"Guy, you look in great shape today." Mokgetsu arrived at their usual training spot on a Sunday morning and found Might Guy already there, doing deep squats with a large stone.
"I think what you said before, Teacher Mokgetsu, makes a lot of sense. Fighting strong opponents head-on helps turn training results into real strength, so last night I..."
Might Guy told Mokgetsu about how he challenged Kakashi last night and lost.
"I'm glad you take my words to heart," Mokgetsu said with a smile.
"As long as you keep working hard, I believe you will surpass your close friend and eventually become the strongest, because you are a genius of hard work!"
"A genius of hard work." The term struck a chord with Might Guy, and he felt it suited him perfectly.
"With your help, Teacher Mokgetsu, I'm confident on my path to becoming the strongest!" Might Guy said with a radiant smile.
Every time he thought about the changes happening within him, Might Guy realized more and more Mokgetsu's importance.
In fact, after being Mokgetsu's disciple for a while, even someone as dense as Might Guy and Obito noticed something was off.
The strength Mokgetsu exhibited in front of them was definitely not at the level of a Chunin Teacher.
But Might Guy didn't care about that; he could feel Mokgetsu genuinely cared for them.
Whenever these disciples showed clear strength improvement, Mokgetsu seemed happier than they were.
Aside from Mokgetsu, he had only seen such a display in his own father.
"With Teacher Mokgetsu's guidance, I'll defeat Kakashi sooner or later!" Might Guy was confident in himself and Mokgetsu.
[Disciple Might Guy has set a cultivation task]
[Cultivation Task: Defeat Kakashi]
[Reward: Determined by task completion and strength growth during the task]
Seeing the cultivation task finally appear, Mokgetsu nodded to himself. His understanding wasn't wrong; he had basically grasped the triggering mechanism of cultivation tasks.
Since the first task trigger over two months ago, Mokgetsu had learned some conditions through continuous probing.
The cultivation tasks mainly depended on the disciples' subjective will. In the case of Might Guy and Obito, it was easier to trigger; for Shisui, it was much harder.
Because Shisui was too dominant among his peers, he felt no pressure, and achieving number one was easy for him.
Mokgetsu once tried to make Shisui trigger a cultivation task, but no matter how hard he tried, it just didn't work for a long time.
Mokgetsu speculated that cultivation tasks might not be able to trigger some long-term big goals. Otherwise, with Shisui's personality, triggering a task to change the Uchiha's plight wouldn't be impossible.
It could also be that the trust level wasn't high enough. Perhaps it takes trust level three to trigger a cultivation task, and maybe trust level four would bring new changes.
Even though he couldn't trigger a cultivation task now, Mokgetsu still valued Shisui highly.
Perhaps due to Shisui's better talent and more concentrated training, Shisui's Chakra growth was very rapid. Currently, the Chakra he gained from the Apprentice Returning to the Master process was more than Obito's and Might Guy's combined.
Moreover, Shisui was the only disciple who had triggered a strength growth reward.
Mokgetsu estimated it would take Obito and Might Guy some time before they could trigger it.
Not long afterward, Shisui also arrived to prepare for training.
Seeing that both were there, Mokgetsu called them together to start Soru instruction.
Obito was the last to arrive. Seeing Might Guy and Shisui learning Soru, he couldn't help but feel envious.
But then, remembering the entry fee and difficulty of the Taijutsu Challenge, Obito felt another headache coming.
"To quickly dodge while maintaining forward speed," Obito thought as he practiced Nature Transformation, pondering how to solve this problem.
If he didn't resolve his earlier problem, even if he went for another challenge, he'd just end up with more exam papers.
"I should practice running at night; it might help somewhat," Obito thought, considering strengthening his legs through training.
Stronger legs not only run faster but also tire less easily when using Chakra.
...
With Sarutobi Hiruzen, the Third Hokage, stepping in, the summer special training was quickly arranged.
For fourth-grade students, unless there were special circumstances, they all needed to return to school for special training; other grades' top students could refuse the special training invitation.
This special training was specifically aimed not at this year's graduating Genin or other grades' top students but at fourth graders close to graduating.
The Ninja Academy directly sent teachers to notify and communicate with parents.
Mokgetsu believed that in this cruel Ninja World, no parent would not want their child to grow stronger.
No matter how much Konoha's textbooks glorified ninjas, it was still a very dangerous profession.
News of the Third Kazekage's disappearance had already spread throughout Konoha. Anyone slightly aware of the current Ninja World situation realized war was inevitable.
Considering the past frictions between Hidden Cloud and Konoha, it was highly unlikely Konoha could remain uninvolved.
Outstanding students were selected by Mokgetsu according to combat scores, with eight chosen from a grade.
Because Mokgetsu's first-year class was highly dominant, four students from the Mokgetsu Squad were selected: Shisui, Anko, Kotetsu, and Izumo.
Anko wasn't sure how others felt, but when the teacher came to her house to tell her she'd have another month of summer special training, she was quite puzzled.
This vacation wasn't even a week old, and it was already back to school.
Anko was relieved that this summer special training involved only practical combat, not theoretical classes, and that her favorite teacher Mokgetsu would be instructing them.
The top students from each grade generally didn't refuse.
However, few of the graduating Genin applied to enter the special training; only about a dozen.
Mokgetsu understood that compared to Academy Chunin teachers, most would rather trust their post-graduation mentors.
Having a suspicious superior is always troublesome.
Because of this summer special training, Mokgetsu also had to give a special report, explaining the details of the training to Danzo.
After all, it wasn't a minor event; it was the first time the Ninja Academy held a summer special training, and even the graduating Genin received notifications.
Danzo seemed pleased with Mokgetsu's job, rewarding him with Root's Cultivation Elixir in his response.
In the reply, Danzo stated that Mokgetsu should perform even better to get directly promoted to Special Jonin by the Third. Other than that, it was just meaningless PUA content.
Mokgetsu could only think that the original owner might have felt something, but he just grew to dislike Danzo more.
He didn't even want to use the elixir provided as a reward, given by Danzo.