Chapter 467: Might Guy's Pokémon Hatching

The disciple Uchiha Shisui's strength increased, his reputation rose, and his influence within the clan grew, taking a small step on the path to resolving the conflict between the Uchiha and Konoha. He received progress rewards: Chakra +1000, Bloodline Enhancement Scroll, and Nirvana Jizō Technique (Mastery Level).

Perhaps because they were both Uchiha ninja and shared some common ground, Shisui's progress rewards didn't differ much from Obito's life mission rewards at the same progress milestone—only the Mastery-level Fire Release had turned into Mastery-level Genjutsu.

Muyue had a vague impression of the Nirvana Jizō Technique. In the original series, during the Konoha Chūnin Exams, Kabuto Yakushi used this technique to put a large number of Konoha ninja to sleep. It was a wide-range area-of-effect genjutsu.

However, although the Nirvana Jizō Technique covered a wide area, it had a drawback: any ninja skilled in genjutsu, even a genin, could break out of it.

But that was pretty normal in Naruto—most techniques excelled in only one aspect and couldn't be perfect in every way.

Next, Muyue looked at the Bloodline Enhancement Scroll; this was a pretty good reward.

Last time, after he enhanced his Byakugan, not only did all the Byakugan's abilities improve, but it also gained an ability to release invisible small shockwaves.

Although that didn't boost Muyue's combat power, it proved that his Byakugan was truly evolving toward a higher level, unlike ordinary Byakugan.

No matter how pure the Byakugan of an ordinary Hyūga clan member was, it only had ordinary abilities like telescopic vision and enhanced perception.

Muyue tapped the Bloodline Enhancement Scroll. The only option for enhancement was still the Byakugan. He selected the Byakugan and confirmed the use.

Then Muyue concentrated his breathing, entered the Transparent World state, and sensed the subtle changes in his body.

First, his physical strength increased—not by much, but it definitely increased. Muyue estimated the improvement was about the effect of a month of constant training with the Water Breathing technique.

The increase in chakra amount was very clear, since the panel showed a specific number: a growth of 1,500 points of chakra.

Neither physical strength nor chakra amount was Muyue's main focus. He casually formed a Rasengan to consume some chakra, and then immediately started refining more chakra.

"Just like last time—it got a little faster again." Muyue nodded in satisfaction.

Chakra recovery speed had always been a significant problem for Muyue. Since most of his chakra came from the system directly raising his upper limit, his recovery speed never matched his total chakra capacity.

For a long time, Muyue had a Kage-level chakra reserve but only a Jōnin-level recovery speed.

One of the reasons Muyue had been researching the Yin Seal was precisely this: having enough backup chakra could largely compensate for the slow recovery.

As for a permanent cure, Muyue currently had no good way—the only options were gradually improving his body through breathing techniques or having a body-reshaping reward like this bloodline enhancement.

There was actually a quick method, but the risk was too great. Having Orochimaru transplant Hashirama's cells could completely solve the problem, but that meant Muyue would be handing his life over to Orochimaru. Muyue would rather keep researching the Yin Seal and temper his physique with breathing techniques.

First, Orochimaru in this era was already obsessed with immortality. Muyue, who had many secrets, would be walking right into a trap by putting himself in Orochimaru's hands.

Second, Orochimaru hadn't fully mastered the experiment of transplanting Hashirama's cells—the risk was enormous. Even if Orochimaru performed the transplant with zero ulterior motives, Muyue would still have a considerable chance of dying in the procedure.

As someone who had a cheat, Muyue didn't need to gamble like that.

Finally, Muyue gathered chakra in his eyes and activated the Byakugan to see if there would be any new ability this time.

After a round of testing, Muyue found that this time only the observation range had increased; no new ability appeared like last time.

After finishing the tests, Muyue deactivated the Byakugan, looked at the panel again, and opened Shisui's life mission.

Name: Uchiha Shisui

Life Mission: The Uchiha and Konoha

Main Objective: Resolve the conflict between the Uchiha and Konoha, and integrate the Uchiha into Konoha

Mission Progress: 13%. Although Shisui was the first disciple to unlock a life mission, due to the special nature of his mission, he has the fewest progress payouts among all the disciples. So far he has only completed one payout.

Currently, Obito has the most payouts—three in total. Might Guy and Kakashi have two each, but it's worth mentioning that Guy is very close to 30% and will soon trigger his third payout.

Nagato, who became a disciple later, hasn't unlocked his life mission yet.

Southern Forest.

Kakashi was staring seriously at the brown-furred puppy he had just hatched not long ago, thinking about how to help it grow stronger.

Kakashi had discovered that the ninja beast hatched from the egg gifted by Muyue grew much faster than normal animals. The Rockruff was only a few days old, but it could already run all over the place, with energy and stamina that didn't seem like those of a newborn puppy.

So Kakashi decided to train together with Rockruff. After all, Muyue had said before that Rockruff had great potential and would be a good partner if raised carefully.

"Iwaiwa, you'll run with me from now on. Don't stop until I stop. Keep running until you're out of strength." Kakashi crouched down, patted Rockruff's head, and said.

Kakashi had thought long and hard before finally naming Rockruff based on the characteristic of the stone around its neck.

Kakashi believed that whether for a ninja beast or a human, physical strength was a very important ability. Training the body might not be the best option, but it wouldn't be wrong.

"Rock!"

Rockruff rapidly nodded its head and rubbed against Kakashi's palm.

"Don't run off," Kakashi added one last reminder, then started running himself.

During the time he had been caring for Rockruff, Kakashi discovered that Rockruff was very smart—as long as the command wasn't too complicated, it could understand and carry it out.

As soon as Kakashi started running, Rockruff quickly followed, running alongside him.

Seeing this, Kakashi sped up until Rockruff could only run behind him.

It wasn't that Kakashi minded running side by side with his own summoning beast; he wanted to test Rockruff's top running speed.

"It's so cute when it tries hard," said Nohara Rin, who was resting after a tough training session, watching Rockruff desperately chase after Kakashi.

Determined to keep pace with the other disciples, Rin wanted to pass the Jonin assessment in one go and become a Jonin. Lately, she had been training until exhaustion, then resting, then training again.

"Rin, are you talking about Kakashi or that white-furred dog?" Obito, standing nearby, couldn't help asking.

This question was pretty important to him.

"Don't you think it's cute, Obito, how the young Rockruff's four little legs work so hard to catch up to Kakashi? Its big white tail bounces with every step," Nohara Rin asked, puzzled.

She certainly wasn't praising Kakashi—the word "cute" didn't quite fit him; Rin preferred adjectives like "cool" or "handsome."

"Not really, it's not as good as that yellow dog from my clan," Obito said, relieved, though he still threw in a dig at Rockruff.

*Just keep training with your summoning beast. Next internal battle, I'll definitely beat you! * Obito grumbled inwardly.

Obito figured he probably wouldn't be using his summoning beast by the next internal battle. He had received his ninja beast egg later than Shisui, and Shisui hadn't even hatched his yet, so Obito would only be later.

Even if it hatched before the internal battle, a newborn ninja beast wouldn't have combat ability and couldn't be used in a fight.

So although Obito was eager to hatch his ninja beast egg, he knew this wasn't the time to rush it.

Just then, Kakashi and Rockruff ran past where Obito and the others were. Hearing someone badmouthing him, Rockruff became furious and immediately charged at Obito with a headbutt.

Because he was talking to Nohara Rin and hadn't expected Rockruff to have such sharp ears and memory, nor such a vengeful streak, Obito failed to notice the incoming Rockruff in time and was knocked flat on his back.

"Rock!"

After knocking Obito down, Rockruff proudly lifted its dog head, then dashed back toward Kakashi.

"Kakashi, your dog is really a dog," Obito said, his face reddening as he barely held his composure.

Obito almost wanted to shift into Flame Breathing Chakra Mode and have it out with Rockruff.

Nohara Rin covered her mouth with a giggle, then brushed the dust off Obito as he got up, soothing him:

"The young Rockruff was just born recently, it doesn't know any better. Don't be angry, Obito."

Hearing Rin speak up for Rockruff made Obito even redder, and it felt like the very air around him was screaming the word "WARNING."

Because it gave him the illusion that he meant less to Nohara Rin than that white-furred dog.

"It's a dog by nature, so of course it's dog-like," Kakashi replied, the corner of his mouth lifting slightly as he kept running.

"Rock!" Rockruff let out a joyful bark.

Watching the one human and one dog grow distant, Obito was so furious he ground his teeth, wishing they would immediately step into a trap and fall into a big pit.

"You evil little white-furred dog—just wait until my ninja beast egg hatches. I'll show you!" Obito couldn't help stroking his still-unhatched ninja beast egg.

Right now, Obito couldn't wait a single moment; he wished he could fast-forward to the day the egg hatched.

"Teacher Muyue, is there any way to hatch this egg faster?" In the end, Obito went to Muyue.

He felt that the all-capable Muyue the Sage must have a solution, since Muyue the Sage was omnipotent!

"Carrying it around with you more often should speed things up," Muyue replied after a moment's thought.

The Pokémon eggs Obito and the others had received were all bound to them—only they could hatch them. If Muyue held them, there would be no change at all.

"Is that really true? I see Guy carrying his egg around during training every day, and it still hasn't hatched," Obito said, glancing at Might Guy, who was doing one-armed push-ups while holding the egg with one finger.

Just as Obito finished speaking, a fierce white light enveloped Might Guy.

Obito: …

Seeing the same special effect that had accompanied Rockruff's birth, Obito was stunned.

"What is this? I've become Kakashi?" Obito was extremely confused in his mind.

In his memory, only Kakashi would act like this.

"Kakashi must have infected me. Damn Kakashi!" Obito mentally added another tally against Kakashi.

"But what kind of ninja beast will Gai get?"

Obito's eyes were fixed on the white light, but he could never see through the thick glow to the Pokémon hatching inside.

The sudden change also caused Might Guy to stop his training, silently maintaining the egg-holding pose as he waited for the white light to fade.

Kakashi, who had been jogging, noticed this phenomenon and quickly ran over to watch in silence.

"There's white light too. Could it be that the ninja beast eggs Teacher Muyue prepared for us all come from a single summon beast group?" Kakashi thought as he gazed at the mysterious white light.

After returning to Konoha, Kakashi had looked up many texts in the library but found nothing.

Kakashi had neither found records of egg-laying dogs nor any ninja beast similar to Rockruff.

However, Kakashi felt that Muyue would never harm them; these summon beasts must have been hidden away in some secret place and never appeared in the world, hence the lack of any information.

Finally, the white light dissipated, and a black-and-blue puppy appeared before everyone.

"Another egg-laying dog. Could all the ninja beast eggs be canine?" Kakashi looked at Riolu with a thoughtful expression.

He guessed that Muyue had accidentally stumbled upon the habitat of some hidden canine summon beast group, which was how he obtained these ninja beast eggs.

"Seems weaker than Kakashi's dog," Obito silently complained as he looked at the somewhat scrawny blue-black puppy.

The newly hatched Riolu was simply too tiny; Obito felt that if he flicked it with one finger, it might faint.

"They can't all be dogs, can they? I hope my dog is big and mighty," Obito prayed as he hugged his ninja beast egg to his chest.

He didn't really like skinny dogs like Riolu; if he had a choice, he'd prefer something stronger and more handsome.

Whether it was his imagination or not, Obito felt that Riolu glared at him disapprovingly.

"Haha, looks like he has the potential to work hard!" Might Guy lifted Riolu up, flashing two rows of big white teeth as he laughed heartily.

Might Guy wasn't dissatisfied with Riolu's small size, because he himself hadn't been strong in the past; he had become muscular through daily training.

In truth, no matter which ninja beast hatched, Might Guy wouldn't dislike it, because no matter how weak a ninja beast started out, Might Guy would always train with it and grow stronger together.

Riolu sensed the pure emotions from Might Guy, and its red eyes sparkled.

"Riolu!" Riolu let out a happy cry.

It wanted to train and grow stronger together with Might Guy.

"Riolu, he fits Gai quite well," Muyue thought after recalling Riolu's and Lucario's skills in his mind.

Lucario not only has the Wave-Guiding Power that can serve as a perception ninjutsu, but also possesses many attack techniques with considerable power. Most importantly, Lucario also has healing techniques.

Healing techniques are very important for Might Guy, because Guy usually doesn't team up with Rin Nohara and the others; he normally trains with Ebisu and the like, and Teacher Chen's squad has no medical ninja.