Chapter 452: Might Guy's Jonin Reward
"Captain Takagi, thank you for taking care of me for over a month," Shisui said as he found Takagi's squad and informed them he would be leaving.
Even if he did not come in person, a shinobi would still deliver the notice. But Shisui felt it was better to say it himself. They had fought side by side, walked through blood and fog together, and stared death in the face more than once.
"It wasn't us taking care of you," Takagi said with a smile. "If anything, we should be the ones thanking you."
If Shisui had not forcefully slain three Hidden Mist Jonin, they would have all died in that trap.
Takagi had already expected Shisui's departure.
Shisui had only been temporarily assigned to their team, and more importantly, he was simply too outstanding. In a ninja war, age meant nothing. No one respected you for being old, and no one protected you for being young. The stronger a shinobi was, the more responsibilities they were expected to shoulder.
"Everyone, please take care of yourselves from here on," Shisui said with a faint, humble smile. His gaze moved across each face as he offered his farewell. "Be more careful during missions."
Only after stepping into war did he truly understand its cruelty. During this month, Shisui had tasted the bloodshed head on.
People died when they were killed. Whether it was the weakest Genin or a powerful Jonin like Reiki, anyone could fall in war.
They could still sit here and speak now, but a week from now, a month from now, when the war finally ended, it was uncertain how many of them would still be alive.
"You too, Shisui," Kenji reminded him. "You're stronger than us, but the missions you'll take on will definitely be more dangerous than ours."
"You can come find us to hang out when you're free," Yuki said, her farewell sincere. "Even if we're not in the same squad anymore, we're still comrades."
"Next time we meet, I'll have trained hard enough to surprise you," Tooru said, sending him off in his own style.
After the farewell, Shisui returned to missions with Obito once again as part of an elite squad.
This time, Genma and Ebisu were not present. Only Shisui, Guy, and their three other teammates remained.
It was not that Kakashi disliked Ebisu's strength and pushed them out. After Teacher Chen arrived on the battlefield and learned about their situation, he dragged them into a hellish training program to raise their combat level, so they could not team up with Kakashi for the time being.
With Kakashi promoted to Jonin and Rin promoted to Special Jonin, and with their strength already recognized, Kakashi's squad received permission to take S rank missions.
But they had only just returned to the front. Kakashi did not immediately challenge a high difficulty S rank mission. Instead, he chose a relatively difficult A rank mission as their first assignment back.
Missions of the same rank could vary wildly in difficulty, and that gap only widened at higher ranks.
Even among A rank missions, commissions generally ranged from 150,000 to 1,000,000 ryo. An A rank mission worth 990,000 ryo was obviously not on the same level as one worth 150,000 ryo.
S rank missions were even more extreme. Eliminating a Jonin squad could be classified as S rank, and assassinating the leaders of the Five Great Villages also fell under S rank. Both carried the same label, yet the difficulty difference was laughable.
Some missions were S rank simply because they exceeded the scope of A rank. Others were S rank because S rank was the highest mission category available.
Kakashi played it safe for a reason. If something went wrong during an S rank mission, it would become a genuine struggle for survival.
Under Kakashi's cautious approach, they ended up enjoying something almost indecent.
They got to dominate.
When a normal Hidden Mist squad ran into Kakashi's team, the Mist shinobi's expressions turned into the kind of round eyed stare that could practically be written as ⊙▽⊙ the moment they recognized who had arrived.
At first, their faces lit up with joy because of the squad's height and age.
Then they spotted Guy's iconic green jumpsuit, and their minds went blank.
"Konoha's Green Beast, Might Guy. Shisui the Body Flicker. Kakashi, White Fang's son…" The Hidden Mist Jonin's face darkened the moment he confirmed their identities.
The Hidden Mist high command had posted absurd rewards for Kakashi's team. Killing any one of them meant a pile of training resources and money.
Unfortunately, you had to live long enough to collect.
The Hidden Mist Jonin did not believe he would be the one to earn that prize, especially when even the Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist had fallen to this squad.
"Thunder Breathing, Full Concentration!" Kakashi said.
He observed the situation with Transparent World, then decisively drew the White Fang short blade and charged in.
"Eight Gates, Gate of Pain, open!" Guy shouted.
His breathing tightened as he opened the first four gates.
Even though Rock Breathing had already made his body stronger than most adult shinobi who trained regularly, the Eight Gates was still a forbidden technique. Damage was inevitable. A stronger body only reduced the harm. If he forced higher gates, the backlash would still be severe.
If the enemy was not strong enough to justify it, Guy would not open his usual maximum. If his limit was five gates, he would often stop at three or four.
"Phantom Body Flicker Technique!" Shisui called out.
He condensed chakra, activated his Sharingan, and created a large number of shadow clones, surrounding the Mist shinobi.
Rin did not even need to move. Kakashi's team was already crushing the enemy, and Obito fought with particular intensity.
"Damn it," Obito muttered after the battle ended, still indignant. "They did not even mention my name."
His Flame Breathing Chakra Mode was obviously cool, so why did he not get a title like Flame Emperor or Fire God?
"Do I need to dress differently?" Obito's eyes drifted to Guy's green outfit.
He imagined himself in a red jumpsuit, then immediately shook his head. If that was the price of a nickname, he would need time to reconsider his entire life.
After completing the A rank mission, Kakashi quickly received their first S rank mission.
S rank missions tied to war were especially dangerous. Missions related to major battles could not even be chosen, they were assigned by the commander to specific squads.
It proved Kakashi's caution was not paranoia.
On that mission, they encountered several powerful Hidden Mist Jonin. It was not as brutal as facing the Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist, but it was enough to force Guy into using Five Gates combined with Rock Breathing Chakra Mode.
Once it was unleashed, the rest was simple.
Guy used Leaf Dragon God and swept the entire field.
That overwhelming return pushed Guy's reputation on the battlefield beyond Shisui's again, making him the strongest young genius acknowledged by both Konoha and the Hidden Mist on the East Bank Battlefield.
Mist shinobi wished Guy would fall ill and die.
Konoha shinobi, on the other hand, began to believe more and more in the village's future.
As Guy's fame rose and their achievements piled up, Orochimaru included promotion suggestions in his reports on the front line.
He recommended that every Chunin in Kakashi's squad be promoted directly to Jonin.
He had two reasons.
First, Obito and the others were strong enough.
Second, it helped him build goodwill with Mugetsu.
Of course, even as a battlefield commander, Orochimaru could only submit recommendations. He did not have the authority to decide promotions. The final decision belonged to the Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi. Even other Konoha higher ups did not have that power.
After careful consideration, Hiruzen did not accept Orochimaru's suggestion in full, but he did not reject it completely either.
He promoted Guy, the one with the greatest merit and the strongest ability, directly to Jonin.
Then he placed Shisui under Jonin consideration, allowing him to begin his Jonin evaluation immediately after reporting in.
When the final result reached Orochimaru, he showed little emotion. It was within his expectations.
Promotion by merit depended heavily on contributions to the village, which meant mission records and completion counts. Guy's team had been shinobi for too short a time to compare to Chunin who had served for over a decade.
But missions were not only about quantity. Quality mattered too. Guy's battlefield merit was the highest among them, so he earned an exceptional promotion.
And Shisui, who had not even been considered before, gained the right to take the evaluation.
"Sarutobi sensei is too cautious these days," Orochimaru said inside the tent, putting on a show of indignation on behalf of Mugetsu's disciples. "There's nothing wrong with promoting young geniuses like Obito when they've made real contributions."
"The Third Hokage has his difficulties," Mugetsu sighed lightly, speaking up for Hiruzen before thanking Orochimaru. "You went out of your way this time, Orochimaru. If it weren't for your help, Guy's unbalanced skills would have delayed his promotion."
Mugetsu understood Orochimaru's intentions. But at this stage, it was mutually beneficial, so he did not mind seeing it happen.
Besides, once you started acting, it became hard to say who was currying favor with whom.
"It was nothing," Orochimaru replied, handing Mugetsu Guy's Jonin appointment. "And Guy's team truly did make great contributions."
Orochimaru did not have many friends, but he understood the fastest way to make them.
A flicker of gratitude crossed Mugetsu's face. He said nothing more and left the tent.
"For someone like Mugetsu, you can't emphasize how much you helped him," Orochimaru thought, nodding to himself as he watched Mugetsu leave. "You have to let the role be felt, not announced."
Mugetsu's expression told him enough. The effort had not been wasted. People like Mugetsu might not say it out loud, but they remembered favors in their own way.
…
[System: Disciple Might Guy trained diligently and accumulated merits, promoting to Jonin. Rewards gained: Chakra +2400, Secret Medicine Extraction Scroll, Unknown Pokémon Egg. Only Might Guy can hatch it.]
After leaving the tent, Mugetsu glanced at the newest reward information on his panel.
Even though the promotion methods were different, the rewards were similar. Chakra, a Pokémon Egg, and both were exclusive to the individual.
The only difference was the scroll. Kakashi had received a blade weapon extraction scroll, while Guy received a secret medicine extraction scroll.
Mugetsu found a place to wash his hands, then activated the extraction.
He still held some anticipation for the Secret Medicine Extraction Scroll. Until now, he had only received one kind of secret medicine from the system, the training secret medicine from Guy's training mission.
The name was plain, but the effect was anything but. Guy's current strength owed a portion of its foundation to that medicine.
Mugetsu's training plan for Guy was even more brutal than in the original story. Without the training secret medicine, even a strong body would not survive that level of intensity.
After confirming the extraction, a giant roulette appeared before Mugetsu's eyes. Alongside the Hokage main body secret medicine he was most familiar with, he also saw pills from works he remembered from a previous life.
[System: Secret Medicine Extraction Scroll consumed. Reward obtained: Repair Secret Medicine.]
[System: Repair Secret Medicine. After consumption, the body will be rapidly repaired. The first pill within twenty four hours has the best effect and no side effects. The second pill has half the recovery effect and no side effects. The third pill has the same effect as the second but will cause some loss of vitality.]
Three pills appeared in Mugetsu's system inventory. At the same time, the formula and production experience for the Repair Secret Medicine flowed into his mind.
After organizing the new knowledge, Mugetsu confirmed that every required ingredient existed in this world, though some were too rare and precious to buy easily through normal markets.
Then Mugetsu activated his Byakugan and used Flying Thunder God to wander, capturing a Hidden Mist squad.
The Repair Secret Medicine was clearly designed for severe injuries, and Mugetsu had no intention of maiming himself just to test it.
He struck the Mist shinobi's joints with his palm, shattering bones throughout their bodies and dropping them to the ground in heaps.
Then he shoved a Repair Secret Medicine pill into one of their mouths and observed the changes with his Byakugan.
The moment the medicine dissolved, a powerful life force erupted within the Mist shinobi's body. The broken bones and shattered fragments repaired themselves as if stitched by an invisible hand. The shinobi who had been on the verge of death regained color in his face almost instantly.
Mugetsu raised an eyebrow.
With injuries like that, even if Tsunade treated them, she would likely only stabilize the patient and keep them alive, not restore the entire body to perfect condition. Yet this Repair Secret Medicine healed them completely, its effect comparable to a one time Creation Rebirth.
Mugetsu originally considered testing whether it could regrow severed limbs, but after thinking it through, he decided to simply kill the Mist shinobi he had captured.
The system had only given him three pills. He would have to produce the rest himself. Using two out of three for testing would be wasteful.
"One for Guy and one for Rin," Mugetsu decided, settling the fate of the remaining two Repair Secret Medicines.
He did not plan to keep them for himself. With his strength, if he ever faced an enemy capable of severely injuring him, then even a second life would not be enough, because this medicine only healed injuries. It did not restore chakra.
Higher gates of the Eight Gates combined with Rock Breathing Chakra Mode were not something Guy could withstand yet. Giving Guy the Repair Secret Medicine would prevent severe, incurable damage after a limit breaking burst.
As for Rin, that involved Obito's future. Rin staying alive was vital, and since she was the weakest among them, she needed a reliable life saving method most of all.
.....
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