Chapter 461: Blazing Sun Bathed in Moon (Daily Votes Request)

"Killing a full-form tailed beast with your own hands, Lord Muyue—after this battle, your name and your slash will spread throughout the ninja world. I'll report your achievements to the higher-ups shortly." Orochimaru walked up to Muyue with a smile.

He rarely showed such a smile, but he knew it would make him appear more approachable.

"It was just taking advantage of an opportunity, and this is everyone's achievement. Without the attack from the troops and you, Orochimaru, creating an opening for me, I definitely wouldn't have been able to kill the jinchūriki." Muyue thought for a moment, then said.

Muyue wasn't being overly modest; this battle was indeed the result of everyone working together. Whether it was the main contributors, Muyue and Orochimaru, the Ino-Shika-Cho trio, or the ordinary Konoha jōnin, everyone played a role—just a matter of how much.

"The strength of the troops is certainly important, but your finishing blow, Muyue, was even more critical." Orochimaru shook his head slightly.

Jinchūriki kills aren't easy to come by; Muyue's Flying Thunder God played a crucial role.

After saying that, Orochimaru didn't chat with Muyue any longer. After a few more words, he went to organize the work.

He understood how to strike a balance; showing his intent too obviously or strongly would only invite dislike, and besides, Orochimaru was truly busy now.

Although the battle was won, the fighting on the eastern shore wasn't completely over. Yagura Karatachi had escaped with a large number of Kiri troops—a significant problem.

Orochimaru still had to report the battle process and results to Konoha's higher-ups, and finally, he had to arrange all the subsequent work.

"Teacher Muyue, what's the name of that ninjutsu where you made a small sun appear in the sky?" Seeing Orochimaru leave, Obito eagerly stepped forward to ask.

That technique was way too cool; Obito really wanted to learn it.

The ability to turn a whole area bright as day in the middle of the night—in Obito's eyes, it was practically the skill of an immortal.

"Scorching Sun Technique." Muyue answered after a moment's thought.

The name 'Great Sun' felt a bit off as a jutsu name, so Muyue directly gave it a more Naruto-style name.

"Scorching Sun Technique." Obito repeated it under his breath. "That's so fitting—after using it, a blazing sun appears."

Then Obito looked at Muyue with an expectant gaze and asked, "Teacher Muyue, do you think I could learn this technique?"

"It is learnable." Muyue answered affirmatively.

In that instant, Obito had already thought of his future titles: Obito of the Scorching Flame, Konoha's Most Ferocious Fire Tiger.

"But I wouldn't recommend you learn it now." Muyue's added words extinguished the fire in Obito's heart.

"Why not? Isn't this technique really strong?" Obito asked, puzzled.

If Muyue hadn't suddenly used a Great Sun, that battle just now would have been much harder for Konoha to win.

"Overall, the Scorching Sun Technique is indeed very effective, but in everyday small-scale battles, it's not as useful as you think." Muyue explained.

When Muyue first acquired Great Sun, he tested it, and using it wasn't as good as directly using the Flame Breathing Chakra Mode—that was stronger and saved chakra.

Great Sun is essentially a field that strengthens fire release and weakens water release; the field's range, duration, and intensity all depend on the chakra consumed.

When Muyue tested it, he consumed 40,000 chakra points and only managed a Great Sun covering a range of two hundred meters, lasting just five minutes.

In this battle, Muyue had to consume a large amount of chakra and sacrifice some of the Great Sun's intensity to cover the entire battlefield.

In normal squad or solo combat, two hundred meters is really not enough—it's easy to move out of the Great Sun's range. But sacrificing intensity for range isn't as good as using the Flame Breathing Chakra Mode to cast multiple techniques.

"Besides, this technique is very difficult. You'd have to concentrate on studying it for a long time to master it." Muyue revealed the final barrier stopping Obito.

The high difficulty of Great Sun was the reason Muyue believed Obito shouldn't learn it at his current stage.

Otherwise, even if it wasn't very useful normally, Muyue wouldn't mind his disciples having more options, since they could simply not use it during routine situations.

The most difficult technique Muyue had seen so far was the localized version of Transformation—he had no idea how to teach that.

Next was Great Sun. The first difficulty of Great Sun is needing a high level of fire nature chakra transformation, a requirement Obito could barely meet thanks to the Flame Breathing Chakra Mode's boost.

The second difficulty of Great Sun is its inherent extreme training difficulty. Given Obito's pace of learning techniques, Muyue estimated it would take at least half a year of dedicated study to actually use it.

Spending that time focusing on other things would boost his strength more.

As a lightning release sword technique, Thoughtless Slash is actually harder than Great Sun, but even if you don't master it, the products trained during the process still provide a solid boost to strength. That's why, once Kakashi met the training requirements, Muyue taught it to him directly.

Obito's face showed unconcealed disappointment. Even if this technique couldn't play a major role, he still wanted to learn it—if nothing else, he could use it to look cool outside of battle.

However, upon hearing that it would take a long time to learn, Obito gave up. Strength is the foundation; techniques that hinder strength growth are unacceptable—otherwise, he'd lose badly in spars with his fellow disciples.

Obito didn't want to be punished with endless problem sets just because he wanted to show off—the cost was too high.

After chatting with all his disciples for a while and treating Might Guy in passing, Choza Akimichi and the others found Muyue.

"Mu Yue, today's battle was all thanks to you. If that tail had come down on me, I'd be in deep trouble." Akimichi Chōza laughed as he thanked him.

"If there's ever anything you need help with, just say the word. Though I can't compare to you in strength, Mu Yue, I have many connections in the field of secret medicine refining."

Mu Yue's mind stirred. He remembered that the Akimichi clan had some secret medicines specifically for use with their secret techniques, and they had done considerable research on such medicines. Meanwhile, the Nara clan, which was allied with the Akimichi, was involved in the medicinal herb business.

"We're all comrades; helping each other is only right." Mu Yue smiled warmly at first, then showed a somewhat troubled expression.

"I don't have much need for secret medicines, but lately I've been wanting to purchase some medicinal herbs, some of which are quite rare and hard to buy."

Mu Yue possessed a prescription for a restorative secret medicine and could refine it himself, but some of the ingredients were indeed too rare; even with money, they might not be obtainable.

Akimichi Chōza laughed heartily, putting his arm around Nara Shikaku's shoulders and said, "Then you've come to the right person. Konoha's medical system is maintained by Shikaku's family supplying medicinal herbs. You can't go wrong asking him."

Nara Shikaku nodded slightly. "Mu Yue, if there's any medicinal herb you want to buy, you can give me a list, and I'll have someone look into preparing it."

The Ino–Shika–Chō trio were one unit. By saving Akimichi Chōza, Mu Yue had effectively saved the Nara as well. Nara Shikaku didn't mind lending a small hand.

Even without this, Nara Shikaku would most likely have helped anyway, because he had high hopes for Mu Yue's future.

"Then I'm truly grateful to you, Shikaku. When I have time, I'll write out the list and give it to you." Mu Yue smiled in thanks.

He only planned to have Nara Shikaku purchase some of the rarer herbs; the common ones he would buy himself.

This thing's effects were a bit too remarkable; letting it out would easily cause trouble.

Next, Orochimaru didn't have the troops pursue the Kirigakure forces overnight; instead, he let the troops rest for a night, and only during the day did he send a large number of Konoha ninja to sweep the eastern shore.

Yagura Karatachi seemed to have anticipated that Orochimaru would choose to kick the enemy while they were down, so he directly led the Kirigakure forces in retreat back to the Land of Water. Orochimaru only caught a few Kirigakure ninja left behind for intelligence gathering.

With that, the war on the eastern shore came to a close with a major victory for the Konoha ninja forces.

Konohagakure.

Hokage Building, Conference Room.

"Hiruzen, if you had listened to me earlier and sent Mu Yue to the battlefield, perhaps Konoha would have achieved even greater results long ago." Shimura Danzō stood up excitedly and fired at Sarutobi Hiruzen.

He had long suggested sending Mu Yue to the battlefield to assist Orochimaru, but Sarutobi Hiruzen only relented when Orochimaru was transferred to the eastern shore.

Now, the better Mu Yue's achievements, the more face it gave him, Shimura Danzō, and at the same time it was a slap in the face for Sarutobi Hiruzen, powerfully proving that his, Shimura Danzō's, judgment was superior to Hiruzen's.

Shimura Danzō knew he was getting a bit too smug—after all, Sarutobi Hiruzen was still the Hokage—but he couldn't quite control himself; the corners of his mouth wouldn't stay down.

There was no helping it; for Shimura Danzō, this was truly a satisfying and thorough face-slapping. All the previous scoldings from Sarutobi Hiruzen had turned into boomerangs that struck Hiruzen himself.

At this moment, Shimura Danzō's goodwill toward Mu Yue reached its peak. He felt that Mu Yue was practically the perfect product of Root, the most successful creation since he founded Root.

Because no Root member had ever allowed him to slap Sarutobi Hiruzen in the face before.

"Without that period of consolidation, perhaps Mu Yue wouldn't have shone so brilliantly on the eastern shore battlefield," Sarutobi Hiruzen retorted.

Sarutobi Hiruzen was indeed a bit embarrassed, but he didn't feel much like he'd been slapped in the face, because Mu Yue was practically his half-disciple.

When a student becomes accomplished and strong, how could Sarutobi Hiruzen feel slapped? He only felt that his teaching ability had been proven once again.

When Mu Yue left Root, his strength was not weak—he could be called elite among jōnin—but far from what it was now.

Though Mu Yue's current strength couldn't be credited entirely to him, he did play a part. Many of Mu Yue's jutsu were rewards from him, and he had also taught Mu Yue about nature transformation.

"It's also possible that Mu Yue would have gained experience on the battlefield and become even stronger than he is now!" Shimura Danzō insisted stubbornly.

Now he was truly confident, because Mu Yue going to the battlefield was the very result of his persistent recommendations.

Sarutobi Hiruzen looked at Shimura Danzō with a dark expression. If not for Danzō's merits, Hiruzen would have wanted to kick him out of the conference room. Stuck on one point like that, anyone would think it was Shimura Danzō who had killed the jinchūriki.

"There's no need for excessive arguing over this issue. Both of you have merits—Danzō, you discovered Mu Yue; Hiruzen, you nurtured Mu Yue." Mitokado Homura stepped in to smooth things over.

Normally he would lean toward Sarutobi Hiruzen, but today it really wasn't appropriate to criticize Shimura Danzō.

"Let's discuss the real business next—how to handle the relationship with Kirigakure going forward," Utatane Koharu added.

Shimura Danzō's expression gradually returned to calm, and he nodded.

From his understanding of Sarutobi Hiruzen, Hiruzen was probably on the verge of anger right now. He needed to stop, or if he truly angered Hiruzen, Hiruzen might target his Root.

Although Shimura Danzō believed everything he did was for Konoha, many of the things he did did not conform to Konoha's regulations and would not stand up to scrutiny.

"Make the Hidden Mist Village pay war reparations, or we continue the war." Shimura Danzo directly stated his view.

Konoha had not only killed the Three-Tails jinchūriki of the Mist, but also slain Mist strongmen like Mizutsuki Kanki and Shimotsuki Zangetsu. It was a total victory. If not for the other battlefields, Danzo would have been shouting slogans about leveling the Hidden Mist Village.

"That's too radical. According to the intelligence Orochimaru sent, Yagura Karatachi led a considerable number of ninja troops back to the Mist. Plus, the Mist still has the Six-Tails jinchūriki. They aren't without fighting strength. They won't agree to pay massive reparations to Konoha." Sarutobi Hiruzen analyzed.

Hiruzen had seen the casualty report. From start to finish, the eastern battlefield had lost only a little over seven hundred Mist ninja. For a major hidden village with deep foundations like the Mist, that was not a crippling blow.

Adding the Six-Tails jinchūriki, the Mist still had considerable combat power.

"Then what should we do? We can't just take the initiative to unconditionally sue for peace after a major victory, can we?" Shimura Danzo countered.

If Hiruzen really wanted that, Danzo would strongly oppose it - it would be far too disgraceful.

"Of course not." Hiruzen shook his head.

How could they unconditionally seek peace after being invaded on their own soil? No Konoha ninja could tolerate that.

Fighting with their lives against the invaders, only to unjustly sue for peace after barely winning.

"If we can't demand reparations, and we can't do unconditional peace, then what do you suggest?" Danzo asked bluntly.

It couldn't be that Konoha would pay reparations to the Mist, could it? Then he really wanted to see what was inside Hiruzen's head.

"Since the Mist forces have already withdrawn from the Land of Fire, for now we simply ignore the Mist." Hiruzen stated his idea.

"Although the Mist forces still have some fight left, they've also lost considerable strength. Such a major defeat will surely make them reluctant to start a war with Konoha again. After our other battlefields are concluded, we can send forces to deal with the Mist."

Hiruzen's thinking was actually quite simple: maintain a tacit period of peace.

Konoha wouldn't demand reparations from the Mist, and the Mist would quietly recuperate and not provoke Konoha. That way neither side loses face, and each gets what they want.

Konoha temporarily eliminates one enemy, and the Mist doesn't have to pay for losing.

"Hiruzen's idea is very good. It fully considers Konoha's current situation." Mitokado Homura nodded in approval.

He felt Hiruzen's plan was the best move for Konoha's current situation—saving face while achieving the goal of reducing enemies.

"Demanding reparations really isn't appropriate. Asking for too little is meaningless, and the Mist would never agree to a large sum." Utatane Koharu also endorsed Hiruzen's proposal.

In the end, Hiruzen's plan for handling the Mist passed with an overwhelming three-to-one majority.

Shimura Danzo snorted coldly and said nothing.

Upon careful thought, he realized Hiruzen did have a point. But Danzo had rarely enjoyed a moment of triumph over Hiruzen today, so he wasn't about to back down.

After concluding the major issue of the Mist's treatment, the next order of business was arranging matters for the eastern battlefield ninja, followed by rewards for meritorious ninja and deciding which ninja to promote.

Because Obito had earned additional merits on the battlefield, and with Orochimaru's recommendation, Hiruzen ultimately decided to promote Obito to full jōnin.

Although Obito's theoretical knowledge was a weakness, his actual strength was genuinely excellent. Combined with his sufficient track record, Hiruzen had no reason not to promote him, especially during wartime.

To publicize this great victory and boost Konoha ninja morale, Hiruzen ordered the Konoha Newspaper staff to work overtime producing a new issue for distribution, while also using influence to spread the news in the Land of Fire and other countries.

"Eastern battlefield achieved enormous results: Mist's Three-Tails jinchūriki killed; ninja forces routed and fled the Land of Fire!" Tsunade nodded as she read the newspaper Shizune had bought while grocery shopping.

Killing a jinchūriki was no small matter, and driving out the only invading village from their homeland also held significant meaning.

When she saw the first subheading of the newspaper, Tsunade paused.

"The Harmonious Battle of the Legendary Sannin Orochimaru and Konoha's New Generation Blazing Sun Hanyū Mugetsu: Slaying a Complete Tailed Beast"

Because the scene of Mugetsu unleashing Clear Sky had been so shocking, the title "Blazing Sun Mugetsu" had spread among the Konoha ninja forces after that battle with the tailed beast. The newspaper writer thought it sounded good and simply wrote it in.

"Huh, is that kid Mugetsu really that strong? So it was him and Orochimaru who killed the jinchūriki together." Tsunade was a bit surprised.

Tsunade wasn't very clear on Mugetsu's strength—after all, she didn't care much about it. For her, Mugetsu's cooking skills were what mattered.

Still, she really hadn't expected Mugetsu to achieve such a feat. The Konoha Newspaper was generally trustworthy. If Mugetsu hadn't played a significant role in the jinchūriki fight, he wouldn't have been listed alongside Orochimaru.

"With strength like that, just training step by step should be enough, right? And he still wants to develop a sealing technique to store chakra. I really don't know where that guy gets such strong motivation for training." After reading the parts related to Mugetsu, Tsunade tossed the newspaper aside and continued lying on the sofa enjoying life.

With the release of the latest Konoha Newspaper, the name "Blazing Sun Mugetsu" quickly spread throughout all of Konoha.

The ninja school teachers who had once worked with Mugetsu couldn't help but feel emotional when they heard the news. Two years ago they had still been colleagues.

Two years later, Mugetsu had become a jōnin, become vice principal, and now made a big name for himself on the battlefield—it was truly hard to imagine.

But soon someone noticed a problem: the Yellow Flash Minato Namikaze and the Blazing Sun Hanyū Mugetsu were not only similar in age, but also had similar hair color and facial features. Moreover, both could use the Flying Thunder God Technique.

This inadvertently makes some people subconsciously compare the two.

Some think Muyue is stronger because Muyue killed the Jinchuriki, while Namikaze Minato only fought to a draw with the new AB combo.

Others think Namikaze Minato is stronger because Muyue killed the Jinchuriki with the help of Orochimaru and also had the assistance of ninja forces.

However, everyone agrees that they are among the strongest new-era ninjas of Konoha and even the entire ninja world.