Chapter 626: Perfect Thoughtless Strike!

After a curious glance, Mu Yue paid no further attention.

After all, rewards could be claimed at any time and wouldn't disappear; there was no need to claim them on such an occasion.

Mu Yue's inauguration speech was not long; it was finished in three minutes.

Finally, amidst the applause and cheers of the civilians and ninjas, the Fourth Hokage's succession ceremony officially ended.

The civilians and chunin and genin dispersed, while the jonin followed the higher-ups to the large meeting room to prepare for a meeting.

On the way, any ninja who saw Mu Yue respectfully called out "Fourth Hokage."

When Mu Yue reached the meeting room door, the ANBU who had been waiting there opened it; Mu Yue entered first, Sarutobi Hiruzen half a step behind, and the others followed closely.

Then Mu Yue sat in the main seat, Sarutobi Hiruzen sat to Mu Yue's right, and Mitokado Homura sat to Mu Yue's left.

Because notice had been given in advance, the jonin had not left; soon all the jonin had arrived.

"Effective today, Minato Namikaze will serve as Hokage Assistant." As soon as the meeting began, Mu Yue dropped a bombshell.

Many jonin showed surprised expressions.

Everyone knew that after Mu Yue became Hokage, the position of Hokage Assistant would become vacant, but they hadn't expected Mu Yue to promote Minato Namikaze to it.

Most of them thought it would either be concurrently held by Sarutobi Hiruzen or filled by a ninja of Orochimaru or Tsunade's level.

After all, Minato Namikaze had only recently been promoted to jonin squad leader and hadn't accomplished any particularly outstanding feats; he shouldn't have been promoted so exceptionally.

The jonin subconsciously looked at the other higher-ups.

Sarutobi Hiruzen's expression was as usual; such an important position had naturally been approved in the higher-up meeting.

Utatane Koharu's face was expressionless, making it hard for outsiders to read her thoughts.

She was actually a bit displeased; she understood that the new Hokage wanted to cultivate his own faction, but for Mu Yue to promote a Hokage Assistant right after taking office was too blatant and showed no respect for the senior veterans.

You have to understand, when that higher-up meeting was held, Mu Yue hadn't even formally succeeded the position yet.

But Sarutobi Hiruzen had nodded; since both the new and old Hokage approved of it, her objections were useless.

Clap!!

The jonin all applauded, even a small portion who didn't approve of this appointment did the same.

They couldn't oppose Mu Yue, the newly appointed Fourth Hokage, and disrespect him; at most, they would pay special attention to Minato Namikaze, and if his work wasn't done well, they would initiate impeachment.

"Hokage Assistant still has the word 'Hokage' in it, so it's like halfway to the goal." Kushina clapped vigorously, happy for Minato Namikaze.

She didn't know how Hokage Assistant compared to jonin squad leader, but Mu Yue had become Hokage from Hokage Assistant, so she thought this position was good for Minato Namikaze.

Obito also clapped very hard; he felt a bit sorry for Minato Namikaze.

Under normal circumstances, Minato Namikaze would have been the one to inherit the Hokage position, but now he could only serve as Hokage Assistant.

After the applause stopped, Minato Namikaze stood up, bowed, and said seriously:

"I will diligently fulfill my duties, even if it costs me my life!"

Clap clap!!

Mu Yue led the applause, and the meeting room erupted with thunderous applause.

After sitting down, Minato Namikaze cast a grateful glance at Mu Yue.

He hadn't expected to be promoted to Hokage Assistant so quickly either; Mu Yue must have put in a lot of effort for this.

"Mu Yue, I will not betray the trust you and the village have placed in me," Minato Namikaze thought to himself.

Since Mu Yue had given him this opportunity, he would absolutely not let Mu Yue down; he would definitely achieve results, so that others wouldn't criticize Mu Yue for nepotism.

"Nara Shikaku will serve as the jonin squad leader." Then Mu Yue continued to announce.

Although the jonin squad leader was not as high as Hokage Assistant, it was still a heavyweight position with real power; it couldn't be held concurrently by Minato Namikaze.

As for this appointment, the jonin showed little reaction.

Nara Shikaku was the current head of the Nara clan, capable and with achievements; he was indeed qualified to be the jonin squad leader.

This jonin meeting did not last very long; it ended in an hour.

The main purpose of Mu Yue calling the meeting was to promote Minato Namikaze; everything else was incidental.

After the meeting, jōnin without position changes went back to their own affairs; some returned to their posts to work, some went to the training grounds to cultivate, while those with position changes were busy with handovers and familiarizing themselves with their new duties.

Sitting alone in the Hokage's office, Mu Yue opened his panel and claimed Obito's settlement rewards.

[Disciple Uchiha Obito's strength increased, reputation rose, connections expanded, probability of becoming Hokage increased moderately. Obtained progress reward: Chakra +3000, Random Skill Extraction Scroll Fragment S+ x2, Fire Attribute Chakra Comprehension increased.]

[Disciple Uchiha Obito's strength increased, reputation rose, connections expanded, probability of becoming Hokage increased greatly. Obtained progress reward: Chakra +4000, Limited Random Ninjutsu/Taijutsu/Genjutsu Skill Perfect Scroll, Fire Attribute Chakra Comprehension increased.]

Now Obito's total mission progress had exceeded seventy percent, so two progress rewards were settled at once.

The settlement rewards after fifty percent were much more generous than those before fifty percent, especially noticeable in chakra. At fifty percent settlement, the chakra reward was only two thousand, while at seventy percent it was four thousand.

But in the face of Mu Yue's current million-level chakra, it was still a bit of a mosquito leg.

Other aspects weren't as obvious; for example, the sixty-percent progress reward, although the fragments became two, were no longer self-select but random draws.

Of course, no matter how random, they were still S+-level draw scrolls; Mu Yue believed they wouldn't produce trash skills, but they couldn't accurately target his or his disciple's needs like self-select scrolls could.

Mu Yue set his sights on the Random Ninjutsu/Taijutsu/Genjutsu Skill Perfect Scroll.

Acquiring Perfect-level skills was extremely difficult; currently, all of Mu Yue's Perfect-level skills were obtained by raising disciple trust levels to the maximum and triggering a drop.

At present, all of Mu Yue's Perfect-level skills were dropped via teaching return.

But relying on teaching return to drop a Perfect-level skill was extremely difficult; only when upgrading to trust level four could one reliably trigger a drop once.

[Limited Random Ninjutsu/Taijutsu/Genjutsu Skill Perfect Scroll: Can select five ninjutsu/taijutsu/genjutsu skills of any mastery level for random upgrade; the selected skill will be upgraded to Perfect level.]

"So it randomly selects from among five." Mu Yue nodded.

If it were to randomly select from his skill library, then this scroll would truly be inferior to ordinary Proficiency-level scrolls.

After thinking it over, Mu Yue selected five skills: Blue Flame, Flying Thunder God Technique, One Mindless Slash, Mugen Limitless Technique, and Sun Breathing.

Blue Flame, One Mindless Slash, and Mugen Limitless Technique were all skills produced by S+ scrolls; their strength was beyond doubt.

Sun Breathing was related to Mu Yue's plans for developing Sun Breathing (Rì Zhī Hūxī); if he could forcibly upgrade it through the system, it might greatly accelerate his development speed.

As for Flying Thunder God, there was no special reason; simply among the remaining skills, there was none better or more suitable.

It was just that chakra nature transformation wasn't within the scope of ninjutsu/taijutsu/genjutsu skills; otherwise Mu Yue would have filled in Yin and Yang nature transformations—these two special nature transformations were especially difficult to improve.

After Mu Yue confirmed the skills, a large wheel appeared on the panel, each skill occupying twenty percent of the area.

The wheel pointer spun rapidly, and after ten seconds, the speed began to slow.

Under Mu Yue's gaze, the pointer slowly entered the Mugen Limitless Technique area, seeming about to stop.

Just as Mu Yue thought it would upgrade Mugen Limitless Technique, the pointer wobbled and barely entered the next area.

[Limited Random Ninjutsu/Taijutsu/Genjutsu Skill Perfect Scroll consumed. Skill acquired: One Mindless Slash.]

Along with the system notification, a vast amount of cultivation experience regarding One Mindless Slash emerged in Mu Yue's mind.

Various sword techniques' cultivation experience, extraordinary Lightning Attribute chakra nature transformation skills; under the impact of such massive experience, even Mu Yue was stunned for a moment, feeling his head a bit swollen.

"Indeed, Perfect level is different."

Mu Yue opened his own panel and found that after upgrading One Mindless Slash, not only had his Lightning Attribute chakra increased considerably, but an additional skill had also formed.

[Name: Hanyu Mu Yue]

[Chakra: ]

[Skills: Lightning Attribute Chakra Nature Transformation, Fire Attribute Chakra Nature Transformation... Sword and Blade Proficiency]

[Sword and Blade Proficiency: Mastery of various schools of sword and blade techniques.]

Due to the upgrade of One Mindless Slash, Lightning Attribute Chakra Nature Transformation overtook others and became Mu Yue's highest proficiency nature transformation.

Mu Yue felt that if he were to go all out and use One Mindless Slash now, its power would be quite terrifying.

Perfect-level Lightning Breathing + Perfect-level Lightning Attribute Chakra Nature Transformation + Perfect-level One Mindless Slash.

The only things that could further enhance his peak output were probably Sage Mode and an even greater chakra volume.

Then Mu Yue closed his own panel and opened Obito's life mission.

[Name: Obito Uchiha]

[Life Mission: It’s not that the one who becomes Hokage is recognized by everyone, but that the one recognized by everyone can become Hokage.]

[Main Objective: Become Hokage of Konohagakure]

[Mission Progress: 70.9%]

Muyue estimated that this was already approaching the limit external factors could affect; the next progress could only be advanced by Obito himself.

At this point, if external factors still tried to influence, they would have to shamelessly force the appointment.

Muyue thought it wouldn’t come to that; after all, Obito himself might not even be willing.

If Obito could continue to work hard to improve his overall qualities as before, he would still have a good chance of becoming Hokage.

Then Muyue looked at Shisui’s life mission.

Shisui also triggered a settlement reward this time, but not as exaggerated as Obito’s; Shisui triggered the fifty percent settlement reward.

[Name: Shisui Uchiha]

[Life Mission: Uchiha and Konoha]

[Main Objective: Eliminate the conflict between the Uchiha and Konoha and let the Uchiha integrate into Konoha]

[Mission Progress: 55.8%]

[Disciple Shisui Uchiha’s strength increase promoted the reform of the Police Force, taking a small step on the road to eliminating the conflict between the Uchiha and Konoha, obtaining progress reward – Chakra +2000, Self-Select Draw Scroll Fragment S+, Yin Release Chakra Insight Boost]

In fact, Shisui had also increased quite a bit; he was currently the disciple with the second-highest life mission progress. It was just that Obito’s original progress was higher, so he broke through to seventy percent in one go and triggered two settlement rewards.

However, Muyue felt that Obito probably wouldn’t stay ahead for long.

Because Obito still had a considerable road ahead to become Hokage, which required a lot of time.

And Shisui had his Hokage teacher’s help; even if he couldn’t completely solve the Uchiha problem in a short time, pushing the mission progress above eighty percent within a year would not be too difficult.

Knock, knock.

At that moment, the door to the Hokage’s office was suddenly knocked on.

“Enter,” Muyue said, looking toward the door.

Minato Namikaze pushed the door open and stepped in, staring at Muyue sitting in the office chair, slightly stunned.

Ever since he became a ninja, every time he had opened the door to the Hokage’s office, it had been Hiruzen Sarutobi inside; now that the person had suddenly changed, he was a little unaccustomed.

“Fourth Hokage,” Minato addressed.

He was now the Hokage’s Assistant and one of the higher-ups, so he did not have to call Muyue “Lord Fourth Hokage.”

“When it’s just the two of us, you don’t have to be so formal; just call me Muyue like before,” Muyue said with a smile.

If it weren’t inappropriate, he would have wanted to hand over the position of Hokage to Minato; naturally, he wouldn’t care about such trivialities.

Seeing that Muyue was still the same as before, Minato Namikaze also let go of the slight restraint in his heart, nodding with a smile.

Muyue took out a document and handed it to Minato Namikaze, saying, “Minato, take a look at this first.”

The reason Minato came was not because he had something to report to him, but because at the end of the meeting Muyue had asked Minato to finish his work and come to the Hokage’s office.

After receiving the document, Minato Namikaze began to read it carefully. After ten minutes, a surprised and puzzled expression appeared on his face.

“Muyue, is this the reform you plan to carry out at the Ninja Academy?” Minato Namikaze asked after reading it carefully.

Muyue nodded and replied, “Yes, but not entirely. The university won’t be established for now; I’m only adding a Middle School division.”

Minato Namikaze breathed a sigh of relief; even though he wasn’t particularly familiar with school institutions, he still felt that the university in this plan was a bit beyond reality.

The Ninja Academy graduates at most three hundred people a year; with so few people, dividing them into various different specialties and having Jonin or veteran Chunin teach them would mean how much money lost each year.

“Changing the current Ninja Academy into a four-year system, positioning it as primary school, and then adding a three-year middle school, total seven years — given the current period of peace, I think it should be feasible,” Minato Namikaze expressed his own thoughts.

During peacetime, the Ninja Academy is usually a six-year system, which is only one year less than Muyue’s primary plus middle school.

But in terms of Genin quality, Minato Namikaze was certain that it would be far superior under Muyue’s reformed Academy.

Because Muyue’s four-year primary school did not only contain the content of the original Ninja Academy grades one through four; rather, it adjusted and condensed the content of grades one through six into four years.

Then Muyue's middle school would also teach C-rank ninjutsu developed by Muyue herself; as long as one graduated from middle school, they would definitely have mastered a C-rank ninjutsu.

This was something the current Ninja Academy students could not compare with; the current Ninja Academy only required mastery of the Three Body Techniques.

During peacetime, too many ninjas would make military expenses unbearable. Although Muyue's reform would lengthen the training cycle for ninjas, the genin graduating would be more excellent.

Namikaze Minato thought more and more that Muyue's reform plan was very good.

"As expected of Muyue, such a complete plan—she must have thought and revised it for a long time, maybe even started writing it when she was teaching at the Ninja Academy." Namikaze Minato admired in his heart.

When Muyue was a teacher, she tried every means to reform and make the Ninja Academy better. Now that she had become Hokage, she must be pondering day and night for Konoha's development.

Seeing Minato's approval, Muyue nodded and asked, "So regarding the university, Minato, what do you think?"

He was, after all, just a modern person who had come to the world of Naruto for a little over four years; he still had to consult the views of the local people from Naruto's world and could not work behind closed doors.

"For now, it's not really realistic." Minato said as tactfully as possible.

Through the plan document, Minato could see Muyue's love for the school and her beautiful fantasies for the school's future development, but he truly felt that a university could not be established, maybe not even in the next fifty years. As for a hundred years later, that was too far off; Namikaze Minato had no way to judge.

"Dividing the different students' preferences and strengths into Fire Release specialization, Water Release specialization, Medical specialization, Sealing Techniques specialization, and so on—I think this idea is great." Namikaze Minato continued.

He genuinely felt that Muyue's method was very good, seemed very complete, and believed such a school could cultivate very outstanding talents.

"But our Ninja Academy only has a bit over three hundred students per grade. Subdividing this way requires too many teachers."

This was what Namikaze Minato considered the biggest difficulty. The courses in a university were relatively advanced; some courses could even only be taught by Jonin.

But Jonin are the mid-to-high combat power of a ninja village. Apart from the two principals, currently the entire Ninja Academy only had one teacher squad leader who didn't teach classes—a Jonin.

The wealth that Jonin created for Konoha by undertaking missions is hard for ordinary people to imagine.

If a bunch of Jonin didn't go on missions but went to school to teach such a small number of students, Konoha's mission income would drop significantly.

Moreover, a decline in mission completion efficiency would also plunge Konoha into a vicious cycle of losing missions.

What is the purpose of cultivating a better next generation? Isn't it for the prosperity and strength of the village? That would be putting the cart before the horse.

"Elementary school, middle school, plus three years of university—then the total process reaches ten years. That's really too long."

After all is said and done, it's actually a problem of money. Konoha doesn't have that much spare money to support students being out of production for ten years doing nothing.

"Mm." Muyue nodded thoughtfully. He had actually thought of this problem too, otherwise he wouldn't have only introduced middle school in Konoha.

Although compared to the process in his previous life, it's already greatly simplified, for students in the ninja world, ten years is still too long.

Students who graduate from middle school are already full-fledged ninjas and are qualified to take missions, but how to find a balance between university studies and mission assignments?

After chatting with Namikaze Minato for two hours, Muyue gained quite a bit.

Namikaze Minato was a local after all. Sometimes the angle from which he viewed problems was different from his own. This difference wasn't necessarily right or wrong, just simply another perspective, which served to fill gaps and inspire thinking.

"Muyue, why did you think of establishing a university?" Namikaze Minato asked curiously before leaving.

He felt that Konoha's current training system was sufficient. After graduation from the ninja academy, students were mentored by experienced Chunin or Jonin, achieving both training and earning.

Muyue smiled and didn't answer.

Was he supposed to say that he was worried about aliens attacking, so he wanted to farm more rewards and bring the geniuses of the ninja world along to become stronger together?

PS: This chapter is 5k, there will be another chapter later, but the time is uncertain.

Also, there's good news: Xiao Ju has decided not to go out during the National Day holiday, but to stay home and explode with updates and typing, typing furiously for seven days.

Recently, due to work reasons, the updates have indeed been a bit fewer.