Chapter 41: Cultivation in Progress (Please Read)

Root’s actions were swift; the day after Muzuki submitted his report, a Root Ninja silently arrived in his yard the next morning.

“These are orders from Danzo-sama.”

The Root Ninja handed two scrolls to Muzuki.

Muzuki nodded and took the scrolls.

Muzuki first opened the scroll containing the mission assignment.

As before, the Root Ninja didn’t waste words; he left immediately after delivering the items.

Sensing the Root Ninja’s presence disappear, Muzuki walked into the house and began to examine the contents of the scroll.

It was largely the same as before; the beginning was filled with PUA content, praising Muzuki for completing his missions well, living up to the organization’s cultivation, but also stressing the need for continued effort.

Muzuki mainly focused on the latter content.

Danzo answered Muzuki’s previous question about whether to recruit Asuma into Root: it was not necessary.

Danzo stated that Muzuki only needed to teach Asuma normally and become an important teacher to him, without doing anything superfluous, and even warned Muzuki not to reveal anything unusual.

This answer was roughly what Muzuki had expected.

Bringing Asuma into Root would be like Danzo sitting in the Hokage Office, waiting for the Hokage to regret his decision.

Although Danzo’s Root was not weak in strength, its current power came entirely from siphoning off Anbu’s resources, making it too easy for Hiruzen Sarutobi, the true Hokage, to control Root.

In addition, he was to keep a close eye on Uchiha students, assess them for any anti-Konoha tendencies, and look out for any geniuses who could be absorbed into Root…

As for the other scroll, it contained several hard-to-acquire high-grade secret medicines, serving as a reward for Muzuki’s excellent mission completion.

Muzuki carefully put away the scroll with the secret medicines and burned the other scroll.

“In this world, a stable life has become a luxury…”

Muzuki swept up the ashes and put them into the trash can, gazing indifferently at the courtyard.

This kind of life, waking up in the morning to find a fully armed Ninja standing in his yard, made him very uncomfortable.

But Muzuki had no choice now.

He had considered whether to directly expose his strength while teaching Asuma, so that Hiruzen would see his value, and then switch allegiance to the Third Hokage, which would solve the curse mark problem.

This idea was quickly dismissed by Muzuki.

He could switch allegiance by gaining Hiruzen’s appreciation, but not by exposing his strength.

Hiruzen Sarutobi’s side was unaware of his specific strength and the Ninjutsu he had learned; as long as he didn’t expose Ninjutsu like Water Severing Wave, it could generally be explained away.

But Danzo’s side was different; the original owner was trained by Danzo, and Danzo knew too much information.

If he were to switch allegiance by exposing his strength, Danzo might just tell the Third Hokage about Muzuki’s information and have him treated as a spy.

Muzuki believed there were only three situations where he could expose his strength: one was if Danzo intended to use him as expendable material, then he would expose his strength and find an opportunity to escape.

The second was when his strength reached the level of the Sannin, allowing him to act during wartime, providing assistance to Konoha when it was most needed.

Even if the origin of his power was unknown, Muzuki would only become a hero, not a spy.

The third situation was when he possessed the power to overthrow Konoha; at that point, whether he exposed it or not would be irrelevant.

Muzuki adjusted his expression and went to the Ninja Academy, walking into the office with a gentle smile, and then into the classroom.

When he didn’t have enough strength, it was better to be a gentle, warm man whom everyone liked.

…

On Saturday, Obito went to the training ground early to begin his training.

He picked up a palm-sized ice cube, placed it on his palm, and began his Nature Transformation training by condensing Chakra in his hand.

After about ten seconds, the ice cube disappeared, and the water stains on the ground were proof of its existence.

Muzuki, standing nearby, nodded.

Six days ago, Obito’s melting speed was even slower than the natural melting speed of ice.

To reach this level of training in six days was beyond expectations.

After all, he hadn’t expected to unlock the ‘Chef’ skill, nor did he expect this life skill to be useful in Nature Transformation training.

To be able to progress to this level in such a short time, Mapo Tofu was truly a great contributor.

“You have initially grasped the knack of Nature Transformation; next, you need to continuously enhance your maximum output,” Muzuki said, directly taking a head-sized ice cube from a wooden bucket and placing it on the ground.

“Your next goal is to melt this ice cube within ten seconds,” Muzuki announced, signaling the training’s next phase.

“Huh? This is too big,” Obito scratched his head, looking at the head-sized ice cube; it was a significant increase.

“This time, we’re pursuing the limit of instantaneous Nature Transformation quantity. You don’t need to worry about Chakra consumption; use your full power. Rest when you’re tired, and continue practicing when you’re rested.”

This stage requires time to grind, unless one has the vitality and Chakra like Naruto, who can freely create a large number of Shadow Clones to gain experience.

Compared to a cheater like Naruto, Obito was already doing well compared to ordinary people, after all, the teaching skill was somewhat useful, and he also had the special dish’s status buff.

Nearing noon, Muzuki had his three disciples stop their training.

“You’ve probably gotten tired of eating pretty much the same dishes every day, so today we’re having hotpot,” Muzuki said with a smile.

Although there was a skill buff, students would probably still be happy eating the same dish all the time, but Muzuki sought higher trust, so he wanted to do even better.

“Great! Finally, no more super spicy tofu!” Obito immediately jumped up excitedly.

It wasn’t that Mapo Tofu was bad, but eating it every day led to extremely painful trips to the restroom.

“I’ve only prepared the hotpot base. As for the ingredients, that depends on what you find later,” Muzuki continued.

“I want to eat fish!” Obito said, then pulled out a Kunai and ran towards the river to spear fish.

“I’ll help you!” The enthusiastic Might Guy heard Obito wanted fish and immediately did a hundred-meter sprint, plunging into the water and splashing a lot of water.

Obito, who was looking for opportunities to spear fish, was completely drenched.

“Might Guy!” Obito’s fists clenched.

The next moment, Might Guy surfaced, holding two fish, and looked at Obito in confusion, asking, “Obito, did you call me?”

“Yeah, I wanted to say, Might Guy, you’re really something, truly a good brother,” Obito said, instantly changing his expression and praising Might Guy as he looked at the two fresh fish in his hand.

Shisui dug up some wild vegetables and mushrooms in the forest.

The three of them also worked together to kill a wild boar.

Might Guy distracted it, Shisui was the main attacker, and Obito assisted; the three of them worked together to take down the wild boar.

Muzuki, on the other hand, first cooked the hotpot base, then processed the ingredients they brought.

He created several Shadow Clones to divide the work and quickly process the ingredients.

Actually, only the wild boar and fish were a bit troublesome; the wild vegetables and mushrooms were just washed, cut in half, and then directly put in.

They didn’t even make a fire; they just had Obito put his hand underneath as a human heater, which also counted as training.

The four of them, master and disciples, thus used local ingredients in the forest to solve their lunch.

Although there weren’t too many complicated procedures, and the ingredients were just gathered locally, and it wasn’t as delicious as Muzuki’s directly cooked dishes, Shisui ate very happily, feeling very warm.

This was a feeling he, who had lost both parents at a very young age, rarely experienced.

【Disciple Uchiha Shisui’s Trust Level has increased. Current Trust Level: Three】

Picking up a piece of fish from the pot and eating it, Muzuki also smiled.