Great Void Immortal

A knock sounded at the door.

"Teacher, I'm here."

"Come in."

The Third Hokage was handling documents. When he saw Hinata enter, he smiled.

"Teacher, this is what my father asked me to bring."

Hinata handed the gift box in her hands to the Third Hokage.

The Third Hokage opened it and found a tin of tea leaves inside. He was delighted.

Hinata was puzzled. Did all elderly people like drinking tea?

She had brewed tea a few times before, but she could never get the amount of tea leaves right. The tea always came out incredibly bitter.

To ease the bitterness, she added several spoonfuls of sugar. It was sweet, sure, but the taste... was kind of like the heat-clearing, detoxifying oral medicine she drank whenever her throat was inflamed.

Sweet with bitterness, bitter with sweetness. One sip left an endless aftertaste.

After that, she had almost never brewed tea again.

"Ahem~ Hinata, how strong are you now?"

The Third Hokage put away the tea leaves.

"Mm, my father can't beat me."

After thinking for a moment, Hinata decided to tell the truth.

Third Hokage: "..."

"Since that's the case, is there anything you want to learn? I can teach you."

It could be said that within the Hidden Leaf Village, the Third Hokage knew nearly every ninjutsu that existed there, aside from a very small number of forbidden techniques.

In other words, no matter what Chakra nature his disciples possessed, he could teach them ninjutsu of different attributes.

"Something I want to learn? Uh... I want to learn everything."

Now that her Great Void Sword Qi had reached a bottleneck, Hinata was interested in everything.

Moreover, the ninjutsu passed down for thousands of years in the Shinobi World had many aspects worth learning from.

Hinata had already mastered Sealing Jutsu to an extremely high level. It could be said that she had surpassed most people in this world, yet she still felt that her Sealing Jutsu had room to improve.

After all, her Sealing Jutsu had only evolved from the most basic sealing techniques, along with what she had learned at the Ninja Academy over the past few years.

But she had never learned, nor had any way of learning, advanced Sealing Jutsu like Adamantine Sealing Chains and the Eight Trigrams Seal.

Besides Sealing Jutsu, what interested Hinata most was Impure World Reincarnation, the most overpowered ninjutsu in the Shinobi World.

But she could not focus only on those advanced ninjutsu. Low-level ninjutsu could not be ignored either. Many times, inspiration came from inconspicuous little techniques.

So, she wanted to learn everything!

"...Then, what Chakra attributes do you have?"

Hearing that, Hinata gave a mysterious smile.

"Teacher, don't be too surprised by this!"

Surprised? What was there to be surprised about? Could it be that Hinata had Chakra of every attribute?

"Teacher, there is no Chakra in my body. Instead, I possess another kind of power. I call it True Qi."

The Third Hokage's gaze sharpened. Energy different from Chakra? "True Qi?"

"Yes."

"When I was very young, I could sense the energy in the space around me. Out of curiosity, I absorbed that energy."

"Over the years, I have become able to absorb the energy around me into my body and refine it into my own power."

"I've tested it. The True Qi I refine is somewhat more convenient than Chakra, and its destructive power is also somewhat greater."

A small flame sprang up from the tip of Hinata's index finger, turning along with her fingertip.

Then, before the Third Hokage's shocked eyes, the flame moved by her turning finger became a ball of water, then crackling lightning, and finally, all the dust in the office gathered into a ball atop Hinata's fingertip.

Then Hinata tossed it out the window.

Only then did the Third Hokage close his mouth, which had somehow fallen open, and tried his best to keep his tone normal. "The energy you mentioned should be Nature Energy."

The Third Hokage thought of his disciple Jiraiya and Mount Myōboku.

Naturally, he knew about Nature Energy and immortals, while that foolish disciple of his was still searching for the Child of Destiny mentioned in the prophecy of the Mount Myōboku immortals.

Wait... the Child of Destiny!

The Third Hokage suddenly wondered whether Hinata might be the Child of Destiny.

After all, he knew that Nature Energy was not something just anyone could sense. Even if one sensed it, if they dared absorb it recklessly... they could wait to become a stone statue.

And even if they did not turn into a stone statue, fusing Nature Energy was another enormous challenge.

But now, right before him, was someone who could sense Nature Energy from a very young age, absorb it, and refine it into her own... True Qi, despite having no Chakra. The Third Hokage was willing to call Hinata—

—the Child of Destiny!

Come to think of it, since the Child of Destiny had appeared in the Hidden Leaf Village... that meant the Hidden Leaf Village truly was destined by heaven!

And... should he call that foolish disciple back? Since the "Child of Destiny" had appeared in the Hidden Leaf Village, there was no need for him to wander around outside. It was rather dangerous.

"People who can absorb and use Nature Energy are generally called immortals."

At that, the Third Hokage's eye twitched. He could already foresee that, under his guidance, Hinata's strength would surpass his own in less than three years...

"...Ahem, you are no exception."

"So, have you decided on your current title?"

"Oh, right. One of my disciples, Jiraiya of the Three Ninja, is called the Toad Immortal."

Though compared to you, this immortal was a little lacking.

"Hmm~ Well..." Hinata actually began seriously considering her immortal title. "Let's call it..."

"...Great Void Immortal."

Third Hokage: "..."

The Third Hokage looked speechlessly at Hinata's earnest face. I was only making a suggestion.

But Hinata was serious about it. After all, once the title Great Void Immortal was spoken aloud, it immediately sounded impressive.

Most importantly, what if Hinata became famous in the future and someone else gave her some strange title?

"Ahem, since you can already use Nature Energy, there is very little I can teach you. However, your Senior Disciple Brother Jiraiya can teach you better than I can. I'll call him back right away. Once he hears about your situation, he'll definitely be delighted."

The Third Hokage was delighted as well. Hinata's ability to use Nature Energy was truly an unexpected blessing.

It could be said that Hinata's appearance had directly increased the Hidden Leaf Village's foundation by a huge margin.

And Jiraiya's return was also something worth celebrating. He had not seen that disciple in a long time.

Come to think of it, should he bring Tsunade back too?

As for the reason... how about saying he was critically ill and could not hold on much longer?

After learning of Hinata's strength and understanding what it meant for the Hidden Leaf Village to have Hinata, the burden that had long weighed on the Third Hokage's shoulders eased somewhat, and he became more free-spirited than before.

He had even come up with such an unreliable excuse as claiming he was critically ill to trick... ahem, bring Tsunade back.

Of course, that reason was only a passing thought.

The real reason was that it was becoming more and more dangerous outside, and he was worried about Tsunade and Jiraiya's safety out there.