Weird Extra: TNT Cannon!
"I'm going to try out a new move," Izuna said. "I thought of it before we came back to the village."
"I'll go with you." Madara put down his chopsticks and stood up.
"No need." Izuna swiftly began clearing the table. "I'm just going to practice a little. What could happen? You worry too much. Besides, I want to give you a surprise, so go take care of your own business."
With that, he carried the dishes into the kitchen, and the sound of running water soon followed.
Madara could only sit helplessly at the table and watch him quickly finish washing the dishes, slip on his ninja sandals, and head out.
"Come back early."
"Got it!" Izuna's cheerful reply came from the doorway.
Madara walked to the window and watched Izuna head toward the training ground.
Almost as soon as Izuna stepped outside, Madara's senses clearly picked up quite a few figures slipping out of nearby alleys and appearing on rooftops.
Uchiha Takashi, Uchiha Shin-suke, Takuma, who had been knocked out with a slap yesterday, and several other clan members who had either been beaten at the training ground yesterday or had escaped a beating but still harbored doubts, as well as one or two spies sent by the clan elders who appeared to be passing by but whose eyes betrayed them.
There was also a group that simply wanted to watch the fun.
Some kept their distance, others stayed close; some were brazen, others sneaky, but all quietly followed Izuna with a clear purpose.
Madara's face instantly darkened.
These bastards! They still haven't given up?! I shut them down at yesterday's Clan Meeting, and now they want to test him in private? Or do they want to see if Izuna will "give himself away" today?
Anger surged in Madara's chest, and he nearly rushed out at once to throw all those ungrateful fools into the Naka River.
But reason held him back.
He wanted to see what they were up to.
Madara's figure quietly melted into the shadows of the room. Concealing his presence like a predator at the very top of the food chain, he locked his senses onto Izuna and his followers.
And so a marvelous sight appeared in the Uchiha Clan Compound.
Uchiha Izuna walked ahead, completely oblivious, his steps light. He even hummed the opening theme of Naruto, seemingly in a very good mood.
A few dozen meters behind him, a long procession of Uchiha clan members trailed along furtively.
There were old and young, men and women, most wearing expressions of tension, curiosity, defiance, or scrutiny.
They did their best to suppress their Chakra, using street corners, tree shade, and buildings as cover, convinced their tailing was flawless.
Farther away still, Madara Uchiha watched it all coldly, like the night itself. His gaze rested mainly on the obviously ill-intentioned followers, full of warning.
The clan members subjected to their clan leader's withering stare felt immense pressure, cold sweat pouring down their backs.
But the Uchiha's stubborn genes had been fully awakened. We just want to know if the second-in-command is real! We want to know how strong he is! Clan leader, you can glare us to death, but we're watching today!
They stubbornly endured Madara's almost tangible killing intent and oppressive aura, doggedly following Izuna step by step.
As for Izuna, he hadn't opened the System Map and hadn't sensed any intent to attack, so he was completely unaware of the huge "tour group" behind him.
Soon, he arrived at the training ground where he had shown off his skills yesterday.
There weren't many people on the training ground early in the morning, only a handful of diligent young people practicing the basics.
They visibly tensed when they saw Izuna, but quickly lowered their heads and pretended to focus on training, only glancing his way from time to time.
Izuna paid them no mind. He found a relatively open corner and stopped.
He took a deep breath, his gaze focused.
He decided to try a move he had always wanted to attempt while watching Naruto.
The inspiration came from a marvelous combination of TNT bombs and a fishing rod in Minecraft, one of his favorite games in his previous life.
In that world of blocks, a lit TNT bomb had a short delay before it exploded. A lit TNT entity could be blasted away by an explosion's shock wave or hooked and dragged by a fishing rod.
That had given rise to a highly destructive but difficult-to-control tactic:
With a stack of TNT and a fishing rod in hand, one could use exquisite timing and technique to "fling" lit TNT like a cannonball.
Or one could hook lit TNT and control its direction and acceleration in midair like a kite, bombing enemies from afar.
As long as your hands were fast enough and your moves flashy enough, even an enemy hiding atop a hundred-meter cliff could be sent to heaven with a single "A1 high flash."
Izuna was a devoted fan of the tactic and considered himself quite good at it.
After transmigrating and gaining Chakra and knowledge of Ninjutsu, the idea had kept circling in his mind.
Wasn't there a scene in the anime where flames traveled along a steel wire and burned through a large tree? There was also the technique of hiding Shuriken in the fireballs of the Phoenix Flower Jutsu to increase their lethality.
That showed that flames formed by Fire Style could be controlled to a certain extent.
So, if he wound steel wire around a Shuriken beforehand, then fired it into the fireball the instant he used the Great Fireball Technique, and manipulated the Chakra on the wire to guide the fireball like a fishing rod...
Couldn't he achieve an effect similar to a TNT Cannon?
Nothing ventured, nothing gained! There was a pool at the training ground, and everyone else was far away. Even if he missed, they would dodge!
He got right to it.
Izuna took a Shuriken and some steel wire out of his Ninja Tool Pouch.
He firmly attached one end of the wire to the Shuriken's ring and wound the other around the fingers and wrist of his right hand, leaving enough length to work with.
He formed Hand Seals.
"Fire Style: Great Fireball Technique!"
Scorching Chakra gathered in his throat, then burst from his mouth!
A giant fireball more than two meters across roared forward, a wave of heat washing over him.
Now!
Izuna flicked his wrist, and the Shuriken attached to the wire shot like an arrow into the center of the fireball!
And then... nothing happened.
The fireball continued along its original path, landing in the water and exploding in a cloud of mist.
The Shuriken merely passed through the fireball and lodged weakly in a wall farther away, trailing a length of red-hot wire.
"...Uh." Izuna scratched his head. "That... doesn't seem to work?"
The first failure didn't dampen his enthusiasm. If anything, he became even more eager.
"The fireball itself isn't solid. It's just a mass of energy formed from Chakra... so a Shuriken and wire connected to it physically can't effectively influence it..." Izuna muttered as he retrieved the slightly warped Shuriken and wire. "Then this time, I'll try pulling it with Chakra."
The second attempt.
"Fire Style: Great Fireball Technique!"
The fireball flew out.
The Shuriken, trailing wire that glimmered with a faint blue Chakra light, shot into the fireball again.
This time, the moment the Shuriken entered the fireball, Izuna used all his strength to manipulate the Chakra attached to the wire, trying to "grab" the fireball's Chakra structure and pull it backward.
The fireball's flight abruptly stalled. Then, with a pop, it rapidly collapsed and vanished in midair like a punctured balloon, leaving only a cloud of black smoke and scattered sparks.
"...Too much force? Did I pull the whole structure apart?" Izuna's mouth twitched.
Undiscouraged, he continued adjusting the intensity and timing of his Chakra output and the precision of his control...
On the third attempt, the fireball was pulled into a crooked shape and crashed toward the water like a drunk.
On the fourth, the fireball was successfully pulled back a short distance, but quickly went out of control and exploded on the spot.
The fifth...
The sixth...
Izuna became completely absorbed in the joy of trial, error, and adjustment. Each failure gave him a clearer understanding of the problem, and he quickly made changes.
It was as though he had returned to those happy days of practicing TNT trajectories over and over to pull off flashier moves.
What he didn't know was how his attempts looked to the "tour group" in the distance.
At first, when they saw Izuna using a wire-wrapped Shuriken to "hook" a Great Fireball, quite a few young Uchiha nearly laughed out loud.
"Pfft... What's the second-in-command doing? Juggling?"
"Is that how you use a Great Fireball? Don't you just spit it out and call it a day?"
"Trying to hook a fireball with a Shuriken? Is there something wrong with his head?"
Even some of the older clan members frowned, thinking it was pure nonsense and a waste of Chakra.
But as Izuna failed and adjusted again and again, the fireball went from being completely unaffected, to being pulled apart, to showing an obvious change in trajectory...
The laughter gradually faded.
In its place came surprise, confusion, and a trace of... disbelief.
"He... he really seems to be trying to control the Great Fireball's flight path?"
"Using Chakra through a wire to influence Fire Style? That... that idea..."
"It actually works?"
On one of his attempts after the tenth, Izuna pulled a Great Fireball through a turn of nearly ninety degrees and blasted it into the target area to the side.
At the sight, the entire "tour group" and the young people who had stopped practicing nearby stared wide-eyed and open-mouthed, whatever their previous attitudes, falling into deathly silence.
Th-this fucking works?!
The Great Fireball Technique, a signature B-rank Fire Style of the Uchiha Clan, famous for its power, range, and straight-line attacks, could actually... be forced to change direction in midair like a Shuriken?!
It completely overturned their understanding of Fire Release Ninjutsu!
Yet what shocked them even more and shattered their view of the world was still to come.
After gaining a basic grasp of the technique of "pulling with Chakra to change direction," Izuna wasn't satisfied.
He remembered a more advanced move from the game: second-stage acceleration!
At the moment TNT was blasted away or caught on a fishing hook, if the timing was just right, an explosion's shock wave could give it an extra burst of acceleration, sending it flying toward its target far faster than usual!
"Then... what about Wind Release?" Izuna's eyes lit up.
Fire was fanned by wind! If he applied a precise, small-scale Wind Release after launching the Great Fireball, could he achieve a similar "second-stage acceleration" effect?
He got right to it!
He adjusted the order of his Hand Seals and the distribution of his Chakra.
"Fire Style: Great Fireball Technique!"
The fireball flew out.
The Shuriken, trailing Chakra-infused wire, entered it.
Just as the fireball arced toward the ground—
"Wind Release: Great Breakthrough!"
A powerful whirlwind burst from Izuna's mouth and struck the ground just behind and to the side of the fireball, "pushing" it!
Boom—!!!
As though struck hard by a giant invisible hand, the Great Fireball, originally more than two meters across, suddenly swelled and shot forward at a dramatically increased speed!
It became a scarlet comet trailing a long tail of flames, flying almost too fast for the naked eye to follow as Izuna guided it diagonally upward and out of the Uchiha Clan Compound!
Under everyone's stunned gazes, the supercharged Great Fireball, propelled by its "second-stage acceleration," streaked across the sky, flew farther and farther away, and finally landed in an extremely distant forest.
Listening to the echoing boom from afar, every Uchiha clan member, whether they had been following him, watching the fun, or pretending to train, was petrified.
They craned their necks toward where the Great Fireball had fallen, their mouths wide enough to fit an egg, their eyes vacant and their minds blank.
A Great Fireball... can go that far?!
Wh-what the fuck was that?! Was that really a Great Fireball?! Since when could a Great Fireball attack from that kind of distance?!
Some began imagining what it would be like to face such an attack on the battlefield.
You, an elite ninja, were lying low at a mission site, fully focused and alert to your surroundings.
Suddenly, without warning, a strange whistling sound came from the sky overhead. You looked up in shock, only to see a massive fireball trailing a magnificent tail of flame, descending like a meteor and striking your hiding place with pinpoint accuracy!
More terrifying still, you had no idea where the attack came from! At that distance, the attacker would be well beyond an ordinary ninja's sensory range! Even if you knew where they were, they'd be too far away to catch!
Who could handle that?!
Izuna, too, looked up at where the fireball had vanished. He blinked and muttered, "Uh... good thing there was nobody over there... I'd better try it outside the village next time. That went a little too far."
His tone carried a hint of belated relief, along with an eagerness that said, "This move seems pretty fun."
He was completely unaware of what a tactical innovation like the "toy" he had casually created meant to traditional notions of ninja warfare—a crushing advantage akin to an attack from a higher dimension.
In the distance, Madara, hidden in the shadows, had witnessed the entire process as well.
His face was expressionless, but in his deep eyes, a storm raged even more fiercely than when he had seen that "draft" last night.
He wasn't shocked by the power or range, but by the combat thinking itself.
Combining Fire Style and Wind Release was nothing unusual, and using special ninja tools or methods to add variety to Ninjutsu wasn't rare either.
But taking an attack like the Great Fireball, which was meant for short-range strikes, and transforming it through intricate Chakra control and the coordination of Ninjutsu into a weapon capable of striking enemies at extreme range...
Madara had never heard of such an idea.
This had gone far beyond the question of "how to use Ninjutsu better." It was practically redefining the tactical value and applications of Ninjutsu!
If this way of thinking could be spread... if the Uchiha, and even the ninjas of Konoha, could all master this ability to strike accurately beyond visual range...
Madara's heart began pounding uncontrollably.
He looked at his younger brother in the training ground, his head lowered as though he were still pondering something, and thought:
Izuna... how many secrets do you still have that you haven't shown me? How many interesting things are there in that head of yours?
Madara smiled. He truly looked forward to it.
Around the training ground, the petrified Uchiha clan members finally began coming to their senses one by one.
The way they looked at Izuna had completely changed.
As the Uchiha spectators recalled the fireball that had vanished into the distant sky and finally exploded with a tremendous boom in the forest, they gradually recovered from their initial shock and stupor. A deep chill and lingering fear followed.
Thank goodness... judging by the second-in-command's repeated adjustments and many failures just now, this move seems extremely hard to master. Its demands on Chakra control, timing, and even judging the wind are insane. Otherwise, if everyone could casually whip up a "guided Great Fireball" that strikes beyond visual range... wouldn't the Shinobi World be thrown into chaos? Would people not even need to meet to fight, just toss fireballs at each other across a mountain?
But what became even more terrifying the longer they thought about it was that their second-in-command seemed to... genuinely think this thing was worth spreading?
In the center of the training ground, Izuna dusted nonexistent dirt from his hands and nodded in satisfaction as he looked toward where the Great Fireball had vanished.
"Whew... the accuracy still needs work, and the flight path isn't stable enough, but the idea is right!" he said to himself, his eyes shining. "With more practice and a better feel for how hard to pull with Chakra and when to accelerate with Wind Release, I should be able to make fairly accurate long-range strikes. And..."
He rubbed his chin as his thoughts began to wander. "With the Sharingan's dynamic vision and perception to help, I should be able to track Chakra trajectories and outside factors more precisely. Maybe it'd be easier to control? If all the clan's Fire Style experts learned this move... heh heh, just imagining that scene is exciting!"
Right! Speaking of Fire Style experts...
Izuna's eyes lit up as he remembered Uchiha Takashi, whom he had "educated" yesterday. He recalled that in the ninja data provided by the system, Uchiha Takashi's Chakra attributes seemed to be both fire and wind! He was a perfect fit for this "second-stage acceleration Great Fireball"!
On instinct, he activated the System Map that only he could see, intending to find where Uchiha Takashi was and bring him over to be a "guinea pig"... no, a "fellow researcher."
But when the map unfolded, clearly marking the locations and basic information of every living thing within a hundred-meter radius of him...
The smile froze on Izuna's face.
He blinked, then blinked hard again, wondering if his eyes were playing tricks on him.
On the map, densely packed, overlapping layers of little white dots representing other people surrounded the little green dot representing him, three layers deep and more!
At a rough glance, there were at least dozens of them! And judging by the names on the markers, they were all Uchiha clan members! Uchiha Takashi, Uchiha Shin-suke, Uchiha Takuma, Uchiha XX, Uchiha XXX...
Some had gathered in groups, some were scattered in corners, some lay atop walls, and some hid behind trees... But without exception, they were all centered on him, forming an extraordinarily spectacular... ring of spectators.
Izuna: "..."
So, so many people.JPG
His mind went blank for a few seconds.
A tremendous wave of embarrassment and social death swept over him, and his toes nearly dug a three-bedroom apartment into his ninja sandals.
So... his whole routine just now—the "Great Fireball juggling," the "TNT Cannon experiment," the "compilation of failed second-stage accelerations"... had these guys watched every bit of it from beginning to end?!
Damn it!!!
He'd thought there were only a few young people who'd gotten up early to train at the training ground! So everyone in the clan who could make it had come, huh?! Didn't the Uchiha have jobs to... no, missions to go on and clan business to handle?! Were they really that free?!
Izuna felt his cheeks burn. He wanted nothing more than to dig a hole and crawl into it, or use Earth Release to bury himself.
But on second thought, he quickly calmed down again (or gave up caring).
Forget it. They'd already watched the whole thing. What the hell was the point of being embarrassed now?
Besides... in a way, wasn't this also an opportunity?
He took a deep breath and tried to suppress his embarrassment, putting the slightly aloof, calm expression of the "Uchiha second-in-command" back on his face—or so he thought, at least.
He cleared his throat and quickly scanned the crowd marked on the map, picking out a few names whose Chakra natures were listed as "fire, wind."
Then he raised his head and spoke in a ringing voice that carried clearly across the entire training ground:
"Uchiha Takashi, Uchiha Aoki, Uchiha Shūichi, Uchiha Naoto... and Uchiha Yōta behind that tree over there, Uchiha Satomi on top of the wall."
The people he'd named all stiffened, their faces showing the shock and embarrassment of being discovered. They hadn't expected the second-in-command to pick them out at a glance when they'd hidden so well—or so they thought.
Izuna looked at them and spoke evenly, as if he were merely stating a fact. "When did you lot get here?"
They exchanged looks. In the end, Uchiha Takashi, whose face still bore a few bruises, steeled himself and answered, "S-second-in-command... we... we've been here the whole time." They'd been there since he started "playing" with wires and Great Fireballs.
"Oh." Izuna nodded, his expression unchanged. "That works out."
He pointed in the direction where the Great Fireball had disappeared, then pointed at the ground beneath his feet. "You all saw that move just now, right?"
They nodded instinctively.
"Did you understand it?" Izuna asked.
"...Uh, more or less... I think?" Uchiha Takashi answered hesitantly. He understood the principle, but as for how to pull it off... he was still completely lost.
"All right, as long as you understood." Izuna waved a hand decisively and pointed to an open area of the training ground. "Since you understood it and have both wind and fire Chakra natures, don't just stand there watching."
His gaze swept over those he had named and the other clan members around them who had pricked up their ears to listen. His tone took on a note that brooked no argument:
"Starting now, you lot, along with anyone else in the clan who has both wind and fire natures and some grounding in Fire Style control, will start practicing."
"The goal is the Great Fireball variation I just demonstrated, which allows a degree of control over its trajectory and a second acceleration."
"I'll give each of you individual guidance on the specific Chakra-pulling technique, the timing of the Wind Release intervention, and how to control its force, based on your individual circumstances. Get a feel for it today. Starting tomorrow, I want to see some initial results."
The people he'd named: "..."
The other clan members watching: "..."
Some of the clan members he'd named even instinctively lowered their heads to look at their hands, then looked blankly at their companions.
Wait... how did the second-in-command know we have both wind and fire Chakra natures?! We aren't even particularly sure about some of our own natures, and some of us never use the wind nature at all!
And... practice that?!
That thing that lets you fling a Great Fireball like a cannonball, then accelerate it and change its direction?!
Was that something a person could actually learn?! Even you failed so many times just now!
An indescribable sense of pressure and absurdity welled up in their hearts.
The second-in-command... is terrifying!
Not only is he inhumanly strong and frighteningly sharp-eyed, but even his training requirements are this... ahead of their time and insane?!
Looking at his clan members' blank faces, each one saying "Who am I, where am I, and what am I supposed to practice," Izuna felt the last of his embarrassment vanish. He even felt like laughing.
Ahem. Be serious.
"What are you still standing around for?" Izuna put on a stern face. "Takashi, you're first. Follow the steps I just took and start by trying to pull the fireball with Chakra wires. Mind how much force you use; don't pull it apart all at once."
Uchiha Takashi jolted. Wearing a miserable expression, he steeled himself and walked to the center of the field under the sympathetic (?) or curious gazes of the clan members around him.
In the shadows far away, Madara, who had been observing in secret all along, watched Izuna naturally begin "teaching" and saw the complicated expressions on the clan members' faces—startled, afraid, and with a faint hint of excitement (?). The corners of his mouth curved upward almost imperceptibly.
This kid... he really is...
He shook his head, and his figure silently faded until he vanished from the spot altogether.
It seemed he wouldn't need to step in for the time being.
Izuna himself seemed to have begun leaving his own mark on the Uchiha clan, in a way uniquely his, one that left people not knowing whether to laugh or cry.
As for the ripples caused by that "draft," and the changes it might bring in the future... Madara looked toward the Hokage Building, his gaze deep.
That would be another game of chess, grander and more complex.