Looking at the finger less than a centimeter from his head, Obito showed a delighted smile. Dodging it meant not only two fewer questions but also ten percent of the total questions!
"This is a small improvement. It seems that occasional question-training is indeed the optimal solution, at least for Obito."
Mokgetsu was very satisfied with this. He originally thought it would take at least until the fourth attempt to dodge, but Obito succeeded on the second try.
After the time was up, Mokgetsu began to tally up the training results of the two.
"Shisui got hit a total of nineteen times, dodging zero times, and needs to answer forty-two questions."
"Obito got hit a total of nineteen times, dodging once, and needs to answer thirty-six questions."
The joy on Obito's face was uncontrollable. Although thirty-six questions were still quite a lot, it was a huge improvement compared to the fifty-five questions from the first time.
"Indeed, there's a huge difference between dodging and not dodging," Obito thought to himself. Although both he and Shisui were hit the same number of times, because he dodged once, there was a difference of six questions between them.
"Obito actually managed to dodge an attack!" Shisui showed a surprised expression after hearing their results.
He had seen through the essence of this training during the first attempt. Without a breakthrough, it was impossible to dodge Mokgetsu's attack.
Which means, in just the second training, Obito had a breakthrough.
Shisui felt a surge of pressure; with a Sharingan more advanced than his, and a stronger Breath of Flame, now his advantage over Obito was only in stronger Ninjutsu and Instant Body Jutsu.
"The time for this set of questions is also three days, and next training will be in three days," Mokgetsu announced.
A rhythm of training once every two days was a bit intense. No matter how much of a genius one was, it wasn't possible to make breakthroughs so quickly every time. Mokgetsu would gradually extend the training intervals; the tight schedule at the start was to apply sufficient pressure.
Since it was no one's birthday, Mokgetsu directly distributed the questions.
After saving the questions, Shisui began cultivating with all his heart.
This special training had truly instilled a deep sense of crisis within him. In terms of performance, he had already lost to Obito this time.
"I must become stronger. As Teacher Mokgetsu's first disciple, how can I lose to others?" The belief in Shisui's heart supported him as he used Full Concentration Breathing to complete one training session after another.
He had his own pride; although he was the youngest disciple, his strength had always been the first within the Mokgetsu Squad, and he progressed rapidly in various cultivations, learning Fire Release much faster than Obito.
Now, being surpassed by someone he could easily defeat in the past, Shisui naturally felt unwilling in his heart.
After finishing cultivation, Shisui went home, ate, rested a while, and resumed cultivation. He cycled through exhaustion and rest until 11:30 pm, when he washed and went to bed.
In the following days, Shisui maintained this high-intensity training, wanting to dodge Mokgetsu's attacks and become stronger.
The morning before the third training session, Shisui made progress in his cultivation, but not with the Breathing Technique, rather with Armament Aura.
Shisui imagined an invisible armor covering his body, then suddenly threw a punch. The spot he hit on a large tree exploded instantly, sending a mass of wood chips flying everywhere.
"Is this the power of Armament?" Shisui looked at his white little fist.
The power of that punch was abnormal. If he had used a lot of Chakra to enhance his fists, it could have had that effect, but he hadn't.
"Yes, you just imbued your fist with the power of Armament," Mokgetsu nodded and said.
He used Appraisal to take a look at Shisui's Armament Aura proficiency, which had already reached twenty points.
Shisui threw another punch but found it was back to normal.
When Shisui threw a third punch, it worked again, and the tree collapsed with a crash.
"You haven't yet mastered it proficiently. Catch that feeling and practice more, and you'll be able to use it initially," Mokgetsu explained.
Listening to Mokgetsu, Shisui closed his eyes and carefully recalled the feeling of using Armament Aura just now.
However, this feeling was obviously hard to find, and in the following punches, Shisui still couldn't consistently bring out Armament Aura.
Obito and Kakashi, who were training alongside him, glanced over.
They had also started training in Armament Aura one after another, but compared to Shisui, who was close to initial usage, they had no clue at all about Armament Aura.
Mokgetsu could only say this was normal. Not mentioning Shisui's strong talent in Yin Release, Kakashi, who was the second to start training in Armament Aura, began this two weeks later than Shisui.
Because of Shisui's breakthrough in Armament Aura, Mokgetsu paused Shisui's Breathing Technique training today, letting Shisui train Armament Aura for the whole day to find the feeling.
Although currently, with the disciples' Chakra Amount, their opportunities to use Armament Aura in battles were limited, it was a powerful Secret Technique, and learning it earlier was beneficial. The Chakra would gradually increase.
Without training the Breathing Technique during the day, Shisui practiced it alone at night.
After all, he was the only one at home, so training wouldn't disturb anyone's sleep at home. As for neighbors, his training wasn't loud enough to bother them.
"Why is Obito's Breathing Technique progress so much faster than mine?" Shisui reflected during a rest.
They trained at the same time with the same teacher, yet his Breathing Technique progress always lagged behind Obito's.
Although Shisui couldn't see the proficiency directly like Mokgetsu, he was also cultivating the Breath of Flame and could clearly feel the growing gap between him and Obito in the Breath of Flame.
Since successfully stepping onto the path, Shisui felt he hadn't made much progress in the Breathing Technique.
If now, there was a battle using only the Breathing Technique, Shisui was sure he would lose to Obito.
"Breath of Flame, the flame..." Shisui thought of the step where he gained insight into the Breathing Technique, and it was at that step where Obito's Breath of Flame progress skyrocketed.
"In Obito's heart, there's a flame of enthusiasm for helping others, but what flame is in my heart?" Shisui asked himself.
Of course, the Breathing Technique couldn't progress from doing good deeds. After all, it's the Breath of Flame, not some merit-based Breathing Technique. It's just that Obito's inner passion for helping others was so intense that it spurred progress in the Breathing Technique.
Shisui seemed to realize the reason for his lagging Breathing Technique progress but couldn't figure out what flame, if any, existed in his heart.
By 11:30, Shisui still hadn't figured it out. To be ready for tomorrow's training, he quickly washed and went to bed. However, possibly due to a chaotic mind, he didn't fall asleep until after 2:00 AM when he finally drifted into sleep.
Waking up as usual to his biological clock, he went to the forest to begin training.
Today, Mokgetsu didn't disrupt his training plan particularly; it was as usual, starting with two and a half hours of Armament Aura training before moving on to Breathing Technique training.
"Training begins!" Seeing that both Shisui and Obito were ready, Mokgetsu announced the start of the special training.
Two Mokgetsu Shadow Clones charged towards Shisui and Obito respectively.
To avoid interfering with each other, Shisui and Obito ran in two different directions.
Running through the already very familiar Southern Border Forest, Shisui still had doubts about his Breath of Flame.
Whether it was due to not sleeping well or a problem with his mindset, today's training results for Shisui were worse than during the second session.
"Shisui, forty-six questions; Obito, thirty-four questions."
Upon hearing the results, Shisui sighed. He knew his own body best and could already feel it during the training.
Obito's eyes were shining. Though the decrease was small, it was still progress for the second time.
"Obito, go ahead with your training. Shisui, come here for a moment," Mokgetsu said, drawing from extensive experience, believing it was generally a mental issue needing conversation.