Konoha's Mission Master

Why do you want to teach me?

As Yakumo continued to ask questions, his emotions gradually became more agitated.

The so-called secret transmission is the most core power inheritance of the ninja clan, which is the foundation of the ninja clan's strength, and naturally they will not allow outsiders to learn it.

"The Hatake Secret Technique is divided into techniques, breathing, footwork, and chakra mode. The former is just techniques and nothing special. Only the chakra mode is the foundation. The other three are just more refined techniques."

What Yakumo didn't know was that when Sakumo had made a name for himself, his fighting style had already been thoroughly studied; his moves, footwork, and even his breathing were no longer secrets.

Isn't it normal for classmates to help each other?

“Then I’ll learn…” Yakumo no longer hesitated.

With only two days left until the mission deadline, he couldn't give up this opportunity no matter what, and even if it meant taking a risk, he decided to gamble.

"Take your knife and come with me..."

"I didn't bring it."

"Didn't your swordsmanship master tell you that in order to cultivate a feel for the sword, you must always have the sword with you at all times?"

"Never mind, I have two..."

“I don’t have a teacher,” Yakumo explained.

Kakashi's eyes flashed with surprise. He was amazed that Yakumo had such a solid foundation, all achieved through his own exploration.

"You must have been practicing swordsmanship for a long time, right?"

"how do you know."

"Your hands..."

Yakumo spread out his hands, looked at the calluses that had formed over the past few days, and nodded silently.

"That's right, it's been a long time..."

Kakashi's father once said that he was a once-in-a-century swordsmanship genius in the Hatake family. At this moment, Kakashi suddenly felt that... Yakumo's talent might not be inferior to his own!

"Shocking! Yakumo actually lied without batting an eye!"

Masako loosened her clenched fist and stared intently at the back of her "childhood friend," as if she were seeing him for the first time.

Chapter 8 Getting Started

Inside Training Ground 14 in Konoha Village.

Rin Nohara, Obito Uchiha, and Masako Mori are playing a game of kicking cans and hide-and-seek.

This is a very simple and popular game. The person who is "it" only needs to touch the other two people with their hands to win, and the other two people win if either of them kicks over a can.

This is a clash between protection and destruction.

Obito Uchiha originally thought that since Kakashi Hatake, who had a bug in the game, didn't participate, he would win easily.

Ideals are always beautiful, but reality is often harsh.

He had lost three games in a row, and no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't stop it... Masako Mori kicked the jar.

He was completely outmatched by this girl who was unremarkable in the class in terms of speed, reaction, and agility.

Obito Uchiha thought to himself, "This is a game boss who is equivalent to... Kakashi, and what's more, she's not as pretty as Rin!"

"Obito, what are you thinking about?" Masako Mori suddenly leaned close to Obito and asked in a low voice.

"Mori Masako isn't as pretty as Rin..."

"Wait, something's not right, how did I say that?"

Obito Uchiha immediately snapped out of his daze and stared warily at the smiling Masako Mori. He seemed to have been momentarily distracted and blurted out what he was thinking.

"Snapped."

The tin can was kicked far away by Masako Mori.

"Obito, you lost again." Nohara Rin said with a smile, and Obito and Mori Masako laughed along, filling the training ground with a cheerful atmosphere.

"Oops, I lost again!"

Happiness belongs to them...it certainly doesn't belong to Kakashi.

He never expected that Yakumo, whom he had labeled a swordsmanship genius just a few hours earlier, would have such poor learning abilities.

"Remember that the steps, breathing, and moves must be coordinated and not disordered. The sword should move with your heart, rather than following an overly rigid format."

"Your steps are off, start over..."

"Your breathing is erratic, start over..."

"Wrong... there's a problem with the transition!"

After Yakumo's fifth failure, Kakashi could only helplessly rub his forehead, his face, hidden behind the black veil, filled with bitterness.

"This may be the process of cultivating one's mind."

Just yesterday, he told his father that a classmate had been secretly watching him practice his swordsmanship. He didn't expect that his father would care more about the classmate's character than about his swordsmanship being stolen.

Kakashi told his father about Yakumo's recent experiences, and he then received new lessons.

"Inheritance should not be based on sectarianism; the most important thing to consider when choosing a successor is their character."

These are Sakumo Hatake's original words.

The White Fang of Konoha has a grand vision...

"Teaching others swordsmanship to verify what I have learned and to seek new breakthroughs is the homework my father left me... but I never expected it to be so difficult."

“When I was learning, my father only demonstrated it once, so why couldn’t I learn it?”

Kakashi stared at the distant forest, feeling utterly dejected, and desperately hoped that a black bear would burst out and fight him.

"Kakashi, can you help me see where I went wrong?"

Yakumo's voice pulled Kakashi back from his reverie. Not far in front of him, the self-proclaimed genius was piecing together the Hatake sword technique with extremely chaotic movements.

"His breathing is erratic! Two stabs and he exhales, two stabs and he inhales."

Upon hearing this, Yakumo immediately began to adjust his breathing frequency according to Kakashi's instructions.

After dozens of practice sessions, Yakumo's physical abilities reached their limit, as did Kakashi's mental state.

That's all for today, we'll continue tomorrow.

Kakashi could tell that Yakumo had reached his physical limit and spoke up.

"I only need to rest for half an hour to recover my strength and then I can continue training for another three hours," Yakumo replied. The sun had just set, and it was still early.

"Okay, I'll demonstrate it for you a few more times. Watch carefully."

This "student" may be a little slow-witted, but his hard work reminded him of his father's teachings when he was a child.

"Never underestimate those who make progress by putting in several times the effort, even if they only improve a little bit every day, their future is just as bright."

Drawing his short blade, Kakashi methodically demonstrated the techniques and footwork of the Hatake swordsmanship, deliberately slowing down his pace to make it easier for Yakumo to learn.

In the blink of an eye... it was completely dark.

The day's training came to an end. Yakumo had initially planned to treat his friends to a meal, but found that all the shops along the way were closed, so he had to give up and the group went their separate ways home.

I never expected you to stick with it.

Masako Mori was quite surprised by the boy's continuous sword-wielding for several hours. The resolute look on the boy's face as he wielded the sword under the moon was hard to reconcile with his former image of being timid and cowardly.

"Perhaps it's because I like him..."

"like…?"

"People are always willing to go for what they like, aren't they?" Yakumo looked at the moon in the sky and decided to go home to continue practicing basic swordsmanship, after all, there were only two days left before the mission was completed.

Masako Mori fell silent for a moment in response to Yakumo's words. People will go to great lengths for those they love, and it's not just things that matter.

"You enjoy practicing swordsmanship?"

“I enjoy doing missions,” Yakumo answered truthfully.

"Does 'taking on missions' mean accepting missions after becoming a ninja?" Masako Mori continued to ask. It was a good sign that Yakumo was willing to talk to her.

"Nah."

…………

Saturday night, at the familiar training ground.

On one side, there was a time of joyful laughter and fun; on the other side, there was Kakashi with a furrowed brow. Tonight, he proposed a new training method that abandoned techniques and focused on the coordination of footwork and breathing. Once the two were unified, techniques would then be incorporated.

Yakumo's progress is now very obvious; he can now guess Kakashi's mistakes just by looking at the changes in his eyes.

Two hours later, I finally mastered the coordination of breathing and footwork. All I needed to do was combine it with the moves to get started with the basics of the Hatake sword technique.

Slashes, steps, breaths.

Thrust, footwork, breathing.

Yakumo practiced the Hatake sword techniques at an extremely slow pace, but with perfect accuracy.

The thirteenth move was correct.

The twentieth move was correct.

The twenty-first move was correct.

The twenty-fourth move was correct.

Perfect. Yakumo completed the entire training of the Hatake sword technique, including the moves, footwork, and breathing, at an extremely slow pace.

"Congratulations. From now on, all you need to do is practice it countless times until it becomes second nature, and be able to use it at will in battle," Kakashi immediately congratulated you.

Outsiders simply cannot understand how hard he has worked these past two days.

"I owe you a huge favor," Yakumo said very solemnly.

"The Sharingan can perfectly replicate movements and imitate chakra flow, and the Byakugan can also see through all the secrets of the Hatake sword technique. In other words, the training method of the Hatake sword technique is not a secret among the Konoha higher-ups."

"It wasn't the Hatake swordsmanship that made White Fang famous, but rather it was because of White Fang that the Hatake swordsmanship became a so-called secret technique. In fact, Obito also studied it for a while, but he gave up because he found it too tiring..."

This was the first time Yakumo had heard so many words from Kakashi, and the reason he spoke so much was to prevent Yakumo from feeling indebted for his instruction.