Chapter 187: Teaching a Secret Technique (4.6k)

In the early morning, Muzuki met with his disciples at the Training Ground as usual.

“We won’t be doing D-Rank missions these next few days; we’ll focus on training to improve our strength,” Muzuki said, standing before his disciples, including Obito and Kakashi.

With the D-Rank mission profits continuously declining, and having just acquired the powerful Armament Haki, Muzuki decided to have his students focus on training for a period.

Muzuki quickly continued, “Today, we won’t be training at the Training Ground; we’ll change locations.”

Now that a preliminary trust had been established with Kakashi, Muzuki planned to change the training location back to the South Border Forest.

Since Muzuki started taking on interns, Rin Nohara and Shisui had not received the teaching bonus, as they were being taught by Shadow Clones.

Since it was all about training, Muzuki naturally aimed to maximize efficiency, teaching everyone together and letting them all benefit from the teaching skill’s boost.

Kakashi had no objections. A Ninja’s various training activities naturally required practice in different places, which was why Konoha had so many Training Grounds—to provide comprehensive training venues for Ninja.

“Where are we going to train? Outside the village? Are you going to teach us a new, powerful Ninjutsu?” Obito asked, his eyes sparkling with curiosity.

“Not outside the village, but in the South Border Forest area. However, there is indeed a secret technique I’m going to teach you all,” Muzuki replied.

“What kind of secret technique is it? Is it that Fire Release you used before, Muzuki-sensei?” Obito’s interest was instantly piqued.

“It’s not Fire Release,” Muzuki shook his head.

Obito’s interest waned slightly, but he remained excited. After all, Muzuki had said “you all,” meaning he should be able to learn it too.

“Secret technique,” Kakashi caught the key element in Muzuki’s words.

A so-called secret technique is a Ninjutsu with a high level of secrecy. Generally, Ninjutsu referred to as secret techniques are far from simple, as there would be no need for secrecy if they weren’t powerful.

Many Ninja clans in Konoha inherited secret techniques, the most famous being Ino–Shika–Chō.

However, rather than saying Ninja clans are more likely to have secret techniques, it’s more accurate to say that having secret techniques makes it easier to form Ninja clans.

If he practiced the sword style Sakumo Hatake taught him to Sakumo’s level, and then passed it down to the next generation, over time it would also be considered a secret technique.

Kakashi was a bit curious about where Muzuki’s secret technique came from. He had never heard of a powerful Ninja with the Habsheng surname.

“Could it be Muzuki-sensei’s own creation?” A thought appeared in Kakashi’s mind.

This was not impossible, because Muzuki’s strength was truly unfathomable. The enemies in their last encounter were already considered quite strong, but Muzuki could easily deal with them without being too serious, and even leave a few Chunin for them to practice on.

In Kakashi’s mind, even if Muzuki’s strength hadn’t reached the level of the Sannin, it wasn’t far off. For Muzuki’s age, this was already the mark of a super genius.

With such strength and age, Kakashi wouldn’t be too surprised even if he developed a secret technique capable of supporting an entire Ninja clan.

“A secret technique, should I learn it?” Might Guy scratched his head and asked Muzuki.

Although Might Guy was very confident, his confidence lay in his effort and perseverance.

In terms of Ninjutsu talent, Might Guy still respected the facts: his Ninjutsu talent was indeed hard to describe. He admitted this; if he had good Ninjutsu talent, he wouldn’t need to specialize in Taijutsu.

“You must learn it, and you must master it. It will be very important for you in the future, as important as Rock Breathing,” Muzuki said seriously.

For Might Guy, who specialized in Taijutsu, Armament Haki was too important. Even just getting started would raise his own limits.

When Muzuki said this, Might Guy instantly understood the importance of that unknown secret technique.

Might Guy, who had already begun to master Rock Breathing, clearly understood how much Rock Breathing helped him: stronger training effects, stronger explosive power, and it could also be used in conjunction with Eight Gates.

Then, Muzuki led his disciples to the South Border Forest for training.

When Muzuki and the others arrived, Shisui and Rin Nohara were already training under the guidance of Shadow Clones.

“Muzuki-sensei,” Shisui quickly noticed the group who weren’t hiding their presence, stopped his training, and greeted Muzuki.

Muzuki nodded and smiled in response.

Rin Nohara, who was practicing her monstrous strength, heard Shisui’s voice and also noticed Muzuki and the others. After breaking the large tree she was practicing on with one punch, she also showed a gentle smile and greeted Muzuki and the others.

Listening to Rin Nohara’s “Good morning” accompanied by the thud of the falling tree, and looking at the fallen tree and Rin Nohara’s slender arm waving, Kakashi’s pupils constricted.

“Is Rin’s strength really that great?” Kakashi recalled his memories from school and found no related memories.

Unlike the surprised Kakashi, Obito was somewhat used to it; seeing it so often, he just considered it normal.

“Rin, good morning!” Obito greeted Rin Nohara with a simple smile.

“That was very youthful just now!” Might Guy gave Rin Nohara a thumbs-up in praise.

“The progress is quite good, but there are still many areas that can be improved,” Muzuki nodded and then gave Rin Nohara some pointers.

Rin Nohara listened intently, and Muzuki’s words quickly formed images in her mind, allowing her to pre-visualize the monstrous strength. Many points she couldn’t understand before now had new ideas.

“Thank you, Muzuki-sensei, I feel like everything is much clearer now.”

Rin Nohara recalled the memory of her sudden inspiration, her eyes brightening a few shades. She quickly thanked Muzuki and continued her training.

Kakashi looked at this scene with a thoughtful expression.

From the beginning, he found it strange. Shisui calling Muzuki “sensei” was normal, as Muzuki was a Ninja Academy teacher, but the presence of two of Muzuki’s Shadow Clones was very odd.

Training within the village wouldn’t necessitate sending two Shadow Clones ahead to scout; after all, where to train would surely be decided in advance, not on a whim.

Seeing how skillfully Muzuki taught Rin Nohara, coupled with Rin Nohara’s performance, Kakashi’s doubts were resolved.

Shisui and Rin Nohara must be additional disciples Muzuki took on, which was why Muzuki brought them along to train together.

A conjecture even appeared in Kakashi’s mind: perhaps Obito and Might Guy had also become Muzuki’s disciples long ago, which was why their strength had advanced by leaps and bounds.

After all, both parties were at the Ninja Academy, and perhaps Muzuki simply found them pleasing, so he taught them.

“Shisui, temporarily put aside your current training. Today, I’m going to teach a secret technique,” Muzuki stopped Shisui’s training.

Shisui had already activated his Sharingan, and with the Sharingan’s boost, learning Haki, which was related to Yin Release, was incredibly advantageous.

Shisui, who had been continuing his training, immediately stopped and walked over to Muzuki’s main body.

Muzuki currently had no plans to teach Rin Nohara Haki. At present, Rin Nohara’s training regimen was enough to keep her busy for a long time: Mystical Palm Technique, monstrous strength, Chakra Scalpel. Once those were sufficiently practiced, Rin Nohara could learn Haki.

Because even if Rin Nohara learned Haki now, it would be useless due to insufficient Chakra. Rin Nohara had the least Chakra among Muzuki’s disciples, currently only seven hundred.

There were multiple reasons for her low Chakra. First, her natural Chakra reserves were not very large; the first time Muzuki checked, it was much lower than Might Guy and Obito. Also, Rin Nohara became a disciple a semester later than Obito and the others, and she didn’t have a suitable Breathing Technique.

The reason for teaching the others was that Might Guy would experience a qualitative leap in improvement once he learned it, and Might Guy was a slow learner, so the sooner he learned, the better. Shisui had already activated his Sharingan, and his natural talent was quite good, so he would learn very quickly. Moreover, Shisui was very skilled with Shuriken and Kunai. As for Obito, he was also an Uchiha and would open his eyes sooner or later, and currently, there was no skill with higher returns than Armament Haki.

Kakashi also had good natural talent and might learn very quickly. Furthermore, Kakashi’s fighting style would greatly improve after learning Armament Haki.

In the early stages, when Chakra was insufficient, he could avoid using Haki to augment Ninjutsu and instead only strengthen his White Fang Short Blade, which would significantly boost his offensive capabilities.

“The secret technique I’m going to teach you is called Armament Haki,” Muzuki began to introduce.

Listening to this extremely unfamiliar secret technique name, Kakashi was even more convinced that this was a secret technique Muzuki had developed himself.

“You should all know that besides the five basic Nature Transformations like Fire Release and Water Release, there are also special Chakra Nature Transformations called Yin and Yang. This Armament Haki belongs to the Yin Release among them.”

Might Guy was already starting to get confused. He felt even the five basic natures were like an unreadable book; how difficult must this special Chakra Nature Transformation be?

Shisui looked calm; he had already mastered Yin Release, and his proficiency was quite good. It wasn’t entirely due to the Sharingan; he had been learning Genjutsu from Muzuki before.

“Wow, it sounds amazing! The name itself has ‘Haki’ in it!” Obito was a bit curious about the specific effects of this Ninjutsu.

Muzuki concentrated Chakra in his right arm, and soon his entire arm rapidly turned black, like it was covered in dark armor.

“Armament Haki can create a very special type of Chakra through Yin Release Nature Transformation, which can be attached to a person’s body to greatly enhance defensive and offensive capabilities,” Muzuki continued to explain.

“Shisui, try stabbing my arm with a Kunai,” Muzuki prepared to demonstrate the practical effect of Armament Haki.

A hint of hesitation appeared in Shisui’s eyes, but out of trust in Muzuki, he took a Kunai from his Ninja tool pouch, walked in front of Muzuki, and swiftly stabbed at Muzuki’s arm, which was covered in the unknown black substance.

The other three disciples focused their attention on the Kunai and the arm about to be struck.

Then, something surprising happened to everyone: the sharp Kunai failed to leave even the slightest mark on Muzuki’s shoulder, not even a white indentation, as if it hadn’t been attacked at all.

“Use all your strength,” Muzuki said.

Shisui nodded, gripped the Kunai with both hands, and plunged it down forcefully. That last attempt had shown him how extraordinary Muzuki’s secret technique was, so Shisui felt reassured.

Clang!

A metallic collision sound rang out, and the immense recoil from the Kunai made Shisui’s hands tremble slightly.

Everyone could see that Shisui had indeed used a lot of force this time.

And when everyone’s gaze returned to Muzuki’s arm, they found that Muzuki’s arm still showed no change. The smooth, jet-black arm even reflected some sunlight.

“Use Chakra and Total Concentration Breathing, and continue,” Muzuki continued.

Whether a Ninja uses Chakra or not is a completely different matter.

“Understood.” Shisui responded while swiftly changing his breathing rhythm, entering the Flame Breathing state, and concentrating his breathing even further to achieve maximum power.

With the boost from the Breathing Technique, Shisui then unleashed Chakra in his hands to further increase his strength, finally thrusting with all his might towards Muzuki’s arm.

Clang!

After the Kunai struck Muzuki’s arm, before anyone could see if Muzuki’s arm was injured, they saw the sharp tip of the Kunai directly snap off and fall to the ground.

“This defense is too strong!” Obito stared at Muzuki’s still unchanged arm, his eyes wide with disbelief.

He felt that if this could cover the entire body, then fighting would be incredibly safe, with no need to worry about getting injured at all.

Might Guy understood why Muzuki said he absolutely had to learn this secret technique.

If he mastered this secret technique, he wouldn’t need to learn weapons anymore; he could just use Armament Haki to fight others bare-handed.

Kakashi’s eyes flickered. He still remembered Muzuki’s initial words about simultaneously boosting defense and offense. He was curious about the attack demonstration that would follow.

However, Muzuki did not end the defense demonstration there. He had his students step back, then told Shisui:

“Attack me with your full power using Phoenix Sage Flower Claw Crimson.”

To truly impress, one must take a Ninjutsu head-on.

“Fire Release: Phoenix Sage Flower Claw Crimson!”

Because Muzuki said to use full power, Shisui did not use the one-handed seal Kunai version. Instead, he performed the full hand seals and then flung out a large number of Shuriken.

The rapidly moving Shuriken touched the flames spewed by Shisui, instantly transforming into dense, small fireballs.

“To be able to use a Ninjutsu of this level at this age!” Kakashi was greatly surprised as he watched the destructive power of the Fire Release Shisui unleashed.

The first time he saw Shisui was at night, walking with Obito and Rin Nohara. Back then, Obito had said Shisui was an even greater genius than him.

Before, Kakashi hadn’t taken Obito’s words to heart, as they were, after all, Obito’s words.

But now that Kakashi had seen the Fire Release Shisui performed, he couldn’t say if he was better than him, but he was indeed a very strong genius.

Seeing the fireballs about to strike, Muzuki immediately unleashed all his Chakra to cover his entire body with Armament Haki, turning his whole body jet black.

Boom! Boom! Boom!!

The small fireballs continuously struck Muzuki’s body, causing bursts of explosions. The intense firelight completely obscured Muzuki’s figure.

Obito strained his eyes, hoping to see through the firelight to Muzuki inside, but unfortunately, without the Sharingan, he could only vaguely make out a figure in the flames.

Muzuki waved his hand as if shooing away mosquitoes, instantly generating a powerful gust of wind that dispersed the explosive smoke, revealing his unharmed body.

“He can actually easily withstand Fire Release Ninjutsu head-on!” Kakashi also showed a surprised expression when he saw that the black substance on Muzuki’s body had not changed at all.

That Muzuki could withstand this was something Kakashi already knew; after all, if he couldn’t, why would Muzuki let Shisui use full power?

But in Kakashi’s imagination, Muzuki’s body should have shown some changes, such as leaving some marks on the black substance.

However, the fact was that Muzuki’s body showed no changes at all. Even after Muzuki dispelled the Armament Haki, it was visible that not even his clothes had sustained any damage.

One must know that this was a Fire Release that possessed both the sharpness of a Shuriken and the high temperature of flames. Kakashi felt that if this Ninjutsu hit an ordinary person, it could directly blow them up.

“That’s so cool! This is the Ninjutsu I want to learn!” Obito, looking at the Shuriken falling around Muzuki and Muzuki, who was completely unharmed, instantly became excited, and a fantasy appeared in his mind.

He and Rin Nohara were on a D-Rank mission, Rin Nohara was ambushed, and he activated Armament Haki to help Rin Nohara block the attack, then he could ask Rin Nohara if she was hurt, completely unharmed himself.

“Rin will definitely be impressed by me too,” Obito thought, imagining Rin Nohara’s admiring gaze, and chuckled foolishly.

“This is the defensive capability of Armament Haki. As long as your Haki is strong enough, you can even withstand Ninjutsu head-on,” Muzuki said with a smile.

“Of course, before you master it to a certain level, don’t use full-body Armament Haki to withstand Ninjutsu head-on like I do. I do this because my strength far exceeds yours,” Muzuki reminded them.

Full-body Armament Haki, unless it’s a special situation like Eight Gates where there’s no other choice, is generally not recommended by Muzuki.

Concentrating on one point to reach the pinnacle is the correct development path for Armament Haki.

“All of you, come behind me and stand back a bit. I’m about to perform an attack,” Muzuki continued.

He consumed Chakra to create Armament Haki, then began to condense the Armament Haki onto his fist, preparing to deliver a simple, unadorned straight punch.

All four disciples intently watched Muzuki’s fist, curious how powerful an attack augmented by Armament Haki could be.

Today is also 7k, asking for monthly votes. I’ll try to hit 10k tomorrow!

Also recommending a friend’s book:

“I’m Already Cultivating Immortality, and You Want Me to Participate in the Horror Amusement Park?”

Synopsis: Timid in the cultivation world, a heavy hitter in the Horror Amusement Park!