Chapter 188 Armed Fist

It was early January, the coldest time of the year, but the morning chill couldn’t deter the Ninja’s enthusiasm for training.

The disciples’ eyes followed Muzuki’s swinging arm, as they watched him punch, holding their breath, worried that any sound would affect his performance.

Muzuki didn’t use any other abilities; he simply converted a large amount of Chakra into Armament Haki to harden his fist, wrapping the Haki around it.

He aimed at the nearby riverbank and swung his fist, which was like an iron fist covered in Armament Haki, forward with great force.

Whoosh! Whoosh!

Just as Muzuki swung his fist, a strong wind suddenly rose. Kakashi could feel the strong wind whistling past his ears, and the leaves rustled loudly as if foretelling a sudden downpour.

Boom! Boom!

The next moment, a huge roar sounded, as if the air itself had exploded.

The shockwave caused by the swinging fist instantly broke and felled the large trees in front of Muzuki. Even Shisui and the others behind him were affected by the powerful aftershock and found it difficult to stand steadily, needing to use Chakra to adhere to the ground.

“What incredible punching power!”

Kakashi used his hand to block the various wood chips and leaves blown by the strong wind, squinting his eyes as he watched the shockwave destroy everything in its path, his face showing uncontrollable shock.

Kakashi had seen more than Obito and the others, but he had truly never witnessed a scene like this.

Might Guy was even more excited as he watched Muzuki unleash such terrifying destructive power with just one punch.

One must know that Muzuki hadn’t used Eight Gates or a Breathing Technique. If he had used all of them together, wouldn’t one punch directly pierce through the entire South Border Forest?

“Attack and defense are equally excellent. If one can master this, it’s far more important than learning a few more Fire Release Ninjutsu,” Shisui judged in his heart.

Undoubtedly, the importance of Armament Haki could rival that of a Breathing Technique.

“Muzuki Immortal, please bless me so that my cultivation of Armament Haki goes as smoothly as my Flame Breathing,” Obito had already begun to pray that he could successfully learn Armament Haki.

After destroying the trees along the way, the powerful impact entered the river. With a loud bang, the river water continuously exploded, and a large amount of river water, along with various river creatures, were blasted into the air.

Rin Nohara, who was originally training, temporarily stopped and curiously glanced towards Muzuki.

Muzuki was quite satisfied with his control. Such an attack would be very noticeable outside, but in the South Border Forest, which occupies 30% of Konoha’s territory, it was just a small disturbance.

“Besides choosing to strengthen your own body, you can also use Armament Haki to harden your weapons.”

Muzuki removed the Armament Haki from his fist, pulled out a Kunai, and attached hardened Armament Haki to the blade of the Kunai, while also wrapping the power of Armament Haki around the Kunai.

Muzuki casually picked a nearby stone and threw the Kunai at it.

With a whoosh, the Kunai flew quickly towards the stone, directly shattering it the moment it made contact.

“What a versatile secret technique!” Kakashi couldn’t help but exclaim. He had thought that powerful attack and defense were already very strong, but he hadn’t expected it could also be applied to weapons.

Kakashi felt that this secret technique was very suitable for his fast, accurate, and ruthless sword style. With his already sharp White Fang Short Blade further enhanced by Armament Haki, the strength made Kakashi feel it would be a waste not to cut something hard.

Might Guy didn’t feel much about it. He wasn’t very good with Shuriken and rarely used Kunai; his battles were basically all with his fists and feet.

Shisui, however, his eyes lit up, feeling that the short blade Muzuki had given him was about to be put to great use.

“As long as you cultivate the secret technique to a high level, there are actually many things that can be strengthened, even Ninjutsu.”

Saying that, Muzuki extended his hand, concentrating a large amount of Chakra to perform Lightning Release Chakra Nature Transformation, and then a dazzling Purple Lightning appeared in Muzuki’s hand.

Muzuki had Kakashi summon an Earth Release: Earth Flow Wall, and Muzuki used Purple Lightning to shatter the Earth Release: Earth Flow Wall.

After destroying the Earth Release: Earth Flow Wall, Muzuki had Kakashi use Earth Release to summon an earth wall again.

This time, Muzuki didn’t use ordinary Purple Lightning, but rather Armament Lightning Release: Purple Lightning, which was enhanced by Armament Haki.

Boom! Boom!

Under the attack of the terrifyingly destructive black-Purple Lightning, the wide and thick earth wall was instantly disintegrated, leaving only a pile of charred black mud and stones.

Although both instances of Purple Lightning showed impressive power, the four disciples could clearly feel that the Purple Lightning enhanced with Armament Haki was even more powerful.

“This secret technique is too strong, isn’t it? It can even enhance Ninjutsu. If I learn it, won’t my overall strength directly undergo a qualitative change?” Obito felt that the Haki secret technique Muzuki had just taught was too exaggerated in strength.

While Breathing Technique was strong, Flame Breathing could only enhance Fire Release, and Rock Breathing was only outstanding in enhancing physical abilities.

But Armament Haki was different: in terms of defense, it could withstand Ninjutsu; in terms of offense, one punch was comparable to Ninjutsu, and it could also enhance weapons and Ninjutsu.

“Learning it can indeed greatly enhance your strength, but it’s not as exaggerated as you think,” Muzuki said, shaking his head.

“First, Armament Haki cannot enhance all Ninjutsu. For example, Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique is very difficult to enhance. Also, using Armament Haki to enhance Ninjutsu consumes a significant amount of Chakra. Frequent use of Armament Haki to enhance Ninjutsu in battle will consume a large amount of Chakra.”

Obito thought things too simply. While Armament Haki was strong, it was a Chakra burner. If one didn’t have a massive amount of Chakra, they couldn’t sustain such consumption.

Especially for someone like Muzuki, who had a bunch of highly proficient skills, he felt that even with 200,000 Chakra, it might not be enough to burn.

High-proficiency Nature Transformation could convert a lot of Chakra in one go, and the marks from various Breathing Techniques were also major Chakra consumers. Now, there was also the bottomless pit of perfect-level Armament Haki.

“Ah, Fire Release doesn’t work?” Obito scratched his head, suddenly feeling that Armament Haki wasn’t overpowered anymore.

“It’s not that Fire Release doesn’t work, but that most Fire Release doesn’t work,” Muzuki corrected.

“Next, except for Shisui, the three of you will learn Yin Release Nature Transformation,” Muzuki began to arrange the upcoming training.

Most Ninja are born with one Chakra nature, but this doesn’t mean that Ninja cannot master Chakra Nature Transformation beyond their innate nature. It’s just that learning the Nature Transformation of their innate nature will be faster and have a higher Upper limit.

Of course, there are exceptions; having one more or one less nature is possible. For example, Lee doesn’t have any Chakra nature, but when Muzuki tested Might Guy’s Chakra nature, he found that Might Guy had two innate natures: one was lightning and the other was fire.

Although Might Guy had two innate natures, it was similar to Lee having no nature; learning Ninjutsu was too difficult. It was better to spend that effort on physical training.

Yin and Yang natures cannot be tested with Chakra paper. Muzuki directly began teaching. However, to get the teaching return reward for today, Muzuki chose to have his main body teach Shisui Armament Haki first, and his Shadow Clone teach Kakashi and the other two Yin Release Chakra Nature Transformation.

“The essence of Yin Release is to create form from nothingness through mental power. One could say that the core of using Yin Release is mental power,” Muzuki explained.

In Naruto, if you see a relatively strange and difficult-to-understand Ninjutsu, it might be related to Yin Release, because Yin Release’s main focus is creating something out of nothing.

As Muzuki continued to explain, Might Guy began to get confused. He recognized every word Muzuki said, but when put together, he didn’t understand what it meant.

“Ah, it’s so hard!” Obito scratched his head, feeling that Yin Release Chakra Nature Transformation was much more elusive compared to Fire Release Chakra Nature Transformation.

“So that’s how it is. Compared to the five basic natures, it is indeed a bit special,” Kakashi showed a look of sudden understanding. He was gradually beginning to understand Yin Release.

At this point, the gap in Ninjutsu talent among the three became apparent. Although their potential was all S-rank, Obito’s and Might Guy’s learning ability in Ninjutsu was far lower than Kakashi’s.

Although it was a Shadow Clone of Muzuki, the proficiency and teaching level of Yin Release were real, just without the teaching skill bonus.

On the other side, Muzuki’s main body also began the formal teaching of Armament Haki.

“Armament Haki is a Yin Release Ninjutsu. Yin Release Ninjutsu is about creating something out of nothing through Chakra and imagination. When cultivating Armament Haki, you can imagine an invisible armor on your body, and then materialize that armor with Chakra,” Muzuki said to Shisui.

“Invisible armor…” Shisui fell into contemplation.

Armament Haki was more difficult than he had imagined. He had originally thought that having experience in learning Genjutsu, which was also Yin Release, would make it easier. However, after he started learning, he realized that the two were truly very different.

“Don’t try to apply your experience with Genjutsu to Armament Haki. Every Yin Release secret technique is very different,” Muzuki saw through Shisui’s thoughts and reminded him.

There’s a reason why Yin and Yang are classified as two special Nature Transformations. The difference between Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique and Fire Release: Great Fire Destruction is just that the flames of Fire Release: Great Fire Destruction are more abundant; everyone can tell at a glance that it is Fire Release.

But if you were to perform Shadow Imitation Technique and Mind Body Switch Technique for someone who doesn’t know about Chakra Nature Transformation, no matter how much that person thought, they wouldn’t guess that one controls shadows and the other invades minds, and that these two Ninjutsu actually belong to the same Nature Transformation.

The effects of different Yin Release and Yang Release secret techniques are truly worlds apart.

【You taught your disciple Armament Haki. Due to the disciple’s extreme gratitude, you received a great critical reward: the Ninjutsu Earth Release: Added-Weight Rock Technique (Proficient Level)】

A Ninjutsu unrelated to Shisui was dropped, but Muzuki was used to it. Teaching returns don’t always give rewards related to the disciple, though the probability is higher. He even got Water Nature Transformation from Might Guy.

And it was a small burst of luck; Added-Weight Rock Technique is a top-tier Earth Release Ninjutsu. It can petrify enemies, increase enemy weight to slow them down, and also increase one’s own weight to enhance attacks.

As for the Ultra-Added-Weight Rock Technique, that’s essentially just using Added-Weight Rock Technique with all one’s might; it can’t be said to be two Ninjutsu. Almighty Push is similar.

If Muzuki was willing to condense all his Chakra into Armament Haki and throw a punch, he could also name it Ultra-Armament Punch.

Similar examples are Shadow Clone Technique and Multiple Shadow Clone Jutsu. Although Multiple Shadow Clone Jutsu is a forbidden technique, if one is proficient with Shadow Clone Technique, they automatically master Multiple Shadow Clone Jutsu. However, most people wouldn’t use that much Chakra on Shadow Clones.

This chapter is 3.2k words. If I can write it, there are still 6.8k words to go.

I saw Might Guy’s Chakra nature in the Formation Technique. I thought that with Might Guy’s Ninjutsu talent, he wouldn’t specifically cultivate Nature Transformation, so I set it as two innate natures.

Don’t think of Yin Nature Transformation as too high-end. Genjutsu is also Yin Release, but Genjutsu is still considered a basic skill in the Ninja World.