Chapter 502

The white light gradually dissipated, and Obito saw the greatly changed Charmander.

The skin of the Charmeleon differed from the orange of its Charmander stage, leaning more towards fiery red. At the same time, its previously short limbs had grown longer, larger, thicker, and stronger; its palms had grown sharp claws; its mouth had become pointed, like a bird's beak.

But what surprised and pleased Obito the most was that the Charmeleon had grown a horn-like protrusion on its head; he thought it was pretty cool.

"Is this Charmander?" Rin Nohara asked uncertainly.

She had seen Charmander that morning; even if it grew fast, it shouldn't be this exaggerated. Previously, Charmander was only about 0.6 meters tall; now, Rin estimated the Charmeleon to be over one meter.

Kakashi also couldn't quite understand what was happening. Clearly this was Obito's Charmander, but with a flash of white light, it was as if it had secretly grown for two years.

Kakashi looked at Muyue with a curious gaze.

These were the ninja beast eggs Muyue had given them; Muyue would likely know the reason.

"This is evolution," Muyue explained.

"Three months on the east side, three months on the west side; don't bully a young dragon for being weak!"

Obito's hypnosis couldn't eliminate its physical fatigue.

"Charmeleon Charmeleon!" The Charmeleon suppressed its inner irritable emotions and spoke its request to the translator beside it.

"So Charmander is stronger now?" Obito extracted the key information and his expression became excited.

Although he didn't know what had happened, he felt that his Charmander had suddenly achieved the results of two years of hard training.

Kakashi shook his head. He thought that the difficulty of evolution should be different for different ninja beasts. His had hatched first; according to Obito's logic, his Rockruff should have evolved first.

"Some creatures undergo a major change in appearance after growing to a certain point. A caterpillar can form a cocoon and then undergo a butterfly transformation."

He knew that insects turned into butterflies from cocoons, but why did a creature like Charmander have similarities to caterpillars?

Kakashi could understand, but not completely.

"Mm, you could say that," Muyue nodded.

"Your ninja beasts have similar abilities. After evolution, the ninja beast becomes more powerful, and its appearance also changes to some extent."

And "don't bully a young dragon for being weak" — that clearly didn't sound like Charmander's tone.

Rin Nohara saw that everyone was dispersing, so she also walked to the side.

"Lin, let's work hard together. Xiao Mei will definitely evolve soon. Charmander hatched together with Xiao Mei; if Charmander has evolved, Xiao Mei should be close too."

"Fire!" The Charmeleon flexed its arms to feel its suddenly increased strength.

"I see, I'm really looking forward to it." Rin Nohara's eyes sparkled as she smiled.

Next, it set its gaze on Obito. This inherently evil Uchiha brat dared to bully it like this; it couldn't stand it anymore.

"Enough talk, feel my flames." Zoroark continued translating.

"I was wrong to use genjutsu," Obito admitted that he had indeed been a bit inhumane in training.

Shisui silently led Zoroark off to the side to observe the situation.

Not to mention mastering more skills and becoming physically stronger; just in terms of chakra, the moment of evolution caused the Charmeleon's chakra to surge.

"Hehe, mainly because the atmosphere was right." Zoroark rubbed its head against Shisui and chuckled.

"Are you sure you want to challenge me? I won't go easy in battle." Obito didn't think a few-month-old ninja beast could cause him any trouble.

Obito had really racked his brains for a long time to come up with this hypnosis training method.

"But I did it for your own good. After all, in your self-perception, it's still the same training time, but in reality you get better exercise."

Maybe Obito's intentions were good, but the Charmeleon wished Obito hadn't started.

She tried applying the change from Charmander to Charmeleon to the Feebas, and found that it didn't really work.

"It's bad enough that you constantly distort my thoughts, but you also use genjutsu to deceive me. Obito, your crime is heinous!"

The Charmeleon nodded. It wouldn't feel right without beating Obito up.

"Roar!" The Charmeleon let out an displeased cry.

"Charmeleon!" The Charmeleon opened its mouth, slightly emitting wisps of flame as it enumerated Obito's crimes.

"Everyone, scatter quickly! Charmeleon is going to settle scores with Obito." Zorua jumped onto Shisui's shoulder and hurriedly shouted.

Before Obito could figure out what was going on, the clearing was left with just him and Charmeleon.

Kakashi instantly dodged away; he had felt something was off with Obito from the start.

Bang!

Shisui hugged Zorua in his arms and gave it a chop on the head, saying speechlessly, "Have you been watching ninja shows lately? Don't add random lines to Charmander."

"The change will be huge, no less than a caterpillar turning into a butterfly." Muyue did not disclose all the information; he thought it was best for Rin Nohara to raise Feebas in her current state.

"Hum!"

This seemingly glowing smile deeply attracted Obito, and he quickly patted his chest and said:

Yamato saw Kakashi leave, so he followed and left too.

"Although not very smart, that guy can really fight." Zorua looked at Charmeleon and warned, as if asking Laolong, "Can we win?"

"What will Xiaomei look like after evolution?" Rin Nohara asked curiously.

Charmeleon snorted white smoke from its nostrils and replied with a confident expression.

The Charmander that was bullied and powerless to resist is dead; next up is the powerful Charmeleon!

"Since you're young, you make the first move." Obito was ready to let Charmeleon have a free shot.

Charmeleon was not polite and immediately mobilized the chakra in its body to activate a skill.

"Smokescreen!"

Charmeleon spewed a large amount of gray mist from its mouth, enveloping Obito, and then exploded with full force charging towards Obito.

Obito didn't expect Charmeleon to have such a move, and he was caught off guard.

In the gray mist, Obito had no sight of Charmeleon; not taking it seriously, he failed to defend and was accidentally kicked by Charmeleon.

"Fire dragon!" Charmeleon showed a smug smile. "Just a mere Obito, no problem at all, victory is in sight."

However, Obito silently activated his Sharingan and concentrated his breathing to enter the Flame Breathing Chakra Mode.

Obito's three-tomoe Sharingan pierced through the thick smoke and saw Charmeleon's figure.

When Charmeleon swung its claws to strike Obito, Obito grabbed Charmeleon's arm, then continued to turn his back to Charmeleon and fiercely swung the arm he had caught.

Bang!

Charmeleon was slammed hard onto the ground with a shoulder throw.

Charmeleon's eyes widened; it didn't expect Obito to be able to see it even in this thick smoke.

Charmeleon immediately opened its mouth and spat flames at Obito. But Obito, now in Flame Breathing Chakra Mode, could perform Fire Release ninjutsu without hand seals and instantly complete nature transformation, so he also opened his mouth and spat flames.

The two flames collided; Obito's flame was visibly thicker and overpowered Charmeleon's.

Boom!

An explosion rang out; the blast wave from the explosion dispersed the smoke, revealing Obito standing and Charmeleon fallen.

"Fire dragon!" Charmeleon showed an unwilling expression.

It hadn't expected that the evil Obito would have such powerful strength; even after evolving into Charmeleon, it was no match.

Obito closed his Sharingan, exited Flame Breathing Chakra Mode, and let out a smirk.

Although he had been knocked down once by Charmeleon due to carelessness, with the black smoke covering it, no one should have seen it; if no one saw it, then it didn't happen.

So Obito was still quite happy; he hadn't lost face, and the ninja beast's power had increased.

Charmeleon, lying on the ground, saw Obito's smile, and the feeling of humiliation in its heart grew stronger.

Charmeleon questioned itself: Was it going to stop here? Where was its pride as a Charmeleon?

"I must not fall like this!" The flame on Charmeleon's tail grew more vigorous; it felt its power strengthening further.

Charmeleon erupted with all its power, suddenly lunged up, and gave Obito a violent dragon charge — no technique at all, relying solely on passion and brute force.

Bang!

Unexpectedly, the Charmeleon stood up again and became even stronger, sending Obito flying backward three meters before he crashed to the ground.

Kakashi couldn't help but cover his face—could there be anything more embarrassing than getting beaten by a few-month-old ninja beast?

Shisui silently turned around and pretended not to see.

Rin Nohara opened her mouth but ultimately said nothing; perhaps right now Obito needed silence more than anything.

"Flame Emperor!"

Obito quickly got up and silently re-entered Flame Breathing Chakra Mode, raising both hands to activate all his chakra. A massive fireball over ten meters in diameter appeared in his hands.

Obito stared intently at the Charmeleon, not daring to look anywhere else—afraid of seeing the mockery on Kakashi's face, afraid of seeing the disappointment on Rin Nohara's face.

At this moment, the Southern Forest felt like hell to Obito. If he had a choice, he really wanted to blow up the entire Southern Forest with a single Fire Release.

Charmeleon:...

Staring at the enormous fireball that towered over three stories, the Charmeleon was dumbfounded. This isn't right.

At that moment, when the Charmeleon looked at Obito again, it suddenly found him somewhat agreeable, and could understand his good intentions.

Obito, holding the Flame Emperor, took two steps toward the Charmeleon.

The Charmeleon swallowed its saliva and wiped the hot sweat from its forehead.

Man and dragon stared at each other. In the end, Obito canceled the Flame Emperor, and the Charmeleon voluntarily helped Obito brush the dust off his clothes, acting like a harmonious good partner.

"From now on, I'll definitely think more about your thoughts and not misunderstand your intentions," Obito said apologetically.

"Next time you need hypnosis, reduce the training volume a bit, and only increase it gradually after you get used to it," Obito thought to himself. This had been a profound lesson for him.

"Fire Dragon," the Charmeleon nodded with a touched expression.

"I'll fight again after I evolve and become stronger," the Charmeleon decided to endure for a while before making a move.

"I don't know exactly what happened, but the result is pretty good," Rin Nohara said with a gentle smile, her hands folded together.

She hadn't spoken up to stop him just now because she believed Obito would have restraint, and sure enough, Obito didn't disappoint her—he hadn't acted too impulsively.

Kakashi patted Rockruff on the head without offering any judgment. He wasn't sure if the Charmeleon had learned this from being with Obito for so long or if it was just its natural personality, but he inexplicably saw a bit of Obito's shadow in the Charmeleon.

"What will you look like when you evolve?" Kakashi looked thoughtfully at Rockruff, who was happily wagging its tail at him.

Kakashi didn't particularly care about changing appearance after evolution; he was already quite satisfied with the current Rockruff.

What Kakashi cared about was the change in strength after evolution.

Before evolving, Charmander had been at the bottom in terms of strength because it hatched late, but after evolving into Charmeleon, its strength suddenly surged, all abilities exploded, and its taijutsu and ninjutsu became significantly stronger.

Although as long as Obito got serious, the Charmeleon would get thrashed, Obito at full power could be considered elite even among jōnin. The fact that the Charmeleon, as a few-month-old ninja beast, could reach this level had already exceeded Kakashi's expectations.

"Rock!" Upon hearing Kakashi's curiosity about its evolved form, Rockruff immediately went to train, striving to evolve as soon as possible.

"Don't force yourself either—just follow the normal steps," Kakashi reminded.

Whether it was his own life or Rockruff's life, it was just the beginning; Kakashi wasn't in a hurry.

Hearing this, Rockruff became even more motivated.

Compared to Obito, Rockruff felt that having Kakashi as its contractor was simply wonderful.

"Shisui, you absolutely must not use genjutsu to increase my training volume, or I'll get angry," Zorua warned.

It didn't want to end up as exhausted as the Charmeleon had.

Bang!

Shisui tapped Zorua on the head lightly with his index and middle fingers together. "You'd better not cause trouble for others by using genjutsu yourself—that's the real issue."

Obito's moves were too flashy; Shisui wouldn't imitate them. If he really wanted to add training, Shisui would at most clearly explain the pros and cons to Zorua.

"Hehe," Zorua smiled, trying to act cute to get away with it.

Rin Nohara walked to the pond to check on Feebas.

Actually, Rin Nohara had thought about raising Feebas in the river, where the space was larger and there were other aquatic creatures.

However, Rin Nohara was worried that Feebas might not remember the way, swim elsewhere, and get caught and eaten by someone else. For safety, it was better to keep it in the pond.

"Xiao Mei, today Little Fire Dragon evolved. Teacher Muyue said you can also evolve, and the change will be huge, like a caterpillar turning into a butterfly. Xiao Mei, will you grow wings like a butterfly after evolution?" Rin Nohara told the Feebas in the water about what happened in the Southern Forest today.

The Feebas stared blankly at Rin Nohara, its dull and lifeless gaze revealing nothing of its inner thoughts.

"Xiao Mei, you probably haven't seen caterpillars and butterflies, right? When I get home, I'll draw them for you." Rin Nohara, thinking that the Feebas might not have seen much of the creatures on land since it stays in the water every day, added.

When she had rested enough, Rin Nohara gently stroked the Feebas's head. "I'm going to go train. Kakashi and the others are so strong and still working hard, so I can't give up. At the very least, I need to have the ability to protect myself in battle and not cause them trouble."

Watching Rin Nohara's departing back, the Feebas began swimming rapidly in the small pond.

As a Feebas, this was the only way it could train—by moving a lot to exercise its body.

No matter what, it couldn't help Rin Nohara right now. Even with all its strength, it could only stir up a few splashes. Only by evolving could it become Rin Nohara's helper and protect her.