The Rasenshuriken spun at high speed, emitting a shrill, high-frequency sound.
The four protruding, straight blades formed from Wind-attribute chakra, under extreme rotation, deformed into curved, sickle-like shapes, making the entire ninjutsu look even more dangerous.
Minato endured the faint sting in his eardrums and observed carefully, watching the entire formation process of the ninjutsu without missing a single detail.
Although he gained something from it, not having created it with his own hands meant he could never truly grasp it firsthand.
But soon, Makoto halted the supply and control of chakra, and the ninjutsu in his palm rapidly dissipated.
Minato asked, "Makoto, is the chakra consumption too great?"
"It isn't. This ninjutsu only consumes a large amount of chakra at the beginning. After that, it only requires a small input to maintain it. However, Minato-senpai, I've discovered two problems."
As Makoto spoke, he extended his arm and rolled up his sleeve. His originally fair palm and half his forearm were slightly reddened, with faint red specks on the surface, as though pricked by needles.
After examining the arm, Minato voiced his doubt: "This is… an injury caused by Wind-attribute chakra?"
While treating himself, Makoto replied, "Yes. This ninjutsu also harms the caster. The mere leakage of its sharp chakra is already dangerous. If it strikes an enemy, I'll be injured as well. It's a case of killing a thousand enemies while losing five hundred of your own."
There was another layer to his words—if it failed to hit, it would be like unleashing a finishing move only to dig one's own grave.
With Minato's combat intelligence, he naturally understood that consequence.
Makoto's physique, even if not equal to that of the Uzumaki Clan, was not far off. If it were an ordinary body, the injury would only be more severe—at worst, the entire forearm might be crippled.
Of course, this was only the result shown to Minato as a demonstration. The issues with the Rasenshuriken had long since been resolved by him; he had already achieved full control.
Minato thought for a moment and said, "It seems that if one doesn't want to be injured, the only method is to throw it at the moment it forms and use it to kill the enemy immediately."
"That brings me to the second problem. Chakra of such high density isn't light. If one lacks sufficient physical strength, it can't be thrown very far. Its flight speed also isn't fast enough. The enemy would have ample time to dodge."
"Is that so? It seems there are quite a few problems to solve." Minato pondered briefly but found no clue. "I'll have to learn it myself first before I can better study the difficulties."
"Minato-senpai, which step are you stuck on?"
"Wind-nature's sharp, cutting property is too loose and scattered—hard to control—and it can't smoothly fuse with the Rasengan."
At this point, why aren't you using that long string of weird names you came up with yourself? Did you also realize the name is too long for easy communication? Well then—congratulations.
"This step?" As Makoto spoke, he picked up a small pebble from the ground. With chakra surging, he sliced it into powder. "Can you do this?"
"I'll try." Minato followed his example once. Although he couldn't grind the pebble into powder like Makoto did, he still cut it into fine grains—the stone instantly turned into flowing sand.
To develop ninjutsu, he naturally trained Wind-nature transformation in his daily practice.
"With your cutting property trained to this level, it should be enough. How about you try again? I'll see if I can find where the problem is."
"Alright!"
Minato didn't object. He had come to Makoto today precisely for ninjutsu exchange.
A Rasengan rapidly formed in his palm, but as he added Wind-nature to it, the previously stable sphere expanded and quickly began to lose balance, sliding toward the brink of collapse.
Minato's brows knit tightly. Fully focused, he looked like he was doing everything he could to control it, but in the end, the ninjutsu burst apart with a soft pop, and the dispersing wind flow kicked up a cloud of dust around the two of them.
Having gone through the development process for this ninjutsu, Makoto naturally knew where the problem lay. He prompted, "Minato-senpai, the high-speed chakra streams inside the Rasengan may each seem to be moving in inconsistent directions, but the ninjutsu as a whole still has a direction of rotation—like a tornado."
"You mean…?"
"If we want to go into a tornado, fighting the high-speed rotating airflow head-on won't end well. Only by going with the flow—protecting ourselves as much as possible first—can we have a chance of reaching the eye at the center."
"Go with the flow? I understand. It means not clinging to the chaos inside the Rasengan—feel the overall rotational pattern of the ninjutsu, and follow that pattern."
Minato wasn't foolish. He understood immediately and began testing at once.
This time, he didn't inject the Wind-nature property right away. Instead, he first felt out the overall rotational pattern within the chaos of the Rasengan. After finding a bit of the trick to it, he began adding it little by little.
The Rasengan, about the size of a toy rubber ball, began to expand, and Wind Release "tendrils" around it started to extend bit by bit.
"Relax, relax. After you add Wind-nature, the general direction and speed inside will change. Don't resist it—feel the new pattern, and just follow the change."
"I know!"
The Rasenshuriken took shape rapidly, but at the final moment, it still burst apart.
But this time, Minato wasn't dejected. On the contrary, he let out a delighted laugh—he had already found the pattern, and success was right in front of him.
The development process for ninjutsu was just that complex and troublesome—mentally taxing and physically demanding.
As for Naruto in the original timeline managing to succeed, that was purely a case of brute force creating miracles—stacking up an exaggerated number of attempts to raise the success rate, using bodily instinct to memorize even the slightest trace of successful experience, and ultimately grinding the ninjutsu out through sheer effort.
That was the only learning method suited to him. For ordinary people who wanted to learn it? The tuition fee would be their own lives.
After another round of testing, Minato let out a long breath in relief. He was getting closer and closer to success.
He had none of the Hokage's airs. He simply dropped down and sat on the ground, sensed the chakra he had left, and planned to rest for a while.
He beckoned his Shadow Guard members over and asked them, "Do you know what my strongest ninjutsu is?"
Genma blurted out, "The Yellow Flash!"
Makoto and the other four rolled their eyes at him. That was a title in the shinobi world—the result caused by a ninjutsu—not a ninjutsu itself.
Minato laughed. "Ahahaha, actually it's Flying Thunder God Technique. It was developed by the Second Hokage-sama, and it's an S-rank ninjutsu in terms of learning difficulty."
Yūgao said excitedly, "An S-rank ninjutsu? That's amazing!"
Genma seemed to have guessed something and couldn't hold back. "Hokage-sama, why bring this up all of a sudden? Don't tell me you intend to…"
"That's right. I plan to teach it to you. However, this ninjutsu's difficulty and requirements are extremely high. Up to now, in all of Konohagakure, I'm the only one who has mastered it. I don't know whether you'll succeed."
Hayate was also delighted. The Fourth was indeed a generous and kind senior. "Don't worry, Hokage-sama. We'll study hard."
Minato had always felt that it wasn't beneficial to Konohagakure's strength for such a powerful ninjutsu to be known only by himself. Yet before he had even begun teaching it, two of his disciples were already gone.
The one remaining, Kakashi, possessed excellent ninjutsu talent, but unfortunately his learning progress with this technique was not ideal. His aptitude seemed more suited to the Five Nature Transformations.
Theoretically speaking, if he did not follow in his father's footsteps, he would actually have been more suited to becoming the Third's disciple.
Makoto had long anticipated this. He merely smiled, while also feeling that Minato was thinking a bit too optimistically.
In truth, whether others could learn it was another matter. Even if they did, without Minato's terrifying neural reaction speed, to be honest, it wasn't truly suitable for combat.
At most, it would just add a god-tier blink skill for escaping.
People cannot be judged by the same standard. Take games for example—some summoners can Flash to avoid damage and then dive in to clean up the fight, but the vast majority only Flash to relocate their own graves, dying a little farther away from their teammates.
Fortunately, Makoto's body had been nourished by natural energy, and his reaction speed was also exceptionally outstanding. This godly technique, Flying Thunder God, could be integrated into his own combat system.
The premise, of course, was that he could learn it.
---
I will post some extra Chapters in Patreon, you can check it out. >> patreon.com/TitoVillar
---