A stretch of mudflat appeared beneath his feet...
A familiar spatial fluctuation permeated the air...
Minato Namikaze only felt his vision blur. The young man beside him smiled faintly, hooked the Nen thread in his hand, and abruptly sank into the ground, taking Rin Nohara with him.
When they reappeared... they were already over a hundred meters ahead!
"Space-Time Ninjutsu?!" Minato Namikaze continued to chase after them without stopping, but his mind suddenly froze. He stared blankly as Roy took Rin Nohara further away, leaving him far behind.
The "Yellow Flash" truly lived up to his name, defined entirely by the word "fast." Minato Namikaze's two most famous signature techniques were the Rasengan and his Space-Time Ninjutsu... the Flying Thunder God!
This ninjutsu, developed by the Second Hokage, had stumped countless elite ninjas who came after him. Looking at the entirety of Konoha, the number of people who had mastered this technique could be counted on one hand. This alone showed just how absurdly difficult it was to learn Space-Time Ninjutsu and how high the required talent was!
"F-Flying Thunder God?"
Step... Because of Minato's brief pause, Kakashi Hatake and Obito Uchiha finally seized the opportunity to catch up. The two were clearly separated, one on the left and one on the right, but their gazes were entirely focused ahead on the young man who was constantly weaving in and out of the surface and underground, or emerging from a bluestone, a tree, or a stream, all while carrying Rin Nohara!
Kakashi blurted out, but then immediately denied it himself. There were no kunai and no markings. This was not their teacher's signature Flying Thunder God Technique at all, but rather... another unknown [Space-Time Ninjutsu]!
His white hair swayed. The young man, whose face was half-covered by a dark blue mask, felt his Adam's apple bob as he uncontrollably swallowed a mouthful of saliva.
He stared intently at Roy, who was gradually running further away, and turned his head to ask Obito, "Are you two really from the same Uchiha clan?"
Obito Uchiha, who was already burning with anxiety because Rin had been swept away, glared at him angrily. "What do you mean by that?"
Kakashi remained silent, casting a fleeting glance at him before withdrawing his gaze. Under normal circumstances, this kind of silent suspicion and contempt would be no less explosive to Obito than having Deidara drop a clay bomb straight into his heart!
But today, on this warm morning, deep within the lush Southern Border Forest... Obito, wearing his goggles on his head, showed no signs of being triggered. Instead, he was even quieter than Kakashi. Exerting force in his legs, he simply chased forward blindly, both to catch up to Rin and seemingly to pursue... Jin Uchiha!
"This guy..." Kakashi was taken aback, completely stunned by the boy's uncharacteristic attitude.
Where did the usual idiot go, the one who would jump up in anger at the slightest provocation?
Why... whenever he encountered that Jin Uchiha, did he act as docile as a sheep whose fleece had been smoothed down its back?
Incomprehension and confusion turned into a tidal wave that forcefully surged into Kakashi's heart. But even more affected than him was...
Sarutobi Hiruzen, who had been hiding behind the scenes and peeping the whole time, or rather...
'I am not peeping; I am observing openly...'
In the Hokage's office, Sarutobi Hiruzen sat behind his massive desk. Recalling the warning glance the boy had shot at him when he unexpectedly ran into Sakumo earlier, his old eyes gleamed. He kept his gaze firmly locked on the crystal ball, watching as Roy sank, surfaced, sank again, and surfaced again. He seemed to have even forgotten to puff on the pipe dangling from his mouth. After a long while, he finally took a slow drag and exhaled a deep cloud of smoke.
"Young man, are you doing this on purpose for me to see?"
"What an incredible Space-Time Ninjutsu!"
If Sarutobi Hiruzen previously harbored a trace of doubt that Fugaku could train a child like Roy, then... now he was one hundred percent certain that Jin Uchiha's growth was entirely due to his personal talent and had very little to do with Fugaku!
Because let alone Fugaku, even he, Sarutobi Hiruzen, the Third Hokage—recognized by the major ninja villages as the [Professor of Ninjutsu]—wouldn't be able to teach a child to "proficiently master [Space-Time Ninjutsu]" if he did it himself, let alone...
[Space-Time Ninjutsu] was exceptionally precious. Looking at the entire ninja world, there were only a handful of them, excluding common techniques like the Summoning Jutsu.
Whoosh. A sudden gust of wind blew in from the window, lifting a corner of the scroll spread out on the desk. The back of the scroll clearly displayed four large characters marking Roy's name—Jin Uchiha...
Sarutobi Hiruzen stared at it in a trance.
The pen was in his hand, and the ink had dried. He wanted to lift the pen and add another sentence at the end of the scroll, but after a long while, he didn't know what to write...
While ordinary seven-year-olds were still learning the Three Body Technique in the Ninja Academy and practicing throwing shurikens, the young man before him was carrying Rin Nohara, weaving through rocks, trees, lakes, and paths as if walking on flat ground, and had already created his own Space-Time Ninjutsu. This... even if his teacher were resurrected and sitting in this very seat, he probably wouldn't believe it.
And this was a genius, an Uchiha genius no less impressive than the Senju!
Swish, swish... In the Southern Border Forest.
As Kakashi and Obito sprinted wildly with logs on their shoulders, brushing past the shoulder of a certain blond man,
Minato Namikaze finally seemed to snap out of his shock that Roy had actually mastered Space-Time Ninjutsu. He had always thought this was his exclusive skill, and he had fantasized more than once about having a student inherit this ninjutsu from him. Unfortunately... Kakashi couldn't do it, Obito couldn't do it, and Rin couldn't do it either... until now.
Minato Namikaze slightly raised his chin, watching as Roy carried Rin Nohara and disappeared into the dense forest until his back was almost out of sight. Only then did his eyes narrow into a happy, hearty smile. Next, he patted his waist and swiftly threw a kunai branded with the Flying Thunder God formula, which pierced the air and shot forward like lightning!
His blond hair swayed. In a flash, the man vanished into thin air. When he reappeared, he had surpassed Kakashi and Obito in the blink of an eye, appearing at the location marked by the kunai.
Just like that... throw, flash, throw again, flash again... A distance of a thousand meters was covered in strides. In just a moment,
Minato Namikaze caught up, flashing into existence right beside Roy!
Wearing a green Jonin vest and a blue forehead protector, his lake-blue eyes cast a burning gaze. Feeling the spatial fluctuation emanating from Roy, Minato Namikaze praised, "That's a very impressive Space-Time Ninjutsu."
"Using objects as entrances and exits for space, thereby omitting the need for markings. It's a genius idea."
It was exactly as Minato Namikaze said. Compared to a directional teleportation technique like the Flying Thunder God Technique, [Swamp Space] completely bypassed the step of placing chakra markings. With just a thought, a door could be opened anywhere, making it indeed much simpler. However... just like the law of equivalent exchange in the Hunter world, the magnitude of an ability was often tied to its risks and restrictions...
[Swamp Space] allowed one to do as they pleased, but the distance was shortened. The limit was as far as the eye could see, making it far inferior to the Flying Thunder God Technique, which also possessed transfer capabilities...
"This is my current top speed," Roy said frankly to Minato Namikaze. "Three hundred meters is my limit."
'It's also the limit of what my [En] can currently capture,' the young man added silently in his heart after speaking.
Step... Taking a step forward, Minato Namikaze teleported alongside Roy. From the corner of his eye, he glanced at Rin Nohara, who was tied to the Nen thread and already looking a bit dizzy. He smiled and said, "It's very good, considering you're carrying someone."
'A person... do I even count as a person anymore?'
The wind blew past her ears, clouds drifted in the sky, and sunlight beat down on Rin Nohara. The young girl's beautiful short brown hair was soaking wet, still dripping with a string of water droplets from a stream. Listening to the young man and her teacher chatting ahead, her head spun. She felt less like a person and more like an earthworm—an earthworm that could burrow through the ground, wade through water, gnaw through trees, and crush rocks!
It was too magical!
So this... was what Earth Style felt like.
So this... was what Water Style felt like.
So this... was what Wood Style felt like... I, Rin Nohara, am no longer human!
The brief space-time traversal brought the young girl an indescribable thrill. It was a fresh sensation she had never experienced before, and for the first time, it made her realize... the young man ahead named Jin Uchiha was extraordinary!
Whoosh! The Nen thread around her waist tugged, and Rin Nohara cried out in surprise as she was once again dragged underground by Roy. The dirt whistled past her ears like air. By the time the girl regained her senses, Roy had reappeared, carrying her forward another hundred meters. Only then did he shake his head at Minato Namikaze and say, "You flatter me... I'm just taking a shortcut."
He was taking the "shortcut" of the Clone Demon and utilizing the "trick" of the Blood Demon Art. Because the [Monster Encyclopedia] had replicated the opponent's talent, it wasn't Roy's own creation, so naturally, there was nothing to boast about...
A ripple appeared in Minato Namikaze's gaze. Noticing that the sincerity in the boy's words did not seem fake, he teleported again to keep pace with him and asked curiously, "Are you not satisfied?"
Should he be satisfied?
Great-grandfather always said... human imagination lies in... imitation, surpassing, and then creation...
Right now, he was still stuck at the stage of imitating the Clone Demon. Let alone creating, even his surpassing was solely reliant on the boost from [En]. How could there be any talk of being satisfied or not?
Roy remained silent, merely carrying the log and taking Rin Nohara through the boundless depths of the Southern Border Forest...
One lap, two laps, three laps... Running around the forest was nothing more than a breather for him now that his constitution had broken the thousand mark and his latent Nen capacity had broken through to the B-rank level...
He stayed silent, leaving Minato Namikaze frowning in deep thought. After a long while, as they passed a small stream and waded through the babbling, splashing water, Minato Namikaze turned his head to look at the young man and probed, "Perhaps it's a problem with the person, not the technique."
The person? The technique?
Roy was taken aback, causing his footsteps to falter. He opened the door a bit too slowly, resulting in Rin Nohara's head popping out into the stream while half her body was still underground. She was forcefully made to gulp down a large mouthful of stream water and uncontrollably choked out loud. Only then did Roy snap back to his senses, hurriedly quickening his pace and leaping out of the water with her...
"Sorry."
The boy and girl stopped at the same time. Roy took out a square handkerchief from his pocket and handed it over. It was prepared by his mother, Mikoto, for him to wipe his sweat, but looking at it now... it could be put to good use by Rin Nohara.
"No need, I have one." With her hair soaking wet, Rin Nohara lowered her eyes and declined Roy's kind offer. She pulled out a handkerchief from her own pocket and wiped herself. Her youthful innocence momentarily made Minato Namikaze feel as though he had returned to the past, to the scene where he first saw Kushina Uzumaki beating up their classmates.
"Hahaha... I never said stop." The man tactlessly blinked at Roy and Rin Nohara.
Roy looked at Rin Nohara helplessly and specifically told her in a gentle voice, "Let's go."
Rin Nohara let out a soft hum, her voice as quiet as a mosquito. After simply wiping her body, she hoisted the log back up and followed Roy, teleporting up and down as they ran forward...
Four laps... five laps... six laps... The wind howled in his ears. As Roy teleported using [Swamp Space], he pondered what Minato Namikaze had just said.
A moment later, he turned his head and asked the man beside him, "Teacher, what is the person, and what is the technique?"
"The person is naturally the person, but the technique isn't necessarily just a technique." Minato Namikaze smiled at Roy with deep meaning. "Or rather, the technique is also the person. It is merely the product of human imagination materialized through chakra..."
'Materialized through chakra? X'
'Conjured through Nen! √'
Roy furrowed his brows, vaguely feeling like he had grasped something...
He distinctly remembered that once upon a time, he had discussed the "heart" with Silva... he had also observed the stars at night with Gotoh... and he had even discussed human visualization with his great-grandfather Maha... Gradually... a familiar yet foreign answer reached his heart, ready to burst forth...
'It's the sun!' The young man's eyes suddenly emitted a bright light as he murmured softly, "The omnipresent sun..."
Just as the Clone Demon relied on the swamp to achieve teleportation, reflecting its muddiness and filth...
"My teleportation should be the sun!"
Buzz... Suddenly, a gust of wind blew, scattering a few leaves. Abruptly...
A spatial fluctuation far stronger than [Swamp Space] swept out, instantly enveloping Minato Namikaze!
Minato Namikaze sharply looked at Roy. With the great sun above his head, the young man instantly entered a profound and mysterious state. The moment he lifted his foot, his body instantly turned into light!
Blown by the wind, he transformed into specks of fluorescent light and merged into the sunlight. It was impossible to tell whether he was the sunlight or the sunlight was him. In short... when Minato Namikaze looked again, trying to capture the boy's figure... he had already leaped a thousand meters away, abruptly emerging from the sunlight and revealing his form...
"..."
Minato Namikaze abruptly stopped in his tracks and narrowed his eyes.
Following Roy's reappearance, Rin Nohara also turned into a ball of light and materialized behind him. She stood frozen in place, dazed for a moment, feeling as if she were ethereal and devoid of physical substance!
"Light... Did I just turn into a beam of light?" The young girl blankly raised her chin, looking at the young man not far ahead who had also stopped to close his eyes and savor the feeling.
At this moment, punishments and running laps were no longer important. It seemed that only light, solely light—blinding light, dazzling light—existed eternally in the world. It was also like a blade of light that crossed the river of time and, through the [Telescope Technique], ruthlessly stabbed Sarutobi Hiruzen!