Chapter 556: Backup Hidden Chakra Completed
That night, at Tsunade's house, Mugetsu and Tsunade sat in the study, carrying out the final check on all the development data for the Yang Seal.
With Lady Tsunade, the greatest medical ninja in the world, helping him, along with his own diligent practice in Sealing Techniques, Mugetsu was finally approaching the completion of his "power bank" plan.
At this point, he was only one final step away from the Yang Seal he had envisioned: modifying and perfecting the existing Yang Seal inside his body. The theoretical framework had already been fully completed.
"I'm exhausted. It's finally over." Tsunade slumped into her chair without any concern for appearances.
"But it was worth it, wasn't it? Not only has my Yang Seal been perfected, but you've also completed the development of Creation Rebirth," Mugetsu said with a chuckle as he took a sip of tea.
Tsunade had helped Mugetsu perfect his Yang Seal, and Mugetsu had also helped Tsunade finish developing the ninjutsu that paired with the Yin Seal.
Without Creation Rebirth, the Yin Seal was almost useless.
Tsunade rolled her eyes and said irritably, "You make it sound like some mutually beneficial exchange. It's not like I was desperate to perfect the Yin Seal."
She had researched the Yin Seal and Creation Rebirth mostly out of boredom, just to pass the time. Unlike Mugetsu, she had not been doing it to improve her combat strength.
She had no intention of returning to the battlefield, nor did she want to keep fighting as a ninja the way she once had. Strictly speaking, she had no real need to become stronger.
If Creation Rebirth did not have certain other wonderful uses, Tsunade would not even have bothered researching it.
"You absolutely must make tonight's supper extra lavish. It has to be at least ten times more extravagant than an ordinary dinner," Tsunade reminded him with a serious expression.
In a sense, this might be a farewell meal, and Tsunade was determined to eat her fill.
It was not that she planned to leave Konoha. The war was still raging, and she could not just walk away.
What she meant was that she felt her interactions with Mugetsu would probably become much less frequent in the future. At the very least, the chances of him coming over and cooking for her would likely become rare.
After all, the reason Mugetsu had been meeting with her so often was because he needed to learn from her and work with her to develop the Yang Seal.
Later, their relationship had improved, and Mugetsu had also given her some benefits, which was why she had been willing to continue helping him.
But now that the ninjutsu development was complete, Tsunade knew Mugetsu would no longer need her as much as before.
And if he was not asking her for help, she had no confidence she could still make him obediently come over and cook.
After all, she was one of the Sannin, and Mugetsu was also the famed Raging Sun Mugetsu, not some ordinary ninja she could casually order around.
"Fine. Once I finish the final step, I'll prepare supper. A supper that will definitely satisfy you," Mugetsu said with a nod.
Developing the Yang Seal had not been easy. If not for Tsunade's help, he would likely have needed several more years to succeed.
Because of that, let alone a lavish supper, even if Tsunade wanted a full imperial feast, Mugetsu would still do his best to satisfy her.
The Yang Seal was simply too important to him, even more important than a Perfect grade skill.
"You said it. If I'm not satisfied, don't blame me for making even more demands," Tsunade said, her eyes lighting up.
"Yes, I said it."
"Then hurry up and do the final step," Tsunade urged.
She was already too impatient to wait for the supper Mugetsu had promised would definitely satisfy her.
Mugetsu was not the type to make empty boasts. If he said it would satisfy her, then he would definitely put real effort into making a grand meal.
In truth, even if Tsunade had not rushed him, Mugetsu was already ready to begin.
This was a ninjutsu he had been planning since not long after transmigrating into the ninja world, and now that it was finally within reach, his heart was far less calm than he appeared.
Although the Yang Seal would not increase his upper limit, it would greatly improve his stamina, and that held enormous significance for him.
"Hoo." Mugetsu closed his eyes, adjusted his breathing, and focused it to the extreme, entering the Transparent World state.
What he was about to do required extraordinary precision. Otherwise, he could very easily injure himself, and it would be internal damage. In the worst case, he might even damage his chakra circulatory system.
That was also why Mugetsu had chosen to do this beside Tsunade. Even if an accident happened, the strongest medical ninja in the world would be right there to treat him.
Before being perfected, the Yang Seal was much like the Yin Seal without Creation Rebirth. It was not entirely useless, but it could only be used in very specific situations, and those situations were not common.
Of course, that was for ordinary ninja. For Mugetsu, it still had quite a noticeable effect.
Because before perfecting it completely, Mugetsu had already achieved a small breakthrough by making it usable with Shadow Clones. By allowing it to release a small amount of chakra continuously to maintain a clone, he had solved the Shadow Clone duration problem and made multitasking far easier.
The perfection of the Yang Seal was, in essence, somewhat similar to the Yin Seal's Creation Rebirth.
However, the actual effects were completely different.
The Yin Seal, once paired with Creation Rebirth, provided automatic healing and improved physical performance.
The Yang Seal, meanwhile, had been bound by Mugetsu to the Breathing Technique Chakra Mode.
As long as the Yang Seal inside his body was successfully upgraded, it would essentially become an additional chakra reservoir for him, though this reservoir could only be used for a specific Breathing Technique Chakra Mode.
"For now, Flame Breathing. Fire Release is still the strongest." Mugetsu made his choice.
There were clear differences between the various Breathing Techniques, so the current Yang Seal could only support one Breathing Technique Chakra Mode at a time. It could not be universally compatible with all of them.
Still, this did not have much impact on Mugetsu.
If he ever encountered an opponent that required switching Breathing Techniques, he could simply turn off the Yang Seal.
This was not like the Gate of Death in the Eight Gates, which could not be closed once opened.
Once everything was in place, Mugetsu began refining chakra and injecting it into the Yang Seal.
When the chakra stored inside reached a certain threshold, Mugetsu stopped refining, then slowly opened his eyes. A flame shaped mark gradually appeared on his forehead.
"It succeeded?" Tsunade asked as she looked at him.
She did not possess anything like the Byakugan or Transparent World, so she could only judge by experience whether Mugetsu had succeeded or failed.
"It should have succeeded," Mugetsu replied after sensing the state of the seal.
Originally, the Yang Seal inside his body had also been capable of storing and releasing chakra.
The storage function had not been the problem. As long as it did not exceed a certain limit, everything was stable.
The real problem had always been the release. If he released even slightly too much chakra from it, it could easily cause chaos in his chakra flow.
Now, things were different.
Just moments ago, Mugetsu had tried using the chakra stored inside the Yang Seal, and it had remained perfectly stable.
That was the difference after perfection.
Releasing chakra from the Yang Seal was now essentially equivalent to entering the Breathing Technique Chakra Mode. Outside of that mode, the chakra inside the seal only went in and did not come out.
"Let me check." Tsunade stood up and walked over, directly touching several important chakra points related to the Yang Seal.
"It's perfect," she concluded.
Even if she were the one doing it herself, Tsunade was not sure she could have achieved what Mugetsu just had. After all, this operation had been performed inside the human body.
"Once I store enough chakra, I'll enter Flame Breathing Chakra Mode and test it. If there are no problems, then I'll teach it to Kakashi," Mugetsu thought to himself.
Naturally, he wanted to teach such a useful ninjutsu to his disciples.
His disciples were all chakra intensive fighters, and their potential was currently limited by age and physical condition.
Aside from Might Guy, who had the Eight Gates, every disciple who could learn the Yang Seal would gain a huge boost from it.
For now, however, Mugetsu only planned to teach it to Kakashi.
That was because his revised Yang Seal had a strict prerequisite: extremely precise internal chakra control.
If one did not meet that requirement, learning the Yang Seal would be no different from self mutilation.
That was exactly why both Tsunade and Jiraiya had previously advised Mugetsu not to waste time on it. The version of the Yang Seal he envisioned had seemed too demanding for any normal human to master.
Only Kakashi, who also possessed the Transparent World, was currently capable of learning Mugetsu's Yang Seal successfully.
As for the others, Mugetsu could only wait until they mastered Transparent World as well, or until he made another breakthrough and lowered the difficulty.
"Since it's done, hurry up and make supper!" Tsunade said, patting Mugetsu on the shoulder.
She was already impatient.
"If you're hungry now, I can send a Shadow Clone home to get some pastries for you to fill your stomach first. Preparing supper is going to take quite a while," Mugetsu reminded her.
Even though he had culinary skill, that did not mean every dish he made came out at the same level.
The more time and care he put into a meal, the better it would taste.
Tsunade had helped him tremendously, so Mugetsu had no intention of being stingy with his time. He planned to put in the effort and make something truly worthy of her help.
At first Tsunade wanted to refuse, but then she thought about it. If she ate pastries now, she would end up eating less supper later.
And while Mugetsu's pastries were certainly delicious, a proper grand meal clearly had more appeal.
"Go get them," Tsunade finally said.
Since she could always save them for tomorrow, or give some to Shizune, it was still worth it. And if Shizune ate pastries now, she might eat less supper later.
Mugetsu formed a hand seal and created a Shadow Clone. The main body began preparing supper, while the clone returned to his house in the main urban district.
Mugetsu had already prepared the ingredients in advance. He entered the kitchen skillfully and immediately began handling all the ingredients one by one.
The sound of cooking soon reached Shizune, who had been reading.
"Teacher Mugetsu, let me help," Shizune said as she came out of her room and entered the kitchen.
Shizune was not the kind of person who liked freeloading.
"No need. I can handle it myself," Mugetsu said politely, refusing.
Shizune hesitated for a moment, but seeing his firm attitude, she nodded and returned to the living room.
When she saw Tsunade lying sprawled on the sofa, Shizune felt both annoyed and helpless.
This house was neither hers nor Mugetsu's. It was Tsunade's.
Yet Mugetsu was the one cooking in the kitchen, while Tsunade, instead of helping, was leisurely lounging around in the living room.
"Lady Tsunade, honestly, why are you making Teacher Mugetsu cook supper so late?" Shizune could not help complaining.
In Shizune's opinion, Tsunade must have demanded supper, and Mugetsu had agreed out of good nature.
Seeing kind and considerate Teacher Mugetsu being taken advantage of like this made Shizune genuinely feel bad for him.
Even though Tsunade had been very kind to her, Mugetsu had also been her teacher for quite some time now, so this time, Shizune sided with Mugetsu.
"If I wanted to eat, I could just make it myself."
Tsunade sat up and reached out, grabbing Shizune's soft cheek and kneading it.
"This is all your fault, Shizune. If your cooking were as good as Mugetsu's, would I even need to ask him to cook?" Tsunade said as though she were completely in the right.
Shizune was instantly speechless.
It really was unfortunate that her cooking was nowhere near Teacher Mugetsu's level.
If Tsunade had compared her to someone else, Shizune might have reflected seriously on her shortcomings. But using Mugetsu as the standard was like comparing her to a mountain peak so high she could not even see the summit. She simply could not do anything about that.
"But it's fine. I'm generous, so I'll forgive you," Tsunade added with a magnanimous expression.
Shizune was just about to say thank you before realizing something.
She had not actually done anything wrong either.
So in the end, she simply went back to her room, picked up her medical books, and sat beside Tsunade to study.
She did not possess Tsunade's talent, so she could only work harder to fully grasp everything Tsunade taught her.
In terms of perseverance and willpower, Shizune could surpass many ninja in Konoha.
After all, she had been following Tsunade from the very beginning, back when Tsunade was already half retired and in a constant state of slacking off. And yet Shizune had not only failed to follow Tsunade into laziness, she had instead kept pushing herself to improve. That alone showed how strong her mentality was.
Not long after, the Shadow Clone brought back the pastries.
Tsunade accepted them, then smiled and handed them to Shizune.
"Your favorite. Mugetsu's secret pastries. Don't finish them all, though. Leave at least half for me."
Shizune looked at Tsunade in surprise.
In the past, Tsunade would usually eat quite a bit herself before even remembering her. Why was she being so considerate today?
Shizune reached out somewhat worriedly and touched Tsunade's forehead, then frowned in confusion.
"You don't have a fever either."
Tsunade's face immediately darkened.
What kind of image had she left in Shizune's mind?
"Hmph. So that's how you see me, Shizune," Tsunade said, crossing her arms with obvious displeasure.
Shizune put down her book, looking a little embarrassed.
There was no harm without comparison.
Compared to a perfect teacher like Mugetsu, Tsunade, who often got drunk, gambled away all her money, and had to be taken care of by a child like her, really did seem unreliable.
"Lady Tsunade, I'm sorry," Shizune apologized sincerely.
But Tsunade's expression did not change.
So Shizune stood up, moved behind the sofa, and began massaging Tsunade's shoulders and back.
Only then did Tsunade's expression soften.
"I misjudged Lady Tsunade. Even if she isn't as perfect as Teacher Mugetsu, she still takes good care of me too," Shizune thought as she blissfully ate one of Mugetsu's pastries.
Because she had just apologized to Tsunade, Shizune did not eat half. She only ate a third and saved the rest for Tsunade.
"All the dishes are ready."
After a long wait, Mugetsu finally brought out one dish after another.
There were many excellent dishes from his previous life, ones that looked beautiful and tasted delicious, along with some local dishes from the ninja world as well. The emphasis was on variety and abundance.
Looking at the dishes covering nearly the entire table, Tsunade immediately gave Mugetsu a thumbs up, then hurried off to wash her hands before diving into the meal.
Even Shizune could no longer maintain any pretenses in front of Mugetsu's cooking and also began fully immersing herself in the feast.
When she truly could not eat another bite, Shizune reluctantly set down her chopsticks. Then, suddenly remembering something, she turned to look at Tsunade with a resentful expression.
"Lady Tsunade, you're really too despicable."
"This is the adult world," Tsunade sighed inwardly, then continued eating in complete immersion.
After this meal, she had no idea when she would get to eat Mugetsu's cooking again.
Should she take the initiative and freeload next time?
.....
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