Chapter 553: Meeting the Ninja Master at Last

The Country of Rain, the Six Paths City.

Although Old Purple had been in the Country of Rain before the lecture activity was announced, he had been traveling here all the way, so Old Purple did not arrive early.

Old Purple entered the Six Paths City just one day before the unrestricted lecture.

"Except for here, it's unlikely such a scene would appear anywhere else," Old Purple scanned the town's sights and sighed.

As the lecture was about to start, most of the ninjas who wanted to attend had already rushed to the Six Paths City.

At that moment, ninjas wearing various forehead protectors could be seen everywhere on the streets of the Six Paths City.

Old Purple just took a casual glance and spotted ninjas from several ninja villages.

However, what made Old Purple sigh was not the number of ninjas in the Six Paths City at that moment; the ninjas inside Iwagakure were far more numerous.

What made Old Purple sigh was the atmosphere of the Six Paths City.

Although there were many ninjas from different ninja villages, they were all very restrained, and few caused trouble; there was no tense, confrontational atmosphere.

This was quite rare, especially in the current chaotic situation of the ninja world.

Old Purple did not book a hotel first; instead, he strolled around the Six Paths City.

On the road from the north of the Country of Rain to the Ninja Sect, Old Purple had slept in the open many times; he didn't care much about it—if there was no place to stay, he would just find a tree and lie down.

The Six Paths City was more prosperous than Old Purple had imagined.

Since this was a town not long established, Old Purple thought it would be a larger village, but unexpectedly, the Six Paths City was more prosperous than some towns in the Country of Rain he had passed through.

"Why are some of these buildings so similar to those in the village?" Old Purple noticed that many buildings in the Six Paths City had a strong Iwagakure style.

This gave Old Purple a strange feeling, as if he were being caught up by Iwagakure.

Old Purple shook his head, shaking the strange thought out of his mind, and continued strolling around the Six Paths City.

Along the way, Old Purple encountered many Iwa ninjas, some of whom he knew, such as Onoki's son, Kitsuchi.

Facing ninjas from his former village, Old Purple kept a normal expression and did not reveal any flaws.

"It seems the village's cooperation with the Ninja Sect is extensive, even Kitsuchi came," Old Purple thought to himself.

He noticed while strolling that there weren't many ninjas from the Five Great Ninja Villages; the majority were from various small ninja villages and non-ninja-village origins.

Old Purple hardly saw any Konoha ninjas, and not a single Kirigakure or Kumogakure ninja.

There were many Iwa ninjas; Old Purple felt that the number of Iwa ninjas in the Six Paths City might now be comparable to the Ninja Sect's ninjas.

Then there was Sunagakure; just from what Old Purple saw, there were several Suna ninja squads, making it the great ninja village with the second highest attendance among the Five Great Ninja Villages.

"In that case, Sōsuke has unknowingly helped me," Old Purple suddenly realized something—inside the Six Paths City, he didn't have to worry about Iwa's pursuit at all.

Right now, the Six Paths City was a mix of fish and dragons, with all kinds of powers; if something happened, word would quickly spread across the ninja world. Unless Iwa was certain they could take him away, they wouldn't dare to act.

After finding a random restaurant for lunch, Old Purple continued wandering around the Six Paths City.

"Isn't that Hanzo, the leader of the Rain Ninja Village? I didn't expect him to come listen to Sōsuke-sensei's lecture this time," a ninja muttered.

Hearing the discussion around him, Old Purple turned curiously and scanned his surroundings, quickly spotting Hanzo, who was accompanied by many Rain ninjas.

As one of the legendary ninjas of the ninja world, the Demi-God Hanzo, Old Purple had also heard some of his exploits.

For instance, how he used Water Release but was defeated by Sōsuke using Fire Release.

"Our lord Hanzo was invited here by the Ninja Sect," a Rain ninja on the street, upon hearing the other ninjas' low discussion, corrected them with a straight face.

"Truly worthy of Lord Hanzo, the Demi-God; this honor seems to be something no other ninja has," the ninja who had first spoken quickly changed his tune.

"Indeed, I've never heard of Sōsuke-sensei actively inviting anyone," another nearby ninja chimed in.

Hanzo, at the center of the Rain ninjas, nodded inwardly; that was exactly the effect he wanted.

He, the great Demi-God Hanzo, had naturally been actively invited by Sōsuke to come.

After Hanzo and the Rain ninjas left the street, other ninjas resumed their discussion.

"As expected, a country's power is easy to negotiate with. There was so much conflict before, but now it seems they've completely reconciled," a ninja wearing a Grass forehead protector said.

Sōsuke had truly made a name for himself in the ninja world by defeating Hanzo, so many ninjas knew about the love-hate relationship between the Ninja Sect and the Rain Ninja Village.

Using cooperation as a pretext, the Rain Ninja Village lured Sōsuke into a trap to surround and kill him, which led to that battle between Sōsuke and Hanzō, and later the Sōsuke who became famous throughout the ninja world.

"After all, no matter what, he is a ninja of a country." A Kusagakure ninja nearby replied.

In the adult world, profit comes first. The chaotic situation in the ninja world made the reconciliation between the Ninja Sect and the Rain Ninja Village understandable.

"If only Hanzō would challenge Sōsuke-sensei like Yegura did. I really want to see the full-power Raging Fire Dragon Dance."

The topic quickly shifted from the relationship of the Ninja Sect to the strength of Hanzō and Sōsuke.

"That's impossible, right? Yegura challenged Sōsuke-sensei because he had never fought him before. How could Hanzō possibly challenge someone he can't beat?"

"Not necessarily. After all, now that they're cooperating, even if Hanzō really challenged him, Sōsuke-sensei wouldn't make Hanzō lose too much face. He'd probably go easy and make it a draw."

The shadow clone of Hanzō, disguised as an ordinary ninja nearby, had an increasingly dark expression.

So now, even if he defeated Sōsuke, others would think Sōsuke went easy on him?

And why do they always love bringing up the Raging Fire Dragon Dance? Are there no other Fire Release ninjutsu in the ninja world?

If life could be lived over, Hanzō would want to go back in time and kill Shimura Danzō who came looking for him with a single slash.

They called it cooperation, but the Rain Ninja Village suffered the loss, he Hanzō lost face, while Shimura Danzō only lost a few Konoha ninja.

Though displeased, Hanzō had no interest in bothering a few ordinary ninja, so he made a round and then canceled the shadow clone.

The memory from the shadow clone flowed back. Hanzō, sitting in the Ninja Sect's reception room, instantly darkened his face, but quickly returned to his usual calm expression.

Mu Yue was slightly startled by this, not knowing why Hanzō suddenly showed off his face-changing skill.

"Sōsuke, don't say I didn't warn you. Although I agreed to your invitation, if you suddenly ask me to cooperate in some activity during the lecture, I might not agree." Hanzō said expressionlessly.

Hanzō indeed had no intention of challenging Sōsuke. It wasn't a matter of winning or losing; it was meaningless.

Although he himself had no such idea, Hanzō thought Sōsuke might want to use him as teaching material.

Last time during the unrestricted lecture, Sōsuke specifically asked him to use Water Release to put out the fire. Hanzō thought it was not impossible that Sōsuke would ask him to come up and fight this time.

In order not to become the background board for the teaching, Hanzō chose to state his position in advance.

"Of course, that's fine." Mu Yue smiled faintly and nodded.

He couldn't be one hundred percent sure of Hanzō's thoughts, but he could guess some.

Mu Yue had thought of using Hanzō as material, but not by defeating him in battle—that would hurt Hanzō a bit.

Hanzō nodded calmly, feeling much more at ease.

If he were to be defeated by Sōsuke a second time in front of over a thousand ninja, he would completely become Sōsuke's background board.

Then Hanzō quickly left the Ninja Sect's reception room and returned to the accommodation the Ninja Sect had arranged for him.

Thinking about those people saying that even if he beat Sōsuke it would be because Sōsuke went easy on him, Hanzō felt uncomfortable sitting together with Sōsuke.

He only lost to Sōsuke once; why did they think he absolutely could not beat Sōsuke?

On the other side, after seeing Hanzō off, Mu Yue began to check his teaching plan.

The number and quality of ninja this time were even better than last time; he had to ensure the teaching quality to get an S rating.

After checking, Mu Yue used Observation Haki to envelop the entire Six Paths City.

Too many ninja had come; relying on the few ninja of the Ninja Sect alone would make it difficult to ensure no problems.

"Hmm?" If he hadn't sensed it, it would have been fine, but once he did, Mu Yue actually detected several chakras that felt somewhat familiar but shouldn't be there.

Since those chakras were all within the range of Mu Yue's Byakugan, he directly activated the Byakugan and identified them one by one.

Name: Hiramizu Iro

Chakra: Skills: Water Release Chakra Nature Transformation (Proficient Level)...

Name: Sakai Toda

Chakra: Skills: Fire Release Chakra Nature Transformation (Proficient Level)...

"It really is those Root ninja." After reading the identification jutsu's information, Mu Yue found he hadn't mistaken.

The information detected by the identification jutsu was the most accurate; even the Zetsu, known for the best disguise ability, couldn't fool the identification jutsu.

"Danzo wants to make a move against the Ninja Sect?" Muyue showed a thoughtful expression.

Muyue knew Shimura Danzo all too well—he most likely wanted to seize the so-called Ninja Sect heritage and Nagato's Rinnegan.

"What is he planning to do this time?" Muyue couldn't immediately think of what method Shimura Danzo would use.

The Root's meager strength was adequate for intelligence work, but forcibly seizing something from the Ninja Sect was nearly impossible—even if Shimura Danzo led the team personally, he couldn't do it.

The Ninja Sect's overt strength was not weak among the many ninja organizations. The Ninja Sect had Sōsuke, who could defeat Hanzo, Kakuzu, the legendary ninja of the underworld, and Nagato, a genius powerhouse who had earned the title of #1 Prodigy.

Just the three of them together was a formidable force.

"It can't be that they want me to go, can it?" Muyue thought of his identity as a Root ninja.

Having the representative of Konoha's young ninjas attack a neutral ninja organization of considerable strength seemed absurd, but if the order came from Shimura Danzo, Muyue felt it was somewhat reasonable.

After all, Shimura Danzo's moves were not something ordinary people could understand.

"He might also continue to use the Rain Ninja Village." Muyue racked his brains to think from a different perspective, putting himself in Shimura Danzo's mindset.

Shimura Danzo essentially had two choices: either directly use Konoha's power, or cooperate with other ninja forces that had the intention of moving against the Ninja Sect.

From Shimura Danzo's perspective, the Rain Ninja Village was a good choice. First, they had previously joined forces against the Ninja Sect. Second, there was an irreconcilable conflict between the Rain Ninja Village and the Ninja Sect.

Moreover, a weakened Rain Ninja Village after the battle would better serve Konoha's interests.

"Sunagakure is also quite likely."

The Land of Rain bordered the Land of Wind; Sunagakure certainly didn't want a former subordinate they could easily manipulate to become a threat.

Moreover, Sunagakure was currently the only major ninja village in the shinobi world that had not declared war on Konoha. Muyue felt there was a high probability that Shimura Danzo would join forces with Sunagakure.

After reminding the ninja responsible for guarding the ninja quarters, Muyue paid no further attention.

Capturing those Root ninja was pointless. To avoid exposing his secrets, Shimura Danzo had used every possible measure on those Root subordinates; even the Yamanaka clan's secret techniques could not extract information from their minds.

Rather than alerting the enemy by rash action, it was better to pretend not to notice, and at a critical moment, use this information gap to feed them false intelligence.

The next day, the second Unlimited Lecture began on time.

Although this time the Ninja Sect had its own town, Muyue's plan for the Unlimited Lecture was not to hold it very frequently. Moreover, the town needed continuous expansion, so no dedicated lecture hall was built.

It was much like the first time. Muyue casually chose a training ground, placed a podium there, and nothing else.

However, the crude lecture environment did not affect the enthusiasm of the ninjas who came to listen.

Take Rōshi for example. He had thought arriving thirty minutes early would be enough, but when he got there, he found the area around the podium already crowded with people.

Rōshi looked at the vast sea of people and felt as if a large army had assembled.

"How early must these people have arrived?" Rōshi complained inwardly, a bit exasperated.

"It shows that Sōsuke really has skill; otherwise, he couldn't have gained such support," said Son Gokū.

Not just Rōshi, but Son Gokū was also quite curious about Sōsuke now.

Because Sōsuke had not only established a ninja force called the Ninja Sect, but also had a disciple with the Rinnegan.

Son Gokū always felt that Sōsuke might have some connection to the Sage of Six Paths.

"We'll know soon enough." Rōshi glanced left and right, and after noticing that Sōsuke had not yet arrived at the venue, he withdrew his gaze.

Having traveled all the way from the northern part of the Land of Rain to here, Rōshi had actually gained many unexpected rewards—this trip was not in vain.

But his driving force was ultimately that man named Sōsuke. If Sōsuke turned out to be a ninja who didn't live up to his reputation, there would still be some regret.

When there were ten minutes left before the lecture started, Muyue arrived.

"Sōsuke-sensei."

The ninjas who had attended Muyue's previous lecture all bowed and greeted him.

"Mm, good morning." Muyue smiled slightly and raised his hand in response.

Immediately, the crowd parted on its own, creating a path for Muyue to the podium.

Rōshi's position should have allowed him to see Sōsuke's appearance, but unfortunately his height wasn't quite enough—he was blocked by others and couldn't see even when standing on tiptoe.

Rōshi had to gather chakra to raise the earth beneath his feet, and only then did he see Sōsuke's appearance.

There's still one chapter. I'll finish it while slacking off tomorrow at noon or in the afternoon, then post it.

I can't sleep too late today.