Chapter 554: Flesh Frailty, Summit

Rain Country, Six Paths City.

Early morning, Scorpion got up on time, finished brushing his teeth and washing his face in the bathroom, opened the door, and prepared to go to the Ninja Sect's cafeteria for breakfast.

As soon as he opened the door, Scorpion saw Nagato standing under a large tree ten meters from his doorway.

Nagato nodded to Scorpion, and then the two headed to the Ninja Sect cafeteria together.

"I mean, you don't even live around here, so why do you come over every day? I don't need you to supervise me; I'll still complete my tasks as usual—after all, I want to regain my freedom as soon as possible too," Scorpion said with dissatisfaction on the way.

Ever since that day when he skipped breakfast and played truant, Nagato had waited for him at the door every morning to eat together.

Before Scorpion had adjusted his internal clock, if he slept in, Nagato would even knock on his door to call him.

This made Scorpion a bit annoyed—from childhood to now, only his parents had managed him like this; not even his grandmother had been so strict.

Seeing that Nagato seemed a bit addicted to supervising, Scorpion got anxious, no longer caring about Nagato's authority over his freedom.

"It's not supervision," Nagato shook his head.

He didn't come to be an overseer; he just wanted Scorpion to develop the habit of eating on time and not let him be too lonely.

Both were children who had lost their parents early in life, and Nagato saw a bit of himself in Scorpion.

Before he met Yahiko and Konan, Nagato wandered everywhere, often feeling that in such a vast Rain Country and such a vast ninja world, there was no place for him and no one to rely on.

Although their situations might have been different, Nagato could feel the loneliness in Scorpion.

Nagato wanted to become Scorpion's Yahiko, to make him stop being lonely.

"What's that? You really think you're my older brother or something?" Scorpion couldn't help mocking.

Nagato showed a thoughtful expression, then asked, "When were you born?"

If he couldn't become Scorpion's Yahiko, being his older brother would also do.

"November 8th, XX year," Scorpion answered subconsciously.

"Then there's no problem with age. I was born on September 19th, XX year—the same year but earlier," Nagato nodded.

Whether in terms of age or height, he was fully qualified to be Scorpion's older brother.

Scorpion looked at Nagato with black lines all over his face; after one sarcastic remark, Nagato had taken the bait and run with it.

Was it because they had the same hair color and he was a bit taller that he could casually take advantage of him?

"What do you mean 'no problem'? I never agreed," Scorpion said speechlessly.

"Let's go eat breakfast," Nagato said calmly.

Seeing Nagato's composed expression, Scorpion suddenly felt irritated.

They were the same age, so why was he always so calm in the face of Scorpion's provocative words, making it seem like Scorpion was making a big deal and being unreasonable.

Thinking it over carefully, Scorpion felt that this really did seem like a nice older brother gently handling a mischievous little brother.

"We still have Sōsuke-sensei's class later; we need to go a bit early," Nagato said, noticing Scorpion standing there with an unpleasant expression, lost in thought.

Today was the fourth day of unrestricted lectures; they had also attended the first two days. Since there were many Suna ninjas on site, Muyue gave Scorpion a little perk: during the lecture period, the sealing technique would not be maintained, allowing Scorpion to use the Transformation Technique to disguise himself.

Scorpion had actually thought about taking this chance to run away.

Because he figured that with so many ninjas suddenly flooding into Six Paths City, managing them would definitely be difficult for the Ninja Sect, and with more than ten days without being sealed, it was a perfect opportunity to escape.

But whenever he remembered Sōsuke saying that getting caught while escaping would triple the sentence, Scorpion was a bit reluctant to take the risk.

Scorpion had seen Nagato's sensing ability; he wasn't very confident in escaping from Nagato, and with the mysterious Sōsuke, Scorpion didn't want to gamble.

If he lost that gamble, then revenge would truly be hopeless.

Scorpion didn't reply, just silently walked toward the cafeteria.

Although Scorpion didn't particularly like Sōsuke as a person, he had to admit that the title "Ninja Teacher" wasn't a misnomer.

Scorpion specialized in puppetry and wasn't interested in others' ninjutsu, but he could still follow Sōsuke's lectures.

After the two finished eating, Scorpion used the Transformation Technique and then headed toward the training ground where the lecture was held.

They arrived neither too early nor too late; quite a few people were already standing in the training ground.

"Last time it was seven days, this time it was eight days—will the third total teaching days become nine days?"

"That's unlikely. Teacher Sosuke's lessons are of such high quality; I feel like he needs a long time to prepare. It's uncertain when the next one will be."

Since Muyue had not arrived yet, the waiting ninjas were chatting with acquaintances.

Nagato and Sasori walked to the spot where they had stood for the first two lessons and waited quietly.

About twenty minutes later, Muyue reached the training ground and, amid a chorus of greetings to "Teacher Sosuke," walked toward the podium.

At that moment, the originally noisy training ground quickly fell silent, and the ninjas all looked at Sosuke.

Muyue smiled slightly, called on a few lucky students to answer questions, and when the time came, began the formal lesson.

Time flew by rapidly, and before he knew it, Sasori realized dusk had arrived.

After having dinner with Nagato in the Ninja Sect cafeteria, Sasori went to the research lab specially prepared for him by Muyue to begin his research on puppet prosthetics.

Normally, Sasori did his research during the day, but during the lecture activity period, he had to attend classes in the daytime, so he switched to night.

When he first entered the research lab, Sasori occasionally thought about Kakashi and Nagato, but after researching for a while, he became fully engrossed in the study of puppet prosthetics.

The reason Sasori came into contact with puppetry was not very pleasant—it was because Chiyo taught it to him to distract him from the pain of losing his parents.

However, after coming into contact with puppetry, Sasori truly grew to love it.

Puppets do not die, do not disappear for no reason, and can be repaired if broken. This kind of eternal existence is what Sasori considers true art.

Therefore, when Sasori researched puppetry, he often became so absorbed that he forgot himself, forgetting to eat or sleep as a common occurrence.

"It's about time. You should wash up and go to sleep." Nagato, who had been training in the adjacent training room, walked into the research lab and reminded him.

Sasori, who had been swimming in the ocean of puppet technique, was suddenly yanked out, and he couldn't help glaring at Nagato.

This was like being woken up halfway through sleep, or having your bowl smashed just as you were about to eat while hungry—how could this not make Sasori angry?

"There's still Teacher Sosuke's class tomorrow; the day after tomorrow is the rest day."

Sasori's demeanor weakened considerably, but he still said, "Even if I researched for another four hours, I'd still be able to wake up early and not feel sleepy!"

Sasori wasn't so obsessed with Sosuke's lessons that he had to attend them; he just found Sosuke's classes decent.

The important thing was that Sasori worried if he skipped class, Sosuke might deem the Transformation Technique unnecessary and take away that little benefit, leaving him unable to make puppets on the sly.

"Mm, I believe you. Go back." Nagato nodded and said.

A vein throbbed on Sasori's forehead—the dismissal was far too obvious.

But thinking of his little benefit, Sasori didn't keep arguing. He snorted and walked off on his own.

"Ordinary wisdom. Once I transform myself into an eternal body, what does it matter if I don't sleep for a week?" Sasori thought to himself.

The more Sasori thought about it, the more useless he considered flesh and blood—wasting seven or eight hours a day on sleep. If all that time could be used for research and study, the efficiency gain would be enormous.

Happy times are always short, and soon it was the last day of the second unlimited lecture session.

On this day, Muyue did not arrive ten minutes early; instead, he reached the training ground thirty minutes before the lesson started.

"Eh, time flies so fast? Class is starting already?" Some ninjas were startled when they saw Sosuke.

Since Muyue was always punctual to the minute, they subconsciously assumed that Sosuke's arrival meant there were only ten minutes until class.

"Did everyone get up late today?"

Someone noticed that the number of people on the field was off—not as many as before.

"Why did it change to thirty minutes early?" Rōshi wondered inwardly.

Because he usually arrived at this time, Rōshi immediately realized that Sosuke had come earlier than usual.

"Probably because this is the last class? After all, didn't he say it was only eight days of lessons?" the Four-Tails thought after a moment.

"So it's already the eighth lesson." Rōshi was slightly stunned.

In the Six Paths Castle, he lived a fulfilling life—attending classes when there were lessons, reading books in the Ninja Sect's library when there weren't, listening to the Ninja Sect ninjas' discussions—so he hadn't really felt the passage of time.

"There are still thirty minutes until class. Next, I'll randomly pick some ninjas…" Muyue began selecting ninjas to answer questions, just as usual.

There had to be something different on the last day. To give more ninjas a chance to ask questions, Muyue arrived at the training ground earlier.

Upon hearing Sōsuke say that there were still thirty minutes until class started, the ninjas below all showed delighted expressions.

Previously, they typically drew five to six names in ten minutes; today there were thirty minutes, so the probability of being chosen had greatly increased.

The ninjas who arrived later were all startled when they saw Sōsuke already standing on the podium, thinking they were late. Only after hearing others explain did they realize that Sōsuke had simply come earlier.

By fifteen minutes before class, almost all the ninjas attending the lecture had arrived.

Because Sōsuke had arrived ten minutes early, many people had the notion that if Sōsuke ever came early one day, arriving a bit early themselves would give them a higher chance of being selected.

Good news: Sōsuke did indeed come early.

Bad news: he came far too early, which was unexpected.

However, hardly anyone minded that; they all focused on listening to Sōsuke's explanations.

Since most ninjas encountered problems that were largely similar, answering one person's question was actually helpful to many.

"Can he answer my question?" Hanzō thought to himself as he watched Sōsuke casually clearing the doubts of the other ninjas on the podium.

He was very curious about Sōsuke's level of Water Release and whether it was stronger than his own.

However, Hanzō did not want to be chosen by Sōsuke.

Because having Sōsuke answer his questions in such a public setting — what would that look like?

Hanzō also knew that Sōsuke would not pick him, since he had warned Sōsuke earlier.

The thirty minutes before class passed quickly, and indeed Hanzō was not chosen.

"If I challenged him privately and we could only use Water Release, would he agree?" Hanzō thought of a simpler and more straightforward method.

In a battle, the true level of Water Release would become perfectly clear.

It was indeed a good method, but Hanzō's face showed a rare hesitance.

Hanzō had to admit that, from the time he had known Sōsuke until now, even if he compared only their most proficient Water Release, Hanzō was not confident he could defeat Sōsuke.

Moreover, this battle held no value for Hanzō.

If he won against Sōsuke, there would be no use in bragging about it; on the contrary, it would further damage his reputation.

Because Hanzō was renowned in the ninja world as the strongest in Water Release. If he, the strongest Water Release user, challenged a Fire Release master to a Water Release duel and won, what was there to say about that?

Losing would be even worse — the title of strongest Water Release ninja would then pass to Sōsuke.

"Today's lecture topic is…"

When Sōsuke's lecturing voice reached Hanzō's ears, Hanzō calmed down and stopped thinking about other things to concentrate on the lesson.

"All courses have now concluded. I hope everyone has gained something."

It was still Sōsuke's voice that brought Hanzō out of his thoughts about the lecture content.

"It's over already? It feels so fast, like I just got here yesterday," a ninja sighed.

During the half-year or so when Sōsuke wasn't teaching, he felt each day was like a year; but during these ten-plus days of class, time seemed to fly.

"Yeah, I always feel like a day here passes so quickly," another ninja nearby empathized.

Sōsuke's lectures seemed to possess some mysterious ability that made time accelerate.

"Eight lessons are done." Rōshi also felt a mix of emotion and a bit of excitement.

Like the other ninjas, he also felt that class time passed very quickly and that he hadn't had enough.

But the end of the lectures also meant that Rōshi would soon meet Sōsuke, so he was somewhat excited.

Before setting out, Rōshi had wanted to meet Sōsuke only out of admiration for his deeds and to see the legendary Ninja Teacher.

After arriving in the Rain Country and traveling from the south to the north, and then to Rikudō City, these experiences gave Rōshi a deeper understanding of Sōsuke.

But Sōsuke was a remarkable person: the more Rōshi learned about him, instead of losing interest, he became even more expectant.

Hanzō glanced at Sōsuke, and in the end did nothing and said nothing; he turned and left.

Some Rain Ninja saw Hanzō leave without a word and immediately used body language to alert the other Rain Ninja who hadn't reacted yet, then followed him.

After the lecture activity ended, most of the ninjas dispersed, while a small number stayed temporarily for various reasons.

Old Purple was one of the members left behind.

After class, Old Purple ate at a restaurant near the inn and then stayed obediently in the inn, reading a book while waiting for news from the Ninja Sect.

Old Purple estimated that he would receive news from the Ninja Sect in about two days, and then he would be able to meet Sōsuke in about a week.

After all, Sōsuke had just finished hosting a large lecture event, so it was reasonable for him to rest for a short while.

"Do you have time tonight? If you do, in one hour I can take you to see Sōsuke-sensei." Nagato approached Old Purple and asked.

Old Purple was somewhat surprised. He hadn't expected Sōsuke to choose to meet on the very night of the event's conclusion.

"Yes." Old Purple answered quickly.

He was really free now, available around the clock.

Konoha Year XX does not exist in the original work; it is a product compiled based on the characters' ages in the original work and the databooks.

Since the original work has no calendar era, it is simply written as Year XX. Nagato and Sasori were indeed born in the same year.

(Ai Fuzhu ifzzw)(:)