One week later. Deep within a valley along the border between the Land of Fire and the Land of Hot Water.
Hell Valley.
This was a tale older even than the confrontation between Hashirama Senju and Madara Uchiha. Long ago, there existed a clan called the Chinoike, the Blood Pool Clan. Like the Uchiha, their eyes were stained crimson with blood.
The Bloodl Dragon Eye. (Ketsyurugan)
The Chinoike clan, wielders of the Blood Dragon Eye, made their home in the Land of Lightning. They were extraordinarily skilled in genjutsu. It was said that once ensnared in their illusions, escape was virtually impossible, even until death.
One day, a princess of the Chinoike clan was taken as a concubine by the daimyo of the Land of Lightning. The princess was mild in temperament and gentle in appearance, yet for precisely these reasons, she earned the jealous hatred of the daimyo's first wife.
As fate would have it, not long after the princess had joined the household, the daimyo fell gravely ill and died.
The first wife wasted no time placing the blame squarely on the princess, declaring that the daimyo's death was a direct result of bringing this woman into their home.
She attributed every misfortune, every tragedy, to the princess.
In the end, the princess and her entire clan were exiled to this place that would come to be known as Hell Valley. And the ones hired to carry out the banishment had been the Uchiha.
Inside the valley, Sasuke sat with the Scroll of Seals spread open before him, motionless, his gaze fixed on the text as he worked through the jutsu inscribed within.
The harsh conditions of the surrounding environment didn't affect him in the slightest.
Over the past ten-plus days, Sasuke had been pouring his focus into the Flying Thundergod Technique.
He had looked at the Impure World Reincarnation first, actually, but aside from the sections touching on medical ninjutsu, which he could follow just barely, the rest had left him completely blank.
He wasn't in any hurry about it, though.
Before long, when he killed Orochimaru and took everything from him, learning the technique would come naturally on its own.
Besides, compared to the version recorded in the Scroll of Seals, Orochimaru's version was enhanced and refined, and far better suited for Sasuke's use.
Tobirama Senju's Impure World Reincarnation: not ideal.
Orochimaru's Impure World Reincarnation: much better.
Truly, Orochimaru had done some remarkable work.
As Sasuke studied the Flying Thundergod Technique in silence, his brow furrowed more than once. Since crossing over, he had been extraordinarily confident in his own ability.
Any jutsu he encountered, he typically familiarized and mastered within a matter of days at most.
But the Flying Thundergod Technique had genuinely stopped him in his tracks. Nearly half a month of study and he had only just managed to learn how to inscribe the Flying Thundergod seal formula.
To an outsider, that would probably seem unbelievable in its own right. Many people spent their entire lives without reaching even this entry level of understanding.
But Sasuke had long grown accustomed to progress at a blistering pace. Two full weeks just to crack the basics?
Too slow.
Quietly turning this over in his mind, Sasuke set the Scroll of Seals aside and drew out a kunai etched with a Flying Thundergod seal formula.
He flicked it forward. It shot out and embedded itself in the ground twenty meters away.
Then he fixed his entire focus on the distant kunai.
One second.
Two seconds.
After fifteen seconds, a spatial distortion rippled through the air with a whoosh, and Sasuke's figure blinked to the kunai's position. His body shuddered ever so slightly.
"Too slow."
He muttered to himself and began working through the assessment internally.
Fifteen seconds to teleport less than twenty meters. On the surface it looked like a successful use of the Flying Thundergod Technique, but at this level it was completely useless to him in any practical sense.
Beyond the short time he had spent learning it and the sheer difficulty of the technique, the kunai serving as the coordinate marker might also be part of the problem.
Flying Thundergod kunai were typically custom-made. They served as the medium through which the teleportation was anchored.
Only practitioners who had taken the Flying Thundergod to the highest level, like the Second Hokage or the Fourth Hokage, could use their own chakra to stamp a Flying Thundergod mark directly onto a person or object.
Anyone at an early stage of learning had no choice but to painstakingly affix seal tags to specially crafted kunai ahead of time.
Once those kunai were destroyed, they were gone, with no way to replenish them mid-fight the way the Second or Fourth could.
Custom kunai. Chakra imprints. Mediums.
Sasuke was quietly turning this over when a sudden thought surfaced, and his eyes lit up.
In a sense, weren't the Kagutsuchi and the Futsu no Mitama Sword already perfect mediums?
More than mediums, actually. They were existences fused into him completely.
No matter how carefully crafted a Flying Thundergod kunai was, it was still an external object. The Kagutsuchi and the Futsu no Mitama Sword were closer to extensions of his own body.
At that thought, both divine weapons materialized in his hands. With a quiet intention, a flame pattern and a lightning pattern appeared simultaneously on their hilts. His own unique Flying Thundergod seal markers.
He threw both weapons forward. They shot outward and buried themselves in the ground a hundred meters away.
Five seconds later.
A spatial ripple, and Sasuke blinked to the Kagutsuchi's position. Five more seconds, and he appeared at the Futsu no Mitama Sword's location.
"Much farther than before. Much faster too. The Kagutsuchi and the Futsu no Mitama Sword are the best Flying Thundergod kunai I could ever ask for."
He ran a few more experiments, then sank back into thought, murmuring. "The distance and the speed will keep improving as my mastery of the Flying Thundergod deepens. They'll get further and faster over time."
"But two fixed coordinates isn't enough."
"Even a specially crafted Flying Thundergod kunai can't match the Kagutsuchi and the Futsu no Mitama Sword as a medium."
Sasuke thought carefully for a while. His eyes shifted into the Eternal Mangekyou, slowly turning. Violet lightning crackled in his hand, then was compressed down to an extreme density.
After a long time, a short purple crystalline blade, roughly the size of a kunai, appeared in his palm.
Lightning Release: Chakra Crystallization!
Only a ninja who had taken a nature transformation to its absolute peak could crystallize chakra in this way.
With the assistance of Susanoo, Sasuke could now condense his own chakra crystals within a short period of time.
He flicked his wrist. The purple phantom blade shot forward like a bolt of lightning, and he tried the Flying Thundergod again.
"Still falls a bit short of the Futsu no Mitama Sword. But not by too much."
"The cost is too high, though."
Sasuke shook his head with a faint note of regret. Chakra crystallization required a significant investment of time and effort to produce.
Even with the assistance of his Mangekyou, condensing one in a short window drained his dojutsu power considerably.
... If I could crystallize my chakra freely in the middle of a fight...
He murmured this to himself. If he could do that, then every arc of violet lightning he released in combat could instantly become a phantom blade, each one doubling as a coordinate and medium for the Flying Raijin.
That would truly be the Flying Thundergod Technique brought to its highest form.
... This reminds me a lot of one of the protagonists from an action game I used to play in my previous life.
That game had featured not two but three protagonists, all of them silver-haired, half-human, half-demon men of remarkable style.
(Devil May Cry)
A family tradition with a very long history of, shall we say, unique internal incidents.
One of those protagonists could fill the space around himself with a formation of phantom blades.
Every single one could be used to cut down enemies, and every single one could serve as a coordinate for his teleportation.
In both color and style, it looked remarkably similar to what Sasuke was envisioning for his enhanced version of the Flying Thundergod.
... The only thing I'm missing is a stylish coat and some serious hair product. Heh.
The corner of Sasuke's mouth curved slightly. He made his dry remark to no one, then turned his gaze toward the mouth of the valley.
He had sensed it.
Someone was coming.
___
This Sasuke Is Strange 350 advanced chapters:
Patreon.com/rashta
Be a member so you can also read:
1. 345 adv ch of Talent System In Naruto (Completed)
2. 487 adv ch of This Danzo Is Weird
3. 270 adv ch of Uchiha Madara's Cousin
4. 163 adv ch of WDQK: Divorcing Ling Qingzhu (Completed)
5. 560 adv ch of Qian Renxue's Younger Brother
6. 274 adv ch of I'm Huo Yuhao's System
7. Adv chapters of Naruto: Affection System