On Saturday morning, Obito, Shisui, and the others began their training according to Mokgetsu's instructions.
Obito first followed Mokgetsu to learn the basic moves of Taijutsu. After an hour of practice, Mokgetsu let Obito rest and handed him a bottle of water, wiping off his sweat.
Obito immediately felt uneasy. Although Mokgetsu was a good teacher, normally he wouldn't be this considerate. Offering water was possible, but the most he would provide for sweat would be a towel.
"Obito, I think you still have a lot of potential that hasn't been tapped yet." Mokgetsu said with a smile, placing the unopened bottled water on the ground.
"No, no, I think my potential has already been fully tapped by you, teacher." Obito felt the warm sweat just wiped from his forehead being replaced by cold sweat.
"You really underestimate yourself." Mokgetsu shook his head and said.
"How about this, when you fight Guy, for every hit you take, you do an extra problem during break time.
I suppose this should thoroughly bring out your potential. Even if not, doing more problems might improve your theoretical scores."
"Teacher, that's not a good idea. If I get hit a hundred times, I don't mind doing the problems, but I'm afraid you'll get tired from coming up with them." Obito said, pretending to be considerate of Mokgetsu.
Obito was desperate, and his wit apparently improved in the moment.
To Obito, doing endless problems and practice sheets seemed worse than a passionate fight with Might Guy; it was too torturous.
"Obito, I'm glad you're concerned about the teacher's health." Mokgetsu showed a gratified expression.
Just when Obito thought he might be spared, Mokgetsu's tone shifted.
"I anticipated such a good boy, so I prepared a large number of problems for you all. Rest assured, you'll never run out of problems to do." Mokgetsu smiled, pulling out a stack of test papers, indicating an abundance of problems.
"Is it enough? If not, I'll have my Shadow Clones make more." Mokgetsu asked with a smile.
"It's enough, more than enough." Obito shook his head and hands wildly, looking at the stack in Mokgetsu's hand and feeling overwhelmed.
Though the sun was shining brightly today, and Mokgetsu's smile was quite warm, Obito just felt a chill rushing from his feet to his head.
Seeing no way forward with Mokgetsu, Obito decided on an indirect approach. If he couldn't avoid doing the problems, he'd do fewer.
Thinking of this, Obito hurriedly winked at Might Guy, signaling to go easy on him later.
Might Guy caught Obito's signal, flashed his pearly whites, and gave Obito a thumbs-up with a relaxed smile.
"For you, Guy, if you miss a hit, you'll do fifty problems, subtracting one for each successful hit, up to a maximum of forty less." Mokgetsu continued.
Might Guy's expression suddenly changed, and he soberly gave Obito another thumbs-up.
"Go all out? Not for something like this!" Obito wailed, clutching his head; he already envisaged a flood of problems coming his way.
"For youth, we must strive to reduce the problems to the minimum!" Might Guy felt fired up.
Obito didn't want to do the problems, and neither did Guy.
In the ensuing battle, Might Guy went all out, breaking into 120% speed, chasing Obito with an unrelenting assault.
Not wanting to do problems, Obito also unleashed his potential, becoming much more nimble after getting hit a dozen times.
Mokgetsu watched as both made such significant improvements, nodding in satisfaction, thinking there was still much untapped potential.
Once both were exhausted, the fight ended.
Obito took over thirty hits, meaning he had to do over thirty problems, while Might Guy only needed to do a dozen or so.
Mokgetsu felt the results were promising; with such training, perhaps in less than two months, Hyuga Kamon wouldn't be able to match them.
"What a pity, Nohara Rin doesn't have much talent. If I took her as a disciple, it would be easy to motivate Obito." Mokgetsu thought.
To keep a low profile, he didn't want to train non-disciples together.
Actually, there was another better candidate: Kakashi.
Nohara Rin could only motivate Obito, but if Kakashi were there, it would stimulate both Obito and Might Guy.
Kakashi had the talent, but unfortunately, he couldn't become Mokgetsu's student, as he had already been promoted to Chunin two years ago.
Mokgetsu stayed with them training until noon, had lunch with the trio, then left behind two Shadow Clones, and the real Mokgetsu headed to the Third Hokage's house to start his tutoring job.
Perhaps due to ongoing work, Mokgetsu didn't see Sarutobi Hiruzen, only noticing a middle-aged woman with a single ponytail hairstyle, who was Sarutobi Hiruzen's wife, Sarutobi Biwako.
"Lady Biwako," Mokgetsu greeted.
"You're the Teacher Habu mentioned by Hiruzen, correct?" Sarutobi Biwako asked, recalling the Third Hokage's description.
Mokgetsu nodded.
"Asuma is waiting for you in the backyard," Sarutobi Biwako directed Mokgetsu and reminded,
"Asuma can be a bit rebellious, so please be patient with him. If he's really uncontrollable, just let me know."
"I will, but I have some special techniques for handling rebellious students," Mokgetsu replied with a smile, then followed the direction pointed out by Sarutobi Biwako.
In the backyard, Mokgetsu saw a nine-year-old boy with a piece of grass in his mouth, lounging against a tree with an idle attitude.
Mokgetsu first did an inspection.
[Name: Sarutobi Asuma]
[Chakra: 1100]
[Potential: A+]
Noticing Mokgetsu's arrival, Asuma spat out the grass, remained seated, and asked directly,
"Are you the Habu Mokgetsu who's supposed to teach me?"
Before Mokgetsu could respond, Asuma quickly added,
"Look, if you can't let me surpass the old man, that is, the Third Hokage, you might as well leave. It's pointless."
Asuma thought to give this tutor a bit of a hard time to gain the upper hand.
Just as Asuma wondered how Mokgetsu would respond, Mokgetsu shook his head and said,
"Of course not."
"Then you can leave." Asuma waved a hand and lay back down.
He didn't believe Mokgetsu would simply go.
"Okay, I'll go right now and inform Lady Biwako that you don't need tutoring." Mokgetsu turned and prepared to leave.
Seeing Mokgetsu genuinely looking like he was leaving, Asuma was puzzled. What kind of move was that? You're not playing by the rules.
Shouldn't you be persuading me not to mess around, or something? Why are you just leaving?
"Hey, hey, don't go yet." Asuma jumped up and stopped Mokgetsu.
The teacher hadn't even started teaching him and was already driven off in a huff; he'd surely get scolded later by his mother.