Chapter 402: A Ninja Teacher on Par with Hanzo

In the end, Chihiro still didn't flee out of guilt; he had Kuroda wait in place, told him to run directly at any sign of trouble, and then went to Mugetsu's temporary residence.

"Lord Sōsuke, maybe you should lie low for a while. Some people have praised you too extravagantly, putting you on the same level as the Demigod Hanzō. Now not only are ninjas from various ninja organizations coming, even ninjas from the Hidden Rain Village have shown up."

Chihiro spoke to Mugetsu with a grave expression, a hint of regret on his face, as if sad that he wouldn't be able to attend Mugetsu's lectures anymore.

"Is that so? Then who do you think has been exaggerating the propaganda?" Mugetsu said with a smile, looking at Chihiro.

Mugetsu's gaze, as if seeing through everything, made Chihiro a little uneasy, but his expression remained unchanged, still looking as if he was thinking of Mugetsu's interests.

"Write down your views on war and peace and hand them to me before I leave," Mugetsu said, then walked toward the village entrance.

Whatever Chihiro's intentions, in terms of results, he had overfulfilled Mugetsu's task.

After realizing he had blown things up, he still informed Mugetsu to flee — that showed he had a bit of conscience.

So Mugetsu was willing to give Chihiro a chance, a chance that could alter the course of his life.

Before those ninjas had even approached Kozu Village, Mugetsu had already sensed their presence; he had long used his Byakugan to observe their strength.

Most of the rogue ninjas were genin who posed no threat to him, followed by some chunin from ninja organizations and the Hidden Rain Village; jonin were even rarer — apart from the Yahiko trio, there was only one jonin from the Hidden Rain Village who was barely at the standard level.

"Are you really not considering lying low? I can see that some of these ninjas look hostile, like they're looking for trouble," Chihiro reminded.

"Actually, your propaganda wasn't too much," Mugetsu said, giving Chihiro a meaningful smile.

With Mugetsu's current strength, standing shoulder to shoulder with Hanzō was no false advertisement.

This left Chihiro, who was about to flee, hesitant.

Mugetsu looked really confident, but Chihiro worried that Mugetsu was blindly confident and overestimating his own strength.

"Forget it, I'll see how it goes." After thinking for a while, Chihiro decided to stay.

Anyway, with Mugetsu's current attitude, he definitely wouldn't settle accounts with him; if something went wrong, he and his good brother could just run away together.

"Where is the Ninja Teacher Sōsuke? Didn't you say he would teach ninjutsu? Is this a scam?" That was an ambitious rogue ninja.

"How dare he put himself on par with Lord Hanzō? I'll see what he's really made of." That was a fanatical fan of Hanzō.

With so many ninjas gathered, the scene was very noisy; those who had been attending the lectures for a while were also too weak to maintain order.

Nagato frowned; he didn't like such a noisy environment.

Yahiko, on the other hand, was in his element, introducing the Akatsuki's great goal to a ninja he didn't know: "Brother, have you heard of the Akatsuki?"

"Heard of it, but not interested," the ninja beside him politely declined.

"Don't rush off; after I tell you about the Akatsuki's dream, you'll see us in a new light," Yahiko said, undiminished in enthusiasm.

"Yahiko, weren't you supposed to recruit that Sōsuke?" Konan said, noticing that the rogue ninja was about to lose his composure.

"The main target is Sōsuke-san, but with so many ninjas here, this is a great opportunity for the Akatsuki to increase its strength," Yahiko said, turning back to Konan.

Just as Yahiko was about to continue promoting the Akatsuki's great ideals to that rogue ninja, he found that in the time it took to turn his head, the guy had already disappeared to who knows where.

"Hello everyone, I heard someone was looking for me — I am Sōsuke." Mugetsu walked to the open space where the crowd had gathered and introduced himself.

Instantly, everyone's eyes fixed on Mugetsu, sizing up this audacious ninja teacher with curiosity.

"Audacious" was the only word they could use; comparing himself to Hanzō in the Land of Rain was like claiming to be evenly matched with Hashirama Senju in the Land of Fire.

"So you're that Sōsuke who calls himself a ninja teacher and dares to compare himself to Lord Hanzō?" A ninja with orange hair stepped out with a hostile expression and asked.

"I am indeed Sōsuke, but 'ninja teacher' is not a title I gave myself." Mugetsu nodded.

"The point is, you actually think you can be compared to Lord Hanzō," the orange-haired ninja said with intense displeasure. Then he burst out chakra and stomped the ground, his immense power instantly cracking the earth.

The ninjas near the orange-haired ninja showed surprise and distanced themselves from him — this guy was clearly looking for trouble and was quite strong.

Seeing this, Chihiro pulled Kuroda back a certain distance, putting the other ninjas in front of them as a shield.

"It's your freedom to think that way." Contrary to everyone's expectations, Mugetsu did not rush to argue or refute; instead, he tacitly acknowledged the orange-haired ninja's words.

The Hidden Rain ninja among the crowd frowned — too arrogant; their Lord Hanzō was a powerhouse recognized by the entire shinobi world.

If the orange-haired ninja hadn't shown considerable strength, the Hidden Rain jonin would have stepped forward to test Mugetsu's abilities themselves.

Since someone was willing to do the job, the Hidden Rain jonin was happy to watch the show.

"Let me, Kurosaki Ichigo, see how much strength you have, daring to compare yourself to Lord Hanzō!" Kurosaki Ichigo snorted coldly as he burst out his chakra, his aura spreading outward.

The Rain Village jōnin felt the oppressive force coming from Kurosaki Ichigo and showed a surprised expression—this guy was even stronger than him.

"As expected of Lord Hanzō, to have an admirer with this level of strength even outside the Rain Village." The Rain Village jōnin admired Hanzō even more in his heart.

"It's just about time for class, so let's have a practical lesson." Mu Yue accepted the invitation with a composed expression.

This Kurosaki Ichigo wasn't a ninja who shared a name with a popular manga protagonist; he was Mu Yue's shadow clone.

The best way for Mu Yue to display his strength was to have a brainless villain jump out from the crowd and get beaten up by him—showing off power while establishing authority.

But in the real world, there weren't that many brainless people, so Mu Yue simply had his shadow clone put on an act.

To prevent Nagato's Rinnegan from seeing through it, Mu Yue's shadow clone also used the Transformation Technique to alter its face.

Because using the Transformation Technique to impersonate a known ninja consumed a lot of chakra, and maintaining it also required chakra, the shadow clone simply couldn't handle that kind of drain. Otherwise, directly choosing a ninja from the Rain Country to impersonate would have worked better.

"That guy looks pretty strong—should we help?" Konan asked softly.

Konan wasn't present when Mu Yue went to see Nagato, so she didn't know Nagato's assessment of Mu Yue.

"I trust Sōsuke-san's strength. Since he acknowledged it, then he must really be no less than Hanzō!" Yahiko chose to believe that Mu Yue could handle this matter.

To avoid affecting the villagers of Kozu Village, Mu Yue moved the battlefield to an open space outside the village.

"If you're ready, we'll count down from three and start." Kurosaki Ichigo assumed a combat stance.

Mu Yue nodded to indicate he had no objection.

"Three, two, one!"

Both of them moved the instant they counted one.

"Earth Release: Earth Spears!"

Kurosaki Ichigo's hands swiftly formed hand seals, and the flat ground instantly shot up many thick rock spikes, each taller than an ordinary person and extremely sharp.

Most of the rogue ninjas had never seen such a terrifyingly powerful technique; they instinctively backed off a little more to avoid being caught in the battle.

Mu Yue, as if expecting this, vanished with a whoosh using the Body Flicker Technique, dodging the wide-area attack of rock spikes.

"So fast." The Rain Village jōnin realized that this Sōsuke seemed to be no ordinary man.

He hadn't even registered how Mu Yue dodged Kurosaki Ichigo's Earth Release attack.

The Rain Village jōnin was glad that Kurosaki Ichigo had stepped up first; if he had embarrassed the Rain Village, Hanzō would surely punish him.

"Sharp lightning can break through the hardness of earth. The Lightning Release chakra nature transformation counters the Earth Release chakra nature transformation, so the best way to deal with Earth Release is to use Lightning Release." Mu Yue explained as he formed hand seals.

"Lightning Release: False Darkness!"

Mu Yue gathered a large amount of chakra in his mouth and spat out an extremely sharp bolt of lightning that swept across like a massive spear.

Boom!!

The terrifying lightning spear instantly destroyed all the rock spikes on the ground, sending debris flying, and continued toward Kurosaki Ichigo with undiminished force.

Kurosaki Ichigo seemed not to have expected Mu Yue's Lightning Release to be so fearsome; he was thrown into a fluster.

"So he's this strong—then the rumors must be true." Some rogue ninja clenched his fists with an excited expression.

If he could learn such a powerful jutsu, he wouldn't have to skulk around robbing ordinary people to sustain his training; he could take bounty missions from the black market and get rich.

He wasn't the only one thinking that way; many ninjas felt it wasn't a wasted trip.

"So what if you counter my Earth Release? I'm not limited to Earth Release jutsu!" Kurosaki Ichigo formed hand seals again reluctantly.

This time he used Fire Release. A large amount of flames was spat out by Kurosaki Ichigo, quickly forming a huge fireball that hurtled toward Mu Yue.

"The best choice against Fire Release is Water; water can extinguish fire." Mu Yue continued his explanation.

"Water Release: Great Waterfall Technique!"

Mu Yue gathered chakra and spat out a massive water sphere, which not only extinguished the incoming fireball but also drenched Kurosaki Ichigo thoroughly.

"Don't think you're the only one who can use Water Release." Kurosaki Ichigo, as if feeling humiliated, flushed red.

"Water Release: Water Dragon Bullet Technique!"

Using the residual water flow from Muyue's Great Waterfall Technique, Kurosaki Ichigo quickly condensed an extremely thick water dragon.

Watching this super water dragon that far exceeded an ordinary Water Dragon Bomb in both length and thickness, many of the observing ninjas retreated a bit more.

Among them, many were not necessarily much stronger than freshly graduated Konoha genin. They survived in this chaotic land of Rain Country entirely through caution, and they knew well to keep a safe distance when watching a spectacle.

The Rain Ninja Village jōnin was already considering whether to recommend Kurosaki Ichigo to Hanzo. Although he was from another village, his strength was indeed considerable—he had mastered three nature transformations and seemed proficient in each.

"Of course, in battle, nature affinity is not absolute. If the strength difference is too great, it won't matter. Powerful enough flames can also evaporate a water flow." Muyue this time did not choose to counter but instead voluntarily allowed himself to be countered.

"Fire Release: Head-Hardened!"

Muyue spat out a small fireball compressed to its limit toward the charging water dragon.

At first, the fireball was only the size of a fist, but upon colliding with the Water Dragon Bomb, the compressed flames instantly erupted into a sea of fire. Under the scorching heat of the sea of fire, the massive water dragon rapidly disappeared.

The Rain Ninja Village jōnin's pupils sharply contracted. This ninjutsu collision had a completely different meaning from the previous ones.

Being able to suppress the opponent even when at a disadvantage could only mean the strength disparity was too great, and Kurosaki Ichigo's performance was already far stronger than an average jōnin.

The Rain Ninja Village jōnin was astonished to realize that aside from Hanzo, there really seemed to be no one in the Rain Ninja Village who could be a match for this Sōsuke.

"No wonder he dares to put himself on par with Lord Hanzo." The Rain Ninja Village jōnin no longer thought Muyue was arrogant.

This was reality, this was the ninja world. A ninja's strength was the foundation of everything.

Although the Rain Ninja Village jōnin felt that this level of strength could not defeat their Rain Ninja's demigod Hanzo, it was safe to say he was the second strongest in Rain Country.

Considering that Muyue had never fought Hanzo, it was normal for him to misjudge, so he didn't think it was arrogant.

"As expected of Uncle Sōsuke." Yahiko felt the oncoming heat wave and couldn't help but praise.

As a ninja specializing in Water Release, he understood better than ordinary ninjas how impressive Muyue's Fire Release was.

"He wasn't lying before, was he?" Chiba also stared dumbfounded as Muyue taught the powerful jōnin a lesson with both offense and defense.

A terrifying thought crossed his mind: Muyue hadn't been boasting earlier; he really had mastered all seven chakra nature transformations.

Thinking of this, Chiba's heart pounded. He recalled what Muyue had told him a few minutes ago. Although it was still about writing impressions, this time it was clearly different from usual.

Next, Muyue further demonstrated his powerful taijutsu skills to the observing ninjas, pointing out Kurosaki Ichigo's weaknesses while fighting and giving improvement suggestions.

Not only the newly arrived ninjas were surprised, but even the veterans who had been following Muyue for a while did not expect him to be this strong.

In their minds, Muyue being at the level of a major nation's jōnin was already the peak, as that was already a level of strength they couldn't reach.

"Your strength is indeed formidable, I am no match for you, but that does not mean your strength can compare to Lord Hanzo's." Kurosaki Ichigo, unwilling to endure further humiliation, voluntarily conceded, but still defended Hanzo.

The Rain Ninja Village jōnin was a bit touched. In this day and age, there were still ninjas like this. Now he had no choice but to recommend him to Hanzo.

The other observing ninjas also felt a surge of respect, believing that Kurosaki Ichigo lost but was worthy of respect.

Having said that, Kurosaki Ichigo left without looking back.

The Rain Ninja Village jōnin silently noted the name. The strength Muyue had displayed was too great; he needed to investigate further and couldn't leave for now.

"Master Ninja Teacher, please teach me ninjutsu!" A ninja immediately shouted with respect.

This shout set off a chain reaction, and others who caught on also began flattering Muyue and putting themselves in the posture of students.