Chapter 607: Orochimaru's Showdown

"Kamui is really powerful." Shisui showed an expression of "as expected."

In his estimation, if Obito made no major mistakes, he would basically win.

Obito's Mangekyo Sharingan ability is really too practical; even just using the intangibility of Kamui is enough to surpass many so-called powerful secret techniques.

"That's amazing, you really became first." Rin Nohara praised sincerely.

Although only four people participated in the disciple rankings, each one is a super genius with a renowned reputation.

In Rin Nohara's view, the difficulty of getting first in their team's ranking battle is only slightly easier than the Ninja World Youth Martial Arts Tournament.

You have to understand that the Ninja World Youth Martial Arts Tournament is a competition open to the entire ninja world, and Nagato, who got first, has the title of the strongest genius of the ninja world; the value of their ranking battle's first place is evident.

"Haha, it's okay, I did put in some effort after all."

Having received Rin Nohara's praise, Obito's mouth curled up even more.

No matter how hard the training was before, at this moment Obito only wanted to say it was worth it.

This is really satisfying — being able to beat up Kakashi and also be praised by Rin Nohara, it's like double happiness.

"But you can't let your guard down even after winning. Kakashi and the others' efforts are no less than yours." Rin Nohara reminded.

In Rin Nohara's view, none of Muyue's disciples are not hardworking.

There are many factors why Obito could win; it's not because Obito is the most hardworking.

"Of course, I won't easily give up being the strongest. Now they are the challengers!" Obito said spiritedly.

Now he is no longer the inferior Fire Style ninja of the past. As a noble user of space-time eye techniques, Obito is confident in dominating the ranking battle for a long time.

"Now I have enough chakra, and next I'll learn Flying Thunder God. Who can oppose me?" Obito seemed to have already seen his agile figure using Flying Thunder God and Kamui to toy with Kakashi.

He really isn't familiar with Fire Style. As everyone knows, he, Obito, is a space-time ninja.

"Although you didn't win, the fight was splendid. Keep up the good work." After congratulating Obito, Rin Nohara went to Kakashi's side to encourage him.

Kakashi dusted himself off. "I really do need to work harder, since Obito has become first."

Obito heard this and looked displeased. What does he mean "even Obito is first"?

But considering Kakashi is a loser, Obito didn't argue with him.

He already lost; saying a few angry words is understandable. He, Obito, is not a petty person; he'll just find another chance to get back at him later.

"Hehe, Muyue-sensei, I should have met the requirements to learn the Flying Thunder God Technique now, right?" Obito chuckled and asked.

Although both are space-time ninjutsu, the Flying Thunder God Technique and Kamui each have their own merits; both are very powerful abilities.

Obito has trained a lot with Minato Namikaze and understands the strengths of the Flying Thunder God Technique.

In a sense, the Flying Thunder God Technique is also a ninjutsu that combines offense and defense.

Defensively, you can instantly teleport to avoid damage; offensively, you can flash in close and instantly kill the enemy.

"You can. If you don't mind the exhaustion, you can start learning today." Muyue nodded and said.

Even if Obito didn't ask, Muyue would teach Obito the Flying Thunder God Technique.

However, Muyue considered that Obito and the others had been training so intensely and had gone through consecutive great battles, so he didn't teach them immediately, planning to start after the one-month vacation ended.

The Flying Thunder God Technique is very difficult. If Obito starts learning it, a relaxing holiday life will definitely be impossible.

"There is no word 'difficult' in my dictionary. Muyue-sensei, please, I want to learn it today!" Obito said with a look of "who else but me."

This is the Flying Thunder God Technique.

Currently, only two people in the ninja world know the Flying Thunder God Technique: one is the invincible immortal Muyue, and the other is Minato Namikaze, who in the original history would become the Fourth Hokage.

From this, one can know that learning the Flying Thunder God Technique will surely lead to no small achievements.

Seeing Obito so eager to improve, Kakashi also couldn't sit still; after recovering his stamina, he started training.

Although he verbally belittles Obito, Kakashi knows that defeating Obito is a very difficult thing.

The other disciples also trained individually, only Shisui was pulled aside by Muyue's shadow clone to discuss matters of the Uchiha clan.

"I have a mission to entrust to you." Muyue said directly.

Shisui didn't ask what the mission was; he simply nodded and put on a listening expression.

"Record some of the Uchiha clan's ninjas with good personalities and strong abilities on a list, and if possible, try to keep them young in age." Muyue continued.

"Recently, the village has had many high-quality commissioned missions, and the war has cost the village a portion of its ninjas, so Konoha needs more skilled ninjas who can carry out these missions.

I plan to propose at the high-level meeting to free the Uchiha jonin from the Police Force and have them form new squads with teams that suffered casualties in the war to carry out missions."

In Muyue's view, there were many reasons for the increasingly serious Uchiha problem, and one important point was that the Uchiha were too complacent, with a group of people clinging to one Police Force.

The time an Uchiha ninja interacted most with non-Uchiha ninjas was probably during their ninja academy days.

Undoubtedly, this was very unhealthy, almost like a village within a village, isolating themselves.

What Muyue wanted to do now was to gradually break this situation, bringing Uchiha ninjas and ordinary Konoha ninjas together.

Shisui quickly understood Muyue's intention, and his eyes lit up.

Obviously, Muyue wanted to expand the effect of the Police Force reform, further severing the connection between the Uchiha and the Police Force.

"Mm, I'll investigate and select carefully." Shisui nodded seriously.

"Also, when you and Obito attend Uchiha clan gatherings, you can talk about some of your experiences of living and dying together with teammates on missions."

The Uchiha clan's eventual destruction also had many factors from within.

Some Uchiha were very exclusionary, as if their minds were still stuck in the Warring States period, while others weren't exclusionary but were indifferent to matters outside the clan.

Currently, Shisui and Obito were quite popular within the Uchiha clan and were representatives of the new era. Muyue hoped they could serve as role models and guide other Uchiha to become normal.

After finishing the discussion about the Uchiha with Shisui, Muyue's Shadow Clone went to the Hokage Assistant's office in the Hokage building.

As one of the four high-level officials, he naturally had his own office in the Hokage building.

Theoretically, the Hokage Assistant also needed to keep office hours.

However, Muyue's situation as Hokage Assistant was somewhat similar to that of his predecessor: Shimura Danzo concurrently served as the leader of Root, while Muyue concurrently served as the captain of the Training Squad.

Due to the special nature of their work, they didn't need to be in the office every day.

Of course, it was acceptable to be away a small portion of the time, but they couldn't always be unreachable; most of the time they still had to be in the office, or at least leave a Shadow Clone or something.

Not long after Muyue sat down in his office, the door was knocked.

"Come in," Muyue said.

With Muyue's permission, Orochimaru pushed the door open and entered Muyue's office.

"Orochimaru-kun, what brings you here?" Muyue asked.

Although Orochimaru was not a high-level official, he held a high rank in Konoha; normally, matters he needed to handle required Hiruzen Sarutobi's signature, so he didn't need to seek out Muyue.

"Muyue-kun, you are now the captain of the Training Squad, right?" Orochimaru said.

Muyue nodded in affirmation.

"Before Root was disbanded, I had a position in Root and left some personal belongings at the Root base. Now that place has become the Training Squad's base, so I want to enter the Training Squad base to retrieve my personal items," Orochimaru explained.

The Training Squad was on the same level as the Anbu; even Orochimaru could not casually enter such a confidential location.

"But I'm not in a hurry; whenever you have time, Muyue-kun, just take me to get the things," Orochimaru continued.

He did indeed have items at the Root base, but retrieving them was a pretext; testing Muyue was the main purpose.

Otherwise, he could have directly gone to Hiruzen Sarutobi, which would have been just a word.

"Then let's go now; I have plenty of time right now," Muyue said after thinking for a moment.

He roughly guessed what Orochimaru was thinking.

"Then I'll trouble you, Muyue-kun."

Then the two walked out of the Hokage building together and headed towards the Training Squad base.

"If not for you, Muyue-kun, the night raid by Kirigakure would have cost us dearly."

Along the way, Orochimaru talked about the time they fought together against Kirigakure on the Eastern Front, and lamented their different fates after parting ways there.

"Looking back now, it's really incredible. In just a few years, you, Muyue-kun, have become a high-level official in Konoha. On the other hand, I seem to have made no substantial progress."

This exclamation wasn't a line Orochimaru had prepared in advance; it came from genuine emotion.

During the battle on the eastern shore, Orochimaru was the commander, leading over a thousand Konoha ninja in the war against Kirigakure.

Mu Yue wasn't very famous at the time. Even his appointment as vice-commander was a special promotion by Orochimaru after he had distinguished himself.

Now Mu Yue was the universally recognized next Hokage. While serving as Hokage Assistant, he also oversaw a special department like the Training Team.

Orochimaru had no hope of becoming Hokage and also had to worry about his own experimental problems.

"With your abilities, Orochimaru, as long as you don't run into fundamental issues, progress is only a matter of time." Mu Yue replied with a faint smile.

Orochimaru showed no sign of emotion on the surface, but inwardly he repeatedly pondered Mu Yue's last sentence.

"Fundamental issues... so he knows."

Orochimaru probed a few more times, but Mu Yue's answers were different from what Orochimaru had imagined, leaving him uncertain again.

After arriving at the Training Team's base, Mu Yue led Orochimaru to the laboratory inside the Training Team's compound.

"These should be your personal belongings, Orochimaru. You can check them. If anything is missing, I'll arrange for ninja to investigate and find it."

Orochimaru looked around and said, "No problem. Looks about the same as I remember."

"Since there's no issue with your personal belongings, let's talk about something else—for example, the illegal human experiments you and Shimura Danzo conducted." Mu Yue said calmly, as casually as if he were asking Orochimaru if he wanted water.

If this were the Mu Yue of before, he might have put on an act and bickered with Orochimaru for a while. But with his current strength, there was no need for such trouble.

When Orochimaru first heard this, his pupils contracted slightly, but he quickly returned to normal.

"So you really do know, Mu Yue. Then what do you plan to do? Report me to Sarutobi-sensei and have me locked up in prison forever?" Orochimaru asked coolly.

Knowing that Mu Yue was aware, he felt somewhat relieved instead.

Because this precisely indicated that there was a possibility for cooperation with Mu Yue. Otherwise, Mu Yue would have already brought him to justice.

"There's no need for such boring talk. You know that if I had that intention, you wouldn't be standing here talking to me." Mu Yue replied.

"So, Mu Yue, you want to cooperate with me, just like Danzo did?"

At that moment, Orochimaru almost wished Mu Yue weren't so excellent. Mu Yue was so excellent that Orochimaru wasn't sure his research could attract him.

The ultimate goal of Hashirama Cell research was merely to recreate Hashirama Senju's vitality and Wood Release power. Mu Yue could become the next Hashirama Senju on his own; he really might not be interested in Hashirama Cells.

"Cooperation can be discussed, but I have some conditions." Mu Yue said.

As for Orochimaru as a person, Mu Yue was somewhat wary. He really could stir up trouble and had a tenacious vitality.

The Fourth Shinobi World War breaking out—Orochimaru bore a major share of the blame for that.

If Orochimaru hadn't brought Edo Tensei out of Konoha, how could Kabuto have become the Dream Master?

Now, if Mu Yue wanted to kill Orochimaru, he did have the ability to do so, but there was no need.

Orochimaru was not yet as cold-blooded and extreme as in later times, and they had no substantial conflict of interest. So Mu Yue leaned more toward cooperation and reform.

Simply put, Orochimaru just wanted immortality. Mu Yue would give him some help to save him from taking detours.

During the Fourth War, Orochimaru reformed on his own without needing a Talk-no-Jutsu. Mu Yue didn't believe he couldn't keep Orochimaru under control.

"What conditions?" Orochimaru asked curiously.

As long as it didn't affect his plan for immortality, Orochimaru didn't care. He would even support Mu Yue becoming Hokage.

"I must be informed about your experiments, and you cannot capture civilians as test subjects."

Resources shouldn't be wasted. Before Obito and Shisui's training was complete, research on Hashirama Cells was important.

"Only these two?"

Orochimaru was somewhat surprised. He had thought Mu Yue would have strict conditions, but it was just this.

In that case, Mu Yue was an even better cooperation partner than Shimura Danzo—not only promising for the future, but also low-maintenance.

"For now, just these two." Mu Yue nodded.

He didn't want to interfere too much in Orochimaru's affairs. He had only one demand of Orochimaru: don't cause trouble, just focus on research.

If Orochimaru could quietly keep researching, his future contributions to Konoha might even surpass Jiraiya's.

For a ninja at the Three Ninja level, it is not difficult for Mu Yue to kill them, but finding a brilliant scientific research genius is truly no easy task.