Chapter 193: Brainwashing with Chicken Soup
Inside the Taobao Shop, Masahiko looked helplessly at Obito, who was "striving hard." A thick layer of wood chips had already piled up on the floor.
Rin Nohara's encouragement was simply like a stimulant; Obito couldn't stop at all.
"Stop, stop, stop." Masahiko hurriedly stopped him. "I'm teaching you to carve, not to chop firewood."
Snap!
As soon as Masahiko interrupted, the wood in Obito's hand "broke in two" again.
Obito had clearly fallen into some unknown fantasy scenario just now. Masahiko was truly helpless with children of this age.
"Ah! Sorry, Master!"
Masahiko shook his head and took the carving knife. "Alright, you've gotten used to handling the carving knife this past month. Let's officially start learning to carve..."
Masahiko cleaned up the wood chips and found a stone.
"Don't waste my wood. Practice on this stone." Masahiko smiled, instantly infusing chakra into the carving knife, and wrote the five characters for "Uchiha Obito" stroke by stroke.
"Try it yourself."
...
Meanwhile, the three children who had left Masahiko's shop had parted ways and returned to their respective homes.
Kakashi, clutching the "Right Hmph" carving Masahiko gave him, frowned deeply.
Just now in the shop, he was drawn in by Masahiko's words and didn't notice anything wrong, but now that he had walked out, doubts arose in his heart.
"The master carver rumored throughout Konoha is actually a reclusive ninja? Why has no one ever known he was a ninja? Could he be from another country..."
"Kakashi, you're back." Sakumo's voice interrupted his thoughts, and he realized he had already arrived home.
"Father, you're home today?" As a member of the Anbu, Sakumo was usually very busy.
Sakumo nodded, noticing the carving in Kakashi's arms. "Did you go to the Taobao Shop?"
Kakashi was startled, remembering that his father also had such a carving.
"Father, did you know that the owner of the Taobao Shop is a reclusive senior ninja?"
The corners of Sakumo's mouth twitched, wondering what trick Masahiko was playing again.
After a long while, he barely managed to nod. "I know. He is a very strong senior. Why did you go there?"
"He really is a senior ninja?" Kakashi looked surprised. "The dead-last in our class is following him there to learn carving."
"Uchiha Obito?" Sakumo had clearly heard this dead-last's name from Kakashi. "Learning carving? I see..."
Since Masahiko often did things he couldn't understand, he didn't delve deeper, but he didn't believe Masahiko was just teaching Obito carving.
But this time he really wronged Masahiko. Masahiko really didn't intend to take another little disciple. It was just that Obito happened to "support" him, so he casually added a little apprentice to the shop to add some fun for himself.
Besides, Obito was... quite cute when he was little. Stupidly cute.
Masahiko snickered inwardly watching Obito struggling with the stone.
Obito's current strength was far from enough. He couldn't even use the Three Body Technique smoothly, let alone control the carving knife.
Masahiko's knife contained a significant amount of chakra-conducting metal. With the bit of chakra Obito infused, cutting the stone was effortless, but controlling the depth was impossible.
"Done!" Obito shouted and sat on the ground, his head covered in sweat.
Masahiko looked at it from front to back, suppressing a laugh. "Alright, I can barely tell these are characters."
He put the stone away, planning to keep it to see if Obito could recognize what characters were carved on it in two years.
Then, under Obito's despairing gaze, Masahiko brought over two more stones from somewhere.
"Continue..."
Obito looked like he wanted to stay intimately entwined with the floor forever.
Masahiko smiled. "The girl just now told you to study hard..."
Obito instantly revived with full health and continued his struggle with the stones.
Until an hour later, Obito lay on the ground, refusing to get up again.
Masahiko looked at the five stones carved with the name "Uchiha Obito" and continued to use the "Rin Encouragement Technique," but it was no longer effective.
Sensing slightly, Obito's internal chakra was indeed depleted, and only then did he nod with satisfaction.
"Alright, that's it for today. Remember, your result this time is six stones. Every time you come in the future, you must do one more than the last time."
Masahiko didn't teach Obito how to strengthen his chakra control either, adopting a free-range approach, relying entirely on Obito to figure it out himself.
Hearing the "bad news," Obito didn't have the strength to get up. He lay on the ground with empty eyes, probably never wanting to help an old grandpa cross the street again.
After a long while, Obito recovered a little stamina and asked, "Are we done learning carving for today?"
Masahiko was startled. "What, you want to continue?"
Obito shook his head repeatedly, then hesitated. "Can you guide my ninjutsu training?"
Masahiko smiled faintly. It seemed that ever since hearing he was a senior ninja, Obito had this idea.
"Want to beat Hatake Kakashi?"
Obito was startled and nodded repeatedly.
"Do you think Kakashi has his current strength relying solely on talent?"
Ever since reading the beginning of Jiraiya's novel, Masahiko had been slightly brainwashed by "Chicken Soup for the Soul."
"Just now, you collapsed from exhaustion after carving one stone. If I hadn't mentioned that girl's encouragement later, you wouldn't have been able to complete the subsequent five stones at all."
"But if it were Kakashi, he would carve until his limit, without pausing at all, persisting until his strength ran out."
Masahiko swapped concepts here. Training and carving were somewhat different after all, but Obito didn't catch on at all.
He looked inspired. "I understand!"
Masahiko snickered. "Chicken soup brainwashing successful."
In the later stages of the original story, although Obito's main strength lay in his eyes, his various ninjutsu and taijutsu weren't weak, proving that his talent was actually not much lower than Kakashi's.
Yet now, despite being almost a year older, his strength was far behind. On one hand, Obito didn't have a ninja like Sakumo guiding him. On the other hand, it could only be that Obito didn't work hard enough.
Obito quickly cheered up and looked at Masahiko. "Master, I haven't asked your name yet. You must have been a remarkable ninja before, right?"
Masahiko smiled. "My name is Hagoromo. You probably haven't heard of it."
Obito nodded. "I'll go back and ask the seniors in the clan; they definitely know."
The corners of Masahiko's mouth twitched, and he hurriedly stopped him.
"No need. Let the past remain in the past. The world has seen enough storms. Even if... uh, anyway, I'm living in seclusion quite well here, don't publicize it."
If the Uchiha Clan found out that the Sage of Six Paths was living in seclusion in Konoha, Konoha might instantly fall into turmoil.
Obito nodded, seemingly understanding but not quite. "I understand."
Seeing that he still seemed to want to ask, Masahiko quickly changed the subject.
"Seeing that your stamina has mostly recovered, let's continue."
"Didn't you say we were done for today?"
"I say we train, so we train..."
☆☆☆
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