Chapter 749: Research

In the end, the result Obito gave was that both teams tied for last place, and they all had to complete one hundred problems.

Of course, Anko and the others could also offset the problems with extra training to reduce the pressure of doing the exercises, or they could do the problems in installments to give themselves more time.

"Let me show you what real ninjutsu looks like."

Obito said, raising his head and puffing out his chest.

He had only been in the parallel world for a week, but his strength had genuinely improved quite a bit.

The pressure of battle was too great; if he didn't improve, he might end up dead.

Anko and the other two showed expectant expressions.

Boruto's expression remained the same.

By now, Boruto's view of Obito had changed considerably, but he still didn't think Obito could pull out a ninjutsu that would shock him.

He was someone who had been through a lot and had witnessed many powerful jutsu up close.

"Flame Breathing: Total Concentration!"

Obito gathered a large amount of natural energy into his Flame Breathing Sage Mode and immediately entered Flame Breathing Chakra Mode, enhancing the nature transformation of fire-attributed chakra.

"Sage Art: Rasengan · Blue Flame!"

Obito extended his right hand, concentrating a great deal of fire-attributed chakra in his palm, and a chakra ball burning with blue flames rapidly formed.

Originally, this was a powerful sage technique that could only be performed inside Kakashi's body, but after Obito grew stronger, he could now perform it alone.

"Are you ready? It's going to explode."

The clone that Obito had produced in advance smiled, teleporting Anko and the other three to a distance just before the original slammed the Rasengan into the ground.

Boom!!

As soon as the shadow clone finished speaking, a dull explosion rang out, dust rose, and debris flew in all directions.

When the smoke cleared, Boruto looked in Obito's direction. The originally flat training ground now had a charred pit dozens of meters across, with large patches of blue flames still burning inside it.

Boruto's mouth opened slightly. He hadn't expected Obito to be able to use the Rasengan, and such a powerful one he had never seen before.

"How about that? Pretty impressive, right?"

Obito waved his hand to extinguish the burning flames and walked up to the four of them with a smug look.

Aside from the unreasonable Kamui, this was already the strongest move he could currently use.

"Captain Obito, I want to learn this!"

Anko raised her hand and shouted, as fast as she could.

"Good, that's the spirit. At your learning speed, you should be able to meet the requirements to learn Blue Flame in about another twelve years of training."

Obito rubbed his chin and speculated.

"Huh? Twelve years is way too long."

Anko complained; she had only been alive for fourteen years in total, so that requirement was way too high.

"Think it's long? I have a method that takes one day. Do you want to learn it?"

"I want to learn! I want to learn!"

"Tonight, before you go to sleep, keep muttering 'I've mastered the Blue Flame Rasengan' in your mouth, and maybe you'll have a corresponding dream."

Smack!

Obito pressed his two fingers together and tapped Anko's head, saying:

"If you want to learn a powerful technique, you have to train hard and build a solid foundation. Don't think about reaching the sky in a single step."

Even he, with Muzuki's guidance, had trained for a long time before being taught Blue Flame.

"How long did it take you to meet the requirements?"

Boruto asked curiously.

"About three years or so."

Obito recalled for a moment and then spoke.

"What, want to learn?"

Obito chuckled and reached for Boruto's head, but Boruto dodged.

"I was just asking casually."

Boruto didn't reply to Obito's words.

Boruto definitely wanted to learn such an impressive jutsu, but he didn't know Fire Release; even a genius like him might need several months to meet the requirements.

But this wasn't their world, and they wouldn't stay long.

"I want to use the favor you owe me to help me find Sasuke."

To prevent Obito from misunderstanding, Boruto deliberately called Sasuke by his first name without any honorifics.

"Sasuke..."

Obito thought it over, roughly understood Boruto's meaning, and could guess a bit of Boruto's thoughts.

If he had traveled to a parallel world similar to the past, he definitely would want to go see Muyue when she was a child.

"A small thing, no need to use up a favor. Tomorrow I'll take you to find him."

Obito agreed directly.

Since he still had to train Anko and the others, Obito arranged the time for tomorrow.

Boruto had no objection to this and spent the rest of the day with Obito and the others.

It wasn't that Obito insisted he stay; rather, Boruto found it interesting and didn't leave.

Watching Obito train the three of Anko, Boruto felt like he was watching a live-action manga, and a comedic one at that.

When he joined in as a "training prop," it was even more fun.

Happy time always passes quickly. When Obito said the training was over for today, Boruto realized it was already past three in the afternoon.

Since everyone wasn't particularly busy, after resting for a while, Obito and the others accompanied Boruto on a stroll around Konoha.

Strolling around Konoha with more people was indeed more enjoyable. Boruto was in a great mood until they returned at five o'clock.

"Muyue-kun, unfortunately, it seems we have failed again."

Looking at the death row inmate who had completely lost his life force, Orochimaru turned to Muyue and spoke.

"It must be that your chakra is too strong. Perhaps we should screen for people who are more skilled in taijutsu; a stronger physique might be able to withstand it."

"The problem isn't physical strength, but the body's 'aptitude.'"

Muyue shook his head.

To save Boruto and to thoroughly research the powerful jutsu "Karma," Muyue sought out Orochimaru and researched "Karma" together with him.

However, saying their research was going poorly would be putting it mildly; it simply couldn't get off the ground.

Because the people capable of bearing the "Karma" were far too rare.

Muyue and Orochimaru tried for two days, and all the death row inmates ended up dying abruptly.

"Then what kind of 'aptitude' is it? Ninjutsu or something else?"

Orochimaru asked.

"If it's in terms of ninjutsu, this body of mine is passable."

After exchanging memories with the parallel world Orochimaru, the Orochimaru here discovered many abilities he possessed, one of which was the Living Corpse Reincarnation.

His idea was to master the Living Corpse Reincarnation from his memory and then use his old body as an experiment subject.

"It's most likely useless. 'Aptitude' refers more to the talent for bearing the 'Karma.'"

Muyue replied.

People with "aptitude" won't lack talent in ninjutsu, but that doesn't mean people with ninjutsu talent will have "aptitude."

Kaguya Ōtsutsuki said that finding people with "aptitude" is difficult; even if the Ōtsutsuki use their strength to force natives to come one by one as test subjects, it often takes a considerable amount of time to find a native who can bear the "Kāma".

However, the Ōtsutsuki who possess Kāma have eternal life as long as they don't die accidentally, so they don't care about this aspect.

To them, a millennium is not a very long unit of time.

"In that case, it would be a good choice to study Boruto himself as the victim."

Orochimaru suggested.

Theoretically, Boruto, who has been bearing the Kāma for some time, is the most ideal research material.

"No."

Muyue shook his head and refused.

Letting a twelve-year-old child cooperate with Orochimaru for research—who knows what kind of psychological trauma that would leave.

If Boruto's Kāma unfreezing progress had exceeded seventy percent, for the sake of Boruto's life, Muyue might have let him choose whether to adopt radical treatment.

But Boruto's internal Kāma unfreezing progress was still very low; as long as it was controlled properly, no problems would appear for a long time.

"Mm."

Orochimaru nodded and didn't bring it up again, as if he had never said that.

Around six o'clock in the evening, Muyue returned home.

Muyue first glanced at Kaguya Ōtsutsuki's state, then was surprised to find that Kaguya Ōtsutsuki was actually watching TV, looking completely engrossed.

Muyue was not short of money, so even the rooms he didn't use were well-equipped, and the bedroom where Kaguya Ōtsutsuki stayed was no exception.

Muyue watched curiously for a while but quickly lost interest, because it was a TV drama about mother-in-law and daughter-in-law relationships, which was not within his range of interests.

"Do you know how to delay the unfreezing of the Kāma?"

Muyue asked.

Removing the Kāma is something that even Kaguya Ōtsutsuki, a pure-blooded Ōtsutsuki, considers impossible, so completely curing Boruto is extremely difficult.

Delaying the Kāma's unfreezing can buy more time for a complete cure.

"I know how to accelerate the Kāma's unfreezing."

Kaguya Ōtsutsuki answered honestly.

The faster the Kāma's unfreezing speed, the more beneficial it is for the Ōtsutsuki. Of course, they wouldn't study how to slow down the Kāma's unfreezing.

At least not in Kaguya Ōtsutsuki's memory.

"You've already told me that."

Muyue had only asked casually, so he wasn't too disappointed.

If it were just about delaying the unfreezing, Muyue actually had a very effective plan of his own.

He could cast the Six Paths Seal to seal Boruto's chakra. Then the Kāma's unfreezing speed would drop to the minimum, becoming extremely slow, requiring sixty to seventy years to fully unfreeze.

But doing this would have a problem: Boruto would no longer be able to use chakra and could only be an ordinary person.

This is cruel for someone like Boruto, who has excellent ninja talent, so Muyue only kept that as a backup plan.

When research showed no progress for a long time and Boruto and the others were about to return, only then would Muyue bring out this plan.

At night, Muyue sat cross-legged on the tatami, closing his eyes to sense the Six Paths chakra within his body.

According to Muyue's xianxia realm classification, even the Sage of Six Paths is a peak Six Paths level powerhouse. For the current Muyue, there was much to learn from.

"I wonder what rewards there will be this time."

After cultivation, Muyue looked at the life missions of his disciples. Shisui's progress bar, which was close to ninety percent, was particularly conspicuous.

After breaking through to the Six Paths level, the system's help to Muyue had decreased significantly.

Even if the life missions of Kakashi and Might Guy during the Fourth Great Ninja War were settled with rewards, for Muyue's strength it was just better than nothing, without much significance.

He was now well-rounded enough, lacking neither offensive nor defensive means.

However, Muyue did not underestimate the system.

The Potara Earrings drawn from the last Shisui Life Mission were quite extraordinary—they not only became the disciple's trump card but were also not useless to Muyue.

It could only be said that as Muyue's strength increased, only the settlement rewards of high-progress Life Missions could be of use to him.

At present, Shisui's Life Mission was absolutely in the lead; second was Obito, just one percent away from the eighty percent settlement threshold.

Third was Might Guy, currently at over seventy percent progress.

As for Kakashi, his Life Mission was rather special, differing from those of the others.