Hagoromo's eyes lit up.
This was exactly what he had been waiting for.
"Kushina-sensei," he asked, "what if I really do manage to take the bell?"
Kushina smiled faintly at him.
"Really take it?" she said. "Hagoromo, your strength is impressive—but only compared to your peers. Taking a bell from me won't be easy. You should understand that I'm a jōnin. This isn't like sparring with classmates back at the Academy."
She was reminding him not to underestimate the gap between a Genin and a jōnin.
"I know you're a jōnin, sensei, and I'm only a Genin," Hagoromo replied calmly.
"But a Genin is still a ninja. In a fight between ninja, before the clash begins, no one can say for certain how it will end."
The words were shamelessly bold.
In truth, Hagoromo was absolutely certain of one thing: Kushina would never fight him seriously. If she did, he wouldn't stand a chance at all—and that would make this test meaningless.
"…You make a good point," Kushina said after a pause.
"Very well. If you do manage to take the bell, what's your request?"
For her first student, Kushina was surprisingly tolerant.
"If I win," Hagoromo said without hesitation, "then please start teaching me new ninjutsu as soon as possible."
Kushina finally understood what he was after.
"No problem," she said. "I was going to teach you new jutsus anyway. That's a teacher's duty."
Many newly graduated Genin shared the same flaw: they wanted to learn as many jutsus as possible as fast as possible—more, bigger, flashier. It was a common childish obsession.
Kushina assumed Hagoromo was the same.
In reality, if one replaced the word ninjutsu in Hagoromo's request with fūinjutsu, it would reflect his true intentions perfectly.
But he knew better than to rush.
Some ambitions needed to be hidden carefully.
Kushina tied the bell to her waist and asked,
"Any more questions? If not, we'll begin."
"No more questions."
"Alright then," she said cheerfully. "Start whenever you want. I know you can use Lightning Release—don't hold back."
Taking a bell from Kushina wasn't actually that difficult.
Hagoromo didn't need to defeat a jōnin—he only needed to take something from her. With surprise and timing, that was entirely achievable.
He exhaled slowly.
For any other freshly graduated student, facing a jōnin would be pointless. But Hagoromo was different. His mastery of Lightning Release was already at a professional level.
Lightning-style chakra began surging through his body.
Gradually, arcs of electricity flickered across his skin.
"Hand-seal–less ninjutsu?"
Right from the start, Hagoromo shocked Kushina. She had never seen anyone release such powerful Lightning Release without hand seals.
Looks like I'll need to get serious, she thought.
"Yes," Hagoromo said.
"My body is naturally suited for Lightning Release. My compatibility is extremely high. No matter the rank, I can activate Lightning Release jutsus without hand seals."
Then he charged straight at her.
"So fast!" Kushina exclaimed internally.
This speed was far beyond Genin level.
Still, compared to the fastest shinobi alive—Minato Namikaze—it was nothing extraordinary.
"Charging straight at a jōnin?" she said aloud.
"That's not a wise tactic!"
In an instant, Hagoromo vanished from where he stood.
The next moment, he appeared in front of Kushina and threw a straight punch!
Naturally, such a direct attack wouldn't land so easily.
Kushina caught his fist with one hand.
And then—
Something changed.
A piercing chirping sound, like birds screaming, erupted into the air.
The faint electric arcs around Hagoromo's body suddenly exploded into blinding lightning!
Chidori Stream!
In that instant, the intensity of Hagoromo's Lightning Release multiplied severalfold.
The stimulation and erosion of the lightning caused intense pain and numbness in the hand Kushina was using to restrain him.
She frowned, instantly realizing she couldn't maintain contact with him for long.
Almost reflexively, she used roughly seventy percent of her strength and flung Hagoromo forward.
Kushina glanced at her hand.
After only a few seconds of contact, the skin on the back of her hand had lifted in scale-like patches. She knew those cells were likely already dead. When she turned her palm over, the damage was even worse—charred black marks from lightning burns.
I was careless, she realized.
I shouldn't have taken that punch head-on.
"That's some frightening Lightning Release," Kushina said, looking at Hagoromo several meters away.
"Did you create that jutsu yourself?"
"Yes," Hagoromo replied without the slightest hesitation.
After all, Kakashi hadn't developed Lightning Cutter yet. By any reasonable standard of "intellectual property," this jutsu belonged to Hagoromo.
Although Kushina had thrown him quite forcefully, Hagoromo landed smoothly, suffering no real injury.
"A very dangerous jutsu," Kushina said slowly.
"And it consumes an enormous amount of chakra. From its power alone, it's at least A-rank."
The shocking part wasn't that a child could use an A-rank jutsu—
It was that he had invented it.
Which proved only one thing:
I really do have an eye for talent, Kushina thought smugly.
The sharp chirping sound continued, while the burns on Kushina's hand began healing rapidly.
Hagoromo didn't know this—but it was the effect of Nine-Tails chakra.
"This jutsu is called Chidori Stream," Hagoromo said.
"By my own judgment, it's A-rank. The power speaks for itself—but the chakra consumption is massive. With my current reserves, I can maintain it for about two to five minutes."
"Oh?" Kushina raised an eyebrow.
"So you plan to decide the outcome within those two minutes?"
She was surprised again.
Maintaining chakra of this intensity for even two minutes meant Hagoromo's chakra reserves already surpassed those of an average Chūnin.
He had been fast before.
With Chidori Stream active, he could be even faster.
Lightning stimulated his cells directly. While it wasn't true light-speed, his movement was now fast enough to be described as absurd.
And yet—
Hagoromo didn't move.
Instead, he calmly dispersed Chidori Stream.
His action confused Kushina.
"You dispersed it?" she asked.
"Didn't you say you could maintain it for two minutes?"
That was true.
But this exchange had lasted less than ten seconds.
"Chidori Stream consumes a lot of chakra," Hagoromo replied,
"but that's not why I stopped. I stopped because our fight is already over."
As he spoke, he opened his hand.
A bell lay quietly in his palm.
Kushina instinctively glanced at her waist.
The bell was gone.
She immediately understood.
"When I focused on your punch and that new jutsu… you took the bell?"
"Yes," Hagoromo said with a smile.
"It was just a simple feint."
He tossed the bell back to her.
"You really surprised me," Kushina said sincerely.
Even though the bell had been taken from her unexpectedly, she felt no displeasure at all.
The reason was simple.
This time, she thought with satisfaction,
I finally beat Minato.