Chicken Flavor, Crunchy and Crispy~

After engraving their respective Flying Thunder God Marks onto two teacups,

Yamanaka Kei kept his hands in a seal, maintaining a highly precise awareness of the spatial markers as he began attempting the Flying Thunder God Technique.

He circulated Chakra through a specific network of meridians, aided by his own Flying Thunder God Marks.

Combined with Yamanaka Kei's natural talent for ninjutsu, the boost to Chakra control granted by the entry "Say What You Get," and his high compatibility between "Space-Time Insight" and Space-Time Ninjutsu,

after only a few failures, he completed his first spatial transfer.

"It's like walking through one door and coming out another. Spatial jumping was actually this easy to achieve... Tobirama Senju was fucking genius!"

Yamanaka Kei inwardly marveled at the brilliance of the Flying Thunder God Technique's creator, the Second Hokage Tobirama Senju.

He had created a ninjutsu like this while still young.

And used it to slay Uchiha Izuna, who possessed the Mangekyō Sharingan.

He had also left behind hundreds of forbidden techniques in Konoha.

If Tobirama Senju had not died so early, his ultimate achievements might well have surpassed even Hashirama Senju's by quite a bit.

He repeatedly activated the Flying Thunder God Technique between the two spatial markers.

Yamanaka Kei quickly familiarized himself with the sensation of spatial jumping.

At first, the Flying Thunder God Technique had required several seconds of preparation, but after only a few dozen attempts, that time had already been cut by more than half.

But...

This consumption was a little too much to bear!

Feeling the Chakra within him draining away like floodwaters through an opened sluice gate, Yamanaka Kei went numb.

Compared to the level of the Flying Thunder God Technique, its consumption truly was not high.

A single-person, single-use short-range spatial transfer within ten meters used only slightly more Chakra than a C-rank Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique.

But who used Flying Thunder God to teleport only once?

(Tobirama Senju: I'm in the Pure Land, don't @ me.)

Take Pakura's earlier situation against those twenty Mist ninja, for example.

If ten or even twenty Flying Thunder God Kunai were scattered out,

who could guarantee there would be an enemy near the landing point of every kunai?

And in battle, it was not just about teleporting near enemies to attack. One also had to evade enemy attacks and reposition the Flying Thunder God Kunai.

Even in the most ideal scenario of an "instant kill on first encounter," where every enemy approached was killed in a single strike,

at least thirty teleports would be needed over the course of one battle.

Casting thirty C-rank Great Fireball Techniques in rapid succession would drain a normal jonin's Chakra dry in minutes.

Even Yamanaka Kei felt that consumption was a bit much.

After all, thanks to the Red Entry "Transmigrator," his mental strength was more than seven or eight times that of a normal jonin.

Combined with a physique strengthened through long-term training, one that surpassed the average jonin's,

his Chakra reserves might not match those of someone like Namikaze Minato, who had an entry that naturally increased Chakra,

but they were still roughly three times the average jonin's reserves.

In the original story, the adult Kakashi Hatake was burdened by the Sharingan, leaving his usable Chakra somewhat below average among jonin.

In other words, Yamanaka Kei basically had the equivalent of 3 to 3.5 Kakashis' worth of Chakra.

"Energy Storage, Super-Speed Reaction..."

Yamanaka Kei rubbed his chin, feeling that if he wanted to fully unleash the Flying Thunder God Technique's power, he would probably need to gather two more entries.

Vast reserves of Chakra could greatly improve the Flying Thunder God Technique's margin for error and endurance.

Reaction speed far beyond that of ordinary people, meanwhile, directly raised the Flying Thunder God Technique's upper limit.

Ninja battles moved at an incredibly rapid pace.

The weaknesses and openings exposed by powerful figures in the ninja world during battle often lasted only an instant.

With Super-Speed Reaction, one could seize those fleeting weaknesses, drastically reduce the number of teleports needed in combat, and even greatly reduce the danger of having one's movements predicted.

"Forget Energy Storage. It's only a Blue Entry; I can copy a higher-grade one when I get the chance."

"Super-Speed Reaction is a must!"

"Without that entry, teleporting too fast would make me like Kakashi without the Sharingan, wildly dashing around with Chidori."

"Tch. No wonder Tobirama Senju couldn't chain Flying Thunder God teleports like Minato and slaughter everyone like crazy. Turns out he couldn't react fast enough either."

As Yamanaka Kei calculated, he continued practicing the Flying Thunder God Technique at a leisurely pace.

Only after more than half his Chakra had been consumed did he stop practicing and dispose of the two teacups engraved with Flying Thunder God Marks.

He had no intention of exposing a technique like Flying Thunder God before he could use it flexibly in actual combat.

After all, ninjutsu was ultimately meant for killing enemies.

Before it could be used in real combat, meaningless showing off would only alert enemies in advance.

Besides, his mastery of Yin Release was already enough to let him run rampant beneath Kage level.

A siege like the one Pakura had encountered today,

if it had been him instead,

then with his firepower fully unleashed, the strange and unpredictable nature of Yin Release would let him take down at least half of them in a single exchange.

After that, with a little extra effort, he could wipe them all out without suffering a scratch.

He would not need to wait for his companions' support, much less leave himself covered in wounds and in such a sorry state.

After all, whether it was the Yamanaka Clan's advanced secret techniques or all kinds of Genjutsu,

they were exceptionally good at crushing weak opponents!

Bang—

A powerful spatial fluctuation came from the spot where Namikaze Minato had vanished.

Thick Chakra smoke immediately burst forth.

Namikaze Minato returned to the room, his face deathly pale, as though he had been corrupted by some indescribable entity.

One hand braced against the wall while the other clutched his stomach.

The expression of extreme restraint on his face made him look utterly miserable.

"You... aren't taking it that badly, are you...?"

Yamanaka Kei blinked. Seeing his friend's expression, most of his urge to tease him faded away.

"Red, green, purple, pink, long, oval... urgh—"

As Namikaze Minato spoke, images of Mount Myōboku's grand feast involuntarily sprang into his mind, and he nearly threw up on the spot.

"How about thinking of something nice? Hmm... insect protein has six times the protein of beef... chicken flavor, crunchy and crispy?"

"Kei! Urgh—you clearly know what Mount Myōboku's grand feast is! Urgh—"

"You were the one who believed Jiraiya's nonsense and signed a contract with Mount Myōboku. Since it's come to this and you can't go back on it, why not just lie back and enjoy it?"

"You, I... urgh!"

Halfway through speaking, Namikaze Minato turned and charged straight into the bathroom.

Only after a long bout of loud retching did he return to the living room, looking completely drained.

"Alright, alright. Since you've thrown up everything, let's think about what to eat tonight. I still haven't eaten dinner."

"Are you a demon?"

Namikaze Minato, who had vomited until the world spun around him, completely lost control of his expression at those words.

He truly could not understand it.

What had possibly gone wrong in his head back then for him to think Yamanaka Kei was such a good person, and even take the initiative to become friends with him?

Over all these years, how much suffering had he endured because of this damned bastard?

Sob...