The Flying Thunder God Technique itself holds no offensive capability. It is an ultimate auxiliary Ninjutsu, its use dependent entirely on the user.
Minato once became famous throughout the Ninja World precisely because of this ability. However, the weakness of the Flying Thunder God is just as obvious — it requires spatial markers for time-space travel. That's why he etched those coordinates into his specially made kunai. During battle, these kunai are indispensable.
This does not mean that without kunai Minato would be completely unable to use the Flying Thunder God technique; rather, doing so would unquestionably restrict his movements. When facing ninja with abilities similar to his own, his advantage would decrease significantly.
Take for example the duo from Kumogakure — the son of the Third Raikage, A, and the Eight-Tails jinchuriki, B. Both excel in speed. Although Minato held slight superiority during their battle, it was absolutely not an easy victory.
This was because during their second encounter, both fighters — A and B — had uncovered the flaw in the Flying Thunder God.
Another opponent was the masked man who controlled the Nine-Tails and attacked Konoha village. His space-time movement required no markers at all, surpassing even the Flying Thunder God.
Although Minato used the Flying Thunder God — Second Step along with his superior speed to outmaneuver him, he couldn't deal a killing strike. Moreover, such tactics only worked once. In any future encounters, his enemy would definitely not fall for them again.
That man's ability, resembling intangibility, baffled Minato. It might even be related to the space-time Ninjutsu he wielded.
The man possessed the Sharingan, and his space techniques might therefore belong to one of the dojutsu of the Sharingan.
Minato once speculated that this person might be Madara Uchiha, but he soon rejected this possibility himself.
The reasoning was simple — even if Madara Uchiha had not perished by the hands of the First Hokage, according to the timeline, Madara should already have reached his eighties, which would make it impossible for him to fight and control the Nine-Tails at the same time.
Moreover, if that individual truly were Madara Uchiha, it wouldn't be strange for him to possess information about the Flying Thunder God Technique. After all, prior to Konoha's establishment, the Uchiha and Senju clans had a long history of rivalry.
However, if that were indeed the case, would Madara Uchiha really fall so easily into Minato's trap?
He was none other than Madara Uchiha — undoubtedly among the most powerful beings in the Ninja World, even though he had been overpowered in his era by the First Hokage. He and the First had ended the chaos of the warring eras side by side.
Certainly, Minato would never dare consider himself superior to Madara Uchiha — in terms of strength or combat experience alike.
Therefore, the masked man could not possibly be Madara Uchiha. Yet, it was also true that he had subdued the Nine-Tails using eye-based power.
Only a Mangekyo Sharingan, a power far beyond the ordinary Sharingan, could achieve such control.
Even then, Minato doubted whether a regular Mangekyo could extract the Nine-Tails directly from Kushina's body.
Therefore, in order to confront this enigmatic adversary, Minato sealed the Nine-Tails inside Naruto.
Because this child, named by Jiraiya Sensei, was very likely the prophesied savior spoken of by the Great Toad Sage.
But now, Minato had returned to the past with all his previous life's memories intact—and he had also gained the Nine-Tails' chakra.
Therefore, he was doing everything in his power to restore his former abilities and continuing to develop the Rasengan.
The Great Toad Sage had once said that he might be able to end that disaster ahead of time.
This was the biggest change since Minato came back. And even now, Minato still firmly believed that the Masked Man would bring catastrophe to the Ninja World.
In other words, in this lifetime, Minato might yet fight the Masked Man again.
In that battle, he needed not only to defeat him—but to kill him completely.
Although Minato didn't know exactly when he would face the Masked Man in this life, he had no intention of waiting idly for that moment.
He already had a rough idea of where to start and planned to investigate personally once the Great Ninja World War concluded.
So before clashing with the Masked Man again, he needed not only to recover his former strength but surpass it.
It wasn't just the Rasengan—improving the Flying Thunder God technique was equally essential.
The two Minatos looked at each other and smiled.
"Since you also have independent thoughts, does that mean we can work together to develop and improve jutsu?" Minato smiled.
Senior Minato replied with a faint smile, "Yes."
These two—Minato and Senior Minato—could be considered originally one person, yet also regarded as two separate individuals.
After all, although Senior Minato's soul was extremely weak, he still possessed his own soul.
Just Minato's talent alone had earned high praise from Jiraiya and others, who called him brilliant—a once-in-a-lifetime genius.
What kind of achievements would they reach if these two teamed up?
"When can I leave this state?" Minato asked. Right now, he was trapped inside his own spirit realm and couldn't leave on his own.
That was something the Minato before him couldn't decide either. He replied, "You've overused your chakra, and many of your muscles are severely torn. Your bodily tissues are damaged too, but with the power of the Nine-Tails, you should fully recover in a few hours. Then, you'll be able to leave."
Minato nodded. With nothing better to do, he actually started discussing with his "self" issues related to further developing the Rasengan and Flying Thunder God techniques.
There was no need for explanations between them—they shared identical knowledge, experiences, and insights into developing jutsu. But discussing techniques he'd once studied alone now felt much more productive when worked on together.
Several hours later, Minato's "body" began gradually fading away.
"It seems the body has completed its repairs," Senior Minato smiled.
Minato nodded and said, "Can't wait for our next meeting."
This feeling of looking forward to meeting "oneself" was truly strange—it was probably an experience unique solely to him in this entire world.
"I actually hope you don't come back here too soon," Senior Minato said.
Minato understood as well—the reason he was able to come here was because of overusing chakra, causing severe physical weakness and damage.
No one would want to face such a dangerous situation, but sometimes, it's something you just have to go through.
Minato exited his own consciousness space, and then there was darkness.
However, the darkness didn't last long before he felt a heaviness come over him.
As he slowly pried open his heavy eyelids, the dim yellow light wasn't too harsh—just bearable.
Mikoto's voice broke through, familiar and tinged with surprise: "You're awake."
In Minato's vision, not only Mikoto, Nawaki, Yan Uchiha, Junko Watanabe, but even Yan Uchiha were all around him.
His voice was rough, but he managed to ask, "How long have I been out?"
"Already twelve hours," Mikoto answered immediately, then muttered under her breath,
"Tsunade-sama specifically said earlier that, given how beat up you are right now, you should've stayed out cold for at least three days…"
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