Chapter 678: Growing Stronger Every Day

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

But the words got stuck in his throat, and Minato Namikaze couldn't say them.

Strictly speaking, this wasn't a gift for him—it was for Kushina, and Kushina, who still hadn't fully mastered the Nine-Tails' power, really needed such a gift.

"Thank you."

In the end, Minato Namikaze accepted the gift and solemnly thanked Mu Yue.

"Don't worry about it, it's nothing big. For me, the sealing techniques Kushina taught me are far more valuable." Mu Yue said with a smile.

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

What Kushina gave Mu Yue wasn't just a few sealing techniques; it was a complete system.

After that, Minato Namikaze didn't say much and seriously processed the ingredients.

Between good friends, no many words were needed; when Mu Yue needed help, he would also do his utmost to assist Mu Yue.

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

It was rare that the war had ended, and Mu Yue had even given them a month-long break. Obito was planning to relax properly.

Not that he would completely stop training, but he would adjust the time proportion for training. Normally, Obito trained almost all day.

To relax, he definitely needed to cut down training time. Obito thought training four hours a day during the vacation would be about right.

But being alone wasn't that fun, Obito wanted to find his buddies to hang out with.

The first person he looked for was Rin Nohara, but Rin, due to her outstanding medical ninjutsu, was called up to work at Konoha Hospital treating battlefield casualties, so she had no time to play.

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 was originally out looking for someone to play with, so he politely declined Might Guy.

Something Obito hadn't expected happened: when he went to Kakashi's house, Kakashi was also training.

Might Guy had always been a training maniac, so Obito could understand that. But Kakashi working so hard? That he didn't get. Wasn't the plan to relax?

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

With the mindset of a water ghost (trying to drag someone down), Obito urged Kakashi to go out and play with him.

"Lately, I've had an inspiration for improving Muen Ichigeki (The No-Thought Single Strike)." Kakashi gave a reason that made it hard for Obito to continue persuading.

Obito knew very well how important Muen Ichigeki was to Kakashi.

If it were him, not to mention having inspiration for improving Blue Flame, even if it were inspiration for learning Blue Flame, Obito would max out his training intensity.

He hadn't even completely mastered Blue Flame yet.

"I brought the camera out, so I might as well look around."

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

He didn't dislike training, but since he was already out...

With that thought, Obito started strolling through Konoha, taking pictures of every scene he found interesting.

"Obito, long time no see."

Asuma saw Obito taking pictures of the Hokage Monument and greeted him.

"Oh, it's you, Asuma. It's been a while. What have you been up to?" Obito put down his camera and looked at Asuma.

"I was on a mission in the Land of Hot Water's battlefield. Just got back recently. What about you?"

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

The two chatted for a while. Obito thought standing on the street talking wasn't great, so he suggested:

"Want to go get some dango? Talk while we eat."

Asuma waved his hand, "No, I still have things to do. I'll treat you another day."

"What things?" Obito asked casually.

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

"Huh?" Obito was somewhat surprised.

The outstanding graduate invitation went to Asuma? Shouldn't it be someone like him or Kakashi?

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

"Right? I was pretty surprised too. If we're talking about outstanding, the one who fits best should be Shisui—he became a jōnin at eight, the youngest jōnin in all of Konoha's history," Asuma said with a chuckle.

Obito nodded in agreement; Shisui's record really was ridiculous.

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

Obito and Kakashi both became jōnin at ten. Many people their age hadn't even graduated as ninja yet, let alone been promoted to jōnin.

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

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

Feeling it was about time, Asuma said goodbye to Obito and prepared to head to the Ninja Academy to attend the event.

"I've got nothing better to do anyway, so I'll tag along and see what's going on," Obito said as he followed Asuma.

Yamato was a student at the Academy, and he was curious about how Yamato was doing in school—how his grades were.

Asuma nodded. Even though Obito hadn't been invited, he was still a famous genius in the village, and the Academy couldn't exactly refuse him entry.

So the two went to the Ninja Academy together.

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

When the receiving teacher spotted Obito beside Asuma, he silently thought, "Uh-oh."

Strictly speaking, Asuma couldn't compare to Obito and the others—just the time it took them to become jōnin made that clear.

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

"Asuma-jōnin, Obito-jōnin," the receiving teacher forced himself to greet them.

Obito nodded and looked around the Academy with curiosity, not engaging much with the teacher.

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

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

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

Probably because the event was happening, there were no classes today for the whole school.

"Let's go check out Yamato's class. If I remember right, it's Class 1-A," Obito said, relying on his memory of the classroom building layout to quickly find Yamato's classroom.

Obito didn't go in right away. He observed from outside first and noticed that the Class 1-A teacher wasn't there for some reason, then entered the classroom.

The wooden classroom door opened, and all the students instinctively looked toward the door, thinking the teacher was back.

When they looked closely, they saw a young-looking ninja, not much older than them.

"Hey there," Obito said with a grin, greeting the students.

"Hello, teacher."

Obito's friendly demeanor threw the students off; they didn't know who he was, so they just called him "teacher."

After all, this was the Ninja Academy—calling an unfamiliar ninja "teacher" was never a mistake.

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

"Obito-senpai."

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 amazing senior I know, not a teacher," Yamato explained.

Obito swept his gaze across the classroom. Probably because there was no class, the students weren't sitting in their assigned seats—they were scattered around however they liked.

Beside Yamato, a crowd had gathered, making him the center of the classroom.

Seeing this, Obito knew he didn't need to worry about Yamato's school life—it looked way better than when he was in the first year.

Just as Obito was thinking about whether to slip away, Hinata Oriko, hearing Yamato praise Obito, brightened up and walked toward Obito clutching a small notebook.

Yamato sensed trouble.

Hinata Oriko was a very studious student, ranked first in theory in Class 1-1, and had even started studying advanced theory lessons ahead of time. Yamato was often bombarded by her with various ninja knowledge questions.

But Yamato could only answer ninja knowledge questions; for math, Chinese, history, chemistry, and the like, he had to ask Hinata Oriko for help.

In Yamato's memory, Obito was terrible at theory and often mocked by Kakashi. How awkward would it be if he got stumped by a first-year student?

"Yamato said you're a really impressive senior. Can I ask you some questions?" Hinata Oriko hurried forward and asked.

"Haha, of course, no problem."

Obito replied with an easygoing smile, giving Yamato a mental thumbs-up—not a waste treating him to meals earlier, since he was even spreading his legendary deeds.

"Sorry, Obito-senpai. I'll treat you to a meal as an apology when I have time," Yamato silently apologized in his heart.

"Thank you so much! I'll start asking then." Hinata Oriko beamed with joy.

She then started with questions about the early days of the village's founding, moved on to geography and strategy, and finally hit classic math problems like chickens and rabbits in the same cage.

To Yamato's surprise, Obito answered every question smoothly without a hint of hesitation, though he was a bit slower on the math ones.

Was this really the same Obito who was terrible at theory? Yamato was utterly astonished.

"Have you ever seen a desk at midnight?" Feeling the awed and admiring gazes of the students around him, Obito kept his face calm but was secretly elated.

He was no longer the Uchiha Obito who couldn't become a jonin because of poor theory scores. Now, besides training every day, he had been reading a lot.

At first, Obito found studying very difficult and would get drowsy after just a short while.

But whenever he thought about how his lack of cultural knowledge had kept him from becoming Hokage, and that he might be mocked by Kakashi if Kakashi became Hokage, he gritted his teeth and kept reading.

After studying for a while, Obito gradually formed a habit. Eventually, even boring math books no longer made him sleepy.

Just then, the assembly bell rang, and the students in the classroom started moving.

Yamato walked over to Obito. "Obito-senpai, what brings you here today? Are you here for our school event?"

"Yeah, just wandering around with nothing to do." Obito nodded.

The two chatted as they headed to the assembly point.

Along the way, Obito spotted his former homeroom teacher, Iketani Isamu.

"Iketani-sensei!" Obito walked up enthusiastically and greeted him.

He had never forgotten the favor Iketani Isamu had done him by approving his leave back then.

"Just got back to Konoha, right? I heard about your exploits—amazing stuff. I heard that Gai even fought evenly with that Kitsuchi from Iwagakure." Iketani Isamu responded with a surprised, delighted expression when he saw Obito.

He probably would never forget Obito and Might Guy.

Not only had they brought him extra bonuses during their school days, but even after graduation, they continued to positively influence Iketani Isamu's teaching career.

Sometimes Iketani Isamu felt he didn't deserve it, because at the start he thought he was unlucky to take over a class with the two most famous dead-lasts in the whole school, and during the first semester he often bothered Muyue to substitute for him because of his blind dates.

"I should have listened to Ueda and focused all my energy on teaching," Iketani Isamu sighed. In the end, he hadn't managed to win over his goddess.

"Good thing you didn't listen, sensei, or Class 4-2 would have lost a lot," Obito said with a relieved look.

If Muyue hadn't come to substitute, where would he have found such a great teacher?

"You kid, too blunt." Iketani Isamu wasn't angry and scolded him with a laugh.

After all, Obito wasn't wrong—the substitute teacher had been Muyue, now the leading candidate to become Hokage in Konoha.

Thinking back, Iketani Isamu really felt reality was too surreal: the future Hokage had once substituted for him, drank with him, and worked in the same office.

He had even borrowed money from the future Hokage.

"Hehe." Obito chuckled and went back to Yamato's side.

After the assembly came the part Obito was least interested in: speeches by the leaders. He listened for a few minutes, found it boring, and quietly slipped away. After all, he was neither a student nor a special guest.

After leaving, Obito did not continue wandering around and directly went to train near the Uchiha clan grounds.

Whenever he thought of Kakashi researching a big move, Obito could never fully enjoy himself.

…

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

In order to let everyone know the excellence of a thirteen-year-old jonin, the Ninja Academy specially prepared a special segment: Asuma would fight the Ninja Academy teachers, and then select Ninja Academy students for sparring guidance.

Unsurprisingly, the chunin teacher of the Ninja Academy was easily defeated by Asuma, winning applause from the audience below.

Finally came the segment of guiding the students.

"You, come up." Asuma said, pointing at Yamato.

He had seen Obito and Yamato standing together talking. Since it was all about guidance, Asuma preferred to guide a friend's junior.

"Me?" Yamato asked uncertainly.

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