Chapter 146: Blessings Hide Misfortune

Mizuki didn't mind babysitting every now and then—even if it got kinda boring, especially after a late night. Slumped against a tree trunk, he yawned nonstop before finally nodding off.

In his half-asleep state, Mizuki sensed someone approaching and snapped wide awake with alertness.

"You two again? Already done training?"

Walking over were none other than Sasuke Uchiha and Sakura Haruno.

Sasuke shook his head. "Just taking a quick break. Where's Teacher Kakashi?"

"Kakashi has something important to do and won't be in the village for a couple of days. If you need anything, feel free to ask me."

"I see," Sasuke nodded. "Then we'll leave things up to you, Teacher Mizuki."

"No problem at all."

Actually, just hanging around here wasn't a total waste of time for Mizuki. Natural Energy—that's what everyone called it who knew about Sage Mode. But exactly what it was, Mizuki still couldn't figure out. The term 'Natural Energy' was just way too vague. He'd tried sensing Natural Energy in places like this plenty of times, but still hadn't felt a thing. Sometimes Mizuki doubted whether such a thing even existed—until he extracted several components from Sasuke's chakra during [Cursed Seal Outbreak], all showing clear traces of Natural Energy. That nagging doubt vanished completely.

Still, knowing about it and actually being able to sense it were two totally different things. He should probably contact the second [Artificial Jinchuriki] first and get the full story.

...

During these sweltering summer days, staying outdoors for long periods was seriously unbearable. Doing intense ninja training in this heat burned through serious amounts of energy. Still, Mizuki had no intention of stopping them. These lucky kids blessed by fate might even unlock some deadly jutsu by chance. Maybe letting extraordinary individuals develop naturally was actually the right choice. Of course, Mizuki would never admit that any of this was just an excuse for his own laziness.

"Would've loved to take it easy today—if it weren't for Teacher Kakashi's favor."

Lately, he'd owed quite a few favors to Hatake Kakashi. When needing help, the first person he thought of was always Kakashi. And becoming jonin wouldn't have happened without Kakashi's support either. Since he'd just benefited from all that help, he couldn't afford to slack off now.

It wasn't until past noon that the two exhausted genin finally stopped training. The three of them gathered under a relatively shady tree to eat lunch together.

"Teacher Mizuki, I brought plenty of food—all made by myself. Want some?" Eager as ever, Sakura Haruno smiled gently toward Mizuki.

"No thanks," Mizuki declined. "Unlike Teacher Kakashi, I'm not single—I already have my fiancée prepare boxed lunches for me."

That probably counted as a solid excuse. Truthfully though, what really kept Mizuki from accepting Sakura's offer was her famously disastrous cooking skills. Mizuki preferred avoiding mysterious dark cuisine at all costs.

"Sasuke-kun, would you like some?"

"Seeing Mizuki refuse, Sakura turned to Sasuke Uchiha.

"Hn." Sasuke Uchiha gave a slight nod. Living alone like this, he rarely got proper boxed lunches. So getting one once in a while from someone else wasn't a bad thing at all.

Seeing Sasuke's agreement, Sakura became extremely happy and immediately separated a large portion for him. Then she watched him take a bite with hopeful eyes.

"Hn?" Feeling something strange about the food in his mouth, Sasuke frowned slightly, but didn't speak, instead chewing several times before swallowing.

Mizuki also watched the reactions of both Sasuke and Sakura with great interest. When Sasuke frowned, Sakura looked nervous; but when Sasuke finally swallowed the food, she breathed a sigh of relief.

'Looks like before becoming Tsunade's disciple, although Sakura wasn't good at cooking, she hadn't gotten her hands on truly disastrous ingredients yet — what she made was still barely edible.'

"Sasuke-kun, is it delicious?"

"It's terrible," Sasuke said flatly.

That blunt answer immediately deflated Sakura's mood.

"But I remember putting in lots of good stuff, and it's definitely beneficial for the body."

'Medical Ninjutsu and potion-making talent just don't mix well with cooking ability, do they?' Mizuki silently mourned for Sakura's culinary skills, but then heard Sasuke Uchiha asking, "Teacher Mizuki, when you mentioned chakra manipulation training — what exactly does that cover?"

"This is pretty basic stuff — Kakashi should've taught you this already, right? After all, if Sasuke had already learned Chidori, there's no way Kakashi wouldn't have taught him such simple concepts."

"Then are there any better training methods?"

"You mean if there's some kind of shortcut to mastering it?" Mizuki replied with a smirk. "I don't know either. If there really were, that would be great — I'd want it too."

For these types of technical skills, aside from some particularly gifted individuals, everyone eventually comes down to the principle that practice makes perfect. While physical conditions might be rapidly enhanced through medications or transplants, chakra manipulation skills really don't offer many effective shortcuts.

Hearing Mizuki's words, Sasuke Uchiha lowered his head in disappointment.

"Is there absolutely no way to quickly increase my power?"

Of course there were methods — Chidori itself had considerable potential. Techniques like [Chidori Current], [Chidori Light Sword], and [Heavenly Lightning] were all solid choices. However, given Sasuke's current abilities and physical condition, discussing these techniques would be pointless.

Ultimately, aside from experience, his youth and underdeveloped body were seriously holding back Sasuke Uchiha's progress.

"Teacher Mizuki, can't you really help Sasuke at all?" Sakura Haruno also wanted to do something for Sasuke. Having been taught by Mizuki for a month, she understood his capabilities quite well now. She hoped that Mizuki might possess some good method to assist Sasuke.

"What do you think I could teach Sasuke? Or rather, which of my jutsu could he actually learn?"

Except for Kuchiyose no Jutsu, none of Mizuki's techniques didn't require extremely high chakra control. As for other ordinary jutsu, they probably wouldn't even impress Sasuke.

There was another sentence Mizuki didn't say out loud: Why should I teach him anything anyway?

Teaching Sakura Haruno was partly Kakashi Hatake's request, and partly just something Mizuki felt like doing. It was just going with the flow. He'd helped Naruto Uzumaki and Sasuke Uchiha a few times—just doing his job as a Konoha ninja. On this hot day, babysitting these two kids was all due to Kakashi's request and their personal friendship—keeping those two Genin safe from harm was more than enough. But that was completely different from casually teaching them ninjutsu. Mizuki wasn't their squad leader, and Sasuke wasn't even his disciple. Truthfully, he could have easily ignored whatever requests Sasuke and Sakura made without giving any explanation or bothering to make excuses.

If he hadn't gotten along decently with Sakura, Mizuki wouldn't have even bothered listening to that reckless nonsense—there was absolutely no reason for him to indulge in her childish feelings.

Hearing Mizuki's counter-question, Sakura lowered her head naturally, both disappointed and apologetic over her inappropriate request.

...

The babysitting duties were nearly finished for the day. Aside from the sweltering heat, Mizuki hadn't exerted himself much. Most of the time, he appeared to be resting with closed eyes but was actually sensing natural energy—unfortunately, with barely any effect. The only benefit had been feeling slightly healthier due to low activity levels throughout the day.

"Come later tomorrow morning," Mizuki told the departing Sasuke Uchiha and Sakura Haruno before parting ways. "I've got some stuff in the morning, so I might be late. You've both worked hard today; rest a bit longer in the morning. Balancing work and rest is also important for becoming a successful ninja."

"We understand." Both agreed and then left.

Even so, whether or not Sasuke would actually obey quietly was still uncertain in Mizuki's mind—"But now isn't the time to worry about that. What matters is tomorrow..."

Mizuki hurried home and found his fiancée, Tsubaki Chiharu, had already been waiting for quite some time.

"Why are you back so late?"

"It's something Kakashi asked me to do. I need to put some effort into it." Although there wasn't actually anything worthwhile he could teach Sasuke, at least when Sasuke injured himself through excessively intense training and Sakura's Medical Ninjutsu couldn't keep up, Mizuki had to try his best to treat him properly. If he returned Kakashi a Sasuke full of bruises and scars, he'd lose face entirely.

"I see," Tsubaki nodded. "I've already sorted things out. Tomorrow's meeting has been arranged."

"That's good. Anything suspicious happened these two days?"

"Not a thing. After the last genjutsu failed, everything has quieted down for a few days. No abnormalities detected."

Since the genjutsu didn't take effect, someone must have noticed it. And since Mizuki hadn't raised an alarm, whoever was behind the scenes wouldn't want to draw public attention to such affairs either.

"That should be fine. Probably no issues."

Early the next morning, at the cabin located deep within the flower nursery at the back mountain—the exclusive residence shared by Mizuki and Tsubaki—two people sat inside today. Surprisingly, they both looked exactly like Chiharu Tsubaki.

"You weren't followed, right?"

"Of course. How about you?"

"I don't have anyone watching this place. The secrecy of this hidden base is guaranteed for now."

"That's good. But why are you in this form?"

"Mizuki's appearance isn't suitable for going outside the village without a mission. Aren't you also using this form?"

"No other option. I had to ask Tsubaki to temporarily serve as my Shadow Clone. Without that, this subtle surveillance would've been really tough to shake off." Using the family barrier for concealment, Tsubaki temporarily stood in for him while Mizuki himself morphed into her exact appearance, employing Breath-Sealing Art to completely mask chakra fluctuations. As long as his movements weren't suspicious, no one would detect the deception. Considering Tsubaki often went to harvest flowers from the back mountain and sold them, nobody found such behavior odd.

"Alright then, let's trade memory chips. I've uncovered something absolutely mind-blowing..."

...

After quite a while, once he finally processed the exchanged memories, Mizuki pushed open the cabin window and quietly looked at a field of blossoms not far away.

"What do you think? Any opinions?" asked the Artificial Jinchuriki clone.

Mizuki's original body exhaled heavily before answering, "Originally we were one person, thinking exactly the same way. What you've thought of, I naturally understand too—and vice versa. Still, just like you said, it's truly an incredible discovery."

"So, will you still practice Sage Mode?"

"Absolutely. We can't delay that anymore," Mizuki's original body firmly replied. "Always seeking perfectly flawless methods is also kind of cowardice. Look how Sasuke dares to seek power from Orochimaru—even though reckless, it shows courage. We can't keep hesitating forever. Also, we're running out of time."

"That's true. The Jonin Exam is right around the corner—the last practical combat experience recently, then internal village matters. Plus, [Sage Chakra] also connects to many other things."

"Let's settle it this way. Once we solve the Sage Chakra issue, we must test memory connections between clones. Since you found a breakthrough regarding tailed beast chakra, finish that first. We've got a mountain of work ahead. Can't always lean on shadow clones—those rare variant-type clones shouldn't be wasted as nothing more than Big Bombs."

"Understood. But really, do you feel confident? If something happens to you, it'll drag others down with you—and there'll be zero chance of coming back. Couldn't you just play dumb like Jiraiya and Kabuto Yakushi?"

Mizuki inhaled deeply before speaking one last time: "Once stepping onto this path, there's definitely no turning back. Stuck here for so long already, further delay will only make us more vulnerable."

"If you've decided already, then so be it. However, you really chose quite the opponent. Even the Sage of Six Paths might not succeed. Can you actually do it? You know what happened to the previous failure."

"No, we can't say for sure whether the Sage of Six Paths actually succeeded or not. The Uzumaki Clan simply brought trouble upon themselves."

"You know what the consequences are. Never thought it'd end up like this. I figured there had to be some hidden motive behind the Three Great Holy Lands teaching [Sage Mode], but who knew it'd be so damn simple. It's all human-made trouble—and still no one wants to lend a hand."

"I should head back earlier. Today was a real eye-opener. Never thought Natural Energy—something everyone praises so much—could be this sketchy."

"Only someone like us who clings to their sense of self would even care about this stuff. How many people actually care if they stay true to themselves anymore? Take Sasuke Uchiha for example—so long as his power increases, would he even care?"

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