The blazing sun burned like fire; summer was at its peak.
Time flowed like running water. Before anyone realized it, it was already August of Konoha Year 51.
If Naruto's birth date had not changed, there were still seventy days until the Night of the Nine-Tails in the original timeline.
In late July, Uchiha Sasuke was born.
Makoto did not pay deliberate attention to it, yet he still learned of it that very night, because the doctor responsible for the delivery was Higashino Megumi—his own mother.
It was Clan Head Fugaku who had personally designated the doctor, because he believed that since she had given birth to a son as versatile as Makoto, then as a mother, Megumi's medical skills must certainly be outstanding.
Although that was indeed the case, it was also possible that he intended to use the opportunity to draw closer to the Higashino clan.
The three-family minor alliance was highly valued by the Fourth Hokage. The children of each family had even become members of the Hokage Guard Platoon. Ninja clans with proper information channels naturally knew this very clearly.
During dinner, Megumi also mentioned that Clan Head Fugaku had named his second son Sasuke, in order to express respect for the Third Hokage's late father, Sarutobi Sasuke.
Such is the tradition of the shinobi world: using the name of someone else's ancestor is a sign of respect, not offense.
In order to draw closer to the Hokage's lineage, Clan Head Fugaku had indeed gone to considerable lengths.
Not long afterward, one day during a break, Makoto ran into Itachi on the street while he was out buying diapers. On the face of this prematurely mature, poker-faced child, he saw a genuinely happy smile for the first time.
Itachi told him that he now had a younger brother. It was a… very strange feeling. Looking at a biological younger brother who shared the same parents was like seeing another version of oneself being born.
From that moment on, Itachi's younger-brother complex awakened. Like the waters of the Naka River, once released, it became unstoppable. He swore that he would cherish and protect this younger brother well.
What concerned Makoto was not Sasuke's birth or his name, but the sudden thought that on the night of Naruto's birth, besides the Third Hokage's wife, Sarutobi Biwako, there had also been another female medical ninja taken away by Obito in a single wave.
Could it have been Higashino Megumi?
As for a ninja who appeared only once in the original timeline before dying, who would know what her name was? Makoto did not know either.
However, after carefully analyzing the information he possessed, Makoto felt that the task of assisting with the delivery should not have fallen to Megumi.
Because all along, she had never come into contact with the Jinchūriki. Ever since Kushina became pregnant, all examinations had been handled by designated personnel. The other staff at the hospital were completely unaware of the situation, including Megumi.
The only thing she knew was that a few days after the New Year, the hospital had been lively for an entire afternoon, because Tsunade—who had not shown herself for a long time—had returned.
However, Tsunade disappeared again afterward and, up to now, had never reappeared at the Konoha Hospital.
...
In the afternoon, at the training ground.
The Fourth Hokage, now with some free time, decided to check on the ninjutsu-learning progress of his Hokage Guard Platoon. It had been half a year already—surely it couldn't be like the previous inspections, with no results at all.
Hayate and the other four lined up in turn, each taking out a prepared kunai and throwing it forward.
On their kunai, just like Minato's custom kunai, strips of talisman paper were wrapped around them, already engraved with the Flying Thunder God formula. The designs were up to personal choice; there was no unified standard.
Right now, no one had Minato's ability to leave a formula with a casual press of the hand. They could not even use chakra to form sealing patterns. They could only honestly draw the formula in advance, using ink infused with their own chakra.
After the kunai stuck into the ground not far ahead and came to a complete stop, the five formed hand seals and began to activate the formula, attempting to use the Flying Thunder God Technique.
And then… there was no "then." Nothing happened.
Hayate and Yūgao looked blank. Genma had a bit of a feeling and was still trying. Namiashi Raidō was the same as Hayate. Tatami Iwashi's body swayed once, but in the end he still remained where he was.
As expected, it was the same as always.
Minato was not particularly disappointed. This was, after all, an S-rank space-time ninjutsu with an extremely high learning difficulty. Even if he had optimized it, it was still S-rank; learning it in a short time was unrealistic.
But the juniors' progress… was far behind what his own had been back then.
He asked, "Each of you, tell me the reason you failed. Let's see what's different compared to before."
Hayate: "My sensing is vague. I can't lock onto it."
Yūgao: "Hokage-sama, same for me. It's really hard."
Raidō: "I can sense where the formula is, but I just can't activate it."
Genma: "Me too. It always feels like something's missing."
Only Iwashi was in slightly better shape. "Hokage-sama, I can activate the formula, but I don't know why it failed."
Minato fell into thought upon hearing this.
Where did the difficulty of the Flying Thunder God Technique lie? There were simply too many points.
First, one had to learn the basics of fūinjutsu. It did not need to be extremely profound, but at the very least one had to be able to inscribe a formula pattern belonging to oneself.
At present, everyone could manage this point. As for the ability to leave a mark instantly, that could only be improved gradually in the future.
Second, one had to possess at least a minimal level of sensory ability. But this depended heavily on talent. For ordinary ninja, even with training, improvements in sensory ability were limited.
Hayate and Yūgao had both fallen at this step. They still needed further strengthening.
Third, one had to be able to successfully activate the formula. If one could not summon oneself to the target point, the ninjutsu would fail.
Genma and Raidō had clearly failed to activate the formula successfully. But why had Iwashi failed?
Minato sensed that he had clearly activated it successfully, yet it had stopped at the very instant of execution. Could it be that the Flying Thunder God Technique had some hidden talent requirement?
In fact, he had already sensed this when teaching Kakashi. Today merely confirmed it further. At present, it seemed that he himself was exceptionally gifted in this aspect; Iwashi had talent, but not much.
As for the other four, in this regard, they were comparatively weak.
Sure enough, there was a reason why the Flying Thunder God could not be popularized. If it were that simple, Jiraiya, the First Hokage, and the Third Hokage would have mastered it long ago.
It made no sense that for so many years only he alone could handle it proficiently.
Thinking of this, Minato placed his hopes on the final person. If there was anyone in all of Konoha with the greatest ninja talent, it could only be Makoto.
Up to now, he had never heard of anyone in the shinobi world whose talent surpassed his. Moreover, he knew that Makoto's sensory ability was extremely refined.
"Makoto, give it a try."
"Understood, Minato-senpai."
Makoto drew a kunai. The handle was likewise wrapped with talisman paper, and the mark on it was identical to the pattern on his forehead in Sage Mode.
Of course, after such a long period of study, with his current mastery of fūinjutsu and control over chakra, he no longer needed to use ink to draw it; he could set it down casually.
The kunai flew out and struck a large tree in the distance.
Then Makoto formed a single hand seal. His figure flickered and appeared at the kunai's location. However, he lost his balance—he activated it standing, but arrived lying down.
This did not affect him much. He adjusted instantly.
After that, he flung the kunai back and activated the Flying Thunder God once more, teleporting back while lying down.
Even if the posture was somewhat inelegant, the eyes of Hayate and the other four nearly popped out.
"It worked just like that?"
"So impressive."
Especially Genma and the other two—at last, they had witnessed the true worth of the so-called number one genius of Konoha.
Minato was also surprised. "Makoto, when did you succeed?"
"About five days ago. While practicing, I suddenly found the feeling, and then it worked. Well, it's not really a success. If I couldn't fly, I'd have ended up sleeping on the ground after teleporting."
"That's not important. It's already much better than when I first learned it. With more practice, you'll correct it. Aside from that, have you noticed any other issues with this technique?"
"Does the activation speed of the formula being relatively slow count?"
"That doesn't count either. That's still a matter of proficiency. With your talent, at most one year of practice, and you'll be able to activate it instantly without hand seals, just like me."
"Then there's only one last problem. The space traversal isn't smooth enough, which leads to excessive chakra consumption. It's not realistic for actual combat."
"How much consumption are we talking about?"
"Using Minato-senpai's Rasengan as a standard, about the amount of five."
Hearing this answer, Namikaze Minato felt that perhaps, in certain aspects, his own talent truly was superior. After all, the first time he successfully used the Flying Thunder God, the consumption had not been particularly high.
Now that he was proficient, the consumption was even lower. Otherwise, he would not have been able to flash across the battlefield, cutting enemies down until they were completely disoriented.
With the amount of chakra Makoto consumed, he would collapse from exhaustion after only a few flashes. What kind of Yellow Flash would that be?
However, proficiency did indeed reduce consumption. So he advised, "Makoto, this problem can only be solved by yourself. The only experience I can offer is that increasing your proficiency will greatly reduce chakra consumption. At the same time, it will also strengthen your affinity with space-time."
"I see. Understood. Thank you, Minato-senpai."
Seeing that their companion had already reached this stage, Genma grew anxious. "Hokage-sama, what about us? Is there any way to solve it? If not, should we continue practicing this ninjutsu?"
"Of course you should continue. I'll think of a solution for the remaining problems."
Why did Minato say that? Because a strange idea had suddenly come to him. Since each of them could only succeed in one aspect, could the Flying Thunder God be further improved and turned into a technique they could perform jointly?
Have their chakra linked—one person responsible for sensing the target, one for controlling the formula, and the rest activating the formula together to increase the chakra supply—so that the entire team could instantly appear where needed.
Even if it could not be used for combat, shortening travel time and achieving rapid reinforcement of allies would already be quite good.
Thinking about it this way, it really had potential.
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