After returning home, Muyue went to the bathroom and stuck out his tongue in front of the mirror.
Just as he expected, there was a black cursed seal on his tongue—the Tongue-Destroying Seal of the Root, a mandatory mark for every member. If Muyue remembered correctly, this seal would paralyze his entire body, rendering him unable to move if he ever spoke about specific forbidden topics. Naturally, Danzo had set the seal to activate upon any mention of him or Root. This way, even if a member was captured or defected, they couldn't leak secrets.
If that was all, it would have been manageable. He had no intention of leaking Root's secrets anyway. But Muyue worried that Danzo could activate the seal at will, which meant a fatal weakness was in his enemy's hands.
Muyue thought hard, trying to recall a way to break the Tongue-Destroying Seal from the original story.
"It seems like there's no good way other than Danzo dying."
After racking his brain, Muyue realized that no one in the original story had ever broken this seal. Those whom the Third Hokage had taken from Root might have had their seals removed by his order, but for everyone else, the only way was for Danzo to die, causing the seals to deactivate automatically.
But Danzo wasn't some squishy ADC from a MOBA game who would die on his own if you ignored him in a team fight. That old schemer was incredibly cautious and cherished his life. He usually holed up in the Root headquarters and might even have a few revival tokens on him. He was a tough nut to crack.
Considering his current strength, Muyue temporarily abandoned the idea of killing Danzo.
"My only options are to find Orochimaru or research it myself." Muyue realized he had only two choices. In reality, it was only one, as he had no way of contacting Orochimaru at the moment.
Muyue checked the time, felt it was about right, and activated his Sensory Ninjutsu. He detected Shisui approaching.
He walked out of the house and into the yard, thinking to himself that Danzo must have trusted his predecessor quite a bit. He had used his sensory jutsu many times but had never detected any Root ninja monitoring him.
Just as he sensed Shisui was about to enter, Muyue quickly formed hand seals and unleashed his chakra at full power. He instantly created a massive, eight-meter-tall fireball that incinerated the training dummy in the yard and scorched a large patch of ground.
Shisui, who had just walked into the yard, witnessed this stunning scene and was shocked by Muyue's mastery of Fire Style.
Although the Great Fireball Jutsu was only a C-rank ninjutsu, jutsu ranks were based on their difficulty to learn. Many Uchiha Jounin were fond of using it. But Shisui was certain that even the Jounin from his own clan couldn't produce a Great Fireball of such magnitude, because they couldn't convert so much chakra into flame in such a short time.
"Teacher Hanyu, I'm sorry to have disturbed your training," Shisui apologized quickly after snapping back to his senses.
"It's no trouble, I was just finishing up," Muyue said with a smile, taking a deep breath as he invited Shisui inside.
"The truth is, the Uchiha's current situation has a lot to do with your clan's former leader, Uchiha Madara." Muyue poured two glasses of water, handed one to Shisui, and held the other himself as he began to tell the story of the Uchiha.
"You know that Uchiha Madara defected, right?"
Shisui nodded. "The clan's history says the clan head left Konoha."
"If he had merely left, things wouldn't be like this." Muyue told Shisui that if it hadn't been for Hashirama's overwhelming power back then, Uchiha Madara might have destroyed Konoha entirely.
Shisui fell silent.
But Muyue told him that the story was far from over. This incident made the Second Hokage, Senju Tobirama, who already disliked the Uchiha, even more wary of them. Therefore, after becoming Hokage, he enacted several policies specifically to manage the Uchiha. These policies, in turn, caused dissatisfaction among the Uchiha hawks, who began to harbor ideas of a military coup. They were eventually discovered by the Anbu and imprisoned.
This chain of events led to the Uchiha's negative reputation gradually overshadowing their past achievements, causing them to be disliked by the villagers.
"So much has happened..." Shisui realized he had oversimplified things.
"But there were also Uchiha who worked hard to change the situation. For example, Uchiha Kagami was one of the most successful among them," Muyue steered the conversation towards Uchiha Kagami.
"Then, Teacher Hanyu, what kind of person do you think Uchiha Kagami was?" Shisui was suddenly curious about what kind of image his grandfather had in Muyue's eyes. He had never met his grandfather but had heard many stories from other clan members about his strength and genius.
"An Uchiha with the Will of Fire," Muyue said after a moment's thought. "He made himself a bridge connecting the Uchiha and Konoha, easing the conflict between the two sides."
Although Muyue's words lacked extravagant praise, Shisui felt it was the best and most fitting evaluation he had ever heard.
"I want to become an Uchiha like my grandfather!" Shisui declared, his gaze firm. He hadn't even realized he'd said "grandfather" out loud.
"Grandfather?" Muyue looked at Shisui with a puzzled expression.
Only then did Shisui realize his slip of the tongue. He wasn't trying to exploit the debt, just trying to be respectful, so he admitted it directly.
"Teacher Hanyu, you don't need to worry about the so-called debt. If you have time to visit my grandfather's grave and pay your respects, I think he would be very happy," Shisui said.
"How can I not repay the debt of saving my parents' lives? How about this, Shisui, are you willing to become my disciple?" Muyue asked.
Shisui understood Muyue's intention. He felt it was too much of a sacrifice for Muyue. Yet, he didn't want to see such a kind and grateful person feel troubled. Besides, becoming a disciple of a teacher as knowledgeable and powerful as Muyue was indeed a great opportunity. In the end, Shisui nodded and said, "Teacher Muyue."
[Establish a Master-Disciple relationship with Uchiha Shisui?]
A system prompt appeared immediately. Muyue chose "Yes" without hesitation. This was the genius disciple he had worked so hard to recruit.
[Relationship established. Current Trust Level: 2. Unlocked "Apprentice Growth Feedback" and "Teaching Reward Rebate."]
Muyue read the descriptions and was overjoyed. "Apprentice Growth Feedback" meant that as his disciple trained and grew stronger, he would also grow stronger. The higher the trust level, the greater the feedback. Trust Level 2 gave a double return—for every point of chakra Shisui gained, he would gain two!
"Teaching Reward Rebate" meant that if he gave something to Shisui, the system would randomly give him a reward in return. The higher the trust level, the better the reward. This was limited to once per day.
Muyue thought for a moment, then took out a small booklet and handed it to Shisui. It was a manual on Fire-Style Chakra Nature Transformation that he had written that afternoon. He had originally planned to give it to Shisui at an opportune moment to increase his favorability, but now he wanted to test the rebate function.
"This is a training manual for Fire-Style Chakra Nature Transformation that I compiled myself. Take it and study it. I will regularly check on your progress. As a teacher, I am very strict. I won't lower my standards just because of a debt of gratitude," Muyue said with a serious tone.
If Shisui got stronger, he would get twice as strong. Muyue felt he had to supervise Shisui's training closely.
"Thank you, Teacher Muyue. I will train diligently," Shisui said gratefully as he accepted the booklet.
He didn't mind Muyue's strict requirements. In fact, it proved that Muyue genuinely saw him as a disciple, not just as a way to repay his grandfather's kindness.
[You have gifted your disciple a Nature Transformation Training Manual. Due to the disciple's immense gratitude, a Critical Reward has been triggered! You have obtained the jutsu: Fire Style - Great Dragon Fire Jutsu (Proficient Level).]
The moment he claimed the reward, a vast amount of memories of practicing the Great Dragon Fire Jutsu flooded Muyue's mind, as if he had already practiced the jutsu thousands of times.
The Great Dragon Fire Jutsu was a B-rank Fire Style ninjutsu. Unlike the Great Fireball, it focused on flexibility rather than range. The user could freely control a dragon of fire to attack enemies. At a proficient level, the hand seals could be simplified to just one, and multiple fire dragons could be released simultaneously. Since the system had given it to him at the Proficient level, Muyue could now instantly release three fire dragons with a single hand seal.
The way Muyue looked at Shisui was no longer like looking at a person, but at an inexhaustible gold mine—the kind that could spit out gold coins every day.
Noticing the sky outside was getting dark, Muyue said, "It's getting late. Let me walk you home, so your family doesn't worry."
"Thank you, Teacher, but I can walk back myself. I'm home alone right now," Shisui said, waving his hand. He felt he had already troubled Muyue enough for one day and didn't want to waste any more of his time.
Hearing this, Muyue remembered that Shisui's parents were never mentioned in the story; they had likely died not long after he was born. It dawned on him that between the two of them, they couldn't even scrape together a single living parent. Quite the pair.
"But my uncle comes to take care of me often," Shisui added, worried that Muyue might be concerned.
Muyue nodded and didn't insist. It was only their first day meeting. There would be plenty of opportunities to build favorability in the future.
On his way home, Shisui flipped through the training manual Muyue had given him. Recalling the powerful Fire Style jutsu he had witnessed in the yard, his curiosity about Muyue grew. As a renowned prodigy in his clan and the grandson of Uchiha Kagami, Shisui had met many powerful Uchiha. His perspective was far beyond that of his peers.
He felt that with Muyue's strength, he shouldn't be a mere Chunin. It was also strange for him to be a teacher at the Ninja Academy. The academy didn't need such powerful teachers; the most advanced jutsu they taught was the Three Basic Jutsu.
Watching Shisui's receding figure, Muyue felt a growing sense of anticipation for tomorrow. He had classes in both the morning and afternoon. What kind of rewards would he get?
And the afternoon class was with Might Guy and Obito's group. What level of potential would those two have?
-------
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