https://novelcool.info/chapter/Chapter-231-Possibilities-of-Breathing-Techniques/12558239/
Chapter 230: The Fire Within
Chapter 230: The Fire Within
"Damn, I don't want to do these practice questions!"
"But if I don't do them, I'll be so embarrassed if I get a low score later on..."
In the evening, Obito looked at the two sets of practice papers on his desk and felt a headache coming on.
There were a total of fifty-five questions, and if he wanted to finish them in three days, he would have to do at least eighteen questions a day.
"Shadow Clone Jutsu!"
In the end, Obito performed the necessary hand seals and created two shadow clones, instructing them, "You two, play rock-paper-scissors. The loser has to pick a practice paper."
Obito then picked up a practice paper and a pen, pretending to start working on the questions.
For Obito, having his shadow clones do the work was just as painful as doing it himself. With the clones, it was a brief but intense pain, whereas doing it himself meant prolonged suffering. Obito chose the lesser of two evils.
Fearing that his clones might not cooperate, Obito created an extra clone to compete, and even pretended to be working on the questions himself.
"There are definitely some benefits to the Shadow Clone Jutsu," Obito thought to himself as he doodled a chibi version of Yahiko on his scratch paper.
"Why bother with rock-paper-scissors? Just keep the practice papers and do them yourself. I'm not going to do them," one of Obito's shadow clones said bluntly.
Just as Obito was wondering where he had gone wrong, the other shadow clone spoke up, "Do you think I don't know what you're thinking? After all, I am also Uchiha Obito."
Obito was speechless. He couldn't believe that both of his clones were refusing to cooperate. He couldn't help but say, "Since you are also me, then help me out and do the practice papers!"
"But I'm just a shadow clone right now. It's not like I'll be the one losing face later," the shadow clone replied nonchalantly.
What happened next truly tested Obito's patience. Not only did the two shadow clones refuse to help him with the questions, but they also helped themselves to the novel and snacks he had bought, while his original body was left to work on the practice papers.
Obito lost his temper and activated his full concentration breathing, snatching the novel and snacks from his clones.
"Hey, what are you doing? I was reading that!" the novel-reading shadow clone shouted angrily.
"Are you looking for a fight?" The snack-eating shadow clone glared at Obito and lunged at him.
The other shadow clone, who had been reading the novel, joined in without a second thought.
Obito punched and kicked, dispersing the two shadow clones. Since they were meant for doing the practice papers, he hadn't given them much chakra, and they had no fighting capability.
Although Obito felt satisfied after the brief scuffle, he soon remembered that the shadow clones had memory feedback. The sensations of punching and kicking his clones rushed back to him.
"Damn this Shadow Clone Jutsu, it's completely useless," Obito complained as he slumped on his bed.
"I really don't want to do these practice papers!" After writhing on his bed for a while, Obito eventually got up and sat at his desk, resigned to tackle the questions.
All play aside, he knew he had to finish the assignment given by Teacher Mu Yue.
...
The next day, Obito headed to the Southern Border Forest as usual for his training.
He started with his Haki training, practicing for two and a half hours before taking a short break. After that, he moved on to his breathing technique exercises.
"You remember the rules, right? They're the same as last time," Mu Yue said with a smile.
"I remember," Obito nodded gravely.
The consequence of being hit even once was having to do two extra questions, and what he found most frustrating was the additional 10% increase for each subsequent hit.
"I can't let today's training turn out like last time, or I'll definitely have to work overtime on these questions," Obito thought to himself, steeling his resolve.
He noticed that Itachi had also failed to dodge all the attacks, but he had fewer questions to answer, indicating that there was still room for improvement.
If Obito was more cautious and managed to dodge successfully just one more time, he might only need to do around thirty questions in total.
"Teacher Mu Yue, what if I manage to dodge all the attacks without getting hit once?" Obito asked curiously.
"In that case, you can use it to cancel out the questions you haven't done, or any additional questions that come up later," Mu Yue replied after a moment's thought.
This was like a carrot being dangled in front of him—it was extremely difficult to achieve in practice. Mu Yue increased the intensity of the training as time went on, and unless there was a significant improvement in strength within a short period, it was nearly impossible to dodge all the attacks.
Upon hearing that he could cancel out questions, Obito's eyes lit up. If he could achieve this a few more times, it would be like having a free pass to skip the assignment multiple times.
"Begin!" At Mu Yue's command, the two shadow clones sprang into action.
Itachi and Obito also entered a state of full concentration breathing and began sprinting at high speed.
Having learned from his previous lesson, Obito didn't try to outmaneuver Mu Yue's shadow clones in a stationary position. Instead, he focused on evading their attacks while on the move, only attempting to dodge in place when he had no other choice.
"I'm always just a little bit too slow. Damn it, can't I be just a bit faster?" Obito thought in frustration.
Despite his best efforts, he was still tagged by Mu Yue in a perfectly timed strike.
Soon, they reached the five-minute mark, the time when it was easiest to get hit.
After maintaining his breathing technique at a high level of concentration for five minutes, Obito's focus began to wane, and his breathing technique was not as sharp as it had been at the start.
Sensing Mu Yue's approaching figure, Obito knew another wave of attacks was imminent.
Obito's Sharingan clearly captured Mu Yue's fingers reaching toward him, and it seemed that no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't avoid being tapped.
"Body, move!" Obito shouted inwardly.
While the taps couldn't inflict any physical harm, they dealt a heavy blow to his morale.
"How can I be at this level? Fire-style Breath, full concentration breathing!" Obito intensified his breathing technique, momentarily enhancing his physical abilities and barely managing to dodge Mu Yue's tap.
Seeing Mu Yue's fingers come within a centimeter of his head, Obito broke into a delighted smile. This dodge meant canceling out not just two questions but also 10% of the total number of questions!
"This is a small improvement. It seems that occasional question-doing training is indeed the optimal solution, at least for me," Obito thought.
Mu Yue was very pleased with Obito's progress. He had expected that it would take at least four sessions for Obito to be able to dodge, but Obito had achieved it during their second training session.
After the time was up, Mu Yue began tallying the results of their training.
"Itachi was hit nineteen times, with zero dodges. He needs to do forty-two questions."
"Obito was hit nineteen times, with one dodge. He needs to do thirty-six questions."
Obito couldn't hide his joy. Although thirty-six questions were still a lot, it was a significant improvement from the fifty-five questions he had to do the first time.
"As I thought, there's a huge difference between dodging and not dodging," Obito thought. Even though he and Itachi had been hit the same number of times, the fact that he had dodged once meant that Itachi had to do six more questions.
"Obito actually managed to dodge an attack!" Itachi exclaimed in surprise when he heard their results.
Kakashi felt a surge of pressure. Obito's Sharingan was more advanced than his, and his Fire-style Breath was even stronger. Kakashi could only surpass Obito through more powerful ninjutsu and Body Flicker Techniques.
"The assignment this time is the same as before, and the next training will be in three days," Mu Yue announced.
The pace of two training sessions in two days was quite intense. Even the most talented student wouldn't be able to break through that quickly every time. Mu Yue would gradually extend the time between sessions, packing them closely together at first to maintain the pressure.
This time, with no birthdays to celebrate, Mu Yue distributed the assignments directly.
Kakashi saved the assignment and began to cultivate himself wholeheartedly.
This special training session truly made him feel a sense of crisis. If they were comparing scores, Kakashi knew he had already lost to Obito.
"I need to be stronger. As Mu Yue's first disciple, how can I lose to anyone else?" Kakashi's conviction supported him as he used full concentration breathing to complete one training exercise after another.
He had his own pride. Although he was the youngest disciple, he had always been the strongest in Mu Yue's class. He progressed rapidly in various cultivations and learned Fire Release techniques much faster than Obito.
Now, to be surpassed by someone he used to easily defeat, Kakashi naturally felt a sense of unwillingness to accept this turn of events.
After finishing his cultivation, Kakashi went home, ate dinner, rested for a while, and then continued his training. He maintained a cycle of pushing himself to the point of exhaustion and then resting until 11:30 PM before finally washing up and going to bed.
In the following days, Kakashi kept up this intense pace of training. He wanted to evade Mu Yue's attacks and become stronger.
On the morning before the third training session, Kakashi made a breakthrough in his cultivation, but not in the breathing technique—it was in the area of Armament Haki.
Kakashi imagined an invisible armor enveloping his body, and then he threw a punch. The part of the tree he struck instantly shattered, sending wood chips flying everywhere.
"Is this the power of Armament Haki?" Kakashi looked at his small, pale fist.
The power behind that punch was unusual. If he had reinforced his fist with a large amount of chakra, he could have achieved a similar effect, but he hadn't done so this time.
"Yes, you just now wrapped your fist in Armament Haki." Mu Yue nodded in confirmation.
He used Appraisal to take a look at Kakashi's Armament Haki proficiency, which had already reached 20 points.
Kakashi threw another punch, but it returned to normal and had no effect.
However, when Kakashi threw his third punch, the tree exploded once more.
"Your grasp of it is still too unstable. Capture this feeling and practice it some more, and you'll be able to utilize it preliminarily," Mu Yue explained.
Hearing Mu Yue's words, Kakashi closed his eyes and carefully savored the sensation of using Armament Haki from before.
However, this feeling proved elusive, and Kakashi's subsequent punches were unable to consistently bring forth the Armament Haki.
Obito and Kakashi, who were cultivating alongside him, turned their heads to look.
They also began to cultivate Armament Haki, but compared to Kakashi, who was already close to preliminary mastery, they had no clue about Armament Haki at all.
Mu Yue could only say that this was normal. Aside from Kakashi's powerful natural talent in Yin Release, Kakashi, the second person to start cultivating Armament Haki, only began his cultivation after Kakashi had been training for half a month.
Because Kakashi had made a breakthrough in Armament Haki, Mu Yue halted his breathing technique cultivation for the day and had him focus entirely on Armament Haki to search for that feeling.
Although with their current chakra levels, the disciples wouldn't have many opportunities to use Armament Haki in combat, it was still a very powerful secret technique, and learning it early was beneficial. Their chakra levels would gradually increase over time.
Kakashi didn't cultivate the breathing technique during the day, but in the evening, he practiced it by himself.
After all, he lived alone, so his training wouldn't disturb anyone's sleep. As for the neighbors, his training wasn't loud enough to bother them.
"Why is Obito's progress in the breathing technique so much faster than mine?" Kakashi asked himself as he took a break.
With the same amount of training time and the same teacher, his progress in the breathing technique always lagged behind Obito's.
Although Kakashi couldn't appraise things like Mu Yue and directly see the proficiency levels, as someone who cultivated the Fire-style Breath, he could clearly feel that the gap between him and Obito in this area was growing wider.
Ever since he successfully entered the initial stage, Kakashi felt that he hadn't made much progress in the breathing technique.
If he were to engage in a battle using only the breathing technique now, Kakashi was sure he would lose to Obito.
"Fire-style Breath, flames..." Kakashi thought back to the step where he had gained insight into the breathing technique. It was at that step that Obito's Fire-style Breath began to rapidly advance.
"Obito has a passionate flame for helping others in his heart. What kind of flame burns within me?" Kakashi asked himself.
Of course, the breathing technique wouldn't improve just by doing good deeds. After all, it was the Fire-style Breath, not the Good Deed Breath. However, Obito's sincere enthusiasm for helping others had stimulated the progress of the breathing technique.
Kakashi felt that he had identified the reason for his slower progress, but he couldn't immediately pinpoint what kind of flame burned within him or if there even was one.
Even after 11:30 PM, Kakashi still couldn't figure it out. Wanting to be ready for tomorrow's training, he quickly washed up and went to bed. However, perhaps due to his restless thoughts, he didn't fall asleep quickly and only dozed off past 2:00 AM in a dazed state.
In the morning, he woke up thanks to his biological clock and headed to the forest as usual to begin his cultivation.
Today, Mu Yue didn't specially disrupt Kakashi's training plan, and they started with two and a half hours of Armament Haki cultivation before moving on to the breathing technique training as usual.
"Training begins!" Mu Yue announced the start of the special training session after seeing that Kakashi and Obito were both ready.
The two shadow clones of Mu Yue rushed towards Kakashi and Obito.
To avoid interfering with each other, Kakashi and Obito ran in different directions.
Kakashi sprinted through the now-familiar Southern Border Forest, still feeling uncertain about his Fire-style Breath.
He didn't know if it was because he hadn't slept well or if his mindset was off, but today's training results were even worse than the second session.
"Kakashi was hit 46 times, and Obito was hit 34 times."
Hearing the results, Kakashi sighed. He knew his body better than anyone, and he had felt it during the training.
Obito's eyes shone brightly. Although the difference wasn't huge, there was still improvement.
"Obito, you can start your cultivation. Kakashi, come here for a moment," Mu Yue said. He was experienced in such matters and knew that when something like this happened, it was usually due to issues with the student's mindset, and they needed to talk.
(End of Chapter)"
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