Chapter 233: Attempting the Eight Trigrams Seal
Chapter 233: Attempting the Eight Trigrams Seal
The next day, during the practical exam, Mu Yue's main body arrived at Class 1-1's examination venue to observe the situation.
Even though her main body had not been at the academy for most of the semester, she had recently been promoted again, now holding the position of Assistant Class Supervisor.
Currently, in the Ninja Academy, the only positions higher than hers were those held by Hiruzen Sarutobi, the principal who was also the Hokage, and Shinozuka Hisanobu, the Class Supervisor and Head Teacher.
While her main body was out on missions with the students, she hadn't completely abandoned Class 1-1, leaving a shadow clone behind to take care of teaching duties.
Although the shadow clone didn't have the benefit of the Teaching Skill, it still possessed all the knowledge of the original, and even though the effect was slightly inferior, it was still far better than any other teacher. Considering that the first-year curriculum was relatively simple, the difference wasn't all that noticeable.
Shadow clones were indeed a convenient ninjutsu, but the fact that they returned with fatigue could be troublesome, so Mu Yue made sure to regularly dispel and recreate them to avoid being overwhelmed by the accumulated exhaustion.
"Everyone looks energetic today. How did you all find yesterday's exam?" Mu Yue smiled as she greeted her students.
"Good morning, Teacher Mu Yue!" Anko Mitarashi was the first to respond with a cheerful greeting.
"It was alright, I guess," Tetsu Hagane replied.
"I felt like I didn't do so well," Shimotsuki Izumo offered.
"More or less, yeah," Shisui Uchiha said calmly. Compared to Mu Yue's tests, the Ninja Academy's exams were a breeze.
Seeing this familiar scene, Mu Yue smiled softly. In the past two months, she had grown significantly stronger, but these students hadn't changed much.
Just then, the proctors for the day arrived and greeted Mu Yue with smiles as well.
After watching the first round of battles for Class 1-1, Mu Yue left. Their progress had indeed slowed down a little compared to the previous semester, but it was still at a satisfactory level.
She didn't go to Obito's class to watch his battle with Might Guy; instead, she left a shadow clone to observe while her main body returned to her home in the main part of Konoha to start cultivating sealing jutsu. After all, she could always watch the battle between Might Guy and Obito tomorrow if she wanted to.
Upon returning home, Mu Yue began studying the Four Symbols Seal. Although her self-study progress wasn't as fast as when she was learning from Kushina, it was still within an acceptable range, thanks to the annotations Kushina had included in the scroll she gave Mu Yue.
Having a good teacher was undoubtedly beneficial, but Kushina's identity made it difficult for Mu Yue to seek her out too often, even if she genuinely only wanted to learn sealing jutsu.
Although Kushina and Minato weren't married yet, they were already a couple, and if Mu Yue visited Kushina too frequently, it might give rise to misunderstandings.
Mu Yue believed that Minato would trust her, but she wasn't so sure about Danzo. What if he got it into his head that their close relationship was a sign that she was trying to seduce Minato to gain favor with the Jinchuriki, and then used that as a plot against her? That would be extremely awkward.
Even if she ignored Danzo, it probably wouldn't lead to any major issues, considering her connection to the Third Hokage. However, Mu Yue preferred to play it safe and avoid such a situation altogether.
Mu Yue spent her days teaching her disciples and her evenings studying sealing jutsu and developing her Water Breathing. Her proficiency in the Four Symbols Seal had already reached the introductory level of 150 points.
Knowing that Minato could superimpose two Four Symbols Seals to create the Eight Trigrams Seal, Mu Yue decided to try and develop the technique herself. However, the difficulty far exceeded her expectations.
Sealing jutsu wasn't like stacking slices of bread; you couldn't just place one on top of the other and expect them to work independently.
In fact, if you tried to cast the same sealing jutsu on a person twice, it wouldn't make the seal stronger; the second attempt would simply overwrite the first.
And if you used two different sealing jutsu with similar effects, it wouldn't enhance the seal's power; it might even interfere with each other and make the effect worse.
"Minato must have made some significant improvements to the Four Symbols Seal to be able to create the Eight Trigrams Seal," Mu Yue speculated after a few attempts.
It was that improvement that allowed the second Four Symbols Seal to transform chakra.
Mu Yue was quite interested in developing the Eight Trigrams Seal herself, as the ability to convert a tailed beast's leaking chakra into her own was incredibly powerful.
She didn't have a tailed beast within her currently, but who knew what the future held? If the opportunity arose, she wouldn't mind having a portable power bank sealed inside her.
Over the past ten months, the system had helped her increase her chakra by nearly 40,000 points, but Mu Yue still felt it wasn't enough. She knew she couldn't compare to true chakra monsters.
Take the Nine-Tails, for example. Its chakra was so absurdly vast that Mu Yue didn't even dare to guess how many zeroes it entailed. During the Fourth Shinobi World War, when Naruto distributed the Nine-Tails' chakra to all the shinobi allies, their strength skyrocketed. Hinata, who had struggled to land a hit on a Ten-Tails split, could now strike the Ten-Tails' main body with her Eight Trigrams Vacuum Palm.
This sudden boost in power was clearly due to directly acquiring a massive amount of chakra, several times their own. And Naruto hadn't just enhanced one or two people; he had empowered every shinobi in the alliance, which numbered in the tens of thousands.
Even if he had only given ten thousand people ten points of chakra each, that would still amount to one hundred thousand points of chakra. So, Mu Yue wouldn't be surprised if the Nine-Tails were appraised to have several billion points of chakra.
The Nine-Tails was understandable, given that it was created by splitting the Ten-Tails. It made sense for it to have an enormous amount of chakra.
But the person Mu Yue found most incomprehensible was Hashirama. The combined chakra of Naruto, the complete Nine-Tails, and Hashirama was almost equal. Just how much chakra did Hashirama possess?
Thinking about this made Mu Yue feel that her meager 40,000-point chakra pool was pitiful. She couldn't even distribute five points of chakra to ten thousand people.
"I still need to work harder," Mu Yue thought to herself.
Her disciples all had the potential to develop chakra pools of over 100,000 points, and with the four-fold effect of Trust Level 4, that would mean a single person could have 400,000 points. It might not compare to the tailed beasts or the freaks, but it was still far stronger than the average person.
After spending the evening studying sealing jutsu, Mu Yue made dinner and continued her studies for a while longer before turning to Water Breathing practice at eight o'clock.
The two tomoe in Tobirama's Sharingan was still too eye-catching, so Mu Yue, like Fugaku, prohibited him from using his Sharingan casually. He could only use it during training or on missions.
To balance the strength of her disciples and ensure they maintained a low profile, Mu Yue not only banned Tobirama from using his Sharingan but also restricted Might Guy from using the second gate of the Eight Inner Gates during the practical exams at the Ninja Academy.
To be honest, if Might Guy opened the second gate and used his Rock Lee Breathing to focus his chakra, he could scare the hell out of the proctoring jonin-level teachers. With a single kick of his Morning Peacock, he could easily take one of them out.
It wouldn't be a problem to display such strength during the Chunin Exams, but doing so during the Ninja Academy exams would be excessive.
"All sixteen participants in the inter-grade battles are students who have already become intern ninjas."
"Yes, and it seems like the selection criteria mainly consider strength."
Even before the first battle began, the students were already discussing the various contestants.
"The first exam is about to begin. Contestant number one, Hiashi Hyuga, and contestant number two, Ino Yamanaka, get ready." The proctor began calling out the names of the students.
"Even though we're friends, I won't go easy on you," Hiashi said with a smile as he patted Ino on the shoulder.
"The feeling is mutual," Ino replied bluntly as they both walked towards the examination area.
"That's the guy who invented the Confusion Technique," someone in the crowd commented.
Ino's face darkened as she heard this, and she turned around to see who had made the comment, but she couldn't spot anyone.
As soon as the battle began, both contestants unleashed their full array of attacks on each other.
Even though they were friends, neither of them held back during the fight.
However, compared to Hiashi, Ino's skills were still lacking, and she ultimately lost to him.
"Hiashi Hyuga wins!" the proctor announced.
"They are indeed stronger than the rest. It seems that the internship has been beneficial," someone familiar with them remarked after witnessing their performance.
In Mu Yue's opinion, this was a very normal outcome. Although the other teachers weren't as good as her, they were still carefully selected excellent teachers, far superior to the average jonin-level teachers.
Moreover, teaching them as ninjas rather than just students meant that they could be taught more advanced techniques. Coupled with more abundant training time, it was only natural that they would become stronger faster than they would have by just attending classes at the Ninja Academy.
"The second exam will be between contestant number three, Tobirama Senju, and contestant number four, Might Guy." The proctor quickly announced the next battle.
"It would have been great if Might Guy and Tobirama had faced each other earlier. I came to watch the inter-grade exams specifically to see their battle," someone commented with a hint of regret.
No one disagreed. Might Guy had been in the spotlight for quite some time, but no one considered him a match for Tobirama or Rock Lee anymore. Facing either of them meant certain elimination.
Hearing these discussions, Might Guy felt a little unhappy. Although he knew he would most likely lose, having it stated so bluntly was still hurtful.
"Begin!" the proctor shouted as he saw the contestants form the opposing seals.
Might Guy immediately activated his Byakugan, causing the veins around his eyes to bulge as he prepared for battle. He really wanted to defeat Tobirama and prove everyone wrong.
"Fire Style Breathing, Full Concentration Breathing!" Tobirama inhaled deeply, absorbing a large amount of oxygen to enhance his physical abilities.
His opponent was a student from the Ninja Academy, and although he had once been a top student in his grade, Tobirama had already defeated an upper jonin-level opponent together with his teammates, so he didn't take Might Guy too seriously. He intended to end the fight quickly.
"Fire Style: Fireball Jutsu!"
Tobirama spat out a three-meter-high ball of blazing fire at Might Guy.
Might Guy had no hope of receiving such a high-level fire technique, so he burst forth his chakra, attempting to dodge the attack.
Tobirama immediately chased after Might Guy, predicting where he would try to evade.
Might Guy's Byakugan clearly showed Tobirama rushing towards him.
Whoosh!
Tobirama used the Sharingan's predictive capabilities to appear beside Might Guy instantly. He then channeled his strength into his right arm and, with the help of his breathing technique, delivered a powerful punch.
Might Guy could clearly see the fist coming at him, and he desperately tried to dodge, but his body's speed couldn't keep up with his perception or Tobirama's punching speed.
Boom!
Might Guy was punched and sent flying. Tobirama swiftly threw a kunai at the spot where Might Guy had fallen, clearly indicating that he intended to finish him off.
"Tobirama Senju wins!" the proctor declared without hesitation.
If this had been a real battle, Might Guy would have been killed by Tobirama.
"It feels like Tobirama has improved a lot again. He just took out Might Guy with taijutsu," Hiashi commented, feeling overwhelmed as he knew that his next opponent would be Tobirama.
He didn't even have the confidence to fight Might Guy, let alone Tobirama, who had easily defeated Might Guy.
The other students were also a little surprised to see Might Guy being taken out by Tobirama's taijutsu. They had expected Might Guy to lose quickly, but they hadn't anticipated Tobirama ending the fight without relying much on ninjutsu.
"With such taijutsu, it seems Tobirama has a higher chance of winning this time," the spectators commented.
Might Guy only knew taijutsu, but Tobirama now had stronger taijutsu and also possessed excellent fire-style jutsu, so they believed Tobirama had a higher chance of winning.
Only sixteen students participated in the inter-grade battles, so the pace was much faster than the class battles. Mu Yue quickly got to see Tobirama and Might Guy's fight.
Because of their contestant numbers, they didn't meet in the finals this time but instead faced each other in the round to decide the top two.
The entrance of these two heavyweights caused the surrounding students and teachers to turn serious.
(End of Chapter)
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