Chapter 258 Something is wrong with the disciples

After the dismissal, Shisui headed to a Ninja tool shop called Ten Ten Ten.

“Is the katana I ordered finished?” Shisui asked the young owner.

Even before the appreciation event was brought up, Shisui had the idea of giving a gift to Muzuki, because Muzuki had given him a short blade previously, so Shisui planned to give Muzuki a weapon.

Although he really wanted to forge a weapon himself to give to Muzuki, he was still too young and it was a bit inconvenient, so Shisui settled for commissioning a good weapon for Muzuki.

However, it happened to coincide with the appreciation event, so Shisui thought of giving the gift out at the event.

“It’s already finished, I’ll take you to see it.” The young owner smiled and nodded, calling his wife down to mind the shop, then he led Shisui out of the store and to the warehouse backyard of his home.

The young owner walked to the weapon rack and handed the finished katana to Shisui.

Shisui took the katana and examined it carefully. The katana was entirely red-themed; the hilt was a deep blood-like red, while the scabbard was a flame-like orange-red, with a burning flame pattern on it.

Shisui nodded inwardly; this was something he had specifically requested, as Muzuki had taught him Flame Breathing.

The one-meter-long katana was almost as tall as Shisui, who was 1.23 meters tall and not yet seven years old.

However, Shisui was a Ninja, so he easily drew the katana from its scabbard. Under the light in the warehouse, the silver-white blade glowed with a cold white light, and there were flame-like patterns on the blade.

Shisui was very satisfied. Although he didn’t understand swords, this one looked good.

The young owner brought over a wooden dummy and a stone, smiling as he said to Shisui, “Come and test the blade.”

Shisui nodded and walked towards the wooden dummy. Without using Chakra, he swung the katana and chopped at the wooden dummy’s arm.

Thud!

The katana effortlessly cut off the wooden dummy’s arm, and the wood fell to the ground with a sound.

Swish! Swish!!

Shisui didn’t stop, swiftly swinging the katana, instantly cutting the wooden dummy into pieces, with very smooth cuts where it was struck.

Then Shisui condensed Chakra in his hand, using Chakra to reinforce the blade, and with two swings, cut the stone into four pieces.

The young owner was secretly astonished by this sight, thinking that Ninja were indeed different; even a child could possess strength far exceeding that of an adult.

“Very good. Here is the agreed-upon money.” Shisui sheathed the sword, took 640,000 ryo from his person, and handed it to the young owner.

Before this, he had already paid a deposit of 160,000 ryo, making the total cost of this katana 800,000 ryo.

Although it cost a lot of money, Shisui felt it was well worth it. Muzuki had also spent a lot of money on him; although the short blade was forged by Muzuki himself, the material costs were not small, and he would also prepare cultivation secret medicines for him.

Shisui didn’t care much about money; after becoming a Ninja, he certainly wouldn’t lack it.

Then Shisui took the katana home and began to make a gift box himself.

He couldn’t forge the sword himself, but making a gift box was no problem.

Shisui breathed a sigh of relief, he had worried that he wouldn’t be able to finish it before the appreciation event, but it was done ahead of schedule.

At the same time, Kakashi, who was at home, also breathed a sigh of relief.

“It’s finally almost finished.” Kakashi looked at the gradually shaping brush, a smile appearing on his face, which was not covered by a mask.

Although he hadn’t been with Muzuki for a very long time, Muzuki held a crucial position in Kakashi’s heart; he could feel Muzuki’s concern for him.

Because Muzuki liked calligraphy, Kakashi thought of making a brush himself to give to Muzuki.

After a period of learning, he successfully learned how to make brushes.

Now Kakashi also had some understanding of brushes, knowing that brushes made of different hairs had their respective strengths. After carefully looking at the calligraphy Muzuki gave him, Kakashi judged that Muzuki probably used a goat hair brush, so he made a goat hair brush himself.

“If I give a brush, I feel like it might be the same as what others give,” Kakashi thought.

Since the disciples all knew about the calligraphy aspect, and couldn’t think of any special gifts, they might all end up giving something related to calligraphy. Kakashi felt that most people would give brushes.

Kakashi continued to delve into the details. If it was the same, then so be it. It wasn’t a big deal, it just showed that everyone put a lot of thought into it.

…

The next day, Kakashi saw a golden figure on his way to the South Border Forest in the morning.

Kakashi initially thought it was Muzuki, but as he got closer, he realized it was Minato Namikaze, who resembled Muzuki greatly.

Kakashi originally intended to just say hello and then hurry to the South Border Forest to train, but he remembered that he couldn’t ask Minato about it yesterday on the battlefield, so he certainly couldn’t let this opportunity pass.

“Good morning, Minato-senpai.” Kakashi greeted Minato.

“Good morning, Kakashi.” Minato, who was buying breakfast, responded with a gentle smile.

Because he would soon become his student, Minato’s gaze towards Kakashi was very kind at this time.

Kakashi noticed that Minato’s attitude seemed to have changed somewhat, but he didn’t pay too much attention and asked directly:

“Minato-senpai, what kind of gift do you think Muzuki-sensei would like? The team is about to disband, and I want to give a gift to Muzuki-sensei.”

Kakashi’s words made Minato ponder. If he were to give a gift to Muzuki, it would either be his experience in cultivating Sealing Technique, or simply a Sealing Technique.

But Kakashi, being a child, certainly couldn’t give him such a gift, so Minato tried hard to recall if Muzuki had any distinct preferences.

After several minutes of thinking, Minato still couldn’t come up with anything. In his impression, Muzuki didn’t seem to have any clear preferences in other aspects.

“I think conveying your feelings is enough. Just give what you want to give,” Minato finally replied.

Based on his understanding of Muzuki, this should be sufficient.

“Thank you for your time, Minato-senpai.” Unable to get useful information from Minato, Kakashi didn’t show a disappointed expression. He thanked him and then headed to the South Border Forest to train.

He felt that what Minato said made a lot of sense. Since he couldn’t find anything specific, there was no need to overthink it.

Minato watched Kakashi’s departing figure and smiled.

He wondered if Kakashi would also go to such lengths to prepare a gift for him in the future, and he looked forward to his future life as a guiding sensei even more.

Although he was delayed for a short while on the way, Kakashi set off early enough, and coupled with speeding up later, he wasn’t late, he just ended up being the last one to arrive.

“Kakashi, you don’t value training time either, you should get up earlier and come to train sooner.” Obito immediately seized the opportunity to get revenge for being disturbed by Kakashi yesterday.

Kakashi glanced at Obito indifferently and said, “I always get up very early, I just met Minato-senpai on the way, so I wasted some time.”

Obito subconsciously wanted to continue arguing with Kakashi, but then suddenly realized Kakashi said he met Minato Namikaze, so he quickly pressed further:

“Isn’t Minato-senpai on the battlefield? How did you meet him?”

“The front-line war has come to an end, so Minato came back to rest,” Muzuki answered Obito’s question for Kakashi.

Obito then remembered that Muzuki was right beside them and that the appreciation event couldn’t be discussed, so Obito gave Kakashi a look and didn’t continue the conversation.

“We’ll talk after training.”

Kakashi understood Obito’s meaning and didn’t speak again.

Muzuki watched this scene with a slight Confuse, it was unlike Kakashi and Obito’s style to quiet down after only a couple of sentences.

Muzuki quietly walked over to Obito and then asked with a smile, “Obito, your Total Concentration Breathing training has been going on for quite some time. Have you felt the Constant State lasting longer recently?”

“I haven’t felt anything special, maybe I’ve been training less at home. I’ve been a bit busy recently, I have other things to do at home,” Obito answered honestly.

He thought his progress hadn’t met Muzuki’s planned progress.

“But Muzuki-sensei, don’t worry, I’m very focused when I train, and I’ll definitely train more when I have time,” Obito added.

Muzuki patted Obito’s head and said with a chuckle, “Of course I know you train diligently. As for your free time outside of class, it’s yours to manage as you please.”

Then Muzuki walked over to Might Guy, watched his training for a while, and asked, “Guy, how’s your Eight Gates training coming along? Do you feel like you’re about to open the Third Gate?”

Might Guy shook his head and replied, “Not at all.”

“Could it be because I’ve been slacking off recently while preparing gifts?” Might Guy couldn’t help but wonder.

When Muzuki asked like this, it usually meant that the expected progress hadn’t been met.

“Maybe my training volume has been a bit low recently. I’ll double my training today to make up for it!” Might Guy exclaimed with enthusiasm.

“No need for that. I was just asking. Just follow my schedule for normal training times,” Muzuki said, patting Might Guy’s shoulder with a gentle smile.

“There’s a problem.” After briefly asking Might Guy and Obito, Muzuki guessed that his disciples might be busy with things he didn’t know about after training hours, and that they were intentionally hiding it from him.

“Are they preparing a celebration or gifts for me because they’re about to graduate?” Muzuki speculated.

After all, all three disciples had reached Trust Level Four, and based on Muzuki’s observations, this level of trust meant they practically regarded him as family.

Although Kakashi hadn’t reached four, he was also in a state of high trust.

Given this relationship and the approaching graduation, Muzuki naturally guessed they were preparing a celebration.

While there were many lunatics in the Hokage world, they weren’t crazy enough to murder a teacher for kicks upon graduation, and his disciples were currently quite normal.

Muzuki didn’t think about it further. He couldn’t apply the caution he used with Hiruzen Sarutobi and Danzo to his disciples; that would be too exhausting.

When the afternoon training began, Muzuki called out to Shisui and Obito, who were about to start, and informed them of a new special training.

“Before, I was chasing you around. This time, I’ll give you a chance to hit back. I’ll limit my speed to be similar to yours. You can use any means to attack my Shadow Clone, and the Shadow Clone will not attack you,” Muzuki explained the rules of the new special training.

This training was essentially similar to the previous one, but with a different focus. The previous one focused more on movement, while this one focused more on offensive ability.

“No homework, right?” Obito asked tentatively.

It sounded very similar to the previous special training, and he was very worried that it would generate a lot of homework, which would affect his time for preparing gifts.

“Not for now,” Muzuki replied with a smile.

Originally, Muzuki had planned to include homework penalties: if they consistently failed to hit the Shadow Clone, it would be five questions per minute, with a direct settlement upon hitting, and a maximum of ten minutes.

However, realizing that Obito and the others might be preparing a graduation celebration, Muzuki temporarily changed his plan.

He was never a rigid person; if his disciples needed more free time, he wouldn’t put too much pressure on them.

“Yay!” Obito cheered.

He completely ignored the “for now” part; special training without homework was good special training.

Shisui also breathed a sigh of relief. Although his gift was practically ready to be given, Shisui still wanted to strive for perfection and put more effort into the gift box. If there were too many questions, his energy would inevitably be diverted.

“Shadow Clone Technique!”

Muzuki formed a hand sign and created two Shadow Clones, which then walked a distance apart.

Shisui and Obito both changed their breathing rhythm, entering the Total Concentration Breathing state, inhaling large amounts of oxygen to strengthen themselves.

“Start!” Muzuki shouted, seeing that both were ready.

Obito immediately raised his fist and charged towards Muzuki’s Shadow Clone.

Muzuki’s Shadow Clone didn’t evade, standing still and waiting for Obito’s attack, then sidestepped to dodge Obito’s straight punch.

Obito swiftly swung his arm towards the Shadow Clone’s head, while simultaneously kicking out with his left foot, but all these attacks were seen through by the Shadow Clone, which easily dodged Obito’s flurry of punches and kicks with a backward step.

Obito, unconvinced, activated his Two-Tomoe Sharingan, his eyes turning blood-red, and continued to attack.

Then Obito found that activating the Sharingan made it even more frustrating, because he could clearly sense that he was just barely missing Muzuki.

“Fire Release: Phoenix Sage Fire Technique!”

Obito immediately formed a hand sign and used Ninjutsu, as Muzuki had said they could use any means.

Accompanying the hand sign, a large amount of Chakra gathered in Obito’s throat, then he spewed out numerous small fireballs, raining down on the Shadow Clone.

At the same time, Obito also began to sprint at full speed, hoping to catch Muzuki’s opening while he dodged the Ninjutsu and land a hit.

However, Muzuki appeared much more composed than he had imagined, skillfully using the large trees in the South Border Forest to completely neutralize the Phoenix Sage Fire, rendering Obito’s Fire Release offensive useless.

“Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique!”

Shisui concentrated his Chakra, then exhaled a large amount of flames. The fiercely burning orange-yellow flames quickly formed a two-meter-tall Great Fireball that hurtled towards Muzuki.

But that wasn’t the end. Shisui exhaled another Great Fireball of similar size without forming a hand sign. The two Great Fireballs flew towards different directions.

Actually, this could be called Consecutive Great Fireballs, as it allowed two to be exhaled in a short period. The power of individual fireballs decreased, but the area of effect increased.

“Earth Release: Earth Flow Wall!” Muzuki’s Shadow Clone formed a hand sign and used Earth Release. A thick earth wall rose up, blocking both fireballs.

Shisui was slightly stunned, but he quickly remembered that the Shadow Clones only didn’t attack them; Muzuki hadn’t said that the Shadow Clones couldn’t use Ninjutsu.

Shisui activated his Sharingan and began the next round of offense. After five minutes of combat with the Shadow Clone, Shisui gained a hidden piece of information.

Only when he used Ninjutsu to attack would the Shadow Clone have a chance to use Ninjutsu for defense. If he didn’t use Ninjutsu to attack, even in the most critical situation, the Shadow Clone would not use Ninjutsu. There was one time he almost touched the Shadow Clone, but the Shadow Clone still didn’t use any Ninjutsu.

“Is this training about grasping the timing of combat?” Shisui had a guess.

If it was truly as he guessed, then the timing of using Ninjutsu was very important; he needed to grasp a very subtle degree.

He couldn’t let the Shadow Clone realize that it couldn’t dodge without using Ninjutsu, and at the same time, he truly needed the ability to disrupt the Shadow Clone’s movement.

Although Shisui had this idea, it was still very difficult to put into practice. Even after the ten-minute training ended, Shisui hadn’t successfully hit the Shadow Clone once.

“Both of you had zero hits in ten minutes,” Muzuki announced the results.

“It’s so hard. Isn’t this just like fighting a weakened version of you, Sensei?” Obito thought for a moment and said.

“My Shadow Clone isn’t even attacking you. If it were a real fight, you’d have been defeated long ago,” Muzuki said, tapping Obito’s head with two fingers together.

Obito’s Sharingan was still active at this time. He watched himself get tapped, unable to dodge at all.

“The difficulty isn’t much harder than the last training. You’ll be able to complete it once you make some breakthroughs. You need to think more during combat,” Muzuki said, looking at Obito as a reminder.

Among his disciples, Kakashi had the strongest combat ability, followed by Shisui and Might Guy. Rin Nohara had insufficient data for analysis, and Obito was basically at the bottom.

If both had all abilities equal, Muzuki felt Obito had very little chance of defeating Kakashi.

Kakashi had strong combat analysis skills and rich combat experience. Although his raw strength currently couldn’t compare to Obito or Might Guy, once his abilities caught up, his strength wouldn’t be weak.

“I understand. I’ll strive to improve my combat ability during this training,” Obito replied with a chuckle, scratching his head. He understood Muzuki’s meaning.

In this aspect, he was indeed inferior to Might Guy and Shisui; he had often lost fights to Might Guy despite having the advantage.

4.8k, so today makes 7.8k. I’ll try to write more tomorrow. I was in such a hurry to post that I forgot to choose a chapter title. Only the editor can change this, how troublesome…