Chapter 233: Attempt on the Eight Trigrams Seal

During the practical exam the next day, Mutsuki himself went to the examination site of Class 1-A to check the situation.

Although he had been absent from school this semester, he had been promoted to the position of assistant leader of the teacher's class.

Currently, the only ones in the Academy with higher positions than him are Sarutobi Hiruzen, who is both the principal and the Hokage, and Shimotsuke Hisanobu, who is the leader of the teacher's class and also the head instructor.

His main body took the students on missions, but he did not completely abandon Class 1-A, leaving a Shadow Clone behind to oversee them.

Although the Shadow Clone lacked the skill boost of the main body, it possessed the knowledge in his mind. Its effectiveness would be lower than that of the main body but much better than other sensei, considering that teaching first-year students was relatively straightforward.

Shadow Clone is indeed a very convenient Ninjutsu, but it's troublesome that fatigue also follows back. Therefore, Mutsuki regularly releases them to avoid overwhelming fatigue all at once.

"Everyone looks energetic. How did you all do in yesterday's exam?" Mutsuki greeted the students with a smile.

"Good morning, Yumi-sensei! I think I did pretty well," Anko was the first to greet with a smile.

Hagane Kotetsu replied, "It was okay."

"I feel like I didn't do so well," Kamizuki Izumo answered.

"It was alright, just like that," Shisui calmly replied. Compared to Mutsuki's assignments, Academy exams are too relaxed.

Watching this familiar scene, Mutsuki showed a slight smile. In two months, he had grown stronger, but these students hadn't changed much.

The exam proctors who had just arrived also greeted Mutsuki with smiles.

After watching the first round of Class 1-A's battles, Mutsuki left. The rate of improvement had indeed slowed compared to last semester, but it was still considerable.

He did not go to Obito's class to watch Obito and Guy's fight. Instead, he left a Shadow Clone to observe the situation and returned to his home in the main area of Konoha to begin practicing Sealing Jutsu, because he could watch Guy and Obito's fight tomorrow.

After returning home, Mutsuki began studying the Four Symbols Seal. Although he didn't learn as quickly as when he studied with Kushina, it was still within an acceptable range because the Sealing Jutsu scroll Kushina gave him also included her annotations.

Having a good sensei was certainly good, but because of Kushina's identity, he couldn't spend too much time with her, even if he really just wanted to study Sealing Jutsu.

Although Kushina and Minato were not yet married, they were already in a boyfriend-girlfriend relationship. If he approached her too often, it might be misunderstood by others.

Mutsuki believed Minato would trust him, but he couldn't guarantee that Danzo wouldn't cause trouble. If Danzo saw how well they got along and had some weird idea to try to recruit him to undermine Minato, that would be very awkward.

Although even if he ignored Danzo, it wouldn't lead to any major issues, after all, he now also belonged to Third's side. However, Mutsuki preferred stability and didn't want to see such things happen.

During the day, Mutsuki taught his disciples. In the evening, he usually studied Sealing Jutsu and worked on developing the Breathing Technique. By now, his Four Symbols Seal had reached a proficiency level of 150 points, considered Beginner level.

Knowing that Minato could stack the Four Symbols Seal twice to create the Eight Trigrams Seal, Mutsuki attempted to develop towards the Eight Trigrams Seal. However, the difficulty exceeded his imagination.

Sealing Jutsu isn't like bread where you can easily place one piece on top of another without any interaction. In fact, if the same Sealing Jutsu is applied twice on a person, it doesn't make the seal stronger; rather, the second application will overwrite the first seal.

If different Sealing Jutsu are used, although their effects may be similar in nature, they cannot enhance the sealing effect. In fact, they may even interfere with each other, resulting in a worse overall effect.

"After experimenting, Mutsuki speculated, 'Minato must have made significant improvements to the Four Symbols Seal; otherwise, it wouldn't be possible to achieve the effects of the Eight Trigrams Seal.'

"It was precisely this improvement that gave the second layer of the Four Symbols Seal the ability to transform Chakra.

Mutsuki was somewhat eager to develop the Eight Trigrams Seal because of its ability to convert Chakra leaked from tailed beasts into one's own Chakra, which was incredibly powerful.

At present, he didn't have a tailed beast within him, but who could say about the future? If given the chance, he wouldn't mind having a 'portable charger' inserted into his body.

Over ten months, the system had helped him increase his Chakra by nearly forty thousand, but Mutsuki felt it was still too little compared to those true Chakra monsters.

For instance, the Nine-Tails. Its Chakra was so immense that Mutsuki dared not imagine how many digits it involved. During the Fourth Great Ninja War, Naruto distributed the Nine-Tails' Chakra to the entire Ninja Alliance, instantly empowering them. Hinata, who could barely fend off a Ten-Tails clone on her own, was able to use Eight Trigrams Vacuum Palm with the Nine-Tails' Chakra to strike the Ten-Tails' main body.

This clearly involves suddenly gaining Chakra several times greater than one's own, and Naruto didn't just empower one or two individuals but directly strengthened the entire Ninja Alliance present, which is terrifying considering the Alliance consists of tens of thousands of units.

Even if each of ten thousand individuals received just ten points of Chakra, that would still require a hundred thousand points of Chakra. Therefore, if the Nine-Tails were to estimate several tens of millions or even billions of Chakra, Mutsuki wouldn't be too surprised.

The Nine-Tails is fine since it was split off from the Ten-Tails and having more Chakra is normal.

What Mutsuki finds most incomprehensible is Hashirama; when Naruto and the complete Nine-Tails are combined, their Chakra is comparable to Hashirama's. How much Chakra does he have?

Thinking this way, Mutsuki feels his own forty thousand Chakra is pitifully small. He can't even give ten thousand people five points of Chakra.

"I still need to continue working hard," Mutsuki thought to himself.

His few disciples developing up to a hundred thousand Chakra each is very hopeful. A Trust Level 4 with a quadrupled effect gives a person four hundred thousand Chakra, not comparable to those tailed beasts and ridiculous, but much stronger than ordinary people

Studying Sealing Jutsu until late into the night, after making dinner, Mutsuki continued studying Sealing Jutsu for a while. After eight o'clock, he began developing Water Breathing.

He possessed strong talent in Sealing Jutsu and needed to develop a sealing technique that could enhance his endurance, so Mutsuki devoted more time to Sealing Jutsu.

On the morning of the third day of exams, the grade-level practical exams began. Mutsuki went to the fourth-grade exam venue to observe the battles.

Obito's nine-year-old second Tomoe Sharingan was still too dazzling, so Mutsuki, like with Shisui, prohibited Obito from casually using the Sharingan. He could only use it during training or missions.

To balance their combat abilities and keep their disciples more low-key, while forbidding Obito from using the Sharingan, Mutsuki also banned Guy from using the second gate of the Eight Inner Gates during the Academy's practical exams.

Honestly speaking, opening the second gate of the Eight Inner Gates combined with Stone Breathing (Total Concentration Breathing) would seriously frighten the Chunin sensei proctoring the exams. Guy's Noon Leopard could easily kick a Chunin sensei to death.

The Chunin Exam's display of such strength wouldn't matter, but revealing such prowess in an Academy exam would be excessive.

"All sixteen participants in the grade-level practical are students who have become internship Ninjas."

"Yes, it seems the selection criteria mainly focus on strength."

Before the first match even began, the students were already discussing each contestant.

"The first match is about to begin. Student number one, Shiranui Genma, and student number two, Ebisu, please get ready," the proctor began announcing the student roster.

"Although we're friends, I won't go easy on you," Shiranui Genma said with a smile as he patted Ebisu on the shoulder.

"I'll return the favor," Ebisu replied bluntly, walking with Shiranui Genma to the exam arena.

"That's the developer of the Confusion Jutsu," someone among the students remarked.

Ebisu's face immediately darkened, and he looked back but couldn't identify who said it.

Once the battle started, both sides unleashed all their techniques to attack each other.

Although they had a good relationship, they wouldn't give in to each other during the fight.

However, compared to Shiranui Genma, Ebisu's strength was still lacking, and he ultimately lost to Shiranui Genma.

"Shiranui Genma wins!" announced the proctor.

"Their strength does seem stronger now. It looks like the internship really pays off," commented an acquaintance after watching their performance.

In Mutsuki's view, this was quite normal. Although other sensei were far behind Mutsuki, they were still carefully selected outstanding sensei, much stronger than ordinary Chunin sensei.

Moreover, teaching as a ninja rather than as a student allowed for a broader range of subjects to be taught. Coupled with more adequate training time, it was normal for them to grow stronger faster than they would through normal classes at the Ninja Academy.

"For the second match, student number three, Uchiha Obito, versus student number four, Hyuga Kamon," the proctor quickly announced the next battle.

"If only Guy and Obito could meet earlier. I came to watch the grade-level exams just to see their battle," someone sighed.

No one around objected. Hyuga Kamon had indeed been in the limelight for quite some time, but no one considered him a match for Obito or Guy anymore. Facing either of them was practically a knockout.

Upon hearing these discussions, Hyuga Kamon felt disheartened. While he knew he likely couldn't win, hearing it outright was hurtful.

"The battle begins!" the proctor shouted upon seeing the examinees activate the Seal of Confrontation.

Hyuga Kamon immediately activated his Byakugan, causing his chakra network to bulge around his eyes in preparation for battle. He really wanted to defeat Uchiha Obito and prove those people wrong.

"Flame Breathing, Total Concentration Breathing!" Obito concentrated his breath to intake large amounts of oxygen to strengthen himself.

His opponent was an Academy student, once ranked first in his grade, but Obito had defeated Jonin with his teammates before. Thus, Obito didn't pay much attention to Hyuga Kamon and prepared to end the fight swiftly.

"Fire Release: Great Fireball Jutsu!"

Obito spit out a three-meter-high fireball towards Hyuga Kamon.

Naturally, Hyuga Kamon couldn't handle such a high-level Fire Release and burst out his chakra to dodge.

Obito directly dashed towards where Hyuga Kamon was dodging.

Hyuga Kamon's Byakugan could clearly see Obito rushing towards him.

Whoosh!

Obito used Soru to accelerate and appeared beside Hyuga Kamon, then infused power into his right arm. With his Breathing Technique driving his chakra, he swung a heavy punch.

Hyuga Kamon could clearly see the fist approaching him relentlessly. He tried hard to dodge, but his body's speed couldn't match his perception, nor could it keep up with Obito's punching speed.

Bang!

Hyuga Kamon was directly knocked away by a punch. Immediately after, Obito swiftly threw a kunai next to where Hyuga Kamon fell, clearly conveying his message.

"Uchiha Obito wins!" the proctor announced directly.

If this were a real battle, Hyuga Kamon would have been killed by Obito.

"It feels like Obito has improved a lot again. He just used Taijutsu to defeat Hyuga Kamon in an instant," Shiranui Genma remarked as he watched Obito effortlessly take down Hyuga Kamon. According to the rules, his next opponent would be Obito.

He didn't even have the confidence to face Hyuga Kamon, let alone Obito who could defeat him so quickly.

Other students were also somewhat surprised that Obito used Taijutsu to swiftly eliminate Hyuga Kamon. They had expected Hyuga Kamon to lose quickly, but they didn't anticipate Obito would eliminate him with just a kick without using much Ninjutsu.

"With Taijutsu like that, Obito seems more likely to win this time," onlookers commented in awe.

Guy was proficient only in Taijutsu, while Obito had not only strengthened his Taijutsu skills but also mastered excellent Fire Release techniques. Therefore, many believed Obito had a greater chance of winning.

The grade-level practical had only sixteen students participating, making the pace much faster than class-level practicals. Mutsuki quickly saw Obito and Guy's battle unfold.

Due to the order of numbers, this time they didn't meet in the finals but encountered each other in the quarterfinals.

The appearance of these two heavyweight examinees made the students and proctors watching around them show serious expressions.

---

Don't forget to check out my patreon where you can read up to 50 advanced chapters https://www.patreon.com/CrazyNinja