Chapter 376: Mission Privileges
So fast. Even if I see it, I still can't react.
Shisui pushed himself up, steadied his breathing, and kept his eyes on Mugetsu.
He wasn't shocked. It was Mugetsu, after all. And that speed was clearly restrained. If Mugetsu used his full power, Shisui suspected he wouldn't even be able to track him properly.
Then I have to keep moving at high speed for a long time.
Shisui didn't give up. Instead, he immediately started thinking through a response.
Beating Mugetsu was impossible. That was never the point. The goal was to complete the training, and that still felt achievable.
Because Mugetsu would definitely leave openings on purpose. Otherwise, how were they supposed to even get close if he used Rock Breathing at full concentration with Transparent World layered on top of it? If Shisui could catch the opportunity Mugetsu intentionally allowed, then the bells were not completely out of reach.
After sending Shisui flying, Mugetsu did not chase. He simply turned to Shizune with a calm smile.
"Why don't you give it a try? Even if you don't earn the reward, you can at least gain real combat experience."
Shizune glanced at Shisui and Anko, hesitated for a moment, then finally stepped forward using Basic Breathing. She raised her hands and took a taijutsu stance.
Both of her teammates had already been tossed aside. If she refused to step in, it would look like she was refusing to fit in.
Shizune focused, let out a soft cry, and threw a left hook at Mugetsu.
She knew she had no chance of taking a bell. Even Shisui, whose strength was far beyond hers, had been forced back instantly. She was not arrogant enough to think she could do better.
But Shizune also would not slack off just because failure was guaranteed.
It was the same as how she always tried to persuade Tsunade not to drink herself senseless. She knew Tsunade would not listen, but the words still had to be said. What needed to be done still had to be done.
Mugetsu raised his palm to catch her punch.
But Shizune's left hook was a feint.
Chakra surged through her leg, and she snapped into a clean whirlwind kick.
In Mugetsu's eyes, however, her speed was simply too slow.
He blocked the kick with his right hand, then flicked his arm in a backhand motion and sent Shizune flying as well.
"Fire Release: Phoenix Sage Flower Nail Crimson!"
Shisui had already recovered and was waiting for his timing. The moment Shizune was thrown, he gathered chakra and exhaled flames while launching a storm of shuriken.
Swish, swish, swish!
Each shuriken carried a burning flare, cutting through the air toward Mugetsu.
Phoenix Sage Flower Nail Crimson was far faster than the Great Fireball Technique. Mugetsu gave it proper respect, stepping aside instead of taking it head on.
Rumble, rumble!
The flaming shuriken struck the ground and detonated in a chain of explosions, scorching the earth.
Anko stared at the destruction, then thought about her own tiny fireball and suddenly felt like the universe was bullying her personally.
What a ridiculous Fire Release.
The gap between her, the second in her grade, and Shisui, the first, might actually be bigger than the gap between her and the last place student.
She was genuinely curious how Shisui trained. Everyone had the same number of eyes and ears, so why was he this outrageous?
Then a delayed thought hit her.
Wait. Shisui's eyes can turn red.
No normal person's eyes turned that red, no matter how many sleepless nights they pulled.
"Phantom Body Flicker Technique!"
Shisui formed hand seals quickly. In an instant, more than twenty Shisui figures appeared across the field, sprinting in constant high speed circles around Mugetsu.
Mugetsu did not activate the Byakugan or Transparent World. He remained still, quietly waiting for the real attack.
A Shisui suddenly rushed straight in from the front.
Mugetsu sliced through the air with his left hand. A burst of force shot forward and struck the attacker, who dispersed like a mirage.
Mugetsu was not surprised.
After that much circling, attacking from the front was the least convincing option. It was obviously bait.
As expected, the moment Mugetsu finished that motion, a Shisui on his left flashed out and lunged for the bells at Mugetsu's waist.
Buzz, buzz, buzz!
Dazzling purple electricity erupted from Mugetsu's right hand, splitting into multiple currents that lashed outward.
Crackle!
The Shisui attacker vanished the instant the current touched him. The coverage was wide enough that several nearby phantoms dispersed as well.
Seeing Mugetsu use hand signless Lightning Release, a Shisui on the right pounced immediately.
Bang!
Mugetsu sensed it and swept his arm to the right. The attacker exploded into smoke and disappeared.
This time, it was a Shadow Clone.
The opportunity is here.
Shisui's eyes sharpened. His main body had been moving nonstop, waiting for precisely this kind of moment.
He let the remaining clone and phantoms commit to one final distraction while he gathered chakra, aiming to snatch the bell at maximum speed while Mugetsu was still in transition.
Anko watched the exchange with wide eyes and, for a brief second, had the completely reasonable urge to buy dango and sit down like it was a festival performance.
It was too exciting.
Shisui's fingers closed in.
Less than three centimeters from the bell.
And then Mugetsu's figure blurred.
He appeared at Shisui's side and flicked him away again, clean and effortless.
"If you were just a little faster, you might have succeeded," Mugetsu said with a gentle smile, as if he were praising a good attempt in class.
The gap is too large, Shisui thought, swallowing his frustration.
A gap that big was not good for motivation. It was like buying a house. If your monthly income was above ten thousand, you could at least see a path. If it was four or five thousand, what were you supposed to do, pray to the gods of real estate?
Since I can't trick you, I'll show my true strength!
Anko puffed out her chest and marched forward with her chin raised.
Shizune looked at her with genuine confusion.
Even Shisui had failed. Where was Anko getting this confidence? Had she been hiding strength earlier?
Anko spoke as if she were unveiling a forbidden technique.
"The power of this ninjutsu is terrifying. Even someone as strong as you might not be able to withstand it. Mugetsu sensei, if you don't believe me, come closer and feel it."
Mugetsu smiled, allowing her to approach.
"Then I'd like to see how terrifying it is."
If it were Obito, he might have been bluffed.
But Mugetsu was Anko's homeroom teacher. He knew exactly what she was capable of.
Anko's expression turned serious. She started forming hand seals at high speed.
"Enemy Confusion Technique!"
Bang, bang!
Smoke burst outward, and several adult Anko figures appeared, all dressed in fishnet stockings.
If this works, I'll treat them to dango.
Anko's eyes locked on the bell at Mugetsu's waist.
The technique her good brothers used to mess around with had a miraculous effect on male ninja. That was what she remembered.
So her plan was simple. Get close with a bluff, use the technique to pull his attention, then grab the bell.
Slap.
Mugetsu's fingers were faster than her hand.
He tapped her forehead with his index and middle fingers together, forcing her back two steps and away from the bell she wanted so badly.
"This isn't terrifying," Mugetsu said calmly.
He was not Teacher Chen, and he was not the Hokage. That kind of ninjutsu was useless on him.
Anko gritted her teeth.
Useless. Completely useless.
After I see them, I'm giving them two punches.
Shizune fell silent, her expression complicated.
She did not expect this cute junior to be so hard to evaluate.
Even Anko's confident walk and the technique she used afterward were overflowing with flaws. Shizune was quiet by nature, but she still felt the urge to complain.
Shisui, on the other hand, was not surprised at all.
Even though he trained in the South Border Forest every day, he always sent a Shadow Clone to the academy. When it dispersed, the memories returned to him. In that sense, he had been Anko's classmate for almost two years.
He understood her very well.
Anko was always bold and never cared what people thought. Nothing she did could truly shock him anymore.
After a brief rest, Shisui began a new round of bell snatching.
Shizune and Anko, whose strength made direct confrontation pointless, also did everything they could to find other angles and timing.
Sometimes they fought individually. Sometimes they tried to create openings for Shisui.
But no matter what they tried, they could not take even one bell from Mugetsu's waist.
The sun drifted west. The sky faded from bright to dark.
No one completed the training by evening.
"You've all worked hard," Mugetsu said. "That's enough for today. Tomorrow, I'll take you on a mission."
It was the end of their first day of internship.
Mugetsu was not surprised by the outcome.
Why had Shisui joined the internship? To graduate early, and to grow stronger.
Mugetsu intended to apply pressure from the very start, so Shisui would grow faster under it. This training was not something Shisui could clear without a breakthrough.
The next morning, the four gathered at the training ground, then headed to the Hokage Building together.
"Mugetsu sensei, what kind of mission are we doing?" Anko asked on the way. "We're not going to fight enemy ninja, right? That feels too early. Can't we start with normal bandits first?"
"Don't worry," Mugetsu replied with a faint smile. "I won't make you fight ninja right now."
When they reached the mission desk, Anko froze.
It was safer than she expected.
Far, far safer.
"Why are these all requests for moving things and picking up trash?" she demanded, staring at scroll after scroll. "Is this what ninja do?"
"This is for the safety of intern ninja and newly graduated ninja," the registration ninja explained briefly.
Anko scratched her head and tried to comfort herself by looking at the pay.
At least each mission was around five thousand ryo.
Then Mugetsu took them on a speed clearing spree, finishing twenty D rank missions in a single day.
A normal internship clearly could not meet the growth needs of his squad. Mugetsu needed to obtain the same kind of special privilege as last time.
But privileges required proof.
If they could not demonstrate strength, granting them exceptions would break Konoha's rules.
Over the next week, Mugetsu alternated between missions and training.
Missions on Tuesday. Training on Wednesday. Missions again on Thursday.
Aside from the first day's bell snatching, the rest of the training was normal instruction, with Mugetsu teaching ninjutsu and taijutsu.
Mugetsu planned to do bell snatching once every three weeks. If it happened daily, how were they supposed to break through every day?
During this period, Mugetsu also taught Asuma the Wind Breathing he had finished developing.
By now, Asuma had practiced Basic Breathing for several months, so he learned Wind Breathing relatively quickly, similar to how Rin learned Water Breathing.
The moment Asuma witnessed what Wind Breathing could do, he became absurdly excited.
"I knew it, Mugetsu sensei. You're the most talented ninja!" Asuma said proudly. "They call the old man the Professor of Ninjutsu, but how can the ninjutsu he developed compare to Wind Breathing?"
Asuma had thought Basic Breathing was already powerful, especially since his chakra growth rate had increased after he started practicing it.
After Wind Breathing, he finally understood what "basic" really meant.
It shattered his understanding of what a technique could do.
It strengthened Wind Nature Transformation, boosted Wind Release power, and once it reached a certain level, it could even enter Wind Breathing Chakra Mode and release all Wind Release ninjutsu without hand seals.
"The Hokage's strengths are different from mine," Mugetsu said, shaking his head. "He's better at combination ninjutsu."
Breathing techniques were strong, but Hiruzen's full power Five Element techniques were not weak.
Before Asuma learned, Mugetsu had also told him plainly that Wind Breathing was a secret technique he developed through long, painstaking work. If Asuma ever wanted to teach it to someone else, he had to inform Mugetsu first.
Asuma had no issue with that at all. With a technique this profound, the restriction felt natural.
When Asuma learned the Sarutobi clan's Fire Release secret techniques, he had been cautioned as well. He simply felt that those techniques were not even close to Wind Breathing.
Another point worth noting was that Obito's life mission progress suddenly increased again.
Combining the previous chakra reward prompts from Obito and Kakashi completing missions, along with Flying Thunder God coordinates that had not been sensed in a long time, Mugetsu deduced what was happening.
Minato was taking Obito and the others on battlefield missions.
Obito was performing well.
So the mission progress accelerated again.
To become Hokage, you only needed three things.
First, strength.
Second, merit.
Third, prestige.
The second and third could be accumulated through missions, but the battlefield was the best environment to gather them quickly.
Mugetsu estimated that if this pace continued, Obito's life mission could reach twenty percent in about four months.
By the second week, Mugetsu's squad had cleared D rank missions so quickly that Hiruzen finally granted them permission to accept C rank missions early.
"Excellent squads like yours can take on greater responsibilities," the Hokage said with a benevolent smile.
The words sounded generous, but there was also a practical reason. If Mugetsu's squad kept clearing missions like this, other intern squads would be left with nothing to do.
"Yay! Finally, no more chores!" Anko laughed, giving the Hokage a thumbs up. "Hokage sama, you really have great foresight!"
Shisui wore a faint smile.
D rank missions would never let them improve the way Might Guy and the others had. They needed to leave the village.
After thanking Hiruzen, Mugetsu began selecting missions.
Choosing a mission was a skill.
Mugetsu needed something with a high chance of unexpected events, but not events he could not handle.
It had to be close to the war, but not inside the main battlefield. And it could not be an area where too many powerful shinobi were likely to appear.
"Northern Land of Rivers…" Mugetsu murmured as he found a suitable bandit suppression mission.
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