Might Guy nodded with a serious expression.

Then Might Guy and Kakashi went to the Southern Forest. Kakashi wanted to discuss something with Muyue's other disciples; his earlier refusal to fight Might Guy was related to this matter.

"In order to let everyone improve their strength faster, I propose a practical combat test every three months, and the bottom two in the test will receive punishment," Kakashi expressed his idea.

Perhaps others might think that they are already super geniuses to have such strength at the age of ten, but Kakashi felt it was not enough; such strength was insufficient to change history; they would at least need strength like Naruto Uzumaki or Yamato.

"Little Rin doesn't have to participate in this, after all, you mainly train in medical ninjutsu," Kakashi said, looking at Rin Nohara.

When estimating combat power, Kakashi only considered Rin Nohara as an ordinary chunin; a medical ninja's chakra naturally should be reserved for treatment.

Rin Nohara nodded helplessly; she would like to participate, but if the strength gap was too large, there was no point.

"I agree, and I think today is good enough; let's start the first practical test directly!" Might Guy was the first to support Kakashi.

"I think it's fine." Shisui nodded in agreement.

Although Shisui currently wasn't confident he could defeat any of the three — Kakashi, Obito, and Might Guy — he felt this was more beneficial for improving his strength.

"I have no objections, but what's the penalty?" Obito asked curiously.

"Simple: whatever everyone hates, that will be the penalty." Kakashi replied.

Because of individual differences, some penalties might be rewards for certain people; Kakashi felt that personalized penalties were necessary.

A look of dread appeared on Obito's face, and he quickly spoke up, "I really hate..."

"For example, Obito, you don't like studying and doing exam papers, so your penalty will be studying and doing exam papers." Kakashi interrupted.

"I think I hate eating green peppers more. How about switching to eating ten green peppers?" Obito tried to change the penalty.

"After all, I know myself best."

Kakashi gave Obito a calm look. "If you really hated eating green peppers more, you wouldn't have suggested switching."

Obito certainly understood himself, but he could also deceive himself.

"Exam papers really are Obito's weak point." Rin recalled the look of utter despair on Obito's face when he was punished with exam papers, and covered her mouth with a light laugh.

"After all, with his level of knowledge, doing exam papers is indeed a huge challenge." Kakashi immediately delivered another cutting remark.

Obito's face flushed red as he tried to argue, "I scored eighty points in the science section of the Chunin Exam — eighty points!"

Although that was the result of a little help from Mu Yue, it also involved his own effort.

"So you mean you're not afraid of doing exam papers? Then you definitely shouldn't have suggested switching." Seeing Obito red with embarrassment, Kakashi's lips curled up as he continued.

Obito didn't know how to refute that, so he could only curse silently in his heart — damn Kakashi — and tacitly accept that this was his penalty.

Kakashi was harsh on Obito, but also harsh on himself. He quickly took the initiative to state his own penalty.

"If I end up in the last two, for one whole week, no matter what Obito says, I won't argue back." Kakashi said solemnly.

In Kakashi's view, this penalty was sheer torture for him, because Obito would definitely come right up and say all kinds of snarky things.

With Obito and Kakashi setting an example, Shisui and Might Guy didn't hold back either; each set a sufficiently painful penalty for themselves.

Next came the actual sparring matches.

The four of them drew lots to decide their first-round opponents. The two eliminated in the first round would both have to accept their penalties, while the two winners would fight again, and the victor would be Mu Yue's strongest disciple for three months.

Since she didn't have to participate in the sparring, Rin took care of the miscellaneous tasks and helped Obito and the others with the drawing of lots.

"Shisui number one, Obito number two, Kakashi number three, Might Guy number four." Rin announced the results of the drawing.

"My eternal rival, this is the bond between us!" Might Guy laughed and gave Kakashi a thumbs-up, his previous disappointment instantly swept away.

Kakashi's expression turned serious. No matter how strong Might Guy was, he had to win this fight; otherwise, he couldn't imagine how arrogant Obito would be over these seven days.

Shisui and Obito exchanged a glance, and both of them burned with intense fighting spirit.

Shisui very much wanted to win, not only because of the penalty, but also due to his desire to compete.

Shisui was the youngest among Mu Yue's disciples, but he was also the first to learn from Mu Yue. Rather than being the weakest, he was more accustomed to being the strongest.

"Obito, your Flame Breathing Chakra Mode is strong, but you don't know that I've already become proficient in using Armament Haki." Shisui's confidence came from Armament Haki.

From the very beginning, Shisui's progress with Armament Haki had been far ahead of Obito and the others. While everyone else was still completely confused, Shisui could already use Haki, though it was inconsistent.

I stayed up too late last night, was in low spirits, and wrote very slowly.