Chapter 318: New Special Training, Sprint Toward Higher Rewards
Hiruzen quickly calmed his excitement.
As the current Hokage, he could not simply accept a new disciple on a whim. The reason was simple: as long as one of his students had sufficient strength and achievements, that person would naturally be seen as a candidate for the Hokage position.
If he suddenly took Mugetsu as a disciple now, it would send the wrong signal.
Mugetsu was no longer a child. He was already a jonin with real battlefield achievements.
Hiruzen could always take him as a disciple after retiring. At that point, it would cause far fewer political ripples.
He truly hoped to have a successor who could inherit his mantle, someone to whom he could pass down his knowledge and way of thinking. In terms of both talent and character, Mugetsu was by far the most suitable candidate Hiruzen had seen, and he was deeply satisfied with him.
"I agree with your plan. There is no problem," Hiruzen said, nodding.
At Mugetsu's level, teaching chakra nature transformation to Academy students was more than safe.
As for whether one person could handle so many students, Hiruzen had complete confidence. Mugetsu already had ample experience teaching large groups. Hiruzen chose to trust first and question later.
"Then I will not disturb your important discussion with Lord Danzo," Mugetsu said.
Having achieved his goal, he chose to withdraw cleanly.
One could even say he had exceeded his goal this time. At first, he had only wanted approval for the new summer training plan and a chance to reinforce his genius persona. He had not expected Danzo to arrive midway, which allowed him to further solidify his position in both of their eyes.
When he demonstrated Water Release, he had deliberately chosen the Great Waterfall Technique that Hiruzen himself had taught him, then openly credited Hiruzen's guidance. That naturally suggested he often received personal tutoring from the Hokage, making his growth seem far more reasonable from Danzo's perspective.
He still needed Konoha as his foundation. Mugetsu could be strong, but not to a level that defied common sense.
At first, he had thought his identity as a Root operative was a liability. Now he realized it was actually a blessing. Without Root, explaining his current strength would have been truly difficult. After all, he was not an Uchiha who could suddenly spike in power by awakening the Sharingan.
In reality, Root had given him quite a few advantages. As someone raised and trained there, Danzo naturally had a baseline level of trust in him. That childhood brainwashing was now one of Mugetsu's invisible shields.
Hiruzen nodded, then called Asuma back toward the house.
"Mugetsu sensei, I have run into a problem with my Wind Release lately," Asuma said, hurrying after Mugetsu without hesitation and using the chance to ask questions.
Mugetsu simply led Asuma to a more open part of the yard to give him some guidance.
"A shinobi like Hayate Mugetsu should not be wasting his time teaching at the Academy," Danzo said, watching Mugetsu's back as he left. "Putting him back in Root would be the best use of his talent. With war breaking out everywhere, Root needs someone of his caliber."
Of course, he knew that if he directly demanded Mugetsu be sent to the front lines as Orochimaru's support, Hiruzen would refuse on the spot. So he deliberately started with a proposal Hiruzen would absolutely reject.
"Do not bring that up again. Mugetsu cannot return to Root," Hiruzen said firmly.
From his observation, Mugetsu was simply not suited for a place as dark as Root. Hiruzen was not even planning to assign him to Anbu.
In Hiruzen's view, Mugetsu's current position was ideal. He was contributing to Konoha in a field he genuinely liked, while still maintaining his own training and growth.
"Hiruzen, he was trained by me," Danzo said unhappily.
"Are you trying to talk about the time you illegally drafted the descendant of a war hero into Root?" Hiruzen replied, his eyes narrowing.
Danzo fell silent for half a minute. On that point, he really had no way to argue. What he had done back then had indeed violated the rules.
"Even if he does not return to Root, he should not be stuck in the Academy. With his strength, he would be far more effective on the front lines. Send him to serve as Orochimaru's deputy. Kumogakure is much harder to deal with than Iwagakure," Danzo said, finally stating his real proposal.
"I have my own arrangements for the Kumogakure front," Hiruzen replied, still refusing.
He knew Danzo's little schemes all too well. As long as it involved Mugetsu, Hiruzen would reject anything Danzo suggested without hesitation.
"Hiruzen, what are you thinking? The Academy does not need a teacher that strong!" Danzo said, genuinely surprised that all his setup had been ignored.
"That just means you do not understand Mugetsu's performance as a teacher," Hiruzen said, exhaling a cloud of white smoke. "His results at the Academy can be called the best in its history. His class is far above all the other classes in the same year, and the graduates who attend his special training improve dramatically."
Mugetsu had first entered his field of view precisely because of these abnormal teaching results.
For now, Konoha did not lack strong fighters on the front line. The overall situation was favorable, so Hiruzen had no intention of pulling away such a rare and irreplaceable instructor.
Danzo gave him a skeptical look.
Although Mugetsu had been required to submit regular reports to Root, those documents had never focused on teaching results. Danzo had sent him to the Academy for other reasons. Whether he taught well or not had never been the point, so Danzo only knew vaguely that Mugetsu was "pretty good" in the classroom.
Hiruzen fetched the data Mugetsu had turned in before and tossed the folder to him.
Danzo did not know much about the Academy's internal system, but he could read a table. One look at the numbers told him everything he needed to know. The average scores of Mugetsu's class were clearly and consistently ahead of the others.
With the Hokage refusing to budge, Danzo had no room to force the issue. In the end, he was only the Hokage's assistant. His authority came from Hiruzen.
"The more you value Mugetsu, the more useful he will be to me in the future," Danzo consoled himself silently.
He let the topic drop and finally moved on to the real reason he had come, the matter of compensation from the Hidden Mist.
This time, Danzo had come fully prepared, armed with a stack of figures and arguments. In his view, demanding greater compensation from the Hidden Mist would bring more benefits than risks.
Hiruzen calmly refuted each point one by one and still refused to adopt Danzo's plan.
In the end, their talk finished exactly the same way as usual.
One as the shadow in the dark, one as the light in the sun, both standing firm on their own positions.
Only the door suffered for it, slamming heavily as Danzo left.
…
[Disciple Uchiha Shisui has trained diligently and achieved a perfect score on the academic assessment. Reward: Chakra +300, Ninjutsu Proficiency Scroll]
When the final exams ended, the system once again began distributing rewards.
This time, however, there was only Shisui left as an Academy disciple, so the pop up felt a little lonely.
The rewards generated by Obito and Guy outside the school were now no weaker than what the Academy could offer, but those notifications no longer appeared simultaneously in front of him.
"Mugetsu sensei, can you give me a graduation gift?" Anko whispered, covering her test paper with both hands as her big eyes sparkled. "I am going to miss you during the break. I recommend dango as a reward. It is cheap and delicious."
"Mugetsu sensei, Anko only scored eighty one this time. She is getting worse," her good friend Kotetsu immediately raised his hand to report.
"Mugetsu sensei, you are spoiling Anko too much," Izumo said seriously. "I think you should set a rule. Anyone who scores under ninety five does not get dango. Her grades would probably shoot up."
He always scored above ninety five himself, so this standard sounded very reasonable to him.
Mugetsu rubbed his chin, looking thoughtful. Anko really did not seem very enthusiastic about theory.
He had both strong teaching methods and cheat like teaching skills, and Anko was not stupid. For her to hover around the low eighties every time was, frankly, underperforming.
Kotetsu's tattling already made Anko's shoulders slump. Izumo's suggestion made her scalp go numb.
If Mugetsu actually adopted that rule, she might never see dango from him again.
Seeing that Mugetsu really looked like he was considering it, Anko panicked. She first planted a quick punch on Kotetsu's arm and followed with a sharp kick to Izumo's leg, then rushed to explain.
"Mugetsu sensei, do not listen to their nonsense," she said with a pained expression. "Studying is the effort of an entire semester, but exams only happen twice. If someone studied hard but did not perform well on the test and then did not get any dango, it would cause serious trauma to their heart."
She looked at Mugetsu like a loyal minister desperately trying to stop an emperor from believing slander.
Smack.
A precise chop of chakra landed on her forehead, making Anko instantly hug her head.
"It is understandable to do badly once," Mugetsu said, withdrawing his hand. "But you have not managed to score above ninety even a single time. Are you telling me you fail to perform properly every time?"
"I heard there is a disease called exam anxiety," Anko said, looking extremely serious. "Maybe I have that. I get nervous whenever I take a test, so I always do badly."
"What a coincidence," Mugetsu said lightly. "I seem to have caught something today too. It is called the Absolutely Will Not Give Anko Dango disease. My heart absolutely refuses to give you dango, Anko."
Anko fell silent, her face blank.
When the end of class approached, Mugetsu reached out and tapped her lightly on the head again, then still handed her a skewer of dango.
"Just make sure you do not regress again next time," he said, ruffling her hair.
"Hehe, I will try my best!" Anko's mood instantly flipped. With dango in hand, she beamed from ear to ear.
"Mugetsu sensei, will this special training still be run by you alone, like last time?" she asked, chewing on the dango.
"Yes," Mugetsu nodded. "And this time I will be teaching you things you cannot learn at the Academy."
"Things we cannot learn at the Academy? What is it?" Anko's eyes lit up with curiosity.
"You will find out next Monday," Mugetsu said, leaving it at that.
"What a shame. Ebisu senpai has already graduated, so he cannot train with us this time," Kotetsu said regretfully.
"Yeah, that really is a pity," Izumo added.
To them, Ebisu was not just a senior. He was the one who had led them to a completely new world of training.
"Well, that is not necessarily the case," Mugetsu said with a smile, shaking his head.
This time, he planned to teach chakra nature transformation. Combined with his increasing reputation in the village, there would almost certainly be more genin joining the special training than last time.
With that hint, not only Anko, but also Izumo and Kotetsu were buzzing with anticipation for next week's training.
Being personally taught by Mugetsu, and on top of that learning advanced content unavailable in the Academy.
Those two points alone were enough to make any young shinobi's heart race.
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