Chapter 598: Changes

Minato Namikaze's first reaction upon receiving the gift was that it was too precious—he couldn't accept it.

But the words stuck in his throat; Minato Namikaze couldn't bring himself to say them.

Strictly speaking, this wasn't a gift for him—it was for Kushina, and she indeed needed such a gift since she hadn't fully mastered the Nine-Tails' power yet.

"Thank you."

In the end, Minato Namikaze still accepted the gift and thanked Mu Yue with a serious expression.

"Don't worry about it. It's no big deal. To me, the sealing techniques Kushina taught me are far more valuable." Mu Yue said with a smile.

Without Kushina as a channel, even with Mu Yue's astonishing talent in sealing techniques, it would have been difficult for him to reach a high level of mastery in a short time.

What Kushina gave Mu Yue was not just a few sealing techniques—it was a complete system.

After that, Minato Namikaze didn't say much and focused on preparing the ingredients.

Between good friends, words are unnecessary; when Mu Yue needed help, he too would do his utmost to assist him.

"What should I do? Train?" Obito sat on the grass, looked up at the sky, and wore a thoughtful expression.

The war was finally over, and Mu Yue had given them a full month off, so Obito planned to truly relax.

It wasn't that he would completely drop training; rather, he would adjust the proportion of time spent on it. Normally, Obito spent almost the entire day training.

To relax, he naturally had to reduce training time. Obito felt that training four hours a day during the holiday would be about right.

But being alone wasn't much fun, so Obito wanted to find some friends to hang out with.

He first looked for Rin Nohara, but because of her outstanding medical ninjutsu, she had been called to the Konoha Hospital to treat battlefield casualties and wouldn't have free time anytime soon.

Next, Obito went to find Kakashi, and on the way he ran into Might Guy, who was training.

Might Guy enthusiastically invited Obito to train with him, but Obito had originally gone out to find someone to play with, so he politely declined.

What Obito didn't expect was that when he arrived at Kakashi's house, Kakashi was also training.

Might Guy had always been a training fanatic, so Obito could understand that. But Kakashi working so hard puzzled him—what happened to the promised relaxation?

"The war is over, history has changed too, Kakashi. You should take a break."

With the mindset of dragging someone else down into fun, Obito urged Kakashi to go out and play with him.

"Lately I've had inspiration to improve the One-Hit Slash." Kakashi gave a reason that even Obito couldn't find an excuse to argue against.

Obito knew very well how important the One-Hit Slash was to Kakashi.

If it were him, even if he only had inspiration to improve the Blue Flame, let alone master it, Obito would maximize his training intensity.

He hadn't even fully mastered the Blue Flame yet.

"I've already brought my camera; I might as well take a stroll."

Obito glanced at the camera hanging around his neck and made up his mind.

He had no objection to training, but now that he was out, why not?

With that thought, Obito wandered around the village, photographing every scene he found interesting.

"Obito, long time no see."

Asuma, who had spotted Obito photographing the Hokage faces on the cliff, greeted him.

"Asuma! Haven't seen you in a while. What have you been up to?" Obito lowered his camera and looked at Asuma.

"I went on a mission to the Land of Hot Water battlefield. Just got back recently. And you?"

"I was on a war mission in the Land of Grass. Also just returned to Konoha."

After chatting for a while, Obito felt it wasn't great to talk standing on the street, so he suggested:

"How about some dango? Eat and chat."

Asuma waved his hand. "No thanks, I have things to do. Let me treat you another day."

"What things?" Obito asked casually.

"The Ninja Academy organized an event, and they asked me to give a speech as an outstanding graduate." Asuma explained.

"Huh?" Obito was a bit surprised.

The outstanding graduate turned out to be Asuma—shouldn't they have invited someone like him or Kakashi?

Not that he looked down on Asuma, but there was indeed a considerable gap between them—that was a fact.

"Right, I'm pretty surprised too. If we're talking excellence, the one who best fits the bill should be Shisui. He became a jonin at eight—the youngest jonin in all of Konoha's history." Asuma said with a smile.

Obito nodded in agreement; Shisui's record was truly impressive.

"Maybe it's because you, Shisui, Kakashi—all of you are too outstanding. The Ninja Academy teachers were worried the students would aim too high, so they chose me, someone who only became a jonin at thirteen."

Obito and Kakashi both became jonin at age ten. Many people hadn't even graduated and become ninja at that age, let alone been promoted to jonin.

"Who asked how old you were when you became a jonin?" Obito teased in a joking tone.

"Haha." Asuma laughed and patted Obito on the shoulder.

Feeling that enough time had passed, Asuma said goodbye to Obito and prepared to head to the Ninja Academy for the event.

"I've got nothing to do anyway—I'll tag along and see the fun." Obito said as he caught up to Asuma.

Yamato was at the Ninja Academy, and he was curious about Yamato's school life—how he was doing academically.

Asuma nodded. Even though Obito hadn't been invited, he was still a famous genius in the village, and the Ninja Academy certainly wouldn't stop him from entering.

So the two of them went together to the Ninja Academy.

Since Asuma was the outstanding graduate specially invited by the Academy, a dedicated teacher was assigned to receive and guide him.

As soon as the reception teacher saw Obito next to Asuma, he inwardly groaned.

If it came down to excellence, Asuma certainly couldn't compare to Obito and the others—the time they became jonin alone made that clear.

But just as Asuma had analyzed, the age at which Obito and the others became jonin was too extreme. After careful discussion among the Ninja Academy leadership, they had ultimately chosen Asuma.

"Jonin Asuma, Jonin Obito." The reception teacher forced himself to greet them.

Obito nodded and curiously looked around the Academy, not engaging in much conversation with the reception teacher.

Seeing that Obito didn't bring up the outstanding graduate matter, the reception teacher instantly breathed a sigh of relief and discussed the event speech with Asuma.

Then the reception teacher led them to the office and handed Asuma a prepared speech draft for reference.

Bored with waiting, Obito decided to wander around the school on his own.

Probably because of the event, there were no classes at all that day.

"Let me go check out Yamato's class. If I remember correctly, it should be Class 1-A." Relying on his memory of the school building layout, Obito quickly found Yamato's classroom.

Obito didn't enter directly. He first observed from outside and noticed that the teacher for Class 1-A seemed to be away for some reason, so then he walked into the classroom.

The wooden door of the classroom opened, and all the students instinctively looked toward the door, thinking the teacher had returned.

But when they looked closely, it was a young-looking shinobi, not much older than them.

"Hey there." Obito greeted the students cheerfully.

"Hello, teacher."

Obito's familiar demeanor threw the students off—they had no idea who he was, so they just called him "teacher."

After all, this was the Ninja Academy; if you saw an unfamiliar shinobi, calling them "teacher" wouldn't be wrong.

That address amused Obito—it was the first time anyone had called him "teacher," and it felt pretty good.

"Senpai Obito."

Yamato looked surprised to see Obito walk into the classroom; he hadn't expected to see him here.

"Yamato, you know him? Is he a new teacher at the school? He looks so young—like he just graduated." Hinata Oriko asked curiously.

Yamato nodded, then shook his head.

"He's a really impressive senior I know—not a teacher." Yamato explained.

Obito scanned the classroom. Since there were no classes, the students weren't sitting in their assigned seats but had scattered around however they liked.

And next to Yamato, a bunch of people had gathered, as if he were the center of the class.

Seeing this, Obito knew he didn't have to worry about Yamato's campus life; it looked way better than when he was in the first grade.

Just as Obito was considering whether to retreat, Hinata Oriko heard Yamato praising Obito, her eyes lit up, and she walked toward Obito holding a small notebook.

Yamato thought to himself, "This is bad."

Hinata Oriko was a very diligent good student, ranked first in theory in Class 1-1, and had even started to study advanced theory classes for higher grades. Yamato was often asked by her about various ninja knowledge.

But Yamato could only answer questions about ninja knowledge; for subjects like math, national language, history, chemistry, etc., he had to consult Hinata Oriko.

In Yamato's impression, Obito was bad at theory and was often mocked by Kakashi in various ways. If he got stumped by a first-year student, how embarrassing would that be.

"Yamato said you are a very impressive senior. May I ask you some questions?" Hinata Oriko hurried forward and asked.

"Ha ha, of course no problem."

Obito smiled relaxed and, in his heart, gave a thumbs-up to Yamato. It was not in vain that he had treated Yamato to a meal before, and Yamato even knew to publicize his deeds.

"Sorry, Obito-senpai. When I have time, I'll treat you to a meal to apologize," Yamato silently apologized to Obito in his heart.

"Thank you so much. Then I'll start asking." Hinata Oriko showed a happy smile.

Then Hinata Oriko started asking from the history of the village's founding, then to geography and strategy questions, and finally to classic problems like the chicken and rabbit in the same cage math problem.

What surprised Yamato was that Obito answered fluently without showing any weakness on any question, except that he was a bit slower when answering math.

Was this still the Obito who was bad at theory? Yamato was very surprised.

"Have you ever seen a desk at midnight?" Feeling the surprised and admiring gazes of the surrounding students, Obito remained calm on the surface but was very proud inside.

He was no longer that Uchiha Obito who couldn't become a jonin because of poor theory scores. Now, besides training every day, he also read a lot.

At first, Obito studied with great difficulty; he would get sleepy after reading for a short while.

But whenever Obito thought that his poor academic level might prevent him from becoming Hokage and that he might be mocked by Kakashi, who would become Hokage, he forced himself to read on.

After studying for a while, Obito gradually formed a habit. Later, even when reading boring math books, he no longer felt sleepy.

At that moment, the assembly bell rang, and the students in the classroom started to move.

Yamato walked over to Obito. "Obito-senpai, why are you here today? Are you here to participate in our school event?"

"Mm, I had nothing to do, so I came to look around." Obito nodded.

The two chatted as they headed to the assembly point.

On the way, Obito also saw his former homeroom teacher, Iketani Yuu.

"Teacher Iketani." Obito walked up enthusiastically and greeted.

He still hadn't forgotten the favor Iketani Yuu had done him by approving his leave back then.

"You just returned to Konoha not long ago, right? I've heard about your deeds. You're all amazing. I heard that Gai could even fight on par with that Kitsuchi from Iwagakure." Iketani Yuu replied with a surprised and delighted expression upon seeing Obito.

He probably would never forget Obito and Might Gai.

Because not only did they bring him extra bonuses while they were in school, but even after graduation, they still had a positive impact on Iketani Yuu's teaching career.

Sometimes Iketani Yuu felt he was a bit undeserving, because at first, he thought he was unlucky to have taken over this class with the two famous dead lasts of the whole school. During the first semester, he was always troubling Muyue to substitute because of his blind dates.

"At that time, I should have listened to Ueda and focused entirely on teaching work." Iketani Yuu sighed. In the end, he still failed to win over his goddess.

"It's a good thing you didn't listen, Teacher Iketani. Otherwise, our Class 2-4 would have suffered a great loss." Obito said with a look of relief.

If Muyue hadn't come to substitute, where would he find such a good teacher?

"You kid are too direct." Iketani Yuu wasn't angry; he just scolded with a laugh.

After all, Obito wasn't wrong. That substitute teacher was Muyue, currently the one with the highest voice to become Hokage in Konoha.

Iketani Yuu now felt that reality was too surreal. The future Hokage had actually substituted for him, drunk with him, and worked in the same office.

He had even borrowed money from the future Hokage.

"Hehe." Obito laughed and returned to Yamato's side.

After the assembly, there was a leadership speech, which Obito was least interested in. After listening for a few minutes and finding it boring, he just sneaked away. After all, he was neither a student nor a special guest.

After leaving, Obito didn't wander around anymore; he went directly to the vicinity of the Uchiha clan compound to train.

Thinking about Kakashi researching a big move, Obito couldn't enjoy himself to the fullest.

Obito's departure did not affect the activities at the Ninja Academy.

To let everyone know the excellence of a thirteen-year-old jonin, the Ninja Academy specially prepared a special segment: Asuma would fight a Ninja Academy teacher, and then select a student for sparring guidance.

Unsurprisingly, the Chunin teacher of the Ninja Academy was easily defeated by Asuma, earning applause from the audience.

Finally, it was time for the student guidance segment.

"You, come up here." Asuma pointed at Yamato and said.

He had seen Obito and Yamato standing together talking. Since both were to be guided, Asuma preferred to guide his friend's junior.

"Me?" Yamato asked uncertainly.

"Mm, it's you." Asuma answered calmly.