“Yoru, these are Lord Danzo’s latest orders,” the Root ninja said, handing Mokutsuki a scroll.
Mokutsuki nodded, accepting the scroll. Yoru was his codename in Root.
The two didn’t exchange many words. After handing over the scroll, the Root ninja swiftly vanished. Mokutsuki was a hidden agent within Root, and too much contact could attract unwanted attention from the ANBU.
Before the Root ninja left, Mokutsuki used his Appraisal Jutsu on him.
[Name: Heisuiiro]
[Potential: B]
[Chakra: 7000]
[Evaluation: A somewhat strong Jonin]
Seeing the 7000 chakra level, Mokutsuki couldn’t help but feel envious. He didn’t even have 5000, far behind this person by the equivalent of five six-year-old Shisuis.
Once his sensory jutsu confirmed the Root ninja was out of range, Mokutsuki went inside and opened the scroll to see Danzo’s latest instructions.
“The Uchiha boy, Shisui, in your class is a genius of the Uchiha clan. Observe his actions, confirm his character, and evaluate him.”
After reading, Mokutsuki sighed. Danzo’s paranoia about the Uchiha was truly pathological.
Shisui was only six years old and had just started at the ninja academy.
He was a mere child, only slightly recognised as a genius within his clan, yet Danzo wanted him observed and evaluated.
Of course, it was possible Danzo had plans to recruit Shisui into Root.
However, Mokutsuki doubted Danzo’s plan would succeed. The Third Hokage would remind Danzo who the real Hokage was.
The Third Hokage tolerated the existence of Root but wouldn’t allow it to become overly powerful.
A genius, Uchiha’s potential was too high; no one knew what heights he might reach.
Thus, a genius Uchiha would either stay within the Uchiha clan or join the ANBU.
After reading, Mokutsuki destroyed the scroll with a Fire Release jutsu.
The new order was within Mokutsuki’s acceptable range. Even without this special instruction, he would have reported Shisui’s genius status during his regular updates to avoid drawing suspicion onto himself.
Mokutsuki created a shadow clone to practice ninjutsu while his main body focused on chakra training.
Currently, his biggest weakness is his limited chakra. Even with extensive jutsu knowledge and proficiency, without enough chakra, it was hard to unleash their full power.
A ninja with little chakra had limited strength, whereas a ninja with abundant chakra couldn’t be weak. Chakra determines a ninja’s upper and lower limits.
…
The next day.
With no classes in the morning, Mokutsuki took this time to visit the ninja academy’s archive room.
He wanted to gather the past few years’ exam papers for the fourth grade. Since the process went smoothly, he also collected the first-grade papers.
His primary goal was to make disciples, but improving the two students’ theoretical scores wasn’t just a promise.
Mokutsuki found that the exam questions mostly stayed the same each year. Each question was a type, just phrased differently or with different numbers. Some papers even had identical questions.
Nodding in satisfaction, Mokutsuki felt confident about their chances of passing.
He realised they didn’t even need intense practice; simply doing the previous years’ exams should suffice.
After collecting a few exam papers, Mokutsuki left the archive room and headed to the office.
“She was listening to me the whole time yesterday, clearly interested in me!”
“Or maybe she just didn’t want to talk to you.”
“When paying, she insisted on splitting the bill. She’s already looking out for me!”
“Or maybe she’s just preventing you from using the ‘I treated you once’ excuse to meet again.”
As soon as Mokutsuki entered the office, he saw Aya Ueda arguing with Yutaka Ikeda.
Looking at the onlookers, Mokutsuki turned to Sugi Kimura for an explanation.
“Yesterday, Ikeda went on a blind date. He was recounting the experience and asking for advice, but Ueda thinks the date wasn’t interested in him and advised him to move on,” Sugi explained briefly.
“Teacher Hanyu, you’re just in time. Do you have any special tips for wooing a girl?” Ikeda asked, turning to Mokutsuki for help.
He thought Mokutsuki looked like someone who had many girlfriends.
“Special tips? I think as long as she can feel your sincerity, it should be enough,” Mokutsuki replied after some thought.
Whether he had tips or not, Mokutsuki wouldn’t share them with Ikeda. That wouldn’t fit the persona he had cultivated.
“Sincerity…” Ikeda pondered, looking troubled about how to convey that.
“Give it up, Ikeda. Look at Teacher Hanyu. The tips that work for him might not work for you,” Ueda said wryly.
“Come on, I admit Teacher Hanyu is a bit more handsome than me, but it’s not that big of a difference,” Ikeda protested.
“You really are stubborn,” Ueda sighed, looking at the determined Ikeda.
As a woman, she understood women well. Hearing Ikeda’s story, she knew the blind date was a lost cause, but Ikeda wouldn’t listen.
“Good luck,” Mokutsuki said with an encouraging smile. What else could he say? If Ueda couldn’t convince him, neither could he.
Besides, Mokutsuki hoped Ikeda would be busy so he could substitute for Class 2-B again.
“See? Teacher Hanyu has faith in me. Just wait and see, Ueda,” Ikeda said, more confident with Mokutsuki’s encouragement.
In the afternoon, during class, Mokutsuki made a small experiment by intentionally lowering the quality of his teaching.
From the system evaluations, he inferred that lecture quality and student satisfaction were major components of the grading.
He aimed for a B evaluation, thinking the first B might also come with a special reward, just like the first A did.
[Class completed. Evaluating…]
[Evaluation: B]
[Reward: Chakra +20]
[First-time B-rated teaching reward: Proficient in Chakra Shape Transformation]
A flood of memories about training chakra shape transformation filled Mokutsuki’s mind.
Mokutsuki was pleasantly surprised. In the chakra system, shape transformation was as important as nature transformation, effectively enhancing ninjutsu.
Although his shape transformation was only proficient and not mastered, it wasn’t limited to any chakra nature.
Shape transformation brought to mind Naruto’s Rasengan, an iconic example that demonstrated its power without any added natural transformation.
“I can start developing the Rasengan,” Mokutsuki decided, planning to create this useful A-rank, no-hand-sign ninjutsu. With the detailed training process from the original story and his knowledge of shape transformation, it shouldn’t be too difficult.
The B-rated reward of the chakra also made Mokutsuki consider balancing his future teachings to sometimes aim for B ratings, as the small gains would accumulate over time.
Adding Rasengan development to his schedule, Mokutsuki found his life incredibly fulfilling.
His days were busy with teaching, guiding Shisui in the evenings, his own training and ninjutsu development at night, and special training for Guy and Obito on weekends.
Mokutsuki wished he could maintain this peaceful routine, which had been developing steadily for a few years.
Unfortunately, he hadn’t crossed over to a peaceful time, and quiet days were hard to come by.
On the fourth day after Mokutsuki crossed into the ninja world, troubling news arrived from the front lines.
(End of Chapter)
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